that worthy priest,
inviting him to assist me in teaching, to take my place, to teach these
poor children himself--in short, to do what he pleased, provided they
were furnished with proper means to better their condition. The letter
was couched in the most unexceptionable terms, and closed by entreating
him to desist from his unjust attacks, and not to compel me to appeal to
the public through the dally press, the last resort in this free
country. Discouraged by the suspicious reception I met with from the
majority of these people, and by the fruitless result of my aforesaid
letter, I was then preparing a statement for the newspapers, when the
whole opposition scheme exploded. Under the false pretext that he was
going to hire a building to open a school for these children, in
connection with a church, which he proposed also to build for them, this
worthy priest had collected considerable money in the Five Points, when
all at once he disappeared, and it was only after months that he was
heard of in affluent circumstances in Italy. A natural and desirable
reaction then took place among our people, and since then the School has
been yearly in operation for eleven months, and with gradual prosperity.
In June, 1866, desiring to extend our work and absorb all children
exposed to the bad influences and examples of the streets that attended
no day-school, we added also successfully a day session, so that now,
with two hundred and twenty-eight (228) names on our books since October
1, 1867, we have a daily average of sixty-five (65), and one hundred and
eighty-six (186) for day and evening sessions respectively. By these
figures it will be seen that, while in other schools the proportion of
the average to the names entered is, at the best, seventy-five per
cent., nearly all our pupils on the roll-book attend regularly one of
the two, and several both sessions. The attendants vary from five to
twenty-two years of age, averaging about nine and a half. A little less
than one-half of the whole are females.

MENTAL IMPROVEMENT.

"Whoever has not associated with this class of Italians before our
School was opened cannot form an adequate idea of the result attained
both in moral and mental improvement. Out of the whole number entered
since the commencement of operations, say, in round numbers, eight
hundred and fifty (850), not over forty had a little and imperfect
knowledge of reading the Italian, and only a