Carlyle, John Ruskin. Historians: Hume, Gibbon, Macaulay, Rawlinson, James A. Froude. Critics: Matthew Arnold, Sidney Smith, Prof. Henry Morley, Mrs. Anna Jameson, James Spedding. Novelists: Scott, Thackeray, Dickens, De Foe, "George Eliot." American-Poets: Bryant, Longfellow, Lowell, Whittier, Poe. Essayists: Franklin, Emerson, Webster, Holmes, Bayard Taylor. Historians: Irving, Prescott, Bancroft, Motley, Lossing. Critics: Holmes, Lowell, Margaret Fuller, Whipple, R. G. White. Novelists: Hawthorne, Cooper, Howells, H. B. Stowe, Holland. CHAS. L. PARKER. Q. 477. The annual interest on $500 to Jan. 1, '90 (1 yr. at 8%), the first rest, is $40. $500+ $40 $540. The first payment, July 15, '89, plus its interest to the first rest, the end of the year, 5 mo. 16 da. at 8% is $51.85; $540 $51.85 $488.15, remainder or new principal. = = The annual interest on $488.15 to Jan. 1, '91, is $39.052; the second. payment plus its interest to the end of the year, the second rest, 6 mo. 25 da., is $26. 14; $39.052-$26.14 The $12.912, surplus interest. annual interest on $488.15 to Jan. 1, '92, the third rest, is $39.052. No payment being made within this year, the annual interest on $488.15 to Jan. 1, '93, the fourth rest, is $39.052. $39.052 + $39.052 and its interest for one year plus the surplus interest, $12.912 and its interest for two years, gives a total interest of $96.20. $488.15 + $96.20 = $584.35. The third payment plus its interest to the next rest, Jan. I, '93, is $262.04. $584-35 $262.04 $322.31, the amount due Jan. 1, '93. The in = terest on $322.31 to Sept. 1, '93, 8 mo. is $17.19. $322.31 + $17.19 $339.50, the amount due Sept. 1, 1893. REMARK-In Ohio the interest on the overdue interest is computed at the legal rate, 6%. The interest must not be compounded. When the payment or payments will not cancel all the interest due, the overdue interest draws simple interest to the end of the next year in which a payment is made. F. J. BECK. This solution is given without verification. Two other solutions have been received, with results differing from that obtained by Mr. Beck, and from each other. One answer is $335.68; the other $337.60. Lack of time and inertia have conspired to prevent the editor from attempting to determine which, if any, is correct. Q. 480. Yes. From the third reader to the fifth reader inclusive. It is said that about nineteen-twentieths of those examined for public service under the competitive system of England fail in spelling. The cry is, "Spelling is not what it should be." Good text-books should be used for this important subject. We want to teach spelling and not merely practice spelling. A spelling book revival seems to be needed and should be encouraged. In spelling are many difficulties that are well known to be common and almost universal. So far as these are found in words which are, or should be, in the pupil's vocabulary, is it nct more economic to meet them directly, systematically and persist EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT. The State Association. By reference to the program printed elsewhere in this issue, it will be seen that the Executive Committee is preparing for a great meeting at Delaware. The program is certainly great, and we do not doubt that the meeting will be correspondingly great in all respects. Delaware is making preparations to entertain all her country cousins, and of course we shall all be there. A railroad rate of one fare for the round trip is promised. Further particulars in next issue. Woman Suffrage in Chio. A bill has passed both branches of the General Assembly by a decisive majority, extending to women the right to vote at school elections and to hold any school office, State Commissioner of Common Schools excepted. The measure lacks only the concurrence of the House in some minor amendments of the Senate to become a law. A free text-book bill, and a modification of the Workman law providing for the election of two subdirectors in each sub-district, who with the director shall constitute a board of sub-directors with power to employ the teacher or teachers in the sub-district, have both passed the House, but neither had passed the other branch at Our latest information. National Educational Association. It has been officially announced that the next annual session will be held at Asbury Park, New Jersey, July 6-13. The Council meets July 6, and the General Association July 10. The hotel and boarding house accommodations are ample, and the rates are reasonable. The railroads terminating at Asbury Park, and all roads of the Trunk Line Association, have granted a rate of one fare, plus two dollars. (membership fee), for the round trip, with provision for extension of return tickets to Sept. 1; and it is confidently expected other roads in the United States and Canada will grant rates equally favorable. Programs for the various departments are in the course of preparation, and all concerned are working together to the end that the meeting may be the largest and best in the history of the Association. Correspondence relating to hotels and entertainment should be ad dressed to J. M. Ralston, Asbury Park, N. J. our reputation in this regard,—and -and it would be exceedingly grat An official bulletin, with full infor- ifying if—ifmation, will soon be issued. Albert G. Lane, of Chicago, is president of the Executive Committee, and Irwin Shepard, of Winona, Minn., is secretary. A Gentle Reminder. Editor MacDonald, of the Western School Journal, some time ago submitted the following resolution for Kansas teachers to consider: "Resolved, That I will pay the Western School Journal what I owe, renew my subscription, pray for the editor, and send him my blessing." In a subsequent issue he reports progress as follows: "We have substantial evidences that the resolution was adopted by many a teacher, but there are many. others who are still the objects of our solicitude and our prayers." A movement of this kind in Ohio would be very opportune just now. Who will start it? We think our readers will bear witness that, in the twelve years of the present management, the MONTHLY has not been much in the habit of dunning its patrons ' publicly. We have heard that "times are hard," and we are inclined to believe it; for our delinquent list is larger than usual. We have never yet failed to pay our bills for paper and printing promptly, and we are specially desirous of maintaining The Signs of the Times. Strange things are happening in these days, the tendency of which is not easily discovered. One is at a loss to determine whether he should be filled with foreboding and alarm at threatening danger, or laugh at the grotesque and ludicrous features of the procession that is passing by. It would surely be amazing and bewildering to the future historian of these times to read, in the files of the great city dailies, of "Coxey's army approaching the capital," of "Kelley's division of the Coxey army," of "Frye's brigade," of the capture of railroad trains, of various other brigades of tatterdemalion. tramps and bummers, from one side of the continent to the other, all marching on to Washington, of "the militia ordered out," "regular troops under orders, "arms shipped from the armory at Springfield, by express and fast freight, to the chief of ordnance at Washington," for the protection of the national treasury, and of president, senators, congressmen, and other officials dazed and hesitating. Then, too, the same papers are filled with accounts of bands of hundreds of unemployed men marching through the streets and driving from their work men who are striving to earn bread for themselves and their families. families. Many thousands of able bodied men are striking and refusing to work except on terms of their own dictation, while many of these and others parade the streets carrying red flags and demanding to be fed. Numberless mobs of strikers and idlers threaten to make and are making havoc with many of the great industrial interests of the country. In striking contrast with all this commotion is the sublime tranquillity and patience of the great mass of the American people. The honest, worthy citizens are peaceful and fairly prosperous, pursuing the even tenor of their way. The churches and Sunday-schools are more active and prosperous than ever they have been. Schools and institutions of learning of every kind were never so well attended nor so efficient as now. What, then, is the significance of the present disturbance? Whither is it all tending? It would be presumption in the wisest to undertake to answer definitely and fully. The soldier in the ranks, in the time of an engagement, is not in a position to see clearly how the battle is going. But it does not seem to require the eye of omniscience to discover that we are in the midst of a social revolution. The old condition of things cannot be restored. The voice from the Isle of Patmos seems to be speaking, "Behold I make all things new." The old foundations are being broken up with noise and commotion. The leaven of the Sermon on the Mount is working-slowly, it has seemed, but surely. The principles of righteousness, of truth and justice, are asserting themselves in strange ways sometimes, but unmistakably. The day of man's fattening on the toil and tears of his fellow man is approaching its end. Every man shall yet know and feel himself brother to every other man. In all these things are fresh and loud calls to duty; and especially to teachers the call is for greater vigilance and faithfulness. Teachers should first of all be themselves examples of all that is good and true, and realizing their great responsibility in these days of unrest and change, they should meet them with courage and hope. Impurity in the Public Schools. The Atlantic Monthly for May has a thoughtful article on the Ethical Problem of the Public Schools, from which the following extract is taken. It deals with a subject which has received less attention than its importance demands: "Impurity may not be a greater evil in public than in private schools; but there are certain conditions in the democratic commingling of children in the former which make it more than a possible evil. There can be little or no social distinction except that growing out of the location of the school buildings. There is the 'up town' and the 'down town' school; but if a pupil is admitted into the schools at all, |