Principal H. K. Clapp moved that the Association tender Governor Cornell a vote of thanks for vetoing the Teachers' Pension Bill.

Laid upon the table.

A. M. Kellogg, Editor School Journal, opened the discussion on Educational Journalism.

Commissioner Surdam, of Queen's County, continued the discussion. Every paper ought to be an educationa! journal.

Superintendent Myer, of Plattsburg, offered the following resolution : WHEREAS, The professional instruction provided in the Normal Schools has failed in a notable degree to practically reach the teachers of the rural schools; and,

WHEREAS, The present provision furnished by the State in Teachers' Classes and Institutes can give but fragmentary instruction in this line. Therefore, Resolved, That in the opinion of this Association a one year's course of professional instruction should be provided by the State (in place of the present one-term Teachers' Classes) in High Schools and Academies, remote from Normal Schools, subject in selection of instructors, course of study, uniform examinations and diplomas or certificates to State authority. Adopted.

Principal Bradley read a paper on General Information.

66

"Men of high intellectual endowment are often found ignorant of what should be accounted familiar facts, and few, if any, will deny that they are frequently vexed and humiliated at their lack of information on important subjects. But when we turn from the men and women of our acquaintance or observation to examine into the stock of knowledge acquired by the pupils in our schools or those who have recently left them, the result is far more disappointing. Too often the youth of fifteen or sixteen is unable readily to apply the rules and principles which he has learned, and proves astonishingly ignorant of familiar facts. It is this lack of every-day knowledge which has given point and force to most of the recent unjust criticisms on our public schools. They have been arraigned not so much for failure in their appointed work, as for the neglect of other important subjects not included in the prescribed courses of study. Attacks which have been aimed at the work done or even attempted as well as those directed against the integrity and breadth of the system have proved harmless and only recoiled upon the unpopular and unfortunate assailant. The people will continue to laugh at the man who attempts to prove that the public schools have been a curse to New England, and will quietly retire from office the Governor or Mayor or Board of Education who propose to decapitate the system; but they are not so sure to be uninfluenced by him who brings into comparison the inability of the pupils to answer easy questions and the vast sums expended for their instruction.

In either light, then, whether we consider the needs of our pupils or the stability and popularity of the system of education, the importance of giving all possible information is apparent.'

Miss M. S. Cooper read a very interesting paper on The Best Methods of Teaching Language in our Public Schools.

Mrs. Harriet Webb, of New York City, read How He Saved St. Michaels, and in answer to an enthusiastic encore, read The Sale of a Bachelor. Principal Roundy read report of Committee on Necrology.

Mrs. Anna Randall-Diehl recited A Royal Princess and The Bugle Song. Principal Wasson made remarks in regard to industrial education in the public schools and the exhibit made by the pupils.

Principal Love, of Jamestown, spoke upon the same subject, and described the successful working of the system during the past year in his own school. Among the resolutions adopted were the following:

Resolved, That at the earliest possible day the State Normal Schools should be entirely devoted to the instruction and training of teachers in the theory and practice of their work, and should require candidates for admission to be thor

oughly prepared in all the common school branches before entering said Normal Schools.

Resolved, That in the opinion of this Association the Legislature should make it illegal to admit any person as a State pupil into any Normal School of the State, or to license any new applicant to teach in the common schools, who does not hold a Regents' preliminary academic certificate.

Resolved, That State taxation for school purposes should be restored to the former fixed rate of one and one fourth mills.

Resolved, That a law should at once be enacted permitting localities to adopt the township system.

Resolved, That all the State school money distributed to the counties, save that specially apportioned by the State Superintendent, should by the school commissioners be apportioned to the several school districts solely on the basis of aggregate attendance.

Resolved, That the compulsory attendance law should be thoroughly revised, to the end that it may be made practical and efficient.

Resolved, That the good of the rural schools demands closer supervision, and that to this end commissioner districts ought to be made smaller, that commissioners ought to be more liberally paid, and that their powers should be enlarged.

Resolved, That intelligent teaching requires large and increasing sources of information, and that the use of the library fund should be absolutely restricted to the purchase of needed books.

Resolved, That we whose efforts are devoted to the business of training American youth to the duties of good citizenship, view with horror the attempt recently made to strike down the Chief Magistrate of the Nation and the representative American citizen, and that our hearts are united in earnest prayer for the full and speedy recovery of the teacher, soldier, statesman, whose career so fully vindicates American institutions and affords so illustrious an example of the possibilities of American citizenship.

MRS. MARY D. HICKS,

E. M. ABELL,

Committee.

FRANCIS P. LANTRY, Chairman.

A. M. BROWN,

The excursion as previously announced came off on the 8th inst., and was decided to be an immense success by the teachers who participated. While en route to Lake George occurred

THE CAPTURE OF TICONDEROGA.1

JULY 8, 1881.

Scaling a fortress where brave men have bled
When the heavens as brightly were beaming,

O'er soil made heroic by deeds of the dead

With whose memory thought are now teeming ;

This hot July day-not like that when the snow
Showed the tracks of John Stark2 and his rangers,

As they charged on the French, getting back blow for blow,
Daring death and captivity's dangers;

And the scene-quite unlike when the Iroquois3 tore
The scalps from the panic-struck foemen,

The snow-whitened turf growing red with the gore
That to France seemed a favoring omen.

1 The French under Dieskau began the fort in the early spring of 1755, calling it Carillon (chime of bells).

2 In January, 1757, John Stark, with seventy-four rangers turned the post, capturing seven French, but barely escaped from the attack of the pursuing force.

In March, 1758, a year of famine, the Indians waylaid 200 English_rangers in this vicinity, and brought back 146 scalps and three prisoners.

Principal H. K. Clapp moved *

vote of thanks for vetoing Laid upon the tahl

A. M. Kello

Journalism

Comm paper o Sup W fail

ar

the cigch of the month-when again and again,

rife pits cheered on his men

Ween the Briton

Three columns

bloody and

telling.

of ribbons, grave, pensive, and gay,

With gray beards mixed in, and mustaches,
O'er glacis and crest in imposing array,
Where Amherst the victor of Louisburg, passed
Where the cannon emitted death flashes;
While Bourlamarque's troops gathered anxious and fast
"When the French magazine had exploded,
As the waiting flotilla was loaded.

We enter the ditch, now a hand-to-hand fight,
As up the steep ramparts we're climbing;

What order! good gracious! can this be our right
Where the clatter of small talk is chiming?

Hurrah! we have won; not a single man lost

So far as our eyes may discover,

Though some receive wounds, as they'll find to their cost,

From which they may never recover.

The heat-how oppressive! ah, some fallen out-
Too tired, of course, none too lazy!
Louise is enacting the part of a scout!
And Laura has captured a daisy !

Now into the bomb-proof and down the east way,
Where once in the gray of the morning,
Brave Ethan brought Freedom's opressors to bay
And seized Delaplace without warning.

Behold! how the wild grape has covered the rent,
Which grape of a deadlier growing,

The vintage of blood pressing out as it went,
May have shaped, on its death-errand going.

The south side is down, but a vestige remains

Of echoing wall or embrasure

That heard the foe's cheers o'er their ill-omened gains-
Heard Riedesel, Phillips, and Frazer,

Those deadening echoes from out the far past,

When St. Clair shunned the shells from Defiance,
When the sky of our freedom with clouds was o'ercast,
And hope was the Nation's reliance;

Or Liberty's topes, when Brown, bold and rash,
With Burgoyne facing sad Saratoga,

Bagged British and guns at one resolute dash
By these walls of Old Ticonderoga.

Now a cheer let us give for the heroes of old,

Whose deeds made this headland immortal,

And whose names in the books of the brave were enrolled

When they mustered at death's gloomy portal.

May we fight our battles as bravely as they,
Giving quarter to no melancholy,

But loyally doing our part of the fray
Against ignorance, evil, and folly.

1 July 6th, 1758, Lord Howe was killed.

2 July 8th, 1758, Montcalm, 3600 strong, defeated Abercrombie with 15,000 men.

3 July 23d, 1759, Amherst captured the post, the French under Bourlamarque retreating.

4 May 10th, 1775.

5 July 5th, 1775.

6 September 18th, 1777, Colonel John Brown, of Pittsfield, surprised the British outposts at Ticonderoga, freed 100 American prisoners, and captured 300' British with a large quantity of

cannon and stores. :