lege work with one professor and three tutors. There was a chair, as we say, of mathematics and natural philosophy; but none of Latin, none of Greek, none of natural science, none of rhetoric and English literature, none of political science. The president, with Prof. Josiah Meigs and Tutors Stebbins, Sherman, and Atwater, constituted the college faculty. There was no linguistic professor there till 1805, when James L. Kingsley was elected professor of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. There was no separate professor of Greek till 1831.

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The history of Harvard is similar. Besides the president there was in 1800, when Harvard was in the last half of her second century, but one professor whose duties were in what we should call the college department: Samuel Weber, professor of mathematics and natural philosophy. There was no professor of Latin or Greek till 1811. Williams College, which began its work in 1793, started with president and one tutor. There was not even a professor of mathematics and natural philosophy for 13 years, and none of the classics for 22 years. And there was but one chair for the two ancient languages till 1853. The college laws, 1795, make no mention of professors. The president and tutors are the teachers and executive body.

This glance at the early work of some of our colleges of highest repute shows that almost all their instruction was at first by tutors instead of professors. Often these tutors began their teaching immediately after their own graduation. The difference between permanent and temporary instructors was the same then as now, and it was a great improvement in a college when students received their instruction from permanent professors. At Marietta there has been no occasion for this change, as nearly all the instruction has been professorial from the beginning. In the first catalogue issued every study now thought essential to a liberal education is enumerated. Even the German is not omitted; and through almost the whole history of the college German has been studied, either as required or optional. Political science has also had a prominent place. Complaint is often made that in many colleges little or no attention has been given to studies of a governmental and economic character. Whatever may be true of other colleges, Marietta is certainly not open to this charge. These branches have always been taught here, and for the last quarter of a century they have been made specially prominent.

The best course of study, however, requires efficient trustees and able instructors. Without these, no institution will do educational work of a high grade.

The two charters of December, 1832. and February, 1835, contain the names of the same nine gentlemen. The resignation of Arius Nye, esq., was accepted in March, 1835, and Mr. John Crawford seems not to have acted after 1834. Of the other seven, Dr. John Cotton was a graduate of Harvard and Rev. L. G. Bingham of Middlebury. Mr. Douglas Putnam had finished his junior year at Yale, and Dr. Jonas Moore had been through the first three years at Dartmouth. Col. John Mills and Mr. Anselm T. Nye-both natives of Marietta, as also Mr. Putnam-had enjoyed the advantages of the good schools of Marietta, and had received some classical instruction. Caleb Emerson, esq., who had come to Marietta in early manhood, had an insatiable thirst for knowledge, and taught himself Latin, so that he was able to teach his children. All these were men of mark. They had strong individual characteristics, but they labored together with great harmony to establish the college which they loved. They were all earnest Christian men, and desired to build up an institution where high intellectual culture might be blended with earnest sincere piety. They represented three denominations of Christians, but as trustees they knew no lines. In 1838 Rev. Addison Kingsbury, educated at Amherst and Andover, was elected a member, but there was no other addition to the board till 1845.

Of these early trustees, only two survive: Mr. Douglas Putnam, one of the founders, and Rev. Dr. Addison Kingsbury, a member since 1838.

In 1845 an amendment to the charter was secured, authorizing a large number of trustees. Since that time 39 gentlemen have been elected. Seventeen of them have been clergymen and 22 laymen. Eight have been connected with the college as students. Fourteen of the 39 have died, and 18 are now members of the board. In

cluding the 3 presidents, who are members ex officio of the board of trustees, there have been just 50 members; a half century of years and a half century of trustees. Eleven of the trustees have been the descendants of the men who founded Ohio and the northwest through the settlement made by the Ohio Company, and others have been connected with the early settlers by marriage.

Fifty years ago it was a rare thing, even in the oldest institutions, for a professor to go abroad to improve himself by foreign study. But Marietta in her very infancy gave leave of absence to Professor Smith for this purpose. In December, 1834, the trustees passed a resolution that Mr. Smith have leave of absence, with a continuance of salary, from and after the 1st of July, 1835, to the 1st of November, 1836, for the purpose of study.

It will be seen that this arrangement was made while the institution was yet a collegiate institute. The full college charter had not yet been obtained; though steps were taken at that meeting for securing it. Stronger proof could hardly be given of the desire and purpose of the trustees of this young institution to make it a place where young men could have the highest advantages of liberal culture. That the purpose to have well qualified professors is still operative appears from the fact that of the six who have been elected here within the last 12 years, five studied abroad after graduating, and the sixth had devoted 4 years to post-graduate study in Johns Hopkins University. Four of the six have received the degree of doctor of philosophy, on examination, from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Johns Hopkins.

There have been in all twenty-one professors, including the first president, not including the first principal of the academy. These were graduated as follows: Three from Middlebury college; three from Dartmouth; two, Williams; two, Amherst; two, Yale; one, Harvard; one, Princeton; one, Iowa; one, Beloit; and five, Marietta. Besides those educated at our own college, thirteen were from New England colleges, two from western colleges established on the model of the New England colleges, and one from the old College of New Jersey.

The statements now made concern the completeness of the course of study and the character and fitness of those constituting the boards of trust and instruction. In order to know what the college has accomplished in its first half century the inquiry must reach the number of students who have here been educated.

The first class was graduated in 1838, and the number of classes, including that of the present year, is 48. The total number of graduates is 566. All but 24 of this number have received the degree of bachelor of arts, having completed the course of study prescribed in the best colleges of the country. Ten have pursued the course in which German and other studies are substituted for the Greek, and 14 have taken the scientific course, which has now been given up. Five hundred and sixty-six graduates in 48 classes gives a yearly average of a small fraction less than 12. To some this annual average and this total for 48 years will seem small. Those who are not familiar with higher education and its statistics, especially in the West and South, think large colleges are the rule and small ones the exception. They read in papers of the number of students in attendance at various colleges and suppose them all to be members of the 4 regular classes-candidates for the first degree in the arts or a kindred degree. For some colleges the supposition would be correct; for many it would be incorrect. To find the number of college students proper you must take one-fifth or it may be one-tenth of the number reported in the newspapers.

The number of colleges in the United States graduating large classes year by year is very small. They can almost be counted on one's fingers. According to the last report of the United States Commissioner of Education, 46 -per cent. of the colleges reporting the number of students in attendance have senior classes, in the classical course, numbering five and under. And 624 per cent. have senior classes of ten aud under. In all the colleges reporting, the average number in the senior class (classical) is eleven. Deduct ten of the largest colleges and the average seuior class of the remainder is only eight; deduct twenty colleges and the others average senior classes of seven.

The number of graduates in a given period is a much better criterion of the work accomplished by an institution than the total number in attendance. A college is established to secure a specific result. Students resort to it to receive a certain amount of culture and discipline, which is tested by examinations and indicated by the testimonial of the college. When the inquiry, then, concerns the amount of work done by an institution in 25, or 50 or a 100 years, it is equivalent to asking what has been its contribution to the number of liberally educated men. The question is not as to the number on the catalogue; not how many have been in attendance a few months, or a year, or two years, but as to the number who have completed to the satisfaction of competent judges the work necessary for a degree. To say of a college that it has given instruction to so many hundreds, in a given number of years, or thousands it may be, while it has graduated but a small fraction of those who have been enrolled in its regular classes, is not quite the language of commendation. The inquiry at once suggests itself, what has become of the large fraction who did not complete the course?

What proportion of the students that are matriculated in the colleges of the country from year to year remain till their graduation, there is no means of knowing from published documents. The probability is that the number of graduates, taking all the colleges, is much less than half the number that enter. The only college, so far as I know, whose general catalogue contains the names of all the members of the several classes, as well as the graduates, is Williams. In that institution for the 60 years, from 1820 to 1880, a little less than 64 per cent. of the matriculates have finished the course. The statistics of Marietta give a ratio approximately the same; the graduates in her forty-eight classes being a little more than 63 per cent. of the number matriculated.

As the course of study occupies 4 years, and the catalogue gives the members of the four classes, if a class during its course of 4 years suffered no diminution the number of graduates for a series of years would average one-fourth of the number on the catalogue for the same time. But losses will occur through death, sickness, poverty, etc., and if the graduates average one-fifth of the names on the catalogue, the record is a good one. Taking the forty-eight catalogues of Marietta the number of graduates is a little more than one-fifth the number enrolled on the catalogues. This permanence of students in a college may be expressed also by comparing the number of seniors with the number of freshmen for a series of years. For our whole history the seniors have been to the freshmen as 70 to 100. In some instances, a class has numbered more at the close of the senior year than at the beginning of the freshmen.

Including that of the present year the number of classes graduated, as already stated, is 48 and the total number of graduates is 566, giving an annual average of 12, nearly. Harvard College in its first 48 classes numbered 301 graduates; and its annual average did not reach the number ten till it had sent out 82 classes; and to reach an average of twelve required 88 years. Cornell University gives the first degree in the arts to six students the present year, and Washington and Lee University conferred but a single college degree the last year.

Our first class of graduates numbered 4, and there has been one other class of 4. There have been three classes of 22 each. There have been fluctuations here as elsewhere. Most colleges have had classes of three, two, one. Four is our smallest class. Many institutions have occasional blanks in their early history. The forty-seventh class at Harvard numbered eleven; the next year was a blank, there being no graduates. Marietta has been fortunate in escaping the loss of an entire class. A small class one year does not imply a succession of small classes. In 1868 the number of graduates was a small one, as our record shows. But in the 10 years following there were more graduates than in any other 10 years in our history. And 3 years after the graduation of that small class there was a larger number admitted than in any other year.

While thus looking at the succession of individual years, there have been fluctuations in attendance and in the number of graduates, there has been steady progress if we regard the decades of years. In the first 9 years, covering the number of classes in the administration of the first president, the number of graduates was 85. In the 9 years of the second administration the number was 93. In the first 10 years of the third administration there were 109 graduates; in the second decade, 128 and in the third, 151. Thus each period shows an advance over the one preceding it, the gain of the fifth over the fourth, however, being much the largest of all. The last decade shows also a higher degree of permanence than either of the preceding decades. The annual average of graduates for the whole period being a fraction over 20 per cent. of the number on the catalogue, the average for the last 10 years is 23 per cent.

It is not strange that the friends of an institution should desire for it large classes. This is an indication of prosperity obvious enough to the most simple. But, as a test of excellence, it is by no means trustworthy. The desire for large numbers is a temptation to make the terms of admission too easy; to adapt the requirements to the attainments or lack of attainments of the candidate. The hospitality so characteristic of Western homes is worthy of all commendation, but the hospitality of a college, which is open to all comers, regardless of their fituess, does not commend itself. Unfortunately, the ambition to secure students is not limited to the West, or to institutions still young. Some of the oldest and richest colleges in the country seem to be as eager in the race for numerical supremacy as rival cities in the strife for growth in population. Western colleges that aim to do genuine and thorough work are thus exposed to a double embarrassment; obliged on the one hand to meet the strong desire for numbers manifested by colleges and universities that think more of the name than the reality, and, on the other, to encounter the strenuous efforts for patronage put forth by institutions of long standing and high repute that might better rely upon the prestige which comes from large endowments and historic fame.

If we look at the highest educational good of the student, the small college, other things being equal, has indeed the advantage. The method of instruction at the United States Military Academy, where the number in the recitation room is always very small, is unquestionably the best for the pupil. And one of the chief arguments for the elective system is that classes would be divided into sections, and thus the instructors would be enabled to do their work more efficiently. Taking the whole period of our history, the average number in the class room has been about fifteen. It can hardly be doubted that more improvement has been made, a better education secured, than if the number had been twice as great. With thirty in a class two sections would be necessary, and that would require an increase of instructors. That hitherto the number of teachers in our larger colleges has not kept pace with the increase in the number of students can not be questioned, and in this respect, therefore, the character of their work has not improved. The evil of large numbers in a recitation room is obvious enough when those reciting together are of the same grade; it becomes much more serious when a portion of the students are two or three years behind the others in discipline and attainments. If the friends of Marietta are desirous that the classes should be larger, they must remember that this renders imperative a corresponding increase of endowment, if the same standard of excellence be maintained.

The graduates of Marietta are distributed among the various professions and occnpations as follows: 34 per cent. are clergymen; 28 per cent. business men; 17 per cent. lawyers: 8 per cent. physicians; 8 per cent. professors and other teachers; 5 per cent. all others. The proportion of business men is large, but this is no cause of regret. It is rare now to find an intelligent man holding the opinion that the cost in time and money of a liberal education is thrown away if the graduate does not enter one of the learned professions. The great business enterprises of our times are demanding men of the best intellectual training as well as of high natural capacity.

Eighty-six of our alumni are the sons of clergymeu. In a large number of cases there have been two or more graduates from the same family. One hundred and sixty-eight of the 566 alumni are in groups of two, three, and four brothers in the same household. Three families have sent four sons each, fourteen have sent three, and fifty-seven have sent two. Twenty-eight have received degrees whose fathers were students before them. It may also be added that 120 of the graduates are the descendants of the early settlers, representing sixty of the pioneers.

FINANCIAL HISTORY OF THE COLLEGE.

The enterprise was entered on in the firm belief that such an institution was needed, and the movement was made by men who were willing to show their faith by their works. The first efforts to raise funds was made here in March, 1833. Something more than $8,000 was raised, of which the seven trustees gave about half. The trustees assessed each other. Many citizens of Marietta and vicinity have given often and largely according to their ability, and the aggregate amount contributed by those who have lived here, including bequests, probably exceeds $280,000. The first efforts at the East were made by Rev. Mr. Bingham, one of the trustees, and by Professors Allen and Jewett. Among the largest early donors at the East were Samuel Train, esq., of Medford, Mass., and Hon. Thomas W. Williams, of New London, Conn.

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Very little expenditure for agency work has been made during the last 30 years. What has been done in a financial way has been chiefly by the president in vacation and by correspondence. There has been no absence in term time to interfere with his regular work of instruction.

Since the present year began another bequest has been left to the college by Mr. Cornelius B. Erwin, of New Britain, Conn. He has left $15,000 to endow ten scholarships, and $15,000 for the general purposes of the college. This institution is also one of five residuary legatees. It is estimated by those acquainted with the value of the estate that this residuary portion will much exceed the direct bequest. Mr. Erwin began to give to Marietta College many years ago, his first gifts being to aid young men in the payment of tuition. Very soon he signified his purpose to provide in his will for five scholarships of $1,000 each. The idea of helping young men remained with him, though he increased the sum and made the basis more liberal to the college.

It should be noticed that this bequest of Mr. Erwin, which promises to be much the largest the college has received, comes from one whose early advantages were very limited, while he greatly desired an education. He determined to use a portion of that wealth which God had given him to help young men to obtain that which he wanted but could not secure-a liberal education.

Besides these large bequests others are known to exist in the wills of living persons; and such additions to the funds of the college may be confidently expected from the alumni and others. The financial outlook is full of encouragement. The large wealth of the old colleges comes from recent gifts. Yale College was 150 years old before its endowment for general purposes had reached $140,000. In 1864 the funds of Williams College for all purposes amounted to but $90,000. Thirty years ago Princeton was virtually without endowment. In 1862 the estimated value of our whole property was $77,000. Aside from the residual bequest of Mr. Erwin, the net resources of Marietta are now nearly five times that amount. Thus, in financial matters as in other things, the fifth decade of the college has been the most prosperous in its history.'

1 It is an interesting fact that Dr. Andrews, the author of this sketch, left by will one-half of his estate to the college. A gift of $50,000 by direct bequest from the estate of Mr. Fayerweather, of New York, has been supplemented by a like amount from his executors. Also a large number of scholarships have been endowed by friends of the college.