SCHOOL TOPICS.

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Four additional classes have been organized to each of the three departments of Grammar No. 87 since the school opened.

The Primary department of No. 96 is daily turning away hundreds of applicants for admission. The rooms are taxed to the limit.

Primary School No. 41, of which Miss Mary E. O'Keefe is the principal, was not opened on Monday, on account of the repairs to the building which were not entirely completed. They will be finished this week.

NAMED FOR A WOMAN.

A new honor to a woman, who was the first of her sex to carry on a contest before the courts in favor of the right of women to become members of the bar, was conferred a few days ago, when one of the Chicago public schools was dedicated under the name of Myra Bradwell School. Mrs. Bradwell was for twenty five years the editor of The Chicago Legal News, and asked for admission to the bar long before the right to practice had been generally granted to women. When her request was denied she carried on a contest through the Illinois courts and to the Supreme Court of the United States. The Illinois Legislature finally passed a bill permitting women to apply for admission to the bar, but Mrs. Bradwell did not take advantage of the privilege. Her daughter became a member of the bar and married a lawyer. At the exercises of the Myra Bradwell School Judge Bradwell, who now conducts the paper of which his wife had been for many years the editor, made an address, and agreed to give $100 a year toward the founding of the library for the school. Addresses were made by Thomas Brennan, Joseph W. Errant and Benjamin J. Rosenthal, members of the Board of Education.

VACATION SCHOOLS CLOSE.

The Vacation Schools, conducted during the summer under the auspices of the Society for Improving the Condition of the Poor, closed in August. The schools were No. 79, at No. 42 1st st.; No. 82, at Broome and Ridge sts.; No. 96, Avenue A and 81st st.; No. 51, at No. 519 West 44th st.; Primary No. 1, Delancey and Ludlow sts., and No. 10, at No. 215 East 32d st.

The closing exercises consisted of varied programmes of singing and recitations, and at each school there was an exhibition of kindergarten sewing and manual training work. The children who attended the schools regularly during the last six weeks were given an outing to Coney Island, where they were entertained for the day at the cottages of the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor. The children have contributed something toward the expenses of their excursion, but a donation of $500 from a friend of the Vacation Schools was the principal means of affording this recreation to some 1,500 children. William W. Locke, the general superintendent of the Vacation Schools for the association said that the schools had done important work in keeping boys and girls off the streets, and in giv ing them, in place of idleness, occupations which were a source of pleasure and usefulness. At the Vacation Schools, he said, although the chief work had been devoted to manual training, a great deal of attention had been given to the subject of the English language. At school No. 79, the Grammar School of the Seventeenth Ward, which is the largest of the Vacation Schools, there had been an average attendance during the six weeks of 650. Mr. Locke said that the progress of the general manual training work had been remarkable. It was begun last summer with a season of six weeks. This year during a

season of the same length, twice as many children had been taught at half the cost, and the grade of work was much higher.

In Newark there was much opposition to these schools at first, but the Board kept resolutely to its experiment, and the summer schools are now part of the regular system of public education in Newark. The Compulsory Education Law requires a certain period of attendance at school for all children of school age. As the accommo. dations of the regular day schools are inadequate for all, it would be impossible for the law to be enforced without the summer schools and night schools, which provide the opportunities for education which the day schools lack. Beginning with five schoolhouses, the Board of Education now employs nine for the summer schools. The attendance this year has been larger than in any previous year, and the results are most satisfactory.

ABSENCES EXCUSED.

The Committee on Teachers have reported the following teachers as excused for absence with full pay:

Fourth Ward-M. D. 1., Rose J. Kelly; P. D. 1, Eliz. C. O'Connell; P. S. 12, Maria E. Sturgess. 5th-M. D. 44, Hannah V. Collins.

6th-M. D. 23, William Mullany; P. S. 8, Maggie A. McGrane.

7th-M. D. 2, Francis J. Haggerty; P. D. 2, Lizzie McCarthy; P. S. 36, Jennie L. Poole.

8th-M. D. 8, Annie M. Atkinson; P. D. 8, Jennie C. Cassady, Angelean Willett, Minnie Ferguson. 9th-M. D. 3, Mary F. DeGraw, Sarah J. Gould, Elizabeth L. Amer, Josephine A. Smith; F. D. 41, Margaret E. McRae; P. S. 24, S. Elizabeth Wandell, Emma E. Gould; F. D. 41, Menzies MacAdam.

10th-F. D. 7, Mary A. Shields; M. D. 20, Marianne Brennan; P. S. 1., Jennie A. Fee, Minnie Scott, J. L. Cullen, Mary Kensing.

11th-F. D. 88, Marion W. Holly, Theresa Keat ing; P. S. 5, Mary G. Magrath; P. S. 31, Sarah A. Rhoads.

12th-P. D. 37, Margaret MacKean; G. D. 43, W. H. J. Sieberg; M. D. 46, Abner B. Holley; P. D. 46, Annie G. Audubon, Ellen A. Murray; G. D. 52, Mary McCabe; G. D. 54, Amanda M. Simons, B. Luwella Mollan; F. D. 37, Kate Hallaran, Ella J. O'Connell; F. D. 68, Roxy R. Greer; P. D. 68, Mary Mackenzie; F. D. 72, Anna M. Hunter; P. D. 72, Lillian G. Phelps; F. D. 78, Emma C. Schoonmaker, Emma J. Lapham; P.D. 78, Mary C. Meehan, M. D. 83, Emma Schwarz, Ella Finney; P. D. 83; Martha Rosenzweig; P. D. 86, Annie F. Ahern.

Twelfth-M. D. 89, David R. Runyon; P. D. 89, Lottie C. Hickok; F. D. 93, Rebecca B. Haw; P. S. 9, Mary Crimmins; P.S. 19, Jennie L. Ross; P. S. 23, Hester A. Roberts; P. S. 42, Fanny M. Smith; P. S. 23, Adeline H. Mattice, Adelaide Fairbanks.

Thirteenth-P. D. 4, Kate M. O'Neil; M. D. 34, Elizabeth Reeve.

Fourteenth-M. D. 21, James G. Smith; P. D. 30, Eliza E. Dunn.

Sixteenth-P. D. 11, Mary F. Vandervoort; M. D. 55, Isabel L. Orton; P. D. 55, Emma A. Richards. Seventeenth-F. D. 13, Annie L. Ward, Florence Birmingham, Susie Roberts, Cornelia S. Grout; P. D. 13, Frances M. Iringer; M. D. 19, James Keily; F. D. 19, Margaret V. Broderick, Eliza J. Broder ick, Kate M. Delany; F. D. 25, Lizzie Cunningham; M. D. 79. Annie V. Kielley, Elizabeth J. McKean; P. S. 22, Elizabeth F. Hart, Helen B. Weidemann. Eighteenth-M. D. 40, Charlotte E. Carty, Kath. A. McCann; F. D. 50, Adaline B. Reynolds, Mary L. Day; P. S. 29, Mrs. Rosanna C. Breadon.

Nineteenth-F. D. 18, Nellie Donohue; F. D. 59, Grace Ellsworth; P. D. 70, Olivia J. Hall; F. D. 73, Kate A. Byrne; M. D. 74, Lizzie I. Titus; P. D. 74, Minnie Murphy; M. D. 77. Kate Youngling; F. D. 77, Laura E. Osborn; P. D. 77, Elizabeth Hamill; M. D. 82, Margaret E. Downey.

Twentieth-P. D. 32, Elizabeth Keegan; F. D. 33, Libbie O'Brien; P. D. 33, Rosanna M. Gillen; F. D. 48, Elizabeth C. King; P. S. 27, Annie A. Dimond, Annie S. Hayes, Mary A. Underhill; P. D. 32, Eliza-beth Harper.

Twenty-first-M. D. 49, Julia J. Albanesi; P. S. 16, Margaret A. Kearney, Eglantine Lloyd.

Twenty-second—P. D. 9, Laura I. Flynn; P. D. 17, Amy Ackerson; F. D. 28, Hattie L. Cudlipp, Esther Haslett; M. D. 51, Emma A. Currie, Jennie M. Bell; M. D. 58, Mary E. Washburn; P. D. 58, Jennie C. Lawson, Pauline Shannon; M. D. 66, Pauline F. Rich, Frances A. Dowling; P. D. 67, Lucy McNespic; M. D. 69, Mary J. Carolan; F. D. 69, Elizabeth Shepherd; P. D. 69, Julia K. Root; F. D. 84, Mary McGaughan; F. D. 87, Mary F. McAleer, Agatha A. Ray; P. D. 94, Anna S. Ray; P. S. 41, Mary M. Lilly, Clara McConnell.

Twenty-third-G. D. 60, Hattie E. Hilliker; P. D. 61, Lizzie A. Webb; G. D. 62, Annie M. Bissell; P. D. 62, Julia Lynch; G. D. 85, Jonathan D. Hyatt, William J. Timmons; P. D. 85, Lulu B. Jones; G. D. 90, Daisy Sanial.

Twenty-fourth-P. S. 45, A. M. Sheak.
Referred to the Finance Committee.

THE OLDEST GRADUATE.

Dr. John J. Anderson, the historian, seems to have been awarded the honors as the oldest graduate of No. 7. The Tribune says: There are several men living each of whom asserts that he is the oldest graduate of Grammar School No. 7, at Chrystie and Hester sts. This is one of the oldest and the best known of New York's public schools, so that it is something of a distinction to be its oldest living graduate, and there has been considerable rivalry for this honor. The Tribune recently published a letter from Mr. Tooker, who asserted that Mr. Greaton was the oldest graduate of this school. Mr. Tooker has received the fol

lowing letter, in which Mr. Greaton's title to the honor is disputed by John J. Anderson, of Brooklyn.

Mr. Anderson says: "Your letter in this day's Tribune, June 14, interests me, but I think your statement in relation to our friend Greaton will not hold, as I entered Grammar School No. 7 in 1826, and was a pupil and a monitor there. I passed from the sand class' into and through every class, graduating from the ninth class during the early part of Mr. Ketcham's administration. I am nearly seventy-four years old. Can our friend Greaton be as old? I attended the first meeting of the George T. Trimble Association, and was at one of the dinners of the Associa tion. I was also present at the opening exercises of the new No. 7, and had the pleasure of hearing your speech. I was invited to make an address at that time, but declined because of my unfortunate nervous condition. When I entered No. 7 I was put into the sand class,' which oc cupied two long desks directly in front of the aweinspiring platform on which sat, once every year, a gathering of the notable members of the Public School Society, George T. Trimble, Robert Pardoe and others, to examine the school." Mr. Anderson continues well and strong, and clear as ever in mind, after the summer.

FACTS AND FANCIES.

The tea used in the immediate household of the Emperor of China is said to be raised in a garden surrounded by a wall so that neither man nor beast can get anywhere near the plants. At the time of the harvest, those collecting these leaves must ab stain from eating fish, so that their breath may not spoil the aroma of the tea. They must bathe three times a day, and in addition to all these precautions they must wear gloves while picking the tea for the Chinese Court.

We are apt to think of Mexico as sleepy and behind the age, but the city is wide awake in the matter of sanitation, having been to enormous expense to secure good water, and now it is found that a most salutary measure would be a more rapid flow through the sewers of the city. Accordingly some twenty-five windmills are to be built in different parts of the city, at a cost of $25,000, which will rotate paddle wheels in the sewers and thus accomplish the desired object.

Highly important and significant are the figures just issued with comparisons, showing the wealth of England, in spite of twenty leap years of depression. The taxable property of England and Wales in 1894 was £161,000,000, compared to £104,000,000 in 1870. This increase of more than 50 per cent. has taken place when the taxable value of land has decreased within fifteen years from about £40,000,000 to £33,000,000. The land formed in 1870 about one-half the taxable property of the country. It is now little more than one-fifth.

The postoffice in India not only collects and de livers letters, parcels, and other articles, but acts to a certain extent as a banker to the general public, sells quinine and salt, pays military pensions, and collects the revenue accruing to the Government from land and other sources. But to the fertile brain of one of the oldest officers in the department is due the latest development in the work of the postoffice. The Punjab postoffice has come forward as an elementary teacher. It not only collects letters and delivers them, but teaches boys in elementary schools how to write them and address the covers.

If you wish to subscribe to SCHOOL, send a postCollection al to this effect to No. 154 Fifth ave. for the same will be made at the subscriber's convenience.

Mr. Elmer A. Allen, chairman of the trustees of the Twenty-fourth, has just returned with his family from an enjoyable visit of several weeks in the Catskills.

Mr. Wilbur F. Hudson, principal of Grammar No. 6, spent the summer on Long Island, where he was sought far and wide, like Mayor Strong, as a baseball umpire.

State Superintendent Poland and Mrs. Poland, formerly Miss Mary Dennis of Brooklyn, passed the summer pleasantly, after their wedding, on the New England coast.

Miss Thompson's department of No. 20 loses two of its experienced teachers. Miss Kate G. Curran and Miss Estelle T. Weisman are reported to be married in a few weeks.

Miss Lizzie I. Titus of Grammar No. 96, resumed her duties on September 9th, after an absence of several weeks, due to a severe illness during the latter part of last term.

Miss Mary Kensing, one of the most efficient teachers in Miss Murdock's department of Primary No. 1, has resigned her position in that school, and it is rumored will change her name presently.

Superintendent James Godwin returned from his pleasant summer sojourn at the Hillside Farm in the Catskills, nut-brown in skin and more philosophic in temperament, from his meditations at high altitudes.

One teacher at least in the New York schools took her First Year pupils entirely through the Ideal Music Chart last season. This excellent record may have been beaten, but we have not heard of it through SCHOOL,

Mr. R. Russell Requa of Mr. B. W. Purcell's department of No. 18, is receiving congratulations of many friends. He was married on August 7th to Miss Mary Millicent Purdy, a charming young lady, at the bride's home in Rye, Westchester County.

Dr. J. W. Cremin, principal of No. 27, passed the summer in Fonda, Eastern New York, with his family. He returns in vigorous health, and is willing to enter with any principal in the city on a series of athletic exercises, demonstrating practically the value of physical training in the schools.

Miss Carrie Ikelheimer of No. 93, Miss Ida Ikelheimer of Miss Blake's department of No. 6, and Miss Minnie Ikelheimer, sewing teacher in No. 71, were among the passengers aboard the steamer Seaford, which went down in the English channel last week. They were safely transferred after many startling experiences.

Superintendent Snyder has had a trying summer. He has not only brought the contractors nearer to the letter of their agreements, than for many years past, but he has also met and overcome since the schools closed in July a serious attack of pneumonia, and he is still in a vigorous fighting condition-but he should now take a rest.

A paragraph in last week's SCHOOL, in relation to the vacancy in Grammar No. 75, stated that Mr. W. S. Ryan, one of the candidates, and a teacher in the school, had not received his license. It is due to Mr. Ryan, who is an efficient teacher, and who wrote us, to state that the statement is an error, and the reporter who made it was not duly informed.

Mr. William Bonaparte Friedberg, the accomplished principal of Grammar No. 95, has come out from the West, where he spent the summer, with additional laurels. He attended the National Teachers' Convention at Denver, and was subsequently admitted to the Bar of that city, where he has many vested interests. Afterward, in a trip to the Yellowstone, it is related that Mr. Friedberg had some hair-stirring adventures with the Indians, presumably Bannocks. It is reported that he escaped without his scalp. He is noncommittal on this subject, but points suggestively to his forehead.

The largest of the vacation schools was at Avenue A and 81st st., under the principalship of Miss M. J. Carolan. It opened with a registry of over a thousand pupils, the next higher of the six being a little over five hundred. On its visitors' book are recorded the names of "Author of Preston Papers," Trustee Jeremiah Fitzpatrick and Mrs. Eliza S. Pell. Trustee Hornthal was very liberal with his gifts of sewing materials. Dr. R. B. Keyser was also a welcome visitor with his stores of golden rod, ox-eyed daisies and mountain flowers. Mrs. Julia Birdseye gave an interesting talk about shells; so that many pupils who could not be selected for disport on the sands, yet had a vivid picture of the murmuring waves.

DEVASTATION FROM ONE SHELL. Commander McGiffin, of the Chen Yuen, in the August Century, describing the naval combat at Yalu, the severest of modern sea-fights, says that as the principal squadron circled around us, the range varied from 2,800 meters (nearly two miles) to perhaps 1,000, at times even less. At about three o'clock the Matsushima closed upon the Chen Yuen to about 1,700 meters, and we fired at her, from one of our 12.2-inch guns, a steel shell of 5 calibers' (5x 12.2 inches) length; having a bursting charge of nearly ninety pounds of powder. The Japanese flag-ship was struck by this missile, and as a burst of flame arose from her, followed by a great cloud of white smoke, hiding her entirely from view, our gun's crew yelled their satisfaction. This shell indeed wrought frightful havoc. From the Japanese report it totally disabled the big 13-inch Canet gun and swept the decks. Several charges of powder for this gun had been massed on deck, and these, exploding, gave the gunners a true "hoist with their own petard." By this one shell forty-nine officers and men were instantly killed, and over fifty wounded; the gunnery lieutenant was blown into the sea, his cap and telescope being all traee of him ever found oa the ship.

UNREVISED.

An Eton Fellow who preached in chapel on the duties of the married state astounded an undergraduate congregation by the sudden appeal: "And now a word to you that are mothers." Pall Mall Gazette.

(Continued from page 13.) seriously undertaken. The sum would not build one school. Mr. Wehrum added that less than half a million dollars would be of any use. Mr. Hub bell said that Truant Schools had been successfully established in Boston, Brooklyn and other cities. He thought that the Truancy Department was the most ineffective department of the school system. Mr. Holt suggested that it might be practical to open Truancy classes in schools of the city where there were vacant rooms. The amount of $50,000 was added to this item in the Budget; $500 was also added to the item for carrying pupils to the schools in the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth wards, in recognition of the extended territory covered by the schools recently annexed to the city.

Commissioner Meirowitz presented a resolution asking that the Department of Public Works pave the street around the Board of Education, in Grand st., with asphalt. Charles C. Burlingham was nominated by the Committee on Trustees for an appointment as trustee of the Twenty-first Ward. Mr. Hubbell said that the nominee was a lawyer of repute, and in every way qualified for the place. Owing to resignations during the summer there were only two trustees in the Ward, not enough to transact school business. Mr. Burlingham was at once elected. The meeting was then adjourned to Wednesday next week.

PUBLIC SCHOOL GROWTH.

CHICAGO'S SCHOOLS INCREASING.

Last year there were 269 school buildings owned by the city, 200 more were rented, 168,791 pupils were enrolled and more than 4,000 teachers employed, the total expenses of the Board for the school year amounting to $5,697,336. The increase this year will carry the enrollment to 175,000, and adding that of the evening schools and kindergar

tens, it will probably go beyond 200,000. – Chicago Inter-Ocean.

BOSTON'S SCHOOLS INSUFFICIENT.

The situation as regards the inability of Boston school-houses to accommodate the school children of this city is practically an old story. . . . The trouble is that Boston is behindhand in this matter.

The city has been behindhand for six or seven years, and has never "caught up." Appropriations that barely would have sufficed for the school system ten years ago are much too small for the modern system.-Boston Advertiser.

MILWAUKEE'S SCHOOLS OVERCROWded. That the school accommodations of the city should prove inadequate on account, of the incresed number of children enrolled this year is another indication of Milwaukee's rapid and healthy growth. It is almost inevitable that there should be such lack of room at the reopening of the schools, as it is impossible to make any definite calculation with regard to the requirements of the occasion.-Milwaukee Sentinel.

NEWARK SCHOOLS.

The public schools opened yesterday with a large attendance of pupils. Hundreds of children applied at the city dispensary for vaccination preliminary to beginning the school term, and several doctors were kept busy attending to them. There are forty-seven public schoolhouses in Newark, and during the vacation accommodations were provided for about six hundred additional pupils. The school census this year is 54,540, while the seating capacity is about 26,000. The private schools provide for about 16,000 children.

A SUMMER SCHOOL PRINCIPAL. Mrs. Emma T. Kilmer, the principal of the Summer School held in Primary School No. 16, is one of the most efficient teachers of No. 38, Miss Gallagher's department. She was graduated from the Daily Normal School, and on the breaking up of that school she organized a class of seven of the members to continue the studies privately. Four of this class eventually became principals. Mrs. Kilmer was a member of the classes taught by David B. Scott and Thomas F. Harrison, at the rooms of the Board of Education. Mrs. Kilmer's first connection with the schools as teacher was that of special instructor in French, and afterward in German. She held diplomas for both branches from the City Superintendent. After three years as a special, she resigned, but soon entered the work again as teacher in the Evening School at No. 8. In January, 1870, she received a regular appointment in No. 8, where she taught until the school was discontinued. She was then first assistant of the Female department, and from 1884 to 1886 had, with the exception of a few months, acted as principal during the vacancy, there teaching the two highest grades at the same time. Notwithstanding the double work imposed, the department maintained its record at the col lege examinations, some of the graduates of No. 8 passing as high as 90 per cent.

Outside of the classroom Mrs. Kilmer has been

Littell's Living Age, which is always suggestive, contains some of the following articles: Recent Science, by Prince Kropotkin; The Letters of Coleridge, by Andrew Lang; The Grave of the Druids, by Harrison Barker; Unconquered Mithras, by Thomas H. B. Graham; England and France in the Nile Valley, by Capt. F. D. Lugard; Mr. Wm. Watson's Serious Verse, by Laurie Magnus; Formosa, by a Native of that Island, by Harry Jones; Labrador; Lord Camelford by Charles Bruce Angier; Robert Burns.

Of the manuscripts left unpublished by Robert Louis Stevenson at his death, the first to reach the public is a collection of very original Fables in the September number of McClure's Magazine. One of them is a conversation between John Silver and "Cap'n" Smollett, of Treasure Island, which is as delicious in its way as anything those worthies do or say in Treasure Island itself. In the same number Anthony Hope relates another adventure of the ever-charming Princess Osra, an encounter in the forests of Zenda with an attractive and most courteous highwayman. There is also a romantic tale of court intrigue by Stanley J. Weyman, and a new Drumtochty story by Ian Maclaren, the author of Beside the Bonnie Briar Bush.

In the September Century Prof. Sloane carries the narrative of Napoleon's life to the period of the supplanting of the Revolution, the subordinate topics being: The Society and Etiquette of the Consulate, The General Pacification of Europe, The Reorganization of France, The Code Napoleon and the University of France, Steps Toward Monarchy, Plots, Counter-plots and the Life Consulate, and Bonaparte at the Threshold of Monarchy. As usual, the history is fully and carefully illustrated in a manner superior to that employed heretofore by any popular work in English on the subject.

An interesting and well-considered essay on The Writing of History, by Prof. Woodrow Wilson of Princeton, will appear in The Century for September. It includes incidentally a detailed and popular discussion of the methods of Gibbon, Macaulay, Carlyle and Green.