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 FOUNDED 1848. WITH WHICH IS INCORP ORAT E D 
 
 HARPER'S WEEKLY 
 
 International Fil 
 
 CHARLES E.HUGHES 
 
 SPEAKS FORTHE REPUBLICAN PARTY 
 
 IN THIS NUMBER 
 
 PRICE 1O CENTS 
 
Two Poems by ROBERT FROST 
 
 THE TELEPHONE 
 
 " T ~T HEN I was just as far as I could walk 
 
 I l\ / From here today, 
 
 f f There was an hour 
 
 All still 
 
 When leaning with my head against a flower 
 
 I heard you talk. 
 
 Don't say I didn't, for I heard you say 
 
 You spoke from that flower on the window sill 
 
 Do you remember what it was you said? 
 
 First tell me what it was you thought you heard. , 
 
 Having found the flower and driven a bee away 
 
 I leaned my head, 
 
 And holding by the stalk, 
 
 I listened and I thought I caught the word 
 
 What was it? Did you call me by my name? 
 
 Or did you say 
 
 Some one said "Come" I heard it as I bowed. 
 
 I may have thought as much, but not aloud. 
 Well, so I came. 
 
 THE GUM-GATHERER 
 
 rFIERE overtook me and drew me in 
 To his down-hill, early-morning stride, 
 And he set me five miles on my road 
 Better than if he had had me ride, 
 A man with a swinging bag for load 
 And half the bag wound round his hand. 
 We talked like barking above the din 
 Of water we walked along beside. 
 And for my telling him where I'd been 
 And where I lived in mountain land 
 To be coming home the way I was, 
 He told me a little about himself. 
 He came from higher up in the pass 
 Where the grist of the new-beginning brooks 
 Is blocks split off the mountain mass 
 And hopeless grist enough it looks 
 Ever to grind to soil for grass. 
 ( The way it is will do for moss.) 
 There he had built his stolen shack. 
 It had to be a stolen shack 
 
 Because of the fears of fire and loss 
 That trouble the sleep of lumber folk 
 Visions of half the world burned black 
 And the sun shrunken yellow in smoke. 
 We know who when they come to town 
 Bring berries under the wagon seat, 
 Or a basket of eggs between their feet; 
 What this man brought in a cotton sack 
 Was gum, the gum of the mountain spruce. 
 He showed me lumps of the scented stuff 
 Like uncut jewels, dull and rough, 
 It comes to market golden brown; 
 But turns to pink between the teeth. 
 
 I told him this is a pleasant life 
 To set your breast to the bark of trees, 
 That all your days are dim beneath, 
 And reaching up with a little knife, 
 To loose the resin and take it down 
 And bring it to market when you please. 
 
 SCHOOLMASTER TO HALF A MILLION 
 
 WHAT SUPERINTENDENT MAXWELL, OF NEW YORK, THINKS OF AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 BY CHARLES PHILLIPS COOPER 
 
 FOR the first time in nearly 
 thirty-five years the Old Lion 
 of the great public school sys- 
 tem of New York City is forced to 
 take rest. It was in 1882 that Will- 
 iam Henry Maxwell became assist- 
 ant superintendent of the schools of 
 Brooklyn, and from that day he has 
 been a force in the educational af- 
 fairs first of the city and later of the 
 nation. In due course he became the 
 head of the schools of Brooklyn, and 
 in 1898, when after consolidation 
 Greater New York wished to revise 
 its cumbersome old system and join 
 the modern educational movement, it 
 selected Doctor Maxwell as its first 
 superintendent of schools. He has 
 held the office ever since. 
 
 Recently the Board of Education 
 granted Doctor Maxwell a leave of 
 absence at full pay of $10,000 a year. 
 
 70 
 
 This leave of absence was voted after 
 the board, by a vote of 31 out of a 
 possible 40, had reflected Doctor 
 Maxwell to the superintendency for a 
 full term of six years. 
 
 It is a big job. On every school 
 day of this year of 1916 more than 
 600,000 children of all ages storm the 
 schoolhouses that Father Knicker- 
 bocker supplies. This school army 
 would make six cities of the size of 
 Albany; would almost duplicate Bos- 
 ton; would make four cities of the 
 size of Omaha, and two of the popu- 
 lation of Minneapolis. In it lies the 
 future of the greatest city of Amer- 
 ica. 
 
 A glance at the material side for 
 a moment will show something of the 
 magnitude of the problem that the 
 school authorities of New York City 
 puzzle over. The budget appropria- 
 
 tion of the department of education 
 for 1915 was $39,840,349, of which 
 $32,609,695 constituted the general 
 school fund for teachers' salaries. 
 For 1916 the appropriation is $36,- 
 865,981. 
 
 I asked Doctor Maxwell what in 
 his long career made him most 
 proud. 
 
 "I believe I can claim the credit," 
 he said, "of taking the appointment 
 of teachers out of the hands of poli- 
 ticians. I believe that is the best 
 thing I have ever done, and I am 
 prouder of it than of any other one 
 achievement. You remember how it 
 was in the old days, when every 
 grade teacher had a politician behind 
 her. It was bad for the teacher and 
 very bad for the schools. I originated 
 the legislation which demanded cer- 
 tain training in the case of all the 
 

 Be Sure of the Lath! 
 
 and the Stucco Will 
 Take Care of Itself 
 
 OTUCCO construction is just as per- 
 ^ manent as the base on which it is 
 laid no more so. That is why it is eco 
 nomical and sensible to use lath of metal. 
 
 Xno-fturn 
 
 Expanded Metal Lath 
 
 is the ideal metal lath for interior plastering and stucco 
 work, because it is made with a mesh that clinches every 
 inch of plaster uniformly and permanently. Ask your 
 architect. 
 
 This is only one of the reasons why you should specify 
 "Kno-Burn" in your new house. You will find a dozen 
 others as well as a world of vital building information in 
 "Practical Homebuilding," a manual for home builders 
 that we will gladly send you on request. 
 
 Send 10 cents to cover cost of 
 mailing and ask for booklet 789 
 
 North Western Expanded Metal 
 
 Manufacturers All Types of Expanded Metals 
 978 Old Colony Building Chicago, Illinois