the Public School buildings. Each of these Schools employ from two to five Teachers. They are classified as nicely as the very great variety of attainments and studies will permit.

Till last session, these Schools were open only to young men. Last Fall young ladies were admitted for the first time. Though great apprehensions were felt lest this step might lead to difficulty, and bring discredit upon the entire system, no practical inconvenience, whatever, has been experienced. Young ladies and young gentlemen are seated in separate, rooms each under the instruction of Teachers of their own sex. By dismissing the former a few minutes before the latter all the danger that had been predicted is avoided, and up to this time no complaints have been made of any want of safety in passing to and from Schools after night-fall.

The Night Schools are generally instructed by the Teachers of the day Schools-by others, however, when these can not be secured. They open at 7, and are dismissed at 9 o'clock in the evening. The salary paid for this service is from $25 to $30 per month of twenty nights. The course of study has not yet been laid out, and it is quite doubtful whether one can be devised that shall meet the wants of a mass of scholars so heterogeneous as the pupils of the night Schools are found to be.

It is possible that some plan of organization may be devised which will throw larger numbers of pupils together in the same house, and thus some classification be secured.

Not unfrequently, young men and women come into the Schools unable to read or to write. A single winter is generally sufficient to open to them the rich stores of our literature, and give them a use of those wondrous characters which speak when the voice is silent. The progress of the pupils who attend these Schools regularly is highly satisfactory, and justifies the annual appropriation made to sustain them.

THE NIGHT HIGH SCHOOL.

A new feature has been recently added, which is expected to have the happiest influence upon the whole system of Night Schools. I refer now to the Night High School.

Last Summer a contract was made between the School Board and the Board of Directors of the Ohio Mechanics' Institute, by which, for the consideration of $10,000, one half of the very large and substantial building, known as the Mechanics' Institute, was transferred in perpetual lease to the former party. The Mechanics' Association had maintained lectures for several years. These were thinly attended, however,

and it was suggested by Dr. C. G. Comegys, a prominent and active member of the School Board, that it would not only be proper, but that it would be highly advantageous for that Board to take upon itself the selection and maintenance of these lectures, and to engraft the entire course upon that already adopted in the District Night School. It was proposed that no one should be admitted to this course who could not undergo an examination on all those branches which are essential for a thorough understanding of a course of scientific lectures. A difficulty was anticipated in the very limited number who could be found to undergo an examination in Geometry, Algebra, and the definitions and classifications of the Natural Sciences. To provide against this, it was thought best to establish two preparatory grades, making three in number with the course of lectures already mentioned. Thus has the plan of the Cincinnati Night High School been conceived and elaborated. The course prescribed for each of the three years is for the

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1st year Algebra, Geometry, Book-keeping, Vocal Music, Drawing and Design.

2d year-Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, Geology, Botany, Animated Nature, Vocal Music, Drawing and Design.

3d year-The same subjects as of the second, to be taught in a course of lectures.

It will be observed that the course is almost exclusively scientific. Cincinnati is located in the midst of a country that knows no superior for agricultural resources. Her horticulturists are known over the world. She is eminently a manufacturing city. It is fitting, then, that her young men and young women should be trained so that they may intelligently take a part in the development of her tremendous

resources.

The examination of candidates for admission to the Night High School took place in the evenings of the 31st of October and November 1st. It was conducted by printed questions, copies of which I enclose to you, to be inserted or not, at your pleasure. They were prepared for the candidates seeking admission to the third grade. The second grade has not yet been established. Two hundred and twenty-four candidates were examined and only one hundred and fifty admitted. A part of these admitted have been formed into a preparatory class.

The School was organized on Monday evening, Nov. 10th, under the instruction of Cyrus Nason, Esq., Principal of the 4th Intermediate School; John Hancock, Esq., Principal of the 1st Intermediate; Asahel Page, 1st Assistant in the 4th Intermediate, and Miss Ellen F. Free. man, a teacher of the Woodward High School.

The whole number of pupils registered in all the Night

You will see that this is only one-ninth of the attendance in our day Schools. Though this is a much greater proportion than has heretofore been attained, we hope to increase it still more.

I am, sir, yours, most respectfully,

CINCINNATI, Nov. 18th, 1856.

A. J. K.

SCHOOL GOVERNMENT-SPIES.

It was a damp day in early spring, when Ada B. crossed for the first time the threshold of a boarding school, as a pupil. She was a thoughtful girl, retiring in her manners to an almost painful degree. She was now in her sixteenth year, and, with the exception of an occasional attendance at different select schools, had received the most of her education in her father's study. He had taught her after his own thorough and somewhat peculiar style, and in some respects, her education would have answered as well for a theological student as for a young lady. He sent her now to a female Boarding School, that she might receive some of those feminine accomplishments which he considered himself unqualified to teach. With a beating heart she stood for the first time before her teacher, passed her examination, and was assigned her class. She was prepared to put the same implicit confidence in the sayings and doings of her teachers that she always had in her parents. It never entered her mind that they could be otherwise than sincere, when they endeavored to impress upon their pupils the beauty of truth, and brought long lists of scripture promises, warnings and threatenings, concerning deceit, to be committed to memory, and explained and commented upon in the school room.

Nor did it appear at all strange to her, that after these teachings, and especially, as a large proportion of the elder young ladies, who studied in their own rooms, were professed Christians, the teachers should expect their pupils to be truthful, and should receive the reports which were handed in every night as true.

She was therefore surprised at the charges of deceit, and, in school

girl phraseology, meanness frequently brought against them by her schoolmates, who had been longer in the institution than she had. She was also puzzled to account for the fear and hatred with which many, especially the younger ones, regarded two or three quiet silent ones among the elder pupils, who stood high in favor with the teachers, although remarkably dull scholars. It seemed to her very strange, too, that they were forbidden to talk to one another about their teachers, the rules and regulations, and that if they did talk thus the principal was sure to find it out. In consequence of this regulation it took her a long time to find out, what she at length ascertained to be true, that in every room appropiated to study, on the play ground, in their walks, in every place where they were not under the immediate eye of their teachers, there were eyes fixed upon them, and tongues ready to report in secret; where, if a false charge should be made, no defence could be brought, and that the punishment frequently as secret as the trial, was sure to follow. She was too strictly upright ever to suffer from such a course herself; but the discrepancy between that and the schoolroom instructions struck her at once, and aroused all the indignation of a naturally high spirit.

If, she reasoned, the principal knew that the girls were not to be trusted to remember and report all their little failings, why did they not appoint monitors over them, and give them a certain degree of authority to enforce the observance of the rules, and not pretend to trust them and give them the largest liberty, when every step they took was taken in the presence of a spy ? Was that the way to illustrate their Christian teachings? She found that this principle extended throughout their whole system, and she lost at once all confidence in, and respect for, the teachers. She looked upon the principal, whom she now, looking back, believes to have been sincere in her efforts for the spiritual and temporal welfare of her pupils, as little better than the Lady Abbess of a Jesuit convent. And the little paradise of Christian love which the school appeared at first sight to be, became to her a hateful prison house, whose portals she was glad to leave, never to return. Their intentions were good, their instructions of a very high order, but their government was wrong. Shortly after leaving school, Ada assumed herself the duties and responsibilities of a teacher. She was young, unused to the ways of the world, and made many mistakes, and met with many trials and discouragements before she learned the art of teaching so as to be satisfied with her own success. Her own experience, however, as given above, had taught her one

lesson that she

always remembered. In the first place, she kept her pupils as much as possible under her own eye; and she took no pains to conceal from them that she was watching over them, ready to encourge if they did right, and to reprove if wrong. She found that children do not object to having their teacher watch them. It removes the temptation to do wrong, and they can behave right a great deal more easily than if left to themselves. If she found it necessary to leave the school-room for a few moments, she would sometimes request an older pupil, one that had the respect of his schoolmates, to take her place and sometimes do as in the following case. A little boy came in to say that there was a man at the door with a load of wood, waiting for directions as to its dis posal. She started for the door, but paused at the threshold and looked back at the fifty pairs of bright eyes fixed upon her. Boys, is it necessary to appoint a monitor to keep you still? No, ma'am, we can keep ourselves still. She returned to the shool-room after an absence of five or ten minutes, and even a teacher's practiced eye could discover no evidence that their word had not been kept. She endeavored always to interest her pupils in the rules and order of the school in such a manner that one who should break any regulation, should be looked upon by the rest as one disposed to interfere with their improvement, and bring disgrace upon them as a school. In this she succeeded beyond

her expectation; and almost always made able and willing coadjutors of a large proportion of her scholars. To do this, and at the same time discourage tale bearing, she found at first a delicate, and sometimes difficult, task. But she learned in time, and taught her pupils that each individual could mind his own business and let the others alone, except when they interfered with his improvement or infringed upon his rights.

As a general rule this worked very well; for particular cases a particular treatment became necessary. But she never encouraged or allowed a whisperer or a spy, she would pay no attention to such, nor hear any complaints the accuser was not willing to maintain in the presence of the accused. She endeavored to carry out the principles of truth she taught them, and when she told them anything they believed it, believed she would do what she said, and also deal justly by them if she could. In this way, perhaps, she occasionally missed some things which might have come to her knowledge, but she gained the confidence of her pupils, and learned them to trust her and one another. After she had taught several years in different schools, of almost every grade, she was called to the female principalship in an endowed institution,