Sioux City Academy of Science and Letters. 65 
wrong.” For this class physical culture has done an 
immense amount of good. These classes range from 150 
to 250 a year according to the total number in the reform- 
atory. The experience gained in this way has thrown 
much light on the so-called class of “degenerates”: a good 
many of the degenerates are found to be amenable to 
good physical training. In addition all new inmates 
are for a time tested in the gymnasium until their physi- 
cal condition is entirely satisfactory. 
Few persons are aware to what a degree the so- 
called “first offenders” are destitute of any trade by 
which to earn a living. If they can be made capable of 
earning a living and placed in a condition to do so, they 
are better protected from falling into crime than by any 
other method. At Elmira, accordingly, there has been 
developed “a great technological training school, in 
which more than 30 recognized and constantly practiced 
trades are taught to more than 1,200 young men, more 
than nine-tenths of whom have had no regular vocation 
in life and no special desire for one. Over 1900 persons 
received trade instruction during the year ending Sep- 
tember 30, 1902. All the chief mechanical and semi-pro- 
fessional arts which are in demand in New York, Penn- 
sylvania, and New England, whither most of the dis- 
charged men go at first, are represented.” Of the 384 
inmates paroled during the same year, 217, or fifty-seven 
per cent., found employment upon liberation at trades 
taught them in the reformatory. Trade instruction has 
gradually developed with the growth of the institution. 
It was taken up quite largely as an experiment in 1884 
when the New York legislature abolished the contract 
system of labor. Some employment had to be found for 
the prisoners as a matter of discipline. So Mr. Brock- 
way determined to make all possible use of the plant and 
materials left after the abolition of prison industries, 
which were forbidden as competing with free labor. 
With such a beginning, there has been developed a com- 
plete scheme of work which prepares the prisoner for 
life in the outside world, and also provides interesting 
and educationally valuable training. 
