The Portland daily press., 1865-11-16
An Inexcussble Nuisance.

An Inexcussble Nuisance. II1
Dy the request of one of the most reputable
of our fellow-citizens-a physician OF high
standing, whose name we have permission TO
use-we accompanied him yesterday TO the
Brackett Street Grammar School for Girls, to
see with our own eyes the perfect cesspoo'
fostering with disease and death, close along
side of that school house, and from which are
constantly arising fetid gases to poison the
air and render it unfit for the one hundred and
forty little misses congregated in that building
for educational purposes.
Iii bad enough at best that girls of dozen
wears, while growing and needing all natures
stimulants to promote that growth and make
it healthy, and to give strength, elasticity and
yigor to their delicate bodies, should be kept
in close quarters for six hours in each day,
with little exercise for their limbs, and with
necessarily impertectly ventilated rooms in
which to exercise their lungs. 4l'i'a 4 il.
Then, again, with nearly one hundred ana
fifty children so constantly confined to SIN
gle building, and that building having DIT
very small margin to its lot beyond its own
walls, there must of necessity De as mach Oh
nuisance as should be tolerated, even With all
the annliances of modern art and invention to
overcome the evils which naturally gather
about such place.
How is it at the Bracket Grammar School?
In the first place the house is not of the latest
order of architecture, SO that ventilation is
necessarily imperfect; in fact, good ventilation
is utterly impossible except by opening the
windows. Then the plivies are, very bad, such
as have no right to be tolerated for a single
day. They are close to the main building,
with single door to separate them from the
school rooms, necessarily more or less foul
very offensive to the smell, SO much SO that the
opening of the privy door is sufficient to in
feet the whole atmosphere of the school room,
where upon an average one hundred and forty
girls are kept six hours day. There is room
for thorough reform here, and no time should,
be wasted in making it. No decent family in
the city would submit for single week to
such nuisance as this in connection with its
dwelling place, and in the name of reason,
should our children-the future wives and
mothers of our city-bei pent up under condi-
lions that a respectable man,-one having re-
gard for the comfort of himself and family
could not submit to, either for himselfor fami-
ly, for single week S r'1hii6 1904 ~
But this evil is not the evil to which our
friend directed our attention, and to secure the
exposure of which he invited us to ride with
him. On the northwest side of the house is a
ward, perhaps twenty feet wide, running back
nearly the length ofthe building. This with
a similar patch on the opposite side, afads
the only outdoor play ground for the school.
This ground, on the side first named, is separ-
ated from the adjoining grounds by trough
close board fence. On the opposite side of
this fence, and close to 1T, are priyies used APP
parently by several Irish families, and from
the appearance we should Judge the sink
spouts are discharged into the same common
receptacle of filth, tcith no oau!, and the waste
and refuse of the houses adjoining seem to be
garnered up in this spot, dbove ground, to ex-
hale poison for the neighborhood. This is not
all The filthy, reeking mass has worked under
the fence, making pool of corruption on the
school house lot, and running full half way
from the fence to the wall Of the school build
ing, and this directly under the windows
which must be opened in orderto secure ven
tilation for the school room! t
What is the effect? Precisely what might
be expected. The whole building, especially
in warm days, is filed with an intolerable
stencil, rendering the air unfit for respiration,
likely to engender thesworst types of disease.
The little girls step out door and into their
playground, and often they return heaving
with nausea if not actually vomiting. The
accomplished lady instructor stated thesefacts
in our hearing, in answer to inquiries, and
said she had suffered from sickness and nau-
sea herself when attending to the duties of the
school, the result of the same cause. AN I'M
usual amount of sickness is prevailing with
the scholars Of this school, and large numbers
are often kept away from school by complaints
believed to be caused by the nuisance Of which
we have spoken.
Who is in fault for the continuance of the.
evils to which our attention has been called
We know not; we care not. We have spoken
plainly because the evil demands it. 1t is
one of those cases that forbids the use of gin
gerly terms. If the exposure we have made
shall result in purifying the air which has to
be breathed by those dear girls, our object will
be secured. If any parent thinks we have
spoken with needless freedom and plainness j
we only ask him or her to go and see, as we
have done, and then complain if still disposed
to do SO. No gentleman would consent for a
day to occupy any Office equally exposed to
infection. Fever is ever with us; cholera is
threatening, and here is depot of filth, a reser
voir of malaria, generator of disease, a hot
bed for the worst forms of disease. Let the
purifying work be at once performed, before
the worst evils of neglect are experienced
Ifno other remedy can be found, transfer the
school to decent Stable, and the children,
with improving health, will express their graf
itude.. 9 = u ~ q L II > Il
HWrsf VI .su.r-F ~ E--Es