Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1856-01-24

ing, and need not be so near the floor as in
dwelling house. Ventilation and light
will thus be increased, and currents Of air
across the persons of pupils avoided"
''There should be wide doors to every
school house, SO as to give egress to the oc-
cupants in the shortest possible time in case
OF emergency. If door composed of two
parts, or valves, were adopted, this object
would be effected, with the additional ad-
vantage of Icing able to use both, in sum-
mer, to admit more air, and only one in
winter to economize heat
Every school house should have cellar.
This not only renders the floor drier, and
the house more healthy and comfortable, but
saves the cost of wood or coal house."
The famous Mrs Glass, in a work once
well known to good housekeepers, prefaces
her directions for cooking hare with the
wise admonition, ''frst catch your hare;''
and we, in like manner, may be thought
premature In referring to the best mode of
constructing school houses before we have
a public school system-for we are absolute
ly ashamed to dignity the present rotten and
worthless plan system. But in the hore
OF speedy change for the better, and with
this pamphlet before us, we have been temp
ted to anticipate the action of the Legisla-
ture, and to quicken it, if possible, by show
ing what our sister State is doing, and what
it is incumbent upon us likewise to perform.
Too long has Maryland been remiss in
providing for the intellectual wants of the
poorer classes of her population; and to
prove this beyond controversy, we propose
to recapitulate few startling facts.
There are within the limits of the State,
according to the last census, seventeen thou
sand native white adults, and three thou
sand four hundred and fifty-one foreigners
making In the aggregate twenty thousand
eight hundred and fifteen persons-who can
neither read nor write Scattered over eight
counties Of the State, with an aggregate
white population of about eighty thousand,
there are but fourteen public schools, aver
aging about thirty -four pupils to each school.
There are, of course, some private schools
in these counties, but the entire number of
children attending school at all does not av-
erage more than one child to each family of
seven persons.
The head Of every third family through
out the whole State can neither read nor
write. More than ten thousand men exer-
else the right of suffrage in Maryland who
are utterly unable even to read the names
of the candidates for whom they vote These
are, we grieve to say, truths furnished by
statistical tables, and therefore based upon
evidence which may be regarded as indis--
putable. But we desire to impress upon the
Legislature another fact, which COMPARE
son with the census of 1910 will prove, and
which we referred to in previous article.
in confirmation of the statement made. by
Governor Lyon. Under our present Sin
congruous collection of local and inefficient
systems" the cause Of education afes retro->
crossed, and of course the curse ofiignorance
is more widely difused. How much this
want of education among the masses inter-
feres with social progress, and with the ad-
vancement of morality and religion, we need
not say; nor need we point to the crowded
condition of our jails and penitentiary, and
alms-houses, as an evidence that vice and
poverty are but too frequently the compan-
ions of intellectual degradation. five would
sustain the honor of the American name, we
must educate the people. If we would en-
courage an observance of the laws, we must
educate the people. If we desire to perpe-
tuate our republican institutions, to keep
pace with our sister States-to facilitate
true progression in the arts and sciences, or
to promote the highest and hottest of all
aims and ends, we must educate the people.