the school had outgrown its accommodations, and by the following year a third building, now West College, was erected and occupied. A laboratory has since been erected. The growing requirement for room has also necessitated the building of a "Ladies' Cottage," which will be much more pretentious in appearance and proportions than the name. would indicate. The new building will be commodious, beautiful, and complete in all its appointments. The building was completed in the spring of 1888.

Charter Powers and Control of the College.-The charter of the college incorporates the Board of Trustees of Ripon College, fifteen in number, including the president of the college, who is ex officio a trustee. The others hold office for three years, one-third retiring each year. The Board fills its own vacancies. It has power to establish any depart ment of learning, to confer the usual degrees, to control the finances, and in general to manage the affairs of the college.

Design and Character.-Young men and young women enjoy equal advantages at Ripon. It is the aim of the institution to keep its standard fully up to that of the best western colleges, and its methods in harmony with the most enlightened views of education. It aims also to furnish a thorough preparation for the pursuits of college courses, and to provide a sound practical education for such as may desire to fit themselves for common school teaching or for business. It is likewise the earnest purpose of the officers of the institution to conduct it on distinctively Christian principles, and to have it pervaded with a strong and healthy moral and religious influence.

The institution comprises the following departments: The college, the preparatory school, the English academy, and the school of music. In the college two liberal courses of study-the classical and scientific-have been arranged, each extending through four years. The courses of preparation extend through three years. Besides these regular courses of study a select course, extending through five years, has been arranged for such as are unable to take either of the degree courses. The course of study in the English academy extends through three years.

Information about Ripon College may be obtained from Historical Sketches of the Colleges of Wisconsin (Madison, Wis.: Atwood & Culver, 1876); Proceedings of the Quarter Century of the Society for the Promotion of Collegiate and Theological Education at the West, pp. 175-82; Historical Sketch of Ripon College, in the Ripon Enterprise, October, 1876; History of Ripon, by Captain Mapes; History of Fond du Lac County; Catalogues of Ripon College; files of the College Days.

V.

RACINE COLLEGE.'

Racine College was founded in 1852, under the auspices of the Episcopal Church in the diocese of Wisconsin. It was incorporated by act of the Legislature March 3d of that year. The first president was the Rev. Roswell Park, D. D., a graduate of West Point and Union College, and for some time a professor in the University of Pennsylvania. For its real estate and its first building, the old Park Hall (destroyed by fire in 1864), the college was mainly indebted to citizens of Racine. An early circular states that "the location is a beautiful one, on the southern margin of Racine, traversed by the main street of the city, in an oak grove, fronting on Lake Michigan, and commanding an extensive view of the lake in its ever-varying phases." The school opened on the 15th of November with nine students, closing with thirty-three the next summer.

There were from the outset arrangements for two departments, preparatory and collegiate. There were also two courses, the "full course," intended to comprehend a full classical education, and the "shorter course," constituting a preparation for business.

The degree assigned to the latter was that of bachelor of science. This was the degree generally taken during the earlier years of the college. The classical course was apparently thorough, but much less advanced than at the present day, though perhaps equal to that of the majority of American colleges thirty years ago. The degree of bachelor of arts, however, was only granted to six candidates between the years 1852 and 1859.

The moral supervision was somewhat more strict than is the case at the majority of colleges. The religious worship from the first was, of course, in accordance with the formularies of the Episcopal Church, and attendance at the chapel services, morning and evening, was enforced..

The new school was soon in a flourishing condition, and increased from year to year until it had attained to the number of eighty students in 1856-57. In the summer of that year, July 4th, the corner-stone of Kemper Hall was laid, subscriptions having been obtained in Racine to the amount of twelve thousand dollars. But in 1857-58, the period of the great financial crisis, the decline in numbers was so rapid as to