CHURCHES; CHARITIES: SCHOOLS AND LIBRA RIES. The social life of this city of homes centres largely in the churches; and Brooklyn has long been distingnished for the number of these, and for the brilliant and able preachers secured to preside over the congregations. Among the widely known Brooklyn preachers of the past may be mentioned especially Henry Ward Beecher and Lyman Abbott. of Plymouth Church, T. DeWitt Talmage, Richard S. Storrs, Theodore L. Cuylcr, and J. A. F. Behrends.
In addition to the private charities of the churches, many of the larger charitable insti tutions have ecclesiastical relations. There are also many institutions entirely undenomina t ional ; and altogether Brooklyn has some twenty-four dispensaries, eleven homes for the aged, twenty-five orphan asylums and industrial schools, six nurseries, several homes for in eurables and consumptives. and an inebriates' home. Of some twenty hospitals, Long Island College, Saint Mary's, and Saint Peter's are of particular interest. There are also several train ing schools for nurses. At Flatbush are the pub lic institutions, consisting of the almshouse, hospital, and insane asylum. the last now part of the State system. Kings County penitentiary, one of the six in the State, is also in this local ity.
Brooklyn is celebrated for its educational facilities, both public and private. Among its private schools are the Packer Institute for girls and the Polytechnic Institute for boys, each with some 600 students, and Adelphi College (co-educational), with about 150 students in the collegiate department. Pratt Institute, with an
endowment of $3,600.000 from its founder, fur nishes manual and industrial training. Among other institutions are two Roman Catholic col leges, the Medical School of the Long Island College Hospital. and the Brooklyn College of Pharmacy. The public schools of Brooklyn hold high rank, the system including a Manual Train ing High School, a Commercial High School, a Girls' and a Boys' High School. a truant school, and a training school for teachers. A unique or ganization is the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, developing from an association founded in •823. chartered under its present name in 1843, and reorganized with a larger scope in1887 88. Its aim is the education of the people in all branches of the arts and sciences by means of lectures, classes, and collections. It includes some twenty-five departments, each of which holds class meetings and public lectures, and its curriculum resembles that of a large university. One section of an immense museum building has already been built by the city on a conspicuous site near Prospect Park.
Brooklyn has numerous libraries, among which are: the Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Public, the library of the Brooklyn Institute, the Law Library of the Second Judicial District, the Long Island Historical Society Library. the Kings County Medical Society library, time Pratt 'Institute Library, the library of the Union for Christian Work, and the Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. libraries.