deaf pupils in schools designated by law".

[510] In a legal sense, nearly all educational institutions can be
called charitable, especially if they are private affairs, and gifts for
such purposes are held in the law as for charitable purposes. See 4
Wheaton, 518; 2 How. (U. S.), 227; 14 How., 277; 44 Mo., 570; 25 O. St.,
229. Not many cases have arisen in regard to the status of institutions
for the deaf. In 1900 the Columbia Institution was held in the opinion
of the Attorney-General to be under the department of charities, but
Congress the next year declared it to be educational. See _Annals_,
xlvi., 1901, p. 345. In Colorado an opinion was rendered that the school
was educational alone, and not subject to the civil service rules, and
this was later ratified in the constitution and by the legislature. Some
of the courts have been inclined to view the institutions as charitable.
In Nebraska the school for the deaf was at first considered an asylum
and in the same class with almshouses, rather than educational. 6 Neb.,
286. See also 43 Neb., 184. In New York the provision of the law
allowing the State Board of Charities to inspect the Institution for the
Blind was attacked, and it was held that, though the institution was
partly educational and was visited by the department of education, yet
the word charity was to be taken in its usual meaning, and if the
institution as a private body educated, clothed and maintained indigent
pupils, it was charitable. 154 New York, 14 (1897).

[511] See Report of Illinois Board of Charities, 1872, pp. 13ff., 32ff.

[512] In a few cases a home during vacation is afforded to the indigent
or unprotected.

[513] In order to discover how these institutions are regarded by the
departments of charities, letters of inquiry were sent by the writer to
all the states of the Union. Replies were received in 45 out of 49
cases, coming from boards of charities, boards of control, or in their
absence from commissioners of education or other state officials,--and
in a few cases from individuals or societies to whom the communication
was turned over. In the answers, the institutions were called charitable
by 6, educational by 13, both charitable and educational by 12, while by
14 the question was not specifically answered. In some instances, these
replies were only private opinions, but they represent none the less the
views of those most in touch with the charity activities of the states.
In a f