pupils,
and employing more than 1500 teachers.

The Cooper Institute is an imposing edifice of brown stone, occupying the
block bounded by Third and Fourth avenues, and Seventh and Eighth
streets. It was erected at a cost of nearly half a million dollars, by
Peter Cooper, Esq., an eminent merchant of New York. The basement is
occupied by an immense lecture room, capable of seating several thousand
persons. The street floor is taken up with stores. The floor above this
contains a number of offices, and the remainder of the building is
occupied by a free library and reading room, and halls for lectures and
for study.

[Picture: THE COOPER INSTITUTE.]

The Institute is designed for the gratuitous instruction of the working
classes in science, art, telegraphy, English, literature, and the foreign
languages. One of its departments is a School of Design for women. The
course is thorough and the standard of proficiency is high. The
examinations are very searching, and it may be safely asserted, that the
graduates of this institution are thoroughly grounded in the practical
arts and sciences. The institution is a noble monument to the wisdom and
benevolence of its founder, and is doing an immense amount of good to the
class he designed to benefit. It is liberally endowed, and is managed by
a Board of Directors. The stores and offices yield an annual income of
nearly $30,000. The annual attendance upon the schools is about 1800.

LVII. JEROME PARK.

"The opening of the Central Park saved horseflesh in New York," said an
old jockey. Few who know the truth will gainsay this assertion. The
opening of Jerome Park did as much for "horseflesh" by rescuing the sport
of horse racing from the blackguards and thieves, into whose hands it had
fallen, and placing it upon a respectable footing.

The Jerome Park Race Course owes its existence to Mr. Leonard W. Jerome,
after whom it was named. The way in which it came into existence at all,
was as follows: "The trains of the New York and New Haven Railroad enter
the Metropolis upon the Harlem track. Justified by highly satisfactory
reasons, the management of the Company decided to secure a different
means of ingress to the city, and a tacit agreement was made with Leonard
W. Jerome to the effect that if he would secure the right of way from the
proper terminus of the New Haven Road clear through to New York, they
would change their route. Th