Little Journey to Puerto Rico Part 11

The island is well supplied with limestone, which makes an excellent building material. Marble, also, is easily obtained. Along the coast are occasional marshes where salt is prepared for market.

OUR JOURNEY'S END.

Our month in Puerto Rico is drawing to a close, and the good s.h.i.+p which is to bear us homeward is waiting in the harbor.

We make a last farewell tour of the shops in San Juan, and buy a few gifts for the friends at home: a green parrot to please sister; a tortoise-sh.e.l.l comb for mother; a cane for father, a native hat for brother, and a calabash drinking bowl for the school museum.

It is with reluctant steps that we make our way to the s.h.i.+p. The clear sky, the perfect climate, the constant verdure, the wonderful plants and trees, and the beautiful mountain scenery make Puerto Rico one of the most attractive lands to be found anywhere.

Although the roads are in a deplorable condition, a new system has been planned, and will probably be soon completed.

Though the country may lack school buildings, the cities and towns are better provided with other public buildings than most places of the same size in the United States. And the eagerness with which the people seize upon the statements that their children are to be given the same opportunity for an education as children in the United States have, indicates that the schoolhouses will soon dot the island.

The streets of the smallest villages are paved, and all contain some place of recreation and attempts at ornamentation. Each village has one or more public squares laid out with trees, walks, flowers, seats, and usually with a band stand in the center.

We do not find these improvements in all our own small towns. But the people need better schools, more nouris.h.i.+ng food, and improved methods of farming. Sanitary measures need to be introduced into the homes and communities. Harbors need to be dredged, that s.h.i.+ps may come closer to land. The water power of many rus.h.i.+ng streams needs to be chained and made to generate electricity, to grind corn, to hull coffee, to cook food, to pull cars, and to light cities.

There should also be fountains, baths, and sewers; the land in certain sections should be irrigated, and the streams should be bridged, that means for travel and transportation may be afforded.

Perhaps all this will be done, ere we visit this island again. At any rate, we sincerely hope that this may be the beginning of a new and better day for Puerto Rico.

[Ill.u.s.tration: p.r.o.nOUNCING VOCABULARY.]

REFERENCE BOOKS.

"Our New Possessions," by Trumbull White. Cloth, 676 pp........$2.00 "Puerto Rico and Its Resources," by Frederick A. Ober.......... 1.50 "The West Indies," by A. K. Fisk. 414 pp....................... 1.50 "Porto Rico," Hall............................................. 1.00 "Porto Rico," Rector........................................... 1.25 "Porto Rico," Dinwiddie........................................ 2.50 "Porto Rico," Robinson......................................... 1.50 "The West Indies and the Main"................................. 1.75 "At Last" and "A Christmas in the West Indies," Kingsley.......

"Three Cruises of the Blake," Alexander Aga.s.siz. 2 vol......... 8.00 "Down the Islands," Palon...................................... 2.50 "The West Indies," Fiske....................................... 1.50 "In the Wake of Columbus," Ober................................ 2.00 "Due South," Ballou............................................ 1.50 "The Foreign Commerce of Our Possessions," etc., Treasury Department, Was.h.i.+ngton.....................................

"Porto Rico," National Geographic Magazine, '99, 25 cts.

a number; per year......................................... 2.00

These books may be obtained from A. FLANAGAN Co., Chicago, Ill., at price given. Considerable reductions may be secured, if several volumes are purchased at one time.

TEACHER'S SUPPLEMENT

A LITTLE JOURNEY TO PUERTO RICO

SPECIAL SUGGESTIONS.

Children love to read or hear of the people of other lands, and the tactful teacher will wrap her information about the natural features of a country in the "sugared pill of stories."

Books of travel are helpful and interesting in linking together fact and story. From them the child comes to feel a sympathetic interest in the ways of people unlike those he knows.

By emphasizing the idea of continuity of beliefs and customs, we impress the child with the most important lesson history and geography hold for him,--that all countries and peoples are closely related and have mutual interests.

"The acquisition of this feeling of the inter-relations.h.i.+p of the nations of the world, while starting the child out with a broad view of life, will in no wise lessen his love for his own country."

Too often the lonely little stranger in our midst--the foreigner--is viewed with heartless curiosity, or contempt, and subjected to ridicule.

Patriotism to many a child means nothing more than a belief that our own country is the best, our own people the smartest, and that we can whip any and every other nation on the globe.

Do the children know that the "blood that boils so hotly against other countries is drawn from the very same sources that feed the veins of our seemingly alien neighbors"?

If any teacher imagines that her pupils have a definite idea of the meaning of patriotism because they are able to sing "America" and the "Star-Spangled Banner," let her read Marion Hill's story, ent.i.tled "The Star-Spangled Banner," in McClure's Magazine for July (1900).

THE TRAVEL CLa.s.s.

Nothing in the study of geography is more interesting or helpful to pupils than the taking of imaginary journeys. It makes geography a _live_ subject.

Suggest that your pupils organize a Travel Club, and that some of the trips be personally conducted.

Maps and a globe should be in constant use. The home should be the starting point. Railroad circulars, maps, and time-cards for free distribution will be found valuable. Pupils should be taught _how to use_ these maps and time cards.

Give pupils a choice as to routes or roads over which they are to travel. Each pupil, however, should be able to give a reason for his preference for any particular road, and must know the number of miles and the time required for the journey. The road or route voted upon by the majority may then be decided upon, and preparations made for the trip.

Find out the best time to go to each particular country, and the reason.

What clothes it will be best to wear and to take with one. About how much money it will be necessary to spend on such a trip, and when and where this money should be changed into the coin or currency used in the country we expect to visit.

A _Guide_ may be appointed to obtain time-tables, maps, railroad guides, the little books of travel, or other descriptions of routes and of the parts of the country that are to be visited. (Further suggestions in regard to these "helps" will be found elsewhere in this book.)

The princ.i.p.al features of the country pa.s.sed through may be described, if time permits; also the more important cities. Note the population, occupations, productions, together with anything of special interest or historical importance a.s.sociated with the city or locality.

The _Guide_ takes charge of the cla.s.s in the same way that a tourist guide would do. He escorts us from the home depot to the city, state, or country, pointing out the route on a map suspended before the cla.s.s.

Arriving at the city or country, he takes us to the various points of interest, telling as much about each as he is able, and answering questions pupils may wish to ask. If the guide can not answer all questions, the teacher or some other member of the party may.

When the guide has finished with a topic or section, other members of the party may give items of interest concerning it.

A different pupil may act as guide to each city or part of the country visited, and each pupil should come to the cla.s.s with a list of questions about the places.

Every pupil in the cla.s.s may take some part, either as guide, or as the cla.s.s artist, musician, librarian, historian, geographer, geologist, botanist, zoologist, or man of letters.

A _Historian_ may tell us of the history of the country, and answer all questions of historical interest.

A _Geographer_ may tell of the location on the globe, of the natural land formations of mountains, canons, prairies, rivers, etc., and of the climate resulting from these. He should ill.u.s.trate his remarks.

A _Geologist_ may a.s.sist, and show specimens of minerals and fossils, or pictures of these.