year. The examination at the close of the third year's course shall be upon the studies taught during the third year, and shall be conducted by the faculty of the school, under the supervision of the Committee on Qualification of Teachers. A principal's certificate shall be awarded by the committee when a general average scholarship of 85 or upwards shall have been attained. An assistant's certificate requires an aver age of 70 or upwards. In respect to the Boys' Central High School a general average scholarship of 85 or upwards is necessary to secure a principal's certificate. AT one of the sessions of the American a discontinuance of these studies during the fourth Medical Association which recently convened at Buffalo, it was resolved that, in the opinion of that association, medical men "ought to have a voice in the construction and location of public school buildings, in the questions as to the age at which children be admitted, the hours of study, and the general management of these institutions; and to this end it is believed to be necessary that one or more intelligent physicians should be placed upon Boards of Education, Boards of Trustees, and upon other similar Boards having THE following is Senator Burnside's bill the control of public education and schools." for the introduction of moral and social sciThe policy thus indicated would unques-ence into the schools of the District of Coltionably be good if followed out by the ap- umbia. If all these things could be thoroughly pointment to the school boards of a fair pro- taught as easily as they can be legislated upon portion of intelligent medical men, who have teachers would be greatly rejoiced : given attention to sanitary science in schools, and by the adoption of a rule that architects introduce as a part of the daily exercise of each school and builders charged with the construction of in their jurisdiction, instruction in the elements of public school buildings shall take the judg-social and moral science, including industry, order, ment of the doctors as to modes of heating, the supply of fresh air, and the arrangement of the school furniture with reference to the window lights, and with reference also to the bodily comfort and ease of the pupils. These important, and, indeed, vital matters, are still running in the old ruts, out of which they will never be lifted unless by force of some such movement as that which affords the text for these remarks. on Be it enacted, etc., That the school officers shall economy, punctuality, patience, self-denial, health, purity, temperance, cleanliness, honesty, truth, justice, politeness, peace, fidelity, philanthropy, patriotism, self-respect, hope, perseverance, cheerfulness, courage, self-reliance, gratitude, pity, mercy, kindness, conscience, reflection, and the will. SEC. 2. That it shall be the duty of the teachers to give a short oral lesson every day upon one of the topics mentioned in section I of this act, and to require each pupil to furnish a thought, or other illustration of the same, upon the following morning SEC. 3. That emulation shall be cherished between the pupils in accumulating thoughts and facts, in re them by their daily conduct. OVER THE SEA. Ar a recent meeting of the Philadelphia gard to the noble traits possible, and in illustrating Board of Education, the committee Girls' Normal School submitted a plan which was adopted, whereby the future award of teachers' certificates to graduates of the school shall be made dependent, not alone upon the applicant's proficiency in study, but also on her teaching capacity as indicated by her work as a pupil teacher in the school of practice. It provides that the pupils of the school shall graduate and receive their diplomas at the end of the third year of the course, as to their scholarship and fitness to receive "certificates of qualification" on this ground alone. Such as do not intend to become teachers will have received during the three years a sufficient education, and their withdrawal will afford the four years' course pupils better opportunities to be come teachers. LETTERS FROM THE EDITOR.-NO. I. OME account of a trip over the sea, and SOM a brief visit to Scotland, England, Ireland, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and France, may be of interest to the readers of THE JOURNAL. What is to be said will not be to any great extent educational in its character in any professional sense, but it may tend to broaden the views of teachers and to freshen their stores of knowledge suitable for use in the instruction of the young. Here and there, however, in their proper place, will be found special observations on schools and school systems in the Old World, and the educational department of the great Paris Exposition will be shall be found, at the end of the third year of the quite fully described. With this explanation course, the pupils have acquired a sufficient knowl- of their composite character, the letters will edge of algebra, mensuration and geometry to warrant | be published in the hope that they may fur The certificates to teach are only to be given to such as show, in addition to proficiency in study, teaching capacity. While some of the studies now taught during the fourth year are discontinued, the following are retained: Logic, chemistry, astronomy, music, methods of instruction, and to add drawing as a means of illustration in teaching, review of grammar school studies. Trigonometry will be retained if it nish some pleasure and some profit to the intelligent people who favor the SCHOOL JOURNAL with their patronage. It should be added that while some of the letters may be written en route, others cannot be composed until after the writer's return to the United States, both on account of the hasty character of the trip, and of the slow issue of a monthly publication. For over thirty years I had longed to cross the ocean and visit the Old World. The work of one year would push the contemplated visit off to the next, and when the next came the time could be spared as badly as before. Thus the years came and went, until at last a resolution was formed to break loose from the duties that have crowded full my past life and make, perforce, the long delayed tour. So, on Saturday, June 22d, 1878, I found myself on the deck of the steamer Circassia, of the Anchor Line, about to sail from New York to Glasgow. My companions are ex-Senator John B. Warfel, of Lancaster; Dr. John P. Edge, of Downington, Chester county, both friends of more than thirty years standing, and J. W. B. Bausman, esq, a promising young lawyer, of Lancaster. Our baggage is in our state rooms, we are all on deck, the decks are crowded full with the two hundred passen-, gers and twice as many friends who have come on board to see them start and say a word of farewell. The warning is given for all but passengers to go on shore, and the ship's great heart begins to throb, the pulsations vibrate through her whole frame, she lives, and begins to move from the dock. Cheers are given for us by the crowds on the wharf, among whom we recognize the friends who kindly accompanied us from Lancaster; and a number of tugs, the Seneca, Ceres, Hebe, and others, with full decks, flying flags, screaming whistles, cheers, songs, and waving handkerchiefs, follow by the steamer's side and in her wake This animated scene continues far down the harbor; and then comes the final leave-taking in the shape of a concert of steam whistles, prolonged cheers, aud the discharge of a small cannon on the deck of one of the vessels. We are off for a three thousand miles ride across the Atlantic. I have looked forward to such a trip so long that now I am on my way I can hardly realize it. Absence from my post at Harrisburg makes a little break in my official life, but if I have not heretofore earned such a vacation by overwork, I hope to pay for it in the future by increased usefulness. The Circassia is a new ship, having made She only the trip from Glasgow to New York, and that almost without passengers. We will have to christen her. She is a noble vessel, a floating palace, 418 feet long, 42 feet in breadth, and draws some 24 feet of water. Her tonnage is rated at 4300 tons. can accommodate 200 cabin and 600 steerage passengers. Her cabin equipment is very complete and tasteful, being that of a firstclass hotel except that the rooms are smaller. She is provided with an organ, a piano, and a library. The saloon and drawing-room are lighted by a large skylight, and in this and elsewhere there are beautiful hanging baskets and vases of flowers. The promenade deck a real luxury in pleasant weather both to sick and well. The captain and the other officers are very polite and obliging, deeming it their duty to make all on board comfortable. The officers and crew are generally Scotch, and we sail under the British flag. And, now, leaving behind us forts, islands, and receding shores, we are getting out of New York harbor and bay; we have passed Sandy Hook, many of the passengers are hurrying up hastily written notes and postals; for yonder in the distance is the Pilot boat No. 5, and the pilot is about to leave the steamer, taking with him a large package of letters, containing doubtless last words to friends and last directions from business men to the agents left in charge of their affairs. Thus we sever the last visible link that binds us to our native land, but we are still held to it by a thousand cords of affection that distance will only strengthen. Soon after starting, a dense fog settled down over the sea, and the rain coming in gusts at times drives the passengers from the decks, and we are soon out of sight of land. I had been out of sight of land before, but never with the intention of leaving it for any considerable length of time, and the sensation of seeing the last line of the Jersey coast sink down behind the waters was new and peculiar. The first meal on board was served at 3 p. m., and the tables were crowded; but large numbers who enjoyed their dinner did not appear at the supper tables nor in the dining room for days. Within a few hours of the time of starting, at least one-half of the passengers were sick. Groans and other signs of the terrible malady come from dozens of state rooms, the doctor and the stewards are busy, the well give attention to their sick friends, and the afflicted are to be seen everywhere stretched out on settees and chairs, surrounded with wraps, on the decks, and even lying on the cabin floors. It is one of the characteristics of this disease that it makes | two whole nights on deck without sleep. one utterly indifferent to his personal appearance, and fine ladies allow themselves to be exposed, without caring in the least, in a manner that, if well, they would consider quite indelicate. Of our little party, Senator Warfel was the first to become sick, some two hours out; Mr. Bausman followed next, and then Dr. Edge, my own turn not coming until Monday afternoon; but none of us were very sick, never being confined to our berths and missing but few meals. By Wednesday we were all well, and so continued during the remaining part of the voyage. It is a curious fact that children seldom or never become sea-sick. We have a dozen or more on board and not a single one of them was attacked. The same is said to be true of drunken men. These facts tend to support the theory of the cause of sea sickness which I have seen somewhere advanced. It is that the sickness is caused by an effort, conscious or unconscious, to resist the motion of the vessel. This effort disturbs the nervous system, disarranges the mental equilibrium, and causes the miserable nausea which is the curse of ocean travel. Whether this theory be true or not, it is clear to me that the amount of bile in the system has nothing whatever to do with the disease, except, perhaps, to increase the quantity of matter forced from the stomach. The route of the Anchor line across the Atlantic is more to the north than that of the other trans-Atlantic steamers, running south of Cape Cod, touching the banks of Newfoundland, and extending up as high as 56 degrees of north latitude. The wind was against us almost all the way; and although there were several beautiful mornings, we did not have, as a whole, a single clear day. The sea was never rough, but at times, under a stiff breeze, there was a considerable swell that rocked the vessel in such a way as to create great discomfort to tender stomachs. The one great pest of the voyage was the fog. We started out in a fog, and with short intervals the fog continued all across the Atlantic. At times it blew over the decks in a cold, driving mist, that chilled one through the thickest clothing. Indeed, there was not a day during the voyage that a heavy overcoat was not comfortable on deck. For several hundred miles, in passing south of Nova Scotia and of Newfoundland, the fog was so dense that we could not often see more than a few yards from the ship. The fog whistles were kept sounding every few minutes, double watches were constantly on the lookout, and the captain himself remained for This vigilance was not without reason, for on Wednesday morning, June 26th, we ran into a schooner anchored for fishing purposes, and so disabled her that she had to be sunk, and the crew of fifteen men taken on board. The name of the vessel was the Nellie C. Foster, of Beverly, Massachusetts. She had been out fishing since April, and expected to remain until fall. She had five hundred barrels of fish on board. The men on board the schooner heard the steamer coming, heard the fog whistles sounding, knew their danger, and made all the noise they could to attract attention by ringing their bell, blowing a horn, and firing a musket; but all to no purpose, as the wind was blowing strongly in the wrong direction. They had a swivel on board, but it would not go off. Then, seeing the great, black steamer bearing down directly upon them, all who could leaped into their boats and endeavored to escape. But when within perhaps fifty yards the officers of the steamer on watch saw the schooner in her path, at once changed the direction of her course, and the vessel was struck on the bow instead of in the middle. As it was, however, the bowsprit of the schooner was torn away, her mainmast was broken, and her timbers were so wrenched that her hull filled with water in an hour to the depth of four or five feet. The steamer was stopped and went in search of the wreck in the fog. Before long she met the captain in a boat, looking for help. He came on board and it was arranged that the crew and their personal effects should be brought to the steamer and the schooner should be left to her fate. The men thus suddenly deprived of their vessel and their means of subsistence will be taken to Glasgow and back to New York. A purs of money was made up for them by the passengers. The steamer was detained by the accident some two hours. Vessels engaged in fishing are not the most dangerous obstacles that lie in the path of navigation in these seas. It is the region of ice, and our officers were constantly on the lookout for icebergs. Had we come in contact with one of these, our fate might have been that of the schooner, but we saw none. As one lies at night in his little berth below, hundreds of miles from shore, the sensation is not altogether pleasant to know that the ship is pushing forward into a darkness that the fog renders impenetrable, where unknown dangers may be encountered. Strange to say, we sleep soundly even under these circumstances. T LETTER FROM EDITOR.-NO. 2. amusement. HERE are certain things that every one who goes across the Atlantic for the first time desires and expects to see. These are the lions" of the voyage. First of all are the sea birds, Mother Carey's chickens, gulls, and others. The chickens are a kind of swallow and they follow the ship all across the Atlantic. They fly about the vessel like swallows about a barn in which they have nests, sometimes by ones and twos, and sometimes by hundreds. When slops are thrown overboard, containing something they like for food, they collect about them at once from all directions, and seeming to sit upon the waves, and rise and fall with them, eat away for dear life. They are a constant source of There are gulls of various sizes and colors. We saw many gray and white ones about the size of a night hawk. They follow the ship to obtain food like the chickens, but are more shy and less interesting. Where are the homes of these birds, and how do they know where to find them? There may be other petrels in this latitude, but we did not see any of them. Of sea animals we saw only porpoises and whales. No flying fishes made their appearance. For the first few days schools of porpoises swam about the ship, and sometimes showed their ugly heads above the surface of the water. They seemed to want to race with the steamer, and would swim by its side for miles. We did not get a very near view of the whales, whose spoutings attracted our attention. Still, we saw them on several occasions, head, tail and a part of the body. Passing steamers and vessels of all kinds always bring the passengers to the decks. They have a peculiar in terest as the links that connect us even in a loose way with the rest of humanity. Then, the sea itself has an interest of its own, both to the scientist and the poet. Some of the passengers never seemed to tire of watching the ocean, with its restless motion, its unbounded expanse, the exquisite coloring of the waves as they play about the ship, the constant swell that bears the immense steamer up and down as if a father upon its bosom, and when the wind sweeps over it, the great furrows plowed in the mighty waters, and the hills that form and dissolve and form again, breaking against one another in constant turmoil or maddest fury. I am no poet, but I have always been passionately fond of water in motion, whether in the graceful fountain, the dancing rivulet, the flowing river or the grand old ocean; and no words can express the delight this trip across the Atlantic has already given me. An Atlantic steamer is a little world, an epitome of the great world, with scarcely a feature lacking representation. There are on board the Circassia, passengers from several countries of the Old World, as well as from many of our States, and from Canada. There are among them clergymen, doctors, lawyers, teachers, farmers, mechanics, newspaper men, and men of business in all its varieties. Some of them are characterized by aristocratic tastes, and others by republican simplicity; there are those who prefer the rule of kings, and those that of presidents. Many forms of religion are represented. We have those on board who assume to be at the top of the social scale, and we have those who are surely near the bottom. Around us are the min of solid worth and the mere pretender, the fop, the flirt, the bore, the gossip, society indeed, as we know it at home, with scarcely an element wanting. "How is our time spent on ship board ?" is it asked? The passengers read, write, converse, walk on deck. Some of them spend much time in watching the sea, the birds, the fish, the phenomena, new and interesting, which such a voyage presents. Others play shuffleboard, chess, backgammon, checkers, cards, and other games. We have instrumental music, singing and religious exercises. The life, indeed, is the counterpart of that of a hotel, or more exactly that of a summer resort. We enter into it unconsciously, and, strange to say, for hours together we quite forget where we are. There is nothing more wonderful to me than this rapid domestication to the life of the ship, and without personal experience I would not have deemed it possible. There are certain customs on board of this and all ships like it an account of which may interest the readers of THE JOURNAL. The crews are arranged in two divisions, and go on duty alternately. These periods of duty are called watches, and are regulated by bells. Commencing at noon, the bell strikes one at half past twelve; two, at one; three, at halfpast one; four, at two; and so on to four, when the bell strikes eight times and the watches change.. Then come two short watches; the first to six, and the second to eight, the bell striking every half-hour; but striking four times at six and then beginning again. From eight to twelve at night, the bells strike just as they do from one to four, and the remaining twelve hours of the day, commencing at midnight, are divided into three watches of equal length, the bell striking | Another custom is the privilege claimed by the sailors of compelling the passengers to pay for what is called the freedom of the ship. For example, a passenger one day attempted to climb up the rigging. As soon as he was noticed, two stout sailors went after him with a rope and would have tied him fast, had he not promised to stand a treat when he came down. Two others were caught in the same way some days later. One of our own party was noticed over the bridge, at the bow of the steamer, when, quick as thought, one of the sailors ran a chalk line on the floor around him, and he had to pay his fifty cents. Two others, whose curiosity led them down into the engine room, had their boots chalked and found themselves taxed to the amount of a dollar. These fines are never exacted a second time on the same ship, but, when once paid, the victim is ever after allowed the freedom of the ship or to visit any part of it at pleasure. Most likely this custom is very old, for I have found no sailor whose memory extends back to a time when it did not prevail. tances made by the steamer during the first nine days since leaving New York: First day, 200 miles; second, 268; third, 271; fourth, 268; fifth, 243; sixth, 308; seventh, 290; eighth, 278; and ninth, 260 miles. ON USING SHORT WORDS. NE of the few men who sometimes practice what they preach is perhaps exGovernor Seymour, of New York. In a recent address before the School Superintendents in New York, in which he recommended the use of short words in conversation and writing, he illustrated the advantages of their use by an exceptionally clear speech, composed almost altogether of words of one or two syllables. One passage will show this and tell a wholesome truth besides: "We must not only think in words but we must also try to use the best words, and those which, in speech, will put most clearly what is in our minds into the minds of others. This is the great art to be gained by those who wish to teach in the school, the church, at the bar, or through the press. To do this in the right way they should, as a rule, use the short words which we learn in early life, and which have the same sense to all classes of men. They are the best for the teacher, the orator and the poet." Mr. Seymour does not mean to say that the mere fact that a word is short makes it clear, "but it is true that most clear words are short; that most long words we get from other tongues, and the mass of men do not know exactly what they mean, and I am not sure that scholars always get the same ideas from them." One of the advantages arising from the use of short words is thus described: "He who will try to use short words and to Any one who thinks when he has paid his passage on a steamer and secured his stateroom that his expenses for the voyage are at an end will be sadly mistaken. Unless he expects to be crowded from the table at meals and buffeted about, he must make an arrangement with the chief steward and pay him. Then if he desires to be waited upon promptly and served with the dishes for which he asks, he must pay the steward who waits upon his table. And further, if he does not wish to sleep in an unmade bed, have his lamp unlighted, or his boots remain unblack-shun long ones will in a little while find that ened, he must "see" the steward who attends to such matters and give him the expected fee. The whole sum needed for these purposes does not exceed six or eight dollars, unless in case of sickness, when, to secure the required attention, a larger amount will be necessary. This custom of feeing servants is European, not American; but it must be remembered that the Circassia is a European ship with a European crew. As I now write, we are nearing the Irish coast. Within twenty four hours our sea voyage will end. The readers of THE JOURNAL shall have an account of what we see in the Old World, in which we are about to set our foot for the first time. We now simply add the dis he can do so with ease, but it will also make him more ready in the use of words of Greek or Latin origin when he needs them. If he tries to write in words of one syllable he will find that he will run through his mind a great many words to get those he needs. While he may not at the time use them, yet they are brought to his mind in his search for those that he wants." Here is a passage which borders on fancy, but nevertheless contains a germ of truth: "The use of long words which we get from other tongues not only makes our thoughts and our speech dim and hazy, but it has done somewhat to harm the morals of our people. Crime sometimes does not look like crime |