To these questions the superintendents of the several institutions have replied. as follows:

Superintendent Hatch, of Colorado: (a) No data. (b) No changes.

Superintendent Howe, of Connecticut: (a) The cottage stystem admits of any desirable classification. The natural classification is not by age. The natural family is composed of children of all ages. One or two boys or girls ("deeply tainted with vice and crime”) can safely be placed in a family of good boys or girls and thereby be cured by the contact. Nothing is so efficacious in converting the wayward as to make them feel that they are a part of good society. (b) The cottage system has been adopted and carried into effect in Connecticut within the last twelve years.

Superintendent Haines, of Delaware: (a) I consider it very desirable to separate those more deeply tainted with crime from the other inmates and think that the cottage system answers the purpose to a certain degree. (b) No change. Superintendent Shallenberger, of the District of Columbia: Ours is the cottage or family system and consists of three separate divisions. The separation consists in a division of the older from the younger boys. In each family there are two school grades. Out of school session the family is a unit for both work and play. Each family has two dormitories, one for the older and one for the younger boys. Classification other than this, in my judgment, is not important enough to justify the additional expense attending further or special separation. (b) Several years since another, the third, family was organized and placed in our new building. This made it possible to secure a separtion of our older from the younger boys-as indicated under (a) above. This has been a decided improvement, although our families are still too large. With another building we could make the association in each still more satisfactory.

Superintendent J. D. Scouller, of Illinois: (a) We have both the cottage and the congregate system. There should be no mixing of good and bad, vicious and virtuous in an institution when you can draw the line from personal knowledge. The cottage system is perhaps the best for the separation of pupils by age and character. There should be a central cottage or building where all pupils newly committed (or a large per cent of them) should be on probation before being classified according to the commitment, as information given by interested parties generally furnishes a reliable clue to the true character of the boy committed.

(b) We have added one family building or cottage.

Superintendent Mary Lyons, of Illinois: There is no doubt that the cottage system has many advantages over any other, but for various reasons we have not been able to adopt it.

Superintendent Sarah F. Keeley: I think that the cottage system is the better. However, we have not introduced this system, but classify our children by age, keeping the younger ones separate from the older.

Superintendent T. J. Charlton, of Indiana: (a) I do consider the cottage system entirely adequate to secure the separation of the more "deeply tainted" from those inmates who are less vicious. I do not consider the classification by age as nearly so good as the method in use here of classifying them upon the basis of character. We have four families of large boys. Two of these families are all criminals; the other two, however, are boys of a much higher moral grade. (b) None, except that we are more particular to classify boys as to character. Superintendent C. C. Cory, of Iowa: (a) We have two families; one in general dormitories in one building, one in single dormitories in another building, and much favor the latter. We have no girls that are what would be termed extremely vicious," and have as yet no necessity for segregation. Only for brief periods is anyone subject to unusual restraint. The more intractable are more benefited by associating with the good than the latter are injured by the contact, contamination being prevented simply by family oversight.

(b) None. Next year we expect to erect another family building with single dormitories, making three families.

Superintendent Buck, of Kansas: (a) If properly classified the cottage is pref

erable.

(b) Formed a family of smali boys.

Mother Matron of St. Scholastica, Newport, Ky.: According to our rule it is absolutely necessary to have these classes separate; but as we have as yet received none of the vicious class there has been no need of segregation.

Superintendent Farrington, of Maine: (a) I think the cottage system partially answers the purpose mentioned above. I do not believe that the segregation of the more vicious amounts to very much the same thing as the classification of all the pupils by age.

(b) No change in the general system of classification. Our first cottage is nearly completed and will soon be ready for occupancy.

Brother Dominic, Carroll Sation, Md.: (a) We have not tried the cottage system yet and hence can not say much for or against it. But from my experience it is of vital importance in the reformation of those children who are not so deeply tainted to separate them from those more vicious; and in this case the cottage system is preferable, and certainly preferable to classification by age. (b) None. We have always endeavored to keep the younger boys separated as much as is practicable from the older. This we do in the dormitories, in the playgrounds, and to a great extent in the shops and class rooms.

Superintendent Mrs. Brackett, of Massachusetts: (a) We have the cottage system, and believe that all inmates should be classified according to the past record of the inmate and not according to age. I do not think the segregation of the more vicious amounts to the same thing as classification by age. Some of our younger pupils are more vicious than some of the older ones.

(b) No data.

Superintendent Risk, of Massachusetts: I think the cottage system is the best as far as my experience goes, and it is upon this system that our school is conducted.

Superintendent Eldridge, of Massachusetts: (a) Think favorably of the cottage system and more of separation on the basis of character than classification by age. Think truant schools should not be maintained in alms houses.

(b) None.

Superintendent Johnson, of Massachusetts: (a) The cottage system answers the purpose better than any other system. The segregation of the more vicious answers a much better classification than can be done by age.

(b) No changes, as we have had but one family of 30 boys.

Superintendent Chapin, of Massachusetts: (a) There should be. I think, more care in the separation of the two classes named; but in general classification by age and by school attainment serves the purpose with the cottage system to help.

(b) In 1885 the school was remodelled on the cottage plan. It started with an administration building, where the superintendent and the most unmanageable boys were to be located, and three cottages to accommodate 30 boys each. Two years ago the large building was remodelled for two groups and at present the school consists of six cottages as nearly independent as it is possible to make them and have them supervised by one superintendent. The main mode of arriving at a classification is to grade them according to proficiency in knowledge. Superintendent Margaret Scott, of Michigan: (a) I think it does.

(b) This institution was organized under the cottage system and no change seems desirable.

Superintendent Gower, of Michigan: We have the cottage system.

Superintendent Brown, of Minnesota: (a) I believe that division of the children into families of 40 to 50 each, according to age, answers all purposes and with proper supervision the danger of contamination by the more vicious will be reduced to the minimum.

(b) Have always been working on the cottage plan, but when we occupy our new buildings the classification will be more perfect, as the families will not be so large.

Superintendent Shaffer, of Missouri: (a) Separation is good, say into three classes: (1) Those entirely good, (2) the large vicious, (3) the small vicious; the latter divisions being, of course, by age.

(b) Separation into two classes, to wit, good and bad, on the congregate sys

tem.

Superintendent Otterson, of New Jersey: Classification by age is not the proper way to classify. Classification should be made according to the moral condition of the inmates; that is to say, the separation of the more vicious from the less, irrespective of age. The cottage or family plan presents an opportunity to accomplish this as no other plan can.

(b) Our institution was founded on the cottage system in 1865. Of late years a more rigid separation has been tried.

Superintendent Mrs. McFadden, of New Jersey: (a) I do think it answers the purpose in a great measure. I think the classification should be made with regard to crimes committed rather than age, as many young in age are old in vice.

(b) None; as our school only numbers about one family.

Superintendent Corrigan (Brooklyn Truant Home), of New York: For our institution, no. The boys confined in this institution are not vicious, only mischievious, and I consider that the dormitory system is the best.

II.

Without discussing the case in which a reformatory is a mere temporary place of detention until the boy can be properly located in a home, it is interesting to inquire what efforts are made for his future welfare when the time has come for his being dismissed from an institution or otherwise discharged. Invariably places are secured for the boys by the school authorities. Sometimes these are in the country, at others in the city. One institution of the East has an agency in Illinois to care for the boys. The usual mode of obtaining information as to the manner in which the student is deporting himself is by periodical reports in writing, but in several States a more vigorous and reliable method is employed. Thus the Lyman School for Boys at Westboro, Mass., reports that in 1889 a special agent was appointed whose sole business is to visit the "probationers," to encourage them, right their wrongs, adjust their disputes with employers, find more suitable homes if they are not doing well, and in general make them feel a sense of continued responsibility to the State to do well. The result of every visit is reported to the central bureau and to the superintendent of the school. At another reformatory institution, the State Primary School of Massachusetts, the boys are frequently visited by agents in the employ of the State. For the care of the girls placed out in families from the Massachusetts school for girls, ninety ladies are employed by the State board. In New Jersey a regularly employed visiting agent" visits the boys three or four times a year, with power to recall to the school any who are relapsing. In the New York Juvenile Asylum there is a visiting agent for such pupils as are returned to friends, and the school has ever exercised as close a supervision as means would allow. The House of Refuge at Philadelphia has a competent officer visit the paroled pupils every six months.

At the New York Catholic Protectory the visitation is annual, but the organization of the church carries aid in this business of supervision. The pastor of the parish in which the boy resides is corresponded with and presumably is interested in the welfare of the boy. In Ohio, on the other hand, the State organization becomes the organ of supervision, for the judges of the courts are required to appoint supervisory committees in every county, who are to oversee the boys that are sent from the school. In Kansas the county superintendent of public instruction is the visiting agent.

III.

Two other questions of considerable importance remain. These are so connected that they may be discussed together. They relate to the time the pupil may be detained in the school and the trade taught him while so detained. The following discussion is based on the replies to these questions:

Assuming for convenience that certain disadvantages of the contract system tend to neutralize its undoubted advantages as a substitute for the manual work essential to teaching habits of industry and a trade, what effort, if any, have your trustees made during the decade 1880-90 to supplant the substitute by real technological instruction, and do you think such purely technical instruction feasible in view of its nonremunerative character?

Assuming further that the instruction of the delinquent at the institution is of no avail unless he is under its instruction for a sufficient time, what change, if any. in the way of lengthening the time the pupil is consigned to your care has been inagurated by the courts or instituted by law?

Superintendent Hatch, of Colorado: No effort made by trustees. Theoretically, I believe purely technical instruction feasible. Have had no experience. Possible term of detention has been shortened from minority to three years. Bad change.

Superintendent Howe, of Connecticut: In my opinion it is not practical to give technological instruction to an entire institution. A few of the older boys may be so taught, but it is necessarily expensive. We have not introduced technological training, but hope to soon to a limited extent. We teach habits of industry, but our industry is remunerative, which is always an incentive to labor. The law of definite sentences has been changed to indefinite or during minority. A boy can grade out of the institution by uniform good conduct in twelve months; but he goes on probation and may be returned to the institution at any time his conduct may not be good.

Superintendent Haines, of Delaware: We have no technological instruction in this institution as yet. I do think such instruction very valuable, and ought to be in every institution of this kind, without regard to its remunerative char

acter.

Superintendent Shallenberger, of the District of Columbia: We have never contracted the labor of our boys, much preferring piecework at a fixed rate. This gives the school authorities entire control of both the work and the discipline. The trustees have repeatedly urged the propriety of establishing workshops under skilled foremen in order to teach useful trades and thus fit the boys to take their places when discharged as first-class mechanics. Every reformatory institution or industrial school should be provided with means to such an end, whether remunerative or not. Our boys are all committed during minority, unless sooner discharged by the board of trustees; hence they could regulate the time required for any boy to remain at his trade. No boy should be forced to learn any special trade, and there would be no necessity for so forcing him, as a large number are always anxious to acquire some handicrafts and would undergo any ordinary discipline to secure the means of becoming first-class mechanics.

Superintendent Scouller, of Illinois: The contract system is supplanted here by State-account plan. Have made no effort until recently to introduce technological instruction. It may not be feasible with State legislatures, in view of its nonrenumerative character, but we believe that it is a move in the right direction, though it must be borne in mind that such training will never make a mechanic; it can only develop a taste for some industry. Sentences are fixed by law.

Superintendent Sarah F. Keely, of Indiana: Our manual labor is simply to teach the girls the common industries of life, thus fitting them for lives of usefulness. We do not aim to make money, but work for the reformatory power there is in work. Under our old law girls were committed until 18, while under the new law of 1888 they are committed until 21.

Superintendent Charlton, of Indiana: Our trustees ten years ago abandoned the idea of making money out of the labor of the boys. They are now working to instruct boys and not to make them a source of revenue. I most certainly regard technical instruction as feasible. We have detained boys on an average about twenty months. I think that two years would be better.

Superintendent Cory, of Iowa: As yet we have no productive industry. Only domestic economy and common school work receives attention in the instruction of the girls.

Superintendent Buck, of Kansas: We have never had the contract system. All are committed during minority.

Superintendent Farrington, of Maine: I think such technical instruction is feasible, notwithstanding its nonremunerative character. We have established a mechanical school, where the elements of carpentry are taught. Boys are sentenced during minority, and trustees may discharge boys whenever they believe them to be reformed.

Brother Dominic, Carroll Station, Md.: Though we have eight or nine indusries or trades-printing, shoemaking, tailoring, floriculture-we find that our boys do not and can not remain long enough in the institution to teach them the trades thoroughly. One advantage, however, is that they learn habits of industry and how to work. I think, so far as remuneration in shops in reformatory institutions is concerned, it is a failure. Nothing of the kind ever undertaken by us has paid. The board, or rather the committee having the matter of supervision of the shops, have established this rule within the last year, that any boy entering a shop for the purpose of learning a trade must remain there four years. This supposes him to enter at 13 and upwards.

Superintendent Johnson, of Massachusetts: No effort has been made except to give instruction in carpentry. I think boys should be placed out to get special instruction and should not remain in an institution more than two years. Truant boys are now committed for two years instead of one year as formerly.

Superintendent Chapin, of Massachusetts: Last year the Swedish system (Sloyd) was introduced, and during the last year all pupils have been instructed in it. Growing boys can not be used to carry on a profitable contract system without defeating the ends for which a reform school is established. Boys are sent here during their minority. Formerly the practice was to release boys after fifteen 'months' stay on good behavior, i. e., as long as good conduct continued. This time has been found insufficient, and the shortest period will probably be hereafter two years.

Superintendent Margaret Scott, of Michigan: We have no contract labor that interferes or retards in any way the plan of the institution, which is to teach every girl domestic work, including sewing, and the half-day's training in day school. No change in the way of lengthening the time the pupil is consigned to the school is required.