Students can be taught wherever the mails can go. Each student regulates his own hours of study. Written lessons qualify for written examinations. The method cultivates memory, brevity, accuracy and independence. It really did seem all like poetry, full of resplendent possibilities, to see the specimen books produced by the students; and, above all, it was poetical to see those young men in charge, so very young and yet so full of confidence, so intelligent, and so keen. They were at once at their ease with our party, and ere we left St. Louis, at ten o'clock at night, they visited us, and with mandolin music, and college songs, we wiled away a pleasant hour. At ten o'clock we departed from St. Louis, passing through the tunnel, and out on the great bridge, from whence we looked at the mighty flood of the Father of Waters, far beneath us, reflecting in its turbid depths the lights of St. Louis, which were soon hidden from our sight, as we rolled out into the darkness, over the prairies of Illinois. XXIV Through Illinois, Indiana, Ohio.--Columbus.--The Beautiful Station. --Church Service.--Nearing Home.--Parting Thoughts.--Our Amusements. --To Ethel Asleep.--A Parting Wish.--Pilgrimages of Patriotism. It was well on in Sunday morning when we reached our next stopping-place, Columbus, Ohio, where we stayed until Monday forenoon. The morning light, as we journeyed on in the early hours, showed us the smiling country in its Sabbath rest. It was all such a contrast to the far West, and the Pacific Slope, and not an ungrateful one. We were passing through Ohio, which, one might say, is no longer the West, but the centre of our land. It is a glorious country, rich, fertile, and prosperous-looking. Columbus quite pleased us, by the evidences of its bustling activities and improvements; as well as by a certain old-fashioned dignity and state. It is the governmental seat of Ohio, and has some quite respectable public buildings, all done in the American-Greek-Classic style--rows of pillars, pediments, and all that--which, I confess, I like better than the strained effort after effect, seen in some more modern structures. A new piece of architecture at Columbus, however, the beautiful railroad station, was charming. It is full of beauty, like a rich Italian palace, all warm with golden carvings, yellow marble walls, and mosaic pavements. The interior effect of the waiting-rooms was exquisite, with the arched and coffered roof, and the graceful outlines of all.