nuity. Finally it was determined to christen it the "American RURAL School-house." So the important information was posted over the door on a tablet, which looked as if it had been gotten up by robbing some American school-house of the most rural type of its oblong wooden blackboard, and chalking upon it in Roman capitals the important words.

In external appearance it had a general resemblance to some of the district school-houses of a somewhat modern date which one might find in some of the most educationally backward countrytowns of Massachusetts. It was clapboarded and painted a light gray color. It contained a school-room, a smaller apartment, and two entries. To its credit it should be said that the school-room was of fair size and proportion; and I believe this is the only thing that can be said with truth in its favor. It was badly lighted, having windows on the three sides instead of one, or at most two; the windows were absurdly narrow; to show that we Americans do not forget ventilation, two very diminutive iron ventilation registers were placed in the wall, one at the top and the other at the bottom, which reminded me of a rural schoolhouse in a New-England State of which I knew, the ventilation of which was attempted by means of an inch-and-half lead pipe, leading from the ceiling to the roof. These registers opened into no ventiduct, although there was a dummy ventilating cap on the ridge-pole of the building. The walls and ceiling were covered with canvas instead of plaster, and this was papered with a somewhat showy wall paper; portions of this paper on the wall being painted black to represent blackboards. Some maps and charts were hung on the walls without regard to system or completeness, and some miscellaneous school-books were scattered about on the table and desks. The platform was covered with a Brussels carpet which was not remarkably congruous with the notion of a rural school. The rest of the description of this school-room would consist mainly of an enumeration of the desirable things which it did not contain. Owing to its favorable location and the remarkable sign over the door, it naturally had many visitors, but it is doubtful whether it will be much copied either at home or abroad.

In passing through the educational courts of different coun

tries the American visitor would, I think, be struck with the varied and profuse display of the cunning work of school-girls' hands. If he should go into one of the rooms of the Swiss department he would find huge portfolios, to the leaves of which were attached in a tasteful manner a great number of useful and ornamental articles of needle-work, made by school-girls; and this was but a type of what might everywhere be seen. I neither saw nor heard of a girls' school in Europe where the education of the hands was not carried on in connection with the education of the brains. In the most famous High School for girls in Berlin, I saw in the school-room occupied by the highest class a large table for cutting out work, and an American sewing-machine. In respect to this branch of practical education, it seems to me that American educators might learn a profitable lesson from the example of Europe.

In the matter of school furniture, I think America may justly claim the pre-eminence. The twelve single desks and chairs in oak, representing all sizes, from that of the lowest Primary to that of the Normal School, from the establishment of Joseph L. Ross in Boston, which were symmetrically arranged in the alcove appropriated to the Boston collective educational exhibition, were the admiration of every observer, and their number was millions. It was no doubt the best furniture yet produced in the world, and yet it was taken out of the shop just as it was made for sale to customers in the ordinary way. All this furniture was disposed of in specimens to be placed in industrial and educational museums in different parts of Europe. When I told European educators that this was a sample of the furniture provided for the use of every pupil in Boston, they were greatly astonished, and often remarked that it was an evidence of the inexhaustible wealth of America.

The city of Washington contributed a real gem to the American department, in the shape of the beautiful fac-simile model of the noble Franklin Grammar School-house in that city, at the expense of at least a thousand dollars. The city of New York sent a very creditable collective exhibition, comprising several cases of text-books and drawings, reports, volumes of scholars' work, statistical charts, and stereoscopic views of the interior of

school-rooms. The latter were very fine, and attracted much attention. Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Springfield, Ill., and some other Western cities sent very elaborately prepared specimens of scholars' work in numerous large volumes, richly bound in full russia; but unfortunately they received no credit for these in the way of prizes, as the International Jury found it impossible to examine and determine the relative merit of scholars' work from elementary schools, so great was the mass of it sent from different countries.

The exhibition of appliances for instruction in geography was very interesting and valuable. From Switzerland and Germany there were very fine relief maps and globes. The atlases produced in Germany are vastly superior to any yet published in America, and are at the same time extremely cheap. There were individual wall maps in the German department of great excellence and beauty; but there was no whole set so extensive or so good as Guyot's largest series, which adorned the walls of the American

court.

The government of Würtemberg recently appointed Professor Bopp, a distinguished professor in the Polytechnic school in Stuttgart, to systematize the study of physical science in the elementary and secondary schools of that kingdom. A set of physical apparatus devised by him for the use of elementary schools was on exhibition, and attracted much attention on account of its simplicity and cheapness. But there was no set of philosophical apparatus for the use of common schools that could bear a comparison either in respect to excellence or completeness with that of the Messrs. H. B. and W. O. Chamberlain, which was comprised in the Boston collection.

The limits prescribed for this article will permit me even to mention only a few of the interesting features of the exhibition, but I must not omit that of drawing, which was eminently conspicuous. In this branch the American court was sadly deficient, — in fact, absolutely nowhere in the competition. I wish American teachers could see the large portfolios of splendid drawings sent from the elementary schools in Paris, containing admirable specimens on a large scale of free-hand outline and shading, and of geometrical, machine, and architectural drawing.

The productions from the Real Schools of Vienna alone were enough to constitute a splendid exhibition. A mere glance at the extensive and meritorious contributions furnished from the numerous polytechnic, bau-gewerbe, and industrial art schools of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland afforded abundant evidence that industrial art education had made great progress in these countries. As yet America has done but little in this direction, indeed scarcely the first step has been taken.

The Jury very justly awarded the Grand Diploma of Honor to the National Bureau of Education at Washington; and General Eaton, the able and devoted United States Commissioner of Education, deserves the chief credit for whatever of success attended our American educational exhibition at Vienna, while he is in no degree responsible for the imperfections of the American schoolhouse.

The Grand Diploma was granted to the State of Massachusetts in view of the evidence of what was done and is doing here for education as presented in the complete sets of State and municipal reports contributed to the exhibition. The same honor was unanimously and cheerfully granted to Boston. If the effect of these honors shall cause us to relax our efforts for the continued improvement of our schools, they will prove an injury rather than a benefit.

A CRITICISM.

WHEN Dr. Holmes, the prince of satirists, called Boston "the hub of the universe," he gave expression to an idea which, though perhaps unacknowledged, readily found a response in the hearts of Bostonians. No one can deny that the people of Boston are proud of their city. Nor, it must be conceded, is the feeling without foundation. In business enterprise she knows no rival; the lines of elegant buildings rapidly approaching completion in the Burnt District show what the tact and ability of her merchants can do even when their resources are crippled; and the medals assigned at the Vienna Exposition bear witness to the nations that she holds an honorable place among the cities of the world.

With ready and noble generosity she responds to calls of distress from East and West; so that we may say she is the headquarters of charity for the world. In every départment she aims to be a leader; and within her ample limits she gathers whatever may add to the graces of polite society or the charms of a literary career.

But it is chiefly of her public school system that Boston is proud. No pains, no expense is spared that her children and youth may obtain a good education. Not only those branches which our fathers considered essential are taught to each of her children, but music and drawing, once regarded as accomplishments, are now found in the curriculum of every public school in the city. Her school-buildings are large and costly, and their appointments are limited by no mercenary counting of dollars. Her citizens are ready to pour out their money like water that their crowning glory, the public schools, may keep the high rank they have deservedly attained. How Boston regards her public schools is shown by the fact that strangers and royal magnates enjoying her hospitality are taken to visit them.

Since all these excellences are conceded, one may with better grace call attention to a defect existing in the Girls' High School, the highest eminence in the mountain-range of learning which girls, by the free gift of the city, can attain. Munificently as Boston has provided for the education of her sons, she has thus far failed to meet the demands of her daughters for a higher education. Many girls to-day are turning longing eyes to the college doors, and they have a right, equally with their brothers, to be fitted at the public expense for these higher institutions; but the startling fact remains that in Boston (with the exception, perhaps, of some of the recently annexed districts) no girl can be fitted for college at the public school. To-day, while hundreds of young men are fitting for college in the Latin School, those girls who would gladly share their studies are debarred the privilege; and the few whom circumstances have rendered independent of the public schools for their education, are studying Greek in private schools.

From the last Quarterly Report of the Committee of the Girls' High School, it appears that the amount of Latin there taught is