at the cattle level. The children breathe in something of the civilization which in Pittsburg pursues them into their homes.

The student of city life learns that the schools are the most sensitive of the city departments, the thermometers of its population. They mark the ebb and flow of the tides, not only of the population, but of races that come and go in the locality of which each school is the center. The schools of Pittsburg differ in no wise in this respect. There are new buildings in the new sections with empty rooms, for the wise City Fathers in this section have learned to build for the future. There are also buildings with empty rooms because the people have gone from the section, prosperity and education taking them into the readily accessible suburbs. One school, close to one of the largest works, standing on a side hill approached over an unpaved street gullied by the waters that come from the hills beyond and in front of it, had only pupils enough to employ one teacher. All the grades from the primary to the preparatory for the

high school were. represented, and capital work was being done. Friday afternoon the work was elective. The result in drawing, sewing, and writing letters was a credit to the teacher and the children. The new school buildings are impressive. They are well equipped and sanitary. Science has been given an opportunity to prove what it can do in school-building. They have tiled halls, systems of ventilation that cleanse all the air that enters the building, and every class-room has clothesclosets having a large window and marble basins with running water. Every school building stands in well-kept grounds. This is true of the schools in the poorest section, where grass is cultivated and protected, and trees shade the yards. The oldest buildings have clothes-closets ventilated by a window, and running water easily accessible from every room. The degree of cleanliness attained by the people everywhere is astonishing. The children wear white and light-colored wash goods. "We have to wear goods that can be washed to keep clean in Pittsburg," the residents

The

declare, and every day proves this. workingman sitting on his stoop or porch holding his baby, in a rocker covered by a white or gay washable cover, his shirt thrown back from his neck, reveals a throat and chest white and clean. This personal cleanliness is evident almost without exception in the class-rooms of Pittsburg.

The school system of Pittsburg, as a system, is criticised by some modern educators. The lack of uniformity in the courses of study in the several schools, the liberty given the principals to meet the individual needs of the children under their care, and the adaptation to the local

needs which many of the principals have accomplished, have much to recommend them to the lay observer, who always sees a school from the children's standpoint, especially the children who must become breadwinners at an early age. In Pittsburg the emphasis is laid on elementary training. Every school has a kindergarten; manual training has a prominent place in the schools, which without doubt lack uniformity, therefore system. That politics plays too freely in the schools is, alas! too true, for the local committee is the unit of school administration. Politics in Pennsylvania just now is king. The signs