ll rivals and still have a well-deserved reputation.
In every village may be found artists of great merit both in
brass, copper, wood, silk and other industrial arts, but the
quality of their work is continually deteriorating, and Lord
Curzon and other sincere friends of India are endeavoring to
restore it to the former high standard. For that purpose art
schools have been established in Calcutta, Lahore, Bombay, Madras
and other places, first to train the eyes and the hands of the
young artisans, and, second, to elevate their taste and stimulate
their ambition to excel in whatever line of work they undertake.
There are several thousand young men in these schools who have
shown remarkable talent and are beginning to make their influence
felt throughout the country.

As you may imagine, it is very difficult to induce people to
produce objects of high art when those which cost less labor and
money can be sold for the same prices. As long as the foreign
demand for Indian goods continues this tendency to cheapen the
product will be noticed.

By the late census it appears that there were 2,590 publications
in the native Indian languages during the year 1900, as against
2,178 during the previous year; 1,895 were books and 695 pamphlets;
1,616 of the books were original works and the remainder were
translations; 832 were in the Bengali language and the remainder
were divided among eighty-eight other languages, ninety-nine being
in Sanskrit and 103 in Persian. Included in this list were poetry,
fiction, works of travel, religious books, history, biography,
philosophy and several on political economy. Among the Persian
publications I noticed "A History of Russian Rule in Asia";
among the translations are Lord Lytton's "Last Days of Pompeii,"
several popular novels, and several of Shapespeare's plays. There
was a history of England and a series of biographies entitled
"Lives of Great Women," including those of Queen Victoria, Queen
Elizabeth, Maria Theresa, Marie Antoinette, and the mother of
Napoleon I.

Since 1902 there have been several movements among the Hindus
and Mohammedan citizens of India looking to the advancement of
their races and coreligionists. At Bombay, in December, 1903,
was held a Mohammedan educational conference, and a committee
was appointed to draw up a plan of permanent organization for the
purpose of awakening among the members of that sect an interest
in the advancement of women and the education o