GRAINS OF SAND. 247 



ceptions, rude and almost unmanageable in the class-room, uninterested 

 in the instruction, and scarcely able to await the hour of dismissal, 

 when they would vacate the school-room rudely and in haste. Then 

 the class-instruction was confined to the most elementary subjects, and 

 the boys were unable or unwilling to read technical or scientific books 

 with any show of profit. Now there are under school-instruction 

 seventy-five as orderly and polite boys as are to be found in any high- 

 school of the country, and among the very best of them are boys who 

 a few months ago were conspicuous for rudeness and insubordination. 

 There have been classes of apprentices in geometry, algebra, physics, 

 locomotive-engine, mechanics, mechanical drawing, free-hand drawing, 

 geometrical drawing, English and history, and a valuable method of 

 instruction by special reading, selected and recommended by the teach- 

 ers to each pupil, with special reference to his talents and the state of 

 his education. 



Last year, as a rule, boys had to be compelled to take up algebra 

 and geometry ; at this time many are promising promptness, regulari- 

 ty, and other inducements to secure admission to those classes, and a 

 number have become very urgent for the higher science and mechan- 

 ical studies. Many of these boys regularly spend their noons studying 

 works in science and mechanics, going from shop to shop and from 

 machine to machine, studying the principles involved in their con- 

 struction and operation. Every examination for apprentices brings 

 in a better class of applicants ; as the result of which the standard 

 upon which admission to the service is predicated is being gradually 

 raised. 



It may be added that the practical result of this report has been to 

 induce the Board of Directors of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 

 Company to make a permanent appropriation of $20,000 annually for 

 the conduct of this school, and that Dr. Barnard is now engaged in 

 the preparation of plans for what will be the first technical railroad- 

 school ever established in the United States. 



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GRAINS OF SAND. 



Br GEORGE WARDMAN. 



THE manufacture of sand is an important industry, which has 

 Pittsburg for its headquarters, although the sand is not made 

 within the limits of the city. There is a considerable traffic in Monon- 

 gahela sand, which is scooped up from the bed of the river, to be used 

 for common building purposes ; but the manufacture of sand is quite 

 another affair, and the product goes into quite a different commodity, 

 which is glass. 



Practically glass is almost pure sand, other substances used in its 



