such honors and degrees as are usually conferred in similar institutions.

GROUNDS AND OTHER LANDS.

The grounds occupied by the buildings and lying contiguous, including a Ladies' Park of two acres, comprise about twenty-two and a half acres. The other lands are held by the Institution as an investment in Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Indiana and West Virginia, comprising in all more than 7,500 acres, and valued at $30,000. Of these the lands in West Vir ginia comprise about 6,000 acres, and are valued at $25,000.

BUILDINGS.

Several of the buildings of Oberlin College, which were used for a time, have been superseded by better ones. Oberlin Hall was the first frame building erected on the Oberlin tract, and furnished a home for the school in the wilderness. For a year and a half, from December, 1833, to July, 1835, this building provided for all the operations of the College and all the public gatherings of the colony.

The Ladies' Hall of the early times was next in order, a three-story, wooden building, thirty-eight feet by eighty, with two wings projecting backward, of two stories each, begun in the summer of 1834, and completed in the Summer of 1835. This building afforded rooms for about sixty young ladies, and table room for 175 boarders. It served its purpose for thirty years.

Cincinnati Hall was extemporized in the Spring of 1825, to receive the sudden accession from Lane Seininary. It was a one-story building, 144 feet long and 24 wide. It served its purpose until the completion of Tappan Hall.

Colonial Hall took its name from the fact that the "colonists" contributed something more than $2,000, about half the cost, to its erection, with the provision that the lower story should he occupied jointly as a college chapel and a meeting house. It accommodated Soo. The two upper stories furnished dormitories for forty-four students and a single recitation room. The building was commenced in 1835 and completed in 1836.

Oberlin Hall, the Ladies' Hall and Colonial Hall have all been removed, and are used either as dwelling houses or stores.

Tappan Hall, named from Arthur Tappan who gave $10,ooo for its erection, was built in 1835-6, and afforded single rooms for eighty-seven students, beside four recitation rooms.

In 1835, a church in Walton, N. Y., sent several of their young men, and put up a building for them called Walton Hall. This came into possession of the College about 1852, was at length sold, and was destroyed by fire in 1864. It is a somewhat remarkable fact that no one of the College buildings has ever been destroyed, or even seriously damaged by fire.

The Laboratory is a small brick building, erected in 1838, and occupied by the Professor of Chemistry as a laboratory and for lectures.

The Music Hall is a small frame building, used for a time for the rehearsals of the choir and for the large choral classes of the school, and occupied till recently by the Cabinet.

The Cabinet Hall furnishes several desirable recitation rooms, as well as a commodious room in the upper story for the Cabinet.

The Chapel was erected in 1854-5, at a cost of $10,500. The lower floor is used chiefly for offices; in the large room above the students meet for prayers. During the past Winter this has been re-modeled in the amphitheatre form, is now quite commodious, and capable of seating about 900.

The Ladies' Hall was begun in 1861 and completed in 1865. The cost of the building and its furnishing was about $40,000. It is of brick, three stories high, with fronts on two streets 120 feet each. It contains an assembly room, a society room, a reading room, with offices for the Ladies' Department, a dining room which will seat 216 boarders, and rooms for one hundred ladies and the steward's family.

French and Society Halls were built in 1867-8, at a cost of $9,500 each. The first took its name from the late Charles French, of Cleveland, who left a bequest of $5,000, which was devoted to this use. They are two-story, brick buildings. French Hall contains four recitation rooms,

and rooms for philosophical apparatus, and for drawing and painting; Society Hall contains three recitation rooms, a fine hall for the College Societies, and a room for the Societies' Library and for the College Library.

The corner-stone of Council Hall, the last and best of the college buildings, was laid in the fall of 1871, during the session of the Congregational Council organized at Oberlin, and its name was suggested by vote of the Council. It was dedicated at the Commencement in August, 1874. It provides abundantly for the Theological Seminary as it now is, and for a considerable expansion. Its length is 101 feet, its width 70

feet. The first story contains a chapel, lecture rooms, a library room and an adjoining reading room; the second, third and fourth stories are appropriated to student's private rooms. These rooms will accommodate about sixty students. The cost of the building and furnishing, was about $68,000.

ported by the contributions of its friends in this country and England. Arthur Tappan gave $10,000 to build Tappan Hall; another gentleman loaned $10,000; and these and others united in a "Professorship Association," pledging themselves to pay regularly the salaries of eight professors. But the great fire in New York and the great monetary convulsions of 1836-7 soon following, broke up this arrangement. The professors could not find it in their hearts to leave, and consented to live on meagre pay, and this coming in no definite form or channel. A load of debt accumulated; but agents sent to England raised, in eighteen months, $30.000, sufficient to cancel the debt. It was chiefly the fidelity of Oberlin to anti-slavery principles that brought forth such a response from British Christians. In 1850 a movement was made to secure an endowment of $100,000 by the sale of scholarships, guaranteeing free tuition to their holders. The work of securing pledges was accomplished in a little more than a year. These scholarships were of three elasses: one entitling the holder to tuition for six years, another for eighteen years, and the other perpetually. The prices of these scholarships were $25, $50 and $100. This measure which has been unprofitable to some colleges, was eminently wise and successful here. The money thus secured has been safely and profitably invested, and the income from it is much more than the College ever received trom tuition.

The Institution has now property in lands, buildings and money, amounting to about $500,000; of which, however, only $145,000 are productive, $115,000 for the Collegiate Department and $30,000 for the Theological Department.

THE MANUAL LABOR SYSTEM.

Any peculiarity in the system of education is due to the dominant idea embodied in its original plan, which was, to make a substantial education accessible to all. This involved, it was supposed, the Manual Labor System, the Co-Education of the Sexes, and soon it was seen, also, the education of colored persons on equal terms with whites. The first year of the school all the students were required to labor four

hours per day; the next year three; but, since 1838, the Institution has given no pledge to furnish labor to all the students, and has only recommended and not required it.

The high idea of a Manual Labor School, which was indulged at the beginning, had not been realized. The spirit of labor has been cherished, and work has always been held in honor. "Learning and Labor" is the motto of the College seal, and a considerable proportion of our students rely upon their own exertions for support; realizing more, however, from Winter teaching than from Summer work.

CO-EDUCATION OF THE SEXES.

A Female Department was in the original plan of Oberlin, and young ladies have been connected with the school from the beginning, constituting at the outset more than one-third of the entire number. Ladies have also always been permitted to take the classical course, and many have done so. For purposes of government, all young ladies attending the Instiution are under the direction of a Lady Principal and a Ladies' Board. Freedom of social intercourse is allowed, and under the strong influences favorable to good order, the plan of Co-education has here proved an unquestionable success.

COLORED STUDENTS.

The introduction of colored students soon atter the founding of the school, made it practically an anti-slavery institution of the most pronounced type, and it became one of the most efficient promoters of the anti-slavery sentiment. Colored students have, however, always formed but a small minority of the whole number of students.

DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY AND THE ARTS.

In the Department of Philosophy and the Arts there are two courses: (1.) The Classical and Scientific, or “College” course; and (2.) The Literary. The former embraces the studies usually pursued in American colleges, so arranged that after the Freshman year, the student can give a classical or scientific character to his course by a system of elections.