She is the mistress of the creditable and convenient Irvin Davis home on the South Side of Milwaukee, the result of their industry and economy, with help from father, who shares the home with them a great part of the time; and who must be excused if there seems to be too much appreciation manifested.

IRVIN WILBUR DAVIS.

It is no disrespect to Mr. Davis that his wife precedes him in this family history. Blood relation takes the lead; other connections follow. The Davis courtship and marriage story formerly given, introduces him to the reader as a young man of cheerful, lively disposition, wide-awake turn, and active manner. One who always seemed ready for whatever might turn up. A quick reply to jolly repartee, the placing a locomotive back on the track were all one to him. He never seemed to study about anything; he was ready. This was shown in other matters as well as mechanics. He could see through a shop trouble among his men and quickly adjust it; or could suggest a good practical solution of a church problem. He seldom reached or tried to reach the remote or underlying causes of anything; but soon would compass all the surface reasons, and could advise or act on them to good purpose. His frank, outspoken, jolly, bantering manner kept his men in pleasant humor, while much good work was being done. But his patience was short with incompetent, inefficient, untruthful, beer soaking, or careless men, and his invectives against them were severe. He knew what each man could do in his ordinary gait in a given time, and what he could accomplish when keyed up to his best efforts; so that he could plan and promise the completion of a job by a given date, and make his promise good. He knew the value of minutes and noted their passage, seeing that each was loaded with its complement of work. He could employ his own time, and that of his men, to get the best economic results against a specified time. That he could make as judicious use of money as Mrs. Davis, may be doubted, certainly it has not yet been demonstrated. We know him to be ready to spend when there is

manifest need, and to be always considerate and helpful to others. He sees the interest of others as well as his own, which would all be very good, if the others would do the same. While he gives good value in the shape of good work, he has fallen behind in working up good wages. I understand this defect, because it was one of my own shortcomings. It is a man's duty to get good pay for good work; but it is not always easy of accomplishment. The wage question is the tug of war between employer and employee. It is rare to find a man so efficient in so many lines of effort as is Irvin W. Davis; he will make his own working drawings of such machines and parts as may be required, studying out new forms and combinations, on some of which, patents have been obtained. He will also make his own patterns, machine and finish the castings and assemble them into the final machine. In the Davis Manufacturing Company's shop he may be assigned to supply the place of any absent foreman, or go out on the road to fix broken down machines or troublesome engines, or become salesman. He seems to be the handy man in any required place. At home, furnace mending, plumbing, or almost any manner of house fixing is a matter of course with him.

In the church work he turns aside from nothing except preaching and baptizing. He has been repeatedly elected chairman of the board. Serves also as assistant Bible school superintendent, and leads the singing in the Bible school. Besides the pastor, C. L. Milton, he is said to be the best liked brother in the whole congregation. Such is the genial, forceful Irvin Davis. His family of three fine, intelligent children do now and will continue to reflect credit on their parents.

LUCRETIA GARFIELD TROUT NORGAARD She is the youngest of my children living. As previously told, a younger cherub than she, Clara, at four years winged her way from us through an accidental burning. Lucretia was born on my birthday, therefore, I claimed the right of naming her. Though we discussed names together for the other children, yet Mrs. Trout had the final decision. President James A. Garfield had died by the shot of the assassin,

Gitteau, a short time before this; when, not the United States alone, but the world was shocked by the occurrence, and was interested in his family. Though I had never met him, I felt that I knew him, having heard so much about him, through my former student acquaintances made in Hiram in 1855. One of these students was Miss Lucretia Rudolph who afterwards became Mrs. Garfield. With all this knowledge, and the fact that by religious association he was Brother Garfield, my exceptional interest in him may be judged; and the honored name which this dear baby received was quite as much a remembrance of him, as of the worthy lady who also bore it.

I have never been away from home at the birth of any of my children. Of course, I was allowed to be only a good general outside helper, and if not at liberty to see, I could not be prevented from listening. When I judged sufficient time had elapsed, following the main episode, I presented myself in the open door. The old nurse said, "You're in too big a hurry, Mr. Trout. Wait." "No," said our old doctor friend, "Come along and see your latest good gift." Of course a loving acknowledgment to the bearer had first to be presented; then I turned to the little one as she lay ready to be dressed, and remarked to the doctor regarding her fine plump muscular form. "Yes," said he, "a fine fully developed infant like every other one of Mrs. Trout's children." While this was a well-deserved compliment to mother, I felt it was no detraction from the other parent.

I have given the distinctive peculiarities of my other children, but it is hard to find one for Lucretia. I judge we will have to regard her greatest peculiarity as the complete absence of anything peculiar. A plain, even-tempered disposition seems to be her portion, without any strong mental bias in any given direction. As previously stated, on account of my poor health in 1900, she gave up the high school and took business studies, and for a number of months did office work, till Nellie was married and she became my housekeeper. Fortunately my health was then improving so she was kept at home, and for several years gave special attention to music in which she became decidedly proficient.

If Lucretia had to be cut short in the matter of general education, it was more than made up in the advantages of fairly extensive travel. Her long journey with me around by the Pacific has been briefly described; she also had several shorter journeys with me, and a summer visit to Manitoba and Winnipeg on her own account, besides her long trip to Europe with her husband after marriage, in which the old parental home in Schleswig was visited, and in Bavaria they witnessed the last passion play in Oberammergau in 1910.

I regard good motherhood as about the highest attainment of womanhood. It is usually not regarded as a great ambition, but rather as a common natural endowment, coming in the usual course of things. Most of mothers think they are all right, and that they have done the best under their peculiar conditions. Few give the subject serious prolonged observation and study, and adapt their management to the needs and nature of the child. The few that do this find a subject of interest that scarcely has an equal, and when successfully worked out affords a steady satisfaction, that is seldom achieved in any other line of effort. The ability of my daughters in this respect has been already stated, or clearly intimated. But were we to select the one who has given the most attention, and made the most progress in the shortest time, it would be to Lucretia. She had the advantage of marrying later in life, and seeing and profiting by the experience of her sisters; add to this a real earnest study of the family question from good books on the subject, of which in this present decade there is an abundance, while thirty or forty years ago, they were nearly unknown. The researches of modern science have reached their highest and most useful service, when directed as they now are to the rearing and the culture of young humanity. Physically and psychologically the child is studied; or, in less grandiloquent but much plainer terms, the child is studied in relation to the various growing conditions of the body, and the continually unfolding progressive states of the mind. Psychology is a modern term, much used in these days, its briefest definition being, mind study. You can get a program for child life and training, from birth to young man

hood or womanhood, when he is supposed to be an intelligent, loving and lovable worshipful being. Lucretia works the scientific program. Old folks like myself that were not regulated by the clock nor fed on precise percentages, were inclined to smile at such an application of numbers and time; but jolly laughing babies turned the laugh against us. When you see active little tots placed in their crib to go to sleep at their leisure, as they do without a whimper, and wake up about the expected time and go to playing till their mamma comes to take them, you may then judge there has been some good care and training somewhere in the background. This relegates nursing, cradle rocking and hymn singing, to the misty memories of the laborious past.

Good family rearing calls for a good family home, not necessarily a luxurious one, where idleness may languish into imbecility, or wanton mischief go unchecked; but a good, selfdependent home, run solely by the family whenever practicable, is the ideal. A home that can be run independent of the servant problem, if need be. Such are the homes of my children, where not only the family needs and comforts and means of educative recreation are supplied, but also where the children are partners in the home business; and, as every business requires a suitable housing, so the best home is the best center of family culture and uplifting associations. In this respect, Lucretia has been favored with the latest and perhaps the best of any. It is finely situated, overlooking the largest and best park in Milwaukee, and in it a generous hospitality is extended, not alone to friends and relatives, but is also one of the social centers for our missionary and other helpful societies of the church and community. But this home with its matronly mistress and interesting little children must be dismissed for a brief reference to the head of the house.

PETER MATHIESEN NORGAARD.

P. M. Norgaard was born March 24, 1881, in the province of Schleswig, Germany. This is one of the provinces wrested from Denmark in 1864, when Germany first entered upon her aggressive Bismarckian policy of grabbing all she could get,