assembly was declared to be "to illustrate the past and present conditions of the various Indian tribes and the progress made by education, and such other matters as will fully illustrate Indian advancement in civilization."

In pursuance of this provision, an army officer who had been acting as Indian agent at one of the near-by reservations was designated to take charge of the 'congress." About 700 Indians, representing 41 tribes, were gathered, and were located on the north tract. They were lodged in "tepees" and "wickiups" of their own construction, and until the close of the exposition were maintained there from the fund named in the appropriation. It was widely advertised that this assemblage would present an opportunity to see the American Indian as a savage, and, as far as possible, primitive conditions were imitated in the encampment, both in dress and in mode of living, though it was apparent that camp life was a novelty to many of the Indians participating. One young Indian came one day to my space in the Government Building and asked to see a certain book of photographs in the Indian Office exhibit. He looked through the book with interest, and finally showed me a photograph of himself. It represented him as standing in front of a neat frame cottage, by the side of a two-horse plow, all his own. In the picture he was clothed in the orthodox civilized garb, but as he stood before me he wore a suit of fringed and beaded buckskin and an elaborate feather bonnet. I asked which of the two was his usual costume, and he replied that he had never worn paint and feathers before, and he only did it then "to show people what it was like." This man had been a Carlisle student, and in the encampment were a number of other pupils and former pupils of the various Government schools. For this occasion, however, they were all "blanket Indians."

From time to time exhibitions were given of primitive dancing, but the sham battles were the great feature of the "congress." As spectacles these were very striking. The performance always began by marching the bands from the different tribes up to the grand stand, where they were introduced to the spectators by an announcer. Then all were massed at the rear of the exhibition space and marched in a solid body over the hundred yards intervening to the grand stand. That march was one of the most impressive scenes of the exposition. The highly colored blankets, the gaudy trappings of the horses, the hideously painted faces and bodies of the men, and the fanciful dress of the women combined to make the sight a memorable one. Such a large number of Indians will probably never be collected in one body again.

At the end of their march across the grounds they dispersed with a volley of musketry and a wild yell, and prepared for the sham battle that was the climax of each entertainment. The "braves" were divided into two parties, and a plan of battle of the familiar dime-novel variety was carried out. The befeathered Indians dashed about the field on their painted ponies, yelling and shouting, now and then ambushing an enemy and depriving him of an artificial scalp lock provided for the occasion, and then, by way of diversion, they would catch a prisoner and burn him at the stake-or, to be more exact, at the electric-light post. The show was very exciting, and the Indians entered into it with the greatest gusto; their own enjoyment was the most entertaining feature.

THE GENERAL EDUCATIONAL DISPLAY.

There was no distinct woman's department at this exposition, as at many of its predecessors, but instead the department of education was confined to a "board of education" composed wholly of women. It was expected that they would have charge of all congresses of philosophic and scientific societies as well as of educational exhibits. The officers of the board were: President, Mrs. Winona Sawyer, Lincoln, Nebr.; vice-presidents. Mrs. Thomas L. Kimball, Omaha; Mrs. Kittie L. Dutton, Hastings, and Mrs. Frank Johnson, Crete; secretary, Mrs. Frances M. Ford, Omaha.

The Boys and Girls' Building was erected by the board of education from funds contributed by school children. This was a small structure, with an audience room as its main feature. A series of lectures on cooking was given here, and was the principal use to which the room was put. On one side of this chamber was a room in which needlework and similar articles were sold, and on the other side was a "model schoolroom," which was not a schoolroom at all, but a room containing the exhibits of several schoolbook and supply concerns. In this buildIng, too, was a crêche for the accommodation of young children whose mothers were seeing the exposition.

The educational exhibits proper were scattered. The Nebraska schools and institutions occupied the gallery of the Manufactures Building; the schools of other States were in the gallery of the Liberal Arts Building, while a few technical schools had their material in the gallery of the Mines and Mining Building. It will be seen that no favoritism was shown. All of these exhibits were put upstairs. The galleries were wide and commodious, and save for their inaccessibility were well suited for the purpose. But that inaccessibility was a serious matter, and the same old story of a paucity of visitors must be repeated, though the gallery exhibits in Omaha did fare somewhat better than those in Atlanta or Nashville.

The most attractive of the educational displays was that of manual training from the Omaha High School. Every afternoon during the latter part of the season the manual training teacher, Mr. J. E. Wigman, was there with a class of boys and carried on the regular work of the school for the benefit of visitors. He had a good equipment of lathes and tools necessary for the simpler kinds of woodwork and parquetry, and the work was confined to that. Mr. Wigman is a practical mechanic and insists upon careful and accurate work from his pupils. Many of the "projects" exhibited, particularly the zithers, checkerboards, and Indian clubs, would have been considered excellent work even as coming from journeymen workmen. In fact, the noticeable accuracy of some of the pieces might have been criticised by those manual-training people who hold that such attention to the finished product is out of place in a school of this kind. But the models used and the different principles taught were those usually found, and it did not appear that anything was lost on the educational side because of the constant thought of good workmanship.

The greater popularity of this exhibit than of those around it was due to its recognition of the facts that all experienced exposition men have observed, namely, that visitors demand exhibits in motion, and that persons as well as things are necessary to a successful exhibit.

The Nebraska school exhibit was installed in a series of alcoves and was almost wholly a wall exhibit of class-room work. The general impression conveyed was that the schools of the State are well taught and by approved methods. It is certain that those who selected the material were well acquainted with modern ideas, and that there is enough work done in the State in accordance with such ideas to make a rather extensive and very satisfactory exhibit. The plan of installation was good without being expensive. The monotonous succession of alcoves containing similar work and presenting the same general appearance, and the undue height at which much of the work was placed, probably came from the necessities of the case. The University of Nebraska occupied the greater part of the west end of the gallery with a well-selected and well-arranged exhibit. Schools for the defective classes and private institutions were allotted space in the south gallery. The collective exhibits of the schools of Missouri, Montana, Oregon, Kansas, and Colorado, and of Los Angeles County, California, were in the gallery of the Liberal Arts Building. None of these exhibits was as extensive as that of Nebraska, and none showed evidence of the expenditure of as much money. The Art Institute of Chicago occupied a small section of this gallery with an exhibit which in

arrangement and material was worthy of the institution. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology was represented by a collection of photographs, designs, etc., in the gallery of the Mines and Mining Building.

One of the features of the educational exhibit was the attention given to exhibits of individual pupils. Gold, silver, and bronze medals were offered for individual work in composition, history, penmanship, drawing, industrial training, and nature study. Exhibitors were divided into six classes, according to age, and prizes were given in each class for all the subjects named.

THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI EDUCATIONAL CONVENTION.

Teachers' conventions in connection with expositions have not often been successful. A crowded city with a single thought-the exposition-is not the place which one would select for the reposeful thought necessary to consideration of weighty questions.

Teachers who come are not in the frame of mind to calmly sit for hours and listen to the reading of solid papers on professional topics. The distractions are too many, and the trend of the surroundings prompt one to active seeing rather than to quiet listening and reflecting. The attendance, therefore, at such conventions in the past has been disappointing. Furthermore, with the public mind fully occupied with one all-absorbing topic it has been difficult to rouse the local interest necessary to a successful convention of more than modest pretensions.

With the full knowledge of all these drawbacks an educational convention was planned early in the history of the exposition. So assiduously and intelligently was it worked up that it is safe to say that in comparison with the extent of the exposition with which it was connected the Trans-Mississippi Educational Convention was the most successful one of the kind that has yet been held. The attendance was satisfactory and the average character of the papers presented was of a high order. The sessions covered three days, June 28, 29, and 30. Those dates were selected because they came just after the close of the schools, before the teachers had gone off on their vacations, and it was reasonable to expect that many might be induced to make Omaha the end of their annual summer trips, and that still others might stop on their way to the National Educational Association in Washington early in July. The result justified these expectations.

The plan of the convention was modeled after that of the National Educational Association meetings. General sessions were held each morning at Boyd's Theater, in the city, and each evening at the Auditorium at the exposition, the entrances of which were so arranged that persons from outside the grounds might attend without passing through the exposition gates. In addition to the general meetings, conferences on special subjects were held in the afternoons at various places in the city. The attendance at some of these was not as great as they deserved, but, on the whole, it was better than could have been reasonably expected. Altogether the convention might be pronounced a distinct success, and that success was due principally to the efforts of the local executive committee, namely: C. G. Pearse, superintendent of city schools, Omaha, chairman; J. M. Gillan, secretary of the board of education, Omaha, secretary; J. H. Dumont, treasurer; W. R. Jackson, State superintendent of public instruction; Victor Rosewater, managing editor Omaha Bee; J. E. Utt, secretary of the Commercial Club.

THE EXHIBIT OF THE BUREAU OF EDUCATION.

The Bureau of Education was originally established for the collection and diffusion of educational information; but it has also been charged by Congress with the administration of the schools of Alaska, and with a limited supervision of the expenditures for land-grant colleges under the Morrill act of 1890. While the first of these is the most important and far-reaching, it is the most difficult to show in an exhibit; the last, while important in itself, is but a small part of the Bureau's

work, and does not require very extensive illustration. The work which relates to Alaska has within it the germs of wide development; but up to this time the school system of Alaska can not be said to be comparable in extent or importance with that of either of the States, or with the other work of the Office itself. Nevertheless, the peculiar conditions of education in that Territory, and its population by races so entirely different in habits, customs, and dress from our own, make the Alaskan side of the Bureau's work peculiarly useful for exhibition purposes. About half of the space allotted to this Office, therefore, was devoted to material illustrating the conditions of life and of education in Alaska, while the remaining half was nearly equally divided between the exhibits of land-grant colleges and the statistical and other material intended to "diffuse educational information" of a general character.

The most conspicuous statistical feature of the exhibit was a large wall chart 4 feet wide and 10 feet high, on which was set forth the progress of education in twenty years in the north central division of the United States. In a series of wing frames, near by, were 40 smaller charts showing educational statistics of a miscellaneous character. These were all done in bright colors, with graphic diagrams in great variety, so that the striking appearance of the charts themselves might attract attention to the statistics presented. Many of the charts were of special local interest, though such as could not be easily prepared except in the Bureau of Education. The local sheets were placed conspicuously, in order to strike the attention of the visitor and lead him to examine the others. Two map cases, on the wall, contained eight maps, which showed the distribution of educational agencies and conditions in the United States. They were devoted, respectively, to public schools, secondary schools, colleges and universities, schools of medicine, of dentistry, and of pharmacy, schools of theology and of law, normal schools, public libraries, and illiteracy. The cases used for these maps, as well as the maps themselves, were those used at the two previous expositions, and have been already described in my reports. The remaining wall space was filled with pictures of historical school punishments and of school buildings. The first series of these comprised 20 water colors, by Mr. Felix E. Mahoney, and illustrated spanking, shaking, horsing, the Eton block, standing on one foot, the dunce cap, the bastinado, etc. The other series were also in water color, and were executed by Mr. Spencer B. Nicholls. They showed the development of school architecture, and included the log cabin school, the interior of the same, a prairie “dugout,” the little red schoolhouse, a city school of thirty years ago, and a modern school building.

A set of the publications of the Bureau was placed in a revolving bookcase in a prominent place, and not only showed to casual visitors the variety and extent of the work of the office, but they were frequently used for reference.

The data intended to be read in the exhibit itself were supplemented by a 10page folder containing facts relating to education, which was gratuitously distributed. The information in this folder was of the sort most likely to be appreciated by general readers, and its distribution was, in my opinion, the most substantial and satisfactory innovation in this exhibit. Eleven thousand five hundred of the circulars were distributed, and though a great many of them were wasted, as might have been expected, I saw repeated evidences of valuable results from the distribution.

The presentation of land-grant colleges consisted of a collection of publications of those institutions and a series of cabinets containing photographs, charts, and drawings illustrating them. There were 12 of the cabinets, and the colleges represented in them were:

The Universities of Arizona, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, Tennessee, and Wyoming; Maryland Agricultural College, Massachusetts Agricultural College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Michigan

Agricultural College, Montana Agricultural College, New Hampshire College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, Rutgers Scientific School, Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, Agricultural College of Utah, Alabama Normal and Industrial College for Colored Students, Southern University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, North Carolina Agricultural and Mechanical College for the Colored Race, South Carolina Agricultural College for Colored Students, Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, and Florida Normal and Industrial College.

As I have said, the Alaskan collection comprised half of the space of the exhibit. In attractiveness and in the number of visitors who were impressed by it, it comprised far more than half. The specimens were collected by Dr. Sheldon Jackson, the general agent of education in Alaska, and a large proportion of them were his own property, which he kindly loaned for the exhibit.

A unique feature of the educational effort in behalf of Alaska is the introduction of reindeer, by means of which it is hoped to transform the natives from a migratory to a pastoral people, and thus make their civilization and education easier. In illustration of this work, a large reindeer with a sled and a lay figure of a native driver were mounted in the most conspicuous position in the exhibit. Near it was a large case containing six lay figures clothed with typical Alaskan costumes, made of fur, fishskin, bird skins, buckskin, etc. Another case showed a collection of birds from Bering Sea mounted on an imitation of Alaskan rocks. A miscellaneous collection of ethnological specimens, consisting of bows, arrows, harpoons, implements, carvings, masks, fish traps, boats, houses, etc., filled four other cases and formed the body of the Alaskan exhibit. The formal work of education was illustrated by photographs of buildings, classes, and teachers, specimens of drawing, penmanship, etc., and by statistics. These articles were shown in wing frames. In the manner of installation, it can not be said that any specially new devices were adopted. Furniture already on hand was used for the statistical charts, the pictures of Alaskan schools, and for the photographs of land-grant colleges. Three of the cases used for Alaskan specimens had been made for previous exhibits and four were made for this occasion, being designed for the special purposes which they served.

I am, sir, very respectfully,

The COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION.

J. C. BOYKIN, Special Agent.