Editorial Notes.

The last issue of THE SCHOOL JOURNAL is undoubtedly the largest and most remarkable ever sent out as an educational. It compares favorably with the issues of many trade papers, such as the Inland Printer, the Street Railway Journal, the Hatter and Furrier, and many others. It certainly is encouraging that the educational journal is looked upon with favor by the advertising public; only by its encouragement was it possible to expend the thought, labor, and money needed to bring out such a number. If education is taking a higher position in the world, as is claimed, it should appear in the journals that represent it, and so this "Twenty fifth Annual" will be hailed as an evidence of the increased interest that is felt in a higher and broader culture of humanity.

"Do you know of a good man for Nature Study?" was asked at Albany. On inquiry, it appeared that a man as well qualified as Prof. Jackman, of Cook County normal school, was desired; the salary $3,500, or possibly $4,000. Those who were really able in this direction came up before the mind's eye, and it appeared extremely doubtful whether a single one could be tempted to leave. This led to the conclusion that there are really few men in the country highly qualified to give instruction in nature study. Such men must be posted in pedagogics as well as in plants, minerals, earth shapes, and stars.

The tendency now is to buy books pertaining to education of a larger size and greater cost than prevailed a few years ago. This means that the study of books on education has become a settled affair; they are to go into libraries. Very many high schools as well as normal schools are purchasing books on education. The plan is to have a library for the teachers-books relating to school-room work within handy reach. In many schools these are discussed at teachers' meetings. In one case the teachers report to the school board the books they have read; these officials rightly concluding it is not worth while to purchase books unless they are read.

There is a prevalent idea that the principle kept in view by the kindergarten is different from that of the primary teacher-and this, too, is not what guides the advanced teacher and that the high school teacher has quite a different one still. This point was rightly met by Pres. Eliot at Albany, when he declared: "It is all one; the aim is the same; right teaching aims at the same object, no matter when in the course it is given." This is most important to bear in mind; the teacher before the child with the first reader in his hand has the same objects as the one who teaches the young man Greek.

At a considerable expense and very great labor THE JOURNAL presents each week the educational movements of importance and current opinions in all parts of the country. New buildings, changes in courses of study, and important appointments are all noted. It seems 'indispensable that these be recorded; THE JOURNAL attempts to fulfil this duty.

Now who are supposed to be interested to look for this information and to read it? Ten years ago, the

general manager for a large publishing house asked, "Why do you put in these reports?" They were of the meetings in Texas and Missouri, &c. "Who is going fo read them?" It was replied that city superintendents and normal school principals, &c., would do this. "He laughed a scornful laugh," and said, "I know them, I've been among them for years, your money is wasted; you over-estimate the interest of these people in these matters."

For several years current educational news was omitted; during the past two or three years there have appeared many requests for notes of movements; these have mainly come from school board officials. They have inquired as to the physical and manual training, teaching of music and drawing, nature study, &c. Then, too, another set of people has come to the front during the last decade; the old style of superintendent that never took an educational paper is disappearing; the younger men recognize the importance of the educational journal; they want to know what is going on in the educational world, and they read THE JOURNAL because (1) it discusses the great educational subjects such as Courses of Study, Correlation, &c., (2) because it portrays all the important movements of the entire country.

The pages of THE JOURNAL have furnished items of extreme value to teachers who either must move by command of "the board," or who desire to move to better their condition. During the past ten months over 800 notices have appeared relating to new buildings in towns. Many desire principals, all assistant teachers, some special teachers. Out of these notices aid has come to many an active teacher. One of the most adept bureaus for teachers makes it a point to consult the pages of THE JOURNAL, finding great assistance for the business.

At the meetings of teachers there will be suggestions made of priceless value, but they will not be put into practical operation. The teacher has limited powers; the school official does not feel the importance of the This is the collision between the trustee and the proposed change and so matters go along as before. teacher; the former are by nature cautious and conservative; they attend no meetings and read no journals or books relating to education. There are advantages in having the schools managed by a superintendent, provided he is a competent man; but the American plan of choosing a man by popular vote has put in politicians, so that this plan does not always work. It is indeed a great question how to make theory and practice come together in education.

One of the most remarkable educational movements of the past twenty years has been the assemblages at Chautauqua; possibly it is the most remarkable. The plan inaugurated there has been copied in 53 other places. New York has 5, Pennsylvania, 4, Nebraska, Iowa, Maine, and California, 3, Indiana, Georgia, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Ohio, Kentucky, Minnesota, Texas, Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey, Massachusetts each 2; most of the other states one each. The gathering at Chautauqua of course leads all the rest; here there are courses of lectures; lectures on science and art, literature, on sociology, on religion, on history, biography, and pedagogy. Many illustrated lectures are given. In fact, it is a university in the woods.

James Rhea Preston.

James Rhea Preston, state superintendent of Mississippi, was born in Washington county, Virginia, January 22, 1853. He was reared on a farm and received his early education in the schools of the neighborhood. At the age of sixteen he entered Georgetown university, D. C., remaining there two years. He then went Emory and Henry college, Virginia, from which institution he received the degree of A.B. in 1873 and that of A.M. in 1875. One year was spent in teaching a country school in Tennessee, and he then became principal of the public school at Brookston, Ind. Removing to Mississippi in 1875, he taught a boys' high school for three years, then studied law, and was admitted to the bar of the state. From 1878 to 1881 he conducted a preparatory school in Noxubee county. In 1881 he was elected superintendent of the Water Valley public schools, which position he held until he was elected state superintendent of education in 1885.

As state superintendent, at the request of the joint legislative committees, he submitted and assisted in the passage of the school law of 1886, through which many needed reforms were instituted. Chief among these were: State uniform examination of teachers, a system of districting for rural schools, visitation and inspection of schools by county superintendents, establishment of institutes, regulation of teachers' salaries. Although these laws created much stir at first among teachers, they are to day the vital part of the law which has brought about the progress of the state in public education.

In 1889 Superintendent Preston was re-elected, and by the new constitution his term was extended two years. In 1890 he opposed the provision of the new constitution under which the state assumed by general taxation to support public schools four months without local tax, and advocated state support for three months, coupled with a provision that local taxes should be levied sufficient to extend the term to four months He advocated also a compulsory poll-tax, and that the state school fund should consist of the receipts from specific sources of indirect taxation and from a fixed rate on property.

In 1893 he secured an appropriation from the Peabody fund for use in conducting normal institutes in the state and soon created such an interest that these institutes were crowded to overflowing. The first year there were but two of them, but last year there were five, besides those held for the colored teachers. A system of county institutes has also been in successful operation for several years. The results have been most gratifying. There is a better school sentiment, a fuller appreciation of the educational needs of the state, and a greater willingness to increase the school tax. Since 1885 the expenditures for public schools have risen from $840,776 to $1,238,973-an increase of more than 47 per

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California,

The following circular has been addressed to school superintendents and county boards of education of California by a committee appointed by the state council of education at its meeting in Santa Cruz, December 28, 1894. The committee was asked to report on the question of the course of study for elementary schools: Instead of preparing at once a complete curriculum for the elementary schools, this committee is desirous of proceeding as follows: First, to secure thoughtful and extended study of the question on the part of practical teachers in all the counties and cities of the state; second, to secure the setting apart of at least one half-day of the next institute in each of the counties and cities of the state for the discussion of this question; third, to have papers prepared for presentation in these special sessions of the institutes with reference to the course of study as a whole or some of its particular aspects, which papers shall be discussed by the teachers in attendance; and finally, to have resolutions passed or the results of these discussions summed up in some other form of statements, which shall be transmitted to this committee. Such expressions of the judgment of the teachers of the state, especially when that judgment is based upon a careful and impartial study of the question proposed, will be of great value to the committee in the preparation of its report.

May we invite your active co-operation in carrying out this plan in your respective counties and cities?

For the first series of special questions to be submitted for such study and discussion we would respectfully propose the following:

1. Of the four great branches of study enumerated by the Committee of Ten, viz., Language (including reading, writing, language lessons, and grammar). Mathematics (including number work, arithmetic, etc.), History (including literature and history proper), and natural science, should all be studied in each of the elementary grades?

2. If any are to be omitted in any of the grades, what, and in what grades?

3. If all should be pursued, what proportion of time should be given in each grade to each of the four branches?

4. Can any one study be designated in each of the grades which should be regarded as the chief study of that grade?

5. Should any one of the four great branches receive a notable increase of attention over that which it now receives in the practice of the schools?

6. How far and in what way should the natural tastes and aptitudes of the children be taken into account in determining the work of any given grade?

7. How far and in what way should the work be determined by the prospective lifework of the children?

We desire to emphasize the importance of discussions based not merely upon preconceived opinions or results arrived at haphazard, but upon a painstaking study of the literature of the question and careful observation of the effect of studies upon the children in the schools. We would recommend especially that the two following works be read by all the teachers:

The report of the Committee of Ten (published by the American Book Co., New York.)

The report of the Committee of Fifteen (published by the Educational Review-Henry Holt & Co., New York.)

In addition to these reports the best available literature, bearing upon the subject, should be read as widely as possible. The following may be mentioned as suggestive works : White: Elements of Pedagogy. (American Book Co., New York.)

McMurry: General Method; and Special Method for History and Literature, Reading, and Geography. (Public School Publishing Co., Bloomington, Ill.)

Hill: The True Order of Study. (G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York)

Parker: Talks on Pedagogics. (E. L. Kellogg & Co., New York, Chicago.)

If the plan here proposed meets with your approval, may we ask you to present it to your teachers, and enlist their hearty cooperation in carrying it out? Will you kindly send us within one week of the close of your institute a copy of any statement or resolutions bearing upon the subject which your teachers may have adopted? We should be particularly pleased to have added to such expression of the views of your teachers an expression of your own views upon the subject. It is our purpose to embody the results of our inquiry in a preliminary report, to be presented at the meeting of the council of education next December, and to be made the basis of discussion for the year following."

The committee is composed of J. W. Linscott, Elmer E. Brown, Lucy M. Washburn, Jas A. Foshay, P. M. Fisher.

New York State Teachers' Association.

The fiftieth meeting was held at Syracuse, beginning July 1. E. N. Jones presiding, Welland Hendricks secretary. Nearly 600 became members. The annual address was by Pres. J. G. Schur

man.

On Tuesday papers were read by W. R. Eastman on the Public Library; by G. Straubenmuller on Commercial Geography; on the Eye, by Dr. P. A. Callan; on Results of Uniform Examinations, by A. C. Hill; on Education of Mathematics, by G. K. Hawkins; on the Primary Teacher, by Miss M. L. Eastman; on Correlation of Studies, by Prof. S. G. Williams. In the evening the annual address was delivered by State Supt. Skinner; on Wednesday the fiftieth anniversary exercises took place, followed by address by A. S. Draper, and election of officers.

An amendment to the constitution was made so that the selection of the place of meeting is made by the association (it had been fixed permanently at Saratoga). Over this there was considerable debate; it was claimed that it was agreed that the meeting for 1896 should be in Saratoga. On a ballot Rochester was selected, getting 214 votes to New York's 113. A series of resolutions was passed, but only two bore on education; they did not ring like many passed during the half century.

Treasurer Bugbee had the pleasure of reporting the amount of cash in his hands to be $1,051.

The election of Principal J. M. Milne to the presidency gratified the association for he is a very popular man.

The address of State Supt. Skinner did not foreshadow his policy, as was expected; he confined himself mainly to the dangers menacing public education, and enumerated public indifference, political influence, and wrong views.

Of those who were present at the first meeting in 1845, Edward Smith, W. W. Newman, J. A. Allen, and Edward P. Day. Edward North, David Parsons, Edward Cooper, and William Barnes wrote letters of regret.

New York State Art Teachers' Association.

The 5th semi-annual meeting was held at Syracuse, July 2 and 3, W. S. Goodnough presiding, Miss J. L Graves secretary. The proceedings were addresses by the president. How to Advance Art Education, by John S. Clark on the Place of Art in Education in view of the reports of the Committees of Ten and Fifteen. The Nature and Purpose of Examination in Drawing, by Miss Gratia L. Rice. Discussions followed each address.

Fishkill.

The excitement over occurrences at the teachers' institute held at Matteawan, May 15, had not abated much when State Supt. Skinner revoked the licenses to teach of Messrs. W. S. Allen, and Herbert Pinckney, the latter a normal school graduate. It appears that Prof. A. C. McLachlan was giving a lecture before the teachers; that Miss Emerson whispered and admonition was given by the lecturer; that the offense was repeated, and that the lecturer then asked the commissioner to conduct the offender from the room; this was followed by noise in the hall which the lecturer thought was a further insult. Mrs. Pinckney accompanied Miss Emerson, and the next day Messrs. Allen and Pinckney were absent from the institute, and an article appeared in the Newburg Register reflecting on Prof. McLachlan; this it was charged was written by Messrs Allen and Pinckney.

This matter was reported to State Supt. Skinner and he addressed letters to Messrs. Allen and Pinckney requesting them to apologize and to publish the same in the Register, and mail a copy to each teacher in the county. Mr. Pinckney replied denying writing the article, declaring that Miss Emerson and Mrs. Pinckney had been unjustly treated and that he could not say otherwise; demands that Mr. McLachlan's conduct be investigated and that he not be censured until it is established that he is guilty. Mr. Allen replies, admits publishing the article in the Register; declares that Prof. McLachlan called him names in the presence of several persons, and while he has a wife and children depending on him for support, he would despise himself were he to comply with the demands of the state superintendent. He refers also to the feeling in the Fishkill community as wholly against Prof. McLachlan. He has been in the school-room twenty-nine years; regrets he had anything to do with the affair.

On June 24 State Supt. Skinner revoked the certificates of both these gentlemen, giving as his reason, "You are guilty of a wilful failure to attend a teachers' institute held etc., but was absent without leave," contrary to law, etc.

In answer to Mr. B. Hammond, president of the Fishkill school board, Supt. Skinner writes, "Messrs. Allen and Pinckney are charged with exciting disloyalty to the conductor and to the department in securing the publication of newspaper articles misrepresenting the whole affair and designed to discredit the conductor and department."

From a careful perusal of the incidents as published it would seem that out of the whispering by Miss Emerson a great deal of unnecessary trouble has arisen. All will agree with these conclusions: (1) She ought not to have whispered. (2) She

ought not to have been ordered from the room. (3) Messrs. Allen and Pinckney ought not to have published an article in the paper.

As to the revoking of licenses for the reasons he sets forth Supt. Skinner has undoubtedly gone too far; it is possible the courts might uphold him, but public opinion will not. Such an offense as staying away from the institute might be deserving of censure; it is not an immoral act; it does not show a disrespect for the department. Prof. McLachlan was too hasty; whispering is a nuisance but is not to be dealt with as an infectious disease. How many have hurt a school by trying to exterpate whispering in an injudicious manner! This is the cause of the Fishkill imbroglio.

Some two or three years ago a movement was begun by the Public School Art League of Boston. It established the custom of having each graduating class in the schools and colleges of the state leave behind them some work of art as an ornament to the buildings and as a memorial. Already the Boston schools have some really valuable art works which have been presented in this way. The Girls' high school has received a beautiful reduced copy of the famous "Victory," of Samothrace, the original of which is in the Louvre; the Girls' Latin school has received a fine copy of Lucca della Robbia's reliefs from the Duomo at Florence; and the English high school has obtained a fine copy in full size, of the famous "Discobolus," of Myron. The graduating class of the Everett school, Dorchester, has left behind it a fine bust of "Diana," and the Boys' Latin school has received a beautiful copy of the "Venus de Medici."

As to an examination in other subjec's than those required by law State Supt. Inglis, of Illinois, says: A candidate for a certificate cannot lawfully be required to pass an examination in topics other than those mentioned in the law and in such matters as relate to his moral character and capability of teaching; nor should he be constrained to study any particular text-book; yet a considerable knowledge of pedagogy or methods of teaching may be required to be shown by the questions asked under the topics enumerated in the law and by the general questions asked to ascertain the applicant's ability to teach."

The legislature of Kansas passed a law to prevent the employment of out-of-state conductors of institutes; the teachers want to keep that work to themselves; it is a sort of protective tariff. Able men from other states have hitherto been invited as conductors, but that is now forbidden-where the public money is used. Next they will forbid any poetry to be used except that they write themselves.

The manual training school of Manchester, N. H., seems to have been a success. The course which the boys go through is made up as follows: Squared joint, nailed and glued, miter joint, slip mortise and tenon, square ledge joint, dovetailed ledge joint, blind mortise and tenon, open mortise and tenon, lap joint diamond shape, miter joint with mortise and tenon, section of table or stand frame, trestle, bracket exercise in dovetailing, dovetailed key, single dovetail open and same half blind, the same with two dovetails and the same with three, forming a set of six, blind dovetail, dovetailed box with hinges and lock complete, exercise in carving, scroll with initials, carved wall pocket.

Each boy has a separate bench and each bench has the following outfit: Six chisels, hammer, nail set, gauge, screwdriver, bits and brace, try square, bevel, rule, compass, form plane, jointer, fore plane and block plane, splitting saw, panel saw, back saw, and pair of hand screws.

The Woburn school board have abolished the system of physical culture and adopted a simpler one. The scholars actually abhorred the exercises required by the system, and the teachers who have done the work, have been equally opposed to it. Its requirements were anything but in the direction of physical strengthening and development. It wearied the scholars and unfitted them for good mental work. The idea of it is radically opposed, in principle, to true physical culture.

Chas. H. Hockley, of Muskegon, Mich., has presented the city with a fine school costing $100,000, and a public library.

The law now is that parents of children between seven and sixteen are fined from $5 to $50 for not sending their children to school; they may even be imprisoned from two to ninety days. In Eureka the money paid to lawyers for defending a teacher arrested for whipping a pupil is declared unlawful,

In Wisconsin the county superintendent must have taught in the public schools for eight months and hold a certificate entitling him to teach in any public school in the state-this to be issued upon examination by examiners for state certificate.

In Marinette the teachers must be graduates of a normal school or some reputable college or else have had two years experience in practical teaching. New high school graduates are not eligible.

The same rule was adopted in Argus.

The Oldest of American Schools.

By E. W. KRACKOWIZER.

The other day twenty-two men met to celebrate their graduation from the Boston Public Latin school twenty-five years ago. Two came from Chicago, another from Milwaukee, a fourth from Cleveland. The man in Japan and the two in Seattle and Western Kansas sent us their regrets at being prevented from being with us in terms of such unmistakable disappointment that their presence in the spirit was almost palpably manifest. One of those present had never been East even to attend the reunions of his college class; and although he is a grave and reverend D.D., he told us that the only diploma he ever really prized was the one he had earned at the old Latin school. It is not often the case that a man's high or preparatory school associations are accorded equal rank with those arising from his college or university career. Yet here we have an instance where the latter even recedes into the background.

It is not the purpose of these lines to give a reason for this scholastic pride and loyalty. This institution is a public school and at the same time the oldest institution of learning in this country. Since ten years after the landing of the Pilgrims, and anticipating the foundation of Harvard college by three, the Public Latin school of Boston has been steadfastly and conservatively devoted to the nurture and culture of the classics, socalled.

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But even a superficial examination of the pride with which many of her alumni regard this school cannot fail to discover that it implies something more- or rather, as I should say, less-than filial reverence; there is unmistakably a strain of ancestral conceit in the feeling; a species of self-satisfaction that one is of blooded stock, intelle:tually; something apart from the vulgar herd whose members, no matter how well-trained, how deserving in scholarship, are after all but a kind of nouveaux riches in the world of culture. Such another may be the very flower of learning; if so, I, quâ alumnus of the Boston Latin school, am, as it were, the Mayflower of learning." The conceit of letters is bad enough, and this rare faction of it is, of course, quite beneath contempt. Yet the institution, itself, cannot be held responsible. No school could be more democratic in its traditions or conditions. In fact, so true is this, that in these latter days it has fallen somewhat into disrepute. Among the best" families of Boston it is no longer "good form " to send your boy to a public school, even though it be 260 years old. So the old school has lost somewhat of its honorable standing in the community, and there are not wanting subtle detractors now, where in former days even the kindliest criticism was repelled by the press and in the school board as a species of pedagogical blasphemy. Yet the sober truth is that there used to be good ground for just fault finding in the days when it was not permitted; as there is to-day, when it is not applied. Even as an alumnus of twenty-five years' standing my loyalty to and reverence for the old school is sure to be called in question, as I shall attempt to point out some of its shortcomings

This was the way of it in our day. A fellow, who like myself, simply refused to cram his grammar and to memorize his authors might manage to get into Harvard without conditions, if he was only reasonably attentive to the results of the cramming, and memorizing of his more "industrious" classmates as they were iterated and reiterated ad nauseam at recitations; while the crammers and memorizers might, and not infrequently did, slip up at their college entrance examinations for lack of wit. Those were the days when we were supposed to grind out all of the "Gallic War," the "Metamorphoses," the "Eneid," "Bucolics" and "Georgics," and of Cicero's "Orations," all of the "Anabasis and three books of the "Iliad "-" not including the Catalogue of Ships." The full course, therefore comprised at least six years of verbal and rhetorical dissection of these works, not as expressions and reflections of classic life and thought; dreaming and longing; but as litere; as so many repositories of words in their common, exceptional, rare, and obsolete combinations and permutations-just as if Cæsar had lain awake nights to construct verbal pitfalls for us to trip over; as if Xenophon had developed his penchant for the 3d person singular as a "historical" device for us to parse. As to mathematics, algebra was presented as a symbological mystery lying in a sort of pettifog twixt arithmetic, which we had never understood, and geometry, which we never expected to understand. Ancient history was a disconnected compilation of names and dates in "tables," wherein neither fact nor fiction were so prominent as falsehood. We also "studied" French from a grammar whose "paradigms were evolved out of the inner consciousness of a worthy man-in fact he was and remains a dear, sweet, old soul, but none the less misguided-who was bent on making us conjugate French verbs into the optative mood, and to decline French nouns in six, several

of the eloquent poet to those of the prosaic historian, none of us adverted to our studies, but to our fellow students; to our teachers and not to their teaching? A few of the latter were "born teachers" in the long line of those who hand down intact the traditions of the fathers to the sons; so reverently do they preserve the jots and tittles that their familiarity with the flyspecks and dust of other ages failed to breed the contempt of wholesome boyish revulsion against such hollow artificiality in-all of us. These teachers, aptly enough called "ushers" and "masters," were in no sense educators except as the strong simplicity or rugged oddity of their natures influenced us for good or evil.

Thus had it been since the days of the Pilgrim Fathers-yet the school to-day has better teachers with better methods than in our day, because Harvard has broken with the past. But it has been a case of constrained conformation to the demands of the higher institution, rather than a reformation under conviction of sin and persuasion of righteousness. And signs are not wanting that before the close of the century there will come to pass a reorganization of the dear old public Latin school of Boston no less worthy of its conservative past than of its potentially radical future.

Boston, June 25, 1895.

The Contents of School Readers.

SUGGESTIONS OF A RUSSIAN EDUCATIONALIST.
By BORIS BOGEN.

(In recent years, due to some political events, Russia has attracted a great deal of interest. In educational matters also, particularly since the World's Columbian Exposition, the suggestions of Russia's educationalists have been listened to. It is admitted by students of the various European countries that Russia is not only not behind in pedagogy, but has also furnished very satisfactory solutions to some educational problems. THE JOURNAL will present several articles showing what has been accomplished, particularly in the treatment of questions that are engaging the attention of many American educators. Below is given a brief abstract from an article recently published by Dimitry I. Tichomiroff, the renowned Russian pedagogue, dealing with the very important problem: What are to be the contents of a Reader ?)

Mr. Tichomiroff has been engaged for the last five years in preparing a new reader which is to appear next autumn. The ideas on which this reader is based are quite new and significant. Nature, he believes, is not to furnish the only subject-matter at first; man in relation to nature, -man who knows, thinks, and loves, must be presented.

Fine literature, he holds, is the best means for cultivating noble thought, feeling, and spirit, for influencing the heart and through it the will; it is to modern man the principal educator and instructor in morality. The question, how to arrange the reading matter furnished by literature for the young, in school and out of it, is of greatest importance.

Accordingly, Mr. Tichomiroff selects from general literature everything which is accessible for children, and then arranges it systematically, not in respect to its form merely, but in regard to its contents also.

The proposed reader would be arranged as follows: first, little stories, fables, and poems, representing the relations of the children to their parents, nurse, teacher, etc., then follow selections treating their duties toward man and nature; after this a certain amount of subject matter from geography, history, and the natural sciences. Thus, co-ordination is to be attained through fine literature, the final aim being moral education.

Brooklyn's "reform mayor" has made a generous concession to the demand of woman to be represented on boards of education by the appointment of five ladies to the Brooklyn board. The ladies selected for this trust are Mrs. Emma Pettingill, Mrs. Mary E. Jacobs, Mrs. Henry A. Powell, Miss Elizabeth H. Perry, and Miss Isabel M. Chapman. These women are the first of their sex who have been recognized in the city over the river as worthy of a trial in such educational affairs as it is in the function of the board to conduct. Women have hitherto been held qualified to teach, but not to say what is best for teachers; to have immediate charge of children, but not of the buildings in which children are brought under the teacher's influence. It is perhaps due to this traditional view that there are still to be found in Brooklyn overcrowded and insufficiently lighted class-rooms, to say nothing of rooms to which fetid odors penetrate the year round because of inadequate provision for ventilation or defective plumbing. Annually for a lor.g time as the season came round, a committee has knocked at the door of the mayor's office, having in charge a petition for the appointment of women as trustees. Some years ago, a certain mayor immortalized himself by naming one woman on his list of appointments. This was regarded as a joke by many and the lady declined to take her seat in the board of forty-five. It remained for Mayor Schieren to show a businesslike respect to the claims of womanhood to help look after childhood in the way of regulating school conditions. His selections are said to have been made with extreme care.

CHARLES SCRIBNER.

iginal quarters of the house were a part of the chapel of the old Brick Church at the corner of Nassau street and Park Row, which is now the site of the Times building. After several removals the firm settled at 743 Broadway, where it remained for twenty years, moving in 1894 to the spacious new building at 153-157 Fifth

avenue.

In 1857 Mr. Scribner formed a partnership with Mr. Charles Welford, of London, under the name of Scribner & Welford. This partnership, which was organized for the purpose of importing books only, was distinct from the publishing business of Charles Scribner. In 1864 Mr. Scribner took into partnership Mr Andrew C. Armstrong, and in the same year Mr. Edward Seymour also became a partner.

Mr. Scribner died in 1871, and his son, Mr. John Blair Scribner, became the head of the house. The name of the main firm became Scribner, Armstrong & Co., and that of the importing firm Scribner, Welford, and Armstrong. In 1878 Mr. Scribner and his brother, Mr. Charles Scribner, bought out Mr. Armstrong's interest in the business, and the firm then assumed the name by which it has since been known.

Mr. John Blair Scribner died in 1879, and Mr. Charles Scribner was the only member of the firm until 1884, when his brother, Arthur H, became associated with him. On the death of Mr. Welford in 1885, the business of Scribner & Welford was absorbed into the main house, and the whole is now one organization.

The history of the house is a record of great successes and to it is due the publication of the works of many standard authors. It was Mr. Scribner who "discovered" "Ik Marvel," and published "The Reveries of a Bachelor" and "Dream Life." He showed his discrimination also in the publication of Dr. Holland's "Timothy Titcomb's Letters." One after another Dr. Holland's many books were added to the list and the friendship thus begun between publisher and author was to result later in the founding of a great magazine. The house includes in its list of fiction writers such names as Cable, Stockton, Mrs. Burnett, Eggleston, Thomas Nelson Page, Robert Grant, Octave Thanet, G. P. Lathrop, Boyesen, Richard Harding Davis, and others equally well-known.

During the fifties Mr. Scribner began publishing important theological and philosophical works, which include those of Dr.

The next step was the publication of Lange's great Commentary. Although based on the German of Lange, it was practically a new work, edited by Dr. Philip Schaff, some of the volumes being new contributions.

The publication of the American edition of the "Encyclopædia Britannica," was a successful undertaking, the authorized sales amounting to 70,000 sets. From the subscription book department issue Stanley's "In Darkest Africa," Greeley's "Three Years of Arctic service," the Scribner-Black Atlas of the World," and other notable books.

Among the works of foreign authors those of Froude, Dean Stanley, Max Müller, Gladstone, Rawlinson, Sayce, Jowett, Mommsen, and Curtius, may be mentioned.

THE EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT.

Beginning with its establishment, in the late fifties, the Educa