a series of pianoforte pieces, of unusual merit, at 30 cents each, arranged from the scores of popular band compositions, including Rollinson's "In the Starlight Schottische," Müller's "State Fencibles Quickstep," and Brooke's "Ames' Zouaves March."

Among the choice Easter Carols in preparation by Oliver Ditson & Co., is a collection at fifteen cents, with the following attractive titles: "Easter Flowers are Blooming," "Lift up, Lift up Your Voices," "On Wings of Living Light," "Rise, Glorious Conqueror, Rise!" "Sing Sweet Carols," "Springtide Birds are Singing."

Kindergartners and Mothers will rejoice to learn that Miss Elizabeth P. Peabody's famous Lectures to Kindergartners are to be published in May by D. C. Heath & Co. They are issued at the urgency of a large number of Kindergartners, to whom Miss Peabody is no longer able to speak viva voce.

The first of the eight lectures awakened and interested the Boston public in Kindergarten education. The seven others are those which, for nine or ten successive years, Miss Peabody addressed to the training classes for Kindergartners in Boston and other cities. They unfold the idea which, though old as Plato and Aristotle, and set forth more or less practically from Comenius to Pestalozzi, was, for the first time, put into an adequate system by Froebel. The lectures begin with the natural exemplification of Kindergarten principles in the nursery, followed by two lectures on how the nursery opens up into the Kindergarten through the proper use of language and conversation with children, and finally develops into equipoise the child's relations to his fellows, to nature, and to God. Miss Peabody draws many illustrations from her own psychological observations of child life.

Notes.

A Southern novel by Professor Virginius Dabney is announced to be issued in April by the J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia. Mr. Dabney, though now living in New York, is a Virginian-a gentleman of culture and refinement, who has been brought into contact with the best types of our society. It is his aim to preserve for our children some pictures of that form of civilization peculiar to our Southern country, and which is now fast passing away. Professor Dabney will, no doubt, give us a very entertaining volume.

We have received from The Writer's Publishing Co., 21 University Place, New York, a handsome "Chart of Temperance and Physiology," showing "The Broad Road to Ruin and how to Avoid it." It presents very graphically the results of a course of intemperance and the benefits of total abstinence. It is published in two styles, half mounted at $1, and full mounted at $1.50.

Messrs. Sheldon & Co., New York, have issued a supplement to Avery's Chemistries on Aluminum, Boron, and Silicon, with their bronzes and other alloys.

Professor Willoughby Reade proposes to establish a Summer School for the Study and Practice of Elocution at or near the town of Wytheville, Virginia, to be held during the months of July and August.

The Magazines.

J.

THE SOUTHERN BIVOUAC for April.-This magazine opens with an interesting article on the much-talked-of Virginia Cavaliers, and any one may now know who they were. The article is by Miss K. M. Rowland, of Baltimore, and is accompanied by a number of illustrations. These sketches will be continued in the May number. Henry W. Austin, in the April BIVOUAC, has an article maintaining that "Lilitha, the Princess of Ghouls," discovered by Richard Realf, was rightly attributed to Poe. Colonel Durett continues in the April BIVOUAC, his papers on the Resolutions of '98 and '99 A. Trousdale describes the "Reign of Terror in Tennessee" during the war. Richard H. Musser contributes the first of three articles on the War in Missouri, which is accompanied by a portrait of General Sterling Price. "Tennyson's Later Poems" is an appreciative review by Mrs. P. B. Semple, of the recent work of the poet-laureate. Robert Burns Wilson has a short article in response to Mr. Howell's depreciation of Poets and poetry, and in "A Fragment" vindicates the claim of poetry to the consideration of the thoughtful. The poetry of this number is unusually good. Danske Dandridge has a charming April Idyl; William H. Hayne has two fine quatrains, and B. W D. gives some spirited lines entitled, Paris and Helen. An article which will attract attention is by Hugh N. Starnes in which he describes the new cotton harvester. The article is fully illustrated, and the writer declares the invention to be a complete success.

THE APRIL CENTURY.-"Strikes, Lockouts, and Arbitrations" is the title of a timely and important article in the April CENTURY by George May Powell. It aims to be an unbiased study of the relations of capital and labor and of the methods of settling differences. Mr. Powell at the outset says, "Labor and capital are each as necessary to the other as the two wings of a bird. Cripple either wing and the other is useless." Three anecdotal articles in this number form a most entertaining account of the famous Confederate cruiser, Alabama, and her duel with the Kearsarge. A portrait of Longfellow, after an ambrotype of 1848, showing the poet in a guise unfamiliar to the public of later years, is the frontispiece of the number. It accompanies a paper by Mrs. Annie Fields giving "Glimpses of Longfellow in Social Life." Mr. Cable's paper on "Creole Slave Songs" is as fully illustrated and as entertaining as his February article on "The Dance in the Place Congo." A profusely illustrated paper on "Toy Dogs." the pug, spaniels, and terriers, by James Watson, completes the CENTURY series on typical dogs. The fiction of the number comprises the third part of "The Minister's Charge." The conclusion of Mrs. Mary Hallock Foote's dramatic novel, "John Bodewin's Testimony," and two short stories, one by Dr. Edward Eggleston, entitled "Sister Tabea," and the other an amusing sketch by Arlo Bates, called "April's Lady." Dr. Washington Gladden contributes a thoughtful essay on "Christianity and Popular Education." The poems of the number are contributed by Mrs. Celia Thaxter, Miss Winifred Howells, John Vance Cheney, and in "Bric a-Brac," by Charles Henry Webb, Mrs. Martha Wolcott Hitchcock, Walter Learned, and others.

CONTENTS OF ST. NICHOLAS for April.-Frontispiece, "I am sure you are a Prince,' said the Princess." Casperl, illustrated. "O Moon, Slender Moon," Verses, illustrated and engrossed. An April Day, poem Little Lord Fauntleroy, chapter VI, Frances Hodgson Burnett, two illustrations. An Imprisoned Whale. The Ballad of Johnny Picklefritz, Jingle, illustrated and engrossed. A Rainy Day, Poem Historic Girls, V, Woo of Hwang-ho, E. S. Brooks, four illustrations. Personally Conducted, VII, Frank R. Stockton, illustrated. A Voyage, poem, H. H. Ballard. "Three Little Maidens from School are We," picture. George Washington, Ch. X, XI, XII, Horace E. Scudder, three illustrations. The Icicle, verses illustrated. New Bits of Talk for Young Folks, Helen Jackson, (H. H.) Vacation Schools in Boston, Edward E. Hale, six illustrations. Sophie Conner and the VacationSchool, Charles Barnard, five illustrations. Wonders of the Alphabet, II. Ben's Sister, illustration by George Foster Barnes. A Visit to Shakspeare's School, illustration, "The Old Grammar School at Stratford on-Avon " Answered Riddle Jingle, illustrated and engrossed. For Very Little Folk, a Grandmother who can Draw. Jack-in-the-Pulpit, illustrated. "All Aboard for To-morrow Morning," picture. Editorial Notes. The Letter-box, illustrated. The Agassiz Association. The Riddle-box, illustrated.

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, Contents for April -An Economic Study of Mexico, I, by David A. Wells. External Form of the Man-like Apes, illustrated. The Factors of Organic Evolution, I, by Herbert Spencer. Botany as a Recreation for Invalids. The French Problem in Canada. Mr. Gladstone and Genesis, by Professor T. H. Huxley. Comments, by Professor Heary Drummond. The Hand-work of School Children, by Rebecca D. Rickoff. The Teeth of the Coming Man. Earthquakes in Central America. The Gems of the National Museum. The Whipping-Post. Sketch of Christian Huygens, with portrait. Editor's Table: The Gladstone-Huxley Controversy; Education in Politics. Literary Notices Popular Miscellany. Notes. Supplement: Dawn of Creation and of Wership, Ly William E. Gladstone.

THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY for April, Contents,-Gouverneur Morris, Henry Cabot Lodge. Hidden Forces, A. M. Libby. Reformation of Charity, D. O. Kellogg. The Dulham Ladies, Sarah Orne Jewett. Shylock vs Antonio, A Brief for Plaintiff on Appeal, Charles Henry Phelps. Problems of the Scarlet Letter, Julian Hawthorne. The Princess Casamassima, Book Third, XXV-XXVIII, Henry James. Before Sunrise in Winter, Andrew Hedbrook. Children, Past and Present, Agnes Repplier. In the Clouds, VIII-X, Charles Egbert Craddock. Revelation, John Greenleaf Whittier Responsible Government under the Constitution, Woodrow Wilson. Historical Methods. Madame Mohl's Salon. Some French Illustrations. The Contributors' Club Books of the Month.

LIPPINCOTT'S MONTHLY MAGAZINE for April, Contents,-Taken by Siege, VI, VII. Two Days in Utah, Alice W. Rollins. To Walt Whitman, Dora Read Goodale, A Bachelor's Blunder, XIIIXVI. W. E. Norris, Aunt Sukey, Frances Courtenay Baylor. Apache, Charles Henry Phelps. Qur Experience Meetings, I-My Literary Autobiography, Julian Hawthorne; A Few Literary Experiences, Edgar Fawcett; An Accidental Author, Joel Chandler Harris. Scores and Tallies, Grant Allen. A Vacant House, M. H. Catherwood. Patience in Art, Charlotte Fiske Bates. Our Monthly Gossip The Coming American Novelist, A "Lady from Philadelphia "; Irving's Reproduction of Faust, Walter Herries Pollock; Children's Songs and Games, B. M.; Is the Poet Unable to Support Himself? W. H. B.

OFFICIAL DEPARTMENT.

J. L. BUCHANAN, Superintendent Public Instruction, Editor.

[The Journal is sent to every County Superintendent and District Clerk, and must be carefully preserved by them as public property and transmitted to their successors in office.]

The Public Free School System.

The public free school system of Virginia has been in operation for nearly sixteen years. The number of schools has increased from 3,047 in 1871 to 6,575 in 1885. The number of pupils attending these schools has increased from 131,088 in 1871 to 303,343 in 1885. The annual expenditure of money derived from all sources has increased from $587,472 in 1871 to $1,424,531 in 1885.

The machinery of such a system must necessarily be complex, involving as it does, the disbursement of such an amount of money, and extending its operations, as it does, and was designed to do, not only into every city and county in the State, but into every magisterial district. Much earnest thought and well directed labor have been expended in devising and operating this machinery.

The system itself took root in the popular mind and heart and it has grown, but it has grown not without cultivation and not without encountering some adverse influences.

The Constitution of the State provided for the introduction of the system and for the enactment of laws to organize and shape it. The State Board of Education is invested with large powers in its general management and control-its chief executive officer is the State Superintendent. The practical workings of the system, in all its manifold details, is under his supervision and must, of necessity, impose upon him manifold duties. The officer recently assigned to these duties trusts that he duly recognizes and appreciates the magnitude and responsibility of the work before him. And he recognizes it to be the duty, as it is the aim, of the present administration, both to maintain the valuable results attained by preceding administrations, and to make a faithful, honest effort, if means are available, to still farther enlarge the usefulness and efficiency of the system. As essential to the accomplishment of this end, the cordial sympathy and active co-operation of all officially connected with the system are earnestly invoked, and the encouragement and support

of the great masses of the people, whose interests are to be served, are confidently relied on.

With these views, we have entered upon the important and responsible branch of the public service assigned us, not, however, claiming exemption from the liability to mistakes, but avowing a purpose to make a faithful and conscientious effort to meet all the just demands of that service.

Professor L. R. Holland has been appointed chief clerk and Secretary of the Board of Education. A long experience in these positions has rendered him thoroughly familiar with the laws, regulations, and practical workings of the public school system.

Mr. J. A. McGilvray, who was for some years assistant secretary of the Richmond city school board, has been appointed second clerk. He comes well recommended.

The messenger, James Jasper, who has been on duty in the office for some nine years and who has been regarded as faithful and efficient, has been reappointed.

Summer Institutes.

The February No. of the EDUCATIONAL JOURNAL gives full and explicit information in regard to the Normal Institute to be held at Farmville for the benefit of female public school teachers.

Through the generosity of the Board of Trustees of the Peabody Education Fund, means are available for holding at least two addional Normal Institutes during the ensuing summer. These will be held for the benefit of white public school teachers of both sexes. We cannot yet designate when and where these Institutes will be held, but will be able to do so in due time. Communications have already been received from superintendents naming eligible places as to accessibility, extent and cost of boarding accommodations, lecture-room facilities, etc. Communications on this subject from other sources are invited. Diligent effort will be made to secure the services of instructors whose scholarly attainments and professional experience will ensure substantial benefit to all who attend these Institutes. The Normal idea is the leading idea. The work done should be in the special line of suggesting, illustrating, exemplifying the best methods of teaching, with lectures on school management, etc., and occasional general lectures, such as are both instructive and entertaining.

Provision is made by law for an eight weeks' summer session of

the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute at Petersburg, Va., for the benefit of colored teachers of the public schools. All the information needed in regard to this Normal course is very satisfactorily given in the EDUCATIONAL JOURNAL of last month (March, 1886).

Commissions.

The Secretary of the Board of Education will make out and forward commissions to the County Superintendents of Schools recently appointed. With these commissions will be enclosed blank forms of the oath of office. These, when properly filled out and the oath taken before a competent officer, are to be returned to the Superintendent of Public Instruction, to be filed in his office.

National Aid to Public Education.

The "full" text of the Blair bill was given in the March number of the EDUCATIONAL JOURNAL. The bill on the same subject, introduced into the House of Representatives by Mr. Willis, of Kentucky, was on the 30th March referred to the Committee on Labor by a vote of 138 against 112. Of the 73 not voting, 25 pairs were announced, leaving 23 votes undetermined.

It is said that some who voted against referring the bill to the Committee on Labor will vote for the bill if put before the House on its final passage. The object of Mr. Willis in moving to refer the bill to this committee was, as is well known, to have it reported back to the House. In that event it is believed the bill will pass, although it encounters adroit and vigorous opposition. Should the bill not be passed by the present Congress, it will doubtless demand the attention of a good many new members during the next Congress.

Nashville Normal College.

A STATEMENT has been received from Chancellor Eben S. Stearnes giving "the average rank, etc., of the students from Virginia holding Peabody scholarships at the Normal College at Nashville, Tennessee, for the period ending March 12, 1886.”