Alice Hyneman Rhine

“ WITH the discovery of America, the founding of colonies in the New World relieved the Old of so much surplus population as gave the people of both hemispheres many new chances in life. The advantages of education, meager as was the information given by the schools, inspired men with a desire for larger liberty than the old monarchical governments were either able or willing to give. The men that emigrated to America were of the liberty-loving type. ”

“ To read, write, and know arithmetic in its first branches correctly, was the extent of the educational advantages which the founders of the free-school system deemed necessary for the accomplishment of their purposes. ”

“ The placing such ventilators, as well as sewers, in a sandy soil, is always a hazardous experiment. If the principal streets are unpaved, surface-sand is liable to fill the sewer and choke it. And paving will not prevent silting up where there is an insufficient fall to allow hydrostatic pressure to force out incoming waves and tides. When egress of sewer-contents is thus checked, "cela va sans dire" the air is filled with a most distrusting stench.
Unhealthy as this contaminated air is, sea-side visitors incur a more common danger in the pollution of water by sewage. ”

“ Land-owners and hotel-keepers, following the drift of fashion, furnish what their patrons desire, neither side caring apparently how close a connection is established between animal excreta and the food which is eaten, the water which is drunk, and the air which is breathed. ”

“ AMONG the thousands who go to the sea-side for health and pleasure, few pay any attention to the hygienic conditions under which they are to live for three of the most trying months in the year. The furniture of parlors and size of dancing-rooms and amusement-halls are taken into consideration, instead of finding out how sewage is disposed of and what relations cess-pool drains are having with the wells. ”

“ From these statistics it may be seen that New York pays more than three times as much per head for giving a merely scholastic and commercial education as it costs France to combine these with the artistic and industrial features, including a system of free-school libraries. ”

“ Colleges were founded, not so much for the advancement of science as to provide learned ministers for ecclesiasticism. In the early colonial times, the Bible, Psalm-book, and Catechism comprised in great measure not only the school-books of the children but the family library. In 1720 we read that but one parish library could be chronicled in the colony of Virginia. This library consisted of three books—"The Singing Psalms," "The Whole Duty of Man," and "The Book of Homilies. ”

“ Memphis, which is one of the latest instances, after being terribly scourged by yellow fever in 1878, and again in 1879, took the precaution to immediately institute sanitary reforms, which have been followed by the best practical results. The leading features in these improvements were: the cleansing of the city of all objectionable accumulations, the abolition of all privy-vaults, cess-pools, and improperly constructed underground and surface drains, and the substitution of a complete system of sewers and subsoil drainage-pipes. The water-supply was improved, and the streets properly paved. ”

“ THE system of night instruction is so widely different in Europe and America that the following statistics are given with a view to show which of the two methods, as represented by the schools of New York and Paris, has been most successful and of most practical utility to its students. ”

“ At the present time there are in the city of New York thirty-two free evening schools. Thirty-one of these are primaries or intermediates for children; the remaining one is the evening high school, which is for adults, as a certain degree of proficiency in various studies must he attained for applicants to gain admission.
The students in these schools represent almost every branch of industry in the city. ”

“ Civilization's barbarism makes this the more dangerous through the custom of crowding pig-sties, cow and stable yards, cess-pools, and all dirt-receptacles close to springs, wells, and other sources of drinking-water.
Little or no attention is paid to this dirty practice, on account of the popular belief that filtration through the sand purifies water of the poisonous principles contained in sewage-matter. ”

“ Of the children who did attend the evening schools the assistant superintendent makes the following remarks in his last report: "Hundreds of young children attend these schools after the labors of the day have ended, being required to do so either by parents or employers; and, as they enter the class-rooms fatigued by such labors, unless the teachers can attract, interest, and instruct them, they will either become drowsy or resort to mischievous acts to keep awake." ”

“ Remarking upon this unprecedented falling off, the principal of the school says that "there are few of those admitted who do not begin their work zealously, and I doubt not with strong determination to continue during the whole term." But this enthusiasm soon cooled off, and after a few weeks the students who had commenced study so earnestly deserted the schools. This high percentage of absenteeism, however, was principally confined to the younger scholars, adults availing themselves to a greater degree of the educational advantages offered. ”

“ All tuition at night in Paris is given in the form of lectures by competent professors. These lectures, embracing all subjects of study, are made both instructive and attractive by illustrations and experiments whenever possible. ”

“ For this system of scholastic and industrial schools, as well as the school libraries, the total expenditure of the French Government for the whole of France was about fourteen million dollars for the past school year. The number of students this sum paid for educating has been estimated at 4,700,000.
Educational appropriations reach a much larger sum than this in the United States, proportion of population considered. New York alone has spent for educational purposes for the past eight years from ten to eleven millions annually. ”

“ If unheeded, another season may witness the usual calamitous results that have invariably occurred before man has been taught that saddest and most difficult of hygienic lessons—how to protect life from filth-diseases. ”

“ In Ocean Grove, a religious resort, no attempt has yet been made to remove fecal accumulations by means of sewerage, or to substitute cleanly earth-closets for the disgusting cess-pool and privy. Hence the wells are polluted by human excreta, and the air smells vilely, particularly during the period of the great open-air camp-meetings. ”

“ These public-spirited gentlemen presented a memorial to the Legislature, setting forth the benefits that would result to society from educating such children, and that it would enable them more effectually to accomplish the objects of their institution if the schools were incorporated. ”

“ At these gatherings over twenty thousand people assemble, who congregate together in a comparatively small space. The greater part of this multitude dwell in long lines of camp-tents, closely huddled together, and pay but little regard to hygienic methods. The executive committee of the association owning the place is equally neglectful, as they have made totally inadequate provision for carrying away the excreted material of so many people. ”

“ This problem has been solved in great measure for the hamlet by almost all large cities. Wherever men have congregated in great numbers, plagues have occurred until they have learned to be careful of the disposition of their sewage. ”

“ Principal among these has been a proposal to enact a truant law, to be enforced during the evening hours. If such a formula were passed, it would be as unavailing as Kin s Canute's edict to the waves. Natural law would prevent its being obeyed. ”