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J. B. Thompson of New York, spoke of the importance of the subject, and hoped that whatever action should be taken, no reference should be made to sex or color. The future good of the negro race in this country would depend on the education of the white trash of the South. The South needs Normal Schools to teach colored teachers and white teachers too. While the fifty thousand teachers needed in the South are training, Northern teachers would be needed as missionaries.

Mr. Tilton, of Boston, spoke of the difficulties in the way. He said that educational matters must be managed by the Southern States themselves after reconstruction. He believed that Congress ought to confiscate the property of the leading rebels of the South, and appropriate the proceeds to some public purpose.

Alfred Greenleaf, of Brooklyn, said that free schools from the Lakes to the Gulf, for men of all colors, are necessary to the perpetuity of the Government. He hoped the Association would never meet without looking to Washington for aid in this

matter.

Dr. Cruikshank, of Albany, was in sympathy with the end, but had doubts about the means. Normal Schools are rather the growth of an advanced state of education. The number of teachers that had attended the Normal School in Albany had been only 4,500 in twenty years, of whom but 1,500 had graduated, and only 500 are now teaching in the State. He then spoke of the importance of a national bureau of education, for the purpose of collecting statistics.

Mr. Bulkley, of Brooklyn, said we ought to learn from the action of religious bodies. Some were in favor of sending highly-educated ministers to the South. This failed, because the ministers could not be obtained, nor would they be exactly suited to the work. The result was, that religious men and women went as colporteurs. He did not think we would gain by memorializing Congress for grants for Normal Schools. It is visionary to ask for such appropriations. We ought to go out as missionaries--missionaries need no diplomas.

Mr. Phelps did not understand the logic of the last two gentlemen. He spoke at length on the docility of black children. Where are the skilled missionaries to be obtained? He knew of no means so well adapted to furnish them as Normal Schools. The fault in New York, his native State, was in not having more Normal Schools to furnish her 25,000 teachers. He alluded to the establishment of the common schools in Massachusetts Bay Colony by the side of the church. Other colonies did not adopt this plan, and a Governor of one of these rejoiced that there were no free schools within its limits, and that the day would be far distant when they should be established on the soil of the Sacred Dominion. Hence, the rebellion and its evil effects. The National Government had failed in not having nationalized education long ago.

Mr. Hailman, of Louisville, Ky., said he was deeply impressed with the disadvantage of slave aristocracy to a common school system, but we should keep more closely to the subject under consideration. He was in favor of an appropriation only to those States that would establish a system of Normal Schools, embracing one school for every hundred or two hundred thousand inhabitants. Let the General Government assist the States.

Dr. Hart said that Congress, in the grants, might reserve certain rights, thus giving a kind of unity of action throughout the States.

The Secretary was then called to the Chair, and the President made an eloquent appeal in behalf of Normal Schools, showing how the teachers sent out from them reduplicate themselves wherever they labor, and the good of these schools is far-reaching, and must not be estimated by the bare number of teachers sent out by them.

The grand-pupils, great-grand-pupils, and so on, must be put down to their credit. Normal Schools in the South need not at first be of the high standard of those in the North.

Phelps moved that seven memorialists, representing as many States, be appointed to memoralize Congress.

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The propriety of acting in connection with the National Teachers' Association was suggested by S. S. Greene, of Rhode Island. This suggestion was discussed by Phelps, White, of Chicago, J. F. Stoddard, of New York, J. B. Thompson, and Hart; some being in favor of joint action, and others of independent action.

Committee on Course of Study-Camp, Hart, Sheldon, Phelps and Hagar. Memorial Committee-Hart, of New Jersey; Wickersham, of Pennsylvania; Dickinson, of Massachusetts; Sheldon, of New York; Welch, of Michigan; Henkle, of Ohio; and Camp, of Connecticut.

Adjourned.

Salem (Ohio) Republican.

RICHARD EDWARDS, President.
W. D. HENKLE, Secretary.

TEACHERS: Do you know how much good you can do, and how much expense you can save to your scholars and their parents, by caring for the children's books to prevent their destruction, and by repairing them when they begin to fall to pieces? Hilton's Insoluble Cement is the article to use to fasten loose leaves or to re-bind books when the covers fall of. They can thus be made as strong as new with very little expense. Let every teacher keep a bottle of the Cement on his desk, at his own expense or that of the district, and apply it whenever needed; remembering that a stitch in time saves, etc. Recommend to children and parents to do the same thing at home, and so do much good as you have opportunity. See advertisement.

JOSEPH E. WORCESTER, LL. D., compiler of the "Dictionary of the English Language" bearing his name, died at Cambridge, Mass., on the 27th of October, at the age of 81 years.

QUESTIONS FOR WRITTEN EXAMINATIONS.

ARITHMETIC.

1. John takes 2 ft. 10 in. at a step, and William takes 2 ft. 6 in. each step. How far will William walk while John is walking 4 miles, if John takes as many steps as William ? Ans. 5 miles. 2. The true discount of a sum of money due in 1 year, 4 months, 20 days, is $87.96; how much less is it than the interest on the debt for the same time? Ans. $7.33.

3. The true present worth of a sum of money due in 9 months is $849.875; what is the interest on the debt for 2 years, 9 months, 10 days? Ans. $148.019.

4. For what sum must a note payable in 5 mos. be written that when discounted at a bank, money enough may be received to pay for 5 shares of stock at an advance of 300 per cent., the par value being $100 ?

Ans. $2,052.33.

5. Get the difference between the simple and the compound interest of $780.50 for 3 years, 8 mos., 24 days, at 10 per cent. Ans. $43.14. 6. What must be my asking price for goods costing $5.40 per yard, that I may fall 163 per cent. from it and still lose but 11 and one-ninth per cent. on the cost? Ans. 5.76.

8. A merchant sold $2400 worth of goods, one-half the sum to be paid in 6 months, one-third of it in 8 months, and the remainder in 10 months. What is the worth in cash when money is valued at 11 per cent, a month? Ans. $2,180.

8. 10 sq. rds. is what per cent. of two and one-fifteenth acres?

Ans. 3.

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10. My agent gets a note for $840. payable in 6 months discounted at a bank, and invests the sum received in cotton at 50 cents a pound after deducting his commission of 1 per cent. of the purchase money. How many bales of 600 lbs. each did he purchase?

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[From the "Progressive Intellectual Arithmetic," published by Ivison, Phinney & Co., New York.]

1. A laborer engaged to work 20 days, on condition that he should have 12 dimes for a day's labor, and pay 2 dimes for every idle day for board; he received as many dollars as he worked days; how many days was he idle?

2. A lad inquiring his mother's age, his father replied, "of my age is 9 years more than six-sevenths of your mother's, and the sum of our ages is 72 years." How old was his mother?

3. A rope was cut into 3 pieces; the first piece was 5 feet long, the second was as long as the first plus of the third, and the third was as long as the other two; what was the length of the rope?

4. Hobart, having 20 marbles more than Dwight, plays with him; Dwight wins as many as he had at first, when Hobart has as many left as he commenced with; how many had each at first?

5. The difference between two numbers is 16; if 4 be taken from the larger and added to the less, 2 times the larger will equal 3 one-sixth times the smaller; what are the numbers?

6. Jason bought a watch, and had $20 remaining; he then gave 2 times the cost of the watch for a rifle, and had one-seventh of his money left; what did the rifle cost?

7. Find the ages of A, B, and C, by knowing that C's age at A's birth was 5 times B's, and now is equal to the sum of A's and B's; also that if A were now 3 years younger, or B 4 years older, A's age would be equal to of B's.

8. Henry saves $5 while John saves $7; how much will each have when the difference between what each has saved is $30 ?

9. B's fortune is it times A's; the interest of of A's fortune and of B's for 5 years, at 6 per cent., is $600; what is the fortune of each ?

10. A drover paid $76 for calves and sheep, paying $3 apiece for calves and $2 for sheep; he sold of his calves and two-fifths of his sheep for $23, and in so doing lost 8 per cent. on their cost; how many of each did he purchase?

RESIDENT EDITORS' DEPARTMENT.

JUVENILE LITERATURE.

It is perfectly obvious to any one who has carefully watched the progress of education in this country, that it is not only economy to furnish the best academic culture for our children, but that it is wise to provide the means of rendering this culture useful both to themselves and the state. Our children need to know not merely how to read and spel!, to write and cipher, to gather up, by detail, facts and principles out of philosophy and chemistry, grammar and logic, by mere school drilling; they need not merely to acquire the ability to read rhetorically, they need much more to form the habit of reading understandingly. Upon this depends all future growth. Largely educated men are those, and only those, who have read habitually, carefully, understandingly, thoroughly; who have day by day, by the power of a strong will, often under discouragements and in the face of obstacles, laid their intellects side by side with the thoughts of other men, and made them their own. Most of the reading of our children in the schools is quite different from anything which would be likely to lead to this. A large part of the matter of many of our school reading books is too little entertaining and quite beyond the easy comprehension of juvenile minds, and because of this, very many of our young folks acquire the habit of dissociating thought from reading, a habit, which if continued, will effectually preclude all future progress in education, and will be very likely to secure a permanent distate for reading at all.

What we have long needed is a literature adapted to young minds; a literature which, while it shall win the young soul by the simplicity of its thought. shall interest it by the naturalness, the earnestness and enthusiasm of its narrative; a literature which our juveniles shall feel to be theirs. Its characteristics should be, purity of morals and taste, elegance as well as simplicity of style, appropriateness of imagery and felicity of expression. Its main aim should be to develop and invigorate the perceptive powers, by presenting such imagery of thought and feeling to the young mind as will interest and delight, as well as instruct, and lead to the habit of continuous thinking. Such narratives should be furnished as will call forth the pleasurable exercise of these powers. Children are easily taught to do that habitually in which they find pleasure. Besides, whatever affords pleasure in the reception is much more likely to secure a permanence in its retention. From the habitual perusal of such a literature, the passage would be easy and much more frequent to reading requiring more maturity of intellect, a more careful and continued exercise of the understanding, and a more rigid analysis.

We are pleased to know that the Messrs. Ticknor & Fields, of Boston, have undertaken to supply a deficiency so much felt, by the issue of their juvenile periodical, entitled, "Our Young Folks." We also congratulate them upon the success of their undertaking, and so far as we have observed, we heartily commend it to all the children of the land. Its narratives are entertaining, its counsels are judicious, its instructions are useful, its illustrations pertinent, and its enigmas and rebuses dark enough for the brisk exercise of juvenile wits. Its object is announced to be to furnish a periodical so pure and just in sentiment, and so attractive in style as to foster a taste for whatever is excellent in literature, and so artistic in illustration as to cultivate a proper appreciation of whatever is true in art, and thus to secure for our children a love and a habit of continued and critical reading.

C.

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INFLUENCE OF THE LETTER "R" ON THE SOUNDS OF ENGLISH

VOWELS.

THREE Sounds are connected with the letter r. The first of these is the common consonant sound, heard when a word begins with that letter; as in rain, reel, right, rose.

It is often the case, especially in New England, that this sound is either made very obscure, or entirely dropped, when the letter r follows the vowel of the syllable in which it stands, unless the r happens to come immediately before another vowel sound. Thus, in such words as start, fair, earnest, err, sir, first, word, north, former, four, foremost, church, and curtain, the consonant sound of r is often entirely omitted; but it is heard in such words as starry, fairest, erring, verily, sirrah, miracle, horrid, boring, poorest, and current, because it is not easy to pass from one vowel sound to another without an intervening consonant sound.

The same principle is sometimes applied to the different words of a sentence. Thus, in the expression nor can he, the consonant sound of r may be omitted; but it is not as likely to be omitted in nor is he, though sometimes, perhaps, added to the beginning of the word is.

The second sound of r is a modification of the first, produced by vibrating the tongue while uttering it, and is called the trilled r. As it is seldom heard with much distinctness from native Americans, it need not be separately treated.

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