list of idle scholars, and the former misdoing is forgotten. When we remember that at this time the almost universal thought was that intellectual development was in direct proportion to the use of the rod, we see that

Dock was far in advance of his time. Although we may not heartily concur in the substitute, we must greatly respect the man for finding a substitute.

[To be Continued.]

A

And when we consider the inferior position of women in the far East it is cause for great rejoic

On December 31, 1895, there were in the five great circuits of this island empire 7,935,719 dwelling-houses, with a total population of 43,045,906. The total number of children of school age was 7,670,837 (4,054,578 boys, and 3,616,259 girls). Of this number 587,689 were not under obligation to attend school, while 7,083,148 (3,755,028 boys and 3,328,120 girls), were. The school population of Japan is thus seen to be just about one-half that of the United States. Tokyo, the largest city, is credited with 403,404 dwelling-houses and a population of 1,867,913. Children of school age, 305,994 (160,260 boys and 145,734 girls).

Turning to the Kindergarten Department, we find a very commendable beginning. The number of private kindergartens is 57 and those public of the government 162, a total of 219; in which 17,428 infants were instructed by 479 "conductors." The total number of those who had completed the kindergarten course was 6,198.

The total number of pupils in elementary schools was 3,670,345 (2,435,223 boys and 1,235,122 girls). Youwill note that here the boys are very greatly in excess of the girls-nearly two to one. The number of pupils attending ordinary elementary schools at the end of the year was 3,066,069; and the number having completed the ordinary elementary course during the year was 1,272,000 (923,200 boys and 348,800 girls). Here is a grand total of 4,338,069,-2,878,096 being boys and 1,459,973 being girls. The ratio remains the same.

The per cent. of boys in school is 76.25, and of girls 43.87. The total number of pupils of both sexes receiving instruction is 61.24 per cent. of the number under obligation to attend school. This is certainly a most creditable showing for Japan.

her schools. What a marvelous transformation is here! At this pace Japan will soon stand beside the most educationally-enlightened nations of the earth.

The teaching force numbered 73,182,-66,368 men and 6,814 women. This number exceeds the teaching force of the preceding year by 10,147. The grand total of pupils in elementary schools, 3,670,345, was an increase of 169,274 over the preceding year; while the number who completed the prescribed course of study was 20,566 in excess of 1894. The number of public schools was 26,328 (an increase of 2,661), and of private schools 1,879 (a decrease of 71). This shows that the public school system is rapidly gaining ground.

In the forty-seven normal schools (whose object is the training of teachers) there were 678 instructors and 6,118 pupils; but only 720 were women, to 5,398 men. "The course of study extends over four years in the case of males and three years in the case of females." The number of graduates for the year was 1,473, of whom 305 were women. In the Higher Normal Schools were forty-five instructors and 292 pupils. In the Higher Normal School for females were twenty instructors and 100 pupils.

In the Tokyo Blind and Dumb School we find nine teachers and forty blind and sixty-two Jumb pupils. While in the one at Kyoto were eleven teachers and 114 pupils.

At the Imperial University the number of instructors was 161; "students and pupils," 1,620; graduates, 351. Of the students, 286 were studying law, 124 medicine, eighty-five civil engineering and fifty-five philosophy.

The Toyko Library had 151,787 volumes; 31,133 being European and 120,654 Japanese and Chinese. The number of visitors during the year was 69,913.

Here are facts sufficient to show how keenly alive Japan has become to her educational interests.

BOSTON, MASS.

M

OST of the school-houses in Indiana are very unsanitary. There are many very excellent buildings which satisfactorily meet sanitary requirements, but the majority of our schoolhouses have been constructed, and are conducted without the slightest, or, at the best, with very little regard for the health of the children.

I will describe the school-house at Sunman, Ripley county, as a type of the majority of Indiana's school-houses. This building is a two-story brick with a vestibule. There are two rooms, one directly above the other The stairs are steep and winding and difficult to climb. Ventilation is solely by windows and doors; warming is affected by box-stoves placed in center of the rooms. The outhouses are dilapidated and noisome and far worse than none. The water supply is from a well of doubtful purity. The desks are antiquated, in bad condition and all of the same size. They are too small for many of the pupils and too large for some. The vestibule, stairs and both rooms are dingy, with dirty, curtainless windows, and the floors are covered at least one quarter inch deep with dirt. Remnants of lunch are abundantly distributed about the room, but especially around the box-stove. A watercooler placed on a stool near the door, supplies drinking water and the drip therefrom mingles with the dirt on the floor to form a veritable mud-puddle. The air, of necessity, is bad. In the winter time, it is always so in school-rooms which depend upon windows and doors for ventilation,

When I entered this school, the teacher had before him, a class of four bright girls. What the subject of the lesson was, I do not know, but I heard him ask the question-"Honor thy father and thy mother; to what emotions of the human mind, does this appeal?" Why try to educate in morals amidst such surroundings? Consider the full import of the situation-the state compels the children to attend this school, and places them amidst dirty, unwholesome, and forbidding surroundings. Their vitality, instead of being used upon their books and in mental effort, is largely expended in resisting the evils of imperfect ventilation, imperfect heating, imperfect lighting. This means that a certain percentum -not small-of the public school money is wasted. Then, in order to waste more money and further wrong the children, the school-house is allowed, in the name of economy, to become dirty and foul. This threatens the children with disease and death. Threatens homes with sorrow and

dismemberment. The home is the very foundation of Christian society, and to threaten it in even the remotest degree, is a crime.

At Freedom, Owen county, is a two-story, fourroom, frame school-house. At the time of my visit, it was in miserable condition. The rains had washed away the earth from before the front steps and formed a little gully, three feet deep and four feet wide. Upon inquiry of the trustee, it was found he had no thought of attending to this condition and giving the children a proper and decent approach to their school. They were expected to climb over and through this ditch all winter long, thus, in instances, getting wet feet, soiled clothes and running the risk of bodily injury. Every room was dingy. Strips of paper hung from the ceilings, blackboards were badly chipped, desks were old, dirty, of improper shape and size, and dilapidated. The windows were curtainless and grimy: the box-stoves were cracked and broken; the stovepipes were sagging and almost ready to fall down, thus inviting fire to threaten the children's lives. The cross lights from the curtainless windows twisted, pulled and strained the eyes of the children. They, in trying to get a right light upon their books, assumed all manner of positions, thus twisting spines and moulding themselves in deformity. Two most miserable, dilapidated, tumble-down, noisome, outhouses, were standing in the school-yard back of the school-house-monuments to indecency and immorality. Honor thy father and thy mother, was also probably taught at this school. But why, I ask, should we expect the precept to take hold amid such surroundings?

A country school-house I inspected last summer, was filled with sheep and hogs. I wondered these animals would go near this building, it was so desolate and mean. If these were isolated instances, there would be no warrant to detail them, but alas, they are types of conditions which may be seen in every county in Indiana. At Monon it was necessary to provide for the high school outside the school-house. From one

of the trustees, an inside room in a business block was rented. This room was forty-eight feet long, twenty feet wide and thirteen feet high; lighted by two narrow windows at the west end, and a patch of skylight over one corner of the east end. There were fifty pupils in the room. The air was foul, and one half the room was so dark that two coal-oil lamps were used to emit their sickly yellow light behind the pupils, making shadows

upon their books, thus increasing the adverse conditions. What right has the State to treat children in this way? Where is our vaunted common sense, that we throw money away in this contemptible manner? The school-house at Monon, is an old two-story frame; dilapidated, low ceilings, no provisions for ventilation, other than by windows and doors, and most of the windows are immovable. The primary room was twentyeight feet long, twenty-one feet wide and ten feet high, and contained eighty children, allowing only seventy cubic feet of space to each child. The air was foul, the faces of the children were flushed, coughs and colds were so abundant, that the coughing disturbed the lessons. No doubt,

a careful medical inspection would have discovered a dozen or more children who should have been at home receiving medical treatment. Let us by all means, introduce nature studies and take the children out of all unsanitary schoolhouses. Take them into the woods and fields where they will see how God does things. may now understand, at least in part, why it is when the schools open in the fall, that childrens' diseases almost always increase. That unsanitary school-houses are an important factor in this matter, is apparent.

We

These questions have been repeatedly asked: "Why not ventilate school-rooms by doors and windows? Why not warm them by box-stoves in the middle of the room? Why make such an ado over heating and lighting? Why insist that the sexes should have separate decent outhouses? Why insist that school-houses should be clean, light, airy and pleasant? Why should the blackboards be free from gloss? Why do you so everlastingly splutter over the drinking-water? Why do you wish to abolish the slates and sterilize the pencils? Why! when I was a boy we went to school in an old log school-house that had a dirt floor, puncheons to sit upon and the rafters so low the teacher knocked the hair from his head by repeated contact with them. I say these questions have actually been asked, and the argument of the old log school-house with its dirt floor, presented again and again. You may not think this possible, but it is true. John W. Draper says in his Intellectual Development of Europe: "May be evidences exist that we are gradually taking on the philosophy of the Orient." The Chinaman says: "My ancestors had the old log school-house, dirty, unsanitary, inadequate, it's good enough for me." In his awful conceit, he further says: "I came through all these horrible conditions you describe, I guess others can." In his selfishness and ignorance he thinks if he is here, all is well. He argues, "If I didn't get sick and die, others,

of course, did not, and therefore, the agitator for better conditions is an ass."

As to ventilation of school-rooms by means of windows and doors: The problem obviously is widely different from the ventilation of dwellinghouses. The school-room is filled to its capacity and the children must remain for a stated period, preserving order. In homes, restraint is lifted, and the individual air space is greater. Window ventilation therefore, for school-rooms, will not do, for draughts must be avoided The correct way is to introduce heated air above the breathing line, and by an efficient ventilating shaft take out the bad air at the bottom of the room on the same side the warm air is introduced. Heated air will immediately rise to the ceiling from a floor register, and therefore, it accords with physics to conduct it there, then through the suction of the ventilating shaft, draw it to the floor. This effects equable warming and good ventilation. Ceiling ventilators violate physics, and do not ventilate, as they simply remove the warm air from near the ceiling, leaving the lower bad air undisturbed.

It is not unfrequently remarked when unsanitary conditions are pointed out, that the schools have been remarkably free from epidemics and the attendance excellent. This may be all true, but certainly it is no argument for the continuation of unhealthy surroundings. The fact must be thoroughly understood, that the ill effects of most unsanitary conditions are not felt immediatedly. They very gradually break down health. Such particularly, is the effect of bad air upon the air passages. Bad ventilation of school-rooms in childhood is undoubtedly responsible for a not inconsiderable percentage of the consumption of early adult life. Eye strain, contracted or felt in school days, on account of bad lighting, frequently necessitates the putting on of glasses earlier in life than is usually required, and this is a great handicap. All too frequently the foundations for ill health in after-life are laid in early youth.

Permit an outline of the sanitary requirements of a one-room school-house. The principles involved, however, apply to all school-houses. The site should be high and dry. Not too much shade, for sunshine in homes is highly necessary for good health. The building should be raised at least two feet above the ground, and may be frame or brick. If of the latter material, the foundation should be stone or so built as to cut off the ground moisture. The space under the house should be ventilated. The room should be large enough to give, at least, 250 cubic feet of space to each child. The windows should reach to the ceiling, but the best way is to have no win

dows in the one-room school-house. Place shams on the outside for appearance sake, but light the room by a ground-glass sky-light, provided with adjustable curtains. The building should have a vestibule, well ventilated and warmed. This may be used as a cloak-room and will serve to lessen noise and confusion in the school-room, also to secure more perfect warming; a point not to be ignored. The box-stove placed in the center of a school-room is a wasteful and unsanitary method of warming. In cold weather, the children in the immediate vicinity of the stove are made too warm. They become sweated and restless; find it difficult, because of discomfort, to keep their attention upon their lessons, and lastly, are made more susceptible to colds. The children near the windows and away from the stove, on account of cold, are rendered uncomfortable and find difficulty in studying, so the efficiency of all the pupils is impaired and that is bad economy; and their health is threatened and that is bad hygiene.

Equable warming of school-rooms is of great moment. This may best be accomplished in the one-room school-houses by ventilating heaters which receive fresh air from outside the building, and after warming, project it upward and then by means of a double jacket, suck out the bad air from near the floor. By this method, a constant circulation is induced, an equable temperature is maintained and perfect ventilation secured. Such heaters require more fuel than the old stuffy stoves, but value is received in increased efficiency and health of the pupils.

Another practicable method of equably warming a one-room school-house, is to make a tight foundation, place registers in the floor and beneath the floor have a connection with the same flue into which is piped the stove, which receives its

airfor, warming from without. This arrangement draws down the warm air from the ceiling and when it passes through the registers beneath the floor, the floor is kept warm and perfect ventilation secured. As all of our one-room houses are constructed with windows and not with sky-lights, as recommended above, we must do as well as we can with what we have. To regulate and temper the light, the best thing is double folding inside shutters. It is obvious how these may be used to produce the desired result. Lacking inside shutters, the next best thing is two spring-roller shades, hung in the middle of each window, so one will pull down, the other up. The teacher, by properly managing these, can prevent crosslights, shadows, and reflections, which so strain the eyes, and by causing the child to shift and bend the body to secure the proper light on his book, produces spinal irritation and sometimes spinal curvature.

A burning shame and deep disgrace is the absence at nearly all country school-houses, of proper and separate outhouses. Two outhouses, always kept in good condition, should be provided. They should be in the rear of the house and separated by a high, tight board fence. Good walks should lead to them. Not to separate the sexes carefully, affording privacy and convenience, is awful barbarism. Yet, as above stated, we find this condition in every county in the state.

It is not the intention, at this time, to treat fully upon school hygiene, enough will be accomplished if attention is at present directed to its importance. In closing, let it be known that legislation is not needed, in this matter, it is education we must give. The Board of Health has all the necessary authority, but it is not supplied with means, but certain it is, the means will be given when the people understand the situation.

sentiment says it; patrons say it; pupils say it; teachers say it; school boards say it; educators in every stage of enlightenment say that music is necessary to the symmetrical development of the 'child, for whose sole good the schools exist. There is no chance to argue the question here, since we are all on the same side, and not a single reason why we should attempt to justify this state of affairs. We have passed that stage, happily, and

may now rest from our labors and enjoy the fruits of our years of strenuous effort. Music has at last come into its rightful inheritance-the minds, hearts, voices and lives of the masses; and perchance we have been instrumental in bringing about such a happy state of affairs in our own particular little corner of the earth, and we may now sit down and behold its progress. May we? Will we? Dare we think of such a thing, when the very success of former efforts places us under a double obligation to use all our power and strength that success may not turn into failure? Ah! no! Pity the man or woman who thinks of rest at this stage in the history of music as an educational force. We are weary, perhaps, but the reward is great to those who labor-and there is resting by and by. Put the thought aside, and let us look over the field.

What influences have had to do with making music a recognized necessity in every school curriculum that pretends to be up with the times? As well may we ask what wonderful influences have revolutionized the educational world since some of us learned our a-b, abs. Perhaps Mr. McGuffey of First Reader fame, wherein occurs the question and answer "Do we go up? We do go up!" may be credited with a prophetic eye, since we certainly have 'gone up' to the very mountain tops in comparison with the plane we occupied then. In fact, we are so very much elevated that we have one of three things to do: Remain placidly, contentedly, inanely where we are; slide down from the mountain tops, or build us more stately mansions. If build we must, it behooves us to look well to the foundation we have laid. Perhaps it is not broad enough for the support of an imposing musical structure; perhaps it is not deep enough to withstand the strain of any but a light, ephemeral style of architecture calculated to please the taste of the casual observer; perhaps we, as builders, have not given every stone in the foundation the honest thought the cause deserved, or through ignorance have used the wrong material in constructing our part. At any rate, we might investigate.

So much depends upon good teaching, if music is to be the wonderful power we confidently hope and expect, that an investigation that does not take the teacher into account, with her opportunities for training and her general ability and preparation for the work, would be a remarkable one indeed. Music is so peculiarly susceptible to the teacher's influence that it would be difficult to over-estimate her importance in this field. course there are innumerable teachers of the infallible type in other states, but the millennium is not yet shedding it's beneficent rays abroad in Indiana. In fact, the feeling seems quite prevalent among us that there are some things we do

Of

not know, and alas! may never know. Therefore my remarks may be understood to have reference to affairs as observed by an Indianian, where teachers are ordinary flesh-and-blood mortals with days constructed on a sadly limited scale of hours and minutes considering the amount of work to be done, while a similar discrepancy is noticeable in the nights.

Every teacher present recognizes the fact that a comparatively small number of schools in any state may employ competent supervisors of music, and that a comparatively small number of school children outside of the larger cities receive their musical instruction from teachers especially trained for that work. The other fact is also recognized, that music is being taught in three-fourths of the common schools, upon the recommendation of patrons, boards of trustees, county and state superintendents—all of which indicates a delightful state of affairs. But if specially trained teachers are not doing the work, (supervisors of music,) who is doing it? The regular teacher, to be sure. And where does the regular teacher supply herself with the necessary information to carry on this work intelligently? "Dear me !" says one teacher, "I didn't know one had to study music to be able to teach it. I thought one simply needed to be able to carry a tune, and know something about lines and spaces!" The honest truth about the whole matter is that half the music teaching in our public schools is done upon the basis of being able to carry a tune, and knowing something about lines and spaces. Not in the schools where a special music teacher reigns supreme-oh, no!— but in the little red school-houses and two-story white frame, or brick, village school-houses where a numerous host of children are getting their first long coveted taste of the divine art.

Of course we know that every school should have lessons in music from a special music teacher, but we also know that such an arrangement is not possible as yet, and that the regular teacher is supposed to direct this work as she does all other required branches. Where does the commonschool teacher get her training for this and other work? If in the course of human events she decides to become a teacher, and there are many and divers reasons aside from a divine call for such decision-she naturally turns to the school created by law to give her the professional training she requires-the Normal school. With what previous preparation does she come? Formerly she came blissfully ignorant of most things a teacher ought to know, and seldom stayed long enough to acquire the academic knowledge necessary for a teacher; and her mental condition was such that the small amount of musical training