Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 2.djvu/86

70 thirty-six who had attended regularly throughout. We will probably not be far wrong in assuming from these facts that fifty or sixty pupils were doing work which .was mainly of high school grade. At all events the high school idea, stimulated by Arnold's connection with the public school, was at this time having a vigorous growth, and out of it, strangely enough, came the movement for the university.

The inception of this movement, connected as it is closely with the public school of the town on one hand, and with the general educational development of the state on the other, deserves to be recounted with some detail.

The public school, as we saw, closed March 22, 1872. The teachers, Messrs. Arnold and Martin, following the time-honored custom, at once advertised a private school for the spring term. In connection with this advertisement appears an article of great interest. The author, who is not one of the teachers, but whose words are clearly "inspired" in the political sense, makes the following points:

This "Eugene Select School" was founded September 26, 1870, at the Skinner Butte Academy, with only seventeen pupils, and rapidly grew in numbers.For the want of a suitable building its progress had not been uniform, and the school had been kept under "varying phases.""Still the same classes have been continued all along," and a course in mathematics has been completed. Thus the effort to found a graded school in Eugene has been a success in spite of obstacles.He continues: "The people of Eugene must at this time see the importance of erecting a building suit-