JOHN LOOMIS, A. M., Literature.

FANNY MAGINNIS, Literature.

ALICE S. RHOADS, Literature and Orchestra.
A. E. WIMMERSTEDT, Piano and Singing.
GEO. C. GUTHRIE, Manual Labor.

PHYSICIAN,

HIRAM K. JONES, M. D.

REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES.

To His Excellency JOHN M. PALMER,

Governor of the State of Illinois :

The Trustees of the Illinois Institution for the Education of the Blind, respectfully report and request, under the exigencies of this Institution, that this report may be laid before the Legislature of the State at an early day.

The condition of the Institution for the Education of the Blind of the State of Illinois, demands serious consideration from the legislators of the State, charged by their oaths as such officers. No mere formal attention is asked to the presentation now made, of the affairs of the Institution, existing as a wing for a future edifice, and that so inferior to the wants of the Institution, if justice were done to a body of unfortunates, not the subjects of crime, but the youth of our State, who in God's providence are deprived of one of the greatest blessings of life, which deprivation throws them upon the State as a guardian, who, having the ability, should at once put aside every obstacle and do justice to the most meritorious class of those who are public beneficiaries. We say this in no disparagement of the other charities of the State.

We feel that the blind of Illinois are neglected. The original Institution was burned in April, 1869. Unless prompt measures had been adopted, two years might have elapsed or more, before these children could have been called together for their education. The Trustees, advised by the Governor of the State, with funds from the insurance of the old house and with other available means, erected in a few months, an economical, respectable and serviceable brick building. This stands in part on the site of the old building, but has a dead wall on the east end, that an addition may be made. This house is three stories high, with a basement.

The school rooms, music rooms, dining room and bed rooms for pupils, to lodge about thirty-five pupils, used exclusively for females, as well as apartments for the officers and the family of the Superintendent, are in the existing wing building, there being no main structure.

The male pupils have no proper or suitable rooms of any kind. Between thirty and forty sleep in a detached brick house, in a common

room, once used as the shop for weaving and brush making, in the second story of the building. This temporary arrangement is not proper, for many reasons: it is difficult to govern pupils when so many lodge together; cleanliness is not so well observed; health may be impaired. The whole Institution is too dwarfed in its proportions to meet the demands of justice and Christian feeling for the youthful blind.

If the Institution was equal in size to the requisition which would be made, it should receive one hundred and fifty pupils. Now there are sixty-six pupils in the Institution. The accommodations are not creditable to our State.

The work shops for adult blind are some of them suspended; no weaving is carried on; and yet this is a very desirable trade for the blind. Everything is on too small a scale about the buildings. An hospital for males should be furnished. Work shops are required, or the use of the original shops restored to the proper purpose, if dormitories existed for the males.

Youth is the only time to educate the blind-with age the blind child's sense of sight, which lies in the cuticle of his fingers is deadened, if not destroyed. It is more calamitous to a blind child to pass the early years in idleness than a child with sight-the fingers being hardened and the senses blunted or dormant too long, the child is hardly susceptible of education.

Music is a prime feature of instruction for the blind-it is a solace, leads to culture in many ways. Hear these blind sing praises to God in beautiful anthems-can aught but good spring therefrom. Every church, every race-save the Indian-is represented in the Institution for the Blind, and yet all is harmony.

Your Trustees now feel that we must be bold if we accomplish anything for our charge: those whom God has deprived of, seemingly, the most valued of man's gifts-powers to discern and know all that is lovely in creation, so far as human eye may see.

Cannot some of the other great institutions of our State, now large and prosperous, defer their claims until the unfortunate blind are provided for? In every instance the pupils are endowed in full measure, in the institutions referred to, with all God's gifts, deprived of no sense. These enjoy higher privileges now than most States give to such. Our blind are shamefully neglected, as to the supply of house room for them. The outlay for officers and teachers would be little more, comparatively, to educate double the number of those now in the Institution, if other things were commensurate, as proposed.

Legislators, we as Trustees have been long in charge of this Institution; we have worked without pay-this we name because some suppose we are salaried officers. We cannot "lobby" to present this subject.