County Superintendents are elected for two years by the people, give bonds to the amount of $500, and receive $3 compensation for every day employed. They have charge of the common school interests of their respective counties, hold examinations twice a year for teachers, granting teachers' certificates for not less than three months or more than one year, and make annual reports to the Territorial Superintendent.

District School Boards, consisting of a director, clerk, and treasurer, elected annually, employ teachers, make rules and regulations regarding libraries, and hire, build, or purchase school-houses, furniture, and apparatus, according as the voters may determine at the district meetings. District Meetings can vote a tax not exceeding one per cent. per annum on the taxable property of the district, for black-boards, maps, etc., and a further tax not exceeding $25 in any one year, for a library. The qualified voters may determine at any annual or special meeting the length of time a school shall be taught during the ensuing year, whether it shall be taught by a male or female teacher, and whether the school money to which the district may be entitled shall be applied to the support of the summer or winter term of school, or a certain portion to each. No district is entitled to any school money which does not use the text-books designated by the Territorial Superintendent.

The district schools are free to all children residing in the district, between five and twenty-one years of age. The inhabitants of two or more school districts may unite for the purpose of establishing a graded school.

County or town assessors are required to levy a tax of $1 on every voter in the county or town for the support of district schools, and a further tax of two mills on the dollar for the same purpose. The amounts thus raised are distributed to the several school districts in proportion to the number of children over five and under twenty-one years of age. The public schools of any city, town, or village which may be regulated by special law are entitled to receive their proportion of the public school fund.

SIX YEARS' PROGRESS.

The following statistics indicate the rapid educational progress made in Dakota since the first organization of schools.

...

Amount expended for teachers' wages.. $2,388 00....

Average monthly wages..

Legal school age..

Total expenditures for school purposes. $2,612 00....

PRESIDENT SMITH has written to United States Senator Alcorn, who recently said that he wanted a Civil Rights Law passed so that a colored man could enter Dartmouth College as well as the school-house at the foot of the hill, pointing out to him several instances in which colored men have been members of the College.

IT is not rank, nor birth, nor state,
But the "get up and get,"

That makes men great.

A MEMBER of one of the public schools of Boston was asked the meaning of the inscription, "Non Sibi sed Patria," on a monument, and, after some vexation of spirit, he responded, "Not himself, but his father!"

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

HON. J. ORMOND WILSON, Superintendent of the white schools of the District of Columbia, was born in Worcester County, Massachusetts. After graduating from Dartmouth College he taught school for several years in the New England States. Subsequently he proceeded to Washington and engaged in teaching. He was appointed Superintendent of Public Schools in June, 1870. Hon. George F. T. Cook is Superintendent of the colored schools.

EDUCATION IN THE PAST.

THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA originally embraced an area ten miles square, situated on both sides of the Potomac, about one hundred and sixty miles from its mouth, and at the head of tide-water. It was ceded to the General Government by the States of Maryland and Virginia in 1788-'89; was accepted in 1790, and has been used since 1800 as a seat of government for the United States. That portion of the District lying west of the Potomac was retroceded to Virginia by an Act of Congress approved July 9th, 1846. Since then the District has been limited to the county of Washington, east of the Potomac, within which are the cities of Washington and Georgetown. The District, as a whole, is subject to the exclusive legislation of Congress. The first act of the city of Washington, in regard to schools, was passed by the Third Council, on the 5th of December, 1804. In 1857 legislation began for the Boards and the schools in the District of Columbia, and has continued more or less ever since. No material change was made in the school system for three or four years up till the middle of August, 1874. The public schools were under the charge of four Boards of Trustees, each board being entirely independent of the others. One board had charge of the white schools of Washington, one of the white schools of Georgetown, and one of the white and colored schools of the county, the members of all three being appointed by the Governor. The fourth Board had charge of the colored schools of Washington and Georgetown, and the members were appointed by the Secretary of the Interior, under an Act of Congress, which required the two cities to pay over to this board an amount of the school funds proportionate to the number of colored children of school age.

There was nothing like the usual State or Territorial system in operation. There was no permanent school fund, but the schools were supported by direct taxation.

At its last session, 1874, Congress made an appropriation and loaned to the District Government about $100,000 to pay the salaries of the public school teachers for the first six months of the school year, and near the close of the same session appropriated $1,300,000 more (in the nature of a loan, for it is to be returned to the United States by the District) to pay the interest on the debt of the District, employed (in which teachers are included) to the end of the year, etc., etc. This is all that Congress did for the schools.

IMPORTANT CHANGES MADE, AUGUST, 1874.

The United States Commissioners now in charge of the District of Columbia issued an "order" in August, 1864, consolidating the four Boards of Trustees into one, and reducing the number of trustees from forty-nine to fifteen, who are to have charge of all the public schools in the District. They filled these places by the appointment of ten white and five colored members. The new board has done nothing as yet. We give but little space to its composition, or to the school system of the District, inasmuch as Congress is expected during 1875 to overhaul the whole system and make important and radical changes. Dorman B. Eaton, of New York, has been selected. by the Joint Committee of the Senate and House for framing a system of government, including the school system, and preparing a series of laws for the District of Columbia.

Considerable feeling was excited in Washington by the consolidation of the white and colored School Boards, it being asserted to be a preliminary to making mixed schools. When, however, on August 14th, the new Board of School Trustees, white and colored, took the oath of office before the Commissioners for the District, Mr. Dennison said it was the single purpose of the Commissioners to lend their powers earnestly and vigorously to build up the school system of the District, and they should feel gratified if this should become the model one for the United States. In relation to the suggestions and comments of the press upon the subject of mixed schools, the Commissioners wished their position to be distinctly under

stood. They had no purpose to encourage anything in the nature of mixed schools, and they discountenanced any proposition looking to this end. After a full and thorough understanding of the case they were unanimously opposed to such a change in the present system, and it would be very offensive to them. should such a proposition be entertained, or in any way enter into the deliberations of the new Board of Trustees; and any suggestions of such a policy on the part of the Trustees would be not only a violation of the purpose of the Commissioners, but extremely offensive to them.

Valuation of taxable property.....$74,800,000 oo....$87,800,000 00

Total payments for school pur

poses.....

Total receipts from school tax....

IT is said that special committees of the Baltimore School Board will shortly report favorably upon proposals to introduce sewing in the public schools, and botany in the City College and Female High School of that city. Instruction in sewing, it is thought, will cause but little additional expense, as in the primary schools and in the lower classes of the grammar schools some of the regular teachers can give a few hours' instruction in sewing each week, while for the high schools and in the highest class of the grammar schools a few competent teachers can be secured at a small expense, who can give three or four hours' instruction to each class they visit. It is also suggested that the time formerly devoted to the study of the French language may be profitably given to the study of needlework. A petition is to be presented to the Board, asking that phonography be taught in the City College.