in a county not their own when more convenient, the tuition of 50 cents a week to be paid by the latter.

The ambition of some principals and school boards unfortunately leads to the undertaking of more high-school work than their districts could afford. The new law discourages such action, by fixing within definite limits the high-school work for every school; a plan which was approved by the university authorities. The law provided by special examination for entrance into high schools of those without certificates from lower institutions. The consequence of all has been a largely increased attendance. The general operation will be made more easy by the forthcoming course of study for country and village schools by the State superintendent with help of a committee of county superintendents named by the teachers'

association.

The report claims that Nebraska has two laws which are in no other State. One providing for "district ownership of text-books" and the "free attendance of nonresident pupils at public high schools." Specification of the former particularly are given in sufficient detail. Both laws were submitted by the superintendent in circulars to the people resident in the several districts, and the answers are that a decided majority favor them. The report recognizes that the new law will serve to "bridge the last gap" in the school system, by securing to children in rural districts the same facilities of education in high schools as are enjoyed by those in cities and towns.

The report appeals strongly for the increase of salaries in the teaching force. Economy in this should be put behind that in almost every other department of the public service. Liberality serves not only to secure competent officials, but renders their work both more efficient and more cheerful, by imparting consciousness of receiving reasonable compensation for faithful service and rendering the occupation more nearly permanent.

Comment is made upon the teachers' institutes. Their financial condition is good, from the liberal allowances in their favor, yet there seem to be serious defects, growing out of the manner in which their prominent officials are appointed. The county superintendent acts as conductor, selects the instructors, and undertakes the whole management. Herein are occasionally, fortunately not often, to be seen evidences of action "determined by personal friendship and political obligation." Then his acquaintance among teachers, except in his own county, is often very limited, a matter which disqualifies for intelligent selection. It is recommended that institute instructors should obtain certificates from a State board of examiners.

Summer schools have increased greatly in favor and attendance. Confidence in their value has served to bring on establishment of several by private initiative. A large list is appended. In particular, that of the university is highly praised, both on account of the efficiency of the work done and of the fact that, no provision having been made for expenses, such work is done with little or no compensation.

The superintendent, with much seriousness, urges again, under the head "Normal training," the crying need of greater competency among teachers, which can be gotten, if not only, at least mainly, in training institutions. Of the 8,843 teachers attending institutes in 1895 only 2,051 had attended normal schools of some kind, while what training was received by the others was gotten at institutes. The State Normal School has advanced at all points. The unfortunate dissensions some time back, which grew mainly out of political complications, have been healed to a degree through the influence of the State board of education acting in harmony with the governor. The faculty work more in harmony, and attendance is constantly increased. In this bettered condition it will become incumbent upon the legislature to make necessary appropriation.

Mention is made of State examinations and certificates, State and normal diplomas, county superintendents' meetings (for whose time and expenses compensation should be made), meetings by districts, the common-school course of study, temperance instruction, the free high-school attendance law, and the high-school system, in which, within the last two years, has been developed a more systematic relation among those constituting it to the State department and to the university, all this being due to the new school law of 1895. The report maintains that the number of high schools which prepare fully for the university should be small, but that those students who have completed the course in smaller schools should have free access to them when desirous of preparing themselves for the university. If it be allowed to graded high schools to give such preparation, the university must suffer from doing much of high-school work, and the communities in which they are situate be overburdened by the support of a school course unnecessarily prolonged.

OMAHA SCHOOL REPORT.

The report for the year 1896 begins with an address before the board of education by Ira O. Rhoades, its president, followed by the report of Carroll G. Pearse, superintendent of instruction, to which is appended those from lower officials.

ED 97-83

In the president's address allusion is made to the large increase in enrollment and attendance and the large decrease in resources. In the year 1891-92 the average of attendance of pupils was 10,370 and the resources of the board were $459,598.62, of which $249,000 was derived from saloon licenses. These figures have been changing during the period until now, when the average attendance of pupils is 12,630 and the revenues $355,945.55, of which $195,000 came from saloon licenses. The complaint made by some that too high salaries are paid to teachers is flatly denied by the president. Cheap salaries obtain inefficient teachers; yet these are lower here than the average in other cities. It says:

"Without quoting statistics which are a matter of record, I need only refer you to the salaries paid in cities of our size which proves that we are not only paying lower salaries, but that we are even far below the average. Especially is this so with regard to the salaries paid for supervision. Cities like Kansas City are paying principals of sixteen-room buildings $1,800 per year, while we pay but $1,400."

The normal training school is reported to be doing great good, but it seems hard that its graduates "under the rules," as expressed in the address, get smaller salaries than are paid to teachers employed from other cities.

The report recommends that arrangements should be made for daily visits by superintendents to the manual training department. Even as it is it has been doing excellently well.

The kindergartens have met considerable opposition. Says the report:

"They have been called fads, nurseries, etc., and the school board accused of supplying amusements for babies under school age. The kindergarten system is no longer an experiment, and it never was a fad. No children are admitted until they have reached the school age. If kindergartens were not provided for them, we would be obliged to open new first grades, employing higher paid teachers, fitting rooms with desks, etc., all of which would make an additional cost over the kindergarten." Yet the address thinks that it was a mistake to open so large a number in the beginning. Hereafter care should be taken that the work in them be such that will assist the pupil in the work of the lowest grades, and be made part of them instead of kept separate as in this city.

The address recommends adoption by the board of civil-service rules regarding teachers who have had satisfactory experience, instead of having them subjected as now to the chances of re-election every year.

In view of increase of pupils and diminution of incomes, an earnest appeal is made to the city council to raise the levy of taxation in order to provide for this evergrowing need of greater resources. As it is, kindergartens and the lowest school grades do not enjoy full day sessions. It is admitted, however, that a mistake in economy was made in erecting so many small schoolhouses instead of a few large ones in the beginning. Some natural pride is indulged by an action of the board in 1894 whereby an insurance fund was created whose income has been invested in interest-paying warrants.

Experiment with vertical penmanship seems to have proven its decisive superiority.

NEVADA.

Report for 1895 and 1896, Hon. H. C. Cutting, superintendent of public instruction.

It proceeds in the beginning with announcement of the general inefficiency of the laws regulating the State educational system:

"The laws governing our schools are very defective, unintelligible, and weak. There are many good points in them, as every legislature since the first has amended them, but there is no system to our school laws and none to our schools. Many of our laws are unconstitutional, others are obsolete, and there is hardly one on the statute book that can be enforced."

The present superintendent prepared a system of laws upon the subject to be submitted to the legislature of 1897. At a teachers' institute held at Elko in December last the law, with certain changes substituted by the members, was agreed to be submitted, and good hopes were indulged of its passage. This law provides that the four district superintendents be added to the State board of education, making that board consist of seven members. It provides for two grades of educational and life diplomas, grammar and high school.

The most important article in the proposed enactment is that regarding district superintendents, who now are the same persons with the district attorneys, the businesses in the twofold offices being wholly incompatible with each other. The plan is to divide the State into four educational districts coextensive with the judicial districts, and, after allowing good salaries, to exact faithful work of the superintendents. Such a change, the report contends, would systematize school

work greatly and serve to overcome the frequent meddleing with school affairs to the great hindrance of their efficient conduct. The report says:

"There are many districts in this State where a teacher with fifteen or twenty pupils is compelled to have from thirty-five to forty classes, as they do not dare to grade the school properly for fear of losing their position by offending some of the parents."

The present method of apportionment of funds on the number of children between 6 and 18 is characterized as an "absolute bid for dishonesty" and has given occasion to much dissatisfaction and strife, whereas apportionment according to school attendance would place a bounty on punctuality in that respect.

Regarding care of school property the report says: "No care whatever is taken of school property, especially in county districts, and the destruction and waste is something appalling. Destruction of property is bad enough, but the careless and slovenly habit which such negligence fosters and breeds is ten times worse." As in the preceding, earnest appeal is made in behalf of teachers' institutes. By act of the last legislature every county in the State was allowed to erect a high school, to be maintained at its own expense. Elko is the one county availing itself of this provision.

Some remarks are made and recommendation offered on the subject of cheaper text-books. The report concludes with commendation of the progress of the State University, education for the deaf, dumb, blind, and feeble-minded.

Noteworthy is the diminishing number of school children. From 10,592 in 1880, the year in which it was greatest, it descended in 1896 to 9,089.

NEW JERSEY.

THE SESQUICENTENNIAL OF PRINCETON.

One of the most important events of the year in scholastic circles was the celebration by Princeton University of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the original charter issued in the name of the College of New Jersey (October 22, 1716). The special significance of the anniversary which occupied three days, October 20-22 inclusive, lies in the fact that it was the chosen time for the formal assumption of the title of university, a name fitly expressing what had become the actual scope of the work even before Dr. McCosh resigned the presidency of the college. The committee of arrangements' which had been for two years elaborating their plans kept two points in view, namely, the exposition of past achievements and the presentation of the distinctive lines of university life for which the college had prepared the way. These conditions were set forth in the addresses of the president and members of the faculty, which thus formed the central feature of the three days' celebration. The accompanying exercises of music, the interchange of greetings with other universities, the honors to invited delegates, etc., added greatly to the interest and impressiveness of the occasion.

As a preliminary to the sesquicentennial exercises and a recognition of the international unity of scholastic pursuits, the week preceding the ceremony was made the occasion for several series of lectures by foreign specialists.

With the exception of the course on the French Revolution and English literature, by Prof. Edward Dowden, of Trinity College, Dublin, these lectures were The efficient chairman of this committee was Prof. Andrew F. West, Ph. D.

2 GENERAL PROGRAMME OF THE PRINCETON SESQUICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION.

An asterisk (*) indicates occasions on which academic costume will be used. Events indicated in brackets [], though not part of the academic programme, are given for the sake of convenience. First day, Tuesday, October 20-Reception day.

10.30 a. m. *Academic procession forms at Marquand Chapel.

11 a. m. Religious service in Alexander Hall.

*

3 p. m. Reception of delegates in Alexander Hall.

4.30 p.m. Presentation of delegates in the Chancellor Green Library.

9 p. m. Orchestral concert in Alexander Hall.

Second day, Wednesday, October 21-Alumni and student day.

10.30 a. m. Academic procession forms at Marquand Chapel.

11 a. m. The poem and oration in Alexander Hall.

2.30 p. m. [The undergraduate football teams of the University of Virginia and Princeton University will play on the University Athletic Field.]

8.30 p. m. Torchlight procession and illumination of campus.

The procession will be reviewed by the President of the United States.

10.30 a. m.

11 a. m.

3 to 5 p. m.

Third day, Thursday, October 22-The sesquicentennial anniversary day.

Academic procession forms at Marquand Chapel.

The sesquicentennial celebration at Alexander Hall.

Reception to the President and Mrs. Cleveland at Prospect.

8 p. m. [Glee club concert in Alexander Hall.]

addressed to specialists, and brought together a body of men distinguished in the respective lines.1

The sesquicentennial exercises were held in Alexander Hall, a beautiful building in the French Romanesque style, one of the most impressive of the new buildings, which illustrate on the material side the recent university ideal.

The body of the hall was reserved for invited delegates, including the presidents of the leading sister universities in our own country and the distinguished representatives of foreign universities. The delegates, numbering from 500 to 700, wore their academic robes, which gave a brilliant effect to the scene.

The principal exercises, in addition to the addresses by President Patton and Prof. Woodrow Wilson, here given in full, were the reception to delegates on the afternoon of the first day and the exercises attending the formal announcement of the university title on the morning of the third day.

On the former of these occasions Dr. Howard Duffield, of New York City, a son of Princeton, welcomed the delegates in an eloquent address. Responses were made by President Eliot, of Harvard University, on behalf of American universities and learned societies, and by Prof. Joseph John Thompson, of Cambridge University, England, on behalf of European universities and learned societies.

On the morning of October 22, exactly one hundred and fifty years from the date of the original charter of the College of New Jersey, Dr. Patton announced that the college "shall be known hereafter and forever more as Princeton University." This announcement, which elicited an outburst of applause, was followed by a statement as to the endowments that had been secured in anticipation of this event. The completed list was not ready, so that full details were impossible at the moment, but a total of $1,353,291 was reported, with the work of the committee still in continuance. When the enthusiasm excited by this showing had subsided the university proceeded with its first official act, which was the conferring of the doctor's degree upon a number of men eminent in letters, arts, and science.

LIST OF LECTURERS AND Lectures delivered at PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, OCTOBER 12-19, 1896.

I.

Four lectures by Joseph John Thomson Cavendish, professor of physics in the University of Cambridge, England. Subject: The Discharge of Electricity in Gases.

II.

Four lectures by Felix Klein, professor of mathematics in the University of Göttingen, Germany. Subject: The Mathematical Theory of the Top.

III.

Six lectures by Edward Dowden, professor of English literature and rhetoric in Trinity College, Dublin. Subject: The French Revolution and English Literature.

IV.

Two lectures by Andrew Seth, professor of logic and metaphysics in the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Subject: Theism.

V.

One lecture by Karl Brugmann, professor of Indogermanic philology in the University of Leipzig, Germany. Subject: The Nature and Origin of the Noun Genders in the Indogermanic Languages (Ueber Wesen und Ursprung der Geschlechtsunterscheidung bei den Nomina der indogermanischen Sprache). This lecture will be delivered in German in the English room, Dickinson Hall, at 10.30 o'clock, Monday morning, October 19.

VI.

One lecture by A. A. W. Hubrecht, professor of zoology in the University of Utrecht, Holland. Subject: The Descent of the Primates."

2 Doctor's degrees were conferred upon fifty-seven distinguished representatives of sister universities or men eminent for their contributions to science and art. The foreigners thus honored were: Karl Brugman, professor of Indogermanic philology in the University of Leipzig, Germany. Johannes Conrad, professor of political economy in the University of Halle, Halle, Germany. Wilhelm Dorpfeld, first secretary of the German Archæological Institute, Athens, Greece. Edward Dowden, professor of rhetoric and English literature in Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. A. A. W. Hubrecht, professor of zoology in the University of Utrecht, Utrecht. Holland. Felix Klein, professor of mathematics in the University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany; Henri Moissan, professor of chemistry in the University of Paris and member of the French Acad emy of Science, Paris.

Edward Baynall Poulton, Hope professor of zoology in the University of Oxford, Oxford, England. Andrew Seth, professor of logic and metaphysics in the University of Edingburgh, Scotland. Goldwin Smith, fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, and formerly regius professor of modern history in the University of Oxford, Toronto, Canada.

Joseph John Thompson, Cavendish professor of physics in the University of Cambridge, Cambridge,
England.
James London, president of the University of Toronto, Canada.

The honorary degree of doctor of laws was conferred in absentia upon two persons: Lord Kelvin, professor of natural philosophy in the University of Glasgow, Scotland, and Otto Struve, formerly director of the Observatory of Pulkowa, Russia.

The exercises were closed by an address by President Cleveland, which was followed with absorbed interest and elicited unbounded applause. This address is here reproduced in full.

The singing of the national anthem and the benediction by Bishop Satterlee closed the scholastic exercises of one of the most memorable celebrations ever held in the United States.

RELIGION AND THE UNIVERSITY.

A sermon preached in Alexander Hall on the occasion of the sesquicentennial celebration, October 20, 1896, by Francis L. Patton, president of the College of New Jersey.

(I Corinthians III, 11. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.)

The first charter of the College of New Jersey was signed by John Hamilton, president of His Majesty's council, on the 22d day of October, 1746. A second charter, still more liberal in its provisions, was obtained from Governor Belcher in 1748. It was surely the day of small things when a little company of Presbyterians in the city of New York and its vicinity interested themselves in establishing a seat of learning in the Province of New Jersey as a means of providing a liberal education for young men intending to enter the ministry. The ineffectual efforts which they had previously made and their ultimate success bear striking testimony to the religious intolerance of the times, the more enlightened policy of President Hamilton and Governor Belcher, and the liberal spirit of the founders of the new institution, who, though Presbyterians by conviction and actuated in the main by zeal for the religious necessities of their own church, accepted without scruple a charter which gave no advantage to any denomination, and beyond a scheme for liberal culture made no specific provisions for the needs of any profession.

The spirit of the founders has been kept alive in their successors. The interests of the college have always been in the hands of religious men, and of men, I may say, belonging as a rule to a particular branch of Protestant Christendom, but it has never been under ecclesiastical control. It has served the church and it has served the state without in any sense being under the authority of either. The founders of the College of New Jersey did not establish a theological school with a perparatory department in arts; they established a faculty of arts with an embryonic department of theology. There is a great difference between the two methods, and this difference has determined the course of Princeton's subsequent development. The establishment at a later date in Princeton of a theological school under ecclesiastical control made it unnecessary and unwise to continue theological instruction in the college, and from that time until now the teaching force of the College of New Jersey has consisted of a single university faculty of arts. Thanks to the liberal policy of her founders, thanks also to the wise Christian spirit of those who have guided her course, Princeton College, though ever hospitable to new ideas and ever ready to recognize new truth, has, throughout her history, been true to the spirit of those who founded her, and has never had reason to feel that in any instance she has violated her charter, or been unfaithful to the moral obligations imposed by the labors and benefactions of the Christian men who have been interested in her welfare.

Considered in respect to nations and periods that are characterized by immobility, the lapse of a hundred and fifty years is not a matter that need call for special commemoration. But in this country the beginning of such a period antedates the national life. Princeton shares with her older sisters, Harvard and Yale, the distinction of a life coeval with our national independence, and she claims for herself a distinction, shared in equal degree by no other institution, of being a large factor in the making of the nation. Of the part that Princeton played in the revolutionary struggle; of President Witherspoon, who signed the Declaration of Independence; of the Princeton men, and particularly of Madison and Patterson and Oliver Ellsworth, who helped to make the Constitution of the United States; of the meeting of the Continental Congress in this place and under the roof of Nassau Hall, you will in all probability be told by another speaker on a later occasion. It is enough for me, having mentioned these names in connection with the political history of the country, to add to them the names of Henry and Guyot in science; of Jonathan Edwards and James McCosh in philosophy; of the Alexanders and Hodges in theology, and then to ask if I am making an empty boast when I say that Princeton has won for herself a conspicuous place in the intellectual history of America.

It has been the aim of those who have governed this institution to make and keep it a Christian college. The men who have contributed to its endowment and administered its affairs and taught in its class rooms have been Christian men. They have been men of deep conviction regarding God and his government, and they have