and the teachers are earnestly working for an all-round improvement of their pupils. COLUMBIA-Supt. Hoffman: A very fine eight-room building was erected during the summer. It is well lighted and well ventilated, furnished with single desks and an abundant supply of slate blackboard surface. It is in every way admirably adapted to its purpose, and is one of the finest buildings in the county.

DANVILLE- - Supt. Houser: The school board purchased $100 worth of supplementary reading books, intended to co-ördinate with history, geography and literature.

HAZLE TOWNSHIP, (Luzerne Co.)-Supt. Mulhall: It was found necessary to open another school at No. 3, and one also on the Diamond Addition. One of the schools at Hazleton Mines was closed. All of our teachers with few exceptions attended the County Institute, and evidently made the most they could out of the instruction there given. Our District Institute has arranged a programme as follows: White's Elements of Pedagogy, Drawing, discussion of Educational Topics, Miscellany and Superintendent's remarks.

HAZLETON BOROUGH - Supt. Harman: We have organized a Local Institute with the following programme: Relief Maps; Primary Reading; Primary Arithmetic; Miscellaneous Discussions; Essay; Remarks by Superintendent. The schools are well attended, most of them being crowded to their utmost capacity. Each school is well supplied with books, charts, globes, maps, etc., which shows that our school directors are of the progressive kind. Five school buildings were painted. The Bible is read in all of our schools.

HOMESTEAD-Supt. Kendall: Arbor Day was observed in all the schools by the planting of many fine shade trees. A choice programme was prepared for the occasion, bearing on nature and the necessity of protecting our forests. The local press and many of the citizens attended, deeply interested in the exercises of the day. As one of the editors present remarked, "It is surprising how many writers of poetry have taken trees as subjects." This, however, is only a beginning, for during the year the tree will be studied in all its varied stages of growth. Many books on science will be added to the public school library this year, not including over 200 volumes on other subjects.

HUNTINGDON-Supt. Benson: Our schools opened with a larger attendance than at any time in the past. There seems to be nothing to hinder the schools from carrying on the work for which they were intended. On account of the crowded condition of the high school, it became necessary to provide an additional teacher. We find it pays well to hire a teaching force that can handle the pupils when divided into smaller classes; and when this is done, the teaching can be made much more effective.

JOHNSTOWN-Supt. Johnston: Arbor Day exercises were held by every school. Tree planting was done at six buildings, and in all twenty-five trees were planted. There were 582 visitors to the schools during the month. Large crowds of people witnessed the out-door exercises on Arbor Day. Each year this day seems to have a deeper interest for our pupils and citizens generally.

LOWER MERION TWP. (Montgomery Co.) -Supt. Robb: A fine new school building has been completed at Ardmore, which was opened with appropriate ceremonies. Addresses were made by Mr. Houck, Dr. Sharpless, Supt. Hoffecker, Dr. Phillips, and Mr. McGeorge, President of the School Board. Dr. Sharpless, on behalf of the trustees of Haverford College, offered a scholarship to a boy in the graduating class of each year. At the conclusion of the exercises a flag was presented to the school by the J. O. A. M. The building is constructed of Holmesburg granite and finished in chestnut. It is thoroughly heated and ventilated. It contains eight school-rooms, a large high school room, with class-rooms, laboratory, and a gymnasium 50x75 feet. The township high school will be located in the building until the growing school at Ardmore crowds it out.

MAHANOY TWP. (Schuylkill Co.)-Supt. Noonan: A decidedly comfortable and handsomely-furnished new room was opened at Morca; it is 30x35 feet, and will accommodate fifty pupils. During vacation the building at Buck Mountain was remodeled, while those at Suffolk, St. Nicholas and New Boston were beautified by the painter's brush. All needed repairs were made, and about 300 new window-shades were hung. Our schools opened September 3d, for a term of nine months, and we are pleased to record the largest first month's enrollment we have ever had.

MIDDLETOWN-Supt. Weber: Arbor Day was duly observed by our schools. While not all engaged in the planting of trees, in every school a portion of the day was devoted to the holding of appropriate exercises. Immediately after the opening of school in the afternoon, the high school formed in line and proceeded to the Susquehanna building, where each class planted a sugar maple, naming them respectively '96, '97 and '98. Arbor Day selections were sung as the trees were planted. Then the school marched around the flag-pole, saluted the "Flag of our Nation," and sang the "Star Spangled Banner," and "Long wave Old Glory," after which they returned to the high school. The teachers and pupils of the Susquehanna building assembled in the school yard, and with singing and speaking planted four trees. The grammar rooms each planted a tree-nine in all. Whenever those in authority designate a day to be celebrated as Arbor Day, it becomes our pleasure to honor the proclamation by a proper observance-not in pomp and splen

dor, but in easy suitable exercises, and above all with the planting of trees, followed by lessons of patriotism.

MT. CARMEL-Supt. Dean: Our lower grades are crowded, compelling us to put as many as seventy-eight in one room under one teacher. We need more money appropriated to secure the proper buildings, sufficient teachers, etc. We are taxing to the full extent of the law, and yet the children are not properly supplied. If it is best to make a law providing for free text-books, the State should see to it that towns like ours have money enough to do it. It is unpardonable to furnish free text-books and then be obliged to have so many pupils to a teacher in one room that work cannot be done in a healthy way.

MCKEESPORT-Supt. Brooks: The first month of school found us with 3,790 pupils enrolled. I have never seen a more unanimous effort on the part of both teachers and pupils, than is now apparent in our schools. All seem determined that this shall be our best school year. Dr. Schaeffer paid his first visit to our city, and delivered the address at the dedication of our new building. He made many friends while with us, and will be a welcome visitor at any time. The other speakers were President Trich, of the Board of Education, Hon. Thomas Tillbrook, E. P. Douglas, esq., Mayor Jas. Z. Andre, Rev. M. D. Lichter, and Mr. Dailey. We had a very large attendance of the patrons and friends of the schools.

NANTICOKE-Supt. Miller: We have introduced typewriting and stenography in our high school. There are over 200 more pupils in school this term than last. board is making preparation to erect an eight room building during the coming year.

Our

NEWPORT TWP., (Luzerne Co.) - Supt. Dewey: The monthly Institute was well attended, and was profitable to all present. The next meeting promises to be still more successful. It was found necessary to have more room for the high school work. The only room available was the Superintendent's office, which has accordingly been fitted up for a recitation room. The attendance is very good throughout the district, and the older pupils seem very much in earnest. Nearly all the teachers are Normal graduates, and are not only well qualified for teaching, but take hold of the work with a determination to make the most of their opportunities. Miss Belles, of school No. 17, reports 100 per cent. in attendance for the second month. All the pupils were present every day, and not one was tardy. The nearest pupil lives one-fourth of a mile away, and some have more than a mile to walk. Our teachers all attended County Institute.

OIL CITY-Supt. Babcock: Our schools opened with an increased attendance of 148 over the first month of last year; this made it necessary to rent two rooms. Our new building is nearing completion, and will be

It is a

ready for occupancy January 1st. four-room brick building of handsome design, and will be up to date in all of its appointments.

SHENANDOAH-Supt. Whitaker: On October 14 we opened ten evening schools-nine for boys and one for girls. Owing to the large attendance we were compelled to open two more for boys and one for girls, so that we now have thirteen of these schools in operation. Six hundred pupils have been enrolled, of whom about eighty are girls. The directors are taking a commendable interest in these evening schools, and neither labor nor expense will be spared to make them successful.

SOUTH EASTON-Supt. Shull: Our teachers, twenty-four in number, all attended the County Institure. Arbor Day was celebrated by all the schools of this borough, and a warm interest was shown in the subject of tree planting.

SUNBURY-Supt. Oberdorf: Our schools opened with an enrollment of over 1300. Some of the primary rooms were overcrowded. In fact nearly all our rooms, including the high school, have insufficient seating capacity for the number of pupils they contain. A new two-room building, with modern conveniences, will soon be completed, and this will relieve us somewhat; but until more modern buildings take the place of those now in use, our schools must suffer for lack of those comforts so essential to the best results in the school-room. The attendance for the first month has been excellent; and under a progressive, earnest corps of teachers we look for good results.

Educational Foundations" is taken and read by all our teachers, and most of them are subscribers to one or more educational papers. Our teachers' meetings, held every other Monday evening immediately after the close of school, are well attended; they are devoted to the discussion of questions bearing upon school work. Our school board is progressive, generous, and watchful of the school interests of the borough.

TITUSVILLE-Supt. Crawford: By moving the chemical laboratory to the third floor of the new high school building, the capacity has been increased from 23 to 40 individual stands. We have also moved the Watson Geological Cabinet to the same floor, and also our physical apparatus. When all these departments are completed, we will surely have one of the finest Science departments in Western Pennsylvania.

YORK-Supt. Wanner: The pupils of our schools were asked to contribute apples and potatoes to the York Hospital and Dispensary on a day designated for the purpose. The result in the public schools alone was 134 bushels of potatoes and 44 bushels of apples. From all sources there were received 167 bushels of potatoes and 55 bushels of apples. The surplus will be judiciously distributed in the community during the winter amongst needy and deserving families.

HUMOR OF DICKENS.-As for the charities of Mr. Dickens, multiplied kindnesses which he has conferred upon us all; upon our children; upon people educated and uneducated; upon the myriads here and at home, who speak our common tongue; have not you, have not I, all of us, reason to be thankful to this kind friend who has soothed and charmed so many hours, brought pleasure and sweet laughter to so many homes; made such multitudes of children happy; endowed us with such a sweet store of gracious thoughts, fair fancies, soft sympathies, hearty enjoyments? There are creations of Mr. Dickens, which seem to me to rank as personal benefits; figures so delightful that one feels happier and better for knowing them, as one does for being brought into the society of very good men and women. The atmosphere in which

JOLLY OLD SAINT NICHOLAS. Lively.

these people live is wholesome to breathe in; you feel that to be allowed to speak to them is a personal kindness; you come away better for your contact with them; your hands seem cleaner from having the privilege of shaking theirs. Was there ever a better charity sermon preached in the world than Dickens' Christmas Carol? I believe it occasioned immense hospitality throughout England; was the means of lighting up hundreds of kind fires at Christmas time; caused a wonderful outpouring of Christmas good-feeling, an awful slaughter of Christmas turkeys, and roasting and basting of Christmas beef As for this man's love of children, that amiable organ at the back of his honest head must be perfectly monstrous. All children ought to love him. I know two that do, and read his books ten times for once that they

From "SCHOOL CHIMES." Per. S. BRAINARD'S SONS, Cleveland.

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peruse the dismal preachments of their father. I know one who, when she is happy, reads Nicholas Nickleby; when she is unhappy, reads Nicholas Nickleby; and when she has finished the book, reads it over again. This candid young critic, at ten years of age, said: "I like Mr. Dickens' books much better than your books, papa"-and frequently expressed her desire that the latter author should write a book like one of Mr. Dickens' books. Who can? Every man must say his own thoughts in his own voice, in his own way; lucky is he who has such a charming gift of nature as this, which brings all the children in the world trooping to him, and being fond of him. ** One might go on, though the task would be endless and needless, chronicling the names of kind folks with whom this kind genius has made us familiar. Who

does not love the little Marchioness, and her friend Mr. Richard Swiveller? Who does not venerate the chief of that illustrious family who, being stricken by misfortune, wisely and greatly turned his attention to "coals," the accomplished, the Epicurean, the dirty, the delightful Micawber? I may quarrel with Mr. Dickens' art a thousand and a thousand times, I delight in and wonder at his genius; I recognize in it-I speak with awe and reverence-a commission from that Divine Beneficence, whose blessed task we know it will one day be to wipe away every tear from every eye. Thankfully I take my share of the feast of love and kindness which this gentle, and generous and charitable soul has contributed to the happiness of the world. I take and enjoy my share, and say a grateful benediction for the meal,-Thackeray.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: GENTLEMEN: In submitting the annual report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction for the school year ending June 3, 1895, I desire, first of all, to call attention to the wisdom of the Legislature in not reducing the Appropriation to the Public Schools for the two school years commencing on the first Monday of June, 1895. Although the annual amount has reached the magnificent sum of five and a half million dollars, it does not cover onethird of the expenditures for public instruction. In the sparsely settled districts the burden of local taxation is heavy in comparison with the incomes of the taxpayers. Schools must be maintained with a comparatively small attendance: the average cost per pupil is proportionately increased without a corresponding increase in the number of resident taxables or in the amount of appropriation paid to these districts. On the other hand, the cities and boroughs which raise by local taxation from two to thirteen times as much as they get from the State, certainly deserve all the aid which they are now receiving.

In the last fifty years the amount annualy appropriated to the public schools has risen from two hundred thousand to five and a half million dollars. Only

once during this period did a Legislature appropriate a sum less than the amount appropriated by the preceding Legislature; and that was during the trying days of the Civil War, when the resources and the energies of the people were needed to save the Union.

Appropriations to Higher Institutions of Learning.-The Legislature also deserves praise for its generous liberality in aiding our higher institutions of learning. Two hundred and twelve thousand dollars in aid of the State College, two hundred thousand in aid of the post-graduate department of the University of Pennsylvania, and fifty thousand to aid in estab-lishing a school of mining in connection: with the Western University, are appropriations indicative of a new departure in the direction of fostering higher education. Post-graduate work in a university means, among other things, the special preparation of teachers for departmental instruction in the more advanced schools of the Commonwealth.

The College and University Council.The act creating a College and University Council and imposing a property qualification as a condition of chartering new institutions with power to confer degrees, will check the indefinite multiplication of colleges with nothing to build upon except faith in the future, and will