in the money-order bureau of the Chicago post-office. The same degree, honorary, was conferred on Mr. Samuel Johnson, head master of the South Australian School for the Deaf, at Adelaide, South Australia. President Gallaudet read a letter of regret and friendly regard from President McKinley, who would have been present but for the necessity of leaving the city on account of ill health, and then said:

Not many of our friends who have so kindly honored us with their presence to-day are aware that this college was brought into existence by an act of Congress, passed when our civil war was at its height, in 1864.

In the same year a handsome appropriation was made by Congress to purchase grounds and buildings in which the college was started. This money, $26,000, was drawn from the Treasury and paid to the parties from whom the property was purchased, at a time when the capital was entirely cut off from all railway communication with the North.

It is not often that we have the pleasure of welcoming to our college one who was conspicuous in the Federal Administration at that stirring period, and it is especially gratifying that we have with us to-day one who held intimate and confidential relations with our great war President at the time he signed the charter of the college. And I am sure you will all join me in giving a hearty welcome to the Hon. John Hay, Secretary of State, who may be spoken of as one who helped to found this college.

SPEECH OF SECRETARY HAY.

It is a very great pleasure for me to be here to-day to witness this most inspiring and joyous occasion, and I am particularly grateful to my friend, Dr. Gallaudet, who, besides having been so kind as to invite me here to-day, has also been so good as to make a speech for me; so that there is nothing left for me to do except to fulfill the humble function which is often assigned in rural festivals to the oldest inhabitants. I am here in no other capacity than that. I remember a story of the late Oliver Wendell Holmes, who said that an English tourist once came to his house in Cambridge and said, "Sir, as you have no ruins in your country, I thought I would come and see you."

I was once walking with a very little boy through the squares and places of this beautiful city, and every time he came to a statesman on a pedestal or a hero mounted on a bronze horse my little friend asked me if I knew him, and I said I did. At last he turned to me, with all due reverence shining in his young eyes, and said, "Are you the oldest man in the world?" He seemed to think I had stood around watching the building of the pyramids.

Thirty-five years ago it was my duty as secretary to Mr. Lincoln to inform the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States that the President had signed a bill empowering this institution to confer collegiate degrees upon deaf-mutes. Surely, when I look about me and take note of the magnificent results which have flowed from the powers given by that act, I may congratulate myself that I had something to do with the inception of so noble a work. I am pleased to be permitted, after the lapse of the many years that makes me one of the oldest inhabitants, to join with the officers, students, and friends of the college in their annual public festivity. And I am especially glad to felicitate Dr. Gallaudet, one of the friends of my early Washington life, that he is permitted to witness the fruitage of the seeds of his own planting and to be still at the head of the institution whose interests he has so long and faithfully guarded.

To the young people the completion of whose academic life is publicly honored today I give my best wishes. The education they have received at the hands of a generous Government has stricken off the shackles of ignorance which bound them and has dispelled the darkness which enshrouded their minds.

They go forth into a world that looks kindly on earnest, well-taught young men and women, and that is ready to lend a hand to those who are prepared and willing, as these young people are, to help themselves. I bid you God speed, my young friends, on the journey of active life which now opens before you.

RESIGNATION OF PROFESSOR CHICKERING.

President Gallaudet then announced that Professor Chickering, who had filled the chair of natural science for nearly thirty years with ability and success, had resigned his position and would retire at the close of the present year.

Dr. Gallaudet spoke with warmth of the honorable record his friend and colleague had made, and expressed the sincere regret of members of the faculty and students at his resignation. The announcement was

then made of the appointment of Mr. Herbert E. Day, a normal fellow in the college in 1895 and for four years an instructor in the Kentucky School for the Deaf, to a professorship in the college.

The exercises of the afternoon were closed with the benediction by the Rev. Thomas Gallaudet, D. D., vicar of St. Ann's Church for Deafmutes, New York City.

Degrees were conferred at the close of the term in accordance with the recommendations of Presentation Day, excepting in the cases of Mr. Rosson, of Tennessee, Mr. Brooks, of Texas, and Mr. Ohlemacher, of Ohio, who received the degree of bachelor of science.

RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES.

The receipts and expenditures for the year under review will appear from the following detailed statements:

ESTIMATES FOR NEXT YEAR.

The following estimates for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1901, have already been submitted:

For the support of the institution, including salaries and incidental expenses, for books and illustrative apparatus, and for general repairs and improvements, $67,000.

For repairs to the buildings of the institution, including plumbing and steam-heating apparatus and for repairs to pavements, $3,000.

The dormitories for both sexes in the college are now filled to their utmost limit. No estimate for new buildings has been submitted, but the attention of Congress is respectfully called to the necessity for enlarged accommodations at an early day.

All of which is respectfully submitted by order of the board of directors. E. M. GALLAUDET,

Hon. E. A. HITCHCOCK,

President.

Secretary of the Interior.

Emily Lucille Bennett, District of Co- Jacob Eskin, District of Columbia. lumbia.