the rich and poor, of all climes and nationalities." The play was started by Silvio Fiorillo before the vintagers of southern Italy in 1640. In an article on "The Most Popular Play in the World," by Ernest Russell (Outing, January, 1908), we read, "In England the puppet play followed the mystery plays," and was used as "a side show for circuses, a traveling amusement, an entertainment in the convent, on the street, and at evening gatherings." These puppet shows have been in operation nearly three hundred years and appear as Punch in England and America, Punchinello in Italy, Polichinelle in France, Hanswurst in Germany, and Pickelhering in Holland. Even the sternest of us must admit that those fundamental emotional experiences which have appealed through long ages to the folk soul find a subtle response in our own nervous make-up. The tears and laughter of the race start from our own eyes, and the puppet show will continue to delight all children till their very instincts decay.

Aside from the delight, the puppet show may be of pedagogical utility to the elementary school. It may be used to advantage in the reproduction of stories, dialogues, and current events which it is desirable to emphasize. The reproduction is so simple that the children may work up programs of their own. This will encourage constructive thinking and the use of good English. The children can easily make all the paraphernalia needed, for the construction of the puppets, curtains, etc. is quite within their manual skill and will furnish excellent opportunities for the handwork. Pumpkin, gourd, or almost any rotund vegetable lends itself to puppet life. Take the most commonplace potato, make a crude face on it, wrap a bit of cloth about it, insert the finger in a hole made in one end, and lo, the potato becomes fascinatingly human and will bow and

jig and talk at your own discretion! The little group who are so intently looking and listening in the illustration give evidence of the power of the puppet play to command. concentrated attention.

It will be found that the success of all dramatic work depends upon the degree of organization with which the stories are attacked, and the freedom and spontaneity with which the children are encouraged to interpret character and action. The playing of the stories can be made the most serious work of the day, and there are endless opportunities for reading, writing, spelling, and language lessons in connection with it. The word "play" has frightened a great many educators, but we are beginning to realize that the play spirit is the art spirit, and that the hardest work is often the most delightful. Play with little children is a mood, a method of attack, and has little to do with energy or effort, except that a child puts forth his best effort when he is in a playful, happy, creative mood.

CHAPTER XI

PHONICS AND SPEECH

The recent science of experimental phonetics as represented by Dr. E. W. Scripture introduces a new theory of voice production. His method of curing stutterers and stammerers reënforces the necessity for intelligent care and control of children's voices during the early school period. It emphasizes the prevention of the formation of bad habits of speech, so that their cure will be made unnecessary.

According to this theory of voice production "the larynx, containing the two vocal lips, which open and shut by compression, omits a series of puffs of air so fast that the puffs make a tone. The puffs from the larynx strike a blow on the air of the vocal cavities, chest, nose, and throat, etc., and set it in vibration. These vocal cavities have soft walls and are adjusted to certain tones for each vowel. The vibrations correspond to the sizes and shapes of the cavities." "The pitch of the laryngeal tone is determined by the degree of tension of the vocal cords. To vary the pitch the laryngeal muscles must be freely and delicately poised and must act readily and accurately." These cords, says Scripture, must be trained to emit such forms of explosion as will produce the best effect upon the ear."

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The theory of voice production once established, and the necessity for training the vocal cords to emit sounds pleasurable to the ear admitted, the next question is, "What is the most economical way to secure a well-trained speaking voice to the young children we are helping to educate?"

Dr. Scripture gives three causes of speech defect: (1) excessive innervation of the speech organs; (2) deficient innervation of the speech organs, which he terms subenergetic phonation; and (3) defects in the speech organs themselves.

There is no greater educational sin of the present day than the absolute disregard which we show in our schools to the quality and beauty of the speaking voice. The average classroom is as offensive to the ear as it sometimes is to the nose, and the average teacher is equally insensible to both. We all recognize that a good, clean-cut, expressive voice is a great asset and goes far toward personal power, and yet we are turning out armies of young people to whom it is unpleasant to listen. We are as a nation famous for a flat, nasal, sluggish tone which robs the best language of its force. The evolution of the human voice marks a victory for man; his voice is the instrument of power which places him above the brute. Shall we then be so concerned with the accumulation of facts that we disregard our birthright and become content with signs and grunts? The schools are zealously teaching the boy to write, long before he needs that technical power, and are forgetting how much more dependent that boy is upon the control and convincing power of his speaking voice.

When considering the problem of the value of phonetic drill in the school, its use as a mere aid to reading may be utterly disregarded. The purpose of phonetic drill has a deeper and more significant meaning. It is of inestimable value for four other reasons: (1) ear training, (2) clear enunciation, (3) breath control, (4) the discovery and correction of speech defects.

The cases of superenergetic phonation, or excessive innervation of the speech organs, are comparatively few in