Boston the preposterous rule is in force prohibiting the employment in this service of any teachers holding positions in the day schools. Since the adoption of this rule the evening schools have too often been made the asylum of inexperienced and incapable teachers. On the other hand, the Philadelphia board, finding that persons without experience as teachers were unfitted for the positions as assistants in night schools, adopted the rule that three years' experience as day school teachers be required of all applicants. It was found also that indiscriminate admission of pupils was followed by disorderly conduct and consequent waste of the public money. Accordingly, a rule was adopted "requiring that all minors applying for admission must be recommended by parent, guardian, or employer." These changes have produced the most beneficial results; the attendance has been improved and efficiency and good order have been greatly promoted.

The sessions of these evening schools are usually held for two hours, from 7 to 9, on three or four evenings each week during the winter term, beginning early in November and ending in the latter part of March, comprising about twenty weeks.

The success of these schools requires in the first place efficient principals and capable and experienced assistants. In the second place, they should be provided with good accommodations, and not be stowed away in damp basements, unventilated ward rooms, and dilapidated vestries. And then great attention should be paid to the classification of the pupils of these schools, so as to economize the teaching force as far as possible by substituting class instruction for individual teaching. As a means of encouraging the pupils to persevere in attendance and application to study it is desirable that the school should terminate with a public occasion and that on this occasion the meritorious pupils should be rewarded with medals, diplomas, and honorable mentions. At some of the evening schools in Paris it is customary to have such an occasion at the beginning of the term for the announcement of the awards for the term of the preceding year. I was present on one of these occasions which took place in the grand hall of the Trocadéro, which was packed with an interested audience of five or six thousand persons and presided over by a venerable senator and addressed by an eminent member of the Chamber of Deputies.

In some of the States, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts at least, the establishment and maintenance of elementary evening schools are made obligatory in certain cities and towns. In the latter State all towns or cities containing 10,000 inhabitants or upwards are required to make provision for instruction in evening schools in all the branches taught in the elementary day schools, including drawing, the history of the United States, and good behavior; "and such other branches of learning

Since the above was written the Boston school board has, after an unsuccessful experiment, strangely persisted in for many years, abolished the rule excluding teachers of day schools from service in evening schools,

may be taught in such schools as the school committee of the town shall deem expedient;" which means, of course, that the committee may set up evening high schools at the public expense if the funds therefor are provided by the municipal authorities.. This statute is of recent enactment, but its fruit is already beginning to appear. For example the superintendent of public schools of New Bedford1 says:

When, a few weeks since, the new statute was partially applied in the south school, and pupils called for to make up a class in the higher grammar branches, some fifty young men eagerly presented themselves and have attended the sessions of the class very steadily ever since. This proves that there is a thirst for this kind of knowledge among those whom the statute is intended to benefit and that, when our evening schools shall be organized under attractive auspices, we shall have no lack of pupils.

It will be seen that the evening school of this description differs materially in character and function from the kind of elementary school we have been considering, being designed as a means rather of supplementing and continuing the day school course than of merely aiming to give the rudiments of instruction to the illiterate and to persons who may be ranked with the illiterate, and therefore comes more properly within the category of the evening high school.

EVENING HIGH SCHOOLS.

The evening high school is already an institution of no little importance in a number of the larger cities, and it has demonstrated by its results its right to a permanent place in the city systems of public instruction where the population is considerable; while the elementary evening school is most needed where the day school has been least successful in accomplishing its object, immigrant illiteracy left out of the account. On the other hand, the better the advantages of instruction in the day schools, the more completely they have succeeded in giving to all the children a thorough course of elementary instruction, the more the evening high school is in demand and the more largely will it be patronized. This consideration justifies the conclusion that the evening high school is not a temporary expedient, to be dispensed with in a more advanced stage, of public instruction, but that it is an institution which has come to stay and that it has a more important future than can now be easily understood.

Cincinnati was perhaps the first city to incorporate this institution into her system of schools, something like twenty years ago, where it has continued to flourish and bear fruit. The requirements for admission are the same as those for admission to the upper grade of the grammar school course. In St. Louis there has long been an evening high school which is regarded as a preparatory department of the Polytechnic School of Washington University. The New York evening high school is a veritable college on a large scale and is conducted on the

1Mr. H. F. Harrington, in report for 1883.

most liberal plan. The instruction is not confined to a fixed curriculum. The aim is to teach whatever branches the pupils wish to pursue. This school was opened in October, 1866, and has, during its eighteen years of existence, afforded larger opportunities for the acquisition of knowledge than any other school of this class in the country. The branches taught, as reported in 1883, are the following: Latin, history, political science, reading and declamation, English grammar and composition, German, French, Spanish, architectural, mechanical, and freehand drawing, penmanship, phonography, mathematics, arithmetic, bookkeeping, chemistry, anatomy, and physiology. The number of appli cants for admission was about 3,000, of whom 1,655 were found qualified for admission; average attendance, 951; number of instructors, 22. The average age of students was over twenty years. There were 69 students who did not lose a single lesson by absence.

Students who have made satisfactory improvement in their studies and who have not been absent more than fifteen evenings are entitled to certificates and those who have received three annual certificates are entitled to diplomas; 398 certificates and 49 diplomas were awarded at the close of the term.

The evening high school in Boston, which was established about twelve years ago, was uniformly successful until, in the reactionary movement in that city about four years ago, it was deprived of nearly all its high school studies. The result was that most of the pupils deserted it. It has, however, rapidly recovered its lost ground and is now larger and more prosperous than ever. At the present term (October, 1884), before the expiration of the time allowed for enrolment, the principal' reports 1,592 pupils admitted, classified, and in regular attendance, occupying to their full capacity all the school rooms in the vast block comprising the school-houses for the Latin school and the English high school.2

Considering the very large size to which both the New York and Boston evening high schools have grown, the time seems to have arrived when one or more additional schools of similar description should be opened in each of these cities. The convenience to the pupils would be thereby promoted, resulting in an increase of attendance.

These schools have certainly reached if not surpassed the highest limit of numbers allowable with regard to the greatest efficiency.

Brooklyn has taken a step in advance by establishing a second school of this class. As to the utility of the evening high school there seems to be but one opinion where it has been tried. If there is any class of persons for whom a city can afford to furnish free education it is that class of industrious young men and women who have neither the time nor means to attend a day school, but who are willing to devote their evenings to study. For my part I know of no sound argument for the

1 Mr. E. C. Carrigan, a member of the State board of education, who fitted for college in part, in this school.

2 The number has since risen to about two thousand.

maintenance of day high schools which will not hold equally good for the maintenance of evening high schools.

The evening high schools mentioned are confined to large cities; but it may be predicted with tolerable certainty that this kind of school is destined to spread into cities of moderate size, and even into small cities. We find that the city of Lawrence, Mass., with a population of less than forty thousand, has already opened an evening high school. The superintendent (Mr. J. L. Brewster), in his report for 1882, says:

The evening high school meets in room 5, high school house, on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. It numbers eighteen gentlemen and ladies, most of whom have graduated from the grammar schools and wish to take some higher studies. Almost all pursue commercial arithmetic and book-keeping, under the class system; otherwise they take algebra, geometry, or physics, as each individual may require. Mr. Richardson, submaster of our high school, teaches this school.

There is also a flourishing evening high school in Lowell, Mass.

EVENING TECHNICAL SCHOOLS.

The high schools we have been considering are no more technical or industrial schools than the day high schools, although they give instruction in some branches of direct practical utility, such as book-keeping, penmanship, and phonography. But purely technical evening schools are also needed. An interesting and important movement in this direction has been made in Philadelphia. For twelve years or more a school has been carried on for the benefit of artisans engaged in any of the numerous industries for which that city is famed. This school occupies the commodious building of the Central High School, and the models, diagrams, and chemical and philosophical apparatus belonging to that institution are placed at the disposal of the instructors for the illustration of their lectures. The principal and his assistants are members of the faculty of the Central High School. In the principal's (Prof. Z. Hopper) report for 1882, the course of instruction is thus described:

Four classes were formed in the general course, which included geometry, mechanical drawing, arithmetic, mensuration, chemistry, and natural philosophy. One of these classes was composed of men who had been members of the school during the preceding winters, and an advanced course was provided for this class. One class was formed for the study of architectural drawing and another class for the study of chemistry and natural philosophy.

The ages of the students were as follows: 132 of the pupils were from 18 to 21 years of age; 42, from 22 to 25 years; 25, from 26 to 30 years; 21, from 31 to 40 years, and 8 were over 40 years of age. There were 52 occupations represented, of which the carpenters numbered 33 and the machinists 32.

This industrial school is, perhaps, the first representative belonging to our public school system of that large and increasing class of industrial evening schools which are found in the larger towns of Great Britain and continental Europe, of which the free and public evening courses,1

1 See Appendix A for sample program.

conducted under the auspices of the Association polytechnique (France), may perhaps be regarded as the type.

Who can doubt that industrial instruction of this description would be a boon to the artisans in all our important cities?

EVENING DRAWING SCHOOLS.

An act passed by the legislature of Massachusetts in 1870 made it obligatory for all cities and towns containing 10,000 inhabitants and upwards to make provision for giving free instruction in industrial or mechanical drawing to persons over fifteen years of age, either in day or evening schools, and at the same time authorized the towns containing a smaller number of inhabitants to provide such instruction.

By the operation of this law there are at the present time thirty-one cities and towns which are obliged to provide this instruction in indus trial drawing, and this provision is made for the most part, if not universally, in evening drawing schools. Teachers for this department of instruction have been qualified in the State Normal Art School, which was established in 1873. No general report has been made as to the results of this instruction, and therefore information on the subject has to be sought in the school reports of individual cities and towns. The leading facts in regard to this instruction in a few sample cities are here presented. They are taken from such reports as happen to be at hand. Lawrence.-Four schools; 4 teachers; 120 pupils. The schools are as follows: (1) A class in mechanical drawing on Monday and Thursday evenings; this class enrolls 64 members. (2) A class of 24 men in machine drawing; this is known as one of the second year's courses, and the members were prepared for their present work in the mechanical classes of previous years. (3) A free hand class of 24; there are several ladies in this class, and this department of drawing is a new feature in the evening schools and is still somewhat of an experiment. (4) An architectural class of 12 men meets in room 5, high school house, on Monday and Friday evenings. "The interest among the pupils was never better and the work done is excellent."1

Taunton. One school, divided into two sections; 6 teachers; whole number of pupils, 240; average attendance, 174; cost per pupil for tuition and current expenses on average attendance, $6.41. Number in freehand classes, 141; machinery classes, 74; architectural classes, 15; perspective class, 6; modelling class, 15.

Worcester. One school, 5 classes, 5 teachers, 255 pupils. The classes comprise one for beginners and one for advanced pupils in freehand drawing and beginners, and two advanced classes in instrumental drawing. "The pupils of the advanced classes are largely from the classes of previous years; the interest is steady and continuous and the prog

Superintendent J. L. Brewster.