New-York tribune., 1902-12-21
FREE LECTURE SYSTEM.
FOR BENEFIT OF PEOPLE.
Ho7c 1t Has Groun Up IN Ali Parts
Of the Cty-Some Of the Lecturers.

Select almost any weekday night and almost any
part Of the city between October and May /. and
viii be able find scene somewhat like this:
The setting is a schoolhouse. whose entrance
hangs illuminated sign bearing the words
Free Lectures Men and women. young, middle
aged and those far along in years. wrnkled and
gray, entering the doors beneath the sign II
it be one Of the old schoolhouses they climb three
four flights Of stairs TO the assembly hall at the
top OF the building. If one OF the new buildings
of the character introduced in the Strong ad-
mnistration, they walk directly into the cement
hoored playground the street level. and take
seats in the folding chairs placed for them. If it
be the assembly ROOM they will seat themselves in
the places occupied by the children the daytime
Before the square piano which stands in front Of
the platform hangs screen and at the other end
OF the centre aisle, behind the seats, stands a
table. on which is stereopticon. About the stere
opticon gathered the usual rubber tubes and
tanks for the Illuminating power of the lantern.
Possibly in place of the screen, there may be
splints and rolls of lint the piano, and the
walls at the side of the series of charts IL
iustrating the various systems of the human body.
Or II may be that there are tables laden with all
OF interesting looking things such as electric
batteries, wires, tubes, pals boxes. tanks and
bottles, in place of the lint and splints. If the
background of the is the playground, instead
Of the assembly room. there is difference in the
details Of the foreground At o'clock the doors
shut The and women have taken their
seats the former side of the central aisle,
the latter the other. young appears be-
the audience with a little white folder in his
hand. and announces that at the lecture next
Tuesday night Professor Chaucer will lecture
'-Tennyson" in the course on The English Poets
viii be illustrated by lantern Slides" he says
and adds, 1T viii be a very interesting lecture"
Holding the folder up to make certain Of the name
Of the lecturer, he continues: Tonight TO
have a lecture in the course Commercial and
Descriptive Geography entitled Martinique .;
in the course First Aid the Injured
sitled The Treatment of Broken Bones; or in the
course on Electricity. entitled Wireless Teleg
raphy," the case may be.
The lecturer talks for hour Here and there
person with a notebook carefully making notes
At the close of the lecture a number Of those in
the audience gather around the lecturer to ask
questions and thank him for the lecture. In few
minutes the apparatus has been packed up, the
room put in order and the lights turned out Once
more the room is ready for the children who TO
gather the next morning in their quest Of knowl-
edge.
Fifteen years ago it would have been impossible
TO have found such a scene in New-York- To-day
adult education by means OF free lectures has be-
come recognized part Of the educational system
of the city. 1t has passed the period of probation,
and last year the final step. that of introducing il
in all the boroughs. taken.
The Free Lectures TO the People" by which title
the system formally known. is indirectly out
growth Of the free lectures given in Cooper Union
for twenty-five years When Abrarn s. Hewitt was
Mayor he suggested that appropriation be
granted TO the Board OF Education to carry out
lecture idea. On June g. 1855 the legislature
passed an act provide for lectures for work
ingmen and workngwomen," which authorized the
Board OF Education of the city Of NewYork TO en-
poy competent lecturers 10 deliver lectures the
natural sciences and kindred subjects in the public
schools in the evenings-the lectures to be given
in at least school In each ward From that
date until the present free lectures have beer
given in New-York under the direction of the Board
of Education. In the first year lss lectures de-
lirered in six different schools located in the
congested parts of the city. The attendance was
2Iss. less than one-fortieth that OF last season
Last year the lectures which numbered 3.172 wer,
attended by 925 Isl persons. These lectures wer,
given in hundred different places In the Dor
oughs of Manhattan The Bronx Brooklyn, Queens
and Richmond
few of the places where lecture centres hav
been established are Wakefield Kingsbridge, In