16 THE ACORN you teach 'till you're all old maids, and then (but we couldn't hear the rest.) Bro. Bradford. Edwin will you read your summary on Repentance? Peterson. I can't very well, I haven't written it yet. Bro. Bradford. Earl, will you read yours? Ballantyne. Well I haven't all of it; but I wrote till I went to sleep last night. D. R. Shurtliff. Students, remember this is a Study Hall, not a jabber hall. Bro. Bitter sat in the sun the day the choir sang- "Lux Benigna" and his smile was almost heavenly. "Es war wirklich Engel-schon." For sunshine on the bitter makes it seem a little sweet. Bro. Terry. A fair is a combination of all the petty traps in existence. Bro. Bradford. Now about the houses one built in the sand and the other on the rock. Which man was active and which passive? Emmett Browning. Both of 'em because they both built houses. Bro. Bitter. Well if "einmal" means "once," what does "paar-mal" mean? Shurtliff. A pair of "onces." Music The students enrolled in the conservatory of music are taking a great deal of interest in their work. Prof. McClellan, instructor in the conservatory, has written some songs and is contesting with other musicians for a prize. A great number of students have sent him notes and are looking for him to win. The school choir is practicing some new songs to sing in devovotional. Why did Bro. Ballantyne cry so hard in Devotional on Dec. 13? We suppose he wanted to lead the cheers. He most certainly led the tears. Man wants but little, etc. "Please, mum, would you be so kind as to let me have a needle and thread?" "Well, yes," said the housewife at the door, "I can let you have that." "Thankee, mum. Now, you'd oblige me very much if you'd let me have a bit of cloth for a patch." "Yes, here is some." "Thankee very much, mum. It's a little different color from my suit, I see. Perhaps, mum, you could spare me some of your husband's old clothes that this patch will match." "Well. I declare! You're clever, my man, and I'll give you an old suit. Here is one." "Thankee greatly, mum. I see it's a little large, mum, but if you'll kindly furnish me with a square meal, mebby I can fill it out." Ex. THE ACORN 17 Miscellaneous Mrs. Mary Mapes Dodge, editor of "St. Nicholas Magazine" and author of Children's Stories, died a few weeks since at her summer home in Tannersville, N. Y. Mrs. Dodge was born in 1838, and was the daughter of Professor James J. Mapes, the well known promoter of scientific farming in the United States. By the sudden death of her husband, Mrs. Dodge was at a comparatively early age thrown on her own resources, with two sons to care for. Having as a girl shown marked literary talent, she began to write short stories for children. Her first volume entitled, "Irvington Stories," was published in 1864. This was followed by "Hans Brinker" which has been translated into French, German, Russian and Italian. In 1873, when "St. Nicholas" was started, Mrs. Dodge became its editor, a position she held until her death. Mr. J. Collier is authority for the statement that there are no fewer than 5,000 distinct languages spoken by mankind. The number of separate dialects is enormous. There are more than 60 distinct vocabularies in Brazil, and in Mexico the Nahma language has been broken up into 70 dialects. There are hundreds in Borneo, the complexities are beyond classification in Australia, and generally the number of dialects de- creases with the intellectual culture of the population. If there is an average of 50 dialects to every language we still have the enormous total of 250,000. Fictionless Japan The literary taste of the Japanese is significantly shown in the report of the librarian of Imperial Library at Tokio. For fiction there is no demand, a curious contrast to the experience of most American and English libraries. While in 12,486 works relating to theology and religion, or only 16 per cent of the total number of books in the library, were asked for according to the records of the past year there were demanded by readers 166,677 volumes or 21.6 per cent classified under the head of mathematics, science, and medicine. Works on literature and language to the number of 153,711 that is, 20 per cent, were asked for, while 18 per cent of the applications were for books on history and geography. Works on art, industries, engineering, military and naval science, figure prominently on the list of additions made in recent years to the shelves of the Imperial Library. In our city of Ogden during the month of November the number of books taken out was 2,676. Of