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CHAPTER XXII.

THE UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA.

BY SAMUEL BRADFORD DOTEN.

            To any one familiar with Nevada as a whole, the most impressive feature of its life is the vastness of a territory over which a scanty population is scattered in towns and settlements, mining camps that grow and are lost again, ranches tucked away in the hills miles from neighbors, railroad towns where the business of a great world touches the interests of an isolated and scattered people. Nevada is an empire of long mountain ridges with valleys between them. There are herds of cattle and sheep on the mountains, mining camps here and there among the hills, fertile valleys wherever there is water, ranches on every little stream that trickles down from the canyons to the sage-brush levels below.

            It may be that just this isolation of the people in towns far apart or on ranches far from neighbors has led them to feel that their children must have and shall have educational advantages which will keep them still a part of the big world beyond. Still a young State, isolation and separation have not formed in Nevada self-sufficient local communities with their own local traditions and ways of living. As a class, the people are highly intelligent and energetic ; they desire for their children an education which will fit them to compete with the children of other States where opportunities for training are many and are readily accessible. This is the explanation of Nevada's support for her State University, an institution of which on the whole her people should be more proud than of anything else among her possessions.

            When our first State Legislature convened in 1865, a law was passed in compliance with the first Morrill Act to establish an agricultural and mechanical college in Washoe County ; but in the excitement and stress of those pioneer times the idea was lost sight of, and it did not come again

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into prominence until nearly ten years later when the University was founded at Elko in 1873. The site was donated by the Central Pacific Railroad ; and the people of Elko County spent over $18,000 in the erection of the first building; following this, in 1875, by the construction of a dormitory which cost $7,000 more. From the beginning, down to the present time, the interest and support given by Elko County to the University have never been wanting.

            For ten years the University at Elko served a useful purpose. The instruction was fitted to the needs of the students and of the times ; the small amount of money at hand allowed the hiring of only a slender faculty ; but the instruction was thorough, and some of those early instructors became later men of prominence in the affairs of the State. Mr. J. E. Gignoux, later a prominent figure in mining and business affairs, had charge of the mining and metallurgical work of the infant college for two years. For a time E. S. Farrington, now Judge of the Supreme Bench, was the head of the little institution.

            In 1885 it became clear that so long as the young school remained in Elko County it could do no more than serve the people of that county as a high school with some few beginnings of work of collegiate character. So, in 1885, the Legislature authorized the removal of the University to Reno in Washoe County, where in 1886 the first building was constructed, and the work of instruction was begun under Messrs. Willis and McCammon.

            In 1887 the Board of Regents, Governor C. C. Stevenson, John M. Dormer and W. C. Dovey, chose the Hon. Leroy D. Brown, of Ohio, as President of the University. President Brown was a man of the highest ideals, of restless energy and intense earnestness. He surrounded himself with a little group of instructors who were destined to play a large part in the future history of the young college.

            There is probably no situation more trying to a man of high character and high ideals than to be obliged to bring the great ideal into contact with that smallness of possibility which marks the beginning of things. President Brown's own education was of the best. He knew what was needed, and realized the standard and the nature of true education and training; yet he found himself in a situation where neither the preparatory training of the students nor the equipment which Nevada could possibly provide would enable him to get any results even approximating his knowl-

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edge of what could be and what should be. Yet he worked with restless and unfailing energy, building, planning under the burden of a vision which he could not realize, working with a zeal which led him in later years to look back upon his presidency of the embryo university as the happiest years of his life. In 1890 he resigned to take up educational work in an older community where he won immediate success.

            Of the first little group of teachers who formed that early faculty four names very dear to the students stand out and will be long remembered. Hannah K. Clapp, one of those pioneer instructors, took charge of the first classes in History and the English language. Walter McNab Miller organized the first classes in the group of natural sciences ; Miss Kate N. Tupper planned and organized the first Normal School ; while Robert D. Jackson took up the work of Mining and Metallurgy and the first classes in Mathematics.

            Now in view of the later development of the growing college, it is only fair to stop for a moment and see what this beginning meant to the men and women who made it. It was pioneer work, begun by a group of teachers who were for the most part young and enthusiastic, and of little previous experience in educational work. They came from larger and older colleges, came with an ideal of work well done in older States to a community whose people and whose conditions they did not at all understand. A true educator feels in his heart that the finest of buildings and the most modern and perfect equipment fall far short of what they should be ; he feels that a palace would be ennobled if turned into a school. But under pioneer conditions, life begins in a cabin. Education, like the rest of life, is not of surroundings but of the spirit.

            Education gives to each generation the hard-won facts and principles of the centuries—but more, it gives to each new generation the power to win for itself farther and other facts and principles. Its ideal is a shrine where burns the white flame of truth, where torches are lighted and carried out into the darkness. It is noteworthy that among the earliest graduates this spirit of earnest study was so far developed and encouraged that in spite of the poverty of the school and its exceedingly limited facilities, its first-born children have gone far and have won high places in their chosen fields of work.

            In the year 1890 Stephen A. Jones took charge of the University as its second President. President Jones differed markedly from President

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Brown. He, too, was a man of excellent training, holding the degree of Ph. D. from the University of Bonn in Germany. A rather broad experience in business affairs made President Jones careful and conservative in regard to increases in faculty and equipment in view of the general financial depression of the time and the poverty of the State at large.

            The small number of classes then organized and the elementary character of much of the work made it possible for President Jones to keep in close touch with the various departments ; in fact, it was his habit to visit every class once a week supervising the instruction. President Jones held office until June, 1894, a period of four years which, with the presidency of Leroy D. Brown, marked the true beginning of the University of Nevada. The buildings had now increased to four in number, the first University Building now called Morrill Hall, the Dormitory, later named Stewart Hall after Senator Wm. M. Stewart, the Experiment Station now used as the physics building, and the old mining building which is now used by the experiment station. The course of study had been divided into a school of liberal arts, a school of agriculture, the State Normal School, the School of Mines, and the Commercial and Preparatory School, divisions for the most part still in existence. A large number of special students had been enrolled.

            Resignations had thinned the ranks of the earlier faculty ; but a new one of some twenty members, had been recruited. It is but fair to characterize the administration of President Jones as a period of careful and wise business management, steady progress under close personal supervision.

            The funds at command of the University had been markedly increased by the passage of the Hatch Act and the Morrill Act of 1890 which together gave the young University annually an income of $40,000 of federal funds for the support of the agricultural and mechanical college and the experiment station. From the time of passage of these acts, President Jones urged the development of the school along those lines of agriculture and mechanic arts which correspond to the purposes of the federal funds.

            With the resignation of President Jones in 1894 and the appointment of a new President, came the beginning of an era of great progress in the history of the University. The succeeding twenty years mark the growth of the young institution from a period of struggle and promise, a reality always far below the ideal of its founders, into a time of progress and ex-

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pansion always outstripping what seemed to be possible. For twenty years the University worked constantly nearer a realization of the hopes and ideals which so discouraged and yet so inspired the founders and the early faculties.

            The third President of the University, Dr. J. E. Stubbs, brought to his new field of work a combination of qualities with experience which gave him an unusual and marked success. Educated in Ohio Wesleyan University, later a member of their faculty ; later for six years City Superintendent of the Schools of Ashland, O., then for two years president of Baldwin University at Berea, O., for two years a student in the University of Berlin, he came to the University of Nevada in the very prime of his life and in a fullness of preparation for what has proven to be his life work.

            Any analysis of a man's character and personality will fall short of the truth in large measure ; but to those who have worked longest with Dr. Stubbs, two things stand out strongly in an estimate of the qualities which are at the bottom of his success : these two are an exceptional knowledge of men and their motives for action, and with this an ideal of the meaning and worth of education undimmed with the passage of the years and growing only clearer in contact with meager possibilities of its realization.

            These two things, a knowledge of men and their motives, and undimmed hope and vision of the service that education can render them lie back of twenty years' progress in the University of Nevada.

            The first five years of Dr. Stubbs' presidency were in many ways a period of reconstruction and reorganization. In 1899 there were nearly thirty names on the list of the faculty ; and eight substantial brick buildings had been erected on the Campus, notable among them being Manzanita Hall, the college home for young ladies ; Lincoln Hall, the young men's dormitory, and a well-equipped mechanical building.

            The importance of these changes in housing and equipment was very great ; but changes equally important had taken place in the faculty and in the course of study. In mathematics, in language, in the sciences of physics and chemistry, the entrance requirements had been raised ; and plans were being formed for putting the instruction on a basis truly collegiate. But this could be accomplished only as the high schools of the State were made uniform in character and in their courses of study, for no State University can well advance faster than the grade of instruction

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which the high schools below it can offer. So it became part of the policy of the University to advance the standards set by the high schools of the State, and thus to secure students better fitted to take up the work of the college.

            At the same time it grew increasingly important to maintain at the University preparatory classes for such students as had been unable to gain access to high schools before coming to Reno.

            The five years ending with 1899 closed the period of reconstruction and founded the general form of schools and courses of study in the University. The succeeding five years saw little change in buildings or equipment; though the addition of the President's Cottage, the hospital and the chemistry building were important forward steps. But the changes in the internal organization and policy of the institution were more marked. Constant effort had been made through nearly ten years to raise the standard of work in the university and to advance the courses of study in the high schools ; and now this effort began to show excellent results. Work of really collegiate character was now being done in the University, while in the high schools the effect had been very marked. Even in the grammar schools the standard of work done had advanced rapidly to meet the grade of preparation demanded by the high schools. Probably in no other way has the influence of the University been more marked than in this : the rapid change, reorganization and progress of the entire school system of the State of Nevada in the years between 1894 and 1904. And this advance received its impetus in two ways—from the graduates who went into the schools as teachers, and from the advancing standards of instruction in the University itself.

            Three more years passed ; which in many ways were years of bitter struggle ; for always the ideal of what should be, remained undimmed. At times it was a force for discouragement, oftener one of inspiration. It is well worth noting that during all this period just as little money as might be was spent on the appearance of buildings and grounds, just as much as possible on the character of the instruction and on the equipment of the departments. Once when Dr. Stubbs was reproached in a half-joking way about the raggedness of the lawns on which two score Pah-Ute Indians were grubbing dandelions, he turned to the speaker and said, "The University must develop from the inside first ; I have al-

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ways tried to make the instruction and the equipment of the very best; and there hasn't been money enough for that, let alone anything else !"

            Few will ever know just how much courage it took in those early, formative years of struggle to be true to the ideal ; and yet never to become discouraged with the realities of the situation. At every session of the Nevada Legislature it became Dr. Stubbs's mission to explain to legislators often indifferent, sometimes openly hostile, the plans and purposes of the University and to ask for increasing sums for its support. At times it appeared as though all the newspapers of the State were arrayed against the University, heaping up a mass of complaint and uninformed criticism wholly unfair ; but again, editors of clearer insight and fairer view came to the front in the press with editorials that rang with true insight into the real meaning of the struggling young college.

            In every session of the Legislature friends were found or were won, friends who caught the fire of the spirit which was in Dr. Stubbs's ideal of what the University could be and should be. To anybody who is familiar with Nevada as a whole, with the immensity of the territory and the isolation of the towns and the ranches, with the character of the industries which have been developed, the attitude of the State toward the University has on the whole been marvelously generous. When the taxable valuations of the State are considered it is clear that no other State in the Union has dealt more liberally with its University than has Nevada.

            Yet, at the very best, it was quite impossible for any State with so small taxable valuations and so scattered a population to provide buildings and equipment which would meet modern standards and ever-growing needs in technical education. This was especially true in regard to the School of Mines. Already, some fifteen years after the first of the boys from the Nevada School of Mines had gone out to seek positions they had won for themselves high places and abundant recognition. Some were in Mexico, others in Australia, others in Africa. Throughout western America, Nevada men were found here and there hard at work in mine and mill, respected and successful. But from the very first they worked under a handicap. Graduates of the older eastern colleges, men from the best technical schools of Europe, men of the finest training were competing for place and success with men from our little school of mines with its limited finances and equipment.

            And this was at a time when the engineering world was moving for-

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ward very rapidly. New mechanical appliances and new forces were displacing the old in the whole field of modern mining. Chemistry and physics were making rapid strides; the instruction necessary for the mining engineer was rapidly becoming more involved and technical. Nevada had done her best to meet the new conditions. Our high schools had multiplied ; and they had taken from the University the burden of teaching many subjects that should be presented in secondary schools. Still the struggle was hard; Nevada's mining school had come into keenest competition with the mining schools of older and richer States where the sheer force of wealth made it possible to give a higher grade of instruction.

            Then, just at this critical time, the son of a pioneer did for the sons of other pioneers just the thing which was needed at just the time when it was needed most. In the year 1907 Clarence H. Mackay and his mother, Mrs. Mary Louise Mackay, gave to the University the Mackay School of Mines ; and it is this gift with the other gifts from Mr. Mackay and his mother which have been the beginning of a new era in the University of Nevada. It is in this later period, from 1908 to 1913 that the University has seemed to come nearest the ideal of its founders and to offer to the students an equipment and surroundings better fitting its great mission of training and developing human lives for high service.

            The Mackay Mining Building is a many-sided gift. Signifying many things it symbolizes many others. First of all, it is an exceedingly well-planned and suitable construction. The materials are permanent, solid walls of brick on a foundation of cemented stone, windows, doors, seats and tables of oak, floors of maple ; the kind of construction which costs effort, time and skill in the highest degree. In the planning of the Mackay Mining Building the central idea was simply—use.

            But just as a human life that is useful in the highest degree becomes a beautiful life ; just so a building whose central idea is use, service, in the highest degree takes on a beauty of its own, or at least a fitness quite akin to beauty. The Mackay School of Mines is a beautiful building. It is a structure exceedingly plain and simple ; but symbolizing in every line honesty, dignity, and permanence. In its type of architecture and construction, in its combination of service with character, it is a worthy monument to John W. Mackay in whose memory it was erected.

            At times, it seems as though the man in whose memory the building was given were present in a tangible form as well as in spirit. The finest

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sculptures of Greece, the best-loved paintings of the Middle Ages were records in stone or fresco of things which the artist believed to be very noble. Conceived in that same spirit, Gutzon Borglum's statue of John W. Mackay is a statement in bronze of the nobility which the artist felt and recognized in the character of the pioneer of the old Comstock.

            The Mackay School of Mines and the statue are things of worth ; and they are set as things of worth should be placed—in beautiful surroundings. They stand facing the sun ; at the north side of the Mackay Quadrangle, a great green lawn bordered with trees and broad walks where the old grey sage-brush had grown for centuries before. These gifts, the school with all that such a school stands for, and the statue with all that such a statue means, set as they are in beautiful surroundings, marked the termination of the pioneer period in the University and the opening of a period in which the work of the school may be done without the handicap of scanty equipment and dire poverty.

            But Mr. Mackay and his mother felt that unless they were sure that the varying prosperity of the State of Nevada would not affect the University and its School of Mines, they could not feel sure that the building and equipment, however generously provided, would reach always their highest usefulness. They, therefore, set aside annually some $6,000 for the support of the school until such time as it should be thoroughly organized. Later, Mr. Mackay and his mother concluded to take that farther step which would make the instruction as excellent and as permanent as the building and its surroundings ; and so they endowed the Mackay School of Mines by setting aside stock enough in the Mackay Companies to pay for the best of instruction in mining and metallurgy for all the years to come.

            Still, after all, the things which went straight to the hearts of the student body and made Clarence Mackay and his mother wearers of the big "N" forever were not the statue, not the quadrangle, nor even yet the school of mines, but a gift which touches every student in the very vital matter of healthy recreation and sport—the Mackay Athletic Field and Training Quarters. To see the student-body, boys and girls alike, with half the pop-

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THE MACKAY STATUE.--The Hon. Sam P. Davis, then Controller of the State of Nevada, was largely instrumental in securing the Borglum statue of John W. Mackay. Mr. Davis conceived the idea of placing such a statue in the grounds of the State Capitol at Carson City.  He visited Mr. Clarence Mackay in New York City and secured the promise of the statue.  Later, when Mr. Mackay became deeply interested in the University of Nevada it was deemed more suitable to place this noble bronze figure in front of the Mackay School of Mines, where it now stands.

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ulation of the city massed on the great stone amphitheater to the west of the field, sheltered from the afternoon sun and the wind by the graceful colonnade above them, colors flying, horns blowing, flags waving—cheering the home team on to victory or to a brave fight against heavy odds is to catch an inspiring glimpse of what play can mean in a college. And then, to go over across the field to the training quarters and to note the fine two-story brick building with its tasteful architecture and supreme fitness for its purpose, is to gain a new respect for the care and the training of the body.

            Today the Mackay Athletic Field is one of the show places of Nevada and in all western America there is not such another amphitheatre for athletic contests. These gifts, school, quadrangle, the noble statue, the field with its training quarters, mark 1907 and 1909 as years when noble history was made for the University.

            In all its larger outlines we have followed the story of the University of Nevada up to the year 1909, a period of some thirty-five years from its beginnings in Elko down to the time when the generosity and largeness of view of Clarence Mackay and his mother had made possible the day of larger plans and progress.

            Still, this large outline of the University's history is much like an artist's first crayon sketch of a picture whose detail of flesh and blood must be worked out in color. Yet we can do no more than to leave it as a sketch unfinished ; for the vitality and color can be supplied in detail only by the students themselves as they come and go as the years pass by.

            As the years passed, one group of regents succeeded another, each group striving to carry forward the work to the best standard that circumstances would allow. It was a task paid only by the gratitude of the people of the State, or by a consciousness of work well done. W. E. F. Deal, H. S. Starrett, W. W. Booher, J. N. Evans, Oscar Smith, J. E. Bray, Charles Lewers, Charles Henderson, Frank Williams, and a score of others worked with unselfish earnestness in the building of the University, giving to the work days that could scarcely be spared from their own busy lives, building always on work well done before.

            One group of instructors followed another likewise ; so that now when the older alumni come back to the campus they see hardly one familiar face. This is one of the great handicaps of the younger and smaller colleges, the difficulty of keeping good men and women in the ranks of the

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faculty. Some find better places elsewhere, others feel the necessity of getting into more remunerative fields of work ; some grow worn with labor and fall asleep forever ; but to the boys and girls who know them they are treasured names, to be remembered always.

            Among all those names none was ever dearer than that of Miss Hannah K. Clapp, so long the librarian of the University ; for she was strong, kind and wise ; and to the very end of her working years she was a power for good and for progress in the upbuilding of the young and struggling college. And, too, as long as one of the old students of the years between 1891 and 1912 shall live, Richard Brown will not be forgotten. "Dick," at the head of the boys of Lincoln Hall, and in charge of the whole school in the dining hall was the biggest-hearted and best man who ever lived—in the judgment of every student of those days on the campus. And then there was Walter McNab Miller who founded the work in biological science later carried forward so ably by Peter Frandsen and others. Professor Miller was closely associated with Fred. H. Hillman, whose work in certain fields of applied botany was of a character so high that it met enthusiastic acceptance all over America. In scientific spirit, in the broad application of his studies, in devotion to the essential spirit of experiment station work in agriculture Professor Hillman was ten years in advance of his time.

            Nor will Mrs. Mary W. Emery's unselfish and earnest work for the upbuilding of the State Normal School be soon forgotten. In the work of the teachers whom she trained, her influence extended over the whole of Nevada. And then there was Henry Thurtell, dean of the university, who built up the department of mathematics ; N. E. Wilson, loved by all the students, who made chemistry a vital subject in every department of the University and yet all the while kept in closest touch with the student life ; with Dr. J. E. Church, who built up the department of Latin setting standards of scholarship that were felt throughout the University and the schools of the State.

            The mining boys of the old time will never forget Professor R. D. Jackson, who made the present school of mines possible by making the first school of mines a force felt to the present day in the work of its graduates all over the world, nor Dr. J. Warne Phillips, who built up courses in physics which made up for many deficiencies in the other departments.

            And it would be unfair to fail to mention Robert Lewers, the honored

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vice-president of the University, who built up a commercial school which has laid a sure foundation for many a successful business career, or Miss Laura deLaguna and Miss Kate Bardenwerper, who founded the departments of French and Domestic Science.

            All these are honored names ; for they belong to the most difficult and trying period of the history of the University, the time when with very little to build upon, the courses of instruction still followed were being founded ; and the work of the young school was being brought up slowly toward the standard set by the older and wealthier colleges.

            It seems unfair, it is manifestly unfair to omit the name of any one, regent, professor or instructor who has taken any part in the building of the University through its forty years of steady progress ; but the scope of the present article makes it utterly out of the question to do more than mention just a few of the earlier names of men and women who struggled with the hardest problems of the formative period of the University. To the faculty, gone or now at work or yet to come, honor must always be due. Many a man of the best preparation has spent the best years of his life here out in the West, out of touch with all that glowing enthusiasm that comes from daily contact with the best men of the larger colleges, isolated and alone in his chosen field of thought, working to give the boys and girls of Nevada the facts and principles and something of the spirit and point of view that make up his science, dying perhaps as Professor Thomas W. Cowgill, the founder of the department of English, and Professor Charles P. Brown, died through overwork in the service of the University.

            The last few years of the University's history up to 1913 have seen fewer changes. There has been steadier growth perhaps, without any great change in the personnel of the faculty ; and it is but fair to hope that it may become a tradition with our own University as with the larger and older institutions—to hold good men and women in the faculty, to keep them until they become a part of the State of Nevada in thought and spirit, understanding the State and its people, and thus understanding the problems of its schools and its homes.

            The final period of this sketch begins with the election of the present Board of Regents (1913), Messrs. H. E. Reid, A. A. Codd, J. W. O'Brien, Charles B. Henderson and Walter E. Pratt. They form a group of business and professional men who have taken the deepest personal interest in the work of the University. Their administration is full of the vigor of

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the times ; they have familiarized themselves completely with the details of the organization and work. They have made changes of an importance so great as to constitute a new and modern period.

            Under their administration, the preparatory department, which in earlier years did so much for pupils remote from high schools, was done away with completely. Yet this has resulted immediately in a marked increase in the attendance in the University itself.

            They further strengthened the work in engineering by securing from the Legislature of 1911 the generous gift of an electrical building in which, with improved facilities and appliances, this highly technical subject may be presented in a way that fits its supreme importance to every side of modern civilization.

            Then, too, in these later years, the school of agriculture has made a marked and sudden development which has brought it up from the position of the most backward and neglected course in the University to the one whose enrollment of students is longest. This is largely because the school has been brought into close touch with the real agriculture of the State at large, an agriculture which must always center around the stock-raising industry. The crops raised in Nevada are many ; they will become more specialized as the State grows older and more roads and railroads are built ; but always there will be vastly more range land than farm land ; and always the stock-raising industry must be our primary form of agriculture. Sheep and cattle in Nevada must always be most important products of ranch and range.

            So through the building of a strong department of animal husbandry in the University, corresponding somewhat to the primary instruction of the stock-raising industry in the State at large, the school of agriculture has come into a vital relation with the agriculture of the State as a whole. The founder of the department, Professor Gordon H. True, has built up a herd of prize-winners which in the years between 1910 and 1913 made an enviable record in stock shows of the Pacific Slope. Likewise, the development of a department of horticulture under Doctor P. B. Kennedy has added greatly to the success of the school of agriculture.

            Much could be said of the work of the Experiment Station. Like the college it was handicapped in the beginning and kept back by the poverty of the institution with which it was affiliated. At first it seemed imperative that the investigators at work in the station would also be teachers

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in the college. In fact, it would have been vastly more difficult to pass through the pioneer period in the University had it not been for the federal funds with which the station should be maintained. Much of the time and thought of the men was thus diverted into the classroom. Yet much true experimental work and investigation was accomplished and published, some of it taking rank with the best work of its kind published in America. In later years the Office of Experiment Stations at Washington, D. C., has felt that a growing exactness in experimental work and an increasing depth and precision in investigation demand that the men of the experiment station shall give to research and investigation the fullest measure of time and thought. Only in this way, through a genuine study of fundamental problems can agriculture, or the teaching of agricultural escape from the blind treadmill round of tradition.

            So in this most recent period of history of the University the regents have come to regard the money sent out by the Federal Government to the Nevada Experiment Station as a trust fund, of which the administrative officers of the school are trustees who in simple integrity will apply the fund in full to the purposes for which it is appropriated.

            Now, aside from the changes already noted, the board of regents holding office at the present time (1913) have made one other change of marked and peculiar importance. They have instituted thorough-going changes in the financial system of the school. Year by year the finances of the University have become more complex as more and different funds had to be administered to definite ends. After the changes which brought in the modern period, it seems very fitting and wise to give to the University just such a system of accounting as would govern the expenditure of large sums in any well-organized business house. The changed financial system relieves the President of a burden which he should never have been called upon to bear, the burden of looking after the accounting and bookkeeping of the institution. In March, 1912, the regents appointed Mr. C. H. Gorman as the first comptroller, under whose supervision a most exact and modern system of bookkeeping was installed ; the old accounts were checked, audited and balanced. Every department of the University was given its own separate appropriation, a thing immensely desirable and important since it leads straight toward efficiency and economy. All this is in line with the recommendation of the Carnegie Institution for the Advancement of Teaching, which regards most strict and careful account-

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ing as the first fundamental to the successful conduct of a school, just as much as it is the earliest fundamental in the conduct of any form of business.

            A further change of marked importance in the financial system of the University was made early in 1913. At the request of the board of regents, the appropriation of State funds to the support of the University by the Nevada Legislature was made in the form of a percentage of the total tax levy of the State instead of a lump sum.

            By the old plan, the stated sum, all the funds must be used by January 1st of the succeeding legislative year. This left the institution without funds for three months at the beginning of each such year. Borrowing became necessary, and the work of many of the departments was hampered. Under the new plan, suggested by Controller Gorman of the University, funds will be available throughout the year and the work can be carried steadily forward without hindrance.

            Now as we glance over the years, especially the last twenty years of the history of the University, it becomes plain that the school has cost Nevada thousands of dollars every year; and it is equally plain that as the years go by this cost must continue; it is only natural, therefore, to ask just what the institution has been able to return to the State in repayment for all this expense. The effect of the founding and growth of the University has been very far-reaching.

            In the first place, of course, it has provided education, training and fitness for life, to a very large number of young men and young women who are thus given careers that would have been impossible to them otherwise. From the very first the graduates have taken and have held high rank in competition with the graduates of older and richer institutions. This was due to two things, to the spirit of initiative and independence that is characteristic of the people of Nevada, and to the fact that they learned to feel that the work of the class-room is but the beginning of study. The most successful men who have graduated from the Nevada School of Mines have been just those men who have studied harder and have learned far more after graduation than before.

            Then, too, the University, through its normal school, has provided hundreds of well-trained teachers for the schools of the State. Probably nothing has been of more importance that this: to send into the common schools of Nevada young men and women who, knowing the conditions

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of the State at large, with the strongest sympathy and understanding for the people themselves, will take the children and train them into lives of greater usefulness.

            But wholly aside from these things, disregarding entirely the training of the children and the training of the young men and women for special professions, the University has been a center of light and good influence for the whole State. In the years from 1906 to 1909 it became more and more apparent that unless the moral conditions of the State were improved the University would not grow into its full power and could not prosper as it should. This meant that the State would fail in its duty of preparing its children as they should be prepared and fitted for life, simply because of a lamentable laxity of social and moral conditions—an evil heritage from pioneer days.

            The fight was a very bitter one ; but under the leadership of the University, gambling was thrown out of the State in 1909, let us hope forever. For gambling is a thing beyond excuse. No living man can advance even a form of argument in its favor. The question is this : shall we lure men to vice and ruin them for an accursed profit ; or shall we live clean lives and educate our children to live better lives. The University led the winning fight. Let us hope that it may win many another until its standard of living becomes an uplifting force throughout Nevada and wherever its graduates may go.

            One of the principal objections to the old system by which the State supported its University was the fact that at each session of the Legislature the appropriation was made as a lump sum, which could be drawn upon up to January 1st of the succeeding legislative year. This left the school without funds for three months at the beginning of each legislative year.

NEVADA'S PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

BY JOHN EDWARDS BRAY.

            At the very organization of Nevada as a Territory, in 1861, provision was made for a system of public schools supported by county taxation ; and while still a territory, provision was further made for district taxation.

            Enlarged provision was made in the State Constitution adopted in Sep-

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tember, 1864. The land grants from the National Government for school purposes were a great aid in the matter and the income from these, in connection with State, county and district taxation, enabled the people to establish and maintain a good system of public schools and to prepare for the establishment of a University for which they made provision in the State Constitution. Soon these were supplemented by national financial support in the Morrill and Hatch acts.

            Though, as a State, Nevada was born in the storm and stress of the Civil War, its people did not forget that general intelligence is essential to good government. The system, as adopted in 1865, provided for school districts throughout the State, for compulsory taxation in the various counties and district taxation whenever the latter was desired by the people ; and to these sources of support were to be added the income on investments of the permanent school fund and the proceeds of a State tax not to exceed twenty cents on the hundred dollars of assessed valuation. The office of county superintendent was established. The traveling expenses of this officer were to be paid by the county in each instance. He was to look after the schools of his county, but no qualifications were prescribed and his salary was at the mercy of the County Commissioners.

            From 1865 to 1885, good schools were built up in all the larger towns, able teachers being brought in from other States for these positions. But as there was no required course of study, each school was a law unto itself as to what it should do and how much, as to the order in which work should be done and how. The plan of uniform text-books, adopted in 1865, helped to some extent in keeping schools along the same general lines of work, though changes more or less radical occurred a each change of teachers or principal. As might be expected, the schools were good and bad "in spots."

            The rural schools fared worse in the matter of aid from the State or county through supervision, as they were seldom reached by a school official who understood school work or requirements. The State Superintendent could not visit them, and the County Superintendent's salary was too small for him to undertake any systematic work; and then he might be only a politician, and what could he do for the school? Wherever there was a well-qualified, live teacher, in town or country, there was a good school. The trouble lay largely in the fact that there were no school officials to see that such teachers were provided for the rural schools ;

520      THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

and such teachers were by no means the rule in the town or city districts even. However, the people took much pride in their schools and liberally supported them.

            About the year 1887 the County Superintendent as an elective officer was dispensed with on the score of economy, and his duties were devolved on the District Attorney, who became ex-officio County Superintendent. This temporarily ended school supervision in Nevada, and an agitation was begun for State supervision by competent educators who should receive therefor fair salaries and who should devote their entire time to supervision.

            The opening of the State University in Reno in 1885 largely aided in centering interest on educational matters throughout the State ; and the presidents and the professors of the University, as the institution grew, took a large interest in the State high schools, attended the State and County Institutes held, and were present at many meetings of school principals and teachers, who were endeavoring to improve the schools and to secure unified courses of study and instruction under needed supervision.

            The University influence for better schools was strong, and it grew with the years. The cordial cooperation of the President and professors with the leading teachers of the State acted as a unifying force for the high schools, and indirectly benefited the elementary schools. Foremost among the University men and women who aided in this work were Presidents Leroy D. Brown, S. A. Jones and J. E. Stubbs ; Professors Rob't Lewers, Kate N. Tupper, Henry Thurtell, J. E. Church, T. W. Cowgill and Romanzo Adams.

            Among the public school officials, principals and teachers who were prominent in agitation and organization for improved school conditions—some of them having stood stoutly for supervision by State authority and at State expense for some pears prior to 1887—were : Principals D. R. Sessions, C. S. Young, W. C. Dovey, Orvis Ring, H. C. Cutting and John Edwards Bray, each of whom served later as State Superintendent of Public Instruction ; H. H. Howe, J. N. Flint, A. H. Willis, D. A. Ewing, Mills Van Wagenen, H. F. Baker, W. W. Booher, R. C. Story, E. E. Caine, M. R. Averill, Gilbert C. Ross and C. R. McLane. Through the action of the educators named, and many others, in committee meetings, in County and State Institutes and in educational associations organized for school improvement and inspiration, public sentiment was some-

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what aroused and partial unification of school work voluntarily secured in the larger schools.

            A considerable number of well qualified Nevada teachers had gone into the schools as a result of University and normal school training and of the State Uniform Examination Act of 1893.

            But more and more it was realized that legislation was needed, that a radical change in the system was necessary; that there must be larger powers vested in the State Board of Education and provision made for intelligent care and oversight of the schools through direct State supervision.

            The Reorganization Act.—While the cooperation of the University with the teachers of the State, in the absence of definite school organization and supervision, has been an important factor in Nevada's educational growth, our large progress in public school education dates from the Reorganization Act of 1907. That epoch-making school legislation was the final outcome of over twenty years of discussion and agitation on the part of teachers and school officers who realized the need of a more efficient school system. In the two years immediately preceding the enactment of that legislation, Doctor Romanzo Adams ably led the movement that culminated in the unanimous adoption by the teachers of the plan of reorganization. This plan had the inspiring and influential approval of my distinguished predecessor, State Superintendent Orvis Ring, and it was presented to the Legislature of 1907 with the cordial support of all the educational forces of the State.

            The system thus inaugurated did away with the varieties and inequalities of county supervision, substituting therefor unified supervision by the State. It makes directly for efficiency in the schools by bringing to every teacher and school board the advantage, strength and inspiration of State aid in their work, given by a trained supervising force. It makes directly for economy in school funds by preventing the waste of time and energy resulting from poor teaching under the disorganizing conditions theretofore existing in Nevada schools.

            The poor teacher is early located and is helped to better work if she has it in her to do it. The inexperienced rural teacher is aided and encouraged by the assistance of a qualified and experienced superintendent. The rural schools and teachers are in large need of attention from a competent and authoritative source, as they are in the main distant from

522      THE HISTORY, OF NEVADA

centers of association and industry; and the larger share of attention is being given to them, to the end that the children therein may receive the greatest service possible from the money appropriated for their instruction.

            By the Reorganization Act the various County Superintendents were done away with, with the consent and to the satisfaction of those ex-officio officials. The State Superintendent and five Deputy State Superintendents took the place of these with larger powers and duties. Any one could be County Superintendent if elected District Attorney, but a high standard of qualifications is required in the Deputy State Superintendents. Each, in addition to other qualifications that may be required by the State Board of Education, must have, prior to his appointment, five years' successful experience in teaching and a Nevada high school State teacher's certificate.

            Through the State Board of Education, composed of the Governor of the State, the President of the State University and the Superintendent of Public Instruction, courses of study for the elementary and high schools are prepared and promulgated ; and all the schools, unless specifically excepted by the State Board of Education, are required to use these courses, provision being made for high schools to diversify their courses to the advantage of the students by selecting from a list of accredited subjects.

            Through the controlling power of the State board all the schools are kept properly articulated, the primary and grammar schools are placed on a definite basis, and preparation for entrance to high schools is improved and made substantially uniform. Through the same agency the various high schools are kept in touch with each other, and all are stimulated to cooperate for better preparation of students for the activities of real life, as well as for advanced work in college or University for those who may desire it.

            Through the deputies the State Superintendent is enabled to reach into every school district in the State, suggesting improvement where necessary; informing, advising, commending. Radiating from the office of the State Board of Education through the State Superintendent, instructions and directions of similar import go out to school boards and teachers in every part of the State.

            Safeguarding the proper distribution of school moneys by supervising

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the school census in the interests of fairness to all sections of the State, apportioning the school moneys, examining teachers and granting and renewing certificates—all done through the department of education—are additional features worthy of mention. These powers make for similar and equitable disposition, by trained educators, of questions and policies affecting directly every district in the State.

            Increased public interest in the schools, directly resulting from State supervision, brought dissatisfaction with the school curriculum. Individual teachers had voiced this for many years, but there had been, under the old system, no way of readily bringing before the people as a whole the need of better things ; but under the new system, public sentiment was at last being crystallized for good schools, and it began to dawn upon the people in Nevada, as in other States, that school work was too technical and narrow ; that there should be something more than head-and-heart-training—though each of these is fundamental ; that the schools should be more responsive to the life needs of boys and, girls under the new industrial conditions of the country.

            In response to popular interest and demand, voiced by many teachers and school officers, the Legislature of 1909 passed an act authorizing industrial education in schools, and a movement was at once begun in several districts to make manual training, domestic science and commercial courses features of regular school work.

            In August, 1910, Reno put into the elementary grades manual training and domestic science, with modern equipment; Goldfield and Elko put in manual training. In August, 1911, Ely installed manual training; in September, 1912, Wells put in some phases of manual training and domestic arts ; and in November, Winnemucca put in manual training. Strong commercial courses have been put in the high schools at Goldfield, Ely, Reno, Tonopah, Winnemucca and Eureka, while the county high schools at Panaca, Las Vegas and Fallon, and the district high school at Dayton, have arranged to install such courses in September, 1913.

            The Lyon County High School at Yerington put in a course in practical agriculture in September last, which is going to be of great usefulness to the people of the rich and promising region in that portion of Lyon County ; and the introduction of agricultural courses in other high schools is now under serious consideration. Very favorable places for

524      THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

such work are Elko, Lovelock, Fallon, Gardnerville, Las Vegas and Panaca.

            In the new high school building in Reno, quite complete courses in manual and domestic arts have been provided for on a much larger and more diversified scale than heretofore attempted in Nevada. Very large life-values are certain to be realized for the boys and girls who are privileged to attend this school, if they are permitted, as in my judgment they should be, to specialize on the things that will most concern them as homemakers and citizens when out of school.

            It is hoped that Carson City may next year install courses in manual training and domestic arts, and a full commercial course. In the interest of the boys and girls of the State Orphans' Home, who in accordance with the law are now being educated in the schools of the city, the State has offered financial aid for equipping and maintaining such courses in the Carson schools.

            These movements are but the beginning of a large reshaping of our school courses. Room will be made for the new work by partial substitution in some cases and by elimination of unimportant matter and details in the text-books, a work that is already under way in Nevada.

            In the encouragement and support given this work, the Department of Education has had the active and able aid of many leading teachers of the State, some of whom have come to us from other States and Territories in the last few years, bringing with them a wealth of ideas and experiences that have been invaluable to Nevada's school progress.

            The demand for changes in the course of study was soon supplemented by a demand for better trained teachers and better salaries. The former is being gradually met by better and wider facilities for education in our State and by a better class of teachers from other States, for Nevada has never yet been able to supply much more than three-fifths of its teachers. With a strong college education now maintained at our State University and county normal training schools provided for through State aid in the various counties, we ought to get quite a large number of Nevada's young men and women into the educational harness. An average increase of about 20 per cent. has been made in salaries in the five years from and including 1907, in central and western Nevada, though the salaries are still insufficient in many schools to secure and hold first-class experienced teachers.

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            There are in Nevada to-day comparatively few very poor schools, one perhaps where there were five, six years ago. State supervision, through expert inspection, has thrown the limelight of publicity on every school, and the improvement resulting has been marked. The desire for better schools has been implanted everywhere, and there will be no rest until very large improvements in matter and quality of school work are everywhere manifest.

            Another evidence of growing interest in education under the new system is the large increase in high schools and high school attendance. There are now approximately 1,000 students doing high school work in the State, as compared with 600 six years ago—an increase of 66 2/3 per cent.

            This enlarged attendance has been made possible by improved high school facilities furnished by counties and districts. With the further extension of opportunities for training in the industries and vocations of life now on in Nevada, a continued increase will be noted, though all our high school work is now based on the four-year course.

            All the larger high schools of the State are accredited to the University of Nevada, the University of California and Stanford University. This fact sufficiently tells the story of the present excellency of work and attainment in Nevada schools.

            As an outgrowth of an improved sentiment for good schools, a taste for better school buildings has developed. Old buildings have been repaired, remodeled and painted, and new buildings of modern design, convenience and equipment have been erected.

            More than $650,000 has been invested in the last four years and is in process of investment, for new school buildings in Reno, Goldfield, Elko, Ely, East Ely, McGill, Panaca, Las Vegas, Yerington, Winnemucca, Tonopah, Lovelock, Wells and other towns. Reno alone in that time has bonded itself for $350,000 for grounds, buildings and equipment. In this connection it would be well to remember that Reno has a population of less than 15,000. Tonopah one year ago bonded itself for $50,000 for a modern new school building, and industrial courses will be installed there the coming school year. The remarkable school interest thus shown is typical of the aroused educational sentiment of Nevada.

            And it should be noted here that most of these buildings have been equipped with shops and laboratories, are heated by furnaces, are well lighted and ventilated, and are thoroughly sanitary. In some of them

526      THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

are spacious and well-furnished assembly halls, used for school meetings, school socials and entertainments, and thus they are in line for becoming what schools ought to be—social and community centers for the people of the various districts.

            I believe we are rapidly approaching the time when the school buildings of Nevada, as are those of Wisconsin and several of the more progressive States, will be freely used by the people—under proper regulations, of course—for public meetings of all kinds ; and why not? The people own them; they have hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in them in Nevada ; and to use them as at present for a few hours a day, for a little over half the time yearly, entails a waste in investment that would not be tolerated in any other kind of public business.

            Each city, town or community forms a school district, having for its control and management a board of school trustees, which by law is a body corporate. In the sparsely settled portions of the State—and these make up the most of the State at present—wherever there are five or more school census children in reasonable proximity to each other, a school is established by the County Commissioners on petition of the residents.

            So far as the writer knows, no other State in the Union provides so liberally for such small groups of children. Our big neighbor, California, requires fifteen such children to establish a new district, and there must be an average daily attendance of more than five in order to have such district continued.

            The district school board has general and special charge of all school property, hires the teacher, furnishes supplies, etc., paying all bills against the district by orders on the County Auditor, the Auditor drawing his warrant on the County Treasurer therefor. All school moneys of district boards and county boards are in the custody of the County Treasurer.

            Many of the best citizens in town and country districts are giving freely of their time and energy for education in the capacity of School Trustees.

            The public schools of Nevada—the county high schools excepted—are supported in the main by money supplied from the State and county school funds which are apportioned to the various school districts by the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

            When the money thus supplied is insufficient, any district may, by action

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of its trustees or by vote of its electors, impose a direct tax on the property of the district sufficient for its needs.

            Nevada has over $2,000,000 in its Irreducible State School Fund. This is invested in State and United States bonds, the interest on which is semi-annually distributed to the schools. An annual State school tax of 6 cents on the one hundred dollars is distributed in the same manner. The State school tax was increased by the Legislature of 1911 to 10 cents on the hundred dollars. Some of the counties assessed and paid this tax and others assessed and paid only the old rate of 6 cents. But at the special session of 1912 the Legislature repealed the 10-cent tax, as an economy measure. From interest on deferred payments on State school land contracts and from surplus State library funds, some money also goes yearly to the schools.

            From the foregoing various sources the State Distributive School Fund is made up. It varies somewhat from year to year, but for four years has aggregated something over $200,000 yearly. The county tax in the various counties, which must be at least 20 cents on the hundred dollars, brings to the schools approximately $250,000 annually, and the districts raise for various school purposes, about $150,000 more.

            The money derived from all sources approximate $600,000 annually, varying, of course, with valuations, rates and district needs, which is used to educate approximately 13,000 school children, most of whom are enrolled in the public schools of the State. It must be remembered that these children are scattered over a sparsely settled territory, nearly twice as large as the New England States ; that they are grouped in districts of varying school population, many having but five children, others having from five to ten, from ten to fifteen, and so on to Reno, which has about two thousand.

            There are eleven county high schools in the State, each supported wholly by a county high school tax. The counties maintain these liberally, and they are of great educational value to those who attend them and as stimuli for the rural schools.

            We are now investing in Nevada about $600,000 yearly for educational purposes. Our population numbers about 85,000, living in sixteen counties and scattered over 110,000 square miles of territory. The entire cost of State supervision by Deputy Superintendents is $15,025 per annum, as shown by the appropriation made by the last Legislature. This is $939.06

528      THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

for each of the sixteen counties of the State, which includes salaries and traveling and office expenses of the Deputy Superintendents ; it does not, of course, include the support of the State Superintendent's office, as that would have to be maintained under any form of supervision.

            County supervision in many States costs from 50 to 100 per cent. more, and it has proven unsatisfactory. In New York they have to supplement it by State supervision with a large force of specialists, in order that the school work might have practical and unified direction. Iowa, California, Nebraska and other States have a separate system for every county, and the people are agitating for supplemental unifying supervision by the States.

            Reno pays its City Superintendent $3,000 a year, and a part of the salaries of six principals under him is for supervision work. Goldfield, with but a little over one-third the school population of Reno, pays its City Superintendent $3,000 a year, and three principals under him are paid in part for supervision work. Tonopah pays its City Superintendent $2,500 a year. And so with Ely and other towns. In Elko the principal of the district school gets $2,000 a year for supervising the work of but nine teachers, his entire time practically being devoted to supervision. In all these cases the money expended for supervision is considered a necessary and wise expenditure, both from educational and business standpoints. It insures right methods of work and economy of time and effort on the part of its teaching force, and unifies the work of all. If this supervision work is necessary and important at the centers of education, how much more so in the small towns and isolated rural districts, which must depend entirely for right work on aid and direction from the outside.

            The percentage of cost for county supervision in several States examined is from 3 per cent. to 5 per cent. ; and in some of the cities it runs 8 per cent. or more. With us the cost for county and State is less than 3 per cent. Considering the extent of territory to be covered—much of which must be reached by automobile, stage or team—the cost of travel, the qualifications of the supervising force and the results to the schools, Nevada has been most fortunate in launching a successful reform movement in general supervision at a cost so comparatively light.

            The business of training teachers for Nevada schools is making some progress. In addition to the provision for the large training of teachers in the College of Education at the University of Nevada, arrangements

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have been made for some normal training to be given in the various counties.

            The Legislature of 1909 made provisions for county normal training schools to be established and maintained in the various counties of our State, under certain conditions. The Board of County Commissioners and the County Boards of Education, in a given county, were to unite in a preliminary establishment of a normal training school for the county, the Commissioners guaranteeing the necessary funds for equipment, etc., not exceeding $500 in any one year. The State Board of Education was then to complete the establishment of said school, employ the instructor and have charge of the school, the State to pay the instructor's salary, which was not to exceed $1,800 a year.

            These schools are necessary agencies in our State for preparing our own young people for the profession of teaching, as they reach many who could not and would not attend the Normal College at the State University in Reno. I regard their continued maintenance as essential to school progress in Nevada.

            Nevada has provided well for the education of its children, and in its various districts it is planning to do even better. The people realize that money put into the schools is an investment, and they wish to know that it is wisely and efficiently used. They want the schools improved, want them kept in touch with industrial and community life, and their children may go out from them with trained heads, hearts and hands—with as much preparation as possible for life. To this end they want provision for training their children in the schools in things that pertain to the home, the farm, the shop, the factory and to business. Some of these things are already being done in Nevada schools, as shown in this article, to their decided betterment—a result richly experienced on their introduction in other States ; and in each succeeding year it is hoped that school after school will introduce these practical features of education, the State aiding in the work.

            Our State is marching forward in agricultural and mining with giant strides, and it has made an important beginning in manufacturing. Everywhere the spirit of progress is dominant. We know that an era of great State development is at hand, and that with it we should have right and large education for the children. We have to-day some of the best

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schools in the west, and a movement for good schools throughout Nevada is everywhere strongly in evidence.

            Through organization by the State and its direct guidance, aid and encouragement, the people have entered heartily and generously into the business of school betterment. Though much has been accomplished, the work of improvement is still in its infancy. The task of adjusting school instruction to the changing needs of the State and its various communities, of getting the school work rightly done and keeping it in line with the progress of the age without overloading or overworking the children, is a continuous one—a problem that is worthy of the finest efforts of our ablest and most patriotic men and women.

RENO'S PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

BY B. D. BILLINGHURST.

            A visitor coming to Reno for the first time is invariably impressed with the city's unusual educational facilities. In addition to the State University, he finds here a finely equipped system of public schools. These schools had their beginnings in 1869, only five years after the admission of Nevada as a State, when the school district was first organized. During the past decade the population of the city has probably trebled, and the school authorities, in order to provide for the rapidly growing numbers of school children, were obliged to place many of them in rented rooms. Accordingly, $100,000 in school building bonds were voted October, 1908, and in October, 1910, additional bonds to the amount of $250.000. From these bond issues, totalling $350,000, four new grade buildings and a new high school have been erected.

            When names were under consideration for the new grade buildings, the Board of School Trustees requested the school children and patrons to select appropriate names by means of a public ballot. According to this ballot the first building was given the name of the beloved and venerable State Superintendent, Orvis Ring, whose life and labors had for forty years been interwoven with the schools of the State. The ballots gave to another building the name of Mary Doten, as a fitting testimonial to her splendid service in the Reno schools. The remaining names selected were

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the McKinley Park School (from the name of the site donated by the city) and the Mt. Rose School.

            With the completion of these new buildings, Reno now has five grade buildings and one high school building in addition to the use of the beautiful Babcock Memorial Kindergarten building, provided by the Reno Kindergarten Association. Reno's school buildings have been warmly commended in the publications of the Russell Sage Foundation, various educational magazines, and by some of the most prominent living educators with the result that these buildings are giving the city a nation-wide reputation for the material equipment of its schools which many think to be excelled by no other city of its size in America.

            High School Building.—The high school is the Spanish Renaissance style of architecture, the exterior of the building being smooth finish white cement with decorations in tile. The structure cost approximately $140,000 and provides accommodations for about 500 high school students.

            The high school building, like the grade buildings, is constructed with special reference : (1) to the health, comfort and convenience of the pupils and teachers ; and (2) to the demands of the industrial idea in modern education. Accordingly, in order to eliminate the stair-climbing necessary in two-story buildings, all the main class rooms (except the four physical science rooms in the tower) are on the first floor and the classes for industrial work are placed in well lighted basement rooms, all basement windows being above the ground. Besides the usual classrooms and conveniences found in modern high schools, this building contains a gymnasium 57 x 93 feet, which is of ample size for indoor basketball games. The gymnasium is used also as the auditorium of the building. A large stage 27 x 45 feet is built at the west end. The stage is provided with suitable dressing and toilet rooms with hot and cold water connections. When used for audience purposes this room easily seats 900 persons. The south half of the basement and stairway leading thereto is used entirely by the girls and contains their toilet rooms, athletic quarters, shower baths, rest room, bicycle room, cooking laboratory, sewing room, model dining room, kitchen and pantry and the domestic science classroom. The north half of the basement and stairs leading thereto is likewise given over to the boys and contains their toilet rooms, athletic quarters, shower baths, bicycle room, mechanical drawing room, woodworking room and metal working and forge rooms. On the first or main floor are located

532      THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

the offices for the City Superintendent and principal, the principal's classroom, the library and Board of Education room, in addition to fourteen classrooms, three of which are designed especially for bookkeeping, typewriting, shorthand and other commercial purposes. The wardrobes are built off the ends of these classrooms, which prevents the disorder and theft common in the large wardrobes sometimes found in high school basements, neither do they display the unsightly appearance of the lockers often placed in the main halls and corridors. On this floor, also, is a study hall, 58 x 93 feet. The study hall has room for 450 desks of the usual type.

            The four second-story rooms in the tower are built to accommodate the physical sciences, including chemistry, physics, biology and physical geography. These rooms are equipped in an approved manner. One of these rooms, the lecture room, is provided with sixty tablet arm chairs, each row of the same being elevated according to its distance from the demonstration table in conformity to the plan in modern high school buildings.

            The mechanical fan system of heating and ventilating is provided and changes the air in each classroom eight times per hour. Oil is used for fuel. The temperature of each room is automatically controlled. The plumbing, electric wiring, drinking fountains and other sanitary devices are of the most modern and approved types.

            Grade Buildings.—The four new grade buildings cost, on an average, about $45,000 each (exclusive of grounds and equipment) and are of the one-story mission type. The Orvis Ring and McKinley Park buildings are each surmounted with a tower while two towers grace the Mt. Rose and the Mary S. Doten schools. The depth of each building is 160 feet and the width varies from 150 to 162 feet. The floor plans are practically identical, with the exception that the Mary S. Doten building has a smaller assembly room. A distinctive feature of each building is the central court, 60 feet in depth and from 48 to 59 feet in width, on the three sides of which the rooms are grouped. In the center of the court is a large fountain surrounded by cement walks, which inclose four grass plots. Arched cloisters extend across the rear of the court and part way on each side. The eight classrooms and the large assembly room are all placed on the ground floor. All of these rooms either open directly outdoors, or their exits are within five feet of outdoors ; these exit doors cannot be locked from the inside, and the halls are so arranged that they cannot become

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congested in case of fire. Industrial training is provided for in the construction of two large and well-lighted rooms, each 63 x 24 feet—the domestic science rooms for the girls and the manual training rooms for the boys. These rooms are placed in the basement because their use by each pupil is at intervals only, rather than constant, as is the case with the regular classrooms. The heating, ventilating, plumbing, wiring and other sanitary features are similar in plan to those in the high school. The Orvis Ring and McKinley Park buildings are provided with powerful vacuum sweepers.

            The assembly halls in these buildings are equipped with stages and seat from 400 to 450 persons.

            School Administration.—Since 1908, when the first bonds were voted for these new buildings, until after their completion and equipment, Dr. M. R. Walker, Theodore W. Clark, W. D. Jones, Alfred Nelson and C. H. Eaton have served continuously as the Board of School Trustees, and B. D. Billinghurst as the City Superintendent of Schools.

            The fifty-seven teachers and supervisors include the following : A city superintendent, a music and art supervisor, two manual training teachers, two domestic science teachers, three kindergarten teachers, twelve high school teachers, including the principal and thirty-six grade teachers, including the five grade principals.

            The grade course provided for eight years of study below the high school and includes manual training and domestic science in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades. The high school offers four years' work and affords instruction in the following subjects : English, 4 units ; Latin, 4 units ; French, 3 units ; Spanish, 2 units ; German, 2 units ; commercial subjects, 4 units ; industrial subjects, 4 units ; ancient history, modern and medieval history, English history and American history and civics, each 1 unit ; elementary algebra, algebra theory and plane geometry, each 1 unit ; solid geometry, trigonometry, each 1/2 unit ; physiology, biology, chemistry and physics, each 1 unit ; sixteen units being required for graduation. The high school is fully accredited at the University of California, Stanford University and the Nevada State University.

BISHOP WHITAKER'S SCHOOL FOR GIRLS.

            It was very evident to those who were observant in the early '70s that one of the greatest needs of the State was a school for girls. The need

534      THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

was for a school in which thy would receive not only a sound education in practical, every-day things, but a sound Christian education as well.

            No one saw this need with clearer eyes than the Right Reverend O. W. Whitaker, D.D., then Bishop of Nevada. He knew the State as but few knew it, because his church work took him to every camp in the State in the course of the year. He therefore took upon his own shoulders the burden of founding such a school. He began active work early in 1876. He was fortunate in enlisting the interest of Miss Katherine Lorillard Wolfe, a wealthy woman of New York City, whose large philanthropies took this very form. She gave $10,000 towards building a school providing the bishop could raise an equal amount. The good bishop went to work and raised the amount: $4,000 from the people of Reno, $2,500 from a friend of the school in Nevada, $1,000 from Mrs. Grosvenor of New York City, and the rest in smaller sums, partly from people in the State and partly from friends of the bishop in the east. This sum was used in the erection of a building on the high land to the north of the town. The school, which was known as Bishop Whitaker's School for Girls, was opened on October 12, 1876. It opened with an encouraging number of pupils from all over the State, as people everywhere knew the bishop and gladly entrusted their girls to his care. There never was a tenderer and wiser father, and every girl from the youngest up knew that she could count on his wise and loving guidance, and that he would be her friend, whatever happened. The school made no effort to secure pupils from other States, although a few came. Its purpose was to minister to the needs of the girls of the State. Miss Kate A. Sill, a graduate of Vassar College and an educator of the highest order, was the first principal. She made an impression for all that was good, which remained with the school to the very end. Scores and scores of girls were members of the school from beginning to ending.     Every girl who entered there left a better girl. The Christian spirit of the school made a lasting impression. Many of these girls are wives and mothers in the State. Many have carried their Christianity into their homes and the children are all the better for it. Others have gathered children together in rural districts where there were no churches and have instructed them in the fundamentals of Christian life and character. Although the school has been closed for years, as the coming of the University to Reno made it cease to be a necessity, the old students have kept themselves banded together in an

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Alumni Association and so keep themselves in touch with the helpful spirit of the school. Much good has been done in the State by other instrumentalities, but none have done better or more lasting work than Bishop Whitaker's School for Girls. To this day, Bishop Whitaker's birthday, which falls on the 10th of May, is observed by the "girls." When the bishop reached the age of eighty years, on May 10, 1910, a cake with eighty candles burning brightly was one of the chief features of the celebration. He being dead yet speaketh in the good which has been done by his school.