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400 NEW YOEK (CITY) hospital, in E. 34th street ; old ladies' home of the Methodist Episcopal church, in W. 42d street near 8th avenue ; home for incurables, at West Farms; Presbyterian home for aged women, in E. 73d street; St. Francis's hospi- tal (Roman Catholic), in 5th street ; Episcopal orphan home and asylum, in E. 49th street ; Roman Catholic orphan asylums, in Prince street and 5th and Madison avenues ; asylum of the New York Magdalen benevolent soci- ety, in 5th avenue and 88th street; half or- phan asylum, in W. 10th street ; house of mercy, for the reformation of fallen women, in 86th street near the Hudson; Hebrew or- phan asylum, in 77th street and 3d avenue; orphan asylum of St. Vincent de Paul (Roman Catholic), in 39th street near 7th avenue; Catholic foundling asylum, in 68th street near Lexington avenue ; Roosevelt hospital, in 59th street and 10th avenue; Presbyterian hospital, in 70th street and Madison avenue ; home for aged and infirm deaf mutes, in E. 13th street; home for the blind, in W. 14th street ; asylum for female deaf mutes (Roman Catholic), at Fordham; association for the relief of re- spectable aged indigent females, in E. 20th street; St. Luke's home for indigent Chris- tian females, in Madison avenue and 89th street; St. Vincent's hospital (Roman Catho- lic), in llth street and 7th avenue; St. John's guild, in Varick street ; seamen's fund and re- treat, with a hospital for seamen on Staten island, and connected with it an asylum for destitute, sick, and infirm families of seamen ; sailors' snug harbor, a retreat for superan- nuated seameb, also on Staten island ; marine society ; and ladies' home missionary society. There are about 25 Roman Catholic convents and associations of a similar class. The most prominent are the convent of the Redempto- rists or congregation of the Most Holy Re- deemer, in 3d street ; the congregation of the missionary priests of St. Paul the Apostle (Paulists), in 9th avenue and 59th street ; the mother house of the sisters of charity, at Mt. St. Vincent, on the Hudson, near the border of Yonkers ; the convent and academy of the ladies of the Sacred Heart, at Manhattan ville ; St. Catharine's convent of the sisters of mercy, in E. Houston street, which has a house of mercy (refuge for young females) connected with it, an industrial school in Madison avenue and 81st street, and three academies ; and the convent of the sisters of the Good Shepherd, in 90th street near the East river, with a house for the reformation of fallen women. The New York city mission and tract society was established in 1827, and reorganized and in- corporated in 1866. It employs 30 mission- aries, has six mission stations, ten mission chapels, and five mission Sabbath schools, and distributes considerable aid to the poor. Since 1835 it has expended $850,000 in regular mis- sionary work, besides more than $100,000 in building mission stations and chapels, and has distributed 41,295,893 tracts in English and some ten other languages. The total expendi- tures in 1874 were $49,452. The young men's Christian association was formed in 1852. The elegant building in 23d street and 4th avenue was erected in 1868-'9, at a cost of $345,000, the cost of the lots having been $142,000. It is 87 by 175 ft., and five stories high, with a central and three angular towers, and is con- structed chiefly of Ohio freestone and New Jersey brown stone. This edifice contains a hall capable of seating 1,500 persons, a lecture room with seats for 400, a gymnasium, a bath room, a free reading room supplied with the principal American and foreign newspapers and periodicals, a library, and rooms for even- ing classes in modern languages, penmanship, bookkeeping, &c. The association has sev- eral branches in different parts of the city. The American Bible society, next to the Brit- ish and foreign the largest in the world, was founded in 1816. It has printed the Bible in 29 languages and dialects, besides assisting in publishing and circulating many of the 185 versions of the British and foreign Bible so- ciety. It employs 500 hands, and carries on every branch of its business in the Bible house, erected by the society in 1853 at a cost inclu- ding ground of more than $300,000. This edi- fice is of brick, six stories high, and occupies the entire block bounded by 3d and 4th ave- nues and Stuyvesant and 9th streets, covering with the area in the centre three fourths of an acre. It contains the offices of the American board of commissioners for foreign missions, the New York association for improving the condition of the poor, the New York city mis- sion and tract society, and many other benev- olent and religious organizations. Reading rooms for seamen and working men have been established in various parts of the city by the different missionary organizations. There are numerous temperance societies and lodges of freemasons, odd fellows, and many similar or- ders. The public schools are under the gen- eral management of the board of education, consisting of 21 commissioners of common schools appointed by the mayor for a term of three years (seven retiring annually). There are also three inspectors of common schools for each of the eight school districts into which the city is divided, appointed by the mayor for three years (one retiring annually), and five trustees for each ward chosen by the board of education for five years (one retiring annually). These officers receive no salary. The board of education appoints a city superintendent of schools and several assistants for a term of two years, a superintendent of school buildings, an engineer, and other officers. The schools are free to all between the ages of 4 and 21 years. The common schools are divided into primary schools with six grades, and grammar schools with eight grades. Besides the ordi- nary English branches, drawing is taught in all the grades of the grammar schools, and in- struction in French may be given in the two