Girard College.

Some interesting facts may be gleaned from the last annual report of the board of directors charged with the care of Girard College. Changes which the founder would not have contemplated have been introduced and modern appliances such as he and his generation never dreamed of are now in daily use. The report says: "The ancient curriculum of the college, admirable, perhaps, in the early history of the institution, with less than five hundred scholars, but without many of the plans and appliances which modern modes of thought and of action make necessary for efficient work in the school-room, received much attention from the committee on instruction and library. After careful preparation by the college faculty and the committee the revised course of study is now on trial, and if found adapted to the purposes of good scholarship it will supercede the former course. The mechanical school has been given a more important place in the curriculum, and its advantages to our boys are steadily growing. In spite of the general business depression, places are readily found for those who have made suitable proficiency in this branch of their studies. In addition to the instruction heretofore given in drawing, in pattern making, in foundry work, in metal work and in theoretical and applied electrics, arrangements are being made to add instruction in blacksmithing, in plumbing and in steam fitting.

January 1, 1894, there were 1561 boys in the college, and there were 538 applicants for admission on the waiting list. Boys are admitted between the ages of six and ten years, and they must leave the college at eighteen years of age. The average age of those admitted during the year 1893 was eight and a quarter years and of those dismissed sixteen years, showing an average of seven and three-quarters years of maintenance and education for each pupil. Mr. Girard, in his will, says, "Those scholars who

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