The New Student's Reference Work/Valparaiso, Ind.

Valparaiso, Ind., county-seat of Porter County, 44 miles southeast of Chicago, Ill., is on the Fort Wayne, Grand Trunk and "Nickel Plate" railroads. It is in a fertile farming district, and trades largely in agricultural productions. The chief manufactures consist of dairy-products, machine-shop goods and mica-paint. The town has been made well-known by Northern Indiana Normal School. This was founded in 1874 by Henry Brown for those who can not avail themselves of courses in regular colleges. It has over 5,000 students of both sexes, who obtain board, lodging and higher education for about $125 a year. The secret of the low prices lies in the elimination of the middleman and the purchase of food in enormous quantities at wholesale rates. The college has seven acres of gardens cultivated mainly by the students, and these are housed almost as economically as they are fed. For 22 cents a day students obtain good lodging and excellent meals. From the profits on board, lodging and teaching this school has acquired 50 acres of land, bought or built nine substantial buildings, earned and saved nearly $1,000,000 and formed a faculty of 162 instructors. Common-sense ideas are put to use in the educational work. The institution has $200,000 of productive funds, and in 1907 its income was $295,000. There is a library of 12,000 volumes. The population of the city in 1910 was 6,987.