And the work has already begun to tell to a degree that can even now be measured. In the last score of years Virginia has reduced its ratio of white illiteracy by 7 per cent, Georgia and Mississippi by 8, Kentucky by 10, Alabama by 11, North Carolina and Florida, by 12, Tennessee by 13, and Arkansas by 14 per cent. These figures are eloquent of present progress and inspiringly suggestive of the future. Democracy is really caring for its own. It is told that a famous German teacher of the Reformation once stepped into his schoolroom and greeted his pupils with these words: “Hail, reverend pastors, doctors, superintendents, judges, chancellors, magistrates, professors.” Some there were who laughed at him as a joker and mocker. But he was wiser than they, and in his wisdom was the prophet of that true democracy which sees not merely the child in the school, but the future man in the state. The South therefore views in this way the progress already made and realizes that what it now does and will do with its children in the schools of the people is the true measure of its own life in the coming years. TO HELEN KELLER. BY JAMES TAYLOR. Forever veiled thy piteous eyes, Forever sealed thine ear; How dark and still creation lies, How distant, yet how near! Thy sightless orbs to heaven upturn To crave the blessed light; Nor sun, nor stars, above thee burn— Alas, what hopeless night. The jeweled arch that bends above, The earth, the air, the sea, O’erspanned by wings of Boundless Love, How vainly smile for thee! The blush of morn, the sunset glow, The dew-gemmed paradise Where Summer’s roses blow, Are not for thy dim eyes. Hushed is the sound of Music’s voice, Hushed is the murmuring sea; No trembling harp bids thee rejoice,— ’Tis silence _all_ to thee. On Beauty’s loom which Nature wields With deft, mysterious skill, To deck with tapestries her fields, Her every vale and hill, She weaves with gorgeous threads of light In mist, and cloud and rain, Her irised gossamers so bright— But weaves for thee in vain. But God will make thee doubly whole, And give thy spirit sight,— His glory shall illume thy soul, For God is love and light! [Illustration] MEN OF AFFAIRS