-Dr. Meyer's article in this number of the JOURNAL on The Problem of the Small Town, deserves careful reading.

-A joint teachers' meeting was held at Brodhead, Feb. 25th, by Supts. Thorne, Ross, and Blumer, and Prin. Buell, of the Brodhead schools. There was a good program and much interest.

-There are now sixty-two persons ployed in teaching in the schools of Marinette, of whom six are in the high school. There are six public school buildings in the city.

-Although plans for the summer school at the university are not yet complete it is certain that the usual courses will be offered, with additional features to be announced later. -The Pierce county central teachers' association held an interesting session at Ellsworth, February 11th. One of the significant One of the significant topics related to the cultivation of a closer relation between parents and school.

-State Superintendent Harvey has called a meeting of institute conductors—an institute school, to meet in Madison, April 3d to 8th, for the purpose of outlining institute work for the summer, and discussing institute methods.

-The high school at Stevens Point has grown in numbers so much as to make necessary the employment of an additional teacher, and Miss Lucy K. McGlachlin, who graduated at the university in 1894, has been elected to the position.

-A joint institute was held Feb. 3d and 4th in Marinette and Menominee, under the management of Supts. O. L. Woodley, of Menominee, and J. T. Edwards, of Marinette. The conductor from Michigan was Ex-State Superintendent H. R. Pattengill and from Wisconsin Prof. Livingstone, of Stevens Point, and Miss Mae E. Schreiber, of Madison.

-At Mosinee, in Marathon county, the Joseph Dessert free library was dedicated Feb. 11th. The building was erected by Mr. Dessert and the library is supported by him as a free gift to the people of the vicinity. At the dedication an organization known as the Wisconsin River Valley Library Association was formed.

-The conferences of superintendents held at Milwaukee and at Stevens Point by State

Superintendent Harvey were very interesting

and enthusiastic. The discussions of that section of the law which directs each superintendent in consultation with the state superintendent to fix the standard of attainments for

a certificate in his county, and of the proposed modification of the system of supervision were especially important and earnest.

-The Whitewater normal school is this year to have a summer school from July 5th to August 5th. The instructors will be Profs. G. C. Shutts, A. A. Upham, W. S. Watson, and Kate C. Mavity, from the normal school faculty and others if necessary. Work will be offered to suit the wants of those wishing to prepare for teachers' examinations, of normal students seeking to work off conditions, and teachers wishing to learn the best methods in elementary schools.

-The Northwestern Wisconsin Teachers' Association holds its next meeting at Stevens Point, March 27-29th. The preliminary an nouncements indicate, in addition to the general session, round tables on the moral force of the school and pensions for teachers. There are to be four section meetings, school board, high school, graded school, and common school, and for the evenings a social gathering, a lecture by A. E. Winship, of Boston, and a stereopticon exhibit and lecture by Miss L. E. Stearns on the famous libraries of the world.

-The committee having in hand the preparation of a suitable memorial of the late Pres. Albee, have given an order to Miss Nellie Mears, of Oshkosh, known as the sculptor of "The Genius of Wisconsin," now in the rotunda of the state capitol, for a life-size bust of Mr. Albee, which it is hoped will be ready for unveiling at the next commencement of the Oshkosh Normal School. The committee are further engaged in raising six thousand dollars to endow what is to be known as the George S. Albee scholarship in the normal school.

The

-Supt. Jostad, of La Crosse county, writes: "Pardon my telling you that the recent meeting of the La Crosse County Teachers' Association, at Onalaska, was the most successful held in this district for many years. discussions were persistent, continuous, and intelligent. No straw was thrashed simply to raise the dust. We did not select the principals to lead on the program with speeches, recitations, and papers; but on the other hand, placed the other element of our teachers in the front. Thus nearly all were brought into the discussions. On March 4th another such

gathering will be held at West Salem.”

-The teachers of Dodge county gave to Superintendent Flavin, who has served them in his present position for more than twenty

nected with it, that the firm by whom he was employed paid $40 for the first month's services, etc. In response to his importunities, I gave him the names of certain people whom I knew to be out of employment.

I have since learned that I did not get from him the entire plan of operations. It seems that he goes to people who are out of employment and paints the business which he offers in such rosy colors that they are persuaded to sign a contract to work for the firm for a period of one month, for so many hours a day, and as a guarantee of good faith to deposit $7.50.

A lawyer tells me that the canvasser and probably the firm behind him, live upon these forced contributions from poor people, and that the scheme is so barefaced a form of robbery that I ought to have detected it at sight. Thinking, however, that other superintendents may be as simple as myself, I write this confession as a word of warning.

SUPERINTENDENT.

THE NEW BOSCOBEL HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING.

The necessity of more healthful school accommodations has long been felt in Boscobel, but not until July, 1897, did the people respond to this need. Then it was voted to raise $15,000 for a new high school building, and now it may be truly said that Boscobel enjoys one of the most beautiful, healthful, and convenient school buildings in southern Wisconsin.

The building was planned by Architect Van Ryan, of Milwaukee, Wis., and built by F. X. Pingger & Co., of Whitewater, Wis. It was begun in September, 1897, and completed and newly furnished during the following summer at a total cost of about $18,000. School was opened in the building September 15, 1898.

The basement contains the closets, coal rooms and furnace rooms. On the first floor are four classrooms 32 x 26 ft., and a teachers' room 14 x 16 ft. The second floor has the high school assembly room, with a seating capacity of one hundred and twenty pupils, two recitation rooms, a library, principal's office, and two classrooms 32 x 62 ft. Separate cloak rooms are provided with each classroom. The laboratories are on the third floor.

The structure is 108 x 70 ft.; tower 120 ft. high. The building was built of the local sand stone, and trimmed with Bedford sand stone. The entire building is warmed and ventilated by the Smead Heating and Ventilating system. The interior is finished in soft wood, painted; the floors are hard maple. throughout the building.`

The total enrollment of the Boscobel schools is 436 pupils, of whom 85 are in high school. There are 24 tuition pupils, of which number 16 are in the high school. The whole number of teachers employed is 13.

CUBAN EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION.

Major-General Joseph Wheeler, President. Gilbert K. Harroun, Secretary and Treas

urer.

Directors: Major-General Joseph Wheeler, General Calixto Garcia, Alexander E. Orr, Nicholas Murray Butler, Ph. D., Albert Shaw, Ph. D., Wm. H. Baldwin, Jr., Gilbert K. Harroun.

The work being done by the Cuban Educational association brings frequent inquiries from different parts of the United States, and the association presents the following in response to such inquiries:

First.-A large number of applicants from Cuba and Porto Rico ask for allotment to the educational institutions of the United States; many of these applicants exhibit intelligence to a marked degree, but unfortunately they are deficient in the English language, besides having very little money.

Second.-Parents, guardians and friends of these young men are doing all they can, even to the extent of offering to go under bonds, or to mortgage their land, in order that these applicants may complete their education in the United States.

Third. A large number of educational institutions in the United States through their presidents, professors, and boards of trustees, have offered to receive and instruct these young men in the most cordial way without a dollar's compensation.

Fourth. From two to three hundred dollars will be needed to give a student his board and incidental expenses during a first year's schooling in the United States besides the free tuition scholarship he is to receive.

Fifth. To meet the emergencies the asso-. ciation suggests the following plan: In each city or town which has an institution willing to receive one or two of these young men let there be formed a committee who will stand sponsors for the board and incidental expenses of each young man for one year of trial work at school. As soon as such committee informs this association they are ready to receive a student, we will allot to them one whom we believe to be a competent and reputable student.

Sixth. Persons who do not care to engage directly in the work and wish to aid, can do

so by giving the money direct to the association, and with such gifts express their preference for the institution where they wish the money expended. These gifts should be sent to undersigned, who will acknowledge the receipt and furnish any information regarding the work being done to aid these young men. Address G. K. Harroun, secretary and treasurer, Cuban Educational Association, 289 Fourth Avenue, New York.

GROWTH OF OUR HIGH SCHOOLS.

As a means of measuring the growth of free high schools during the four years last past, the following statistics and comparisons are instructive and significant:

In the year 1894 the average daily attendance in free high schools having four years' courses of study was 7,779; the number pursuing English branches only was 6,048; the numbers studying German was 1,606; the number studying Latin or Greek was 1,995; and the number of graduates was-males, 314; females, 626; total, 940.

In the year 1898 the average daily attendance in free high schools having four years' courses of study was 11, 598; the number studying English branches only was 6,934; the number studying German was 3,620; the number studying Latin or Greek was 3,594; and the number of graduates was-males, 682; females, 1,066; total, 1,748.

In the schools having three years' courses of study, in 1894 the average daily attendance was 1,946; the number studying English branches only was 2,353; the number studying German was 51; the number studying Latin or Greek was 8; the number of graduates was-males, 139; females, 140; total, 279.

In the year 1898 in the schools having three years' courses of study, the average daily attendance was 1,817; the number studying English branches only was 2,238; the number studying German was 47; the number studying Latin or Greek was 11; the number of graduates was-males, 139; females, 207; total, 346.

No student of statistics concerning high schools can avoid the conclusion that this class of schools is slowly but surely attracting attendance from rural neighborhoods in every part of the state. One of the motives that strongly urges village districts to establish high schools, is the certainty that residents of neighboring localities will resort to them for the advantages for secondary education which such schools will offer, and thus materially assist in financial support; and the knowledge

that such an element, with the strong incentive to studiousness and scholarly habits it brings, will improve the character of the local school. I am aware of no locality that has been disappointed in these respects. In fact many who supposed they were making ample provision in building or reconstructing schoolhouses for all who would come, have found very soon that they have built too small, and that they were straitened for room to house all who applied for admission.

Evidence of a high appreciation of the high schools is manifest in the prevailing disposition to erect new buildings for their use, planned in harmony with the very best and latest ideas relating to the requirements and conveniences necessary for the work of a high school, and the equipment of them with suitable laboratory and library supplies. Nearly if not quite one-tenth of all the high schools in the state have, during the last two years been furnished with new buildings, which, for the most part are models in taste, convenience, comfort, and capacity. Among these should be named the buildings at Black River Falls, Boscobel, Brandon, Darlington, West Depere, Evansville, Kaukauna, Lodi, Manawa, Mayville, Watertown, Waukesha, and Wausau. Others, of lesser magnitude, are no less worthy of honorable mention. And these are all added to similar enterprises of the preceding biennial period, which nearly if not quite equalled those of the present period in number and in excellence. Thus year by year is the list of inadequate, inconvenient, and unfit high school buildings, being diminished, with no other pressure than the sense of fitness created in communities by the work of the high schools themselves.

Another evidence of the increased appreciation and widening scope of the influence of the high schools, is found in the largely increased receipts for tuition at these schools during the last year. More than fifty thousand dollars was thus paid to the several schools for that purpose last year, by non-resident pupils. This exceeds the entire amount annually appropriated by the state to encourage the maintenance of free high schools. -Report of State Superintendent Emery.

THE SAMOAN ISLANDS.

The group is made up of three large islands Savii, Upolu and Tutuila -and of five smaller ones, making a total area of about 3,000 square miles, and containing at present not over 40,000 inhabitants. A Frenchman visiting the islands in the last century observed the skill

of the natives in paddling canoes and gave to the group the name of "Navigator Islands," by which they are sometimes known.

Savii, the westernmost and largest of the group, is some forty miles long and twenty in width, and is of volcanic origin. It is ridged with lofty, cloud-encircled mountains, which are covered with a mantle of dense rich tropical foliage, giving to them a delightful softness and evenness of outline.

Ten miles to the eastward of Savii is the beautiful island of Upolu, the most important of the group, having an area of 560 square miles, diversified by mountain peaks 3,000 feet high, volcanic caverns of symmetrical shapes, plateaus of remarkable fertility, and many valleys of great beauty. The volcanoes have been long extinct and their craters have been changed into deep and beautiful lakes.

The seat of government is Apia, a town of 1,500 inhabitants, situated around a bay on the northwestern side of Upolu. A coral reef forms a barrier against the waves of the Pacific, so that ships at anchor in the bay are usually safe. But it does not offer a protection against the hurricanes which often visit these islands. In 1889 warships of the United States, England, and Germany were riding at anchor here, when suddenly a terrrific storm burst upon them, causing them to drag their anchors, hurling some of them upon each other, and dashing others upon the beach. Many of the sailors were drowned. An English warship was the only one among them that succeeded in escaping to sea.

Continuing forty miles to the eastward we come to Tutuila, a mountainous island nearly a hundred miles in circumference and containing 8,000 inhabitants. The interior is so rugged and the jungle is so dense that it is seldom visited by the natives. On the south side of the island is the fine harbor of PagoPago, or Pango-Pango. Being land-locked, and bounded by mountains on one side, and by a perpendicular wall of solid rock 1,500 feet in height on another, it affords the safest refuge to ships of all sizes during the hurricane season. This harbor was conceded to the United States by King Malietoa in the treaty of 1875 for a coaling station for ships of war, and the United States vessels cruising in the South seas have drawn their supply of coal from this place.

These three islands bear a striking resemblance to each other. The mountain peaks are clothed in perpetual green, and all are surrounded by barrier reefs of coral, over which the breakers unceasingly dash into spray. The rivers are tortuous mountains streams which become torrents at times of heavy rainfall. As

they rush down to the sea many cascades, falls, and cataracts of impressive beauty and grandeur are formed; one of these plunges over a precipice over three hundred feet in height.

The breadfruit, taro, banana, and cocoanut form the daily food of the people, their common use being in the order in which they are named here. There are twenty varieties of the breadfruit. It is a handsome tree, with dark-green dentated leaves. The fruit when ripe measures about six inches in diameter and is of a bright golden yellow, with a rough and pitted surface. When roasted-the usual way of cooking it-it is not a bad substitute for bread. Next in importance is the taro, or arum, a tuber, oblong in shape, that frequently grows to be fifteen inches long and six inches in diameter. Its large-ribbed, heart-shaped, heavy leaves, growing from the top of the root, like those of a water-lily, are always conspicuous in Samoan landscapes.

The cocoanut is commercially the most important of these fruits. The Samoan chiefs affirm that it was sent direct from heaven. Although these trees grow naturally and abundantly, in order that the demand shall never equal the supply a number of nuts are planted each year. Of later years cocoanuts have become an important article of commerce. All the foreign business of Samoa rests upon the export of the cocoanut.-Ex.

THE SCHOOL ROOM.

WHAT HE SHOULD KNOW.

A boy should come out of the public school with:

1. The ability to write a rapid, neat, legible hand.

2. The power to express himself easily in simple, direct, grammatical English.

3. A thorough and practical knowledge of the fundamental principles and operations of arithmetic.

4. A fair knowledge of his country's history and of general geography.

5. A love for good literature; and a wholesome respect for authority.

If he knows and has all this, we can pardon him for being ignorant of the number of lenses in a cockchafer's eye, or what the under-lip of a yellow-specked grasshopper looks like.-Exchange.

EVERY-DAY SCIENCE.

I. Which boils the sooner, milk or water, and why?