After holding your meeting send us items of interest that followed your work. We desire to know each other, and cannot get a better way of introduction. Forward any educational intelligence.

AN Institute will be held in each county in this state (Kentucky) during the summer. County school commissioners should bear in mind that the EcLECTIC TEACHER is the official organ for the state superintendent of public instruction, and that it contains monthly decisions of the state board of education. All live, enthusiastic commissioners will endeavor to place this journal in the hands of each of his teachers. We earnestly request you to send us a postal card stating the time that your Institute will be held, that we may forward specimen copies and circulars for distribution at the county meeting. Some commissioners are sending names and requesting us to wait until the teachers draw the first installment-forty per cent.-for the price of subscription. In order to meet this demand we have agreed to do so. Represent the ECLECTIC and forward the names.

EVERY village of more than five hundred inhabitants, now without a graded school, should make preparations for the opening of such a school for the next scholastic year. This cannot be done unless some one leads in the matter, and the live, enthusiastic teacher-the teacher who keeps up with the times, who keeps posted on all educational topics, is the proper person to take the initiatory steps.

In Kentucky, and no doubt there is a similar law in each of the southern states, an incorporated village has the right to vote additional tax for school purposes, not to exceed thirty cents on the hundred dollars. How does the case now stand. Let us see. Brantsville, a town of six hundred inhabitants, has a public school taught five months yearly, by an inferior teacher. This public school is sneeringly called the "free school." The village has not less than three respectable (?) private schools, each struggling, yes, fighting, for existence. Since the teachers of the private schools depend upon the number of pupils for their bread and meat, they try, and succeed, in making the public believe that free schools are for the indigent only, that respectable people should not patronize them. There are hundreds of Brantsvilles all over the south, and in such are fertile fields for mission work.

The first step toward success is to educate the fathers and mothers, and consider their children after awhile. Show them by frequent private conversations, and in public meetings, that the expense-reach the pocket-book first-of a first-class graded school is less than one-third of that of private schools. Having done this, you have a majority ready to vote for local taxation.

It will be in order, next, to attack some few opposers in their castles-those who have nothing to do but to count interest, and to announce, on public corners, that "it is contrary to the constitution to take a rich man's money to educate a poor man's children."

Such you will always have with you. You will remember that the majority

of the voters are persons of moderate means, and that they are ready to act upon conviction.

Having voted a local tax, you are able to raise from the state and local levies from fifteen hundred to two thousand dollars, annually. This sum is sufficient to employ one principal and two assistants. Grade the one hundred and twenty children on the basis of present qualification and make it your business to advance those children step by step until they go out graduates from the high school which is in charge of the principal.

There are hundreds of teachers now working for fifty dollars a month who should be on salaries of a thousand dollars a year, and hundreds of villages in the southwestern states awaiting their arrival.

A POOR teacher is dear at any price. A good one is worth all he can get. What are your qualifications, and not what will you teach for, is the first question that should be put by a school officer.

Our best teachers are poorly paid, and our inferior teachers are too well paid. We need more better teachers. We need teachers that have been trained for the work. All those things can be accomplished through teachers' associations.

See that you are present at teachers' meetings-precinct, city, county, state and national. It is your duty. You cannot afford to be absent, if you would increase your salary and your teacher power,

A New and Simple Method for Square and Cube Root-By H. H. Hill, Chicago, Ill. This is a pamphlet of about fifteen pages. The idea of presenting the subject in this form to teachers is certainly an original and novel one. We can testify that the method is a good one, a simple one, and a rational one. To any teacher who is forcing his pupils to commit and apply mechanically the rules as given in the text books, the blocks and hand book are worth an hundred times their cost. Any teacher in one hour's time ought to be able to master the entire subject. Write to the publisher for circulars.

W. H. CAMPBELL, one of the editors of this journal, and associate principal of the Kentucky Normal School, will make engagements to do Institute work anywhere in the state of Kentucky or the southwest, during the summer months. Correspondence of County Commissioners solicited.

PROF. W. H. BARTHOLOMEW, of the Eighth Ward City School, Louisville, Ky., and Col. Robert D. Allen, Superintendent Kentucky Military Institute, Farmdale, Ky., will, together, attend county Institutes during vacation free of charge for services, provided actual traveling expenditures be paid by the institute attended.

A TEACHER of thirteen years experience, five of which have been passed as superintendent or principal, will be open to an engagement the coming session. Best of references. Address "A. B.," ECLECTIC TEACHER office, Carlisle, Ky.

THE undersigned may be secured to conduct county Institutes during the second and fourth weeks of August. T. C. H. VANCE.

ECLECTIC TEACHER.

ANOTHER STATE HEARD FROM.-We present below extracts from letters (from Texas) from Hon. county judges-ex-officio school commissioners-forwarded by the state editor, Mr. O). N. Hollingsworth:

Mr. H. says: Many, very many, letters have we received from Hon. county judges and others in our growing state, encouraging us to press onward and falter not in the great cause of universal education, by authority and patronage of the state.

Iwill do all I can for it.-D. C. BANNON, Bryan, Brazoz County.

I will represent the interests of the JOURNAL and render all the aid I can by procuring subscribers.-H. FYKE, Carthage.

I will do all in my power to give it a wide circulation.-[GEORGE N. GRANT, Huntsville, Walker county.

Such a journal might be made very useful. I will render any aid in my power, and will solicit subscriptions.-[W. P. SKUER, Pittsburg, Camp County. I will take great pleasure in extending to you all the assistance in my power. -[JOHN S. CONWAY, Gonzales, Gonzales County.

I will use all my influence to get the teachers and school officers of this county to subscribe for the JOURNAL.-[R. H. MORRIS, Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches County.

I will represent the interests of the JOURNAL to the best of my ability. I will lay it before our people and will heartily co-operate with you in its endorsement.-[E. CROFT, Linden, Cass County.

I am more than willing to render you any aid in my power for advancing the cause of popular education in our state. The circulation of a journal of the character represented in your circular will prove to be a valuable auxiliary in the great work.—[G. W. MCKELLAR, Cold Springs, San Jacinto County.

I am in receipt of your circular of the 12th inst. I shall take pleasure in cooperating as far as I am able in advancing the success of the enterprise and the educational interests of the state. [C. A. JONES, Houston, Harris County.

I think I can induce a majority of the teachers of this county to subscribe for the JOURNAL.-[JAMES P. GIBSON, Henderson, Rusk County.

I will take pleasure in representing the JOURNAL. We need something of the kind. [W. R. HARGIS, Beeville, Bee County.

I will take pleasure in co-operating with you in any laudable undertaking that is calculated to further the cause of popular education.-[R. J. BROWNING, Palo Pinto, Palo Pinto County.

It will afford me great pleasure to render such aid as I am able to the promotion of the interests of the ECLECTIC TEACHER, feeling, as I do, the great importnce of such an enterprise in our state. [STERLING FISHER, San Marcos, Har

County.

STATE DEPARTMENTS.

[Correspondence, contributions, items, personals or other matter of local nature should be forwarded to the proper State Editor. All business communications, or contributions intended for the general departments, should be addressed" ECLECTIC TEACHER Co.," Carlisle, Ky.]

ARKANSAS.

HON. GEORGE W. HILL...................State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
JULIUS W. THOMPSON......
Editor, Lonoke.

In a recent number of the Educational Weekly, an influential journal of its character, shows that the opinion of the thinking public of the north is in favor of aid from the general government in supplementing our educational faciiities. But we can assure that journal that it is certainly most egregiously mistaken when it says, "there is a wide-spread hostility to popular education in the south among the more influential classes." This assertion does not give us credit for even ordinary sagacity. It is not true. We do need assistance from the government in placing within the reach of all our citizens, both white and colored, the opportunity to obtain an education. It is our poverty only that prevents us from having schools equal in every respect to those of New York and New England. We believe, however, that a wise policy of conciliation, joined with such aid as is legal and proper for the government to give us, will do much to do away with the prejudices and incline a majority of the people to the support of a policy so greatly for the interests of all.

The people of the south are more disposed to day than ever before to second any effort made to render the common schools efficient. We think the following extract from the message of Governor Hampton to his legislature expresses, fully, southern sentiment on this very important question :

"We are bound alike by every consideration of true statesmanship and of good faith to keep up in the state such system of free schools as will place within the reach of every child, poorest as well as richest, black as well as white, the means of acquiring an honest and honorable education. I shall look with confident hope to your carrying out and fulfilling the pledges to which we are solemnly committed."

-Teachers of Arkansas; the season will soon open when the public schools must commence, and it is, by all means, desirable that you should keep yourself informed of the best methods of teaching, and you cannot anywhere get the

same amount of information for the same amount of money invested as is to be obtained from the pages of the ECLECTIC TEACHER. This journal is the official organ for your state superintendent, and will contain all decisions rendered by him on all questions arising under the school laws of the state. Every teacher to whom this number of the ECLECTIC TEACHER is sent is requested to act as agent for us in obtaining subscribers. You need not fear for the stability of the company. It is established upon a firm basis and is just such an one as fills a need long felt by the teacher. Help us then to sustain and foster the enterprise. This journal is endorsed by some of the very best educators of the southwest.

-Professor Travis, of Augusta, is one of the board of examiners of candidates for admission to the Naval Academy at Annapolis. The board will meet at Augusta.

-Professor Hill, our efficient state superintendent, has returned from a tour of the southwestern counties, where he has been laboring in the school interests of the state. We hope success will attend his efforts. He deserves it, as a greater part of his labors are supererogatory. Our people need a stimulus, and unless thoroughly aroused the despondency caused by financial depression will cause them to overlook these very great interests.

-There never has been a time when the private schools of Arkansas were as well attended as at present. This is as it should be. Parents should give their children an education in preference to hoarding wealth while the children grow up in ignorance.

GEORGIA.

HON. G. J. ORR......

B. M. ZETTLER...

........State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Editor, Macon.

-Nothing yet from the executive committee as to the place of the annual meeting of the State Teachers' Association. A letter from the president outlining to some extent the programme of exercises, gives unmistakable evidence of his determination to make the meeting unusually interesting.

-The discussion of the constitutional convention question is confined almost wholly to the newspapers. Comparatively little interest is felt by the people in the matter, and it is likely the election will be a very quiet one. The fact that the new constitution will be submitted to the people for ratification or rejection makes them indifferent as to the election for delegates.

-The citizens of Lagrange have voted $5,000 for the erection of a new school building.

-The fund for the support of the Macon public schools is exhausted. The schools have not been closed, however, but the patrons are required to pay a low rate of tuition for the months of May and June. The prospect is good for a better state of things next year.