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This place, though the grounds were spacious and the house ample for living apartments, lacked class-room accommodation, and, permission being obtained, a school-house with three class-rooms and a gymnasium was at once erected on the grounds. These quarters at 6027 Indiana avenue were occupied until May, 1890, when the School was transferred to its present location, 6550 Yale avenue, which property, in the meantime, had been purchased and remodelled for its occupancy.

INCORPORATION.

In November, 1890, the School was incorporated under the name of "The McCowen Oral School for Young Deaf Children," with the following gentlemen as board of trustees:

JOHN W. STREETER, M.D., . .President.
SIDNEY O. BLAIR,. . .Secretary.
JOHN C. BLACK,. . .Treasurer.
A. C. BARTLETT.
O. S. A. SPRAGUE.
JOY MORTON.
W. S. HENDERSON.

They assumed the financial control of the School, leaving Miss McCowen entirely free to carry out her advanced ideas with regard to the age of admission of pupils, and, as before, in full control and management of the School. A large neighboring house was soon rented for the better accommodation of the family.

In the summer of 1892 the ten-room house next adjoining the School on the north was purchased, and serves as dormitories for the girls. A building for school-rooms and gymnasium was also erected between the two, immediately in the rear, a covered walk on the second floor connecting it with both. In the original building, an eighteen-room house, are the office, reception-room, family parlor, dining-rooms, kitchen, and the dormitories for the boys.

The expenses of the School are met by tuition fees, supplemented by donations, there still being no permanent endowment.

The School has, from the first, published a monthly paper, called The New Method, which is, so far as we know, the only one published by an oral school.

CHILDREN CONTINUALLY IN THE CARE OF TEACHERS.

The home-life of the pupils is made to conform as nearly as possible to that of the best family home, they being encouraged by their teachers to have a knowledge of and an interest in all the details of home-life, each being taught to yield his special preferences, when necessary, to the best interests of all. The older are interested in the younger, and the little ones, in turn, learn many things from them more naturally and more rapidly than if associated only with grown persons. The regular lessons are conducted in the school-rooms at regular school-hours; the education of the child, however, begins when he rises in the morning, and ends only when he falls asleep at night. While dressing and undressing he is taught, not laboriously but gradually, by daily repetition, the names of the different articles of clothing and the language expressing the different actions involved, as "Button my shoe," "Unbutton my apron," "Put on," "Take off, "Comb my hair," etc. In the bath-room, as they gather regularly after each meal with a teacher, they are taught the names and language pertaining thereto, as water, soap, wash, wipe, sponge, towel, toothbrush, etc.

In the dining-room the classes of children, with their teachers, sit at separate tables. A grace suitable to the comprehension of each class is written on the black-board and read in concert; a few simple words for the youngest, and for the older pupils such forms as are in use in Christian families. While the food is being served, and during the progress of the meal, the children are taught the names of the different articles of food and of table and dining-room service, and from the first are expected to ask by word of mouth for what they want. At first the attempt to speak the name in accepted, as "Bread"; as this by repetition becomes more and more distinct the complete sentence is required, as " I want bread"; later, one after another, all the polite forms of table talk are taught and practised until they become habitual. Older classes engage in conversation with the teacher on the current topics of the day.

During play-hours, as well as in the class-room, the children are continually in the care of the teacher, who participates in their games and recreations, and forestalls mischief by properly directing their energies. This affords the best possible opportunity for studying the individual characteristics of each child, thus rendering it possible to adapt the instruction of the class-room to his real capabilities. Another advantage of this constant presence of a teacher is that the child struggling to express a thought is given at once the proper word, and thus unconsciously forms the habit of trying to express himself in words rather than in motions, which he must otherwise inevitably do; and being continually addressed in connected language he naturally acquires facility in lip-reading, which he does in advance of his ability to put his own thought into speech, just as a hearing babe understands what is said to him long before he is able to make any response in words.