peculiar to this climate. From the high land of the Barney Park is an extensive view up and down the Connecticut, with the Berkshire Hills and Mount Torn in the background.
      Springield was one of the first cities in Massachusetts to employ the services of a salaried superintendent of schools. Among the early settlers were men of education, and their descendants have ever seen the importance of good educational advantages. In 1873, Admiral P. Stone, LL. D., was called to the superintendency, and under his master hand the schools took rank among the first in the state. It was during the latter part of his administration that the public Manual Training School was established in connection with the high and grammar schools. Under him, steps were taken to establish a city normal school. Above the primary grade there are seven grammar schools, besides the high and city normal and training school for teachers. The important lesson was early learned, that frequent changes do not improve the teaching force, and the teachers' tenure of service is practically during efficiency. When Dr. Thomas M. Balliet was called to the superintendency six years ago, he received the largest salary of any like official in Massachusetts, outside Boston. There is never a disposition among the mass of the people to economize unduly on the schools. The question of politics hardly enters into school matters. The personnel of the School Board reveals the care the people exercise in this branch of the public service, and explains the good judgment manifest in its administration.
      About eight years ago the International Young Men's Christian Association Training School was established in Springfield. The object of this institution is to train secretaries for association work and directors of physical training in these and other organizations. The school has supplied graduates to associations in Australia, France, Germany, England and Canada, besides sending men into many states of the Union. The school has recently secured a site a little out of the town, on a bluff overlooking a beautiful sheet of water. Here buildings are soon to be erected which will give the institution a beautiful home. The members of the faculty are able men; and the graduates are doing good work in their several fields. As a class, they are a singularly devoted and energetic body of young men. At this school, A. A. Stagg, the head of the Physical Culture Department of Chicago University, received his special course in physical training after his graduation from Yale.
      Two musical organizations, the Orpheus Club and the Hampden County Musical Association, are doing much for the cause of music in Springfield and the vicinity. The former is an organization for men, of some years' standing. It gives a series of concerts each season, often assisted by a chorus of women. The working force of the Association is a mixed chorus of about two hundred voices. One of the yearly events of Springfield life is the three days' festival in May. At this time the assistance of the best soloists and orchestral organizations is secured, and music-lovers from a distance are attracted to the city to enjoy the feast. These festivals have been improving in quality, as each year has shown the results of Director Chadwick's masterly work upon the chorus. After the festival of 1893, New York papers, reviewing the work of the week, placed the Association among the best organizations of its kind in the country. The Orpheus Club consists of only about sixty men. Its public performances are a certain number of evening concerts during the season. Though on a less extensive scale than the Association, all its work is of as high order. The organizations cannot be called rivals; their work is different, and some of the leaders of the Club are moving spirits in the Association. While Springfield cannot perhaps be called a musical centre, there are few places where the public ear is more intelligent and critical, and where the best is more imperatively demanded.
      The navigation privileges of the Connecticut River probably contributed largely to give Springfield its original start. Before the days of railroads, considerable boating business was done on the river as far north as Vermont. At one time it Was proposed to make a