schools, the remainder in private schools. More than five-eighths of all the graduates of this period are now teaching.

The success of the graduates in their work is shown in the fact that they hold many of the best positions in the public schools, and further in the fact that the calls for teachers received at this school each year is many times the number of graduates for the year. The applications come from all parts of the State and from other States, and for teachers for all grades of schools, both public and pri

vate.

The Normal School has its distinctive work, which does not interfere with any other class of schools; but on the contrary just so far as it prepares good teachers and disseminates improved methods of teaching it is an indispensable aid to all other schools, and a blessing to the community. The people of the Old Colony may justly feel a deep interest in the prosperity of an institution having such a record as that here given. It deserves their generous and hearty support, not only for what it has done, but that it may be the means of accomplishing still greater good. B.

INTELLIGENCE.

Items for this department should be sent to G. B. Putnam, Franklin School.

REV. HENRY S. KELSEY, a graduate of Amherst, and formerly a tutor in that college, sailed on the 6th of January, to take charge of a Normal School in Mobile, sustained by the American Missionary Association.

Rev. J. W. ALVORD, General Superintendent of Schools under the charge of the Freedmen's Bureau, reports as under his direction and supervision 1831. schools, 2,291 teachers, and 104,327 pupils.

PROF. LIONEL TENNEY, of Northampton, recently died at the age of 66, having been a teacher more than forty years. He was formerly an instructor in Phillips Academy, Andover, and in the preparatory department of Marietta College, Ohio, after which he was at the head of the Marietta Female Academy for twenty years. He was noted for energy and integrity, and was most highly esteemed for his moral worth.

O. C. PITKIN, the popular Principal of the Chelsea High School, has accepted the position of Superintendent of Public Schools in the young city of Taunton. The office was established in August last.

GEN. FRANK A. WALKER, of the class of '60, Amherst College, for a time teacher in Williston Seminary, and more recently one of the Editors of the Springfield Republican, has been appointed to the charge of the statistical work in the Revenue Department at Washington. His industry, zeal, and familiarity with questions of finance and revenue, admirably fit him for this responsible position.

M. F. DICKINSON, JR., of the class of '62, Amherst College, and a successful teacher in Williston Seminary, has been appointed Assistant U. S. District Attorney in this city. We regret that such young men as Walker and Dickinson could not have been retained in the teachers' profession.

O. C. DIMICK, of Newton, has entered upon his duties as Sub-Master in the Chapman School, Boston, succeeding S. C. Stone, transferred to the Lewis School.

E. B. Fox, Principal of the Grammar School, East Weymouth, has gone to take charge of a large school in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

MR. BOYDEN, of Danvers, has been elected as Mr. Russell's successor in the Centre Grammar School, Watertown.

JOHN S. HAYES, of Peabody, succeeds Mr. Sanborn in the Cradock School, Medford.

CHARLES H. GOULDING, has been transferred from the Rockville School, to the Bowditch, succeeding Mr. Hayes.

MISS SUSAN B. HUDSON has been appointed Head Assistant in the Williams School, Chelsea, as a successor of Miss M. E. Allen, who now fills a similar position in the Chapman School, Boston.

MISS KATE L. BARKER, of Foxboro', has been appointed a teacher in the Boylston Street Primary School, Brookline. Miss Anna C. Webster, of Reading, is appointed an Assistant in the Ward Grammar School, Brookline.

REV. SIMEON COLTON, D. D. died at Ashboro', N. C., December 27th, 1868, aged 84. He was a teacher more than fifty years, and minister at Palmer, Massachusetts, ten years.

He graduated at Yale in 1806, and then became the first Principal of Monson Academy. He taught at Monson ten years in two terms of service, the second of which was after his dismission from his pastorate. He was two years Principal of Leicester Academy, and several years a teacher at Amherst, Massachusetts. In 1834 he went South, where in North Carolina and in Mississippi he had charge of several important institutions. He was an earnest, faithful teacher, and full of the spirit of self-sacrifice. He trained a great many students for college. Among his pupils at Monson were Profs. Larned and Loomis of Yale, Prof. Sophocles of Harvard, and Dr. Henry Barnard of Washington, D. C.

New York. The number of school children in the State is reported as 1,464,424, of whom only 971,512 attend school at all. The schools cost $2,520,000.

Illinois has 10,705 schools; 8,240 male and 10,797 female teachers, and 826,820 pupils.

Pennsylvania has 800,575 pupils in her schools.

Delaware. The leading papers of the State are beginning to denounce the whipping post as a relic of barbarism, and the want of a school system a disgrace. We shall expect to see a Delaware Teacher among our exchanges by and by.

The Saratoga Board of Education, when it was established two years ago, deemed whipping inexpedient, and passed a resolution forbidding the infliction of corporal punishment. They now think the plan does not work well, and have rescinded the resolution.-Journal.

Corporal punishment in schools has been entirely abolished with success in one district in Boston, where there are over 1,000 pupils. — Transcript.

We are informed that the above statement which has gone the rounds of the papers, gives a wrong impression. The fact is, that in a girls' school, and the primary classes connected with it, there was no corporal punishment for three months. The teachers abstained from it at the earnest request of the Chairman of the Committee. We shall be glad if they can continue to do so, if the schools do not t'ereby suffer.

PUBLIC LIBRARIES. Of the five libraries in this country having over 100,000 volumes, three are in Boston and Cambridge. First is the library of Congress, with 175,000 volumes; second, the Boston Public Library, with its 145,000; then successively the Astor, Harvard College and Boston Athenæum. With the exception of the library of Congress, our Public Library has the greatest facilities for growing. The Athenæum has 100,000 volumes; the next largest, the State Library, 28,500; and there are four others, containing over 10,000 volumes. Our Public Library has increased 8,300 volumes in the past year, nearly four times the yearly gain of the Astor or Harvard College.

Andover. The Punchard Free School building was entirely destroyed by fire on the morning of December 15. It was erected in 1856 by a fund left by Benj. H. Punchard. It was insured for $12,000. $40,000 will be required to rebuild.

As the Punchard School has been made the High School of Andover, by a special act of the Legislalure, it is supposed that the town will make an appropriation to aid in securing a new building.

Chelsea. The Carter School-house on Vogel Street, was dedicated in December. It is a four story building and cost about $60,000. It contains fourteen rooms, and is designed to accommodate both the Grammar and Primary schools. The hall will accommodate five hundred persons. Edward Stickney, whose removal to Chelsea we recently noticed, is master of the school. There are at present eight lady assistants. Chelsea is not dead!

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ILLINOIS. The Board of Education for the State of Illinois, has very properly expressed its opinion regarding the right pronunciation of the word Illinois, by adopting the following paper:

"The Board of Education feel an interest in the pronunciation of the name of the State, on grounds of euphony, and taste, and historic association. "We believe that the sounding of an s at the end of the name is new, and not euphonious - the hissing sound of s is distasteful.

"We should regret to see adopted a pronunciation of the name of the State which would exclude that name from epic and song, in which the deeds of her sons will hereafter live.

"While we have great deference for the opinions of persons authorized to teach in high places, we express our own personal opinion that the usage which we deprecate is not the best in any sense. We believe that our knowledge of the usage which has prevailed in the State, from the early days until now, warrants us in saying that it has been such as we advocate.

"We would, therefore, most respectfully ask the President and Teachers of Normal to give the most favorable consideration, consistent with their judgment, to the usage which we deem more honored in the breach than in the observance."

We hope we "don't intrude " as Mr. Pry would say - when we take the liberty of remarking that Normal authority ought not to compel people to utter a hiss whenever they use the beautiful name of that grand State, Illinois. But, of course, said authority "won't do so again."

ANNUAL REPORT of the Superintendent of Schools in Cincinnati. This is an interesting document, and details an account of the Superintendent's visit to the public schools of other cities. We extract the following:

CLEVELAND Map Drawing.-In map drawing the pupils draw entirely from construction lines, as laid down in Guyot's Intermediate Geography. The process, as pursued by some of the teachers, it seems to me, would consume too much time. One lady teacher said it would take a week for her class to finish the map of Massachusetts. On the other hand, the Fifth Reader boys, in the Brownell Street School, at my suggestion, drew from memory an outline map of Connecticut and Rhode Island. They were allowed but ten minutes to finish their work. Considering the time occupied in their execution, these maps were wonderfully correct. I think there are no schools in the country doing better work in this branch than those of Cleveland.

Practical Arithmetic.— I saw given, in one of the rooms in the Brownell Street School, what was not only in name but in fact, a lesson in practical Arithmetic. It was a lesson in avoirdupois weight; and the little fellows were not alone doing sums in reduction in that weight, but, what may surprise some of our teachers were actually weighing things on the scales, announcing the results in pounds and ounces, and then reducing these pounds and ounces to ounces with the greatest rapidity and exactness, lifting and weighing them in their hands at the same time. Any number of bundles of various materials, brought by the pupils, to be used in the lesson, were lying near by. No real teacher need be told that this class was full of life and enthusiasm in its work.

Beautiful School-Rooms. — One very pleasing feature of the Cleveland Schools is the fact that there is not a school-room in the city that is not adorned with a greater or less number of engravings. These are purchased by voluntary contributions from the pupils, or from the proceeds of exhibitions given by them. In addition to this, I found in all the school-rooms I visited, ornamental and flowering plants, some of these rooms being very parterres of beauty. The value of the influence on the culture and tastes of the pupils thus brought into daily contact with the beautiful in nature and art (to say nothing of the effect upon the teachers themselves) can scarcely be over-estimated.

BOSTON - Reading.—I visited the Bowdoin School, with Mr. Sharland. The reading in all the rooms I visited was good, and this, I think, may be said of the reading in the Boston schools generally, - but I was especially pleased with that exercise in the room of Mr. Brown, the Master of the school. Here the vocal elements were given with uncommon power and precision; and the reading of the young ladies had a finish, and possessed elocutionary excellences that I have seldom seen in other schools of the highest character. The reading was accompanied by vocal gymnastics, or exercises in breathing, that must be of very great hygienic as well as elocutionary value.

Vocal Music. Thursday morning I visited the Emerson (Primary) School with Mr. Mason; and I did so with the more especial purpose of observing his method of teaching music to the lower grades of pupils, and his plan of availing himself of the assistance of the regular teachers of the school. In one of the lower rooms I saw a little girl go to the music chart, take the pointer, and, acting as teacher, sing several measures of a simple tune, pointing out the notes, naming both the letters and syllables, - alone, at first, and then the whole school uniting with her. Another little girl would then take her place, go through the same routine, take her seat, and be followed by another; and thus the exercise went on until a large number of pupils had, in this way, acted the part of teachers. And these little teachers were subjected to criticism, too. The teacher of the room would frequently ask her pupils if they thought the little girl at the chart was doing her work well? And if the negative answer was given, she would ask them to point out the defect, and would call on some one to take the pointer and try to do it better. I could not help thinking this a most excellent training to give scholars courage, and to bring out individuality; and that if it were continued through the grades above it would be just such a training as would make first-rate teachers such teachers as would have methods and opinions of their own, and not be afraid to carry them out in their school-room practice.

THE COMMON SCHOOL SYSTEM.-J. Lothrop Motley at the New England Festival in New York, uttered the following sentiment.

"So, too, sir, Massachusetts and New England have led the way in the magnificent system of common schools, the only possible and conceivable foundation of a republican government; and the day has passed away, I hope forever, for sneers at New England teachers. The new invading army we have already. The system has gone westward, and the system must go southward (applause). The new invading army must soon begin its grand march to the sea, and if there is one thing certain in our politics, in the political history of this country, it is this; and oh! for a voice that might sweep across the continent from North to South, and from East to West, and carry conviction with it—it is that when the schoolmaster, and the schoolmistress, too, cease to be honored in this land, from that day forth will be dated the decline and fall of this republic (applause); and God grant that that day may be far, far distant. I will not further trespass upon your patience, but will propose this simple sentiment:

"New England Nationality - May it ever be cherished as the most bindin element of the American nation” (applause).