held in hired rooms, and provided over all one master or mistress with the aid of the more advanced pupils. At the end of its first ten years' experimenting the monitorial system of instruction had come to its inevitable end. But in this exigency the intelligent friends of public education came to the front with the abolition of this method of instruction and especially the establishment of a boys' high school.

In 1839 the commissioners of the public schools were ordered to establish a school where "the higher branches of English and classical literature could be taught." In this way the school successively named the High, the Collegiate High, and the Baltimore City College, was established under the principalship of Mr. Nathaniel C. Brooks. During the following thirty-seven years this school was occupied largely in fighting its way up to a permanent home in spacious buildings next door to Johns Hopkins University in the most conspicuous portion of the city. The school had increased in numbers in 1849 to 232 students with 7 instructors. But for years the 20 school commissioners appointed by the city government in this department made perpetual protests against the loose financial habits of their masters in the city council. Not more than half the money voted for education was collected at all, or, if collected, was turned over to the use of the public schools. As a consequence, the board was under a perpetual burden of debt, and it was not until after incessant protest that the city government was seriously brought up to the idea that the common school was more than an amiable fad of certain eminent gentlemen working in behalf of the lower classes of the city. In 1875 the high school reported an attendance of 425. The boys were admitted at the age of 12 and under circumstances that compelled the policy of dealing with the material not in accordance with a school so named. In 1852 the rush of pupils was so great that the standard of the public grammar schools was raised to prevent the institution from being swamped by incompetents. A reorganization was effected and seven grades of study arranged and the teachers were styled professors. The students were permitted to choose between the English and classical courses, with permission to change within three months. In 1857 Dr. Thomas D. Baird was appointed president of this institution, and he held the position with great success for sixteen years, until his death. Doctor Baird died in 1873. During his administration an effort was made to lift the central high school to the dignity of a college. The name was changed to Baltimore City College. In 1866 a fifth year was added to the course and the former grades in the common school were raised. The successor of Doctor Baird was the professor of mathematics, Mr. William Elliot, jr. He had been in the service of higher education in Baltimore for twenty-three years. Doctor Elliot died in 1890, having held the office of president of the City College for twenty-seven years. For thirty years he had been connected with the schools and had put heart and soul into their development. A small number of the graduates of this school have been utilized in the male contingent of the city school teachers. The English course was dropped and Latin made compulsory in every class, with French and German. In 1894 the faculty consisted of President Soper and 14 professors.

It was one of the accepted claims of Baltimore to educational foresight that within five years after the establishment of the boys' high school there came up one and soon after another similar institution for girls. The establishment of these two free high schools was one of the most popular acts of the leaders of the rising system of common school instruction. They at once were crowded with students and have always been the pride of the city. These schools have always been favored by the city, and one of them was at the time better housed, perhaps, than any similar school in the State. Baltimore was the first American city to introduce this feature of the common school system, a girls' high school. In other cities there had been probably high school grades for girls in the grammar

schools, in the educational and coeducational public high schools, as in New York, for many years, but Baltimore was the leader in establishing a separate department of the system for the secondary schooling of its young women. Soon after the establishment of these schools an attempt was made to meet the exigency of a professional class of teachers by a normal class heid on Saturdays, in which instruction was given largely by a review of previous studies and in some cases professional education supplemented by practice. This Saturday normal class has perpetuated itself in an amateur fashion through varying success and failure. Every city superintendent of schools has urged the establishment of a proper training and practice school for teachers, but for many years there seems to have been an unaccountable prejudice in the city against such an institution. An additional power was given to the girls' high school as an inducement to pedagogical training. The public schools of Baltimore were not free in the sense of the absence of a tuition fee. As late as 1850 a considerable and probably a large number of youth were kept out of school by the variety of reasons which serve as an excuse for such neglect or abuse of parental authority. It must have been from this cause to an appreciable degree that the common school increased so slowly that, in 1848, twenty years after its establishment, there were only 6,339 pupils, 39 male and 52 female schools, supported at the moderate expenditure of $59,459.

In 1849 the district primary school department of the public schools of Baltimore was first established. The schools continued to grow with the natural increase of the city. In 1855 an English course was added to the boys' and a course in modern languages to the girls' high schools. The receipts for tuition amounted to some $25,000, and only $100,000 was accepted from the city. The high schools for girls prospered, and a new building was furnished. Of 11,441 pupils, 8,163 were paying and 3,733 free. The irregular attendance on all the schools was a serious fault. In 1856 18,800 had appeared at the schoolhouse doors, and had been enrolled, while not 10,440 were in regular attendance. In 1857 the expenses of the school board increased to $143,600, $22,000 from tuition fees and only $92,000 being available for the schools. A night school had been established, which for several years continued with varied success-more than once suspended. The Peabody Institute of Baltimore, then in its early years, admitted 50 pupils of the boys' high school free to its lectures, and the Maryland Institute extended the same courtesy to the girls. The streets, according to the charge of the school board, were swarming with vagrant and unschooled children. Of the 20.5 per cent of public moneys appropriated by the city government only 12.5 was collected and passed over to the educational fund. Forty-eight girls of the female high school entered the Saturday normal class. Of the $1,000,000 voted for the expenses of the city government only $567,000 were actually collected, and of the $225,000 assigned to the school fund one-half was lacking.

The general superintendency of the common school system of Baltimore up to 1860 had been required as a special work of the office of treasurer, who, in addition to his laborious function of "making two ends meet" in finance, was expected to visit, inspect, and report concerning the schools of all sorts.

The Rev. S. N. McJilton, who for many years filled the office of treasurer, exerted himself to the uttermost to perform this duty, and in his annual report, really an elaborate lecture, discourses with great directness and with the display of a wide acquaintance with educational affairs. In 1860 Mr. George W. Eaton was president of the city school board. In 1866 the girls' high schools of Baltimore were among the few seminaries of this sort in the country, and one of the buildings was declared the best public school building in the State. George Peabody had been received in the city with great honors by 100,000 people and a procession of 20,000 school children, and Mr. Peabody declared it one of the happiest days of his life." Mr. Peabody had given $500,000 to the Peabody Institute and $1,000,000 to the

city. His educational and charitable bequests, amounting to $12,000,000, were at that time probably the largest sum ever given by one man for the education of the whole people. The establishment of schools for colored people in Baltimore dates from this period. There were 8,000 of school age in the city, and only onehalf had been gathered in schools under white teachers. At first the main support came from an association of benevolent people in Maryland and Pennsylvania, to which the taxes paid by the colored people were added. In a short time the city commenced subsidizing the schools, in which it was followed by the State. The movement was greatly retarded by the difficulty of obtaining teachers, the inconvenience of rented buildings, and the indifference and jealousy of the colored people. The schools were graded, a high school finally supplied, and schoolhouses built; but the city until a recent period has adhered to the policy of placing these schools under white teachers.

In 1868 for the first time the city of Baltimore conformed to the almost universal practice of American cities in the appointment of a superintendent of public instruction. The persistent demand of the school board had finally enforced the necessity of appointing a prominent school man to supervise the schools. Prof. W. N. Crary, of the Baltimore City College, was appointed to the place, and under his energetic and intelligent administration a decided advance was made along the whole line. In 1868 there were 121 schools, with 555 teachers and 23,000 pupils in regular attendance. The system was supported at an expense of $431,000. The new superintendent made heroic attempts to check the evil of sending unprepared children of 12 years of age to the high schools. An assistant superintendent was appointed to lighten the duties of his superior. In 1875 the city government began to build schoolhouses for colored schools, and already it was expending $50,000 annually. President Baird, of the City College, died, and Doctor Elliot was appointed in his place. With a population of 302,874, Baltimore had a school population, 6 to 18 years of age, of 77,737, of whom 39,069 were enrolled and only 23,300 were in average attendance. Three thousand five hundred colored pupils were instructed by 65 white teachers. The death of Doctor Baird was followed a year later by that of Superintendent Crary. This admirable school man was a native of Pennsylvania and had been for thirty years connected with the public schools of Baltimore. His place was supplied by Prof. Henry E. Shepherd, of the City College.

Professor Shepherd was one of the most cultivated and socially attractive of the numerous able and devoted school men who, during the past seventy years, have been connected with the public school system of Baltimore. His ideals of teaching and hatred of sham and pretense in all their varieties, his idea of the importance of thorough supervision of schools, and especially concerning the absurdity of crowding the education of a generation, were all decidedly up-to-date and expressed with very little reserve. The superintendent believed that the classics, history, and English literature were neglected in the City College, and that mathematics, superficial science, and so-called practical studies were taking their place. His administration is a record of an earnest, even consecrated, attempt to elevate the quality of instruction and in all ways the character of school work in Baltimore. His resignation and subsequent career as president of the Charleston, S. C., City College, with a wide reputation as a charming teacher in the summer schools of the North and the abiding respect of all lovers of good education in Baltimore, was a fit testimonial to his work. His resignation came in 1882, and his assistant superintendent, Henry A. Wise, of Virginia, was appointed in his place.

A committee of investigation appointed by the city government to report on the condition of the schools found much to commend and less to condemn than the uniform reports of the school board and superintendent of instruction would indicate. In 1868 the State school tax of 104 mills and the distribution of its avails

through the Commonwealth according to the per capita school population, carried out of Baltimore $152,000 raised by the city for education. It was a credit to the city that under this condition it led the way in the schooling of its colored children at a cost larger than the entire expenditure for its own common schools for twenty years after their establishment and for a time by private subscription until the city government was wakened up to its obligation. The condition that confronted Superintendent Wise when he assumed superintendency of the Baltimore school system was enough to challenge even the fiery temper of his illustrious uncle, Henry A. Wise, of old Virginia fame, whose rousing letter to his own constituency in Accomac County on popular education is one of the most effective educational demonstrations of that generation. Seven years after his appointment the city of Baltimore had a school population of 110,731, from 6 to 21 years of age. Of these, 61,545 had appeared at the doors of the common schools; 16,000 were still attending private schools. According to the best information 30,000 had been in school only three years, and a great army of youthful candidates for barbarism swarmed the streets. Eight hundred and forty-nine thousand dollars was expended in the city, and $152,000 was sent out through the State school-tax levy to build up the cause of the children in the counties. The value of school property in Baltimore was $1,528,900. The graduates of the City College were admitted to the undergraduate classes of Johns Hopkins University without further examination. A fourth year was added to the girls' high school course, especially as a training department for teachers, as the Saturday training school had been dropped. There were 3 primary and 5 grammar courses in the public schools. It was decided to give colored teachers to all the colored schools established after 1888, and $12,000 was appropriated for a new school of 650 pupils. There were 4,000 volumes in the public school library. President Elliot, of the City College, died in 1890, and President F. A. Soper was appointed his successor. Better arrangements for the study of the sciences were in demand. There were 18 colored schools, with 163 teachers, all but 12 white.

The new superintendent directed his efforts at once to the supervision of the grammar schools. Thirty-four per cent of their pupils only reached the fourth grade, 25 per cent the fifth, 18 per cent the sixth, 10 per cent the seventh, 6 per cent the eighth, and 1 per cent entered the high schools. Twenty thousand children in the city had only attended school three years of their life. Superintendent Wise urged constantly upon the city government a movement for the abolition of illiteracy and semibarbarism in the street population and the equally important necessity of a good training school for teachers as the only hope of ridding the schools of the deadwood of incapacity that is the fatal hindrance to more rapid progress. The board of education was not behind the superintendent in urging the claims of industrial education. Sewing was introduced in the girls' schools; and teachers, with a directress, were appointed for its proper management. The kindergarten and supplementary reading circles and associations of teachers and other means and devices for the improvement of the system were perpetually urged. The evil of nonattendance, fostered by a habit of easy transfer of children from one school to another, was noted.

In 1892 the old way of withholding funds from the public schools reappeared in the city government, and a committee of five was appointed by the legislature to examine the financial methods of the city hall in this respect. A call was made for a new building for the City College, the school having again outgrown its accommodation. The study of Latin and Greek was included in the higher grades of the girls' schools. In 1893 the superintendent again publishes the fact of irregular attendance in the senior grades. An effort was made to add cooking and sewing to the industrial department of the girls. An investigation into the matter of corporal punishment showed that 849 cases occurred in 29 schools and

none in the remaining 139. In 1894 the average attendance of the schools was 49,636. The entire expenditure was $1,210,000.

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It is not in the line of this essay to continue the record of the details of the different organizations of the higher or secondary, private, ecclesiastical, or professional education of Baltimore. For an extended view of these departments of education the reader is referred to the excellent " Circular of information" of the Bureau of Education, No. 2, 1894, entitled "History of Education in Maryland," by Dr. Bernard C. Steiner, Ph. D., librarian of the Pratt Public Library. The munificent gift of Mr. Johns Hopkins of $7,000,000 for education in Baltimore was divided between the University of Arts and Sciences and the Johns Hopkins Hospital, $3,500,000 to each. The foundation of the hospital included the building up of a complete course of medical instruction, with a distinguished faculty of 11 professors. Medical science and education have been regarded among the subjects to be taught in the university. The sum of $500,000, needed for the endowment of the medical school, was finally raised by a gift of $306,997 by Miss Garrett, on condition that women should be educated on the same terms as men. For the interesting history of Johns Hopkins University up to 1894 the reader is referred to the circular of information prepared by Doctor Steiner. Next to the Johns Hopkins University the most notable agency of the higher education in Baltimore has been the Woman's College of Baltimore of the Methodist Episcopal Church. It is a memorial of the first appearance of that church in Baltimore in 1784. In 1884, at a conference in Washington, the school was inaugurated and $12,000 given by the clergy in attendance. The sum of $200,000 was collected within the year. The original charter was taken out in 1885. It is under the administration of the Baltimore Annual Conference. Its first benefactor was the Rev. James F. Gordon, whose gift amounted to $200,000, and who became the first president. Other gifts of $100,000 and more followed, and the endowment fund now aggregates $1,160,000. The plan of the institution is a college with a preparatory department. In 1894 it reported 165 college and 184 preparatory students, with 17 professors and 7 instructors.

The State of Maryland from the first has been favored with the residence of the primacy of the Catholic Church, and, with the exception of Missouri, reports the largest number of children and youth in the parochial schools among the original Southern States. In addition to several important schools of the secondary and higher education, the church in 1899 supported a system of parochial schools in Maryland containing 16,485 pupils, all in the Catholic Church with the exception of less than 2,000. The city of Baltimore has 46 parochial schools, with 13,550 pupils.

VIRGINIA.

The educational status of the 11 ex-Confederate Southern States of the Union at the close of the civil war (1865) has never been more accurately described than in the impressive words of the late Dr. J. L. M. Curry, in his History of the Peabody Education Fund, of which he was the agent, in the following words:

At the origin of the Peabody education fund, in 1866, not a single Southern State within the field of its operations had a system of free public schools, and only in a few cities were any such schools to be found. No State organization existed through which this fund could reach the people. The illiteracy of the inhabitants was appalling and by no means was confined to the "freedmen," but included a large per cent of the white population. The legislatures of these States during the period of reconstruction, largely under the influence of members from Northern States, where the common schools had been for years a recognized institution, and of colored representatives who were filled with a laudable ambition for the schooling of the children of their own people, had laid out a work entirely, and sometimes absurdly, beyond the ability of their people to sustain, for the support