Supt. Jas. A. Foshay has been untiring in his efforts to secure the N. E. A. for his city. He was ably seconded in his work by Dr. Brown of Berkeley, Albert Lyser of San Francisco, Supt. of Public Instruction S. T. Black, and others. A promise was given that 5000 California teachers would attend the Los Angeles meeting. Let us all help to make the promise good.

The teachers will miss from the institute field some familiar faces this year. Prof. Griggs of Stanford, A. B. Coffey, Earl Barnes, Charles H. Keyes will be missed from the institute programs. Some new faces, however, will appear, and superintendents will have the following list to select from: Dr. Elmer E. Brown, Berkeley; Prof. Elwood Cubberly, Stanford; Dr. O. P. Jenkins, Stanford: Dr. Thomas P Bailey, Berkeley; Dr. Dresslar, Berkeley; Dr. D. S. Jordan, Stanford; Prof. Charles H. Allen, San Jose; T. H. Kirk, San Bernardino; C. C. Van Liew, Los Angeles; Prof. Washington Wilson, Berkeley; Prof. T. L. Heaton, Berkeley; Miss Katherine M. Ball, San Francisco; Harr Wagner, San Francisco, and others. For evening lectures in addition to the above, Joaquin Miller has promised to attend a few institutes and give his new lecture, "Life by the Northern Lights." Supt. of Public Instruction Samuel T. Black, will also follow his well established custom of doing all in his power to aid the superintendents during institute week.

Hon. W. T. Harris, U. S. Commissioner of Education, is noted for his catholicity of view. In the following brief extract he has touched the high water mark:

"The new burden of preparing our united people for the responsibilities of a closer union with Europe and for a share in the dominion over the islands and continents of the Orient, this new burden will fall on the school systems in the several States and more particularly on the colleges and universities that furnish the higher education. For it is higher education that must furnish the studies in history and in the psychology of peoples which will prepare our Ministers and Embassadors abroad with their numerous retinue of experts and specialists thoroly versed in the habits and traditions of the several nations. The knowledge required by our members of Congress and our executive departments will make a demand upon higher education for post-graduate students who have concentrated their investigations upon points in international law and the philosophy of history. Diplomacy will become a great branch of learning for us.

"This has been felt for some time, altho it has not been consciously realized. In the past twenty-five years the enrollment in higher education, in college work alone, has increased from 590 to 1,215 in the million; it has more than doubled in each million of people. The post-graduate work of training experts or specialists has been multiplied by twenty-five; for it has increased from a total of 200 to a total of 5000 in the nation. The education of the elementary school fits the citizen for most of his routine work in agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and mining. the deeper problems of uniting our nation with the other great nations, and harmonizing our unit of force with that greater unit, must be solved by higher education, for it alone can make the wide combinations that are necessary. Shallow elementary studies give us the explanation of that which lies near us. They help us to understand our immediate environment, but for the understanding of deep national differences and for the management of all that is alien to our part of the world, deeper studies are required. The student must penetrate the underlying fundamental principles of the world's history in order to see how such different fruits have grown on the same tree of humanity.

"We must look to our universities and colleges for the people who have learned to understand the fashions and daily customs of a foreign people and who have learned to connect the surface of their every-day life with the deep national principles and aspirations which mold and govern their individual and social action. Hence the significance of this epoch in which you are assembled to discuss the principles of education and its methods of practice. There have been great emergencies, and great careers have opened

How can the county institute be improved? If the county institutes are to be continued, some means must be devised to improve them. There are too many of them that are of so little value to the teachers that to ask them to spend time and money in attending them is unjust. There are many exceptions to this rule that are sources of real inspiration to all who attend. But they are the exceptions, and not the rule. In many institutes the same dull, mechanical routine has been pursued for twenty years. The teachers have become blasé. A visitor can sit for two hours, as the writer has done repeatedly, and not find more than one in five giving even passive attention to what is going on. The countenances of the teachers wear a bored expression, and they are free to declare among themselves that they attend the institute because the superintendent expects them to do so, and he grants the certificates. Here is a problem which the county superintendents and the instructors ought to take up and try to solve during the coming year.Geo. P. Brown.

It is evident that George P. Brown has never attended an institute in the Pacific Coast States. He would find at least one in four attentive here. The institute is a problem. It has its place in educational progress, but there is a grave doubt whether many superintendents have secured the answer to the question, How to make the institute interesting and instructive?

*

Patriotism is bearing us along on its flood and not all of us are careful to ask whither. Amid all the patriotic verses of the hour we may turn to the words of a patriot as true as any, tho he lived on the other side of the water, and apply them where we choose. It was on Nelson's death off the coast of Spain that Wordsworth wrote his famous lines beginning

"Who is the Happy Warrior? Who is He

That every man in arms should wish to be?" lines which describe his ideal soldier, in the strongest possible contrast to the character of Napoleon. Wordsworth's hero is one who knows how to win the grace of life from a situation of peculiar temptations,-a man whose nature is attuned to gentleness,true to the ideals of his youth in all his daily deeds, and abiding in that purity of spirit,-but a man who at the call of a great crisis in his country's affairs is "happy as a lover" to accept the post of danger and trust. We need not look far for our example. Captain Philip of the Texas has supplied us with material for many a lesson on patriotism this Fall, which should put the fireeaters among us to shame. The silencing of those thoughtless boys, cheering as the magazines of the Oquendo exploded,and his words on the quarter-deck in the hour of victory: "I want to make public acknowledgment here that I believe in God, the Father Almighty. I want all you officers and men to lift your hats, and from your hearts offer silent thanks to the Almighty" are characteristic of that heart-culture which alone saves patriotism from the taint of brutality and rant. They should be told in every school house to-day in order that we may not forget them to-morrow. This is one of the men

"Who, whether praise of him must walk the earth
Forever, and to noble deeds give birth,
Or he must fall to sleep without his fame,
And leave a dead unprofitable name—
Finds comfort in himself and in his cause;--
And while the mortal mist is gathering, draws
His breath in confidence of Heaven's applause:
This is the Happy Warrior; this is He
Whom every man in arms should wish to be."

The year 47 B. C. was the longest year on record. By order of Julius Cæsar it contained 445 days. The additional days were put in to make the seasons conform as near as possible with the solar year.

MORE HISTORY.

OUR navy has achieved

another victory almost equal to the victory of Admiral Dewey, at Manila. The Spanish

fleet under Admiral Cervera, which had been "bottled up" in the Santiago de Cuba harbor, attempted, on the morning of the third of July, to escape from the unfortunate predicament in which it found it self. They indulged a faint hope that some of the ships, the finest in the Spanish navy, might escape by fighting their way thru the blockade.

It was a brave but foolish attempt, and it is said was made under imperative orders from Madrid. Had the attempt been made at night some of the fleet might have escaped, but in sinking the Merrimac Constructor Hobson "builded better than he knew." It was so placed that an ironclad could pass it by daylight, but at night they dared not make the trial.

In the early morning the fleet in single file, led by Cervera's flag ship, steamed rapidly out of the bay, and as they came in range, opened fire on our ships. Our squadron immediately assembled to head off the would-be fugitives, and so accurately and vigorously did they return the fire that in a short time the whole Spanish fleet was either destroyed or compelled to surrender.

The Spanish squadron consisted of the Infanta Maria Theresa the Viscaya, the Oquendo, the Christobal Colon, and the torpedo boats Furor and Pluton. This was the fleet that it was feared would attempt to attack some of our Sea Coast cities.

The most remarkable thing about this engagement is that notwithstanding the heavy fire from the Spanish vessels, and from the forts while in range, the loss on the American side was but one man killed and two or three slightly wounded.. The Spanish loss, besides those taken prisoners, was very heavy.

Admiral Sampson had steamed away in the early morning to have an interview with General Shafter, commanding the land forces, and could not return until the victory was well nigh won. Commodore Schley, who was first officer of the Maine when she was so treacherously blown up, had the pleasure of commanding our squadron. It need hardly be said that he "Remembered the Maine," and he is less or more than human if he did not rejoice at this opportunity of avenging the deed of shame.

CALIFORNIA'S ADMISSION DAY

adopted, officers elected, and laws passed before California was admitted into the Union. The first legislature met at San Jose. It passed many Reference Topics. laws and gave the names to the counties of Convention at Monthe State. Fremont and Gwin were elected United States Senators. They went to Washington and asked that California be admitted to the Union. The President sent a special message to Congress about California.

terey. The first U. S. Senators. Seward's Speech. Webster's Speech. Calhoun. September 9, 1850, Why the Admission was Opposed.

The giants of the Senate-Clay, Calhoun, Webster, Seward, and Jefferson Davismen whom you will read about in the history of your countrywere interested in California. Calhoun and Davis did not want California admitted because of the slavery question.

Almost the last speech Calhoun made was against California. He thought it would bring trouble between the North and the South. He tried to talk again, but was too weak, and another Senator read his speech. It was a great speech in all the arts that go to make up a fine oration.

Daniel Webster said: "I believe in the Spartan maxim-'improve, adorn what you have; seek no further.' I do not fear slavery in California, because the soil, climate, and everything connected with the region is opposed to slave labor. There has been talk of secession, peaceable secession. You might as well talk of a planet withdrawing from the solar system without a convulsion, as to talk about peaceable secession.

"The Union, which has been so hard to form, has linked together the destinies of all parts of the country, and has made a great nation, because it is a united nation, with a common name, and a common flag, and a common patriotism. It has conferred upon the South no less than upon the North great blessings.

"There may be violence; there may be revolution; the great dead may be disturbed in their graves.

"All this is possible, but not peaceable secession. The Union is one; it is a complete whole. It is bounded, like the buckler of Achilles, on either side by the ocean."

William H. Seward, another name that you will hear more about in history, said: "California ought to be admitted at once; California comes from that clime where the West dies away into the rising East; California, which bounds the empire and the continent; California, the youthful queen of the Pacific, in robes of freedom inlaid with gold, is doubly welcome!

"The stars and stripes should wave over its ports, or it will raise aloft a banner for itself. It would be no mean ambition if it became necessary for its own protection to found an independent nation on the Pacific.

"It is farther away than the old colonies from England; it is out of the reach of railroads; the prairies, the mountains, and the desert, an isthmus ruled by foreign powers, and a cape of storms are between it and the armies of the Union."

The delegates from California prepared a new address in which they related in detail the claims of California to be admitted into the Union.

It seems strange now, when there is no longer any division between North and South, that Congress should hesitate to receive as part of the Union the Golden Land of the West.

The bill making California a State passed the Senate, August 13, 1850. There were thirty-four Senators who voted for it, and eight against it. On September 7th, the bill was up for passage in the House. There were several attempts to defeat it, but it was passed by one hundred and fifty-four ayes against fifty-six

MORAL PATRIOTISM.

Noble Sentiments Expressed by Senator Hoar of Massachusetts.

The rebuke which Senator Hoar administered to Professor Charles Eliot Norton of Harvard, for the latter's Toryism, was one of the severest of verbal castigations. It has not only silenced the professor, but has attracted almost national attention. It was in the course of an address in Worcester, and after he had gloried in the present achievements of American arme, in the reunion of the North and South, and in the renewed respect and love shown this country by England as the result of the war, the venerable Senator thus pitched into his college classmate:

"The trouble with Professor Norton, who thinks his countrymen are lacking in a sense of honor is that there are two things he cannot in the least comprehend. He cannot comprehend his countrymen and he cannot comprehend honor. In a true philosophy the sense of honor and the sense of duty are one. Wordsworth says that 'honor is but the finest sense of justice.' There never was a people on earth who, as to the great subjects of public conduct, were actuated by a finer, by a profounder sense of duty and a cleaner sense of justice than the people of the United States in this generation and at this hour.

England and America.

"Poor Professor Norton, color-blind and music-deaf. At this day, when the North and South are coming together; when Mother England is learning to know her daughter and to love her again he says that it is characteristic of the American people to be trifling, and that he feels, with Horace Walpole, that he should be proud of his country were it not for his countrymen. Heaven knows that I do not say this from any desire to inflict pain. But it is due to the youth of the country; it is due to Harvard that somebody shall say this. If such utterances are to go unreproved from our foremost university, manhood and courage and honor will follow athletics to Yale, or will follow classical learning to the English Cambridge. There can be no worse lesson. It is a lesson which never will be taught in Clark University to tell the youth of the country that their country is base. The feeling of dislike and contempt for us in England which the utterance of Professor Norton and men like him have done so much to foster, is giving way to better knowledge. I do not believe it can be revived again by such utterances as these.

"The best instruction which the youth of a country like ours can have is its own history, and the best result of that instruction is a good hope. If any man attempt to tarnish or destroy either, if it be due to ignorance, it is pitable; if it be due to arrogance or conceit, it is criminal.

"If these utterances came from an enthusiasm for a loftier idea, from a desire to raise the country to a nobler or loftier plane we might forgive them, but the men who utter them have neither enthusiasm nor ideals. It is the doctrine of arrogance, of contempt, of pessimism, of bitterness, of despair.

Honor is Found Everywhere.

"Honor, like all the great sentiments, is incapable of exact description or portraiture. But the American people know what she is well enough. She has dwelt among them from the beginning. She does not disdain to be the solace of the poor man or the companion of the humble. She is found in the plain dwelling of the farmer. She sits by the citizen on the wooden bench of the town house and by the nurse at the dying bed in the hospita!. They know least of her who chatter and prate about her in the safety of college lecture rooms. But our boys know all about her. She comforted Grout as he sank beneath the waves in the Potomac at Ball's Bluff. The touch of her soft hand was on the forehead of Spurr when, as his last act of authority, the dying hero ordered back to the ranks the men who would have borne him to a place of safety, and so, instead of one, gave three soldiers to his country. She, invisible but with a most intense and real spiritual presence, stood on the deck of the Merrimac with Hobson and his brave boys. It is she who in God's time shall whisper comfort to the sorrowing hearts of the father and mother of Benchly, who died in the trenches at Santiago.

"I suppose that in the last analysis the sense of honor is nothing but the sense of duty, governing the man without other constraint than his own free choice and leading him to self-sacrifice. In the bosom where it bears sway noblesse-noblesse oblige. But for its highest manifestation there must be to use Jeremiah Taylor's phrase, 'a will apt for noble choices,' and a heart capable of a mighty love.

"If we continue to act on the motive which inspired this war in the beginning we shall hold a place in the solid respect of mankind such as no nation ever held before. We have but one task remaining to us. We have to do once more what Israel Putnam did in the old time-pull the wolf out of his den. The navy has done its work. A Spanish commander when the explosion destroyed the Maine, said it was due to the notoriously slack discipline on American ships. I wonder if he thinks so now?"

The Senator paid an eloquent tribute to Hobson and his men and to Clara Barton, and continued:

"I thank God that day by day my country is growing better, that my eyes in my old age look out on a fairer land, that my ears as they grow deaf will hear the tones of brave voices."

"Near to Nature's Heart."

Marion had just been called indoors to help her sister perform some light task when, hearing some remark about beɛ utiful houses, she forthwith exclaimed, "I think 'outside' is the most booful house in all the world."

Lullaby.

Sleep my dolly, my dearie

Sleep and dream, and dream, and dream, Till the sun sends in his very first gleam. Sleep my dolly, my dozy,

I've tucked you in so cozy,

And kissed you, and whispered a soft good-night, Then slumber and rest in your cradle white.

An Old-Time Favorite.

Oh, a wonderful stream is the River of Time,
As it flows thru the Realm of Tears,
With a faultless rhythm and a musical rhyme,
And a broadening sweep and a surge sublime
Ere it blends with the Ocean of Years.

How the winters are drifting, like flakes of snow,
And the summers like buds between!
And the years in the sheaf, how they come and they go!
On the river's breast, with its ebb and its flow,
As they glide in the shadow and sheen!
There's a magical isle up the River of Time,
Where the softest of airs are playing;
There's a cloudless sky and a tropical clime,
And a song as sweet as a vesper clime

And the Junes with the roses are straying.
The name of that isle is The Long Ago;
And we bury our treasures there;
There are brows of beauty and bosoms of snow
There are heaps of dust-oh, we loved them so !
There are trinkets and tresses of hair.

There's a fragment of song that nobody sings,
And part of an infant's prayer.
There's a lute unswept and a harp without strings,
There are broken vows and pieces of rings,

And garments our loved used to wear.

There are hands that we waved, as the fairy shore
By the mirage is lifted in air

And sometimes we hear, thru the turbulent roar
Sweet voices we heard in the days gone before,
When the wind down the river is fair.

Oh, remembered for aye be that beautiful isle,
All the day of our life until night;
And when Evening comes, with her beautiful smile
And we're closing our eyes to slumber awhile,
May that Greenwood of Soul be in sight!

H.

-Benjamin Franklin Taylor.

The Mammoth Rock District School near Cambria, San Luis Obispo Co., has reopened. C. C. Potter has been elected clerk and Miss Anita Hayes, teacher.

Dr. C. M. Fisher, a noted physician and for many years a teacher in Alameda County, died of typhoid fever, recently. He was a nephew of Philip M. Fisher, and a young man who was loved and respected by all who knew him.

Mountain Park Resort above the sea in the mountains, near Cambria, San Luis Obispo Co., has been popular with teachers and others this season. The fine mountain air, the natural parks, canyons, sulphur springs and opportunities for walks, horseback rides etc., make it an ideal place. Mr. and Mrs. Fred Lehman know how to make a vacation pleasant at their beautiful home. Among those present this year were Miss Sue Morrison, Miss Alice R. Power, Mrs. Williams of San Francisco and Miss Mabel Perley of Modesto. It is an ideal place for teachers.

Dr. Winship, editor of New England Journal of Education writes as follows of Superintendent S. T. Black:

One of the best features of the modern power in education is the way in which it develops men who have large responsibility. There are many superintendents whose official opportunities have developed large resources. One of the best illustrations of this tendency, which samples that of many, is seen in Hon. Samuel T. Black, who was eight years ago a high school principal in a comparatively small town in California; he became county superintendent, and four years ago was elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction. In these four years he has shown himself a man of broad gauge, intense activity, and genuine professional heroism, and he ranks among the foremost state officials of the country. As vice-president of the National Educational Association, and especially as a member of the Committee of Twelve, expert educators chosen from all over the country to grapple with the rural school problem, he has shown himself one of the most intelligent and courageous men of the country.

THE rest is over; and the short vacation has, unbidden, rounded to a close. Out in orchard, field, or meadow, working for a wage, or at home doing the bidding of authority, or off among the hills and mountains, breathing, for a short space, heaven's own unsullied air, have children gone as necessity or whim might suggest or opportunity permit. And teacher, too, if not forestalled by too slender income, has found new life and recreation mid other scenes than those which enslave attention, thought, and mind so long as duty holds her at her post. Those who went away to find surcease from toil have returned with stronger body, mind, zeal, and hope to renew with vigor the trust from which they turned aside the other day; while some, confined at home by business cares, kindred ties, or lack of funds, must supply the want of rest by another draft upon an already lessening store of energy. But, driven by an exacting voice which knows no difierence between the wearied and the rested soul, each must approach the class and desk in competiton with his fellows. May Heaven strengthen them whose hold upon the plow may not be released even to insure increased diligence; and be praised for that respite which sends others back reinvigorated for their toil! In charity, I grudge the one, and give my hand in sympathy unto the other.

crave.

Once more a few vibrations of the bell and we pass into the school, they, teacher and student to apply themselves, and I to study those who teach and study. Thus do I occupy my mind, not with these alone. but with these and others, already known, until the week slips by and ends itself in Friday eve. And so, 'tis Friday now, and evening. The gas is lighted in my room(study some have called it); and now let me recall and review the doings of the week. And first the school.

A FEW short words of pleasant greeting, of admonition, and of hope, and the work begins. However far from strange some faces are, there are two which I know full well-two which I have seen before, have learned to note with peculiar care and more, much more than com. mon interest. Who are they?

They are my friends, the little girl from Nob Hill and the little boy from Barbary Coast-the child of luxury and the child of want. There they sit with two feet of aisle between. An impassable aisle 'twixt the extremes of human life? Let's see. An hour slips by and I have something to remember. The little girl is sitting with head erect, elevated nose, and averted eye-strange paradox,

-at once ignoring and condemning, seeing and yet pretending not to see the "thing" she would not notice. The boy with head erect, flashing eye, and gritted teeth shoots mental flames at one who will not deign to return the fire. Just now the recitation's called, and they, the girl and boy, by common impulse led, seek extremities of the class. Here, at least for a time, is each in part relieved of the presence of the other; more, however, by distracting thoughts than distance and intervening classmates.

What caused the friction, unexpressed, between the children? While puzzling his brain for one small initial thought as key to unlock his lesson, the boy heard the rustle of a dress; and turning, noticed for the first (?) no, the dozenth time, his silk-clad neighbor. He could but note the dress, the French-kid shoes the jewels which she wore; and silently, he wished his mother could dress as well; and then he noticed the rosy cheeks, the clear blue eye, the silken hair, and was wishing that he were just as happy as she seemed to be, when she turned and caught his gaze, and at once resented his impudence (?) after the manner of her inheritance, and the education of example. What right had he with his patched and repatched raiment, his sockless shoes, his freckled face, and his faded hair to stare at her in manner such as that? She would teach him a lesson. She did. Into that one look and act she poured her soul of disdain and scorn. The arrow hit its mark; and the hot life-blood leaped a.flame into that boyish face. What more? From that instant, each knew the other as his natural foe.

NATURAL? Yes, natural. Why? For this reason:-If in the mind of man, or beast, there is aught analogous to the law of "Cause and effect" in the material world, those children could not, just then, have done other than they did. It were as easy for the mountain brook or torrent, to change its unobstruct ed course as for the mind, undirected by a higher power, to divert itself from its accustomed trend. Strange doctrine this; but, I believe as true as strange. Suppose we return to the homes of those children. We were there, at least I was, the other day. As I saw them then, so do I now.

"The pomp of power,

And all that wealth e'er gave," and over all, the haughty matron, presiding genious of the home. Here this little girl whose neatness of dress and person was the special function of a "maid," who knew no other care, and whose exemplification of the latest in style and fashion was dependent upon the Parisian mantumaker of the "upperten," and for whom even the door was opened by a "flunky" had passed her restricted life, free from contact with common folk whose plain attire and work-soiled hands were known

to her only as she looked with curious eyes from plate-glass window of her costly carriage. She had been taught by example and injunc tion to avoid coarse mannered men-men who know not how to appear in full.dress suit and silken-tile in drawing room or theatre. Yet, now she is brought rudely face to face with one who in miniature, impersonates the very thing or things which she has been taught to shun. There, within arm's reach, he sits and stares and scowle and frowns. So near that he could reach forth his hand and touch her sleeve; and it may be, would but that he fears correction.

What will she do? What can she do? What must she do? As humanity ever does, reverting to lessons of the past whether of precept or otherwise, she acts upon the impulse, resents the presence, and rebukes the mein of one who even by accident is brought within her sphere. Again, I say she could just then have done nothing else.

THE home of want, distress, and 'suffering. The cheerless room neath the sky-light of the tinder-box; and the mildewed and creaky stairs which lead thereto. The pale-faced sufferer in the corner there-the sufferer whose prayers and tears have driven her boy reluct antly to school. This is the other home.

And in home like this, the kindly heart and the nobler impulse which sometimes actuate the millionaire are seen thru the contracting lens of envy; (that envy has double force if the wealth be an hours'accident or if the grudging one by the same means or other have lost inheritance) while those qualities which all men hate escape not the eye which magnifies. Here the moss-grown roof lets in the rain but shuts out hope; the patched and threadbare garb of charity warms not the form it covers; and the stale and hardened crust keeps yet a little life in the faint blood which courses its feeble way up to the cheek. The blended rays of health and hope and happiness find not their way into this home while he, who goes and comes across its threshold, selling penny matches at a phantom profit and protecting while he does the bidding of his sick mother, is stranger to the bright-faced child of affluence whose father's freezing word and domineering mien he hates with the intensity of his soul. But there she sits-she whom, when first he sees, he thinks so happy and so beautiful in her neat attire until in her haughty air and ele. vated nose he sees again her father's very self. Then, what? What does he think? What should he think? What must he think? Here again, must we find the dictum of ethics subject to the unwavering law of philosophy. Reverting as by instinct to unforgotten scenes-his slum-bound life, his mother, by reverse of fortune thrust out from a home of plenty, to a lot of direst poverty and distress, his devotion and his many trials, and the cold and withering rebuffs which he has had to meet all come crowding in and his proud spirit asserts itself in the flashing eye and crimson cheek. Nor could he have done other than he did.