10 teachers of school studies, 11 of music, and 12 of employments. The pupils were taught the common and higher English branches, with German and vocal and instrumental music; also, the usual industries practicable for the blind and useful in self support. The library contained 1,250 embossed books and 1,000 others. State appropriations for 1883 were $43,500 from Pennsylvania, $3,687 from New Jersey, and $793 from Delaware; from private pupils, $600. Value of all property belonging to the institution, $206,000.

Industrial training was given to nearly 100 in the Pennsylvania Working Home for Blind Men in 1883. Of the Pennsylvania Industrial Home for Blind Women, Philadelphia, no statistics are given in the report of the board of public charities.

EDUCATION OF THE FEEBLE-MINDED.

The Training School for Feeble-Minded Children, Elwyn, for 1882-'83 reported 396 children, 203 of them supported wholly or in part by the State, 61 by the State of of New Jersey, 2 by Delaware, 18 by the city of Philadelphia, 81 by parents or guardians, 1 by the soldiers' orphans' fund, and 30 free. The industries taught are mattress and shoe making, caning, farm and garden work, sewing, and general housework. The appliances of the schools and the facilities for training to usefulness in the shops and kitchens and on the farm were steadily increasing.

INDUSTRIAL AND REFORMATORY TRAINING.

The Pennsylvania Reform School, formerly House of Refuge of Western Pennsylvania, Morganza, was established in 1854 for the care and training of juvenile offenders. All property belonging to the institution, consisting of over 500 acres of land, a substantial building, sufficient for the accommodation of 350 inmates, with workshops, &c., was conveyed to the State in 1878 and is now under its control. Light saddlery and carpet weaving are the chief industries, which, with shoemaking and the necessary farm and garden work, afford the boys useful employment in summer and winter, while the girls are instructed in domestic employments, the laundry work of the entire institution being performed by them. The inmates are required to attend school 44 hours each day. There were 284 boys and 62 girls in the institution in 1883, of whom 36 boys and 12 girls were colored.

The House of Refuge, Philadelphia, established in 1826 for the purpose of properly training wayward children, is supported by aid from the State and from the city of Philadelphia, by labor of the children, and by contributions. The average daily number in the institution is not often less than 500 and the total number frequently reaches 700. January 1, 1884, there were 729. The estimate of the earnings of the inmates is about $12,000 annually. The children are required to devote 3 hours of each day to school duties, which include common English studies, with music. The hours given to labor in the shops are 4 each day, employment being largely relied on as a correctional agency. The industries for the boys include brush making, weaving, and knitting, tasks being set, but the boys are paid for extra work. Laundry and housework are performed by the girls.

TRAINING OF INDIAN YOUTH.

The Indian Industrial School, Carlisle, reports through its superintendent 239 boys and 122 girls connected with the school at date of the report for 1882-83, To these were added, in 1883-84, 139 boys and 69 girls, making a total of 569. Of this whole number 194 were within the year returned to the Indian agencies from which they came and 6 died, leaving 369 connected with the school. Of those returned to agencies 8 went into western schools of their race as employés, and good reports were received from all but 2; others that went home were employed at the last accounts in schools at the agencies and in new schools away from these. Of those remaining at the school, 27 girls were transferred, at the instance of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, to the Lincoln Institution, Philadelphia; 44 girls and 173 boys were placed in families and on farms, and of these about 110 were to remain away during at least the winter of 1884-'85 to attend the public schools or receive instruction from the families in which they were under training. By far the greater part of those placed out were well reported of by those to whom they had been committed, and in this mingling of Indian youth with whites in the ordinary work of school, home, and farm the superintendent of the Carlisle school thinks that a practical solution of the difficulties of civilizing the Indians may be reached, especially if the General Government should grant to Indians the privilege of citizenship.

The system of half a day in the school room and the other half in work in the shops, sewing room, and laundry was continued, with increased advantages, through the liberality of a friend of the-school, an alternation of work and study being found to produce the best effects.

TRAINING OF NURSES.

Training schools for nurses are found in connection with the Woman's Hospital and Blockley Hospital, Philadelphia. For statistics of these and any others reporting, see Table XVII of the appendix, and for summary of the same, the report of the Commissioner preceding.

EDUCATIONAL CONVENTIONS.

PENNSYLVANIA TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION.

This association held its twenty-ninth annual meeting at Williamsport July 10-12, 1883, President N. C. Schaeffer, of Kutztown Normal School, in the chair. There was a total attendance of 450 members, 8 of whom were from other States. Dr. Schaeffer, in his inaugural address, took for his subject "The training of the will," and said that success in life depended more on the will than on the intellect. Scholarship must sometimes beg for bread, because it is crippled by a defective will. The man of fine intellect without will power is like a locomotive without steam, helpless, even if on the right track; but a strong will needs the guiding light of intelligence to direct its energies. Superintendent MacAlister, of Philadelphia, said that at all hazards, by persuasion or compulsion, the whole people, American and foreign, black and white, must be educated for citizenship, and the common school is the instrument provided for the purpose. The great need of our educational system to-day he held to be simplification, unloading school courses of superfluities that make them heavy, and making sure of reading, writing, and arithmetic. Among the other subjects brought before the association were "Reading in our public schools," "Our normal schools and their defects," "Indian education," "Culture derived from science," "Scientific temperance in our public schools," "Defects in our system of graded schools," "The principles and philosophy of teaching," and "The next step." State Superintendent E. E. Higbee took for the subject of the closing address the three great factors, the common schools, academic and collegiate institutions, and professional or technical schools.

The association held its thirtieth annual meeting at Meadville, July 8-11, 1884, with 450 members present, President S. A. Baer in the chair. The subject of the president's inaugural address was "Education and labor," showing that labor is the source of all wealth and prosperity. The speaker strongly advocated physical training, as overy measure of strength added to the arm of the laborer adds to his efficiency and happiness. He said much could be done in the public schools in the way of muscular development, and that we want a regular system of physical training, from a scientific standpoint, with the view of developing symmetry of form and strength of body. A paper on 'Temperance in public schools," forwarded by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, was read, and among the subjects which followed were "The new education," "Education at the South," "Boys and girls, or the pendulum of life," "Light and sight," and "Literary spirit in our schools." The closing address was delivered by State Superintendent E. E. Higbee, entitled "Minister of edu cation."

The papers and addresses at both these meetings were so generally interesting and effective that it is with regret they cannot be more fully reported here. The full reports of them in the Pennsylvania School Journal for September, 1883 and 1884, will be found well worthy of perusal.

CHIEF STATE SCHOOL OFFICERS.

Hon. E. E. HIGBEE, State superintendent of public instruction, Harrisburg.

[Term, April, 1881, to April, 1885.] HENRY HOUCK, deputy superintendent.

16 E

This whole expenditure includes $18,705 for evening schools in 1882-83 and $17,832 in 1883–84. bPay of evening school teachers ($1.32 to $1.36 for males and $1.04 to $1.06 for females each evening) not included.

(From reports of Hon. Thomas B. Stockwell, State commissioner of public schools, for the two years above indicated, with returns from the same.)

STATE SCHOOL SYSTEM.

GENERAL CONDITION.

The statistical summary for 1883-'84, presenting a pleasing contrast to that of the previous year, shows that with an increase of only 459 in school population there were 2,970 more enrolled in the public schools and 2,194 more in average daily attendance,

with 91 more teachers, a large proportion of them with normal school, high school, or collegiate training. There was also some increase in the attendance upon evening and private schools. This improvement was doubtless brought about in great measure by the compulsory education law, noted further on. In 1883-84 schools were tang t 184 days in 969 rooms for study and recitation, an increase of 40 rooms. ing schools were open 64 evenings during the year and 145 pupils enrolled in them also attended the day schools. The value of public school property increased, expenditures diminished, and the pay of teachers remained about the same.

ADMINISTRATION.

Even

The general supervision of the public schools is vested in a State board of educa tion; a State commissioner of public schools, chosen annually by the board, acts as its secretary The school committee of each town consists of 3 residents of the town elected for 3 years, with annual change of 1. A town may elect a superintendent of schools annually; if it fail to do so he may be appointed by the school committee. For each district 1 or 2 trustees may be elected annually by the people. The public schools are free to all resident citizens of the State without regard to age, race, or color. The system includes the education and training of deaf-mutes, of the blind, and of the feeble-minded. Any one employing a child under 15 years of age in work that prevents attendance upon school is subject, as well as the parent or guardian of the child, to a penalty of $20 for each offence. Corporal punishment is permitted in the public schools, but is seldom inflicted. Any child between the ages of 6 and 16 years convicted of habitual truancy may, at the discretion of the court, be fined $20 or committed to the industrial school in the city of Providence.

SCHOOL FINANCES.

To support public schools the sum of $90,000 is paid annually from the income of a permanent school fund and from other money in the treasury, on the order of the commissioner of public schools, the money to be used for the payment of teachers only. No town may receive any part of the State appropriation unless it raises by tax for the support of public schools a sum equal to the amount it receives from the treasury for this purpose. There is an annual appropriation of $3,000 to purchase works of reference and other apparatus for the schools. Means for the maintenance of evening schools are also provided. Towns may vote such additional sums as they deem necessary for the support of schools, purchase of sites, erection and repair of school-houses, and maintenance of school libraries. Any town having established a free public library may, by vote of electors therein, appropriate 20 cents on each $1,000 of its ratable property for the support of such library; also, the State board may make an appropriation annually, at the rate of $50 for the first 500 volumes in such library and $25 for every additional 500. The board may also allow $500 annually for teachers' institutes, $500 for aiding in training in industrial art, and $300 for distributing educational publications and providing lectures on educational topics and other means of promoting education.

NEW LEGISLATION.

A new compulsory school law went into effect October 1, 1883, looking toward the correction of absenteeism and truancy. The responsibility for non-attendance at school is placed upon the parent or guardian; for truancy, upon the truants themselves. All children 7 to 15 years old are required to attend school at least 12 weeks in each year, 6 of which must be consecutive; if found guilty of habitual truancy they must be sent to the Sockanosset School for Boys or to the Oak Lawn School for Girls, at Cranston, for a period not exceeding two years. Truant officers are appointed annually to notify offending parties of the offence committed and the penalty therefor, and if they can secure satisfactory pledges for proper compliance with the law they may forbear to prosecute so long as such pledges are kept.

A law enacted April 24, 1884, requires all school committees to make provision for instructing pupils in all public schools in physiology and hygiene, with special reference to the effects of alcoholic liquors, and other stimulants, and narcotics upon the human system.

SCHOOL SYSTEMS OF TOWNS WITH 7,500 OR MORE INHABITANTS.

ADMINISTRATION.

This is by school committees of 3 or more members, divided into 3 classes, with annual change of one-third, and by a superintendent chosen by the people or the committee.

a The above statistics (except the population) are taken, for uniformity, from the State reports for 1883 and 1884. The figures are for the school year closing in March of each year, with the exception of those showing the enumeration of children of school age, which are only brought up to December of each year. The figures from written returns, differing at some points from these, may be found in Table II of the appendix.

b A return gives 13,140.

ADDITIONAL PARTICULARS.

Lincoln during 1882-83 was reported to be in the front rank of towns having a large percentage of children not attending school and its school committee urged a ready compliance with the new law relating to compulsory education. The report for 1884 says this law has been accepted in good faith; truant officers have been chosen and have attended to their duties. Besides the number attending public schools, there was reported in Roman Catholic and select schools a sufficient number to make about 72 per cent. of the school population under instruction during the year in all schools.

Newport for 1883-'84 reports 12 school buildings, with 45 rooms and 2,447 sittings for study, all valued at $151,939. The schools were taught 196 days by 8 men and 51 women, including 2 special teachers of music and drawing. The system embraced primary, intermediate, grammar, high, evening, ungraded, and Kindergarten schools. Particular pains are taken to give systematic instruction in morals and manners, suitable reference books upon the subject being placed upon each teacher's desk. The high school course covers 4 years and includes Greek, Latin, French, German, and higher English; pupils enrolled in it during the year, 139, an increase of 6 over the preceding year.

Pawtucket in 1883-84 reported that two new public school buildings were erected during the year and one enlarged, at a cost of $24,175. The schools continued to be primary, intermediate, grammar, and high and were taught 197 days by 23 men and 67 women, with 1 special teacher of music. The 5 evening schools had 667 boys and 312 girls, and were open, with one exception, for 14 weeks. The number of pupils was greater than ever before. The evening drawing school was well attended and did excellent work. As there were reported 30,994 days of absence and 5,519 cases of tardiness, the superintendent recommends the appointment of a truant officer and the enforcement of the new compulsory education law; he further urges that the physical training of children be confined to the home, so as not to interfere with the 5 hours specially appropriated to study, and that in place of some of the higher school training attention be directed to subjects connected with industrial and mechanical pursuits.

Providence in 1883-84 reported that the schools were taught 200 days, a special teacher of music was employed, and evening schools were maintained, with a total registration of 2,043 and an average belonging of 1,272, at a cost of $12,207.

Rev. Daniel Leach, since 1855 the faithful superintendent of the city schools, retired at the close of the school year 1883-'84, and in the session following the school com