Existing without State aid, and with endowments which give an income of only $1,151, the Republic faced, on September 30, 1910, a deficit of $14,647.75. In January, 1911, was opened a large gymnasium, the gift of friends of the Republic. _Some Bad Conditions in North Carolina_--That all the county convict camps of the state be placed under a state board of supervisors is a recommendation embodied in the annual report for 1910, just issued, of the Board of Public Charities of North Carolina. Thirty-nine counties maintain these camps. Reports of the county commissioners show that in 17 of these counties the prisoners in the camps are chained together at night. Sixteen counties report that whipping, administered usually by the superintendent or foreman, is resorted to as a form of punishment in the camps. The report urges also that the burden of executing the conditional release, or parole law, be lifted from the Governor, on whom it now rests, and placed upon the prison board of directors, who should be made a parole board with power to release conditionally every prisoner except those sentenced for life. Concerning the county jails in the state, the report says: “Generally speaking, the prisoners are not kept in as cleanly a condition as they should be. The bedding and cells more particularly should be especially cleansed whenever not occupied and ready for the next comer. The great difficulty is the fact that prisoners wear their own old clothing into the jail and thus introduce dirt and vermin which require a continual fight from those in charge. A limited number of suits could be provided by the county and the men required to bathe and put these on while their own are fumigated. There is no excuse for the filth in some of our jails.” _English Progress_--In the Providence (R. I.) Sunday Journal, of April 9th, the London correspondent of that paper quotes Thomas Holmes, Secretary of the Howard Association of London, as follows: “If some of the American methods were grafted on to the English prison administration, the effect would work remarkably for good. I found that their probation system was worked much more effectively and thoroughly than it is in England. Their probation officers are fitted absolutely for the work. On this side there are no paid probation officers as such; they are either voluntary workers or servants of some charitable society, not state officials. At present we are only playing with the probation idea in England. If we could get men of character and capability, occupying fairly well-paid posts, we should have better results than you have in America.” Secretary Holmes went on to say that in his opinion the weakness in the position of the American probation officers resided in the fact that the judges made the appointments. If the probation officer was a strong man he influenced the judge too much, and if a weak man he was apt to become creature of the judge.