"Industrial Schools" have become the nursery where benevolent women of the first rank in society, as well as men of philanthro py, fortune, and learning, delight to devote much of their time in rescuing the poor and uneducated children from their almost hopeless condition. Fifty years of development had resulted in a more imperative demand for a simpler and better-adapted system of education for the children of the extreme poor. The original work of the Society was similar to that of the Industrial Schools of the present decade.

In the month of May, 1817, the treasurer of the Society acknowledged the receipt of two hundred and fifty dollars from the executor of Mrs. Mary McCrea, to be expended for the clothing of the children. The schools, during their early operation, often suffered in attendance from the fact that the children were not able to find garments suitable for the season, and donations of clothing, shoes, hats, &c., were received by the trustees, for distribution among the pupils. The ladies who assisted in the care of the girls, taught sewing and needlework, and much labor of a useful kind was performed by the pupils in repairing the clothing sent as donations, or making up the goods contributed for the purpose. In 1823, a regulation was adopted assigning three afternoons in the week to sewing exercises.

ADMINISTRATION.

The system early adopted by the trustees, and continued. with a fidelity and diligence which were remarkable, called for a constant supervision of the schools in all the departments of instruction, discipline, and economy. When the number of schools had become sufficiently numerous, the committees on schools were changed in their organization, and the trustees were divided into "sections," who had the special care of their respective schools during the year for which they were appointed. The records attest the uniform fidelity with which this duty was performed. The visits of the trustees to their several charges were made at all hours, and without any notice whatever to the teachers. The industry with which this part of the labor was performed may be estimated from the fact that, during the year ending May 1, 1840, the trustees made 11,844 visits to their schools, and, during the following year, no less than 14,112 visits

were recorded on the books. The controlling principle in the minds of these faithful officers, next to a sense of their duty as "men who must give an account," was a consciousness that they were invested with a grave and momentous trust, which made them responsible to their fellow-citizens for the performance of an honorable stewardship. The men who composed the Society, with few, if any, exceptions, were not those who would abandon their post of duty for trifling considerations, or yield passively to the storms of prejudice or of opposition which might be raised around them for the overthrow of their institution. With a high appreciation of the position they held as the founders of a system of popular instruction designed for the tens of thousands of youth of a great metropolis, their endeavor was, with a single purpose, to extend, advance, and ennoble it with each passing year, in the hope that it would be rendered more massive and more enduring by successive labors, until it should rest upon a basis as broad as humanity and as lasting as time.

ECONOMY.

A characteristic feature of the administration of the Society was the strict economy practised in all the expenditures, whether for teachers, buildings, fuel, or supplies. There is an economy which is often a misnomer, and a blind and pernicious system of penurious calculation may often be productive of more evil than a too liberal outlay. The law universally applied to all the disbursements of the institution was that of a jealous caution over the expenditures. The question invariably asked was, how to secure the greatest result from a given amount of means, and how the benefits should be the most equally and widely distributed. Limited in resources, and with a pressure of demand from every part of the city for the opportunities and facilities of obtaining instruction, the closest calculation was necessary; and, fortunately for the public interests, the school moneys were destined to pass through the hands of men who felt that they were under a high obligation to use them with as much prudence as they would their own. No ambitious pretensions in order to gain popular clamor in their favor, were needed; no contracts to be given to favorites who could exert a political influence; no relatives or friends who could submit estimates which were to

benefit the officers who superintended the work, ever seemed to offer inducements to the trustees to overstep the prudence of men who knew how to conduct their own affairs-many of whom, while they were enriching the city with their labors in the department of public instruction, were also quietly building their own fortunes by the very virtues and habits which enabled them to mould and develop the system which they adorned.

TEACHERS.

In reviewing the history of the Society, the policy pursued toward its teachers may be condemned by many who do not suf ficiently reflect upon its position and its resources. The grade, also, of the schools may, perhaps, be overlooked. Yet it will be seen that, when the resources permitted, the trustees were not insensible to the claims which competent teachers had upon their consideration. The qualifications of teachers, and their duties, are inevitably to be regarded, and a teacher of minor qualifications cannot reasonably expect the same compensation as one who finds all his scholarship and talent called into requisition for the training of advanced pupils. A salary of $600 or $800, and rent, advanced to $800 or $900, or $1,000, was not by any means a contemptible sum, compared even with the larger salaries of the principals of Boston and New York schools at the present time. The amount ordered to be guaranteed to "a teacher from England completely competent to teach on the Lancasterian plan," was $800, his expenses to this country to be paid by the Society. Shepherd Johnson, a former monitor, was appointed teacher of No. 3, at its opening in 1818, at a salary of $500, which was increased, during the same year, to $800. In 1820 and 1821, the teachers of the schools made application for an advance of their rate of compensation, which was denied; but, "in order to equalize the same, the salary of Shepherd Johnson was raised to $900." In 1822, Charles Picton, the English teacher who was duly accredited by the Society in England, and who had, by several years of faithful service, earned the respect and confidence of the Society and the public, had an allowance of $950. A committee on the question of salaries reported a scheme, at the same time, based upon the attendance, so that the compensation should be partly dependent upon the industry and

efficiency of the teachers themselves. The plan proposed that $2 per scholar should be paid for two hundred scholars or less; over two hundred and under six hundred, $1.50 in addition; over six hundred, $1 in addition. By this scale, a school of three hundred pupils would give the teacher a compensation of $550; five hundred pupils, $850, &c. The schools were thus rated:

The salary of Eunice Dean, one of the female teachers, was raised from $250 to $300 per annum.

In 1827, the by-laws were altered so as to limit the salaries to the following rates:

The office of assistant teacher had been abolished in 1817. The system was very materially changed and improved under the important law of 1832. Assistant teachers were to be appointed, and two sections were adopted as a part of the new code of by-laws, fixing the rates of salaries as follows:

The salary of the principal teacher in the boys' schools shall not exceed $1,000; that of the assistant teacher shall not exceed $600; that of the monitor general shall not exceed $200; that of the assistant monitor general shall not exceed $100.

The salary of the mistress in the female school shall not exceed $400; that of the assistant shall not exceed $250; that of the monitors general shall not exceed $100; that of the assistant monitors general shall not exceed $50.

The maximum for the assistant teachers was adopted at $500, but, in 1835, the teachers applied for an increase to $600, and it was made discretionary with the Executive Committee to increase the 'salary of assistants to that sum in cases where they deemed it was deserved.

In 1836, the following tariff was adopted:

Principal teachers, male department, not to exceed
Assistants,

Passed monitor,

and $2.50 for each child over sixty, but the additional

number so allowed for not to exceed thirty.

First monitors of primary schools not to exceed

100

In 1842, the Board of Education was established, and the trustees of the ward schools were enabled to pay salaries much larger than those paid by the Society. This not only induced a spirit of competition and jealousy between the wards themselves, but between the teachers employed by the Society and those in the ward schools. It also tended materially to injure the public schools by the frequent withdrawal of long-experienced teachers from the service of the Society, attracted by the increased, emoluments offered by the ward officers. This evil became so prominent, that, in 1851, a committee was appointed to report upon the whole subject, and Messrs. G. T. Trimble, A. P. Halsey, C. E. Pierson, L. W. Stevens, B. Ellis, W. R. Vermilye, W. H. Neilson, J. B. Collins, and John Davenport, were entrusted with the consideration of all questions relating to the salaries of teachers. The committee reported a scale substantially the same, but providing that, after two years of acceptable service, the assistant male teachers should receive $750 per annum. The other recommendations of the report were of the same character, making a period of faithful service of two or three years the basis of an increase of compensation. This scale of salaries was continued during the existence of the Society.