State joined in the public reception given him at the Masonic Hall in that city.

His brief account of Eastern schools and school-masters, his descriptions of New York and Boston and Chicago, his narrative of visits to his old school and former colleagues in New York City, were listened to in rapt attention.

And then around the social board, with music and with dance and song the merry hours were whiled away.

And Supt. Campbell says, he's going again.

THE Cogswell College of the Mechanic Arts, which Dr. Cogswell of this city has founded and endowed to the extent of over a million dollars, bids fair to open its doors for the reception of students, by the New Year. Contracts for the buildings have already been let, and the corner-stone will soon be laid. It is said that the President of the institution is to be Inspector James G. Kennedy, one the Trustees, and an educator of established reputation and pre-eminent ability.

Prof. Kennedy's merit as an organizer, his rare administrative talents, and his practical bent of mind, make him, above all, just the man to lead in the grand work of industrial education, that with the foundation of the Cogswell College opens so auspiciously in the State.

While Prof. Kennedy's election to the Presidency of the College is a severe loss to the pulic schools of the City and State, it is a decided gain to the cause of practical education.

THERE are many large schools in the San Francisco Department, doing good work and deserving mention.

The Lincoln School, long

At this time two are worthy especial note. the praise of the city, under its new Principal, James T. Hamilton, keeps up its time-worn reputation for discipline and high scholarship. Prof. Hamilton deserves especial credit for keeping up the rank this school has always occupied, and that position was always among the first.

The Washington Grammar School, under its new Principal, T. B. White, shows marks of great improvement, though that gentleman has had charge but a few months. The discipline is decidedly better, teachers more harmonious, and instruction more on a uniform plan.

It this system is kept up, the school will soon rank among the best in the community.

A PRINTER'S mistake, or rather omission, the like of which is not apt to occur again, caused us to omit the name of PROFESSOR ALBERT S. Cook of the State University, as the author of the admirable synopsis

of Payne's Education in the Reading Circle Department of the May JOURNAL. A number of teachers in the writer's school have spoken of the article in terms of the warmest commendation.

It is a paper so helpful, that its use, hand in hand, with the book of which it is a synopsis, will prove of as much service to the inquiring, as a term in a Normal School.

A single article of this kind is worth looking for, even if it is found but once a year in an educational periodical.

THE laying of the corner-stone of the Leland Stanford Junior University, which took place unostentatiously, on Saturday, May 14, marks an epoch in the educational history of the western half of the country.

Besides the donor and about twenty, out of the thirty-five Trustees, there were present only the representatives of the California press and a small local gathering.

The plans of Senator Stanford contemplate a University complete in all details, one modeled on the plan of Oxford, or Cambridge, or Berlin, or the Johns Hopkins. And as the endowments aggregate about $20,000,000, and the work is being earnestly pushed, we believe our generation will see a great institution, doing a grand work, even in the lifetime of its founder.

THE San Francisco School Department has improved considerably within the past two years, and nowhere more than in the Boys' High School, where Principal James K. Wilson has, as it were, created a different atmosphere.

A new spirit entirely pervades that institution; the boys, no longer, spend their time contriving plans to outwit or annoy the teacher; they actually fraternize with him. Study is not scoffed at, and the boy who graduates with honors--even in deportment-is not considered a sneak among his companions.

To accomplish this much in one short year is a great deal-all honor then to Principal Wilson.

A SCHOOL report of Oregon, for the year 1886-87, just received, shows a decided improvement in educational management in that State. Great credit is due to State Superintendent McElroy for this progress. For years the schools have been inferior; everything in educational matters has been dead in that wonderful State.

Under Supt. McElroy there is more than a promise of revival; there is the actual fact. And it is not too much to say that it will not be long

before the school system of our northern neighbors will soon vie with our own for superiority.

OUR schools, in our cities and towns are now holding their closing exercises for the year. In this issue of the JOURNAL and in the July number, our pages will be crowded with accounts of graduations, ever new, though the same year after year. Our Normal Schools will turn out their yearly supply of trained teachers, and for them there will be no lack of employment.

Though, in California as well as elsewhere, there are scores of teachers out of positions, here Webster's old maxim is peculiarly appropriate“There is plenty of room up stairs.”

THE Arithmetic of the State text-books is ready, and by August will probably be in the hands of our pupils. The Grammar is nearly ready, and now the work on the History and Physiology, is going on, with preparations under way for the Geography.

This experiment of State publication is having a fair and thorough trial in this State. If a success here, other States may reasonably be expected to follow our lead; if a failure, the scheme will be dead forever.

In this number of the JOURNAL, our readers again read the familiar lines of Charles M. Drake, Mrs. Aurelia Griffith, and others of our oldest and best contributors.

We bid them welcome, very heartily. And it is hoped that the current of improvement has once again set in, and that with the aid of our ablest and most experienced educational writers, our periodical will be a perceptible help in the daily work of the school-room.

PROF. MADISON BABCOCK, principal of the Sacramento Grammar School, has been spending his Spring vacation, visiting the schools of San Francisco. He has already, in his school at Sacramento, established or rather sustained his reputation, as an educator of the highest rank. Prof. Babcock is the kind of man-keen, scholarly, of signal executive ability-needed in a large city, at the head of a large school, or as Inspector or Superintendent.

MRS. HANCHETTE, whose interesting article on "Child Culture," we print in this number of the JOURNAL, is one of the brightest and most successful of the younger teachers, in our San Francisco schools. She is excellent in her class-room work; and a clear thinker and ready writer on all manner of subjects without. We hope to hear from her

in the JOURNAL often and on matters especially pertaining to the work in which she is so successful.

AMONG the able Superintendents of California, there is no one who will, for energy and scholarship, surpass Supt. J. B. Brown of Humboldt. Scholarly, successful, and highly popular as a teacher; he is directing all his abilities to make the schools of his county what his own school at Eureka always was, the first in Northern California. We know he will succeed.

THE census report, just coming in from all parts of the State, show a great increase in school children, consequent on a vast addition to the population.

San Francisco, by the returns, must have a population of about 350.ooo, and the State over one and a half million.

WHY is it some teachers always pick out the wrong boy? They do: it's no use for them to deny it. It isn't alone the boy, picked out wrongfully who says so, but the real culprit who confesses it. All of which shows that the teacher needs a quick eye; and sometimes, what is better still unless she is surely right-no eye at all to see a slight transgression.

THE JOURNAL's new dress this month will prove attractive to our readers, and, at the same time, show that educational journalism on the Pacific Coast, has taken a new departure indeed.

CALIFORNIA TEACHERS' READING CIRCLE.

EDITED BY MRS. KATHARINE B. FISHER.

HOW TO ORGANIZE.

The Secretary being in frequent receipt of letters of inquiry, offers the following hints taken mainly from a slip issued by an Eastern Circle, the exact location of which she is not able to ascertain :

First.-Let those who desire to become members, assemble and select from their number some one as a leader.

Second. The first step of the leader should be to enroll the members and collect the annual fees.

Third. Decide the order in which the prescribed books are to be taken up and assign a portion for the first month's reading.

Fourth.-Fix upon an evening upon which to meet, weekly, monthly

or semi-monthly, as the members may prefer. Let the leader suggest points to be noted in the reading.

Fifth-At the meetings have a Dictionary and other desirable reference books at hand.

Members should have pencils and note books to record matters of interest that may be elicited by reading and discussion.

The leader should call the roll and inquire the amount read; mark important points and note difficult words or peculiar statements in the pages read.

Members should point out interesting or striking paragraphs and give information bearing on the subject matter which they have obtained from other sources.

Much evidently depends on the choice of a leader who shall be bright and inspiring, as well as thoroughly well informed. Tact is often of more value than talent. Indeed it is a question if tact is not a species of genius.

Another circular which is before me, says: "As a rule happy work is good work; therefore make the influences of your Circle genial and inspiring, while you bear in mind the underlying purpose that brings you together."

Music, memory selections and discussions may make meetings both interesting and profitable.

The managers of the N. E. Teachers' Reading Union give to their members the following excellent hints:

FACULTIES TO CULTIVATE.

Ist. Observation of Facts,

2d. Classification of Facts,

3d. Reasoning Powers.-Reason about what you read; know not only that things are so, but how they are so and for what purpose they are so. 4th.-Cultivate Imagination-Cultivate the faculty chiefly as related to realities. Take facts-lives of great men and facts in history as the material for your imagination to work on.

5th. Cultivate Admiration-Let whoever is ambitious of intellectual excellence, cultivate this faculty. It is by admiration only of what is beautiful and sublime that we can mount toward what we admire.

6th. Cultivate Memory-It is of no use gathering treasures if we cannot store them; it is equally useless to learn what we cannot retain in the memory.

Happily, of all mental faculties, this is one which is most easily improved by exercise.

Whatever facilities of memory one may possess, let him not despise the sure aid of written record. The student cannot begin too early the practice of interleaving certain books and making a good index to others; also using marginal notes.”

By the courtesy of Prof. Hutton, President of the Sonoma County Circle (as also of the State Circle), and of Superintendent Linscott of Santa Cruz, the editor is permitted to publish outlines of Scott's "Lady of the Lake," prepared by them for the Circles in their respective counties.