without his assistance.

The difficulties of language are so great

that a deaf mute, no matter how intelligent, needs the unremitting care of a competent instructor nearly every moment of the time that he is in school. Deaf mutes cannot study independently and make any respectable progress.

I therefore deem it desirable that the corps of teachers should be strengthened. You are aware that it is composed entirely of those who are laboring under the disadvantage of deafness. I cannot too strongly urge upon you the importance of securing the services of a young man of liberal education, who can hear and speak, and who will receive instruction in the language of signs until he has perfected himself in the art of imparting instruction to the deaf and dumb.

Sufficient pecuniary inducements should be offered to secure a teacher, whose situation will be a permanent one, and not merely a stepping-stone to some other profession.

Permit me also to call your attention to the subject of school-room furniture and apparatus in this department. Hitherto the supply of books seems to have been entirely insufficient. By a recent purchase of 150 volumes from the New York Institution, our present supply is greatly enlarged. We still need suitable desks and seats in nearly every schoolroom, to obviate the disagreeable necessity of having stools brought from the dining-room to the school-rooms at every session, and returned at every meal.

As soon as the rooms now so nearly completed are in readiness, we shall need study-tables and chairs enough to accommodate all our pupils at their evening studies. We shall also need a book-case, where the costly volumes purchased for the blind can be kept from being scattered and torn to pieces.

In the early part of the report I alluded to the fact that during the past year the department for the instruction of the blind was closed. The reason will appear from the following preamble and resolution, passed by the Board at their regular meeting, May 6, 1863:

Whereas, One great object sought to be accomplished in educating pupils at the Michigan Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind, is to enable them to support themselves after leaving the Institution, independent of aid from the public; and,

Whereas, It is necessary in order to enable the blind to support themselves, to teach them some trade or handicraft; and, Whereas, With the present limited means and accommodations as to room, work-shops, &c., it is impossible to teach trades to any of the pupils; therefore,

Resolved, That the Department of the Blind in the Michigan Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind, be suspended from and after the close of the present term, until further action by this Board.

I need not remind you, gentlemen of the Board, that no provision whatever has yet been made for giving instruction in any kind of remunerative labor to either of the unfortunate classes committed to our care.

Permit me to lay before you, with as much accuracy as possible, the duties of our male pupils in the Deaf Mute Department when they are not in school or engaged in study. Three of our largest boys are employed to carry wood into the kitchen, and to assist the women in the kitchen; two more are employed as milkers; four as wood-sawers, and two to assist in the laundry. Besides these, there are others, whose duty it is to sweep the different halls, to scour the knives after meals, to wash the slates in the respective school-rooms, to take care of the stove by which the girls iron, and to sweep the diningroom. After all these duties are provided for, we have over a dozen lads who have no regular employment, simply because there seems to be nothing that is really suitable for them to do. Now the duties performed by these young men could all be done by the proper class of servants at a very small additional expense.

With their regular school duties to attend to, the pupils cannot have many hours daily to devote to labor of any kind, and

in making themselves useful in the manner that I have described to you, they make the State but a very small return for the education she so generously bestows upon them, and at● the expiration of their term of study, they return to their friends no better prepared to engage in any remunerative avo- · cation than they were when they came to us. I deem it, therefore, of the utmost importance, that some arrangement should be made by which these unfortunate children can be prepared to rely upon their own honorable exertions for a livelihood after they leave us. They should not be merely woodsawers and sweepers and kitchen-boys while here, if we expect them ever to attain to anything higher. I would respectfully urge upon you the necessity of organizing shops as soon as possible for the purpose of giving instruction in such trades as shoe-making, tailoring and cabinet-making. At present we are obliged to send every shoe that needs mending to some shoemaker in the city of Flint; whereas, were there a shop in successful operation here, such work could be done without delay, without the trouble of sending once to leave the article, and perhaps twice or three times to get it; nor would it be necessary, as now, to send some one with almost every pupil that is to be measured for a pair of boots or shoes. Our own community would furnish a large amount of work of this description, for which the parents of the pupils would, of course, be charged, as they now are, and thus the enterprise could be made at least partially self-supporting, while the deaf mute apprentice would be prepared to work at the trade in after life.

The same arguments can be urged in favor of a tailor-shop. Garments could be made up by those employed there for the pupils, and the amount charged to their parents or guardians, while the officers of the Institution would be spared the inconvenience of taking a pupil to the city whenever a new garment was needed.

Cabinet-making is a good trade, and an Institution like this

would from time to time find it necessary to purchase such articles as are made in a cabinet-shop.

There are, also, at all times, many little odd jobs about the buildings and premises, that could be done by intelligent youth, possessing some skill in the use of tools, but which, under the present arrangement, can be done only by parties living outside of the Institution, and at more or less expense.

You are to consider, also, that a person trained to use tools in a cabinet shop, could, on leaving the Institution, learn with great ease to do any kind of work in wood; thus the transition from cabinet making to carpentry would be comparatively

easy.

There are other trades that might be introduced with decided benefit to the Deaf and Dumb, but these three seem to me especially adapted to their wants, and with judicious management they would be at least partially self-supporting, and if they were not, that is no reason for withholding them, for there is no department of instruction that is or can be fully self-supporting.

The blind have equal claims upon you for instruction in some department of labor. Indeed, I know not but a stronger appeal can be made in their behalf. By reason of their infirmity, when not engaged in school, they have no employment but to grope about as they best can; to gather together in groups and spend their time in gossip and mere amusement, or to sit down in the solitude of eternal darkness and brood over their hopeless deprivation.

It is sad to hear them pleading for something to do; and I trust that at no distant time, their willing hands will be furnished with some useful employment. The mischief that is done in the world is usually done by idle hands, and the true way to prevent mischief is to furnish work.

Allow me next to call your attention to the provision that is made by the respective counties for clothing their indigent pupils. We have in our Institution, a number of pupils who are in destitute circumstances. Some of them are friendless

orphans, and some are worse off than orphans, by reason of the vicious habits of their parents. For the clothing of such, the counties in which they live allow the sum of $20 per annum. This sum was never more than enough to purchase the entire stock of clothing of a pupil for one whole year. At the present prices of all kinds of goods, it is utterly insufficient to procure comfortable clothing. Permit me to ask you if it cannot be increased to forty dollars.

The parents of the pu

One subject more and I have done. pils very properly look with some solicitude upon the arrangements that are made here for the health and comfort of their children. They expect them to be under the care of some one who will watch over them tenderly in sickness, and be mindful of their wants in health; and these duties are faithfully discharged by, Mrs. S. M. James, the newly appointed Matron.

There is, however, room for improvement in the arrangements for the comfort of the pupils. The accommodations in the dormitories are far from satisfactory. The beds are all narrow; and yet with our present number, we are obliged to put two pupils in each. Apart from the discomfort of such an arrangement, there are grave objections to it, and these are of such a character as to be sufficiently obvious without minute elucidation. The supply of bed clothing is insufficient. Much of it has been in use for several years, and it is not possible for it to be of any service much longer. Something has already been done recently towards supplying the deficiency, but we still need a considerable addition to the wardrobe of the dormitory, in order to make our pupils comfortable during the winter.

In concluding this report, permit me, gentlemen, to thank you for your kind coöperation in whatever I have endeavored to do for these pupils, since assuming the duties of the position to which you have appointed me.

Respectfully submitted,

EGBERT L. BANGS, Principal.