school
education." It embraces in its various grades, such studies as English
grammar, history, astronomy (in its simpler form), physical geography,
composition, drawing, and book keeping, besides the simpler studies of
the lower grades which were begun in the Primary School.

[Picture: THE FREE COLLEGE OF NEW YORK.]

Girls who are found proficient in the Grammar School course, are advanced
to the Normal School, which is temporarily located at the corner of
Broadway and Fourth street. Here they may enjoy the benefits of a course
as thorough and extended as that afforded by the Free College.

Boys who have attended the Grammar Schools for a certain period, and are
found proficient in the course taught there, are promoted to the Free
College of the city of New York. This noble institution is located at
the southeast corner of Lexington avenue and Twenty-third street. It is
a handsome edifice of brick, stuccoed in imitation of brown stone, and
was founded in 1848. The President is Horace Webster, LL.D., and the
faculty includes some of the ablest men in the country. The course
taught here is full and thorough, and is about the same as that of the
best colleges in the land. The entire expense of the Female Normal
School, and the Free College is borne by the city.

The whole public school system is free to all the children of the city,
whose parents will avail themselves of it. Books, and everything needed,
are furnished without charge. The pupil is put to no expense whatever,
but is required to maintain habits of order and personal neatness. The
cost to the city is gladly borne by the tax payers, for it saves the
metropolis from an increase of the great army of ignorant and idle men
and women, which are the curse of all great cities. The very poorest men
or women can thus give to their children the priceless boon of knowledge,
of which their youth was deprived. Profiting by the advantage thus
acquired, these little ones, in after years, may rise to fame and
fortune. Thus not only the metropolis but the whole country reaps the
blessings of this magnificent system of free education. The poor,
however, are not the only persons who secure the advantages of the free
schools for their children. Many wealthy, or moderately comfortable
parents send their children to these schools, because they are the best
in the city.

Connected with the day schools, there are twenty-seven evening schools,
with