truths here stated may seem very simple, but their importance is none the less on this account. The unanimity of opinion among those engaged in reformatory work is striking, when the diversity and complexity of youthful natures is considered. The writer has taken his material from the reports of some of the leading reformatories in the United States, often using the words of these reports. Naturally there is some repetition, especially as to the need of a good home, but this only emphasizes the great importance of parental care which the reformatory endeavors to supply to the unfortunate young.

The Industrial School is not a prison, nor is it a penal institution where erring boys are confined and cruel punishment meted out to them. People conceive this idea because it is connected with the courts. Neither is it a place of confinement where they put bad boys merely to keep them out of other people's way. The Industrial School is a charitable institution, educational in its general organization, for the mental, moral and physical training of that unfortunate class of wayward, misguided boys, who by the very nature of their environment, are either homeless, with no visible means of support, or have in some manner transgressed the laws.

It is not our aim to take issue with that class of theorists who insist because a boy, who, perhaps all his life, has been surrounded by bad associates, running wild in the streets with no restraining hand to retard his downward course; whose social conditions have not been the best, and who has in some manner infringed the law, is a criminal of the willful kind, and as such should receive the scathing ban of society's ostracism.

True it is, there are boys, and ever will be, who will not escape the penitentiary despite all the advice, precept and good training you may shower on them. This class, however, comprises a very small per cent of the whole, when we consider the large number of the decent, respectable, law-abiding young men who graduate from Industrial Schools and who have taken their place alongside the busy workers of the world-proving themselves good citizens, making an honest living and leading exemplary lives.

The so-called bad boy is not half so bad as his reputation.

The greatest fault with him is that he is misunderstood because he has been neglected; he has gradually developed from bad to worse until at last he is in the clutch of the law. Then it is he is given up for lost, and oftentimes thrown in jail with vile, vicious, unlawful men who delight to further aid his downward course.

Boys who are not criminals, but the victims of circumstances, who have broken the law between the ages of eight and sixteen, should never be placed in jail on a common basis with common prisoners. They should not be punished, but educated. Experience proves that they quickly respond to kind treatment and homelike influence. It is to this end the Industrial School was established.

In all respects the Industrial School aims to be a father and mother to the unfortunates, supplanting as near as possible the good home left behind; and improving on those that are not what they should be. To many, it is the best home they have ever known. It is so different from the street; so much nicer to be able to know where you are going to sleep so many nice games, a large number of books, and a whole lot of boys to play with; all of whom seem to be doing the right thing.

The School aims to make it as easy as possible for the boy to do the right thing; and while we must confess all boys do not possess fine natures, yet we realize that aims are best attained, not by hard uncompromising lines of rigidity, or simply by excluding them from bad associates, but by good moral examples, patient study of the individual, constant regularity in habits of sleeping, eating, exercise, play, and a lively personal interest manifested among their teachers and officers in their sports, troubles, studies, etc.

Place confidence in the boy; give him justice; wake the smoldering ambition that is dormant in him; do not treat him as a sneak or inferior; teach him to look up, not down; direct his attention where he will find the best, purest and most noble things in life; encourage in him clean, manly sports; persuade him to do right for right's sake and not for the sake of policy; let him understand judgment is swift, sure and certain to him who disregards the law, and he who will not obey must be made to do

so. Teach him neatness, cleanliness and correctness. Give him to understand that he is to be educated, not punished, and that he will be received into the business world according to his ability to accomplish things. In fact, let him understand everything he undertakes should be done in the nicest possible manner and that it is absolutely necessary for him to do his best. Try to instill in his very being a love and respect for honest labor, patience, perseverance, consideration for other people's property and opinions; impressing on him the importance not to back down when he meets a reverse.

Methods of keeping the boys are simple. We work no methods of legerdemain to convert the self-willed boy of the street, who perhaps has been a menace to society, an enemy to himself, and a danger to the public in general, into a quiet, peaceful, even-tempered, smooth "Willy-Willy" boy with a strong desire to obey each rule to the letter and a burning passion to execute every command in a faultless manner. Boys, as a rule, are not made that way—it is not natural and as a class they have not an over-amount of respect for watery sympathy — they want something more stable - it is facts and actions that count with them. They are quick to discern any movement that is for their welfare and are, if approached in the right manner, nearly always capable and willing to leave their past life behind and take up the task of character building.

Of course, boys sometimes run away, just as they leave some of the best, most congenial homes in the land to wander from door to door - veritable outcasts begging their daily bread; but the class who are placed on their honor, and then run away, are not the real representative body, and the chances are they will be ne'er-do-wells all their lives, though it must not be concluded because a boy runs away, we lose all hope in him, for oftimes such turn out well.

We often receive boys who are from homes that were not the best, that were broken, unlawful, unnatural; their social connections all their lives have been the worst possible; they would have not the remotest idea of manners or refinement - almost wholly uncivilized having known nothing but kicks and cuffs, and only been taught vice, dishonesty, and distrust of humanity

in general, and as a natural consequence regarded the law as an enemy. Their only church was the corner saloon, or the dark alley, where they spent their time smoking, gambling, or conspiring to confiscate other people's property to themselves, and as for the word "obey," they never knew its meaning. Yet some conservative people often ask us to reform this class of boys, who from almost infancy have never felt a firm, restraining hand, but have assayed to follow their own wills and proceed along lines that offered least resistance, often encouraged by those who should have been a shield and a guide to their young lives.

Again, we receive boys, whom some are pleased to term bad boys, from homes that are modest, congenial and lovely, whose parents are good, respectable, law-abiding citizens. Yet it is plainly true their boys do not always conduct themselves as they should. We might suggest in some cases parents do not understand their children; are not patient enough; or because of household duties or pressing business, there is a lack of parental attention, or years of over-indulgence have taught the boy he can do as he pleases and they nearly always please to do wrong.

Boys like people to take an interest in them, and they like to take an interest in things. They want to be noticed, encouraged, and if they cannot find their boyhood at home, the chances are they seek for it on the streets, and once they get the habit of loafing, the end is not far off. They are thirsty for sympathy, love good, clean companionship, and a lively interest taken in their boyish desires, games, etc., and this generally proves that the boy is all right.

It must be understood that the work is principally to build from the bottom up. It is necessarily slow, for we often encounter that class whose will has been their only law; they do not always readily take to the right way of thinking, neither do they always quickly respond to kind treatment; are often unappreciative, and unattentive to their duties; and while we are a strong advocate of moral suasion, we know with a certain. class of boys, in fact all classes, if moral suasion fails and you do not use more strenuous means of correction, you certainly en

courage them to travel further on the road to destruction and in the end they may be irretrievably lost.

In all institutions there is a beginning for every ward. He enters with all sorts of ideas concerning it. Some approach it in fear and trembling, some with complacency, some with gladness, and others with defiance or even arrogance; but observation teaches that all soon approximate a common level. They may lack education, refinement and moral training, but their perceptive faculties are unusually bright. A boy can tell at a glance what kind of a man he has to deal with, and his first impression is generally a right one. In consequence of this precocity, he is soon enabled to adjust matters to his own satisfaction concerning his surroundings. Or if an older boy, sullen, rebellious, looking for trouble, enters the institution, he finds himself in a quiet, busy and well-ordered community, each member of which seems to be behaving himself. One of his first experiences is introduction into the military organization where he gets physical exercise of a kind and quantity to dispose of all his superflous energy; and, as a rule, he speedily comes to realize that he is a very small part of a very large machine, and that it requires a bold man, when a thousand others are marching a certain way, to attempt to go in a different direction. This gets him into a proper frame of mind for undertaking his other work, and in most cases, after a few attempts at independence, he submits to go along with the current, and there is no trouble whatever with him from a disciplinary point of view.

All children are not alike bad, therefore all do not need the same restraining influences. Some only need the timely caution, some the stern rebuke, while others will never know your meaning or appreciate their own situation, until you apply the most severe punishment. These are all necessary appliances in child-training, but care should be exercised in their administration. The line must be drawn on the side of leniency, and justice must balance the scales, or you will antagonize. In no case ought a child be corrected in the heat of impatience or the flush of anger, but in all well-governed schools there should be a proper time for the rendering of accounts, and then only to such persons as are capable — a man with a mother's heart and sym