222 which the pupil is expected to maintain, and also the following statement: "Lessons lost through any cause other than pro-tracted sickness will be charged to the pupil. This custom is universal among teachers. Whenever pos-sible, pupils desiring lessons at other hours will be accommodated if sufficient notice is given. Kindly be prompt. Time lost by tardiness is accountable to the pupil." This stub-check book and lesson-card system saves an enormous amount of fussy bookkeeping. It was devised by the editor for his personal studio use, and it worked so well through many years that several other teachers in New York adopted it. It was then published in regular check-book form (thirty-five cards in a book) under the name of "The Stand-ard Lesson Record," and it is sold at a nominal price. The chief virtue of this, or any other similarly effective system, is that it brings about prompt payments of tuition fees. The pupil is kept informed of the coming end of his term by the fact that each lesson is punched in the card as it is taken. There is no possibility of a misunderstanding over the matter of what lessons have been missed or made up. It is all on the card which the pupil brings to each lesson just as the passenger on the train carries his ticket every time. Noth-ing irritates the average teacher quite so much as the time required in the fussy work of bookkeeping. This system dis-penses with this, since it is as nearly automatic as can be. The teacher hardly realizes that he is doing any bookkeeping, for it is distributed over the entire year in little records at each lesson. American pupils and American teachers are too practical and sensible in this day to be anything but disgusted with the poppycock of some would-be "Bohemian" teachers pretending to have a distate for money—as though by the act of receiv-ing it they were polluting their art! Cant and hypocrisy of this kind have little place in the frank, clear sunlight of healthy American life. We do not deceive ourselves for the sake of posing. Moreover, if you wish to win the respect of the American business men and women, who are often the ones who pay for lessons, insist upon prompt cash payments, give the discount for cash if necessary, and be able at all times to show that your records of lessons, taken or missed or made up, are accurate in detail, through some such practical, time-saving, patience-sparing system as we have recommended in the fore-going. Noted Educator Journalist Passes Away Louis C . ELSO N died suddenly February fifteenth. He was seventy-two years of age and had been active up to the last. Born in Boston, he received his early musical education from his mother. Later he went to Leipsic to study voice and theory. Returning to America he became an educator, jour-nalist, lecturer and author of many valuable books. Mr. Elson was connected with TH E ETUD E from the very beginning and some of its earliest issues contain articles by him. In recent years, however, his articles have not appeared so frequently! He had a vast fund of knowledge and a most interesting way of presenting his facts. His sense of humor was extraordinary. His European Reminiscences are to many as funny as Mark Twain at his best. Yet he could be very didactic, as his useful Mistakes and Disputed Points in Music has proven to many students and teachers. Probably his most famous book is his History of American Music which, despite its high price, has had a very complimentary sale. In expressing our deep regret at Mr. Elson's death we cannot refrain from calling attention to the fact that he was, like many of the greatest musical authorities America has pro-duced, essentially a pioneer. Mr. Elson thought for himself and never hesitated to doubt any conventionalized opinions ex-pressed in print. We, in America, have perhaps given too little importance to this principle which, above all others, may dis-tinguish our American musicians from those of the older nations. A large part of the success of such a gifted genius as Percy Grainger comes from the fact that he has the pioneer's mind, the mind of the investigator who breaks the chains of tradition and really thinks for himself. Debussy had such a mind, Wagner had such a mind, Beethoven had such a mind. Their differences were differences of genre. In America, Benjamin Franklin was the first to establish what might be called the American pioneer method of investiga-tion. In a sense, Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Edison, Luther Burbank and other men of that ilk are modern prototypes of Benjamin Franklin. Lowell Mason, W. S. B. Mathews, George F. Root, George P. Upton, Louis C. Elson and others have been splendid pioneers in musical educational methods in America: Who is there to succeed such men ? Surely many of the workers of the present, turned out of European moulds, can never take their places. Perhaps our greatest need at present is more young music workers who can see the great art of music as a whole from the larger human standpoint. There are still millions of Americans who will need educa-tional inspiration and instruction brought to them in the most palatable and practical form. Think for yourself, young man! Value your Yankee common sense more than some trans-Danube ikon. Invent, contrive, improve, penetrate—these traits are your American birthright. One Louis C. Elson, with his genial wit, his human out-look, his wholesome conception of our American possibilities, is more valuable to America than a thousand incubations of European conservatories trained to make milk-and-water imita-tions of Beethoven Symphonies and Wagner Operas! Respect for Education AFTE R it has been proven thousands of times that the safety of the State, its prosperity, its progress, everything that makes it noble, great and strong, is based upon the edu-cation of the citizens of the State, it would seem wholly un-necessary to be called upon to show that the proper payment of the men and women who give up their lives to the education of the young should be one of the first, considerations of the State. How can we hope to have our young people respect edu-cation when we see teachers paid salaries that are in some in-stances less than the wages of common laborers ? Give the teacher more money—not because the teacher needs it, or even because the teacher deserves it, but because if you do not you are gradually undermining the very things which make for your own safety, happiness and success in the State. We know of one instance where a butler in a private home received nearly twice the income that a teacher of French in that home received. No matter how many French lessons those children received, their attitude toward education would always be a patronizing one, and the social and cultural aspirations of the parents could not rise above a state far more ignoble than their former poverty from which the war had raised the family on profiteer wings. Give the teacher more money; respect his status or run the risk of exploding a volcano of blood and ruin such as we now see in Russia. The teacher is the guide, the builder, the emancipator of our land. All honor to the teacher! Some Excuse for Jazz ARM Y medical workers reported that injured and depressed men showed indications of great stimulation when they heard "jazz music" with its pandemonium of sounds. Now we learn by a news notice that a man in a small Pennsylvania town was confined to his bed in a helpless condition as the result of an automobile accident until he heard some "jazz" music, when he immediately got up and dressed and went down town. Can anyone furnish a better example of an escape from "jazz"?
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