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SUPPLEMENTAL REPORT.

To His Excellency, BUREN R. SHERMAN, Governor of Iowa.

DEAR SIR:--Owing to the change in the Superintendency of this Institution, it would naturally be expected of the new incumbent to make a report supplemental to those already prepared by the honorable Board of Trustees and the previous Superintendent.

Prominent among the questions to be settled, is the Water supply. From the preceding reports is clearly seen the manner of procuring water at present, and the unsatisfactory character of the supply. Since the estimates of piping from the city works to the Institution were made, others have been submitted of the cost of supply for ten years in case the Waterworks company should themselves lay the mains and keep them in repair. The cost of sinking an Artesian well has also been ascertained approximately from comparison of those already in operation in Council Bluffs. Water has been found in two instances at a depth of about 800 feet. The flow is strong and steady. The water is soft and perfectly clear. A third well is being sunk at this writing. As the formation of the land is the same as that immediately adjoining the Institution, it seems not at all doubtful that equally good results could be procured on our own premises. This would make us independent at a very small outlay. Five thousand dollars would suffice for this purpose. Meanwhile our laundry, which calls for soft water, can be supplied with nearly enough while the Institution remains at or near its present size, by a small outlay. The building of three additional cisterns with a capacity of two

thousand barrels, and placing suitable tanks for head in the upper story of one of the buildings, would accomplish this at an expense of not more than twenty-five hundred dollars.

More room is needed for laundry purposes, especially for an ironing room. Want of funds compelled the laundry to be used for a double purpose, the upper story being devoted to the printing office. This crowds the ironing room, wash room and drying room on the first floor into very incommodious quarters. As one of the important industries taught the pupils is ironing, this should be remedied as soon as possible. With the introduction of laundry machinery, it will be practicable to make a large share of our own soap, expenditure for which is no small item.

I cannot too strongly emphasize the call for a new building, mentioned in the report of the trustees. We need it already. The main building serves for school purposes, lodging, culinary, and hospital departments, and we suffer for lack of room in every one. Our hospital conveniences are particularly lacking; we have no suitable rooms for the purpose.

A school of such children, needs greatly, a gymnastic training. This is especially true of the girls, many of whom are disinclined to exercise, and generally, more disinclined the more need they have for it. I cannot do better in this connection than quote from a well prepared article on Physical Training by one of the foremost men in the profession, J. W. Swiler, Superintendent of the Wisconsin Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, read at the Convention of Instructors in Jacksonville, Illinois, in 1882. Prof. S. says: "If the deaf-mute ever becomes the peer of his more highly favored speaking associate, he must have a training that will correct the physical as well as mental deformities which interfere with graceful manners and polite address."

"Play does not afford sufficient excercise for all. Though it is best in kind and most natural and healthful in effect, still it fails to furnish the muscular training needed by the dull or stupid. Inclement weather often prevents outdoor play. Some who most

need exercise will not take it voluntarily. Without official at

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tention to arrange, invent and carry on games, they are usually allowed to languish or die before they benefit those who most need their healthful excitement. Some of our boys and girls consider themselves young ladies and gentlemen, whose dignity forbids such levity. These facts apply to a minority of the boys with slow phlegmatic habit of body, and with greater force to the girls, who become so sensitive to cold under the protection of thick walls and steam heat, that they mope around, with sluggish circulation, till life becomes a burden." "If hearing children, with all the personal attention that home gives, and the varied duties it requires, need methodical training, much more they who congregate in any large boarding school, and still more the deaf and dumb."

So we see how necessary is a course of gymnastic training. But in this Institution we do not so much as have room for our pupils to play, not to speak of apparatus needed in a simple gymnasium. Putting up an additional building, will of course relieve our most pressing wants in this line.

Concerning the need of machinery in shops, I may instance the fact, that our sister Institution in Nebraska, though not over one third the size, is far ahead in this respect, and has been enabled, by the machinery in the carpenter shop, to fill several paying contracts.

We need a house for cold storage. This is pre-eminently a measure of economy. By means of it, perishable articles, as fruits, butter, and eggs can be profitably obtained in large quantities while the market price is low, and stored for an almost indefinite time. The estimated cost of such is $1.800.

The report of the Trustees very properly calls attention to the need of an increase in the Ordinary Fund. The work of instructing mutes is a specialty, and liberally educated persons must be encouraged to take it up by adequate compensation. Three times within the last six months, and twice within the last three, we have lost experienced teachers, because other institutions were able to offer them salaries more nearly commensurate with their ability. In one case the advance was about seventy-five per cent. We were fortunate enough to find good substitutes, in two of these cases, and in the third, made a tem

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