When the ruling monarch dies, there often arises the question of--"who will be the next king?" After the successor is crowned, it is quite the thing to say--"long live the king!" But usually the thinkers and the office-seekers ponder deeply the question of the new king's fitness, and usually, too, their conclusions are most pessimistic.

W. W. Nolen, "the Widow", was beyond a doubt the king of tutors--and in a country as full of universities as is the United States, this is no small attainment. What he told them to do, his students did; knowing that they could make no great mistake, and many there were who by this means achieved the coveted passing-mark. But some time ago the cry went up that the king was dead, and his successor has yet to appear.

Mr. Nolen's policy, as outlined by one of his associates, was always: "play the game square". And although tutoring schools in general were often denounced as inventions of the evil one, and worse, "the Widow's" was always let alone. Campaigns were carried on against the distributors of printed notes, but not against him. For his school never sold notes. He obtained his success by his skill, shrewdness, and power of teaching,--openly and without any suggestion of "intellectual bootlegging".

Whoever purchases the "good-will and tangible assets" of the "Widow's" school, therefore, will find the disadvantage--or possibly, advantage--of having a high standard already set by his predecessor. As long as examinations play so important a part in academic life, tutoring schools will be patronized. But it may be long before anyone appears, competent to succeed to the empty throne of the "Widow".