The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1859-01-13
FOR THE JEFFERSONIAN.
REPORTER.
Our Borough Schools.


And judging from appearances, We
think the Youth of Stroudsburg are get
ting pretty we'll bent; at least, it is a well
known fact that many Of them 90 on q
"6e'at(er' frequently, and we presume that
they get bent, and that consequently the
tree will be very much inclined to vice,
immortality, and rowdyism. If such should
be the mournful fact, we piously believe
the parents of those twigs will be held
aDswerable. Do you ask how they are
blamablel We answer; by keeping their
children out of school, By allowing them to
run through the streets, or lounge about
saloons and taverns, they picking up, bit
By bit, that knowledge and those accom-
plishnents peculiar to Setch school, which
is the Primary Department of the same
course of instruction of which our Jails
and State Prisons furnish the concluding Q
degree.
The course of Instruction adopted in
this institution, with the appreciation Of
such Faculty as the Honorable Dublin
Tricks, William Poole, Esq. Messrs.
MOrrissey, HeenaD, Huntingdon, Monroe
Edwards, Richard Turpin, and other gem
tlemen, all eminent in their respective
professions of FOrgers, Fighters, Pick
pockets, Muir derers, Thieves and High
waymen,-is as follows: lst year, smo
king, to equations Of the second degree;
chewing, dc; swearing commenced. ID
year, drinking commenced; night walking
and surveying; barroom practice; piIfer-
ing, commenced. Sd year, piliering con-
tinued; rowdy Ology to chronic sections;
pitching pennies on Sunday completed f;
with daily exercises in stealing and lieine;
and incendiarisn commenced. The pu-
pill is now prepared to enter the Sopho-
more class in the county Jail. lst year,
picking locks and pockets, and night
practice with the bowie knife and sluug
shot. I'd year, burglary com menced, using
other-mens' names commenced. 80 year,
drinking, fighting, gambling, robbipg,
stabbing, &C., &c. This course is contin-
ued for four years and then the student
is prepared to enter the graduating class
in the service of the State, with all the
honors. But We did not commence with
the view o. indulgiug in levity, for this is
subject too grave in its Importance to
be treated lightly. You may laugh if yon
will at the picture here presented but is
it not a true one I Is not this essentially
the course which every graduate in the
school of vice, has pursued Assuredly
it is And parents, you know, or should
know that yOar chaldtcn acW 60 TO school,
They acaH go to school of some kind
If you do not choose to send them to a
legitimate school where they will receive
instruction that will fit them to be-
come useful and respected citizens, they
will 60 themselves to the school taught
by AisS-fortune where vice and crime are
the text books used, and where the drunk
ards grave, the felons cell, and the gal
lows, are the ultim ate rewards of merit
Now which do you choose VIII you
for the sake of a paltry dollar, drive your
children into the school of vice! Com.
plain not that your taxes are high, but
remember that an education is priceless
boon, The richest legacy that you can pos
sibly Leave your children, even though
you were as rich as Crocsus, for it is one
of which they never can be deprived
In Borough like Stroudsburg, con-
tanning fifteen hundred inhabitants, there
should be Public School open ten months
in the year, instead of four. Pupils
might then acquire good, practical bus
mess education in two years, and be ready
to start iu the world for themselves, on
solid basis. Now they may go to school
four months In the year and be idle eli sht,
aud pursue that course for ten years, and
not have an education after all. Whyis
thisi 1t is not the fault of the common
school system OF Pennsylvania, surely, be,
cause it is the most desired object o. that
system toraisc the yearly termofsehools to
the extreme limit of ten months. If the
system has any fault, it is that Of having
hxed the other extreme at so low figure
as four mouths. Every school district in
Pennsylvania should be obliged to keep
ITS schools open sJ1 months yearly, or