$13,650.39. This overdraft has since been paid, and in addition thereto the board was able to build out of the district fund a four-room addition to the new building erected on East Hill. About this time the board changed the names of the various ward buildings. The First Ward school became the Washington building. The Cedar street school was henceforth to be known as the Jackson building; the Third Ward, the Jefferson school; the Fourth Ward, the Franklin; the East Hill, the Lincoln; the West Hill, the McKinley; the Musserville, the Garfield; the Butlerville, the Hamilton; the Hershey Avenue school, the Harrison. The last named has since been abandoned and the property sold.

While in 1901 only three of the ward buildings fitted pupils for the high school, now seven of the buildings complete the grade work and fit pupils for the high schools. They are named as follows: Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Franklin, Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley.

In 1907 manual training was introduced, with Harry A. Jacobsen as director. A four years' course of instruction was provided for, including the last two years in the elementary grades and the first two years in the high school. A course of instruction in sewing was also provided for the girls in the grammar grades. The curriculum will not be complete, however, till a full course in domestic science has been provided for the girls. They should receive as much consideration as the boys.

In 1903-4, a teachers' training course was organized. It has furnished for the schools a large number of its most efficient teachers. No system of city schools is quite complete without some such provision for the training of its prospective teachers. Experience demonstrates its value. It has resulted in a higher standard of entrance requirement.

METHOD OF PROMOTION.

In September, 1901, the method of promotion in the city schools was changed from once a year to the semi-annual basis. In the lower grades provision was made for even more rapid promotion by breaking classes into smaller groups according to the individual needs of the pupils. It gives flexibility to the course and aims to fit the schools to the needs of the pupil rather than the pupil to the needs of the system, as is the tendency of annual promotions.

In the past nine years there have been comparatively few changes in the principals of the several schools in the city. Principals are most important factors in the educational economy of a school system and Muscatine has been fortunate in having teachers in these positions of more than average efficiency.

R. M. Arey was principal of the high school during all these years. He is scholarly and capable and has strengthened the high school in many ways. His successor, G. E. True, is giving evidence of his ability to maintain the school's standard of efficiency.

Our congressman-elect, I. S. Pepper, was principal of the Washington school from 1901 to 1903 and then showed his budding forensic ability by interesting his boys and girls in debate and holding frequent debating contests. His successor, Miss Leona Howe, is still principal. Her popularity and efficiency are undiminished. She is a teacher and leader of teachers of rare power.

In the Jackson school Mrs. A. C. Jackson was principal practically all this time. Her term of service ended only with her death. She was beloved by patrons and pupils, not only for her efficiency, but also for those graces of mind and heart that made her an ideal leader of teachers and pupils. She is succeeded this year by H. O. Roland.

The Jefferson school has had the following principals: Thomas McCulloch, Arthur Franklin, C. N. Spicer, R. K. Corlett and Miss Mary Whicher. The latter is still at the helm and is eminently qualified in every way for her responsible position. Messrs. Spicer and Corlett are still engaged in school work, the former as county superintendent of schools at Bloomfield, Iowa, while the latter is principal of one of the ward schools in Burlington.

In the Franklin school Miss Cina McCoy was then principal and still holds sway with popularity undiminished. The same is true of Miss Jessie A. Braunwarth in the Lincoln school and Miss Mary McDougall in the McKinley school.

Since 1901 the Garfield school has had several principals. Miss Franklin was followed in succession by Mr. Te Winkle, R. K. Corlett and Miss Marie Herwig. The standard of work in the Garfield school compares favorably with that of the other schools. Miss Herwig grows in power each year and will see to it that the Garfield school does not lag behind in morals and efficiency.

Since 1901 the board of education, with the exception of Dr. J. D. Fulliam, has completely changed in its complexion. The late Dr. G. O. Morgridge was an honored member of the board in 1901 and several times its president. He was a member of the board longer than any other man in Muscatine and resigned before the expiration of his term of service because of failing health. Because of his interest in and service for the schools of the city, his name will remain forever linked with the schools. Another who was a member of the board at that time and who has served in this capacity almost as long as Dr. Morgridge is J. B. Hunt, who might still have been a member had he not declined to serve longer last spring. His excellent work in behalf of the schools will be remembered by teachers and patrons. The list of those who have served for a shorter time but with credit to themselves and the city could be greatly extended.

The policy of the schools for years has been conservatively progressive. It has been the aim to incorporate the new in matter and method when it counts for real progress and at the same time not neglect the sound and essential things of the old. Reading has always been emphasized as the basal study of the elementary schools. Along with it careful attention has been given to the study of spelling in all its forms. Closely correlated with reading and spelling is the language work. It, too, has received its due proportion of time. The essentials of arithmetic likewise have not been neglected. Since July 1, 1910, T. W. B. Everhart has been superintendent of the schools.

SCHOOL NO. I IN OLDEN DAYS.

(By Alice Walton Beatty.)

Intense darkness had settled down upon the city, with that close, indescribable feeling, that seems to portend a coming evil. Heavy banks of black clouds

ASTUR

TILSON F

1

We

lay around the horizon while the lightning played fitfully upon them. were little children then and our father was absent from the city. We retired but could not sleep. The clouds arose and the storm burst in all its fury. A short time after, an unusually heavy burst of thunder was heard in the north quarter of the city and an alarm of fire was given. It was soon discovered that a bolt of lightning had struck old No. 1 schoolhouse. There had been a broken lightning rod hanging over one corner of the roof for a long time previous and the building had been struck upon that corner. It was a queer old house, 40x60 feet, two stories high, with eight, or perhaps only six, windows of many small panes upon the sides. The shape was of a rectangular block, with another smaller block which stood on end at the front for a cupola or bell tower. It was covered with a flat metal roof. It was severely plain in appearance, the only pretense at ornamentation being a row of small brick points around the top of the walls. We used to draw the picture of the schoolhouse upon our slates and I remember counting and recounting those brick points while the dear old building was burning. I wanted to fasten them in memory so that their number should never fade. But alas for human frailty! Today I can only guess that the number of brick points upon the top of each side wall was thirty-five, while on the top of the cupola it was probably nine or eleven on a side. Those points gave the building a sort of ancient fortress resemblance.

Many persons who were watching the storm that night claimed to have seen a bolt of lightning that divided into three balls of fire, one striking the schoolhouse, one the home of Anderson Chambers, I think, and the other the home of Jacob Schomberg on Seventh street between Walnut and Cedar streets.

TEN MONTHS OF SCHOOL.

In those days we had ten months of school and vacation began just before the Fourth of July. It always seemed as if the school year had been finished the afternoon before the destruction of the schoolhouse. At all events, while we watched the devouring flames spread throughout the building, and the tower fall and walls begin to crumble, we rejoice to think we had just brought all of our books home.

There were two schoolrooms in that building, an "upstairs" and a "downstairs." There must have been about a hundred pupils in each room, divided into three or four classes. Daniel Lewis was the principal upstairs. I do not remember his assistants. Miss Rutherford, Miss Sarah Hill and Miss Mary Reece, or possibly, Miss Mary Dill, I think were our downstairs teachers. Whenever we were naughty we were sent upstairs to sit on the front seat in Mr. Lewis' room, hiding our tear-stained, shame-covered faces in our woolen cloaks, until after a while we would become brave enough to peek out with one eye Ah me! at the big boys and girls slyly making sport of us young miscreants. tears of a different sort dim our eyes today as we look through spectacles into that dim past and think of how few that shall read this little sketch can turn with us and see in memory still that red brick schoolhouse, perched upon that