72 



States, another liad just read three volumes of Macaulaj's Es- 

 says. Shakespeare, Bunyan, Bulwer, DeFoe, Jules Yerne and 

 Oliver Optic had one reader each. What Career?, Avis, Mar- 

 ble Fawn, History of Propellers, Management of Horses, Seven 

 Oaks, Miss Miihlbach s Empress Josephine, Ways of the World, 

 Half-Hour Natural Science Series, American Explorers, Little 

 Men, Speke's Sources of the Kile, Wide Wide World, Wav- 

 erly, Fortunes of Nigel and Quentin Durward were also named. 



I invite our teachers to test their scholars in the same way 

 during the present 3^ear, and to send me lists of the books read 

 by their pupils. With the cooperation of teachers and school 

 officers we ma}^ learn what the youth of Connecticut are reading. 

 This effort will enlist the attention of parents and secure their 

 , aid in the selection of better books and periodicals for their 

 i children, and thus check a growing evil and accomplish great 

 ■ good. Teachers should foster a taste for such choice literature, 

 ' that travels, histories and biographies, books of science, genu- 

 ine poetry, essays and choice romances shall take the place 

 of the "blood and thunder" stories and other emphatically 

 weekly novelettes of the day. 



Social reading should also be encouraged. The industry 

 in many a sewing circle has been enlivened by well selected 

 reading by one of their number. The same genial influ- 

 ence should often cheer the circle around the family hearth. 

 " Eeading circles " ought to be maintained in every town, where 

 selections in prose or poetry, often a play of Shakespeare, the 

 several parts having been previously assigned, and made the 

 subject of careful private study and drill, are rehearsed together. 

 These Eeading Clubs, where each thoroughly studies his part 

 or selection till he becomes so possessed of its thought and 

 spirit as to render it in the best style he can command, not only 

 cultivate the art of elocution, but improve the taste and develop 

 a higher appreciation of the best authors. Aside from the edu- 

 cational value of this class of evening schools, their social influ- 

 ence is happy. Divided as the residents of our rural districts 

 too often are, by party or sect, by prejudice or neighborhood 

 difficulties, every influence tending to fraternize the people 

 should be welcomed ; every association where they meet on 

 common ground for mutual improvement, and where kindly 



