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ber, each in a separate building, and under the care of one or more brothers," and the latter constituted the Brotherhood of the Rauhe Haus." In this way the influence of the teacher or educator was brought as closely to the child as possible, and the latter was taught to consider the institution, not as barracks or a house of detention, but as a congregation of families of unfortunate children bound together by natural affection and under one common head. The "brothers" were young men of approved habits and ability, who, without taking any vow or making any pledge to that effect, had freely devoted themselves to the relief of the unfortunate, and who, in their position as "brothers," served an apprenticeship, as it were, fitting themselves to take charge later on of independent institutions. Thus the Rauhe Haus was not only a house of refuge for destitute children, but also a training school for charity workers.

Holls entered into the spirit of the Rauhe Haus with the enthusiasm of youth and religious conviction, and when, during the great famine of 1849, the Prussian Government applied to Wichern for "brothers" to take charge of the temporary governmental charities established to relieve the terrible distress in the province of Upper Silesia, Holls, though only 24 years of age, was selected as the chief of those sent. He established 4 orphanages, which contained, before the winter was over, upward of 4,000 children, and he was indefatigable in his efforts to relieve what was probably the most disastrous famine of this century upon the Continent. At the same time he was actively preaching, and he learned the Polish language in order to be able to communicate more readily with the objects of charity, most of whom understood no German. His services called forth the highest encomiums from the ministry of public worship and the governor-general of Silesia, but on account of failing health he was obliged to resign in 1850. He returned to Darmstadt and took up the scientific course in the highest classes of the Realschule at the point where he had abandoned it in Strasburg.

A sudden impulse came to him in 1851 to emigrate to America, whither a younger brother had preceded him, and being convinced that he would find in the New World a larger field for his energies, he came to this country in June of that year. He traveled via Liverpool, where he closely inspected the harbor mission, then in successful operation there, and this gave him the first ideas of the emigrant mission, of which he afterwards became so active a promoter in New York. He settled in Pomeroy, Ohio, and engaged at once both in learning the English language and in teaching German and French at the academy established there. In the following year he returned to Germany and was married to Miss Louisa Burx at Darmstadt. The newly married couple settled at Pomeroy and remained there until 1855, when that eminent Lutheran philanthropist, Rev. William A. Passavant, having heard of Mr. Holls, extended to him a call to organize a large orphan asylum which was to be established at Zelienople, Butler County, Pa. It was the first Lutheran orphan asylum in this country, and the intention of the founders was to introduce, if possible, the family system and the idea of home into such an institution in this country. Holls accepted the call and remained at the head of the institution for eleven years.

At this time the question of juvenile reform and the methods best adapted for the successful administration of reformatories and houses of refuge occupied the public mind in this country to a considerable extent. The success of the family system and of the Brotherhood of the Rauhe Haus led many to hope that the same results would follow from their introduction here, but the circumstances were different, and Holls saw from the start that unless certain fundamental difficulties could be overcome any attempt to reproduce the German experiment on American soil would be a failure. In a letter which was published in the American Journal of Education for March, 1858, Volume IV, page 824, he discussed the

question at some length. Theoretically he expressed a strong preference for the family over the congregated system, saying:

I am, in theory, decidedly in favor of the family system, being convinced that it is the system by which houses of refuge and all smaller institutions of a preventive, correctional, and reformatory character ought, if possible, to be managed. The natural ground for the development of youthful life is in the family. If we were able to trace back each case of degradation and crime to its original cause, we would find it to be, in almost all cases, the want of that kind, genial, winning influence and discipline which parental government alone affords. All the children that fill our reformatory institutions have been more or less destitute of a family life, family relations, and family discipline as it ought to be according to the divine law. Our institutions, therefore, ought to restore to these poor children, as far as it can be done, that of which they have been deprived, or at least that which they never enjoyed-a home, a family, with all its endearments. But he well understood the peculiar difficulties here. He observed: There are elements of character in the vicious and unfortunate youth of this country which are different from those found in Germany. That spirit of independence which is growing up with the one, which exerts such a powerful influence over his character, and which, when wrongfully applied, leads him not only to defy the laws and regulations of society, but also to repel all efforts made by others to correct him, is at least to a considerable degree unknown to the other, who is sooner taught to submit. It would, therefore, require greater efforts to exercise that influence over the youth in this country which should lead him to a truly religious reformation: but, believing in the almighty power of the Word of God, the happy effects produced by a kind, just, and firm treatment, by continual personal intercourse with these children on the part of the house father, the elder brother or sister, I believe that these efforts might be crowned with equal success here as elsewhere. But the most important difficulty that presents itself to my mind in introducing the family, as existing in the Rauhe Haus, into this country is the great want of competent persons to take charge of these families. Without these the system must necessarily prove a failure. Classes of 50 or more children are no families. If we intend to produce the greatest amount of good to our children individually by the family system, these families must be smallsay from 12 to 15 each. Are suitable persons obtainable here, and if so, how? Can it be done without paying high salaries? We must waive the idea of enlisting persons into this service who would do it for the sake of a temporary employment or in order to make a living.

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The difficulty of finding proper men as brothers or helpers proved insurmountable at Zelienople. Holls even made the experiment of sending for six young men from the Rauhe Haus to form the nucleus of a new brotherhood, but not cre of them proved competent or willing to continue the work here under the same conditions as in Germany.

The idea of a true home for the unfortunate, on the other hand, was established by Dr. Holls in this institution and in one of which he subsequently was the head. near New York, perhaps more successfully than has ever been done before. At his suggestion a rule was adopted permitting discharged inmates of the institution to return at any time in after life, if unfortunate, ill, or out of work. This gave to every child the idea of a permanent home, and it was reenforced by the homelike character of the discipline and house government.

In 1863 Dr. Passavant, in connection with the late Peter Moller, of New York City, established the Wartburg Orphan Farm School near Mount Vernon, N. Y., and Dr. Holls, who had meanwhile entered the Lutheran ministry and risen to a position of high honor and commanding influence in the church, was called to organize the new institution. This he did, having succeeded in finding assistants whom he imbued with his own spirit and principles, and thus the Wartburg became the best example of his practical work of charity. It was in the true sense of the word a home for the friendless and destitute, on the idea that small institutions of not more than from 75 to 85 inmates, and imbued with the family spirit. are far more important and "successful" in the true sense of the word in the general

work of charity than large institutions with perhaps hundreds of children under one general drill. Great stress was laid upon the cultivation of a taste for music and for innocent games and amusements on the part of the children. Dr. Holls was himself a thorough master of vocal and choral music, and never neglected an opportunity of impressing its importance as an educational agency upon his assistants. In the judgment of the best authorities upon the subject, both the farm school at Zelienople and the Wartburg near Mount Vernon were model institutions.

Thoughtful men came from afar to study the working of these charities, and the writer does not hesitate to say that in the days of Dr. Holls's administration the Wartburg was the most admirable and perfect institution of its kind of which he has ever known.

Dr. Holls came to this country in advance of the great tide of German immigration which for the last quarter of a century has had such a determining influence upon our national characteristics. Ho foresaw the result of so great an influx of foreigners into this country, and as early as 1858 raised his voice in favor of the speedy Americanization of immigrants by education as the best and only possible remedy for the manifold evils which would otherwise ensue. No adopted citizen has loved this country more, and few have become so thoroughly imbued with the spirit of its institutions and its peculiar civilization. In impressing his views upon his countrymen he was, however, far in advance of GermanAmerican popular sentiment, and he often suffered under the insinuation of having too little pride in the land of his birth and no regard for the interests and language of his own people. This charge was, of course, absurd. For a person of his very strong American sentiment, Dr. Holls was most active in seeking to impress the good characteristics of German thought and German civilization upon the social, and especially upon the religious, life of this country. In an address before German-American teachers, speaking of parochial schools in Columbus in 1858, he said:

We hear much of the so-called mission of the Germans in America. In my opinion the first mission of the Germans in this country is to become Americans, and by that I mean that it is their duty, as well as their privilege, to enter deeply, heartily, and with all the fervor and steadfastness of Teutonic manhood into the current of American religious, political, and social life. There is no room in this country for a German nation besides the American nation, and, if there were, neither this country nor the Germans would be the gainers by the establishment of one. It is the greatest possible mistake, and one which I regret to say is often made in the fatherland, to think that by the emigration of so many of her sons Germany is weakened and vast numbers are lost to German thought and feeling. That which is best in German thought and feeling is, on the contrary, rejuvenated and strengthened and receives a new lease of life in a wider and grander sphere by being absorbed in and becoming part of the thought and feeling of this nation, which is the people of the future as certainly as European nations may be called the people of the past I would even go further and maintain that the only ground upon which the establishment and spread of German churches, German schools, and German periodicals in this country can be justified is that they accelerate, instead of retarding, the process of absorption, which is as useful as it is inevitable, whatever may be said to the contrary.

He then proceeded to prove the necessity of this absorption and the hopelessness of all ideas of a separate permanent German community in this country by showing how every nation, in order to retain its national characteristics, requires the exclusive possession of a country. He claimed that only by constant reenforcement from abroad, by further immigration, could the German language be maintained even for daily intercourse among Germans themselves, because all experience showed that the second generation knew little or nothing of their fathers' language, while the third was thoroughly American. We regret exceedingly that no complete report of this able address has been published, in which

the soundness of the arguments advanced is no less remarkable than the foresight displayed for the problems which then were only in the future, but which are now present and of vital importance.

Dr. Holls strongly opposed the custom, which even now exists in many German parochial schools in this country, of teaching European and especially German history more thoroughly than the history of the United States and of using schoolbooks published in Germany and imbued with the monarchical spirit of that country. Of the American public-school system he was a warm friend and unflinching advocate, in spite of much narrow-minded opposition within the boundaries of his own church. At a meeting of the Lutheran Synod, to which he belonged, held in Brooklyn in 1877, a committee representing the fanatical sectarian view presented a report denouncing public schools as "pagan” and speaking of them in terms no less harsh than those employed by Jesuits. This called forth determined denunciation and opposition from Dr. Holls, who took the bold ground that however beneficial parochial schools might be in many localities, and especially in view of the necessity of hastening the transformation of Germans into Americans, the public-school system, as such, was more important for the welfare of this country and for the welfare of all the churches themselves than all parochial schools could ever be. The narrow and extreme views at the time prevailed, but the agitation against the public schools has greatly waned since that time and may almost be said to be extinct.

Dr. Holls was equally in advance of his time, so far as German-Americans are concerned, in his opposition to the teaching of the German language in the public schools. His reasoning was the same as that advanced in favor of the rapid absorption of the immigrants into the body politic. But at the same time he urged all Germans to continue the use of their native tongue at home, so as to give the second generation the enormous advantage of the perfect command of two languages. His own son was thus taught German before he learned English; but the German language was used to convey the lessons of United States history and of the principles of this Government into the child's mind, thus carefully distinguishing between useless foreign prejudices and the acquirement of a foreign language of incalculable practical value.

In all his endeavors in this direction Dr. Holls was prompted and greatly assisted by his wife. Herself a woman of unusual intellectual power, Mrs. Holls clearly saw the duties of educated German-Americans, especially of such as occupied conspicuous positions in the church, and the charm of her conversation was such that her influence was felt by a very wide circle of acquaintance, and her example was of the highest value.

Upon his removal to New York, Dr. Hoils's field of labor was of course greatly enlarged. He was a constant contributor to the religious journals of his church at home and abroad, and for some years occupied the position of secretary for foreign correspondence of the American Christian Commission. As such he was in constant communication with the leaders of charity work in England, France, Germany, and Scandinavia, and his influence was largely instrumental in assisting the late Dr. E. C. Wines in organizing the international prison congresses. Together with Dr. Wines, Horatio Seymour, Francis Lieber, and Louis D. Pillsbury, he was active in the work of prison reform in the State of New York, and the only political work of his later years consisted in his efforts to secure the passage of the constitutional amendment which, by abolishing elective superintendents of State prisons, wrought such a beneficial change in prison management. He was a regular contributor to Barnard's American Journal of Education, and, together with the late Dr. Linus P. Brockett, translated several German educational classics, notably Raumer's Geschichte der Pädagogik, for that periodical. He steadily emphasized the sociological features of religious activity, and the

results of his tabors in this direction may be seen throughout the country in numerous hospitals, orphanages, homes for the aged, and asylums for various classes of unfortunates, established largely through his influence and the force of his example. In his church he occupied various positions of dignity and influence, and his activity was largely instrumental in establishing the emigrant mission in New York, which, in its various branches, is now one of the glories of Lutheranism in America. In 1883 he had a stroke of apoplexy, and after that time his health failed rapidly. The trustees of the institution urged him to postpone his resignation as long as the physician held out any hopes of convalescence, but in August, 1885, the case was seen to be hopeless, and, as it was aggravated by an equally serious and painful illness of his wife, he resigned and moved to Mount Vernon, to the house of his only son, Frederick William Holls, esq., of the New York bar, where everything that filial piety could do for his comfort and medical skill and nursing for his relief was done. He lingered for more than a year, but the end came on August 12, 1886.

THE BROTHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED

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STATES."

It is to Baltimore, the Monumental City, that the credit belongs of having been the first to secure the establishment of the Christian Brothers in the United States.

Among the steps taken by Archbishop Eccleston to promote Catholic education was that of inviting the Brothers of the Christian Schools to open an institution in his archiepiscopal city; it had already been decided to build an academy for young men on the site of Baltimore's first church, Archbishop Carroll's procathedral. The corner stone was laid in 1842, and the academy was named Calvert Hall, after Leonard Calvert, the first governor of Maryland and son of Sir George Calvert, Lord Baltimore.

The arrival of the Brothers is thus recorded in Shea's History:

On the 13th of November, 1846, Archbishop Eccleston announced to his flock that the Brothers of the Christian Schools had opened a school in Calvert Hall, Brother Leopold being director. A novitiate was also established for any pious persons who wished to devote their lives to Christian education under the rule of the Blessed de La Salle.

Calvert Hall College of to-day is a magnificent granite structure opposite the Baltimore Cathedral; it was erected in 1890 to meet the constantly growing demands of higher education.

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New York was the second city in the United States to secure schools of the Brothers. Previous to his death, in 1842, Right Rev. John Dubois, Bishop of New York, had taken means to obtain Brothers from France, and his successor, the Most Reverend Archbishop Hughes, spared no efforts in the same direction; but the difficulties of communicating with Europe at that time and other unlookedfor obstacles delayed their coming for some years. Finally the Brothers arrived, and the following from Shea's History tells of the beginning of their work in New York:

In 1848 Providence, by indirect means, endowed the diocese of New York with the sons of the Blessed de La Salle, the Brothers of the Christian Schools. During the spring of 1848 a colony of the Brothers took up their residence on East Canal street (No. 16, near Broadway), and they soon had English-speaking novices. It was a feeble beginning, but with the blessing of God it prospered. The school of St. Vincent de Paul proved their ability as teachers and their judgment in adapting their course to the exigencies of the country.

a Extracts from an article in the Catholic World, September, 1901.