Mr. Fuller at Mount Pleasant as steward. The work of preparation was conducted so vigorously that July 13th following, the executive committee announced it was ready to receive children. Within three weeks twenty-one were admitted and in a little more than six months seventy were in the home. The home was sustained by voluntary contributions until 1866, when it was taken charge of by the state. The Legislature appropriated $10 per month for each orphan actually supported and provided for the establishment of three homes. The one in Cedar Falls was organized in 1865. An old hotel building was fitted up for it and by the following January there were ninety-six inmates. In October, 1869, the home was removed to a large brick building about two miles west of Cedar Falls and was very prosperous for several years but in 1876 the Legislature devoted this building to the State Normal School. The same year the Legislature also devoted the buildings and grounds of the Soldiers' Orphans' Home, at Glenwood, Mills county, to an institution for the support of feeble-minded children. It also provided for the removal of the soldiers' orphans at Glenwood and Cedar Falls homes to the one located at Davenport. There is in connection with this institution a school building, pleasant, commodious and well lighted, and it is the policy of the board to have the course of instruction of a high standard. A kindergarten is operated for the very young pupils. The age limit to which children are kept in the home is sixteen years. Fewer than 20 per cent remain to the age limit. A library of well selected juvenile literature is a source of pleasure and profitable entertainment to the children, as from necessity their pleasures and pastimes are somewhat limited. It is the aim to provide the children with plenty of good, comfortable clothing, and to teach them to take good care of the same. Their clothing is all manufactured at the home, the large girls assisting in the work. The table is well supplied with a good variety of plain, wholesome food and a reasonable amount of luxuries. The home is now supported by a regular appropriation of $12 per month for each inmate, and the actual transportation charges of the inmates to and from the institution. Each county is liable to the state for the support of its children to the extent of $6 per month, except soldiers' orphans, who are cared for at the expense of the state.

feeble-minded children

An act of the General Assembly, approved March 17, 1878, provided for the establishment of an asylum for feeble-minded chil

dren at Glenwood, Mills county, and the buildings and grounds of the Soldiers' Orphans' Home were taken for that purpose. The asylum was placed under the management of three trustees, one of whom should be a resident of Mills county. The institution was opened September 1, 1876. By November, 1877, the number of pupils was eighty-seven. The purpose of this institution is to provide special methods of training for that class of children deficient in mind or marked with such peculiarities as to deprive them of the benefits and privileges provided for children with normal faculties. The object is to make the child as nearly self-supporting as practicable and to approach as nearly as possible the movements and actions of normal people. It further aims to provide a home for those who are not susceptible of mental culture, relying wholly on others to supply their simple wants.

industrial schools for boys and girls

The Industrial School for Boys is established at Eldora. By act, approved March 31, 1868, the General Assembly established a reform. school at Salem, Henry county, and provided for a board of trustees from each congressional district. The trustees immediately leased the property of the Iowa Manual Labor Institute, and October 7th following, the school received its first inmate. The law at first provided for the admission of both sexes under eighteen years of age. The trustees were directed to organize a separate school for girls. In 1872 the school for boys was permanently located at Eldora, Hardin county, and some time later the one for girls was established at Mitchellville. There is appropriated for these schools and their support the sum of $13 monthly for each boy, and $16 monthly for each girl inmate. The object of the institution is the reformation of juvenile delinquents. It is not a prison. It is a compulsory educational institution. It is a school where wayward and criminal boys and girls are brought under the influence of Christian instructors and taught by example as well as precept the better ways of life. It is a training. school, where the moral, intellectual and industrial education of the child is carried on at one and the same time.

penal institutions

The Governor, by an act approved January 25, 1839, was authorized to draw the sum of $20,000, appropriated by an act of

Congress in 1838, for public buildings in the Territory of Iowa and establish a state penal institution. The act provided for a board of directors, consisting of three persons, to be elected by the Legislature, who should superintend the building of a penitentiary to be located within a mile of the public square in the town of Fort Madison, Lee county, provided that the latter deeded a suitable tract of land for the purpose, also a spring or stream of water for the use of the penitentiary. The citizens of Fort Madison executed a deed of ten acres of land for the building. The work was soon entered upon and the main building and the warden's house were completed in the fall of 1841. It continued to meet with additions and improvements until the arrangements were all completed according to the designs of the directors. The labor of the convicts is let out to contractors, who pay the state a stipulated sum for services rendered, the state furnishing shops and necessary supervision in preserving order. The Iowa Farming Tool Company and the Fort Madison Chair Company are the present contractors.

penitentiary at anamosa

The first steps toward the erection of a penitentiary at Anamosa, Jones county, were taken in 1872, and by an act of the General Assembly, approved April 23, 1884, three commissioners were selected to construct and control prison buildings. They met on the 4th of June, following, and chose a site donated by the citizens of Anamosa. Work on the building was commenced September 28, 1872. In 1873 a number of prisoners were transferred from the Fort Madison prison to Anamosa. The labor of the convicts at this penitentiary is employed in the erection and completion of the buildings. The labor of a small number is let to the American Cooperage Company. This institution has a well equipped department for female prisoners, also a department for the care of the criminal insane.

state historical society

A State Historical Society in connection with the university was provided for by act of the General Assembly, January 25, 1857. At the commencement an appropriation of $250 was made, to be expended in collecting and preserving a library of books, pamphlets, papers, paintings and other materials illustrative of the history of Iowa. There was appropriated $500 per annum to maintain this

society. Since its organization the society has published three different quarterly magazines. From 1863 to 1874 it published the Annals of Iowa, twelve volumes, now called the first series. From 1885 to 1902, it published the Iowa Historical Record, eighteen volumes. From 1903 to 1907, the society has published the Iowa Journal of History and Politics, now in its fifth volume. Numerous special publications have been issued by the society, the most important of which are the Messages and Proclamations of the Governors of Iowa, in seven volumes, the Executive Journal of Iowa, 1838-1843, and the Lucas Journal of the War of 1812.

iowa soldiers' home

The Iowa Soldiers' Home was built and occupied in 1888, at Marshalltown. The first year it had 140 inmates. In 1907 there were 794 inmates, including 112 women. The United States Goverment pays to the State of Iowa the sum of $100 per year for each inmate of the soldiers' home who served in any war in which the United States was engaged, which amount is used as part of the support fund of the institution. Persons who have property or means for their support, or who draw a pension sufficient therefor, will not be admitted to the home, and if after admission an inmate of the home shall receive a pension or other means sufficient for his support, or shall recover his health so as to enable him to support himself, he will be discharged from the home. Regular appropriation by the state is $14 per month for each member, and $10 per month for each employee not a member of the home.

other state institutions

There are at Clarinda and Cherokee state hospitals for the insane and one at Knoxville for the inebriate.

It is strange, but true, that in the great State of Iowa, with more than 60 per cent of her population engaged in agricultural pursuits and stock-raising, it was not until the year 1900 that a department of the state government was created in the interests of, and for the promotion of agriculture, animal industry, horticulture, manufactures, etc. The Iowa Department of Agriculture was created by an act of the Twenty-eighth General Assembly. In 1892 the Iowa Geological Survey was established and the law which provided therefor outlined its work to be that of making "a complete

survey of the natural resources of the state in the natural and scientific aspects, including the determination of the characteristics of the various formations and the investigation of the different ores, coals, clays, building stones and other useful materials." It is intended to cooperate with the United States Geological Survey in the making of topographical maps and those parts of the state whose coal resources make such maps particularly desirable and useful. The State Agricultural Society is one of the great promoters of the welfare of the people. The society holds an annual fair which has occurred at Des Moines since 1878. At its meetings subjects of the highest interest and value are discussed, and these proceedings are published at the expense of the state.

THE CELEBRATION OF THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CONSTITUTION OF IOWA

By John C. Parrish

In the year 1907 the State of Iowa closed the first half century of its existence under the constitution of 1857. In April, 1906, the General Assembly, looking forward to the suitable celebration of so important an anniversary, passed an act appropriating $750 to be used by the State Historical Society of Iowa, in a commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the constitution of 1857. It was eminently desirable that the celebration should occur at Iowa City, for it was at that place, then the capital of the state, that the constitutional convention of 1857 was held. And it was particularly fitting that the exercises should be placed under the auspices of the State Historical Society of Iowa, for the same year, 1857, marks the birth of the society. While the convention was drafting the fundamental law of the state in a room on the lower floor of the Old Stone Capitol, the Sixth General Assembly in the legislative hall upstairs in the same building passed an act providing for the organization of a State Historical Society. Thus the event of 1907 became a celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the State Historical Society as well as a commemoration of the semi-centennial of the constitution of 1857.

In due time plans were matured for a program covering four days, beginning on Tuesday, March 19, and closing on Friday, March 22, 1907. It consisted of addresses by men of prominent reputation in constitutional and historical lines, together with conferences on state historical subjects. On Tuesday evening Prof.