In his thirteenth year Mr. Waters was placed as an apprentice to the trade of printer in the office of the Montreal Gazette, and although he had previously attended three different schools, he owed, up to that time, his education almost entirely to his mother, who was a woman of superior character and fine intellectual attainments. At the age of fifteen young Waters removed with the family to New York City, where he worked for several years as a printer in the offices of Harper & Brothers, Thomas B. Smith, and others. It was while working at his trade in these places that he imbibed a passion for study and literature, which he gratified during every leisure moment, devoting himself with assiduity to the study of languages and to the reading of good authors. He made, in this way, a considerable acquaintance with the best works of English writers, mastered the French and German languages, and attended night schools, lyceum lectures, debating societies, etc., of which he gives some account in his well known book, Intellectual Pursuits. All this he supplemented with a period of foreign travel, going to Europe in his twenty-sixth year, and spending eighteen months in England and another eighteen in France. The experience he gained abroad, which marked an important epoch in his life, he will probably relate in a forthcoming work. While working as a printer in Paris Mr. Waters met a young American teacher of English who was instrumental in leading him into the profession which he has since honored by many years of useful service. Acting upon this gentleman's suggestion, that he apply for a post, through one of the Parisian Bureaux de Placement, as teacher of languages in a provincial school, he procured a position as professeur d'anglais et d'allemand at a large boarding and day school for boys in Saint Quentin, a manufacturing town in the north of France, where he soon found himself in a congenial sphere. His intimate knowledge of French, German, and English, and his natural ability and genial companionship, won for him a warm place in the hearts of his pupils and assured his success from the first. He remained there one year, and then went to Germany, arriving at Munich in August, 1863. Five months later, with a mind filled with pleasant recollections of the art galleries, artists, and lovers of learning of that historic university town, he accepted a position as teacher of English branches in the Commercial School of Offenbach-on-the-Main, a manufacturing center of Hesse-Darmstadt, five miles from Frankfort-on-the-Main. Here, he declares, he first learned what teaching meant. The excellent methods, thoroughness, and broad knowledge of the German teachers contrasted strongly with the weaker and more superficial system of the French, and inspired Mr. Waters with profound respect for and admiration of German methods. Here he taught and studied for four years, learning a great deal of German methods of teaching, of German life and literature, and acquiring for himself considerable knowledge of various important branches of education. He looks upon this period as one of the happiest and most profitable in his career. Finding his duties, his opportunities, and his surroundings so congenial, he relinquished the intention of going to Italy and Russia, and remained much longer in Germany than he had anticipated.

During the last year of his residence in Germany he passed an examination in Darmstadt before the Grand Ducal Council of Higher Studies, which entitled him to teach in any public school in the Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt, of which Offenbach is the largest manufacturing town; but he never availed himself of this privilege. In 1867 he returned to New York City, where he taught one term in Dr. Gerke's German-American school, and, at the same time, gave lessons in a New York evening school. At the end of that period he accepted an advantageous position from the Board of Directors of the Hoboken German Academy, in Hoboken, N. J., as teacher of languages, history, and literature in that institution. Mr. Waters filled that position with eminent success for more than fifteen years, constantly enlarging his knowledge of the profession and aiding materially in the prosperity of the school. Here, he says, he made the acquaintance of some of the best teachers he ever knew, chief among whom was the late Magnus Schoeder, who had studied in the University of Berlin until his twenty-eighth year, and who was deeply versed in Greek, Latin, metaphysics, and mathematics. With this eminent scholar and teacher Mr. Waters became closely associated, exchanging lessons with him for years, imbibing much of his enthusiasm for the profession, and finding in him the ablest teacher he had ever had. Mr. Schoeder subsequently became Director of the Hoboken Academy, and each year gave Mr. Waters a new branch to teach, which compelled him to enlarge and fortify his own knowledge in various branches. The two worked together in the greatest harmony, and in every difficulty Mr. Waters invariably stood by the side of his chief. Leaving French, finally, to other teachers, Mr. Waters devoted most of his time to English branches, chiefly in the higher classes, and to German by translation into English, with a view of making English clear by comparative grammar. These years in the academy were attended with peace, friendship, and honor, and with a broadening acquaintance with learning and literature, which Mr. Waters now recalls with pleasure. His pupils, many of them, became prominent in professional and public life, and invariably imbibed the enthusiasm, the laudable ambition, and the inspiring spirit of their able and esteemed teacher. Among these pupils may be mentioned Edward Russ, William C. Heppenheimer, and Joseph Wetzlar.

In 1883 Mr. Waters was chosen Supervising Principal of the West Hoboken public schools, which at that time consisted of one school with seven hundred scholars and seventeen teachers. Since then the local system has grown to four schools, 4,000 scholars, and 75 teachers, and under his able and energetic management ranks among the very best in the State or in the country. The seventeen years that he has devoted to these schools have been marked by the introduction of those excellent methods which he has mastered in a wide and varied experience, and by a growing efficiency in every department of education. That this is due to Air. Waters is a fact which he may regard with pride and satisfaction. He may, without exaggeration, be pronounced one of the ablest educators in -New Jersey, and withal a scholar, an untiring student, and a progressive, patriotic man, inspiring his pupils and his teachers with that lofty sense of honor which has characterized his whole career. His integrity, his public spirit and enterprise, and his eminent success as an educator have gained for him universal confidence and esteem.

Mr. Waters is also an author of some note, having written several books which have become widely known. Among these are: Intellectual Pursuits, Life of William Cobbett, Shakespeare as Portrayed by Himself, John Selden and his Table-Talk, Flasher of Wit and Humor, and a capital edition of Cobbett's English Grammar, all of which have passed through several editions. He has made a number of translations from the French, one of which is entitled Magical Experiments, or Science in Play. Mr. Waters has also written for the Home Journal a series of chapters on "Culture by Conversation"; for the Twentieth Century a paper on the "Career and Conversation of John Swinton" (one of his oldest friends, having worked with him as a printer in the fifties); and for Frank Leslie's Magazine an interesting paper entitled "How I Became My Own Landlord." He is a great believer in co-operative land and building societies, whose principles he has practically illustrated, and which he recommends especially to those working for a fixed salary. Of late years, however, Air. Waters has written comparativvely little, his exhaustive duties as Supervising Principal of the West Hoboken public schools leaving him small leisure for this kind of work, for which he is so well fitted.