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The work of the school has been carried on by the usual methods, and the natural results of patient and steady effort on the part of both teachers and pupils have been obtained. There are always some pupils who have little appreciation of the importance of improving their time, and who appear to value school life more for the present pleasure it brings to them than as a preparation for the earnest duties of life.

If we aim to prepare our pupils to stand on an equal footing in the race of life with their more fortunate brothers and sisters, we must find ways to supply their lack of the large amount of information that seeing youth gain almost unconsciously from observation and desultory reading. This furnishes one forcible reason why we deem it necessary to give systematic instruction in some branches usually included only in the curriculum of higher schools.

A successful teacher of the blind learns never to assume that his pupil has any correct knowledge of the material world except what he has been taught; for although, of course, some by attention of friends, or by their own inquisitiveness, have acquired a fair conception of their surroundings, a larger number of those blind from early life have very partial and distorted ideas.

This suggests the importance of tangible apparatus. If an educator of seeing children values opportunities for his pupils to observe natural scenery, examine machinery, witness exhibitions of skill; calls their attention in the class room to flower, fruit, bird, stone, and shell, and thereby finds aid in training them to habits of observation and in forming correct ideas of men and things, the educator of the blind finds such aids indispensable. Seeing youth find pictures useful substitutes for objects; but pictures are of no avail to blind children. The mind that takes cognizance of the external world chiefly by means of hearing has need of correcting its conclusions by means of touch. Hence, tangible apparatus and a cabinet of natural objects, common as well as uncommon, become essential to successful teaching of the

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blind. Our present facilities of this sort are inadequate, and should be increased at an early day. Much valuable apparatus that was destroyed by fire in 1874 has not yet been replaced. I would recommend that at least $150 be appropriated to this purpose during the ensuing year.

In previous reports I have called attention to the fact that it is necessary to put forth persevering efforts to secure the attendance of blind children in school. Some parents are indifferent to the advantages of education; some think it is of no use to attempt to educate a blind child; some negligently defer sending their child until he is past the best age for school life; some are ignorant of the existence of the Institution; some have mistaken ideas of its terms and object; some keep their child at home for the sake of the work he can do; and some naturally hesitate to entrust the helpless one of the family to the care of strangers. Undoubtedly it is the duty of those entrusted with the care of this school to endeavor to secure its advantages to all for whose benefit it has been established and maintained. To this end a variety of means are necessary. Circulars and reports of the Institution have been scattered widely. Correspondence has been used whenever practicable. In many cases personal visitation alone will suffice. This has been used with good results in the past, and when omitted for several years, the effect has been apparent in diminished attendance.

The next regular biennial session of the American Association of Instructors of the Blind is appointed to be held at this Institution, commencing on the third Tuesday of August, 1882. The meetings of this Association are always occasions of interest and profit, and I regard the holding of one here as a privilege which promises unusual advantages to our school in the future.

(From the Report of John W. Swiler, Superintendent of the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb at Delavan.)

The school of 179 pupils was organized in ten regular classes, under the care of a similar number of teachers; in addition, sup

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plemental classes in articulation were formed of pupils from other classes.

The work of the year has been attended with success, and constant interest in study maintained. Two examinations were held during the term. The first in January, and the second at the close of school in June.

This

It is a high art to awaken the perceptions, develop the reason, and cultivate the judgment of congenital mutes, training them to use the eye for the ear, the hand for the tongue. The acquisition of the sign language is so slow that, under ordinary circumstances, ten years will not perfect the learner in its use. being true, it appears that ability to instruct the deaf and dumb does not come as the free gift of generous nature, but as the result of practice, study, and observation. It is not desirable in any case that the little defective one, already afflicted by the loss of speech and hearing, should be deprived of the assistance of experts in the struggle for knowledge, or still further dwarfed by the mistakes of a new teacher. The beginnings are so far down in the mental scale that an analysis of the growth of language is often needed, together with a study of the mental processes of the lowest order, ere it is known how to begin.

Parents and guardians who wish to save time in school, and give their children a start at home, may be well repaid by teaching habits of observation, and giving them some instruction in writing.

Repeated efforts have been made to secure a teacher of writing and drawing, to develop a talent for drawing, which some of our pupils possess. All these children would profit by instruction in the first principles of drawing, and the observation of many of them is so keen that they quickly acquire skill in this direction. I need not enlarge upon the utility of drawing in the arts, but simply state that the deaf and dumb often display great taste for drawing and painting. The State can well afford to do something to ameliorate the condition of her defective classes, as she

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does in providing amusement for the insane, music for the blind, and she should further extend her beneficence by providing instruction in drawing and designing for the deaf. We bespeak your co-operation in urging the need of an appropriation that will permit the organization of a drawing class in this Institution, to give the elementary principles of free hand and mechanical drawing to every pupil in the school, and provide a more extended course of instruction for those who may profit by it.

(From the Report of R. W. Burton, Secretary of the Board of Trustees of the Soldiers' Orphans' Home.)

Since January last, the work of the office has been chiefly in connection with the distribution of the Ward and Smith bequest, at the same time exercising a general supervision over those for whose benefit it is distributed. Faithlessness in the case of a few guardians has necessitated our interference to demand the surrender of certificates at maturity, withheld from the ward, to recover moneys that had been misappropriated by the guardian; or to secure for the orphan real estate, purchased with his money by the guardian, and held in the latter's name under circumstances calculated to arouse suspicion.

One of the prime motives in issuing the circular [to those once inmates in the Home] was to learn with some degree of accuracy to what extent the Ward and Smith Fund shares proved advantageous to the holders of certificates. With a view of collecting the data from which to form a judgment, the question was asked, "To what use did you put the money you received from the Ward and Smith Fund?" Replies to this inquiry, as a rule, were free, full, and, in the main, very gratifying. The largest amount issued by the State Treasurer, up to date, to any one beneficiary, is $65.88; yet this pittance has proven to many an orphan the "start in life." The boy places it as a loan, around which, as a nucleus, his meager earnings collect; it contributes to make good the claim of a homestead; or it goes for the purchase of a team to work the farm.

With it, the girl purchases a sewing machine by which she

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earns a respectable support for herself, and brings many little comforts to the maternal home. Its expenditure, by both boys and girls, for tuition at school or in music, is very commonly reported.

The educational advantages of these children since the discontinuance of the "Home" have been very limited. The district school has received most of them, while a goodly number, through the advantage of location, have been favored with a high school training. By dint of personal exertion and good management, a few have secured means to give them a few terms in our State Normal Schools. Three have already placed themselves among the college alumni; and as many more report themselves well advanced in college courses. The enterprise manifest on the part

of very many in obtaining an education is very gratifying to us, as it can be regarded in no other light than the fruitage of the wholesome influences clustering about the "Home."

In the matter of business, the boys are well distributed among the various industries of our State, agricultural, mechanical, and manufacturing. To the most of these, the farm, of course, was the most accessible, and offered the readiest means of support. From this class many favorable reports have reached us, showing that as farmers they have not toiled in vain. In addition to this, we have chanced to meet, during the year, several young men whose boyhood was passed at the "Home," who now, by their neat appearance and manly bearing, give evidence of industry and thrift. As might be expected, most of those on the farm are at work for wages, but not a few have small farms of their own.

While very few of the older boys have married, the list of marriages among the girls is quite extensive. It is gratifying to note that, so far as we can judge from their personal reports, these young women have become the wives of thrifty men. Laboring, farming, lumbering, book-keeping, marble-cutting, wagon-making, blacksmithing, weaving, printing, etc., are among the occupations and trades followed by their husbands. Save one or two parties, all express themselves as happy in their new relations.