petitions. A public hearing has been held, a bill has been reported to the Senate, and the matter is now pending.

The Retirement Fund contemplated in this bill is to be created by payments of eighteen dollars a year in six bi-monthly payments of three dollars each from the salary of each participating teacher; and in order to make it perfectly sure that there shall be no failure on the part of the teachers to pay these bi-monthly dues, the bill provides that the City Treasurer shall retain these assessments before paying the teachers. Thus there can be no failure of income. And as the City Treasurer is to be the custodian of the fund, and as it may be invested only in certain approved securities, the highest degree of security is given to the fund thus created.

A board of eleven trustees is to have the control and disbursement of this fund. Six of the trustees-three ladies and three gentlemen-are to be chosen by the teachers from among their own number for a term of three years, two going out of office each year. Four trustees are to be members of the Boston School Committee, chosen by their fellow-members for terms of two years, two going out of office each year. The Superintendent of Schools is to be the eleventh member ex officio.

Annuities from this fund are to be paid by the City Treasurer, by order of the trustees, to two classes of teachers. First, to those who by reason of sickness or other disability become incapacitated for further service, and are thus compelled to retire from the service. Second, to those teachers who, after thirty or more years of teaching, ten years of which has been in Boston public day schools, shall choose to resign their positions, or who may be retired by vote of the School Committee.

To teachers retired for disability, annuities are to be paid as long as the disability continues. To teachers retired for length of service, life annuities are to be paid.

As the number of annuitants will be variable, and as the number of teachers contributing to the fund will also vary, no definite sum can be fixed for the annuity, but the amount each year is to be whatever the fund will allow and is to be determined by the Board of Trustees; but, as the annual assessments by the members are uniform, the annuities are to be uniform to all.

Still further, to secure uniformity and to prevent those who might retire after a few annual payments from thus having an advantage over those of longer standing, the bill provides that no person shall receive an annuity until such person shall contribute, or shall have contributed, to the fund an amount equal to all the assessments for thirty years; viz., five hundred and forty dollars, any balance not yet contributed being made up at the time of retirement. If any teacher is unable to pay this balance at once, the Trustees may grant a special annuity of equitable amount until the full sum required has been contributed.

Any teacher who has been a contributing member for two years or more, and shall then resign for other cause than disability, may receive from the fund one half of the sum which such teacher has paid into the fund.

Warned by the example of the many fraternal associations which have come to grief during the past twenty years because, being purely voluntary, their membership was uncertain and finally dwindled till it became so small as to be wholly inadequate, the framers of this bill recognized the fact that permanency must be provided for or the movement would sooner or later end in failure, and that permanency could be secured only by a provision that ultimately every teacher in the Boston public schools should be a member of the organization.

The bill, therefore, provides that the proposed association shall be organized by those teachers now in the service who desire to come under the provisions of the act, and that thereafter all new appointees in the public schools shall be required to be members, contributing to the fund and being eligible to its benefits. The organization will thus be self-perpetuating; and as, one by one, the present teachers who do not wish to be members drop out of the service, their places will be filled by new teachers who will be by this statute members, until at length every teacher in the Boston schools will be a member and the organization will have become perpetual.

It would be well if this universal membership could be secured at once, but it was felt that it would be hardly equitable to impose this new condition upon teachers already employed who were disinclined to accept it, but that there could be no objection to requiring it from candidates about to enter the service, because

they would be under no obligation to become teachers in Boston if this or any other condition were distasteful; and no candidates for positions in Boston, so far as known, have expressed any reluctance to accept this condition.

The term "teacher" in the bill includes all supervisors, superintendents of instruction, principals, and regular instructors in the public day schools; and the scheme is therefore limited to the strictly educational portion of the school department, and does not include the executive officers and employees of the School Committee, the schoolhouse janitors, etc.*

It will readily be seen that the primary benefit of the desired legislation is to provide for worn-out or disabled teachers a sure though moderate income for the years which may remain to them after their period of usefulness in the schoolroom has passed, and to relieve all teachers during their years of efficient service of that apprehension for the future which, to a greater or less degree, disturbs their peace of mind and thus prevents them from doing their best work. As in fire insurance, only the small minority will ever reap any benefit, and none are anxious to be laid upon the shelf and to receive a moderate annuity instead of a generous salary; but the assurance that the protection exists, if the days of misfortune should come, is a source of constant content, and those who finally become annuitants will receive from the fund far more than they have paid into it.

But a second benefit of such an organization is the advantage. which will accrue to the children in the schools, and hence to the general public, from the removal of teachers who from age or sickness have become inefficient, and the replacing them with younger, vigorous teachers of modern training, and usually better skilled in schoolroom work.

This public benefit commends the movement to intelligent, thoughtful legislators, who see that what might at first appear like legislation for a class is really legislation for the whole community, and hence is worthy of their support.

The twofold benefit to the teachers and to the public has commended the plan to all educators and others interested in schools. who have taken the pains to inform themselves upon the matter, and they are unanimous in its support.

The schoolhouse janitors have a similar bill for their own association now pending before this Legislature.

Such then is the measure and the movement which the teachers of Boston are laboring to bring to a successful issue.

The principle of fraternity is self-evident. Security is assured. by having the assessments reserved from the salaries before they are paid, so that there can be no unpaid dues, no failure of the fund to receive every cent of its proper income, by having investments strictly limited in character, and by having the City Treasurer the custodian of the fund.

Permanency is secured, as has been already stated, by a provision such that every Boston teacher will ultimately be under the provisions of the act, and the organization thus be self-perpetuating.

A beneficent measure like this, promoting the public welfare, as well as the interest of the teachers, is worthy of complete success, and friends of education everywhere will be interested to know what treatment it receives from the Legislature of Massachusetts.

AMONG THE CHEROKEES.

BY REV. L. T. RIGHTSELL, WASHINGTON, N. C.

HERE are several hundred Cherokee Indians in Swain

TH

and Jackson Counties, N. C. They are citizens, and are located on their own lands, which they hold in severalty. They have a chief who is elected for a period of six years, and they regulate their own local affairs in a council. The chief at the time of my visit, J. N. Smith, was a half-breed of tall and commanding appearance, with long, flowing hair hanging in curls down his back. He was a man of culture and refinement, possessor of a comfortable home and an interesting family, and was an honored member of the Masonic Fraternity. He took great pains with the education of his children, having sent some of them to college in distant States. In answer to my inquiries, he informed me that the Cherokees, though holding tenaciously to their own language, have absolutely no literature in it, there being nothing in printed form but the Bible, hymnbook, and a weekly paper published in the Indian Territory. I was disappointed to learn that they cherish no traditions of their history prior to their contact with the white people. He said briefly, "We have no records."

Leaving the railroad station of Whittier, and following the Oconalufta River from its mouth, I travelled for ten or twelve miles on a lumber-wagon over a very rough, rocky mountain road, meeting frequent parties of squaws and children, and occasionally a man. A force of men at one place was constructing a wooden bridge over the rapid, brawling stream, setting bents of timber at the distance of a few feet apart, and on them laying the stringers. The men were dressed pretty much in the style of the white natives, but the dress of the women was somewhat peculiar, bright colors predominating, the head being covered with a flaring red or yellow handkerchief. Some of the latter were laden with bags of corn, going to mill. Some carried papooses strapped securely to their backs. On coming to a halt they would sway from right to left and back with a regular motion, to quiet their charges. Their dwelling-places are usually very rude log-cabins, with small plots of tillable ground surrounding them. The region is barren, dismal and frightful. No white man would care to possess it, and that is the secret of the Indians' unmolested possession. The people are extremely shy, merely nod as they pass, and will not stop for conversation. If they see a stranger in time, it is likely that they will step aside behind a rock or a tree to avoid meeting him. On arriving at the town, Yellow Hill, I made inquiries for the school, but nobody could understand me, apparently. The Indians would mutter something unintelligible in answer, perhaps laugh, and turn away. Finally I found the way to the top of the hill, where stood a handsome frame building, the residence of the principal of the school, Professor Spray, of Hendricks County, Ind. He had been in the employ of the Quakers in the Government school here for some time. He had no difficulty in communicating with the Indians, though possessing but a limited knowledge of the Cherokee tongue. During our conversation a woman came in with some wooden spoons. to sell. The dicker was made partly by language and partly by pantomime. Professor Spray related an anecdote concerning the superstition of the Indians, who seem to have anticipated our Government experimenters in the rain-making art. Several of his school-boys claimed to be rain-makers, and on one occasion when he was engaged with them on the farm in