New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1864-06-14
IOgBING TIE SCHOOLS.

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Ike Public Schools, in their origin as purely
beneficial as any merely human enterprise car
be. should be converted into mere merchandise
if we may be allowed the expression, to be bar
tered and huckstered by the ignoramuses OF tho
corner grocery and tho trucking and dekerng
ward politician. A school, in all vital particu'
lara. is as sacred as a church. What should We
think of two or three deacons cOnyening IN
sprit-shop to take measures for selling the pull
pit for their own private emolument1 IL Is
morally monstrable-indced, it has been often
enough demonatrated-tha an ill-educated child
Is tolcrably sure to develop into social nut
sance and pest, and that it would have been bet
ter for the child for its kin, for the world II 1t
had never been born Of all. II is upon a convlc-
ton like this that all public systems of education
are based. Teaching is substantially sanitary
measure. We might as well make it qualif-
cation Of a Board Of Health that every member
Of It should. have either the smallpox or the
yellow fever, as give the control Of our schools
to men--if we may call them so-who are satu-
rated with tic virus Of peculation or burning
with the lust of unlawful gains.
BY tie disclosures in the Fourth Ward, o
full report of which we have already Published
the public know that certain school-offcers IN
that Ward were in the habit Of selling the
schools 10 those teachers who would pay them
best. Some candidates paid $75. Some Others
paid out Of their salaries $50 per month. 81
paid tho money" said one man who was ileeced,
both az a matter Of prudence, and from a
belief that school-oiIiccr demanded it."
" About two months ago." testified another
witness. "Mr. John White came 70 my house
and suggested 10 me that if my daughter de-
sired to be relppoin,ed, it would be necessary
to nav from SO to 500 TO securc it." Those
are sufficient specimens OF columns OF similar
testimony, which need not be repeated 1t was
customary to call payment Of this kind " q
bonus" which. see nothing good about il,
strikes n A. q most unfortunate misnomor. 1t
was purely q maiSm ~ Sc.
OF course II is not necessary for Us TO frame
any serious argument against this method Of
disposIng OF tea Lerships. Ii il barely possible
but il is not very probable that . person who
could stoop b such d method Of obtaining such
place, would Doe III TO occupy it for an hour
But We do not intend to waste our Indignation
upon young women searching for honorable
employment and cncounterng in the search
tho official harpies Of the Fourth Ward. We
reserve it all for the sharpers who made bust
ness Of vending these places to the highest bid
ders. and of visiting with capital punishment all
those who had spirit enough to resist their de-
mands. The more We think Of II, the
more ferydly our blood b0ils. ahnk
of threatening female teacher, who
has an invalid mother to support-bullying
her into paying money to keep her employ
ment Think OF this new method of determln-
ing tho qualifications of a pcdagogne. The
Ring did not waste It's time upon such trivial
matters rs Reading and Writing and Arith-
metic. Il had nothing to do with candidates
brains-its interest was pecunious, and not
.cholastic-it examined, indeed, but the appli-
cants pocket and not his qualifications was the
subject of its investigations. When il found
blt INV MUM hN NNNAAA l'af 80 N'NNt'Nt ~
matter over q glass Of rum-and-water, and took
it for granted that he was best qualified to care
for the poor, forlorn, and betrayed children OF
the Fourth Ward, who came down with the
plumpcst bonus. We do not know that the
schools managed upon such a system were par
ticularly bad but We must Affirm that if they
were good, it must have been through special
in.crposition of Divine Providence
We cannot help feeling, when such piece Of
yillainy az this is mcarhcd, that IL would be a
waste of time to dig any deeper in the wild
hope Of turning up something even littlemore
dcspicable Ii has pleased Heaven to visit the
| City of New-York with all manner Of Affections,
but this Is our GROWING wretchedncss. We
might have waded and picked our way uncom-
plainingly through the reeking streets. We
might have shifted tho Sabaan orders Of the
SHAMELESS and breathed in pestilence without a
murnur. We might have seen the servants of
tho city allaying the itch of their palms by
thrusting them so far into the municipal Golfers
as to hide their larconous elbows. We might
have afforded all this-we might hayo borne all
this, and much more, with " patient shrug. But
to swndle tho little children To give them up
for filthy lucre, TO tho tough mercies Of men
who If they had been merely illiterate would
have appeared by comparison with what they
were, as angels Of light II is farce and it is
tragedy. 1t is singing satire upon our docenoy
and humanity. 1t is an incarnste sheer at our
oivIizationi In tho beantiful time which il