The first edition appeared under the name of Edmund Boisgilbert, and the author had no little difficulty in finding a publisher. In another novel, “Dr. Huguet,” the author appealed for a humaner treatment of people of color, but the public did not respond by buying largely. Later ephemeral volumes and pamphlets added nothing to the repute of a Minnesota author known wherever the English tongue was spoken. * * * * * The superintendent of public instruction during the Pillsbury administrations was the Rev. David Burt. Although his education was clerical and his educational experience brief, by a conscientious devotion to the novel duties he carried forward successfully the work of his predecessors. He did much to annul the chronic opposition to the normal schools, and justified the regents of the university in asking more liberal appropriations for buildings and appliances, in spite of the small numbers of its early graduating classes. He persuaded the legislature with no little persistence that the common school fund should be distributed to the districts according to the number of children attending, and not according to the census of those of school age. The legislature of 1877, acting under an amendment to the constitution adopted two years before, extended to women the right to vote on all measures relating to schools, including the choice of school officers; and “to hold any office pertaining solely to the management of schools.” A later constitutional change extended this privilege to library officers and measures. It has been effectively exercised in but few instances. In his annual message for 1874 Governor Austin advised the legislature that the text-books used in the common schools were sold to parents at exorbitant prices fixed by a convention of the publishing craft, but made no definite suggestion for relief. Ignatius Donnelly, who was in the state senate continuously from 1874 to 1878, took the lead in an effort to emancipate the people from the tyranny of the school-book ring. His favorite plan was to have the state print books prepared by competent experts and distribute them free to the schools. Two bills for this purpose were passed by the senate and defeated in the house. In 1877 a well-known book dealer of St. Paul came forward with a proposition to furnish text-books as good as those in use for half the prices exacted, provided he could have a fifteen-year contract. To this the legislature agreed, and the contract was made and executed. Mr. Donnelly’s biographer claims that the saving to the state in that term was at least $2,839,765. There is no positive evidence of the allegations that large amounts of money were used to defeat the bill.