INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL FOR GIRLS.

OFFICERS OF THE BOARD OF MANAGERS.

PRESIDENT,

MRS. WM. P. LYNDE.

VICE PRESIDENTS,

MRS. A. J. AIKENS, MRS. A. MC D. YOUNG, MRS. A. H. VEDDER.

SECRETARY,

MRS. D. H. JOHNSON.

AUDITORS,

HON. A. C. MAY, HON. EMERY MCCLINTOCK.

The Wisconsin Industrial School for Girls is located in Milwaukee, on Lake Avenue, in that part of the city known as North Point. It is now capable of accommodating 140 inmates.

Its proper subjects are:

1. Viciously inclined girls under 16, and boys under 10 years of age.

1. The stubborn and unruly, who refuse to obey their proper guardians. 3. Truants, vagrants and beggars.

3. Those found in circumstances of manifest danger of falling into habits of vice and immorality.

5. Those under the above ages who have committed any offense punishable by fine or imprisonment in adult offenders.

Although the school was founded by private charity, and is under the con. trol of a self-perpetuating board of managers, it is incorporated and employed by the State for the custody, guardianship, discipline and instruction of the aforenamed children. In default of responsible and efficient guardianship, they are treated as the minors and wards of the State, and by it are committed to the guardianship of this board of ladies, during minority.

The present statutes provide that for each girl so committed, the county from which such commitment is made shall pay not more than two dollars and fifty cents per week.

It is designed to be in no sense a penal institution, but it is a reformatory for the older, a temporary place of detention and instruction for the younger. Its objects are prevention and reformation.

It aims to combine the characters of a well regulated Christian family and a good public school, and its culture is physical, sanitary, educational and religious, but in no sense sectarian.

The facilities now commanded enable the managers to provide the inmates not only with a fair English education, and a knowledge of housekeeping, but with such industrial training as will enable them to earn honest livings in respectable and useful callings.

The school was organized under the act of 1975, and has received from the legislature, in 1878, 1880 and 1881, sums amounting to $35,000, for buildings, improvement of grounds and stock, and furnishings. The city of Milwaukee has also given for its use a tract of over eight acres of land, the state holding the title deeds to all this property. The site is high and healthful, commanding a fine view of the beautiful Bay of Milwaukee.

The buildings, as completed by the successive appropriations, afford in all the requisites for distinct family life, two separate dwellings, designated as the Main Home and the Children's Home, besides a nursery, kindergarten room, infirmary, laundry and two large school-rooms. The nursery takes all children under three years of age; the children's home those between three and eleven, and these together enjoy the kindergarten games and training. The Main Home takes the girls from eleven upwards, dividing them into four distinct classes, according to age and morals, with fair facilities for suitable separation and instruction, though an additional and entirely separate building is needed for proper restraint and influences over the more degraded girls. While the board holds guardianship over its wards until they reach twenty.one years of age, nearly all the older girls are placed in private families between sixteen and eighteen, and the little ones whenever suitable homes are offered. Many have inherited physical and mental weaknesses which must first be modified or removed.

In addition to the inmates sent by legal process, the school receives a number of charity subjects, supported by a fund contributed by citizens of Mil. waukee, and also boards and teaches incorrigible children for parents or guardians on their payment of the same sum as is paid by the counties.

The buildings are of Milwaukee brick, upon a lime-stone foundation, and are now very convenient and appropriate in their construction and appointments. The main building, erected in 1878, is a parallelogram 60x82 feet, and has three stories above a high basement. The addition erected in 1880

is connected with the west side of the main edifice by a corridor 10x30 fect, and is 45x70 feet in dimensions. A good barn has also been built, and fences, walks, gutters, grading, trees, shrubs and graveled drives provided.

The report this year was made for eleven months only, that the close of the fiscal year might correspond with that of other institutions of the State. The total amount appropriated by the State to this institution is $35,000.