11 



take his family to the backwoods, or to a state where education 

 is neglected, even though the state may boast of an enormous 

 school fund, which, in some unexplained manner, gets distrib- 

 uted in the towns, leaving the country people to provide schools 

 the best they can, or giving them such a small share that 

 practically it does but little good. 



Illinois is noted for its free schools in which every child 

 from six to twenty-one years may be taught without money 

 and without price. It has over ten thousand school houses 

 within its borders, as well as an abundance of high schools, 

 seminaries, colleges, and universities. Two Normal univer- 

 sities supply teachers, and facilities for acquiring higher edu- 

 cation are abundant. No one need to send his sons or daugh- 

 ters outside the borders of the State to secure the most pol- 

 ished or scientific education unless he chooses to do so. 



THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 



offers to all the young men and women of the State full oppor- 

 tunity and every facility to study those sciences which relate 

 to Agriculture and Horticulture, and has among its professors 

 some of the most eminent scientists living. The institution 

 has ample means and grounds for demonstrating in a thoroughly 

 practical manner what is taught in its classrooms. Added to 

 the present extensive collection of objects of natural history 

 will be the handsome exhibit in the Illinois State building, 

 which at the close of the World's Exposition was removed to 

 the University at Champaign. 



Following closely the school question comes the one of 



RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION, 



and the seeker will find on examination, that we are unusually 

 well supplied in that regard, and that, travel where he will, he 

 is seldom out of sight of a church spire or the sound of the 

 church bell. In the matter of church building our people have 

 been remarkably liberal, as the hundreds of churches scattered 

 through the farming communities abundantly attest. 



