In a score of schools or more there seem to have been gifts of a few thousand dollars--hardly over ten or fifteen thousand, and in most much less.[598] In some sixteen, donations appear to have been received of more appreciable size--twenty-five thousand dollars and upwards. In about half of these the gifts seem to have been from twenty-five thousand to fifty thousand, in one or two cases possibly more: the California, Colorado, Columbia, New England (Massachusetts), Sarah Fuller (Massachusetts), Pennsylvania Home, and Austine (Vermont).[599] To six schools donations seem to have reached a sum between seventy-five or one hundred thousand dollars and twice that amount. Four of these are in New York: the New York Institution, the Institution for Improved Instruction, St. Joseph's and Le Couteulx St. Mary's; one in Pennsylvania, the Western Pennsylvania; and one in Illinois, the Ephpheta. In three schools the quarter million mark has been passed: the American in Connecticut, and the Clarke in Massachusetts, both with receipts well beyond this figure; and the Pennsylvania Institution, which has probably been the largest recipient of all. Total private gifts to schools for the deaf in the United States would probably foot up to little under two and a quarter million dollars, and perhaps to two and a half millions, though these figures cannot be fully substantiated. GIFTS FOR PUPILS IN THE SCHOOLS There have been gifts for the pupils in the schools as well as for the schools themselves. These have been of various kinds: clothing, books, pictures, magazines, newspapers, Christmas presents, prizes, etc., as well as money gifts in a few cases. In many instances reduced transportation has been allowed on railroads, and there have been a number of benefactions of like character. We have already referred to the funds left to certain of the schools in trust for deaf-blind pupils.[600] PRESENT TENDENCIES OF PRIVATE BENEFACTIONS Private benefaction, as we see, has not played any great part in providing the means of education for the deaf in the United States. In a few schools private gifts have been of appreciable aid in the work, but on the whole they have not been of considerable moment, and in the great majority of schools they have been practically negligible. To judge from past experience, it would not seem likely that in the future many of the schools will to any great extent be beneficiaries from private means, or that they will thus be enabled to extend their plants or to make innovations as yet unattempted, though of course such a thing is possible.