inmates Dec. 31, 1873, 141. The female department of this house of refuge was opened in 1872. The result of this enterprise has exceeded the most sanguine expectations: already 28 girls have been admitted. The success with these girls has amply repaid the cost of the very great care, trouble, and anxiety they have given. Massachusetts State Reform-School. - Takes boys only, from 7 to 17 years of age. Maine State Reform-School. All boys; fully one-third of whom, it is found, can be trusted, although many very hardened characters are among them. Michigan State Reform-School. -Takes only boys, from the age of 10 to 16 years. It is found that, oftentimes, the age of 10 is too late, many children requiring reformatory training earlier than this. New-Hampshire Reform-School. -Whole number of boys, 139; 47 of whom have been admitted during the year. A few girls are about 20,- while there are 100 boys. here, At present 200 New-Jersey Reform-School. Was established in 1867; since then 534 boys have been in its care and control. boys are in training at this school. - This institution Western House of Refuge, Rochester, N. Y. was opened in 1849, and since that time 3,892 boys have been admitted, up to 1875. A girls' department has been since added. New-York House of Refuge. At the opening of this institu tion in 1825, there were 9 inmates, -6 girls and 3 boys. There have been received since that time, 15,689 inmates. The ratio of boys to girls is about 5 to 1. The whole number of boys in 1875 was 666; girls, 116,- total, 782. New-York Catholic Protectory. - This institution receives children of both sexes, from the age of 7 to 16 years; not only juvenile offenders of all grades, but vagrant and homeless children too. There are in charge of the female department, 9 sisters of charity. The number of girls here for some years has averaged 600; of boys, 1400. New-York Juvenile Asylum, New-York City. - The children here belong mainly to the delinquent class: their average number, girls and boys, is about 600. It maintains a branch at Normal, Ill., from which large numbers are placed in Western homes, and their welfare looked after by a competent agent. Cincinnati House of Refuge. — This institution has been estab lished about twenty-five years. It is a place where overreached and tempted children may find a refuge from temptation. The boys' department contains 112 dormitories, a bath-room 50 by 12 feet, and 26 dressing-rooms. The girls' department contains 22 dormitories, two sewing-rooms, one school-room, one ironing-room, and one drying-room. The Ohio Reform-School for Boys. This noble and cherished institution, the just pride of the great commonwealth, began its course of usefulness as a very humble experiment, in January, 1858. At the last Report, 1,822 boys had been received into the school, 1,379 had been discharged, and 443 were enjoying its advantages. It has a farm at Lancaster of 1,170 acres. The buildings, yards, lawns, and play-grounds, occupy 20 acres, with eight family-houses, each accommodating from 50 to 60 boys. There are no girls in this institution. Pennsylvania House of Refuge, Philadelphia. On the first of January, 1874, there were 566 inmates in this house; viz., 362 white boys, 77 white girls, 90 colored boys, and 37 colored girls. Western Pennsylvania Reform-School. - This institution was founded twenty years ago. It has had under its charge the last year 303 boys and 104 girls. The large boys have earned in the workshop $4,604.87; the small boys knit; and the girls do all the cooking, washing, ironing, tailoring, and sewing for the family. - The Michigan State Public School, Coldwater. Mr. Randall says in his interesting report, that this institution was opened May 21, 1874. It was established, and is maintained, by the State, for those children who without it would have no home except such as private charity or the county poorhouse might provide. In this home the State becomes the guardian of such children during minority, maintaining and educating them until a family home. can be found, when the child is still under the supervision of the State. Since the school was opened, there have been admitted 509 children. At the present time, there are in the school 203 boys and 49 girls. Cost per capita for average attendance of 264 children, $117.18 per annum. Wisconsin Industrial School for Girls, Milwaukee. Taking a small number of young boys. This school was organized in 1875, and had, in November, 1878, 160 pupils: 25 have been placed in homes, seven apprenticed, and eighteen adopted. The noble, Christian women who have worked so faithfully to establish this charity feel that the three years of unceasing effort have been crowned with success. So confident was the State of the efficacy of the school, and the need of such an institution for the elevation of the neglected, wicked, and degraded girls, that they appropriated, for the purpose of erecting a building away from the heart of the city, the sum of $15,000. The city of Milwaukee gave eight acres of land, valued at $20,000, thereby showing its appreciation of the service done to the community by the removal of abject poverty and youthful vice from their midst. A blessing, says their Secretary in her report, for which society is so grateful that neither the community nor the State can afford to permit us to lessen our endeavors. The Board, while expressing their gratitude to the State, cannot refrain from reminding the legislature, that, while it has given more than one million and a quarter dollars for the reformation and support of dependent boys, it has appropriated only sixteen thousand dollars for the reclamation and maintenance of the girls of the same class. This institution was begun as a private charity, and at first received public aid by each county committing a child paying a stated sum toward its support. Mrs. W. P. Lynde of Milwaukee, the first woman who ever served on a State Board of Charities, through that experience and observation became convinced of the need of such an institution. She was the originator, and is still the honored head, of the Association. The Industrial School for Girls at Dorchester, Mass., was the first institution of this class in the United States, devoted entirely to the care of dependent girls; and a most noble work it has accomplished. This institution received its first inmates twentythree years ago. It is a private charity. It reports great success in training the girls intrusted to its care in all kinds of household industries, also in giving them a certain amount of instruction in the common English branches. Each girl has a special guardian appointed from among the managers, who watches over her till she becomes of age, and thus the work extends far beyond the school, and an opportunity is afforded of estimating the value of this effort. The Maryland Industrial School (for girls alone) is near Baltimore. The object of this school is not punishment, but prevention. Its aim is not simply to restrain from evil, but to educate the mind and heart, and to train the hands, that the inmates may acquire moral and industrious habits. Homes are procured for all as soon as they become sufficiently trusty. There are thirty-one girls in the school,—all it could accommodate; and they are com mitted at any age under eighteen years, and can remain till twenty-one. Connecticut Industrial School (for girls alone) was incorporated in January, 1870. The report gives as the whole number of girls received since opening, 298. This school is not a State institution, but a private charity, incorporated and employed by the State for the custody, guardianship, discipline, and instruction, of its dependent girls. For each girl committed to its care by legal process, the State pays $156 a year, being the same amount that it pays for prisoners in the county jails. The system of discipline and education is especially adapted to the condition and wants of girls. The officers report that the experience of this school has fully demonstrated that its discipline has, in most cases, effected a salutary change in the character and conduct of the inmates. It has shown that at least 75 per cent of the girls may be expected to become virtuous and respectable women, remembering the school in after years with grateful affection. Especially they say that the guardianship and control of the school, which has terminated at eighteen, will be extended to twenty-one years; giving the experience of the school as showing that the want of this guardianship and control has proved to be the most frequent cause of failure in the work. It is given as the opinion of those most experience i, that nearly all the girls may be saved now this change is made, but that without it many who have done well at the school, and desired and promised to do well, were insnared and ruined upon leaving it. Illinois Industrial School (for girls only). This institution is at South Evanston, twelve miles from this city, temporarily occupying the beautiful building and grounds formerly known as the Soldiers' Home. This institution is a private charity, started by a few earnest women, who had been pained to find there was no home, no school, or place of refuge for the dependent, orphaned and friendless girls of the State, who were constantly surrounded by the worst of temptations, a large number of whom they were sure would go to ruin if not protected and cared for. In November, 1877, these women were able, through Divine Providence, with no money in their treasury, but great faith, to open the school, and have gone steadily on in their effort until they have demonstrated the feasibility and need of such an institution. The first and leading principle of this school, is the entire separation of the dependent child from evil surroundings, even from criminal children as well as criminal adults. It is the object of this school to provide a temporary home for the poor girls who are homeless; and their being homeless and friendless is all that is required to secure to them its advantages. It also has the merciful intent to find permanent homes for these destitute children. There have been received into this school since Nov. 1, 1877, fifty girls ages averaging from four to seventeen years. There have been many applications which we were obliged to refuse for want of capacity to accommodate, or means to support; and it has been with aching hearts that the managers have had to refuse to take many who needed immediate attention. Last winter a bill was introduced in the legislature, asking the State to authorize the establishment of industrial schools for girls: the dependent girls to be committed to the schools by legal process, that each county sending a child to this school should contribute the sum of ten dollars a month toward its support and education. I am happy to be able to announce that the bill was passed, and is now a law. Also, one member of the Board is to be appointed guardian to each child, whose care and watchfulness over her shall continue even after she has gone into a home elsewhere, and until the girl becomes of age, eighteen years. There was also an effort made to continue this guardianship till the girl became twenty-one ; as it seemed to the experienced mothers and thoughtful fathers of this association, that the most dangerous age in a young girl's life is, perhaps, between the ages of seventeen and twenty-one years. Allow me once more to direct your attention particularly to this subject, as it seems to me of great importance. Permit me to ask, is there a father here who would be willing that his daughter 'should go out into the world at the age of eighteen years, with no home, no natural protector, entirely without care or control, amid the thousand snares and temptations that beset the young and unwary? Why should girls be left uncontrolled and without guardianship three years earlier than boys? Is the girl's judgment more mature? her character more fully formed? Is she less likely to meet temptation, or stronger to resist it? In this school, whose inmates number, at the present time, thirty-five pupils, — all we are able to accommodate, we have had many interesting experiences. The improvement and advancement of the children have been wonderful, far exceeding our most sanguine expectations; filling our hearts with thankfulness that we should be the humble means of |