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 longer this will continue no one has prophesied.

The manner of choosing officials in Tor-tu is both new and surprising. All the officers, from the highest to lowest, are chosen by lot instead of by popular ballot or hereditary claim. They who are thus elected remain in office during competency and good behavior.

1. Their record must be stainless during the preceding ten years.

2. They must have been graduated from the law department of the public schools.

3. They must be at least thirty-one years old.

For the highest officials the conditions are more rigid.

The teachers in all public schools are selected in the same manner from among the number who apply, and who have been graduated in rank high enough for the school in question.

At first this lot system seemed very foolish to me indeed, bordering upon absurdity, but the more I studied its simplicity and observed its results, the more I became