a State school census of 1882, as corrected by the State school commissioner under a new census of eight counties, apparently taken in 1883.

b These schools are under local laws.

(From reports and returns of Hon. Gustavus J. Orr, State school commissioner, for the years indicated.)

STATE SCHOOL SYSTEM.

GENERAL CONDITION.

There has been no State census of school children since 1882, though the figures given by that census have been revised since the last report of this Bureau was issued. As compared with last year, the number of white youth enrolled in public schools shows a considerable increase. This, though much less than that in 1883, still looks encouraging, and, notwithstanding a falling off in enrollment of colored youth, gives a total of 1,694 more enrolled. An increase of 6,664 in average daily attendance indicates a still better state of things, and presents a per cent. of such attendance somewhat higher than that of the year before, which at the time appeared a large one for a State with such vast Spares and with comparatively few large towns. School buildings seem to have increased in fair proportion to the increase of accommodation needed, and thus the outlook for the future is on the whole a fair one. The condition of the city schools seems good.

ADMINISTRATION.

A State board of education composed of the chief State officers, with the governor as president, holds in trust grants and devises for educational purposes, and acts as a court of appeals in questions relating to school law. A State school commissioner, appointed biennially by the governor, is a member of this board, and reports biennially to the

governor. Each county (except 4 under special local laws) has a county board of education of 5 members selected for 4-year terms by the grand jury of the county, subject to partial biennial change. A secretary, chosen by each board for a 4-year term, acts as county commissioner of education, with duties similar to those of county superintendents elsewhere. The county boards choose, for each subdistrict into which their counties may be divided, 3 trustees for local supervision of schools, one to be liable to change each year.

The public schools are free to all youth of school age; separate schools, however, must be maintained for colored and white children, and only elementary branches may be taught, except in counties and cities that have been favored with special early franchises. The county boards of education prescribe the text-books for the schools in their respective counties. The public schools are to be kept open at least 3 months, unless this is impracticable on account of sparseness of population, in which case the county boards may continue school 2 months in school districts containing not less than 15 pupils. Evening schools are also provided for.

Teachers of schools under the State system must report to their county school commissioner or other special school officer at the expiration of each school term, as a condition of receiving pay.

SCHOOL FINANCES.

The following are the productive sources of school revenue: a poll tax not to exceed $1 on each voter; a tax on shows and exhibitions, and one on dealers in intoxicating drinks, bowie knives, or fire arms; the net proceeds of fees for inspecting fertilizers and from the hire of convicts, and the dividends from State shares in one railway and from one-half the rental of another.

AID FROM EXTERNAL SOURCES.

For teachers' scholarships at Nashville, Tenn., there were given from the Peabody fund in 1884-'85 $2,175; for teachers' institutes, $1,400; and for public schools in the State, $600.

From the John F. Slater fund there was received $2,000 for Atlanta University, $2,000 for Clark University, and $2,314.10 for Spelman Female Seminary, all three at Atlanta, and $500 for Lewis Normal Institute, Macon; total, $6,814.10.

SCHOOL SYSTEMS OF CITIES WITH 7,500 OR MORE INHABITANTS.

ADMINISTRATION.

Cities that have 2,000 or more inhabitants may form independent school systems, under boards of education or trustees of schools; judges of courts and mayors of cities may act as ex-officio members of the boards. Augusta, Macon, and Savannah combine county and city systems, each city employing a superintendent.

a These statistics, except where otherwise noted, are for the year ending December 31, 1883.
Estimated, 1884.

eThese statistics, except where otherwise noted, are for the year ending December 31, 1984.
d School census of 1882.
e Census of 1880.

ADDITIONAL PARTICULARS.

Atlanta classes its schools as primary, grammar, and high schools; the first and second covering 8 years, while the high school studies occupy 4 years for girls and 3 for boys, and are of very fair grade for each. A small increase appears in enrollment in public schools, and in average daily attendance the high standard of 95 per cent. of enrollment is attained. The total seating capacity in the public school buildings is 4,678, which comes far short of reaching the enrollment, showing a need for more school room. The superintendent says that not only is it difficult to provide for the health and instruction of the

children in overcrowded rooms, but many children of taxpayers are excluded altogether from school privileges.

Augusta, which formerly reported for a school year ending in June, presents now a return for the calendar year 1884. This shows, by comparison with the figures last presented, a falling off of 203 in public school enrollment and of 5 in teachers, but an increase of $4,488 in expenditure for the city schools. These schools, according to the current Southern custom, are for both white and colored pupils, the two races, however, having separate accommodations. Roman Catholics, as well as Protestants, are included in the teaching force, 6 of the city teachers being "sisters" of the Roman Church. The schools are graded from primary to high, one of the two city high schools being for colored youth and graduating annually 8 to 10, who nearly all begin to teach. A normal class for these teachers is held by the superintendent every Thursday afternoon, and one for the white teachers every Tuesday afternoon. A special teacher of penmanship is employed, apparently for the whites alone, his instruction reaching through all the grades. The schools were, according to the return above mentioned, held for 177 days in 1884, in 10 buildings with 40 rooms, valued at $50,000. Besides the public school enrollment, there was an estimated attendance of 1,500 in private and church schools.

Columbus presents a decrease in school population and an increase in enrollment. The schools are graded. Drawing and penmanship are taught by the regular teachers, and music by a special teacher. The school session covered 188 days, in 6 buildings containing 33 rooms, with 1,460 sittings for study, valued, with all school property, at $67,500. Private schools enrolled 300 pupils, leaving, apparently, 1,491 children between the ages of 6 and 18 years not in any school.

Macon shows a falling off of 40 in enrollment and of 100 in average daily attendance in 1884-'85. Private schools enrolled about 400 pupils, leaving 1,243 children between the ages of 6 and 18 years not in any school. The schools were taught 175 days, in 7 buildings, with 23 rooms for primary schools, 9 for grammar schools, and 2 for high schools, furnishing in all accommodations for 1,520 pupils. Public school property was valued at $66,500.

It appears from the city report that, from want of funds, only one male teacher, the principal of the boys' high school, was employed, and that colored children to the number of several hundred in the southern half of the city were still unprovided for.

Savannah has its schools divided into primary, grammar, and high schools. The first and second combined cover 8 years, and high school studies, 4 years. Corporal punishment is allowed, but the superintendent, while not recommending its total abolition, wishes to see every possible restriction thrown around its use. He says that the work of the teachers has been efficiently done, and that the progress of the pupils for the year has given more than the usual amount of satisfaction. There was much need, however, of more room in the primary grades in both the white and colored schools. There was an increase of nearly 1,700 school youth, of 47 in enrollment, and of 890 in average attendance, while only one more teacher was employed. Public school property, including 7 buildings containing 3,010 sittings for study, was valued at $111,000. In private schools were about 1,000 pupils.

PREPARATION AND QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS.

GENERAL STATE REQUIREMENTS.

Persons desiring to teach in the public schools of any county of the State must procure a license from the county commissioners, the grade to be determined by the qualifications exhibited. The licenses are of 4 grades. Those who on examination evince the highest degree of scholarship are entitled to a first-grade license, to continue in force 3 years; the next highest get a license of the second grade, continuing in force for 2 years; a third grade is for 1 year; a fourth for 6 months, entitling the holder to teach in subdistricts where children have made but little advancement in school studies.

NORMAL SCHOOLS AND DEPARTMENTS.

Atlanta and Clark Universities, both for colored youths, present well-regulated courses of normal instruction, the former of 4 years, the latter of 3. The common and higher English branches are included, with Latin, drawing, and music, at Atlanta. It is supposed that some normal training is also still given in the North Georgia Agricultural College, as the faculty, by authority of the legislature, may grant licenses to students to teach in the public schools of the State without further examination. The school systems of Atlanta and Augusta, and perhaps of other cities, have normal classes for the benefit of teachers, meeting weekly throughout the year. Paine Institute, Augusta, opened in 1884, offers a 4-year normal course for colored students. Twelve Georgia scholarships were provided for in 1884 in the Southern Normal School, Nash

ville, Tenn., by the agents of the Peabody fund, the incumbents of these positions to teach in the schools of Georgia at the completion of their course.

For statistics of normal schools reporting, see Table III of the Appendix; for a summary of same, a corresponding table in the report of the Commissioner preceding.

TEACHERS' INSTITUTES.

In 1884 there were 3 State institutes held, each continuing 4 weeks, at Dalton, Macon, and Norcross, with an aggregate attendance of 179 white and 103 colored teachers. The institute at Macon is said to have been a success, but the others fell far below the proper standard, from the fact that the common schools in the counties where they were held were in session during the entire term of the institutes. For sustaining these institutes the trustees of the Peabody fund gave $2,000. The State school commissioner recommends that the legislature make an annual appropriation of $1,600 to further such means of instructing teachers, and that the public schools be closed during the institute term, so that teachers may attend the exercises.

SECONDARY INSTRUCTION.

PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS.

The State law makes no provision for the maintenance of schools of this grade of instruction, but such schools are found in Atlanta, Augusta, Macon, Savannah, and some other cities. Atlanta has one high school for each sex, with a 4-year course for girls and one of 3 years for boys; these schools in 1884 graduated 33 from the full and 7 from the partial course. Tubman High School for girls, Augusta, graduated 22 in the same year, and the colored high school for both sexes, also in Augusta, 10. At Hephzibah, 14 miles from Augusta, in Richmond county, is another high school, conducted in all essentials like the Tubman school. Macon and Savannah each have a high school for each sex, those of the former city graduating 21 girls and 17 boys in 1885, and those of the latter 21 girls and 8 boys in the same year.

OTHER SECONDARY SCHOOLS.

For statistics of private academic schools, preparatory schools, and preparatory departments of colleges, see Tables VI, VII, and IX, and for business colleges, Table IV, of the Appendix; for summaries of the same, corresponding tables in the report of the Commissioner preceding.

SUPERIOR INSTRUCTION.

COLLEGES FOR YOUNG MEN OR FOR BOTH SEXES.

The University of Georgia, Athens, in its academic (collegiate) department (Franklin College) continued its courses in arts, science, and letters, leading, ordinarily in 4 years, to the degree of A. B., Sci. B., or Ph. B., with an A. M. degree for such students as take, with other studies, all the junior and senior ones of the 10 schools embraced in the academic department. These departments include Latin language and literature, Greek language and literature, modern languages, belle-lettres, metaphysics and ethics, mathematics, natural philosophy and astronomy, chemistry, history and political science, and natural history and geology.

For other studies, see "Scientific and professional instruction," further on.

Since 1883 the university has had, from donation of Governor Joseph E. Brown, the benefit of a scholarship fund of $50,000, drawing 7 per cent. annual interest, and entitled the "Charles McDonald Brown scholarship fund," in memory of a deceased son of the governor who had been a student at the University, said to have been of fine intellectual and business capacity, and the soul of honor and integrity. The scholarships from this fund are to go, at the rate of $50 to $200 annually, to students of good moral character, apt to learn, of reasonable health, and ambitious to prepare themselves for usefulness; each recipient binding himself to repay, as soon as practicable, the sums received, with interest at 4 per cent. from the close of the year in which each payment came to him.

Other collegiate institutions reporting are Atlanta University and Clark University, Atlanta; Mercer University and Pio Nono College, Macon; and Emory College, Oxford. All these have 4-year classical and preparatory courses. Atlanta and Clark Universities, for colored youth, give normal and industrial training, teaching young men the elements of agriculture and mechanical trades, and giving young women instruction in nursing, sewing, and general housework. Both have instruction in music, and Clark University offers a business course. Emory College has schools of business, music, telegraphy, and toolcraft and design. Greek enters into the first 3 years of the collegiate course, and Hebrew into the junior and senior years. Pio Nono offers, in addition to the usual col

legiate course, a scientific and commercial course, and also a graduate course leading to the degree of A. M. Bowden College, of more doubtful rank, because imperfectly reported, offers primary, preparatory, collegiate, and normal studies, and has daily mili. tary drill for boys and exercises in calisthenics for girls.

INSTITUTIONS FOR THE SUPERIOR INSTRUCTION OF YOUNG WOMEN.

Atlanta and Clark Universities and the branch agricultural colleges at Dahlonega and Milledgeville offer instruction to both sexes. For statistics of schools exclusively for young women, see Table VIII of the Appendix; for a summary thereof, a corresponding table in the report of the Commissioner preceding.

SCIENTIFIC AND PROFESSIONAL INSTRUCTION.

1

SCIENTIFIC.

The State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, Athens, offers courses, each of 4 years, in agriculture, engineering, and applied chemistry, with a partial course in architecture and building. Some scientific instruction is given also in the branch agricultural colleges of the State University at Cuthbert, Dahlonega, Milledgeville, and Thomasville, and in Atlanta and Clark Universities. Special scientific courses of 3 years are found in Emory and Mercer, and in Pio Nono one of 4 years.

PROFESSIONAL.

THEOLOGICAL studies are very fairly included in the courses of Clark University (Methodist) and the Atlanta Baptist Seminary, both in Atlanta and both for colored students; while in Mercer University, Macon (Baptist), and at Emory College, Oxford (Methodist), there is for whites a similar inclusion of such studies in the collegiate course. At Clark the instruction in this line was under 3 professors, with 46 students in 1884-'85, part of them taught by correspondence; at the Atlanta Baptist, under 4, with 35; at Mercer, under 1, with 3 students. At Emory the indications are that the theological training was simply an adding of biblical and Hebrew studies to the collegiate course of such students as were preparing for the ministry.

Systematic theological training in a 3-year course, meant to follow a collegiate one, was continued at the Theological Seminary of the Southern Presbyterian Church, at Columbia, where were, in 1884-'85, 41 students, 3 of them in a special course.

Paine Institute, Augusta (Methodist Episcopal), was opened in 1884 for the training of golored preachers and teachers.

LEGAL instruction is found in the Department of Law of the University of Georgia, Athens, in a 1-year course consisting of two terms. Students may at any time enter either class, junior or senior, if prepared; but to graduate they must remain at least one term of 6 months. Common, statute, and constitutional law enter into the course, special attention being paid to equity, its jurisdiction, principles, and practice. Lectures are given on medical jurisprudence and parliamentary law, and every Saturday is devoted to practical exercises in conveyancing, pleading, the discussion of legal points, and the holding of moot courts. Graduates are admitted to the bar of the superior courts of the State without further examination, and to all other courts of the State except the supreme court, if properly vouched for as of good character.

Emory College and Mercer University offer each a 1-year course of legal training, and graduates are admitted to practice in the State without further examination.

A

MEDICAL.The Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, a department of the State University, the Atlante Medical College, and the Southern Medical College, Atlanta, all " regular," gave in 1884-'85 their usual 2-year courses of from 20 to 24 weeks each year. 3-year graded course is recommended, but not required. The aggregate number of students for the year was 254; graduates, 103. No requirements for admission, but for graduation students must pass the final examination satisfactorily.

The Georgia College of Eclectic Medicine and Surgery, Atlanta, formerly the Georgia Eclectic Medical College, offers a 2-year course of lectures, of about 21 weeks each. Daily quizzes are held by the faculty. Each member of the senior class is required to present, once a week, a thesis on some subject already covered by the lectures, and defend the No requirements for admission, but a thorough final examination in the branches taught in the college is said to be required. There were 70 students enrolled in 1884-'85, and 13 graduated.

same.

1 Besides the 4-year engineering course, which leads to the degree of Eng. B., there is a special higher course of 1 year for graduates of the former. This prepares for the degree of civil engineer. *At the first mentioned, 77 matriculates, 34 graduates; at the second, 88, 38; at the third, 89, 31.