A timely and practical department of the Chautauqua University is the School of Journalism. This school is under the able direction of H. W. Mabie, one of the editors of the _Christian Union_. The demand for such schools is great, and the fact that all the work between teacher and pupil in this new undertaking will be conducted by correspondence, is an additional argument in its favor. The plan is briefly this: Three courses of study, with supplementary readings for those who have time for them, have been prepared; theses are expected on subjects assigned, and these will be criticised with special reference to vigorous style; constant correspondence will furnish needed help and hints. The plan is a wise one, its director is able, and there is no doubt but there are numerous young men and women to whom it will open the long desired way out of the woods. * * * * * One of the most romantic spots of American history is that of the Florida Chautauqua. Ponce de Leon’s famous quest for the Fountain of Youth lay through this region, and Lake de Funiak itself is fabled to be one of the springs by which the old knight encamped. Perhaps here he plunged into the clear waters and vainly waited to see himself changed to vigorous youth again. However that may be, the road he laid out is a thoroughfare for Florida travelers to-day, and about the clear lake still hangs the tradition that it is the fabled Fountain of Youth. Ten miles from Lake de Funiak is a second spring which still bears the gallant Spaniard’s name. It will be a rare opportunity for dreaming over those early adventures that visitors to Lake de Funiak will have. * * * * * The proposed new word, “Thon,” which was suggested in the program in THE CHAUTAUQUAN for January as a suitable subject for an essay, seems to have caused our readers some trouble. A word of explanation may help them. We have no pronoun of the singular number and common gender in English. The absence of such a word leads to many awkward circumlocutions. To obviate this trouble Mr. C. C. Converse, a lawyer, has compounded the word _thon_, from _that_ and _one_—declined: nominative _thon_, possessive _thons_, objective _thon_. Its use is evident. In this sentence is an example: If George or Anna will meet me I will go with _thon_. The word has been much discussed and much amusement is caused by using it—a practice which, however, demonstrates the need we have for such a word. Prof. March, of Lafayette College, writes: “I do not know that any other vocable would have so good a chance for this vacancy.” Prof. Norton, of Harvard, says: “Such a pronoun would undoubtedly be a convenience, did it exist. The difficulty lies in it being _yours_. All forms of speech have grown, and I do not recall an instance of the use by a civilized race of any word, not a noun or a verb, deliberately invented by a philologer, however ingenious.”