THE SCHOOL JOURNAL.

LANCASTER, APRIL, 1900.

More people drown in the glass than in the sea.

The bird is the balance in nature, keeping under the Insect life, that fruit and grain may ripen and animals and men may live. Do not kill it or disturb its nest.

Ye may be aye sticking in a tree, Jock; it will be growing when ye're sleeping.-Scotch Farmer.

The best of men that ever wore earth about him was a sufferer, a soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit; the first true gentleman that ever breathed.-Decker.

I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good thing, therefore, that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to a fellow-creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again. -Edward Courtney: Engraved also upon his tomb. N. C. SCHAEFFER.

J. P. MCCASKEY.

ARBOR DAY PROCLAMATION.

In the Name and by Authority of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

IT

A PROCLAMATION.

T is my pleasant duty to again call the attention of the citizens of this Commonwealth to the time-honored custom of systematically planting trees and shrubs and thus in a measure repairing the injury caused by a too rapid destruction of our forests. The inestimable benefits of this custom are evidenced not only by the everincreasing beauty of our parks and avenues, but by the interest which our people are taking in the necessity and benefits of larger wooded areas. Through the efforts of scientific wood culture, young forests are springing up in different parts of the State, and it will not be long before an appreciable change will be noticed in the flow of the waters of our State.

Especially should Arbor Day be observed in view of the fact that the State, in compliance with several Acts of Assembly creating forest reserves, is now purchasing forest lands. This has greatly increased the market value of similar wooded tracts, and a larger revenue should come to the counties from taxes levied upon them. The results in other counties show that there

will soon be a considerable revenue to the State from the sale of merchantable timber taken from its reserves, but the immediate benefit is to the people, who will have the right to go upon these lands for fishing, hunting, outing and camping without feeling themselves liable as trespassers. Our cities have their parks maintained at great expense. These forest reserves will be the people's parks, free to all who comply with the laws for their preservation. In calling the attention of those observing Arbor Day to the purchase of forest lands by the State, it is with the hope that the action of the

State officials in putting in force the laws creating forest reserves may meet with public approval, and that the sentiment favorable thereto may be strengthened.

In order that our citizens, both young and old, may continue to contribute their share in this great movement, I, William A. Stone, Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in accordance with law, do hereby designate and proclaim Friday, the sixth day of April, and Friday, the twentieth day of April, A. D. 1900, to be observed as Arbor Days throughout the Commonwealth.

Two days are set apart for the observance of Arbor Day. Inasmuch as the climatic conditions may render one of these days more favorable for the purpose intended than the other, the selection is left with the citizens of the various sections of the Commonwealth.

Given under my hand and the great seal of the State at the City of Harrisburg, this ninth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred, and of the Commonwealth the one hundred and twenty

THE bound volume of proceedings of the

TH

Los Angeles meeting of the National Educational Association which has just been received from the Secretary, Irwin Shepard, Winona, Minnesota, is the largest yet issued, containg 1258 pages. It includes all papers and discussions, as well as the report of the Columbus meeting of the Department of Superintendents. Among reports of special importance are those of the Committees on College Entrance Requirements, on Normal Schools, and on the Relations of Public Libraries to Public Schools.

It is a great book, and the spelling is nearly as good as Lowell or Longfellow would make it. Here and there the proofreader missed a word which mars the page, but some one may have given him instructions to blunder on "thru" for he seems to miss that every time. We can stand a bad word now and then if there is a good idea behind it to make it worth while; but if the folly of the "ten rules," and more, had been insisted upon throughout this book, as some wished to have it, who but the spelling crank would have cared to read or own it? A few

copies are still on hand, and may be had at a low rate from Secretary Shepard.

THE next meeting of the National Educational Association will be held at Charleston, South Carolina, during the second week in July; the meeting of the Pennsylvania State Teachers' Association at Williamsport, during the first week of the same month, July 3d to 6th.

By accident the name of Supt. Jno. W. Anthony, Jeannette, Westmoreland county, was omitted from the list of members of the Convention of City and Borough Superintendents held in Philadelphia a few weeks since. Supt. Anthony was not only in regular attendance, but a member much interested in the proceedings of the meeting.

A YEAR ago Cornell University secured 30,000 acres of woodland in the Adirondack Mountains for the exclusive use of her Forestry Department. The land has been divided into a number of sections, and several seed beds have been laid out in which there have been planted over a million small trees of different varieties. The students of forestry will study the theory of the subject from October to April, and from then until commencement they will study the practical side of forestry. Cornell University is the only college in the United States which has a Forestry Department. Professor John Gifford was recently elected to the Chair of Forestry in the University.

PROVOST HARRISON has just published his annual Report to the Trustees of the University for the year ending August 31, 1899. The Report, together with its full and numerous appendices, gives a very readable account of the present condition of the University, and of the year's work and benefactions. The reports of the Deans and other heads of departments are presented in full and discussed at more or less length by the Provost, who is evidently in close touch with every portion of the work, and full of plans for its enlargement and development wherever these are needed. There have been a number of personal changes through death, resignation, and election, during the year, iu the teaching staff of 258 persons, which are duly recorded. The appended Treasurer's report is very full and clear, showing precisely the resources and

expenses of the University and its Hospitals. It reports the year's gifts as amounting to $616,441.28, one of the largest in the history of the University. In the little less than five years of Dr. Harrison's Provostship the donations have aggregated $2,804,319.60; but a careful study of this report will show that at least as much more is urgently needed to carry out the plans already formulated for extensions and improvements that are absolutely essential. The University in an important way stands for the Commonwealth and the City, and its ample support should be a matter of solicitude to all thoughtful citizens. Copies of the "Provost's Report" may be had on application to the Secretary, 400 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia.

HAVE YOU PLANTED A TREE?

HE time of the singing of birds and

TH

the time of the planting of trees are again with us. The one suggests the other, and depends in part upon the other, and both are very pleasant to think of. The proclamation of Governor Stone names April 6th and 20th as the Spring Arbor Days for Pennsylvania, the season being two weeks earlier in the southern than in the northern part of the State.

Can superintendents, directors, and teachers do better than to call attention to this good work? Let it become at this season an every day question: "Have you ever planted a tree?" Where, when, how many of them are growing, flourishing, bearing fruit?

Let us do what we can in this and other ways to fix the thought, especially in the minds of boys and girls, of planting fruit and shade and timber trees, and also nuts and seeds as well as trees. It is the thought that leads to the thing; the doing that fixes the habit; and this habit on the part of even a few people in a community, with its good example for all, means blessing for the countryside.

As to the best trees for planting: Good fruit trees, of course, wherever they can be had, and wherever they will grow, and that in Pennsylvania is almost everywhere. Then good shade trees. The list of Mr. Smith of Washington, D. C., one of the best living authorities, is the Norway maple, sugar maple, swamp maple, American elm, rock elm, American linden, sweet gum (liquidambar), acacia, Amer

ican ash, horse chestnut. Japan Gingko, box elder, American sycamore. Mr. Meehan of Germantown, recommends the following list in order of merit: Norway maple, sugar maple, silver maple, linden, Western catalpa, horse chestnut, paper birch, paulownia, etc. Dr. J. T. Rothrock, our distinguished Commissioner of Forestry, approves both these lists, giving especial preference to our native trees.

If you are a farmer or land owner and have waste hillsides or other unproductive lands where timber trees will growand these are found in all directionsplant the chestnut, walnut, hickory, oak, elm, maple, gum, beech, birch, pine, anything, be it apple, cherry, plum and pear, and plant them by hundreds and by thousands. Plant the nuts or seeds in such manner as tree-growers advise, then transplant, as seems best, and in years the timber crop may prove to be the most profitable, financially, of all that you have grown, to say nothing of the blessing that comes to the country at large from the presence of trees everywhere in goodly numbers.

Plant trees! On Arbor Day, if you can, but still-plant trees!

TWO GOOD CONVENTIONS. HESE are convention numbers, and

those who have the direction or control of school policy or school affairs. Our last issue gave in full the interesting proceedings of the Superintendents' Convention of February 8-10, at the University of Pennsylvania. The sessions were held in the beautiful lecture room of Houston Hall, which is modeled after an old Gothic church on the Isle of Man, that to which Hall Caine and many of his neighbor Manxmen belong.

Supt. Addison Jones, of West Chester, was at home in the chair; the Executive Committee had done their work well; the authorities of the University and of the city schools bade everybody a most hearty welcome; and the meeting was in every way profitable and enjoyable.

The formal addresses and papers by Drs. Brooks, Penniman, Sharpless, Harrison, Schaeffer, Superintendents Missimer, Jones, Coughlin, Twitmyer, Howell, Harpel, McGinnes, Berkey, Mackey, and Harman, the lecture by Prof. Tadd in

the chapel of the University, and the running discussions in which others took part, made these proceedings of unusual interest.

Dr. M. G. Brumbaugh was the everpresent host, representing the University, and on Friday afternoon at 3 o'clock took charge of the superintendents for a tour of observation through a part of the builddings and grounds. It was a memorable visit, first to the department rich in treasures of archeology where one could spend days instead of an hour; then to the great chemical building; then through the vast library; and from there to the new law building recently dedicated. During the noon hour we had visited the dissecting room on the fourth floor of the medical building, where a hundred or more students were busy. Of all interesting places that we had the privilege of seeing during this memorable half day, that which impressed us most was this great room. A friend asked, "Was there nothing repulsive or offensive?" "It seemed like a temple, full of divine suggestion and mystery."

The session of the State Directors' Association, held in Harrisburg, February 14th and 15th, the proceedings of which are given in full in the present issue of The School Journal, is generally considered the most successful meeting in the history of this Association. Mr. H. B. Eastburn was a model presiding officer. The executive committee had prepared an excellent programme. Those who were appointed to speak put in their appearance at the right time, so that there was no hitch in the programme. Supt. Hamilton's address was well prepared, well delivered and full of good counsel to the educational authorities of the Commonwealth. He emphasized the importance of aiding directors through a periodical that will keep them in touch with the School Department and with the latest movements in the realm of education. Dr. Atherton gave his views in a polished address and received the heartiest applause from all who heard him. Depty. Supt. Houck made one of his stirring speeches. Welsh emphasized the educational outlook from the standpoint of a Normal School Principal. We bespeak a careful perusal of the proceedings by all who could not attend the meeting, and cherish the hope that Mr. J. R. Spiegel, the new chairman of the Executive Committee, will get up a meeting next year that

Prof.

shall be superior to all that have preceded it.

These proceedings have made it necessary to print an extra number of pages in both the March and April numbers of The Journal. We wish it were possibie to have those numbers go into the hands of School Directors and Teachers everywhere in Pennsylvania.

AN UNSELFISH LIFE.

N Sunday, March 18, 1900, Memorial

the Keystone State Normal School in commemoration of the late President of the Board of Trustees, Rev. B. E. Kramlich, who died January 1, 1900. Of all men connected with the public school work he was most unselfish. A tablet in memory of his long and faithful service was unveiled, and appropriate addresses were delivered by Judge R. H. Koch, Rev. C. F. Dry and State Supt. N. C. Schaeffer. We append the following extract from one of the addresses as indicative of the growing tendency to do honor to those who work in the cause of popular education:

"Of all who have been connected with this school, no one can show a record for prolonged and unselfish service like the late Rev. B. E. Kramlich. He was a member of the Board of Trustees since its recognition as a State Normal School -that is, for one-third of a century. He had completed twenty-three years of service as President of the Board of Trustees, was elected the twenty-fourth time to this post of honor, and filled it from May to January in the current school year. He never asked for remuneration of any kind, but paid the tuition of his children like any other citizen, and gave an amount of time to the interests of the school that would have meant a modest fortune if spent in money-making or in the management of a great financial trust. As President of the Board he was ex-officio a member of the Building Committee under whose supervision were erected all the buildings on the campus except the one occupied by the steward. Although the contracts awarded during his time aggregated several hundred thousand dollars, no one ever breathed or harbored the suspicion that he sacrificed any interest of the school for the sake of awarding a contract to a friend.

Such a record for integrity is deserving of emphatic mention in an age when people can hardly be made to see that public office is a public trust. When it became necessary to borrow money to carry on these building operations, he was ever ready to sign his name as security, thus pledging his private property for the payment of these loans by the school. He was, as a matter of course, but one of a large number of men in this community who thus ralied to the support of the school, and whilst great praise is due to many citizens who would not wish their names mentioned at this time, to Mr. Kramlich belongs the credit of having been first and foremost by advice and example in such movements to establish the credit of the school upon a firm basis. In the detailed arrangements of the grounds and buildings much deference was always paid to the wishes and good judgment of the President of the Board of Trustees, and it is simply impossible to enumerate the many improvements that are due to his suggestions. He was also a member of the committee that selected and employed the teachers. For the sake of harmony he often sacrificed his preferences; the sequel generally showed that his judgment was right, and that it would have conduced to the welfare of the school if his advice had been more implicitly followed. The meetings of the Board and these two committees he attended in season and out of season. He was ever ready to sacrifice his convenience for the sake of attending a special meeting, and no quorum seemed complete when he was absent. In the stormiest meetings he never lost his head or his self control. He knew how to deal with men in public life. Over and over again he was sent to Harrisburg in the interests of the school. He was universally liked by all who made his acquaintance. His good nature and genial spirit, his politeness and regard for the feelings of others, his interest in every movement to better the community on the material, intellectual or religious side, made him a welcome visitor at every fireside, in every place of business, and on every festive occasion.

"When I consulted the architect, Mr. E. F. Durang, about the best place for the memorial tablet, he advised that it be placed near the entrance of the chapel where every visitor and every student could see and read it. This advice has

been followed, and the students of the next century will daily have his name and service brought to their attention. To them his name will be more familiar than the names of our Governors and United States Senators, lists of whom no one pretends to remember in these days. Indeed, the day is not far distant when school boys and their teachers will no longer deem it worth while to acquire the names of our Presidents and VicePresidents. The surest way to be remembered in any community is to link one's name with some flourishing school or congregation. The name of Rev. B. E. Kramlich will be remembered as long as the Keystone State Normal School stands, as long as the Lutheran faith has adherents in Maxatawny, Rockland and the other fields he served. Well I recall the stir created in these congregations by his return voyage from Europe, during which he was almost wrecked as a passenger of the unfortunate Great Eastern. He faced other storms in church and state. The fearless stand which he took against hucksters in connection with. church dedications reminds one of the Master driving out those who bought and sold in the temple. Similar courage and tact was displayed first in holding his people to the Lutheran faith when the attempt was repeatedly made to convert them to a different denomination, and again in holding the congregations of another charge to the Lutheran Ministerium instead of allowing them to pass to another Synod. During the Civil War he raised his voice for the Union when many of his parishioners were opposed to war. In the history of the School he faced crisis after crisis, and always steered the craft through the storm into the haven of safety. Time forbids going into details. Suffice it to say, the wisdom of his counsels was shown by the eras of greater prosperity that followed when his word was heeded.

"His services as a Trustee and Friend of popular education were enhanced by his position as a Christian minister. He seldom failed to visit the school on the opening day, always inquired about the attendance, and closed the exercises of each year by the benediction on Commencement Day. Thus by word and act he showed where his heart was. If he had lived in New England instead of Eastern Pennsylvania, his fidelity to the church and the school would have been lauded

and magnified in ways that would surprise the plain, undemonstrative Pennsylvania Germans. As a people we have yet to learn what Milton means when he speaks of "the debt immense of endless gratitude." Let us cherish the recollection of his cheerful spirit and agreeable manners, of his fidelity to every trust and the sacrifices he made in the discharge of public duty; let us emulate his unselfishness and his untiring zeal in the cause of popular education and in every movement designed to uplift the people whom he served; let us hand down to future generations the memory of a thoronghly representative man, who, like Washington, ended his career of usefulness at the close of the century to which he belonged.

THE STATE ASSOCIATION.

WE take pleasure in laying before our

readers the following timely letter from Col. J. A. M. Passmore, who, as President of the Pennsylvania State Teachers' Association, urges the importance of attendance upon the annual session to be held at Williamsport:

Dear Journal:-I desire through the medium of your most excellent paper, (and I only wish it reached and was read by every teacher in the commonwealth), to call attention to the Pennsylvania State Teachers' Association, which assembles in Williamsport, July 3, 1900.

This Association has been one of the best friends the teachers ever had; there has not been, within the last thirty-five or forty years, a single act of the Legislature passed in regard to schools, that has not been handled by that Association, and by them transferred to the state authorities and then worked assiduously for it. Such legislation as the Normal School Act, the County Superintendency, the City and Borough Superintendency, etc., have always been considered, discussed and urged upon the State Department and the Legislature by this Association.

There are about 26,000 teachers in the public schools of Pennsylvania, to say nothing of the large number of professors in the normal schools and colleges, universities and other private institutions of learning. Out of this great body of educators there were 258 enrolled at the last meeting of the State Teachers' Association at Gettysburg. New York had an enrollment of 4,002. We stand at the foot of the list. Is this right?

There are 66 county superintendents in the state; only 26 were enrolled last year, 40 were not. There are 73 city, borough and