Auditorium Annex,
Chicago, August 16, 1898.

Miss Amalie Hofer,
Manager Kindergarten Literature Company,
Woman's Temple, Chicago, Ill.:

Dear Miss Hofer:—In searching for the best means of distributing my new book—"That Last Waif; or, Social Quarantine"—my attention was called to the decree on the cover of your magazine—"Pledged to Make the Kindergarten Free to All Children."

Further inquiry reveals the fact that your stockholders are deeply interested in kindergarten-propagation work; that your profits are dedicated to that cause, and that you have over four thousand correspondents who are enthusiastic workers.

Inasmuch as I propose to contribute the profits derived from the sale of the book to form the nucleus of a fund with which to champion the establishment of Character-Building and Habit-Forming schools or institutions to meet the needs of all Apprentice Citizens, and for the advocacy of the creation of a department of the Federal Government to promote and guard Citizen-Training (especially during the period of tenderest and strongest impressions), it seems to me that your organization and I should co-operate.

The kindergarten has been the means of demonstrating the efficiency of character-training, and, while it is only one branch of elementary character education, it is the parent of all which have come into existence as a result of the success of the teachings of Pestalozzi and Froebel. You may, therefore, consistently extend your interest to all phases of the work.

If the Child-Crop of a nation is the source of all its strength or weakness—happiness or trouble—why should there not be a strongly-equipped department of the national government to minister to its interests, as there are departments of State, Agriculture and others, whose heads form the Cabinet of the Executive.

I send you herewith galley proofs of the book by which you may learn if you are in sympathy with my presentation of the case.

Respectfully yours,

Horace Fletcher.