It has not yet been determined whether that is a "knock" at the applicants or the civil service examination questions.

Sol Van Praag, who was identified with the saloon and restaurant business for twenty-five years, and who made one of the best records of any restaurant inspector in the city's service, says the questions asked by the former commission would drive a dog to drink. He also said that he could tell a dead duck when he saw it, even if he didn't know if Rameses wore a red wig or whether Nero played a banjo or fiddled while Rome burned.

The civil service officials are inclined to the belief that the applicants failed because they had their heads crammed with a lot of theoretical stuff and little of every day practical knowledge. For instance:

Three college bred persons failed to pass the examination for telephone operators.

Two college bred youths took the examination for second grade draftsmen, and both flunked. And, worst of all:

Thirty-six applicants with college degrees back of them took the examination for the position of third grade clerk, which pays $83.33 a month. Nineteen of the thirty-six failed to pass the examination. They "fell down" on questions that are claimed to be just play for six and seventh grade grammar pupils. They had a little penmanship and some spelling, and the hardest word they had to spell, according to the commission, was "vacillating." The arithmetic consisted of a few simple propositions in fractions and an example in simple in

terest.

It is proposed in the city hall that the examination questions be forwarded, together with the statistics on the percentage of failures among the college bred applicants, to the heads of several colleges, with the suggestion that there is something radically wrong, either with the curriculum or the students.

* * *

Talking with an American who, after a four years' course at Harvard, spent two years at Oxford, I learned some facts about life at the great English uni

versity that surprised me, says Julius Chambers. Eighteen hundred dollars is the least that will carry a man through the college year. The $1500 per year apportioned to the holders of Rhodes scholarships has proved inadequate, and as the property left by the South African millionaire to provide the money for successful candidates has enormously increased in earning capacity, the trustees are likely to advance the stipend to $2,000.

Extravagance among students, as seen in some American colleges, is unknown. The young men are expected to live alike. Social life is cultivated and small groups exchange invitations to breakfasts and dinners. Fellows and other members of the faculties are frequent guests, bringing the men into friendlier relations with their teachers.

When Great Tom tolls in Christ Church tower all lights must be doused.

* * *

The changes wrought in educational methods affecting girls are bewildering, says Mrs. Florence Best Harris. When residing in Japan twenty-five years ago I was at great pains not to learn any borrowed Chinese words, except those in most common use, lest the unfamiliar sounds, like those of our own Latin and other borrowings, might confuse my feminine listeners. Returning after this long sojourn in America, to Tokio-with its woman's university, its varied schools for girls, from the kindergarten upward I find that the pure Japanese, like our simple Anglo-Saxon, is insufficient even for daily use. "New occasions" have brought new words, as well as "new duties," and the ordinary educated girl must borrow from the Chinese, as did her educated brother of old Japan, in order to give clear expressions to her thoughts. So late as the beginning o 1904, more than 89 per cent of the giris of the empire were in school, and of these, over 101,000 were attending high schools and special schools of various kinds.

Sir William Treloar, the lord mayor of London, and the aldermen and councillors who were with him on his recent

trip to Germany, visited the remarkable institution founded and carried on by the municipality of Charlottenburg, a prosperous town of a quarter of a million inhabitants, which forms the western part of greater Berlin, but is a separate borough. This is the "school in the woods," where in the spring, summer and autumn months sickly children receive every morning and afternoon lessons in the open air. The school consists of a large enclosure in Grunewald forest, on the western outskirts of Berlin, where there is the purest fresh air, and the pine trees provide plenty of shade for the pupils of both sexes, who are selected from the elementary schools of Charlottenburg by

medical men.

* * *

The future king of England was sentenced recently to "defaulter's drill" much to the amusement of many young mothers whose sons are cadets at Osborne College, Isle of Wight. The Prince of Wales, when he heard of it, enjoyed the news almost as much as when he heard that his son had suffered his first "licking" and got a black eye after a few days' residence at the college.

Little Prince Edward is irrepressible. He is in such splendid health and spirits that he is not paying as much attention as he should to the "classes" indoors. The result, the other day, was that no amount of "hushing" on the part of the instructor during a mathematical class could make him keep quiet, and he continued to talk and laugh with his companions until he was ordered out of the room to receive punishment. The latter consisted of an hour at hard drill while all the other boys were playing cricket. The punishment created something of a sensation among the other boys, but the superintendent has received received very strong instructions from the Prince of Wales that his son is to be punished on all occasions exactly the same way as the other cadets. Prince Edward's greatest ambition now is to be a skilled ship's engineer, and he is most happy when in the bowels of a warship.

* * *

In anticipation of the opening of the new domestic economy building of

Teachers College, New York York City, ground for which will probably be broken this month, a committee of the faculty is preparing a comprehensive statement of the problem of classification and terminology in the field of education for the home. The report will be widely distributed among educators, with requests for suggestions, in the hope of arriving at a general acceptable plan.

*

Consul-General J. W. Ragsdale, writing from Tien-Tsin, March II, reports that the Throne has approved the suggestion of the board of finance that the first year's expenses of the new military schools be defrayed from the sums realized by the collection on Government stores, and from the moneys obtained from customs collections at Newchwang and handed over to China by the Japanese, and from those recovered from the Russians. The Government stores collection amounted to 1,500,000 taels, while Japan and Russia handed over 240,000 taels and 360,000 taels, respectively. In future the expenses of the schools will be met from the sums collected on Government stores.

* * *

A town in America without a schoolhouse of any kind! There is one, says the New York Globe. It is Fort Payne, Ala. Although there are two hundred children of school age there, "the sound of the school bell is not heard." The reason is that the town lost its building by fire several years ago and is unable to build one. Its total revenue received from direct taxation is less than $1,500, and its revenue from all sources is less than $2,500, all of which is spent for streets, police protection, and other expenses of government.

As the town is collecting taxes up to its constitutional limit, some other method of raising funds than by taxation has been found necessary. A number of merchants in the town have, therefore, issued an appeal for financial aid in building such a school-house for the 200 pupils now deprived of school advantages. They have raised among themselves $2,750, besides a donation of the

site for the building. At least $5,000 is required.

In their appeal the merchants write:

"Of whatever donation you will make us advise Charles M. T. Sawyer, of this town, who will place your name on the subscription list, to be called for when a contract for the building has been awarded, and the contractor bonded."

The annual register of Lehigh University, South Bethlehem, Pa., shows an attendance of 708 students from thirty different State and nine foreign countries. Pennsylvania leads with 412 students. New Jersey, New York, and Maryland follow with 57, 56, and 55, re

spectively. Twenty-two students come from Washington, 15 from Massachusetts, and fourteen from Virginia. Other States are represented with less than 10 students. The students are divided by courses as follows: Arts and sciences, 43; civil engineering, 209; mechanical engineering, 165; mining engineering, 110; metallurgical engineering, 5; electrometallurgy, 9; electrical engineering, 113; chemistry, 22; chemical engineering, 32. There are 13 graduate students, III seniors, 127 juniors, 183 sophomores, 253 freshemn, 4 special students, and 17 summer-school students who did not matriculate in September. This is the largest registration in the history of the university.

The meeting of the International Kindergarten Union, in New York City, April 29-May 3, is a vivid reminder of the growth and extension of the kindergarten system in the United States. It is a little more than half a century since Dr. Henry Barnard, one of the pioneer enthusiastic advocates of the kindergarten idea, in his report to the Governor of Connecticut, characterized the kinderten, as exhibited in the London and Hamburg examples, as "by far the most original, attractive, and philosophical form of infant development the world has yet seen."

Dr. Barnard became the first United States Commissioner of Education, and it is natural to find him emphasizing in his reports to the Senate the need and value of the kindergarten as part of the great public school system.

It is not generally known, perhaps, that the first kindergarten in this country was, it is claimed, established in 1858, at Columbus, Ohio, by Miss Caroline Louise Frankenburg, to whom belongs the honor of being the Nestor of American Kindergartners. Among the little students in that historic school was

Wilson L. Gill, founder of the School City system of public instruction.

Kindergartens were established in Hoboken, N. J., in 1861, and in New York City in 1864. But it was not until Miss Elizabeth Peabody, of Boston, took up the work that the movement received the impulse which gave it national prestige. Miss Peabody, like many others, at that period opened her kindergarten without special training. With characteristic humility and good sense, realizing her shortcomings, she gave up her tentative labors to go away and study. The same year, 1867, in which Dr. Barnard assumed his duties as head of the new Government National Educational Bureau, found this simple, earnest pioneer American kindergarten exponent in Europe studying the kindergartens as instituted by Froebel. A year later she returned, to establish kindergartens with the full and enlarged conception of all that the idea involved for child culture and for the teacher; and to give a lasting and elevating impetus to kindergarten advance in America.

The idea of starting kindergartens was talked of in Milwaukee as early as

1853, it appears, through the interest of Mrs. Carl Schurz, who had studied the system in Germany, and who had infused Miss Peabody and others with her enthusiasm. A so-called kindergarten was conducted in Chicago as early as 1865. But nothing permanent and really scientific was established in this country until after Miss Peabody's return from Europe the great need being naturally for properly trained kindergartners.

It was in 1870 that the first kindergarten training school in the United States that of Mme. Kriege - was opened in Boston. During that year Miss Peabody lectured on the system before the senior class of the Normal College, of New York, and the year is notable as being the date of the establishment of the first charity kindergarten in America, in connection with the Poppenhusen Institute of the Conrad Poppenhusen Association, at College Point, N. Y. It is an interesting fact, too, that in 1870, the first public school kindergarten was opened in Boston, which was, unfortunately, discontinued after several years' successful operation, for lack of funds.

Two years later, Miss Marie Boelte (Mme. Kraus Boelte), a gifted pupil of Mme. Froebel, conducted a private kindergarten in a young ladies' seminary and the following year instituted an independent kindergarten and normal class. The same year, 1873, Miss Susan E. Blow started the model kindergarten training school in St. Louis, which has been a centrifugal center of Kindergarten influence and extension ever since. The latent kindergarten sentiment in Wisconsin bloomed that year by the opening of the first public kindergarten in that State.

It was not until 1874 that the kindergarten came into flourishing existence in Chicago. It began with a private kindergarten in the home of a devoted mother and trained kindergartner, Mrs. Alice H. Putnam, who formed a study class and drew other mothers into it, and who is largely responsible for the establishment of the kindergarten in the public schools of Chicago.

In 1876, through Mrs. Putnam's in

fluence, the first free kindergarten in Chicago was opened in the rooms of Dwight L. Moody's church; and in that year, through the Children's Charitable Union, the first free kindergarten was opened in New York City.

The year 1877 is signalized by a remarkable advance in the extension of the kindergarten in New England, through the inauguration of the notable group of free kindergartens carried on by Mrs. Pauline A. Shaw, of Boston, the public-spirited and philanthropic daughter of the great naturalist, Agassiz, who for eleven years maintained kindergartens numbering as many as thirty-one in a single year, under the general direction of the gifted and able kindergartner, the late Laliah B. Pingree. These kindergartens, it should be noted, were afterwards taken over by the Boston Public School Board.

A year later, 1878, the Rev. R. Heber Newton instituted the first church kindergarten at Anthon Memorial Church, New York City, and Prof. Felix Adler led in the establishment of the first kindergarten by the Ethical Culture Society.

It was in the summer following that Professor Adler carried the kindergarten idea to the Pacific Coast, where it was so enthusiastically reecived that the San Francisco Public Kindergarten Association was formed and incorporated at once, its efficient organizer being the talented author and kindergartner, "Kate Douglas Wiggin," now Mrs. Riggs, then Miss Kate Douglas Smith.

The year 1879 is marked by the first. published translation of Froebel's original "Mother Play"; the work of Miss Josephine Jarvis. In that year, too, Kindergarten Associations for the extension of the kindergarten in public schools began to spring up.

Cincinnati and Philadelphia came into line, each society beginning with a single free kindergarten and increasing the numbers until the entire group was taken over into the public school system. 1879, too, the late Mrs. Sarah B. Cooper began her good and great work for kindergartens in San Francisco.

In

The last two decades of the nineteenth century were years of definite and per

manent growth for the kindergarten, which had attained a solid base of popular acceptance and appreciation. In 1880 the Winona, Minn., State Normal School was equipped with the first kindergarten and kindergarten training department. The State of Wisconsin also adopted the idea for its normal school. The California Training School, of which Kate Douglas Wiggin was founder, and director for ten years, was instituted in 1880.

The public school board of Milwaukee, Wis., adopted kindergartens in 1882, which marked a new era in the extension of public kindergartens among schools of the Middle West. In 1887 Philadelphia formally accepted the kindergarten as part of the public school system; Boston followed in 1888. At the close of the

decade there were forty free kindergartens in San Francisco, chiefly maintained by the association founded by Mrs. Sarah B. Cooper, which leads all others in the number of kindergartens instituted and in its contributions for the good work.

It was not until 1899 that New York City began the great organized movement for kindergartens, which has now surpassed that of any other city. The first kindergarten of the New York Association, Richard Watson Gilder, president, was opened in 1890.

In 1891, the five Leland Stanford, Jr., Memorial Kindergartens of San Francisco were endowed by Mrs. Stanford, who gave $100,000 for the purpose. In 1892 the International Kindergarten Union was formed at Saratoga Springs,

N. Y.

In 1893 the public schools of New York City were increased in efficiency by the addition of kindergartens. Kindergarten literature was given a notable addition in 1894 by the publication of Miss Blow's first book on Froebel's system, "Symbolic Education," followed a year later by the translation of the "Mottoes and Commentaries of Froebel's Mother Play."

It was in 1896 that Teachers College, Columbia University, set a new standard for kindergarten training, placing it on the college basis and requiring four years' course after the high school, a plan now followed by the University of

Chicago and other higher institutions.

Kindergarten practice has been greatly improved by the preparation of a definite plan of instruction suggested by Miss Blow, and by the production of Froebelian songs and plays, and other contributions. to kindergarten instruction, with expositions of the philosophy of Froebel and of the Child Study and Child Training principles.

In 1898 the number of kindergartens reported by the Commissioner of Education was 2,884, with 143,720 pupils in 189 cities, of which 1,365 were public, with 95,867 pupils.

In

Four years later the number of kindergartens had risen to 3,244 with 205,432 pupils, of which 2,202 were public school of private kindergartens has been rekindergartens in 289 cities. The number duced to 1,042. In 1903 New York City had 404; Chicago, 113, and Philadelphia 197 public school kindergartens. 1904, New York listed 449, in 1905, 491, and in 1906, 549 public kindergartens, in addition to those maintained under private and charitable auspices. In September, 1907, Brooklyn will observe the tenth anniversary of the introduction of public school kindergartens which number 217 with 7,913 children. Queens County has 93 kindergartens with 2,642 children enrolled. These 310 kindergartens, it is pointed out by Miss Fanniebelle Curtis, who has directed the work from the be

ginning, cover a territory of 207 square miles, represent every nationality and condition, from the most congested centers with their foreign population to the suburban districts with kindergartens set, as they should be, near fields and woods.

The influence of the kindergarten is an irrepressible and accruing achievement. The change that has infused the principle of self-activity into all educational work in America, from the earliest instruction to the university, is freely credited to the kindergarten. It represents the fundamental idea of all the educational reforms of the last half century, and an idea which may be regarded as still in the bourgeoning period of its expansion and growth.-Jane A. Stewart, in the School Journal.