Nor does the sex extend traces of its sway in this direction alone. A
garden of quite another kind, meant for blossoms other than those of
melody, and still more dependent upon woman's nurture, finds a place
in the exposition grounds near the Pavilion. Of the divers species
of _Garten_--_Blumen-, Thier-, Bier_-, etc.--rife in Vaterland, the
_Kinder_- is the latest selected for acclimation in America. If
the mothers of our land take kindly to it, it will probably become
something of an institution among us. But that is an _If_ of
portentous size. The mothers aforesaid will have first to fully
comprehend the new system. It is not safe to say with any confidence
at first sight that we rightly understand any conception of a German
philosopher; but, so far as we can make it out, the Kindergarten
appears to be based on the idea of formulating the child's physical as
thoroughly as his intellectual training, and at the same time closely
consulting his idiosyncrasy in the application of both. His natural
disposition and endowments are to be sedulously watched, and guided
or wholly repressed as the case may demand. The budding artist
is supplied with pencil, the nascent musician with trumpet or
tuning-fork, the florist with tiny hoe and trowel, and so on. The
boy is never loosed, physically or metaphysically, quite out of
leading-strings. They are made, however, so elastic as scarce to
be felt, and yet so strong as never to break. Moral suasion,
perseveringly applied, predominates over Solomon's system. It is
a very nice theory, and we may all study here, at the point of the
lecture-rod wielded by fair fingers, its merits as a specific for
giving tone to the constitution of Young America.

At the side of the Kindergarten springs a more indigenous growth--the
Women's School-house. In this reminder of early days we may freshen