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conductor: mere perfunctory work at the husk of music would quickly damn
any such scheme. In addition it would do definite harm by creating a
permanent distaste for music in the minds of those who first were
attracted. Something has, of course, been done in the way of providing
organ recitals and so on, but we are here suggesting that the working
classes should be provided with the chance of being their own
music-makers. The use of a room, a fee to the conductor, and possibly a
small grant towards the cost of music would be all that was necessary,
but who can tell what might be the result in harmony and good feeling?

Folk dances, and the singing of old folk tunes, as taught in the
elementary schools, are of great value. There is a grace and poetry of
movement about some of the children thus taught, which is engaging in
the extreme. Nor can this be without its reflex action upon the mind of
the child. When taught to move easily and to express fluently in pose
and gesture, the child will have acquired some tendency towards a
corresponding facility of expression in other directions. According to
the songs chosen the singing itself provides outlet for the emotions,
and stimulates imaginative play. The prosaic life and surroundings of
the slum child are sufficiently deadening, and the new mental pictures
thus given are in the nature of windows opening on new vistas of life.
They suggest views that could come to the child mind in perhaps no other
way. The finer type of patriotism can be encouraged by such songs as
Parry's "England" (John o' Gaunt's Verse), and the more spiritual
element by the same composer's "Jerusalem" (words by Blake); while as an
example of the imaginative scene we might mention Dr. Wood's "The
Knight's Tomb." Regarding the simpler type of song, we recall the case
of an Inspector of Music in Schools who was moved, almost to tears, by
the rendering of "Will ye no come back?" by a class of children who had
been taught by a truly inspired instructress. A dull teacher, and there
are too many, does frequently damp and quench the fires that should be
fanned; and the personal element is an enormous factor in the
situation.

The mental and intellectual value of music should by no means be
overlooked. The mental alertness developed by sight-reading is of much
importance. Some children are slow thinkers, and react lethargically: as
a class, country children are mentally much slower than town-bred
youngsters. A