pleasure of his personal acquaintance, have read many of his excellent articles which have appeared from time to time in the MONTHLY, or have had the benefit of his wise counsels found in his books on teaching which have frequently appeared on the list of the O. T. R. C. The following article from his pen will be read with interest by all:

Columbus, O., June 8, 1901. My dear Mr. Corson :

I am not a little surprised by your reminder that I was a contributor to the first volume of the OHIO EDUCATIONAL MONTHLY, (then Ohio Journal of Education), now within a few months of its fiftieth anniversary. I had quite forgotten the writing of that article, one of my first ventures in that direction. I had just returned from my first visit to Massachusetts, the native state of both my parents and my oldest sister and brother.

I found my way to Boston, an entire stranger with a note of introduction from a Mantua neighbor who formerly resided in the city and had many relatives there. This brief note of half a dozen words secured for me a royal welcome, and during the week that I remained in the city, I took in "all the sights" under volunteer guides and without an opportunity to pay one dime towards the expenses involved. The kind hospitality thus extended to me gave Boston a warm place in my heart-a feeling that

each of the next three volumes, one article being a plea for the better training of teachers, another on the examination and licensure of teachers, and the third a mathematical venture on the bisection of the triangle. The next year I was appointed "Associate Editor" of the Journal, Dr. A. D. Lord continuing as editor. I do not know how it happened that so young a teacher was thus honored. Writers on educational subjects were probably scarce. I see that I wrote this year a considerable number of editorials on practical topics and was reappointed associate editor for the next year.

In this year Dr. Lord accepted the position of superintendent of the Institution for the Blind and felt constrained to retire from the editorship of the Journal. He had edited the magazine for five years with marked ability at a small compensation, and he had also so managed its business affairs as to keep its expenses within the income. But at the meeting of the State Teach ers' Association in December zeal got the better of judgment, and Mr. Caldwell, of Cincinnati, was appointed editor at a salary of $1500 a year. The subscriptions fell off and the year closed with a large deficit, including most of the salary of the editor. The McNeely Normal School organized by the Association a year or two before was also in debt.

It was at this critical juncture in

the Association's affairs that the writer was appointed chairman of the Executive Committee and also of the new Finance Committee, and on him fell the responsibility of an effort to extricate the Association from its financial embarrassment― apparently a hopeless task. An arrangement was made for the publication of the Journal for the next two years, the publishers assuming largely the financial risk involved; and William T. Coggeshall was appointed editor at the compensation of $500 a year, if my memory now serves me. The publishing of the Journal for two years being thus provided for, the next task was the freeing of the Association from debt.

The property of the McNeely Normal School was deeded back to Cyrus McNeely, the generous donor of the property to the Association, and the trustees undertook to settle the financial affairs of the institution, including the indebtedness to the teachers. The writer undertook to relieve the Association from its indebtedness on the Journal's account, with slow progress at first.

It was found, however, that Dr. Lord had preserved 300 copies of each of the first five volumes, which he edited, one number only being short. School Commissioner Smyth offered to purchase these volumes for the school libraries of the state (under the new library law). The short number was reprinted and a total of 1,500 copies of the journal

was sold to the state. Mr. Caldwell generously offered to accept about one-half of the salary promised him. In these and other ways the indebtedness was removed and when the Association met in Mt. Vernon in July, 1859, I had the pleasure of reporting that the Association was free of debt with ten cents in the treasury!

The Association approved of the recommendation to transfer the publication of the Journal to private parties on the condition that it should continue to be the organ of the Association, publishing its announcements and proceedings, the Association agreeing to pay the actual cost of publishing its proceedings in excess of thirty-two pages.

At the close of 1859 the "Journal of Education" was transferred, on the foregoing condition, to F. W. Hurtt and Anson Smyth, the latter being State School Commissioner, the firm name being F. W. Hurtt & Co., Mr. Hurtt being business manager and Mr. Smyth editor. They changed the name of the periodical to the OHIO EDUCATIONAL MONTHLY, and in January, 1860, the first number was issued. An earnest effort was made to increase the circulation of the periodical but with small success.

In settling the financial affairs of the "Ohio Journal of Education" I became satisfied that the periodical could be made to pay a fair compensation to its publisher and

editor provided it was made a journal of practical value to teachers. In January, 1861, I bought Mr. Hurtt's interest in the MONTHLY on the condition concurred in by Commissioner Smyth that I should be the responsible editor and publisher. I took charge of the periodical in March, 1861, and the first number (April) was mailed on the day of the bombardment of Fort Sumter. Business for a time was paralyzed, and it looked as if nothing could save the enterprise from failure.

In mailing the April number I found that the MONTHLY had less than 800 bona fide subscribers; and the situation seemed desperate. But the new publisher's appeal for subscribers met with an unexpected response. Subscriptions came in and the months of April and May added near one thousand new subscribers, most of the subscriptions to be paid a few months later, the best that could be done under the

circumstances. Before the year closed Mr. Smyth transferred his interest to me and I thus became sole owner of the magazine.

In the year 1862 a well planned canvass of the teachers of the state was made for subscribers and also a personal solicitation for advertising patronage. The year closed with net profits of over $2,500. I continued to edit and publish the MONTHLY for fifteen years (including 1861). Its subscription list reached from 3,500 to 5,000 and

this almost wholly on a cash basis. In all these years the magazine was a business success, though published on "war prices," but it took hard work. It involved every year a wide canvass for a renewal of subscriptions as well as for new subscribers, and a continued correspondence with advertisers and all this without a typewriter! This success would not have been possible without the hearty coöperation of progressive teachers. I look back with gratitude to those years of confidence and good will shown so generously by the teachers of this and other states.

The MONTHLY'S circulation soon passed beyond the boundaries of Ohio; and so in 1870 a national edition was published with the name of "The National Teacher." This was made the official organ in several southern states, and it had subscribers in all sections of the country. California was well

represented. In three years the MONTHLY "absorbed" three other Ohio school journals.

In 1874 I sold both magazines to Hon. W. D. Henkle, who removed the office of publication from Columbus to Salem, O.

I fear, Mr. Editor, that I have made too long a story of the first half of the MONTHLY'S history; but who now living but myself knows that story?

Permit me to add that in these later years I have not lost my interest in the MONTHLY. Often when it comes to me I have the old stage driver's desire to mount the boot and take the reins. More than once in the last decade I have dreamed that I was again in charge, and devised plans for its increased success and usefulness,-waking to find that it was only a dream. I remain most truly yours, EMERSON E. WHITE.

The primitive schools of Ohio. form a peculiar contrast with the present educational progress.

Much less than fifty years ago there still existed the quaint old country school-house. It was generally a log house chinked with clay, and contained only one small

window whose lights sometimes consisted of greased foolscap. Its size was about thirty feet long and twenty feet wide. A fireplace occupied nearly the entire end of the room. The floor was of slabs; its roof was made of rough, unshaved clapboards, stayed by poles. Its

furniture consisted of one row of writing benches, illy suited to the size of the pupils, arranged on the sides and at one end of the room. From these high, crude benches the younger pupils were suspended between the heavens and the earth.

Instructors were commonly poor scholars, without sufficient education to teach the few branches asked

C. W. BENNETT.

for. They were wanting in system and experience and often seriously lacked judgment and prudence. Their punishment was generally hasty, passionate, abusive, and sometimes cruel. The rod, usually carried under the left arm, fell back-handed, and without discrimination upon an entire row of pupils. The guilty one received what he was thought to deserve, the

others what they were supposed to have deserved at other times.

The teacher boarded around the district wherever the people would take him. He was paid by subscriptions which he solicited and collected for himself, if collectible. These were the early schools of Ohio. We are not to criticize them. They were the best the country could afford. We shall refer to them only to impress the fact that every generation has its conditions and demands peculiar to itself.

Very early in pioneer history a better plan was agitated for operating schools in the country. At first only independent sub-district schools were conducted, by no particular regulations, and each school a law unto itself. As early as 1853 the township system was inaugurated. But it was a compromise effected between the old, independent sub-district system, in force previous to the passage of that law, and a plan by which the township would have become a school district of itself, with all sub-district boundaries abandoned. It was the best that could be done perhaps in the pioneer schools to give the control of local school interests to lo cal directors. Time and experience demonstrated the weakness of this plan. It is a source of regret that the code of 1853 permitted the responsibilities of school administration to be divided between the local directors in sub-districts and township boards. The contest between