In all this the ultimate end and aim of the instruction offered are practical workable results. Mr. Packard regards education as a tool. If the tool has no edge, is not adapted to its purpose, is not practically usable, it is worthless as a tool. This idea is kept prominent in all the work of the college, and its general results justify the position thus taken. The graduates are not turned out as finished business men, but as young men well started on the road toward that end. As Mr. Packard puts it: "Their diplomas do not recommend them as bank cashiers or presidents, or as managers of large or small enterprises, but simply as having a knowledge of the duties of accountantship. They rarely fail to fulfill reasonable expectations; and they are not responsible for unreasonable ones." * * * * * AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS. The fourteenth annual convention of the American Institute of Architects began in Philadelphia, November 17. Mr. Thomas U. Walter, of Philadelphia, presided, and fifty or more prominent architects were present. In his annual address the president spoke of the tendency of the architectural world as decidedly in the direction of originality. But little attention is paid to the types of building drawn from the works of by-gone ages or to the mannerisms of the more recent past. Progress in the development of the elements of taste and beauty, and the concretion of aesthetic principles with common sense in architectural design, are now everywhere apparent. The responsibilities of architects are greater than they have ever before been; the growing demand of the times calls for intelligent studies in all that relates to architecture, whether it be in the realm of aesthetics, in sciences that relate to construction, in the nature and properties of the materials used, in the atmosphere that surrounds us, or in the availability of the thousand-and-one useful and ingenious inventions that tend to promote the convenience and completeness of structures. Papers were read by Mr. A. J. Blood, of New York, on "The Best Method of Solving the Tenement House Problem;" Mr. George T. Mason, Jr., of Newport, on "The Practice of American Architects during the Colonial Period;" Mr. Robert Briggs, of Philadelphia, on "The Ventilation of Audience Rooms;" Mr. T. M. Clark, of Boston, on "French Building Laws, etc." The following named officers were elected: President, T. U. Walter, Philadelphia; Treasurer, O. P. Hatfield, New York; Secretary, A. J. Blood. Trustees, R. M. Hunt, H. M. Congdon, J. Cady, Napoleon Le Brun, New York. Committee on Publication, R. M. Upjohn, New York; T. M. Clark, Boston; John McArthur, Jr., Philadelphia; A. J. Blood, H. M. Congdon, New York. Committee on Education, W. R. Narr, Boston; Russell Sturgis, New York; N. Clifford Ricker, Champagne, Ill.; Henry Van Brunt, Boston; Alfred Stone, Providence. Corresponding Secretary, T. M. Clark, Boston.