the public moneys of the State. Any expense incurred by the trustees aforesaid in carrying out the requirements of this act shall be a charge upon the district, when such expense shall have been approved by the school commissioner of the district within which the school district is located; and a tax may be levied therefor without a vote of the district.

"Commissioners, in visiting schools, are requested to be particular in the inspection of outhouses and water-closets, and to make use of all available opportunities for notifying trustees that all districts which have not heretofore complied with the law must arrange buildings as it requires without delay, and thereafter continue to observe its provisions, or suffer the penalties which it imposes. The official reports at the close of the present school year will call for full information upon the subject, and upon these reports the Department must take such action as the law contemplates. Commissioners meet with cases where a willful refusal to comply with the law is shown, they will forthwith report the same to this Department.

If

"Inquiry is frequently made as to the meaning of the statute. Whether or not it intended two separate buildings, it is hardly necessary to determine. When new buildings are to be erected it is much better, and not much more expensive, to erect two entirely separate buildings. But it is clear that in connection with each school in the State there must be two "suitable and convenient waterclosets or privies," which "shall be entirely separated each from the other." If the two are under one roof, they must be separated by such a substantial partition, both above and below the floor, as will prevent all communication. If such partition is not of brick or stone, it should be a lathed and plastered partition, or it should be of plank ceiled on both sides. A simple board partition is not enough. In other words, where the two closets are under one roof, they must be as effectually separated as though they were in entirely separate buildings.

"It will be observed that the law also requires that there shall be separate means of access to these places, and that the approaches shall be separated by a "close fence not less than seven feet in height." The purpose of this provision is manifest. It is to screen the approaches and entrances from observation. It is a wise

If there are two outbuildings separated from each other on the rear of the school site, there should be a fence erected between the two outbuildings, and another should extend from this to the school building.

"It is occasionally said that a site is not large enough to admit of compliance with the law. Then the site must be made larger by the acquisition of more land. The school laws make ample provision for such a contingency.

"It is important to make the fact prominent also that the duty of the trustees is not discharged when the two outhouses, with guarded approaches, are provided. The law directs the trustees to keep the same 'in clean and wholesome condition.' A failure to do this is as truly a violation of the law as a failure to observe its other provisions."

MODIFIED FOOT-BALL.

THE game of base-ball ran its course through the stage of legitimate goodnatured play into that of rivalry and enmity between great schools, and then passed under an eclipse of professionalism which, like horse-racing et al., was characterized by betting and excess of rowdyism. Foot-ball came as its successor, and a stern, strong game it is-but it too has been driven to excess, and now bids fair to pass under the same cloud of professionalism, unless the rules of the game are greatly modified. It is becoming harmful instead of helpful to the colleges, and the situation as now presented is gravely discussed on all sides. The Medical News says in a recent issue :

"To one who is not bereft of reason and moderation by the 'rush-line' of a popular craze or fad, it is simply astonishing to witness the excesses permitted-nay, encouraged-in the name of athletics and education, by the foot-ball enthusiast. Note, first, the clear trend of the whole affair toward professionalism, including betting and gambling. It is simply absurd to longer shut one's eyes to this fact. Enthusiasts may deny or seek to ignore it, but it is fast becoming an open secret that men are making a livelihood by the game, that sometimes their expenses in college are paid for the purpose of winning match games, and that betting on the results of the matches is growing

more and more common. Now, a frank, out-and-out professionalism in athletics is not so bad a thing, if the game be truly an athletic and hygienic one, and not brutalizing to mind or body. But one who to any small extent is aware of the way collegiate politics are becoming bound up with semi-professional foot-ball politics must deplore the malevolent influence of the game upon modern educational tendencies.

"Can any sane man deny that in founding, endowing and encouraging institutions of learning the object is to fit men for the intellectual battles of life? Can he deny that the training and development of the muscular system, desirable as it is or may be-and there is only one thing that is more desirable-should be subordinated as a feeder and supporter to mental athletes? Finally, can it for a moment be denied that the student who is a foot-ball enthusiast, whether player or 'howler,' is nowadays giving a disproportionate amount of his time and interest to the game rather than to his studies?

"Wise educators are seeking earnestly to check the fatal tendency to rowdyishness and coarseness following necessarily and closely upon such practices and abuses of the game instinct. We are well aware of the favorable statistics the enthusiasts offer as to the influence of athletics on education. There are two fallacies in them: First, foot-ball is not athletics, and the influence of this game will soon reduce the good average as shown by and due to athletics proper; second, the statistics are gathered and offered by the enthusiasts of the game. Instead of carefully training each and every student physiologically and systematically, so that his bodily defects shall be corrected and so that his body shall be a supple, strong and beautiful servant of the mind, there is a concentration of all training upon one man out of a hundred, for a special and not by any means beautiful purpose.

"In the name of hygiene, physical and mental-what a farce! Last week near New York a young man's neck was broken on the foot-ball field. The enthusiast sneers when the game is called brutal, but in sober earnest is prize fighting more brutal? Doubtless foot-ball has killed more persons than fisticuffs. papers teem with accounts of the physical injuries of the players after every game. These young men are getting to be proud

The

of their injuries, their sprains, their battered faces and wrenched limbs. Is this not topsy-turvy? Is this gymnastics? If so, it is inverted gymnastics-on its head in the mud! We laugh at the outrageously perverted pride of the German student who exhibits his chopped and mangled face as a proof of glory instead of shame, and we are going the same road. Wise fathers are beginning to refuse their sons permission to play a game that relies for its charms upon a distinct reversion to a barbaric type of sport."

President Carter, of Williams College, from which Garfield graduated and of which Mark Hopkins was so long the presiding genius-unlike the editor above quoted, enjoys the game and thinks well of it, but says:

There are certain elements which should be eradicated to make the game what it is intended to be. So far as I have been able to form an opinion, the 'mass play,' so called, is of the most dangerous character, and should be put down. The tremendous exertion of brute strength, followed as it is by the great shock of collision and consequent possibility or probability of accident, to not only one but several men, brings into the game characteristics wholly undesirable. Foot-ball is a game of science, as I understand it. I believe that reform will come, but not through the efforts of the colleges composing the lesser Intercollegiate Foot-ball League. It is the same in this as in other matters of interest to college life; if the reform is made, it lies with the larger colleges and universities to take the initial step. That done, it would soon spread to the smallest colleges. The reason why I have that opinion is because the boys here at Williams and those at Amherst, Dartmouth, and the other institutions of the same class derive their customs and governing rules from those inaugurated by the large colleges.

"Another thing which, in my mind, is one of the causes of the evils of the game, is the playing of games by the colleges on neutral ground. I think the games should be confined entirely to the college grounds. In this event, to be sure, crowds of 25,000 spectators would be scarce; but if matters outside the playing of the game are to exert an influence over the opposing teams in any way, then the movement for reform might as well stop before it has been begun.

"Professionalism is another great evil.

Here at Williams there have been several instances of an impurity in athletics, but it was without the consent or knowledge of the Faculty, and we all felt ashamed of ourselves when the matter was known. Only this fall a graduate came to the Registrar to be entered on the books. He was very frank in his statements, and plainly told us that he had returned to play foot-ball, and intended to leave college when the season had drawn to a close. It is needless to say that he was very promptly informed that he could not play ball with the Williams team.

"While the colleges of the Intercollegiate League would probably wait the action of Harvard, Yale, and the other two institutions in the matter of reform, I have no doubt that Williams, Dartmouth, and Amherst would be very willing to support any measures tending to purify the game and make it a game of strategy and skill without brutality."

We have asked an intelligent student in the Sophomore class at Yale, Mr. S. E. Spoohnt, to give us his view of the mooted question. He is a young Russian, who came to America four years ago in search of such educational advantages as are not to be had at his home in Odessa; a youth also who is in touch with the best of college life and takes a practical, common-sense view of questions as they arise. He writes as follows:

"The adverse criticism which has been heaped on foot-ball during the past season has, no doubt, resulted from the development of the game which sacrificed its open and brilliant features for the more dangerous momentum and mass-plays. But eliminate from it the momentum movement, and you have again the fine, old, stern game of foot-ball, which every candid and careful observer will admit has done a great deal of good in its influence on the collegians. That the momentum style of play will be done away with, there can be no reasonable doubt, as the three leading schools in the country, Harvard, Princeton and Yale, and especially the last named, have expressed their desire, through their coaches, to abandon this dangerous play; and the influence which these institutions exercise over the other colleges may insure its abandonment everywhere.

"The charge made that athletics in general, and foot-ball in particular, interfere with the studies of the student is not well founded. From personal knowledge

I can assert that the members of our teams are good students. Not infrequently some of them merit and receive the highest honors which the university grants for mental attainments. That athletics and athletic sports are not detrimental to the studies of the university in general, is evinced by the fact that its standard of mental requirements is being raised from year to year. Few men at all familiar with the facts will deny that the student who graduates from a university nowadays, with all its foot-ball, base-ball, etc., knows more than he who graduated in the good old times when it was not encumbered with so much in the way of athletics.

"There are some who object to football on the ground that the university at large does not participate in it, and that a few chosen men are developed physically to the prejudice of the larger body of students. Those who make this objection ignore the fact that almost every college in the country is equipped with a gymnasium under the direction of competent instructors, where the students have just as good an opportunity to develop their bodies as on the ball field, in the boat, or on the track. To show that football, with all its attendant enthusiasm, and waste of lung-power, exerts a healthy influence on the American student, a brief comparison between our students and those of Europe may be of service.

"None of the European students, except the English, have any athletic sports to speak of, and consequently they do not have, as we do, a safe and harmless outlet for their superfluous spirits. They, therefore, necessarily seek an outlet for their young energies in other and less desirable ways. In Russia, for instance, the students, who have not the slightest idea of college athletics, devote their energies in spare hours to politics, and to the worst kind of politics at that to anarchy and nihilism; and it is safe to assume that more of them perish on that account in a single year than have been seriously injured at foot-ball since this stern sport has became prominent on the list of college games. In Germany, for want of athletics, the students find a barbarous delight in disfiguring and injuring one another, sometimes their friends, in almost unprovoked duels. But turn to England, or to our own country, and we may at once be convinced of the good that is to be had from foot-ball.

"In regard to the objectionable feature of betting, which comes along with athletics, or almost anything else in which there is an element of uncertainty, we can only say that it seems an incurable disease. As long as people are inclined to make or lose money in an easy way, there will be betting, whether it be foot-ball or something else that affords the temptation with the opportunity. No one would advocate the abolishing of certain other intercollegiate contests on account of the betting that might be done, and often is done, with reference to their result.

"A word may be said also as to the charge of professionalism which is made. against foot-ball. The laws passed by the Inter-collegiate Association effectually eradicate professionalism in the three leading universities. It is true that there is a great deal of undesirable professionalism in the smaller institutions, but that is because the Faculties of those schools do not choose to look very closely into the matter. They ought to know whether a certain man on their team is a bona fide student or not; and if aware that he is not such, and the Faculty allows him to represent their team, the charge of courting professionalism ought to be laid to the Faculty, and not the sport itself."

As to standing in scholarship, a matter often spoken of when foot-ball is in question, we quote from a well-written article on "Inter-collegiate Foot-ball," by Profs. White and Wood, which appears in the North American Review for January:

"Of the four or five members of the Pennsylvania foot-ball team of 1892, who have now graduated, one, the captain, won in competitive examination the greatest prize the university offers to its medical class, a position in its hospital; another, who was first honor man of his class, has been made professor in the university, and still another was on the honor list. In this year's team the same proportion seems likely to continue. At Princeton two out of the eleven are on the honor list, and five are far above mediocrity. At Yale, the average standing of the sixteen members of the academic department who have been connected with the foot-ball team as players, is higher than the average standing of the best class in scholarship that has ever graduated there. At Cornell, Prof. Hitchcock says the men in the inter-collegiate athletic teams have a standing better than the average of the college."

The disgusted editor, quite out of sympathy with this vigorous sport; the common-sense college president, heartily in touch with the boys; and the student who enjoys seeing or playing the game. and at the same time makes high standing in the studies of his college courseeach speaks his mind and represents his class. Our own opinion is that the game should be continued, and these rules made imperative: Membership in a team should be confined to undergraduates and bona fide students. For "slugging," or unnecessary roughness, punishment should be prompt disqualification in the game then being played. The "flying wedge," or as it is sometimes called, the "flying V," the "turtle back," and movements in mass generally, should be ruled out of order. The play being thus made more open, would be more interesting to the observer, and would require more head-work on the part of the players. The interference to protect the runner is objected to by some; but the team that can manage this best shows the better training and the better generalship. Every element of professionalism encourages the betting mania, and should for this and other reasons be abandoned.

We need games of strength and skill. Foot-ball is a good one. Let it be reformed and retained.

STATE SCHOOL FUNDS.

THE PROPER DISTRIBUTION OF THE
STATE APPROPRIATION.

THE following paper, which we find in

the Williamsport Sun, upon the proper distribution of the State appropriation among the schools, was read by Mr. E. S. McNett before the recent convention of School Directors held at Muncy, Lycoming county. We shall be glad to see this important question discussed everywhere, with a view to securing the most equitable method of distrib. uting the annual fund. The present is clearly not the best that can be devisedit is here shown to be utterly unfair-and "in the multitude of counsellors there is wisdom." Says Mr. McNett:

"The question of the proper distribution of the State Appropriation amongst the various school districts of this state is one of great importance to the people of the commonwealth, and one that has not

received the attention that its merits deserve. In this short and necessarily imperfect article, I shall try to point out to you some of its imperfections and irregularities, nay more, its gross injustice, and suggest perhaps a better method. Let us go back a century or so, and we will find that there were no schools for the masses. Royalty served its purpose best with an ignorant and degraded population. What schools there were, were in the interest of the king, and for his glory all schools were taught, but with liberty came inspirations for knowledge. Education slowly spread, and around the home circle a book or two would be treasured, and the child at its mother's knee would obtain an inkling of what his soul hungered for; but as her time and education were greatly limited, some more favored one would be hired to teach the children of several neighbors. So the subscription school sprang into being, but the State saw that as a necessary protection to itself, as a guard and shield from the evils flowing from an ignorant and, therefore, debased population, that schools should be maintained by law, and that every child in all our broad State, no matter what its condition in life, should have an opportunity to acquire a fair education; and in establishing these schools the control of them was wisely given to local boards elected by the people, but paid for by taxation according to the ability of the people to pay, without regard to the fact whether they had many, few, or no children to be educated.

"But vast corporations arose in the state that paid only a state tax, and in order to return to the people a just share of this money, a state appropriation has for many years been voted to the various school districts in the state. The first appropriation was distributed in 1854 and consisted of $156,000, excluding Philadelphia, and has gradually increased until we find in 1888 the sum of $1,200,000 was distributed, excluding Philadelphia, while at the present time the sum of $5,000,000 is voted for the entire state, a sum so vast that we can hardly comprehend it, capable of creating untold blessings to the people if properly distributed. Unfortunately the report of the State Superintendent has not been issued since the sum has been distributed, but by taking the reports for the year ending June 1, 1892, for which year the sum of $2,000,ooo was voted, we can by comparison ob

tain very close results. Now this sum is distributed among the various school boards according to the number of taxables, being at the rate of $3.45 each. It is a well known fact that in a rich country the population is dense, while a poor country is sparsely settled. We will sup pose two townships have each six schools. One is rich and has fifty taxables to each school: it levies only a tax of two mills. The other is poor and has only ten taxables to each school. It levies ten mills. Their wants are the same, their expenses about the same; yet the rich township, which levies only a tax of one-fifth as much, receives five times as much from the state as does its poorer neighbor!

"You say this is a fancy sketch. Let us see. Take Lycoming county. Suppose each township has six months school, as most do, how much will the State Appropriation amount to each month for each school? First on the list of townships comes Anthony, and they receive $6.21 and pay a tax of 10 mills; next comes Armstrong, and for each school each month she receives $10.66 and pays a tax of 8 mills; third comes Bastress, which receives $15.57 and has a tax of 5 mills; and thus we go through the county, some more, some less, high-water mark being reached in Susquehanna, with $26.64, with Porter a close second with $27.26 for each month taught, each levying only 2 mills, while the Watson independent district receives only $2.91 for each month taught. This, remember, was for the $2,000,000 appropriation. Take the figures and multiply them by two and one-half and we have the condition of things as at present. Now, if the sum of $5,000,000 had been distributed, instead of $2,000,000, that year, and the people used the same amount of money they did as it was, we find that Anthony would still have had to raise by taxation the sum of $846.33 and levied 8 mills; Armstrong would have had to raise $373.17 and levied 5 mills; in Bastress the collector would have had to hustle and collect $6.29, while Porter, happy Porter! could rejoice in no taxes and still have $261.72 left, and Susquehanna would have no taxes to pay and a nest-egg of $93.31 to boot! In counties we find the same glaring injustice, the rich counties receiving double or more than the poorer ones per school. For instance, Allegheny and other rich counties receive almost twice as much per school as does Brad