Reserve," was afterward sold for more than one million dollars, and from its proceeds Connecticut has now a school endowment of about two million dollars.

In 1848, when Oregon Territory was organized, sections sixteen and thirty-six of every township were set aside for public schools. Every new State since has taken similar action with its public lands, and each has a large school fund. Other lands have been given, and in all about eighty million acres of land have been thus devoted. In 1862 Congress donated thirty thousand acres of public lands for every Senator and Representative in Congress for the purpose of maintaining an agricultural college in each State.

Slow Growth of the School System.-With all that was done, the common school system advanced but slowly outside of New England, and until 1830 private academies prospered. Progress was particularly slow in the South, there being before the Civil War only four States south of Mason and Dixon's line with a public school system. Since the war free schools have multiplied in the South, and much has been done for the education of the former slaves.

Normal Schools. The first normal schools, for the education of teachers, were founded in Massachusetts in 1839. Schools of this kind now exist in nearly every State. Everywhere the common schools have risen greatly in grade, and with the aid of the high schools, and the public colleges which some of the States have founded, an excellent education can now be obtained at the public expense.

Recent Progress in Education.-During the nineteenth century immense progress was made in provision for the higher education. Colleges and universities are now widely distributed, many of them richly endowed by contributions from wealthy citizens; colleges for the higher education of women have been founded; technical and scientific schools

have arisen widely, and excellent facilities for a liberal education now exist. In the improvement of text-books and other requirements for the attainment of knowledge equal progress has been made, while the recent adoption of object teaching in place of the memory teaching of the past has rendered the acquirement of knowledge an easy and pleasant process, in place of the slow and painful methods with which our forefathers gained their education.

II. THE NATION OF TO-DAY.

The New South.-The period since the close of the Civil War has been marked by a change in the conditions of the South that is almost revolutionary in character. Here, where formerly almost the sole mercantile products were cotton, tobacco, and naval stores (tar, turpentine, etc.), today there is a highly diversified industry and promise of great future prosperity. Agriculture is still the leading pursuit, but it has greatly widened in scope; iron, coal, and phosphate rock are largely mined, cotton- and iron-mills have become numerous, and an immense lumber industry has been developed.

ton crop has more than doubled since 1860, and the cottonseed, which was once thrown away, now yields large quantities of valuable oil.

The New West.-The West has been settled with phenomenal rapidity and become immensely productive. Its two great industries are agriculture and mining, but these have been remarkably developed. Five of the Western States yield more than half the vast corn crop of the United States, and six States nearly half the wheat. The gold and silver product is unequalled in any other part of the world, while copper, iron, and various other minerals are largely produced. In addition to these sources of prosperity, nature has provided vast areas of timber, and grazing for mighty herds of cattle and sheep, while the production of semitropical fruits in California forms a great and increasing source of wealth.

Progress in the North.-While the South and West have been thus progressing, the North has moved on unceasingly in the lines already indicated, and has manifested, particularly in manufactures and commerce, a remarkable activity and enterprise. Railroads have reached almost every hamlet in the land, telegraphic wires cover the country like a network, the development of coal, iron, copper, and other mines has been equally great, while a new mining industry, that of petroleum, has proved a vast source of wealth and utility.

Petroleum and Natural Gas.-The first petroleum wells were sunk in Western Pennsylvania before the Civil War. Speculation aided their development, and the rock-oil produced is now sent to all parts of the world. From the wells sunk for oil a natural gas sometimes flowed out in great quantities. In 1884 gas from some of these wells was carried by long pipes to Pittsburg, where it was burned to give light to houses and heat to factories. Oil and gas have since been found in other States, and the gas in various localities has taken the place of coal for manufacturing purposes, though it is decreasing in quantity.

Inventions. The immense progress which the United States has made in almost all directions within a century has been greatly aided by the inventive genius of the people, whose ability in this direction no other country equals. Within the past sixty years more than half a million patents have been issued for new inventions, and patents are now being issued at the rate of more than twenty thousand a year.

Many of these are of slight importance, but others have proved of the utmost utility. The cotton-gin, the steamboat, and the telegraph have been mentioned. They include also the reaping-machine, the sewing-machine, the vulcanizing of rubber, the cylinder printing-press, the electric light, the trolley car, the telephone, the phonograph, the type-writer and type-setter, and others too numerous to mention. American activity in this direction has done more for the comfort and prosperity of mankind within a century than was achieved by all the progress of many preceding centuries.

Change made by Inventions.-Within the lifetime of persons now living more inventions of leading importance have been made than perhaps in all the ages before, and in this field of progress the United States has taken the lead. Our forefathers had only the horse and the boat for travel and conveyance of freight. Steam has changed all this, and we can go round the world to-day in less time than it took to sail from England to America a century ago. In those days rock-oil, gas, and the electric light were unknown, stoves were little used, cloth was woven and dyed by hand, and a variety of articles that are now made rapidly and cheaply by machinery were produced slowly by hand, or were entirely unknown. As an example, wood, coal, gas, steam, and hot air have been used successively for heating

our houses, and electricity is now coming into use for this purpose, and may in time furnish the world's heat-supply.

Amusements.-The comfort of our people has not alone been considered. The art of entertainment has also greatly advanced. The theatre has developed until now plays are presented with a richness and naturalness of effect that would have astounded our ancestors, while operatic entertainments and music in general have been similarly developed. Of the extension of galleries of art and museums of science we have already spoken. Out-door exercise has also much advanced, and the college and other games of to-day attract thousands of interested spectators.

Parks. A more widely enjoyed opportunity for healthful and pleasurable out-door exercise is furnished by the charming parks and public gardens which have been added to nearly all our cities, and which furnish recreation and delight to millions of our people. In addition to these, parks for public enjoyment, furnished with ample provision for popular amusement, are being founded by railway and steamboat lines in the vicinity of the large cities.

Architecture. Not least among the advances of the time is that which has been made in architecture. The log cabin and the rude frame house of the colonies are now to be found only in the most undeveloped regions, while in the cities palatial mansions and business houses are rising by hundreds, in which great attention is paid to architectural beauty and effect. A late development in this direction is the great apartment or business house, reaching for many stories into the air, and a hive of human life. These lofty edifices are the outgrowth of the invention of the elevator, which alone has rendered them possible.

Temperance.-Among the promising steps of progress of recent times, none are more so than the development of the