United States. Of all children between the ages of five and eighteen it is believed that fully fifteen out of every twentytwo attend school a portion of the year. Of these fifteen, one represents those who attend private schools, and the other fourteen those who attend public schools. Over two hundred million dollars are spent every year on the schools. The high schools have improved until they now give a better education than the colleges afforded a century ago.

The national government, although it has donated public lands to aid the public schools, has allowed each state to manage its own school system. As the newer states in the west came into existence, they at once established public schools, in some respects superior to those of the older states. The southern states, also, in recent years have extended their school system, voting to its support large amounts of money raised by public taxation.

692. The Colleges.-In 1862 the national government gave to each state an amount of public land proportionate to its population for the purpose of establishing a college of agriculture and mechanic arts. Some states added this work to the state university proper; others founded a separate agricultural college. Several independent universities have been established by wealthy men and many of the old colleges and universities have been given large sums of money by persons interested in them. To crown all, a true "university" has been endowed by Mr. Andrew Carnegie, to be located at Washington City and to be devoted to the most intensive scholarship. Mr. Carnegie has also aided hundreds of cities and towns in establishing libraries for the people. The gifts to education in the United States in recent years have been the wonder and admiration of the world.

Neither the men who founded Harvard and Yale, nor the tutors and students who struggled along on a few hundred pounds a year could have dreamed of the present time when colleges and universities in the United States have in some years more than twenty million dollars to spend;

when they number over four hundred institutions of learning, scattered all through the states and territories; and when they have more students attending them than there were people in the colonies at the time Harvard was founded. 693. National Expositions. As a means of education, the national government encourages exhibits of American and foreign workmanship and everything which illustrates the growth of the republic. In two cases, it has patronized extensively these exhibitions. The first was held in Philadelphia, in 1876, to celebrate the one-hundredth anniversary of independence. Buildings were erected at a cost of over $7,000,000, in which all the civilized nations of the world placed exhibits. During the six months it was open, 9,910,966 people visited the Centennial Exposition. The second was held in Chicago, in 1893, in remembrance of the four-hundredth year since Columbus discovered America. On the banks of Lake Michigan, the "White City" was erected at a cost of $30,000,000. Here were placed the displays of 65,422 exhibitors. In six months the "World's Fair" was visited by 27,529,400 people. Prizes were given to encourage art, invention, discovery, and the manufacture of everything to improve the condition of the people.

694. The Newspapers.-It would be a difficult matter for Franklin and the editors of his day, who issued their small papers once a week with great labor, to imagine the twenty thousand newspapers of the present time, with their telegraph wires extending like nerves to all parts of the civilized world. How surprised the colonial printer would be,— remembering how he placed each sheet of paper separately on his type before applying the pressure by hand,—to see a great roll of paper placed by a derrick into a press which would fill a small room, and then to see the press print, fold, and count the papers,-discharging them at the other end of the press at the rate of 1,600 a minute. Readers of colonial days who had to await the arrival of a sailing vessel from England with the books they had ordered weeks before

could now be amply supplied by the four thousand new books written each year by American authors, of which hundreds of thousands of copies are printed.

TRANSPORTATION

695. Decay of Canals.-The old canals, carrying small boats drawn by horses, have been abandoned in many states. Some are supported simply to keep down the freight rates of the railroads. The only canals constructed in recent times have been those large enough to carry steamships from one body of water to another. The railroads have also driven the river packets almost out of the passenger traffic, and have seriously reduced their freight traffic. About the only commercial use to which rivers are put at present is for floating timber and coal to market.

696. Increase of Railroads.—On the other hand, the railroads have increased enormously, four tracks being necessary between some cities to accommodate the frequent trains. In 1860 there were 30,626 miles of railroad in operation in the United States. Now there are almost 200,000 miles. If they were put end to end they would reach eight times. around the world. Travel at present on fast trains with the sleeping and dining cars is one of the comforts of the modern world. What a change from the time when Mrs. John Adams lost her way in the woods between Baltimore and the new capital, when taking her first trip in a quaint, old-fashioned carriage from Boston to Washington to become the first mistress of the White House! Then it took two weeks for the trip; now but a few short hours.

The railroads carry the grain and stock of the farmer to market and bring implements, clothing, and such food as he cannot raise. These markets are commonly at a point where the farm products can be reshipped by water. That is why such railroad cities as Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston, St. Louis, New Orleans, and San Francisco have arisen. Or, railroads may find a center in a