During a little over ten years attempts have been successfully made by the Young Men's Christian Association to found continuation-schools. There now are 400 of these schools in the U. S. under local or state supervision. Several business and manufacturing firms, such as the Boston Elevated Railway Company, the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company and the Edison Company, have contributed largely to the support of the continuation-schools conducted by the Y. M. C. A. Rather more doubtful is the value of the correspondence-schools which are for many workers the sole vehicles of continuation-work. These schools are often efficiently conducted; but their method is apt to be discouraging and their management mercenary.
In Germany continuation-schools developed from the attempt made by the Sunday-schools in 1760 to extend their teaching to primary secular subjects. An impetus was given to the movement by the foundation of free schools for the workers, first by Berlin and later by other cities. The modern German Fortbildungschulen or continuation-schools, numbering 3,000 in Prussia and four times that number in the empire, are one secret of the industrial advances of modern Germany. France has several kinds of continuation-schools, especially commercial schools and polytechnics. The English continuation-schools are largely of an advanced and secondary character. There are systems of continuation-schools also in Italy, Switzerland, Holland, Sweden and Australia; designed to meet the same problem of providing liberal and vocational training for those whose days are filled with toil. See Correspondence-Schools.
Convolvulus, Wild Morning-Glory, a common white or pink-and-white wild-flower of wayside wall and bank. It is much like the cultivated morning-glory of the home-garden, but is a hardier plant; the flowers are less frail and remain open longer, and it is perennial. It is also called Hedge-Bindweed, also Lady's Nightcap. It grows as far south as North Carolina and west to Nebraska, and blooms from June to August. It is a rapid grower and a great twiner, the Latin name Convolvulus, meaning little twiner. On moonlight nights the flower remains open, giving welcome to visiting moths. To the Convolvulus family belongs the sweet-potato vine; and also a member of this family is that bane of the farmer, dodder, small or field bindweed.
Cook Islands. Capt. Cook in 1773 discovered a number of islands between 8° and 23° south latitude and 157° and 170° west longitude. These number six principal and a number of smaller islands, which with several others were attached to New Zealand for administrative purposes in June, 1901. Rarotonga, the chief island, is 20 miles in circumference and has 2,060 inhabitants. The total population is 6,324.
Cook, Frederick Albert, American physician and explorer, was born at Calicoon Depot, Sullivan Co., New York, June 10 1865. He was graduated from the University of New York in 1890, and received his medical degree from the same institution. He was surgeon of the Peary Arctic expedition, in 1891-2, and surgeon of the Belgium Antarctic expedition 1897-9. In 1903-6 he explored the mountain regions of Alaska and claimed to have ascended Mt. McKinley. He is the author of Through the First Antarctic Night and To the Top of the Continent. In July, 1907, he sailed north in a fishing schooner, reaching Smith Sound where he wintered. On Feb. 19, 1908, he started with a sledge train for the pole. In Sept., 1909, he returned to civilization and announced that on Apr. 21, 1908, he had reached the north pole, where he spent two days in taking observations. His proofs, submitted to scientists of Copenhagen University, did not stand the test of examination and his claim was discredited. See Polar Explorations.
Cook, James, Captain, a great English navigator, was born Oct. 28, 1728, the son of a farm-laborer. In 1755 he entered the royal navy and became a master-mariner, and at this time surveyed the shores of Newfoundland and the St. Lawrence. In 1768, as lieutenant in command of a ship, he sailed to Tahiti with an expedition to observe the transit of Venus. On the return voyage he sailed around New Zealand for the first time, mapped its coasts and explored the east side of Australia.
His second voyage was spent exploring the lands of the Antarctic on the edge of the sea of ice.
His third voyage was made as captain in charge of two ships. After discovering Hawaii, which he named the Sandwich Islands, he followed the North American coast, trying to find a northwest passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic. He reached Bering Strait, but, forced to turn back, he made Hawaii in 1779. Here he was murdered by the islanders Feb. 14, 1779. Captain Cook, perhaps more than anyone else, added to our knowledge of the Pacific and Antarctic Oceans. His surveys also have stood later tests and been found accurate.
Cooley, Thomas McIntyre, American jurist, was born at Attica, N. Y., Jan. 6, 1824; and died at Ann Arbor, Mich., Sept. 12, 1898. He studied law and in 1846 was admitted to the bar; in 1859 be became professor of law in the University of Michigan; and, with an interval of some years when he was chief-justice of the supreme
