d purposes, are free to all
applicants mentally and physically qualified to enter.[519] Usually,
when started, the schools were free to the indigent only, though some,
especially in the West, were made free to all from the very beginning.
However, there was little attempt to observe closely these limitations,
and in time, as we have seen, they were for the most part given
up.[520] At present limitations of any kind are found in the smaller
number of states, and exist in these in form rather than in practice, so
that to-day laws or regulations of a restrictive nature may be regarded
as but nominal.

In all the states the schools are by statute free to the indigent at
least, and in less than a score is there a regulation short of universal
admittance prescribed. By the wording of the statute, either directly or
by implication, it would seem to be indicated that the schools, or, in
their absence, the proper public authorities, in the following states
were still empowered to demand a charge in whole or in part from those
able to pay: Alabama, Arizona, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida,
Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey,
New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Virginia--these
states at least making reference in some place to the indigent.[521] But
with or without such reference, as we have noted, in but few instances
is there a charge to any, indigent or not.[522] In some states proof of
indigence is still formally necessary,[523] and in others payment may be
made if desired.[524]

Little effort, then, is made to collect fees in American schools for the
deaf. The circumstances of the deaf themselves are usually such as to
demand for them education without cost; while at the same time the
general American feeling that education should be a free gift of the
state to its youth would be sufficient to prevent attempts to secure
payment, even if such action should be considered proper.

PROVISION FOR COLLATERAL SUPPORT OF PUPILS

The state thus supplies the means for the education and maintenance of
pupils without cost to them; but to insure the attendance of those who
by reason of poverty might be prevented from availing themselves of its
bounty, it assists even further. Where no other means are provided,
clothing and transportation to and from the schools are furnished free
of expense. Such charges are usually paid by the counties from which the
pupils come, though a f