in Iowa City in 1855. A permanent building was provided for the institution at Council Bluffs in 1870. It is free to all mute children between the ages of nine and twenty-five that are sound in mind, free from immoral habits and contagious and offensive diseases. It was first called Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, but the name was changed by the 24th. general assembly. Besides a general education, the trades of printing, shoemaking, carpentering, dressmaking, farming, gardening, drawing and painting, household work, plain sewing, and knitting are taught.

91. The Industrial Schools.—These schools were founded and are maintained for the purpose of reforming juvenile offenders, or those who,. through lack of proper home control, promise to become criminals. The results of the work done by these schools proves beyond a doubt the possibility to reclaim youth and make good citizens, if they are put under proper control. The age of admission to these schools is from eight to sixteen, at the time when their natures are still susceptible to the influence of kindness, moral training, and proper discipline. These reformatory institutions are therefore conducted on an entirely different plan from prisons or penitentiaries, as the length of sentence is indefinite and encourages reform, and the environment created is more beneficial and more hopeful. The State has therefore combined instruction in common school branches, adapted to ages and advancement, with instruction in morality, the center of the training. There are two of these schools under the same board of trustees: one at Eldora for

boys, founded in 1868, and one at Mitchellville for girls, founded in 1872.

The

92. The Institution for the Feebleminded.— Three homes for orphan children, were founded during the War of 1861-65, and maintained by the State until 1876, when, the number of such children having greatly diminished, it was decided to unite these in the present institution at Davenport. This closed the homes at Cedar Falls and Glenwood, which were changed, therefore, into the State Normal School at Cedar Falls, and the Feebleminded Institution at Glenwood. The objects of this institution are to provide special methods of training for children who are deficient in mind, or marked with such peculiarities as to deprive them of the benefits and privileges provided for children with normal faculties. purpose is to make the children as nearly self-supporting as practicable, and to approach as nearly as possible the actions of normal people. It further aims to provide a home for those who are not susceptible to mental culture, relying wholly upon others to supply their simple wants. In the school department, lessons are imparted in the simple elements of instruction taught in public schools, as well as in the industries suited to their capacities. Girls learn plain and fancy sewing and household work, while boys are detailed to work on the farm or in the garden, in the shoe shop, broom shop, or carpenter shop, and assist in the various departments of the institution. Children are admitted between the ages of five and eighteen. After admission, they may be dismissed at the discretion of the board of trustees; or if there are good

reasons why this should not be done, they may remain permanently.

93. The Soldiers' Orphans' Home. This institution was opened for the reception of children July 13, 1864. It was first supported by private contributions, but the eleventh general assembly (1866), assumed control of it, and provided for its management and permanent location at Davenport. In 1876 it became the only home for soldiers' orphans in Iowa, by receiving the children that had been in the State Homes at Cedar Falls and Glenwood. Two classes of children are now received; first, soldiers' orphans entirely at the expense of the State; second, county orphans or indigent children who are sent by counties, the expense being borne by the counties so sending them. The purpose of the Home is educational and industrial. There is a good elementary school maintained the entire school year, and the children also learn to work at common industrial pursuits. The children are placed in good homes as opportunity offers, and they are looked after by officers and recalled. if the agreements are not faithfully carried out. The intention is, to provide for all homeless and indigent children, and not allow them to be sent to county poor houses and other places of detention and degradation. The policy is, therefore, to locate children that are homeless and friendless in good homes as soon as possible, instead of keeping them at the expense of the State. Of the several hundred children usually supported by this institution, about one-fourth are soldiers' orphans, and three-fourths county indigent children.

94. The State Agricultural College.—Iowa early became interested in agricultural education.

Already in 1858, at that memorable assembly when so much progress in public institutions originated, the State Agricultural College was established, including an experimental farm. In 1860, the necessary land was purchased in Story county, and suitable buildings were erected. In 1864 and 1866, appropriations were made to erect a college building, and in 1868 the building was completed and the college opened as the law stated "to advance and conserve the interests of agriculture and the mechanic arts." This movement was encouraged by Congress, July 30, 1862, by making an appropriation to the several States of the Union of an amount of the public lands, equal to 30,000 acres for each of their senators and representatives in Congress, the proceeds of which should be devoted to maintaining a college in which the leading object should be to teach such branches of learning as related to agriculture and the mechanic arts. In August, 1890, a bill for the more complete endowment and support of these colleges, was approved by President Harrison. This bill appropriated $15,000 for the year ending June 30, 1890, and provided for an annual increase of the amount of each appropriation thereafter for ten years by an additional sum of $1,000 over the preceding year; the annual amount thereafter to be paid each State and Territory to be $25,000, the same to be applied only to instruction in agriculture, the mechanic arts, the English language, and the various branches. of mathematical, physical, natural, and economic science, with special reference to their application to

the industries of life and the facilities for such instruction.

95. The State University. This institution is supported by a permanent endowment obtained from a Congressional land grant, by tuition fees, and by biennial appropriations made by the Legislature. It first opened March, 1855, but was closed for lack of funds from 1858 to 1860. In 1860 work was again permanently. resumed. In the beginning the attendance consisted chiefly of students in the normal and preparatory departments, but these departments were long since abolished and, at present, the departments maintained consist of the collegiate, the law, the medical, the homeopathic-medical, the dental, and the pharmaceutical. The permanent endowment is small, because the land grant was compelled by public opinion, and by legislative enactment to be put upon the market at too early a day to realize much of a sum of money. Eighteen thousand acres of the grant were sold at the nominal price of $3.27 an acre and that, at the time, when most of the Government land had been sold at $1.25 an acre, and even as low as eighty-five cents an acre to purchasers with land warrants. Hence the support and development funds of the institution have chiefly come from temporary legislative appropriations. The University is governed by a Board of Regents, consisting of one member from each Congressional district and with ex-officiis members consisting of the Governor and the Superintendent of Public Instruction. The influence of the University on general public education has been marked by the best effects, and the high schools have been greatly encouraged and assisted by