WATER SUPPLY.

Of the $1,500 appropriated by the last General Assembly for water privileges, only $500 have been drawn from the treasury, and only, $245.99 of that expended in repairing cisterns, etc., and in digging a large well, ten feet in diameter and fifty-seven feet deep. The water stands forty-five feet below the ground. We believe it contains an unfailing supply. A reservoir for containing this water after it is lifted by wind-mill or other power, in the form of an elevated tank or large underground cistern, seems necessary to a sufficient and certain supply of water. By the breaking of pumps in cold weather, when it is impossible to repair them, the institution is liable to be left without water, as it has been several times.

Since the location of our tanks and pipes would be affected by the time and plan of finishing the main building, and since $1,500 is not enough to carry out a plan of sufficient extent to meet our wants, we thought it wiser not to expend the appropriation until another General Assembly should enlarge it.

The reservoir, and pipes connecting it with the source of supply, and the different departments where it is needed for use will cost $2,500.

We recommend such addition to the unexpended water fund as will make a total of $2,500.

GIRLS' DEPARTMENT.

The present location of this department is in leased property, in the suburbs of Mt. Pleasant. The situation is very pleasant and sightly beautified with fruit and forest trees and flowering shrubs. Forty acres of good garden and farming lands are in connection with it. The $1,000 set apart by the last General Assembly to adapt the property to the use of the school, was not sufficient to provide a laundry, school-room and dormitory in external appearance harmonious with the other improvements, but some friends of the school, with their own private means, assisted the undertaking to the amount of $525, and left it all complete and out of debt. This department is still under the care of L. D. Lewelling and wife, as assistant superintendent and matron.

The control of the school seems beautiful; the discipline is gentle and homelike. The teaching has been well done and shows its results. Any thoughtful and observant person will be well repaid for a visit to this department. All the workers deserve sympathy and praise.

MAIN BUILDING.

The main building, as it now stands, is enclosed but unfinished; is the central part of an architectural design, the wings of which are to contain chapel, dining hall, etc. It is difficult to adapt any of the present structure to such uses. The Hon. Robert Finkbine, Superintendent of the State capitol, after careful inspection, recommendsand we concur in the recommendation-the taking down of the tower, finishing up such parts as are needed for immediate use, and the erection of an east wing in architectural harmony with the present building, for dining hall and chapel. For fuller information we refer you. to the architect's report and to the estimates of cost by Tross & Magoon, carpenters and builders, and J. B. Wilson, mechanical engineer. Nevertheless, if the General Assembly think it impossible to carry out the architectural plan to completion and deem it wiser to finish the new building without the addition of the east wing at the present time we will submit to the inconvenience of accepting it in its present form till another General Assembly shall come to our relief by giving us a new wing.

FAMILY BUILDINGS.

We have three family buildings designed to accommodate fifty inmates each. Every building is now crowded to its utmost, sixty inmates to each building. At the present rate of income (see Supt.'s report page), more room must be provided before the next Assembly. So soon as the new building is ready for use the school will move into it. The one now occupied for similar purposes will be left vacant. The building is two stories above the basement and is divided in the middle by a transverse hall in both main stories. One half would well accommodate a family of forty boys. The other would furnish convenient workshops in which to teach the boys trades according to the original design. We believe that some means of support should be given to boys before discharging them if we expect them to continue in well doing, but we have thus far been utterly unable to provide tools or material for work, the Legislature having never yet appropriated anything for that purpose. We therefore ask that suitable appropriation be made. We also ask $500 for boys' library.

For fuller information we refer you to the reports of the Superintendent and Treasurer, as well as to the report of L. D. Lewelling, Assistant Superintendent of Girls' Department.

Respectfully submitted.

J. A. PARVIN,

T. E. CORKHILL,

W. J. MOIR,

W. G. STEWART,

J. H. MOREHEAD,

Trustees.

SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.

Gentlemen of the Board of Trustees of the Iowa Reform School:

HUMBLY mindful of the help of God in the care of the school, the Superintendent would submit the following reflections, accompanied by his report of the progress and condition of the school:

A state's prison is a necessity of organized society; a reform school is equally so. The prison's main design is to protect society against adult law-breakers: a reform school has the double design of protecting society and reclaiming the lawless. How else may society be shielded from the depredations of a thousand homeless, friendless, vagrant criminals from eight to sixteen years of age? Stealing is the instinctive crime of neglected childhood; it is the natural expression of want; it sends to us nineteen-twentieths of all our inmates. Society will endure obscenity, lying, swearing, Sabbath-breaking and disobedience-almost any crime a child may commit, but when property rights are invaded by theft, it will invoke the law's protection. The prison is not suited to the restraint of even criminal youth. Its speechless silence may be an appropriate discipline for men, but it would be cruelty to children. A boy needs the unrestrained activity of voice and limb to unfold his physical manhood. Walls and bars are not needed to restrain children; a watchful eye and personal influence can take the place of these and avoid the gloom and disgrace of a prison. Many are reckless and bad simply because they are boys. Maturity is all the reformation they need. The reform school ought to furnish happy surroundings while this maturity is coming on.

The best estate of childhood is a christian home. Surely to an institution that most nearly resembles this, the waifs of society and the wards of the state can be more safely intrusted than to a prison.

We proceed by the law of selection, keeping the bad and sifting out the good; if it were our plan to reverse this process, by discharging

the bad and retaining the good, our school might soon become a model for the outer world.

The career and destiny of boys who go out, will be as varied as that of other boys who never come in; some will go to state's prison, and it may be to a worse place; others will take rank with the industrious, useful citizen, and become honest and noble men.

Two who were formerly inmates are now among the best officers of the school, beloved and respected by the whole institution. We are constantly in receipt of testimonials as to the good conduct of boys sent out.

HARMONY.

Very great harmony has prevailed among the officers and teachers of the school. Very few changes have occurred in the corps of officers during our superintendency-not one from disaffection toward the management. The few that have occurred, have been caused by imperious calls of business elsewhere, or on the motion of the Superintendent, in the hope of getting more accomplished or efficient officers. The same spirit of contentment has shown itself among the inmates; very few have escaped, and very small expenses have been incurred in the pursuit of fugitives—a saving to the institution of nearly $300 as compared with the fugitive account of two years ago, and of nearly $600 as compared with four years ago.

HEALTH.

No institution in the land can show a better record of health; among two hundred souls, not a death in two years. No alarming illness of any kind; the most serious case was an attack of inflammatory rheumatism that prostrated one of the family managers for four or five weeks. One of the inmates has, for several months, been feeble from an affected lung, which will some day result in his death. The cause is perhaps hereditary predisposition.

Most cases of sickness have been referred to the Assistant Superintendent, B. J. Miles, for treatment, whose surgical and medical skill has proved of great value to the institution; a hundred dollars would have been a moderate bill had he made any charge for his services.

The total paid for medical services for two years, amounts to only $27.50.