started at the North Bennet street school, pupils coming from the Hancock school. In October of the same year two cooking schools were started simultaneously, each receiving 150 pupils weekly from the public schools. One of these in Tennyson street (Starr King School) was supported by Mrs. Hemenway, and the other was carried on by the North Bennet Street Industrial School.

Mrs. Hemenway supported the Tennyson street school for three years, when, in 1888, its further expense was assumed by the city. The North Bennet Street Cooking School was always largely indebted to Miss Sarah B. Fay, who assumed its entire running expenses from 1887 to 1892, when its support was assumed by the city.

These two kitchens were the first public school kitchens in America. It is to the high standards established by these first two schools, and to the normal classes established later by Mrs. Hemenway, and under the able direction of Miss Homans, that the excellence of the teaching in the school kitchens of Boston is largely due.

In the year 1886 another cooking school was established by private enterprise in Jamaica Plain, and the school board started another in South Boston. The Jamaica Plain school was assumed by the city in 1888.

In 1888 the first experiments were made in Swedish sloid, all previous work with tools in Boston having been based on the Russian course of work. Modifications were at once found necessary in the adaptation of sloid methods to American needs and standards (prominent among which was a satisfactory system of drawing); but the ideas upon which the system is based were found to be so entirely in harmony with those of Froebel as to commend it to the followers of this great teacher, and to decide Mrs. Shaw to offer to the school board opportunities for its study both in children's and in free normal classes taught by Mr. Gustaf Larsson. Three graduates from the school at Nääs were employed by her as teachers, and two new schools started in addition to the one first established in North Bennet street.

So general has been the interest in this new departure that more than a hundred teachers have undertaken the arduous work of the normal classes, while the manifest influence of sloid upon other systems employed here shows how general and how generous has been the recognition of its value.

In the year 1884 a manual training school was opened in the basement of the Latin school, which was carried on for several years; but as the other plans which were being carried on in the other parts of the city were found to be superior, it was closed in 1891.

In the year 1889 the trustees of the Eliot school fund in Jamaica Plain, having experimented with summer schools for some years, of fered free instruction in wood working to the pupils of the public schools, and scholars were received that year from five grammar schools and one high school. In the year 1891 these trustees asked

the privilege of making an experiment by giving a four years' course to the four upper grades of the grammar school, which request was granted, and the experiment is now being made.

This system is based upon the course of Russian manual training as introduced by Dr. Runkle in 1876 in the school of mechanic arts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but has been largely influenced by the modified form of Swedish sloid made by Mr. G. Larsson of the Appleton street primary.

. At present there are thirteen manual training shops distributed throughout the city for the instruction of boys in the grammar school grades.

All of these are now entirely supported by the city, with the exception of the one in the Appleton street primary school, which is still provided for by the liberality of Mrs. Quincy A. Shaw, and the one at Jamaica Plain, where a portion of the salary of the principal is paid by the board of trustees of the Eliot school fund.

Perhaps especial mention should be made of the school in South Boston. It was said a few years ago that only from 16 to 20 scholars could be instructed at one time in this shop work. Others contended that a much larger number could be taught in one class, and it was felt that unless this could be done the system would be too expensive to be practical.

The old church building on E street, South Boston, was leased by the city and 60 benches were placed in the room. It has been found to be perfectly feasible to teach the demonstration lesson to all the 60 pupils at one time, and in all the new schools provision is made for 30 pupils, which is all that can be accommodated with benches in school rooms of the ordinary size.

The school board has not yet decided upon any one plan of manual training for universal use. It seemed wiser to test several plans, all of which have great merit, which are alike in many respects, and yet which have points of difference. After a longer trial it will be possible to combine the best features of all these into one uniform system. For the present all are giving satisfactory educational results. The shops at East Boston, Appleton street, Allston, and Brighton are following substantially the sloid system as modified by Mr. Larsson for American ideas. Those at Roxbury, Dorchester, Jamaica Plain, and West Roxbury are an outgrowth of the Russian system, Americanized by Mr. F. M. Leavitt with the aid of Prof. R. H. Richards, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The school at North Bennet street has a third set of models and a little different plan, the result of several years' experiment by Mr. B. F. Eddy. The fourth plan is the one adopted by Mr. F. W. Kendall, and is being tested in the shop at South Boston.

On account of the great expense by the necessary multiplication of many more shops, it is doubtful if for years to come it will be possible

to give throughout the city shop instruction in more than the second class. But it is thought that practically as good results, educationally considered, can be obtained for boys in the lower grade by work done in the school room, and at a very small expense. The work done this year by several of the schools shows that all that is required is a small tray or board, 19 by 13 inches, with a wooden rim, two triangles, dividers, rule, file, and a knife with a stout handle and a blade one and a half inches long. Very thin board is used, the object to be made being first drawn upon it, and cut out with the knife, and the various parts being finally put together in some simple, permanent form. A full outfit for a room of 56 pupils costs about $40; but as most of this outfit can be used for several classes in the same building, the cost in the larger schools is not over 25 cents each year per pupil. The material used, as wood, glue, etc., will not cost over 15 cents per year for each pupil. The color work that is done by the boys in some of the lower grades in the grammar school, while the girls are sewing, costs for the outfit about 123 cents per scholar, and for the material about 8 cents per year for each pupil.

There are 14 school kitchens where girls receive instruction in cookery. To quote the language of the report:

There have been for several years such schools in different sections of this city, but this year a sufficient number of new ones have been opened to make it possible to teach the scholars in all sections of the city.

The following facts were adduced by Gen. Francis A. Walker in an address delivered before the National Educational Association in 1887 as proof of the educational value of the Boston cooking schools:

No one can spend an hour in the cooking schools of Boston, as they have been maintained, first, through the philanthropic enterprise of Mrs. Hemenway, and afterward at the expense of the city, without being impressed by the very high educational value of the instruction given.

As a great object lesson in chemistry, as a means of promoting care, patience, and foresight, as a study of cause and effect, as a medium of conveying useful information, irrespective altogether of the practical value of the art acquired, the short course, which alone the means at command allowed to be given to each class of girls, has constituted, I do not doubt, the best body of purely educational training which any girl of all those classes ever experienced within the same number of hours.

I will mention but a single point. The very large range in the Tennyson street cooking school was, during the last school year, ready to cook any of the dishes that might be prepared by the pupils, from half past nine in the morning until half past four in the afternoon, for 5 days in the week, for 38 weeks. Fires were made, and the dampers and drafts were controlled by the pupils, under the direction of the teacher. The amount of coal consumed in this time was considerably less than two tons.

Now, if any unhappy householder here present will compare this expenditure of fuel with what takes place in his own kitchen, he can

not fail to be impressed by a sense of the prudence, patience, care, forethought, intelligence, and skill involved in keeping up such a service at so small a cost. If this be not educational, pray what is education? And what is true of this is equally true of all the other exercises in the cooking school, under proper tuition.

In Boston, according to the latest annual report of the school committee, the year 1892 was memorable for the progress made in manual training in all its departments. From this report we transcribe the following instructive passages concerning the widely heralded Mechanic Arts High School:

The city council of 1891 appropriated the sum of $100,000 for a mechanic arts high school. The land was purchased at the corner of Belvidere and Dalton streets at an expense of $40,000, but the balance of the appropriation was not sufficient for the building. The city council of this year have appropriated the further sum of $60,000, and the building is now under contract. It is to be three stories in height, 224 feet long by 90 feet wide.

The basement, besides containing the boiler rooms, etc., will be provided with several hundred lockers to contain the regular clothing of the boys when they are in their working costumes. There will be on the first and second floors several class rooms, each to accommodate 72 pupils, in three sections of 24 each; a machine shop with engine, lathes, planers, etc.; a blacksmith shop with 25 forges and anvils; a moulding shop; a carpenter shop; a finishing room; a wood turning room; a chemical laboratory; a reading room and library.

In the third story there will be a large room to be used both as a gymnasium and an assembly hall. The 25 hours' time of the week will be divided into about 10 hours of shop work, 10 hours of book work, and 5 hours of drawing.

The book work will consist of algebra, geometry, trigonometry, physics, and chemistry. The building will accommodate from 300 to 350 pupils, and it is believed that it will be the most complete building of its kind in the country.

It is expected that it will be ready for occupancy by September 1, 1893; and for the first time in Boston the boy who wishes to enter the industrial world will have the same opportunities given to him for preparation at the public expense as have been given so long to those who wish to prepare for a business or professional life.

At Brookline there is a manual training school, where grammar grade boys and girls take courses in mechanical and free-hand drawing, in carpentry, in cooking, and in sewing. There is also a vacation school for carpentry, during July and August, for boys over twelve years of age, where the work is of a more practical character than in the regu lar school classes.

The girls belonging to the first, second, and third grades in all the grammar schools of Brookline receive instruction in sewing. All kinds of plain sewing are taught, together with cutting and fitting, in the last year of the course. The work is in charge of special teachers.

Cooking has a place in the regular course, the lessons in some of the grades being compulsory. A vacation school is also maintained, for girls over twelve years of age, where cooking is taught.

In regard to the effect of manual training upon the other studies in Brookline schools, Mr. W. H. Lincoln, chairman of the school committee, says, "other branches suffered no detriment; but, on the contrary, the pupils were so benefited by the course in manual training that their proficiency in other studies was greater than it had been in previous years."

The manual training school at Cambridge was founded in 1888 by Mr. Frederick II. Rindge. This is one of the best equipped, as well as one of the most recently established of American manual training schools. It is the result of a careful study of all available information concerning similar institutions in this country and abroad, supplemented by personal inspection of several of the best known schools of its kind. Although the school is supported by private munificence, and the mechanical work is carried on under the direction of a superintendent responsible only to the founder, it is, nevertheless, in its essential features, a part of the public school system. All who take the regular course are enrolled as pupils of the English High School, and their aca demic work is carried on under the direction of that institution.

The school was opened in October 1888, and its first class, fifteen in number, was graduated in June 1891. The membership, January 1, 1892, was as follows: First year, 66; second year, 42; third year, 31; class from Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University, 22; class from engineering department of Tufts College, 11; special students, 20; a total of 192.

These classes of college students are taking the full course of shop work. The instruction is given under the authority of the colleges, and, in each case, is counted as a part of the student's collegiate course.

The three years' course of study, adopted tentatively at the outset, has been considerably modified by experience, and it is now expected that the course will be extended to four years.

From the outset pupils are taught to interpret mechanical drawings and to work from them. All exercises, even those that involve only the most simple operations, are presented to the pupils in the form of blue prints from carefully prepared working drawings. These blue prints are mounted upon heavy cardboard, so that they can be conveniently suspended for reference at each pupil's bench. Full specifications are always given, and no effort is spared to secure the greatest practicable accuracy of execution. All completed work is examined and marked by the instructor with the same care which is given to written tests in other schools.

The aim is to demonstrate the value of manual training as an educational force. Every exercise is chosen with reference to its power to train the eye and the hand, and to develop facility in the use of particular tools. Every task or process is discontinued as soon as the pupil has learned to do it well, and a problem calculated to call forth new power is substituted. The school disclaims any design to teach special