The large and costly school-house at Pittsfield is not yet completed. Probably no town of equal size in the county has expended so much upon a school-house. When complete, it will accommodate about 1,000 pupils, and cost about $55,000. Pardon one personal item: Henry L. Boltwood, late of the Oliver High School, Lawrence, Mass., has recently taken charge of the public school in Griggsville. Wishing you success in your editorial work, and heartily sympathizing with you in its unrequited labors and anxieties, Truly yours, HENRY L. BOLTWOOD.

CHICAGO. At the last meeting of the Board of Education, the Superintendent, J. L. Pickard, Esq., reported the whole number of pupils enrolled in all the public schools for Dec. 1865, to be 16,074, being an increase of 1,296 over the corresponding number for Dec. 1864; the average daily attendance for the same time was 13,104, being an increase of 1,989. To provide for this addition of nearly 2,000 to the daily attendance upon her schools, the city has furnished no accommodations, by way of erecting new school-houses or materially increasing the capacity of old ones. As a result, there is hardly a school-room in the city that is not injudiciously and injuriously overcrowded, while there are hundreds of children who are debarred from school privileges because there is no means of instruction afforded. Such a condition of things can not but be considered a reproach to the city. It is a sad commentary upon Chicago, who proudly and justly boasts of being the commercial and business centre of almost a continent, who counts her wealth by hundreds of millions, for whom no undertaking which shall increase her financial or business prosperity is too great, that her common schools, the fountains whence emanates that intelligence which lies at the basis of good society and good morals, are not sufficient to accommodate her children. Other cities, with but a small part of her material prosperity, consider money wisely invested for educational purposes until there are not more than from 45 to 55 pupils per teacher in their public schools; but this city sees the number reach 70, or even more, per teacher, and the school-rooms overflow so that her children run the street for an education which fits them for her reform-school, the jail, and the penitentiary.

The last session of the Institute in this city was held a week earlier than usual, for the purpose of affording the teachers an opportunity of listening to a lecture on Elocution, by Prof. Mark Bailey, of Yale College. The lecture was pertinent to the subject, pointed, and abounded in happy illustrations of the subject. To listen to the instructions of such a master as Prof. Bailey is a privilege rarely enjoyed, and for those disposed to profit by his teachings there is instruction beyond

measure.

By a series of exhibitions, the Foster School has just purchased for its use a $750 piano. The instrument a celebrated Steck piano-is of fine finish and superb tone. It is considered the finest yet in the public schools of the city. w.

BELLEVILLE. We clip the following from a late number of the N. Y. Teacher: We are permitted to present to our readers a few extracts from a private letter, which we commend to the careful consideration of our readers, in the hope that communities in our own state may go and do likewise'. The salary of the principal has been increased to $1,200. Our friend says:

The first public-school building ever erected in this city has been built this season. It is a substantial brick building capable of accommodating between 500 and 600 children.

It will be completed within a few weeks, and will cost nearly $20,000, exclusive of the grounds, which comprise one whole block.

A second house will be built another season similar to the one now nearly completed.

Thus you see we have taken a step in advance. Our schools have heretofore occupied rented buildings, which in many cases were little adapted to the wants of a school.

Our citizens, many of whom seven or eight years ago were much opposed to the Public Schools, are now with scarcely an exception much attached to them.

Now there are not a dozen votes cast in opposition to the proposition (annually submitted to the tax-payers) for the levying of a tax for the support of the school for more than six months in each year; whereas, less than ten years ago nearly one half of the votes cast were in opposition to the proposition for the extension of the school term.

DECATUR. We cut the following from the Decatur Gazette:

High-School Examination.-The examination at the High School took place on Thursday last, and gave great satisfaction to the visitors. We were unable to be there in the forenoon, and were only present an hour in the afternoon, during which we listened to the examination of a class in geometry, and heard some really fine reading, the latter being conducted by Miss Baker. The class in geometry gave evidence of careful study, demonstrating the propositions given them with rapidity and accuracy. We were particularly pleased with the proficiency exhibited by Miss Emmaretta Williams, who demonstrated the beautiful Pythagorean theorem, "The square described on the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle is equal to the sum of the squares described on the other two sides." Miss Lizzie Trull and Mr. Allison also deserve especial praise for the ready manner in which they answered the difficult questions propounded. The class in reading showed marks of correct training, and evidenced the fact that their teacher is fully alive to the necessity of curbing the tendency toward rapid enunciation, which is so common among children, and which detracts so much from the beauty of reading. The specimens of concert reading we heard were truly excellent, as also were those of reading in a whisper.

We are sorry that we could not be present during the entire day, but from what we heard while there, we feel safe in saying that our High School is well conducted, and is an institution of which our citizens may well be proud.

NOTICES OF BOOKS, ETC.

A LATIN READER. By Albert Harkness, Brown University. New York: D. Appleton & Co.

1865.

This book, just published, is intended to be used from the first in connection with Harkness's Latin Grammar, by those beginning to study Latin. On the first pages are words in different forms, either alone, or combined so as to form phrases and simple sentences, which beginners will find of great use while studying the Etymology of the Grammar. Then follow detached sentences with copious references to the Syntax of the Grammar, so arranged that each new topie has abundant illustrations, while all the knowledge already gained is constantly called up. Then follow Fables, Mythology, Anecdotes, and Extracts from History, with frequent references to the Grammar all the while. Many of the features of this book are similar to those of Andrews's Latin Reader, so long the favorite book with teachers; but the references are to Harkness's Grammar, which, as we have said before, we consider the best grammar extant for those fitting for college. almost all our colleges require candidates for admission to pass an examination in a larger part or the whole of Cæsar, and as the preparatory course in most high schools and academies is but three or four years, we should have been glad to find, in stead of the last forty pages, the First Book of Cæsar, with such notes as Mr. Harkness would give if he should make the attempt.

As

WALTON'S MATHEMATICAL TABLE: with Key giving directions for using and answers to problems.

This consists of a card covered with a series of numbers, lettered and numbered for easy use in the school-room. By means of it a wonderfully large number of problems in the simple rules of Arithmetic can be solved, with no farther labor to the teacher than simply to compare the pupil's answer with the correct one.

Its

use is easily learned, and with one in the hands of each pupil a great deal more of labor can be secured from pupils in a given time than by the methods usually practiced.

THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER.

Blackmer & Lyon, Chicago.

W.

Vol. I, No. 1, 32 pp. $1.50 per year. Adams,

A neat monthly, devoted to Sabbath-School interests. Its board of editors comprises five of the clergymen of Chicago, representing as many denominations. The first number contains a fine map of Bible Lands. This magazine is calculated to be of great use to those interested in Sabbath-Schools, and all students of the Bible.

W.

EATON'S QUESTIONS ON THE PRINCIPLES OF ARITHMETIC. 12mo., 47 pp. Boston: Taggard & Thompson.

These Questions are calculated to test the learner's familiarity with the principles of the science. They are adapted for use with any text-book. For teachers who wish aid in securing questions for class exercise, or examinations, and for students who would like a good opportunity to test their own scholarship, they will be of great value.

COMPANION POETS FOR THE PEOPLE: Illustrated.

dell Holmes. Boston: Ticknor & Fields.

W.

Humorous Poems by Oliver Wen

Another volume of the Companion Poets has just come to hand. We don't know where one can get more of the material to make laughs from, for the same money, than by purchasing this neat (of course it is neat if it comes from Ticknor & Fields) little volume for 50 cents. The illustrations are more than good, they are capital, as funny as the poems. We will warrant that five minutes' reading the book will make you laugh, even if the scholars have seemed dull, and acted as if they were possessed, all day, in school.

DESCRIPTIVE AND ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE: Containing Plans in Perspective of Colleges, School-Houses, etc., and Suggestions relative to their Construction, Heating, and Ventilation. By G. P. Randall, Architect, Chicago, Ill.

All who have any thing to do with the building of school-houses will do well to send for this Catalogue. If they wish to employ an architect, they will hardly find a better than Mr. Randall; besides this, we are sure they will find him a very pleasant man to deal with. School directors often think to save money by making a plan themselves, or leaving that to some third-rate carpenter, who is going to put up the building for them, and almost always a building poorly adapted to their wants, or badly ventilated, is the result. Such a course is as foolish as not looking before you leap.

OUR YOUNG FOLKS.-Do the children in your schools take ‘Our Young Folks'? If not, start a subscription-list yourself, and see if you can not interest your children in it. The magazine is attractive in appearance, and full of just the things that children ought to read and like to read. Many a teacher has felt that he could do much more for his pupils if he could control their acts outside of school, could direct their amusements and select for them the books that they should read. This magazine in every family would prove a valuable ally of the teacher; for it wakes up the children wonderfully, and, so far as we know, during its first year no one has had a word of fault to find with it, while its praise is heard continually, and all the little ones who 'take it' are in ecstasies when it comes from the post-office. We can not be too much interested in providing good reading for the young. We were in a wholesale book-store a few days ago, and saw piled up on the counter some five or six thousand of Beadle's Dime Novels! We could not but wish that the place of these might be filled by copies of 'Our Young Folks' or of the 'Companion Poets'. Messrs. Ticknor & Fields deserve all the money they make from their publications, and hearty thanks besides from all who are interested in young people.

Much excitement prevails at present in anticipation of the spread of that fearful scourge, Asiatic Cholera. . . . It can not be expected that the public authorities can descend to details, and see that every pestilence-breeding subject is removed. Much must be done by the labors and attention of every citizen: it is a matter which touches the welfare of us all.

But amid all our sanitary precautions, public and private, there is one interest which may possibly-nay, will be very likely to-be overlooked: the proper care of the school-house and school-grounds. The cholera, and in fact every disease, is most prevalent where human beings are crowded together in apartments, without proper regard to cleanliness, pure air, and sunlight. Hence, the great tenement-houses in cities invariably furnish a much longer list for the bill of sickness and mortality than any other class of dwellings.

In our schools almost the entire population between the ages of five and twenty-one years are congregated from six to ten months in the year, during the school-going hours. In view of these facts, is there sufficient attention given to the sanitary condition of school-buildings and -premises? Is cleanliness one of the crowning merits? Are the rooms well ventilated? Are the out-buildings well cared for? Is the air that circulates about the premises pure? These are questions that should at all times claim the care and consideration of parents, but especially now when we are threatened by one of the most fearful scourges that has ever afflicted humanity.

Exhalations from the skin, and the impurities thrown upon the air by breathing, are sources of filth in a crowded school-room which, from being imperceptible, are often disregarded. These impurities, however, always exist. They settle down upon the seats, the desks, the walls and ceilings, and always manifest their presence by the rank odor which is found on opening a room that has been closed for a few days. The carbonic-acid gas, exhaled by the lungs of all animals, is always accumulating in a school-room filled with pupils, and is a constant source of derangement to the vital energies of all that are obliged to breathe it. There is constantly accumulating upon the school-grounds rubbish and filth.

How can the condition of school-premises be improved? A little labor and expense rightly directed will accomplish the purpose. Cut out the branches of the trees and remove such obstructions as too much shut out the sunlight. Paint or whitewash the out-buildings and cleanse the vaults. Use a few loads of clean gravel, when needed, about the grounds, and scatter unslacked lime freely. Serub the school-rooms and use soap and water upon the furniture. Repaint the finished work, and give the walls and ceiling frequent coats of whitewash. If no means of ventilation have been provided, knock a hole in the smokeflue near the floor of the room, and fit a register for the escape of the impure air.

S. P. BATES.

“Fighting against Wrong, and for the Good, the True, and the Beautiful."

THE LITTLE CORPORAL

Is acknowledged by the leading papers to be the

BEST CHILDREN'S PAPER IN AMERICA!

The above are only a tithe of the many beautiful notices our young soldier has received.

ALFRED L. SEWELL, Care of Dunlop, Sewell & Spalding... CHICAGO, ILL.