A State Of Great Schools

The folio wing orticle, taken ii-om . the Journal oï Edueation, published at Boston. Mese., uirle it gies its readers a very faint idea of the Vniversity, Kuys same things about the educatJonal institutions of the sta Ir that wffi} interest our readers : "Wditliout in the east undervaluing past experiences, it may be safely - sadid that the onost delightful brief educational lectur etour I have ever enjoyed 6s that which I a.m now experiencing in "Michigan, golngl from the Detroit river to Lake Michigan, from Sag-inaw bay to Grand Traverse bay, irom one:nland city to another, addreesïng thousands of teachers and their fricnds in tmany of the prominent oltiee, visiting scores of schoois, travelling two hnndred añiles more withtn the state tlian are trave'ed in going from Boston to Chicago. I!' t here :B any othcr way for a man to know school work and school workers of the country, I am yrt to icarji of It. "Michigan is, in every way, a great state, aml in jnany ways a grand one. Three of ,the five great lakes are, praetócally, svithin hor borders. shc has almost litnitlees resources of lumber, miuerals and agricnltuial products. Her industries are eqna! tn those of New Engla.nd, and her citiee. in wealth and conservative power, have no superiors in the land. Detroit i'ivals Boston, Hartford and other financially ideal centers. But, l:ke New Kngland, Micliig.in does Hot pride herself upou lier product-s, lier :ndnstry, or her financial secui-ity, 6O much os apon her I hood and womanhood. Character is not quotable on change, but the quotations there show what her charaeter i-s. Her schools and her churches are thO bulwark of her strength and security. Aun Arbor and Ypellantl, twin cities, with their nearly four thousand earnest students, have sent into tJie schools, the churches, iuto law aaid medicine, into art and music, into home and office, such an array of traimed men and wouien as no otlier imLlarly situated and privileged institutions of America have done. Aim Arbor has maiiy other interests, but she is known to the world only as tlie seat of the State University, and Ypsilanti, only through the state tiormal school. James B. Angelí and Richard U. Eoone ai- la.rge factors Bi Michigan progrese. Aain Arbor róivals Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Cornell in numbers and iaifiuence, and Ypsilanti has one of tlie largest and best normal schools m the country. Eight hundred normal students and tliree liundred and fifty training school mpils I make a large institution ; while its library of 14,000 volumes, its six laboratorios for pbysicfi, cliemistry and biology, its two gymnasiums, 50x80 feet eacJi, for men and women, ibB large and well paid faculty ; its plan of having an efficiënt head of each depavtment assisted by earnest, aspiiing, scholarly men and women- all contiiibute to make it one of the best professional schools in the country. "I would mot leave the knpression amo ng those unfamliiar with the state that Arm Arbo,r is the only lege town. Although her three thousand students aa-e more than all the others together, there are other creditable institutkms. Tlie Free Baptists have a large and proepéxous college, witlh upwarde of six Imndred students, at Hillsdale. The Methodists nuinber six hundred and tweutynine students at Albion, and the Agricultura! Ooilege at Lansing is about as la-rge &e either oí these. Tliough not as large, Olivet is one oï the best and musí ni.uential oí the colleges oï 'the state. President Wi.lard E. (Sperry, ïormerly oï Manchester, N. H., is proving hlmeeUI a highiy eíïitifiil coJege leader. He has a iirst-■lass equópmeat, a.nd a scholarly and earnEst facu.ty. 'llie Baptísts h;ive a college at Kalamazoo, and one oL the really best institutions of the state dis the mew mining school at Hougliton, on the Korthern Peninsular. The 'Perrifi Industrial School' at I!:1 Ra-pids is thon-oughly unique. It emolís about fiv; hundred students a year. It is in eeesiion all the year and board :s but $2.00 a week. It is quite a retreat ïor teachers in vaoatton. "Char'.otte ,:s well-nigh au ideal town oí 4,000 nihabitant.s. It is a town of home and of tradc. As the couoty town. it has the court house bufiness andcounty seat digalty. It is 90 located that it is the trading place for ttirifty farmers for a radius of 15 míiles. Allthis gives it a welU to-do oharacter. There is large average wcalth. It is eminently publlcspirit-ed. There are good schools, Bkillfully supervised by Owen L. MilIer, a gradúate of V i mui and Ann Arbor, i teacher also in the West Chester, Penn., tiormal ecfiool. "Charlotte is the educational center of the county as well, and at the county association, the teachers drive in for miles around, and devote Friday evemimg and the Saturday to educatiooal conference, the president and professors of Olivet bearing thelr part. The town has a high school with fivc teachers, ra Tinusual eqiriip.ment for a town wAth but seven other teachers, all told. Probably no othci1own of -lts size is on the highest accreditcd list at Ann Arbor."