Wilmington daily commercial., 1872-07-06


Especial Correspondence OF the Commercially
Speaking absolutely by the card there has
heon but a single topic of real interest here this
week-that IL to say the heat That, aud the
c coordinate meter of getting out of town if pos
sible occupied mems minds to the exclusion of
all baser matter, | am not going to make you
feel any worse by telling you how hot we were.
Doubtless you had your own share of the dis
comfort, although you could not have been
quite az hot az we were. The larger a city, even
in the same general latitude, the greater the
heat the extended masses Of blick and mortar
having the natural effect of retaining and radia-
ting caloric in proportion to their extent Not
to ueedlessly dilate may say that the week has
been one Of real suffering That the general
complaint is not fanciful or sentimental but is
the result of a really terrible natural visitation
needs no better proof than the shocking NOR
tality lists from sunstroke, tue like of which
have scarcely been known since Philadelphia
was a city. Nearly seventy persons baYe died
OF sunsloke since last Friday when the hot
term set in, and probably three or four times
that number have been more or less prostrated
And these are only the more direct effects Of
the unusual severity of tine sun. OF feyers,
summer complaints DC, the results are not yet
known and can never be known in full, although
it is certain that the Health report to morrow
will show a shocking increase of deaths over
last week. aud over the same week IN other
years The mortality among children has been
especially dreadful. Physicians who have been
long in practice say that 1t is beyond all preee
dent and that the sui1enngs of the little ones
and the anguish and anxiety of parents cannot
he told. The hardest hearted cannot but pity
the children under such aiiliction. Grown up
people can do plenty of things to keep cool and
can talk about it and sympathlze with each other
il everything else fails, but the poor baby cannot
tell what il the matter and has merely to endure,
remaining entirely dependent upon the intuition
of its next best friend" The weary moans
aud tossings Of Tins torrld week in crowded and
lily ventilated rooms,-it is enough to give one
a nightmare to think of it,
10 add to our discomfort what must happen
but have the fourth OF July set plump down in
this fine spell of weather have no question
but that you long ago made up yOur mind that
the GLORIOUS Fourth, AZ it ID popularly OBJ
served is a fraud The trouble is two-fold :
that it comes IN midsummer, and that lot OF
big and little lunatics invariably turn what
should be dgnihed and solemn festival into a
Chinese Pandemouum. IL it worth while to try
to alter the nature of MANI You would think
now that under such blazing sun az that of
Yesterday people would keep quiet and within
doors; but they didn't, nor they wouldn't, if the
mercury was l50' instead of lOJo, and the streets
were paved with red hot tiles. Consequently
tsere Is fIightful tally Of twenty-five deaths by
sunstroke, the largest ever reported for one day
here, with it Ii fair to suppose proportionate
number of proslratons and cases Of sckn BIZ of
various kinds. The usual number of lunatics
had fingers blown Off and eyes blown out while
i'm tho process of ''oelebrating," and altogether
it was a doeful sort of time, only relieved by 4
magnificent thunder storm, which set in shortly
al or dark There were thirty fires during the
day, all of them triiling, the damage by the
largest being but 1880. That they were thrilling,
however. is almost entirely due to the euergy
and system of the new paid h1e Department. A
full force Of men was kept in readiness at all
hours at the respective houses with steam up
in all the engines constantly, and with the
horses hanessed to the apparatus. Under the
old fogy volunteer system there ls no telling
what disasters there might be to chronicle to-day.
The Boys High School and Girls Normal
School, held their oOmmencements this week
| | fancy the older one gets, the more tender be-
comes his feeling towards these leaplngs into
| the Battle of Life. The boys and girls all talk
about the Battle of Life at commencement, but
| they know nothing about it and that is why
| their compositions have pathos which the
most skitul writer who has got into the treadmlll
cannot affect They were as hopeful aud inno-
| cent this time as they always are, but am sure
/ il is desiring them no harm to wish that they
could stay at school all their lives and never
| trust this magnetcally attractive Battle of Life
/ another inch
The High School makes the greater preten.
| sons of the two-being permitted to grant de-
/ grees, having higher grade of studies ON itf
| roster and in other ways affirming Its superior
| ity-but | am inclined to think that practically
/ the Normal School leads. The work OF tht
girls school seem to mean something, The
| graduates are educated for teachers, and teach
ers they become; that they are good ones tht
/ condition of our grammar and lower schools at
/ tests. Young men graduate from the High SchOo
/ ON the contrary, in sort of half made up shape
in no wise lifted for professional life and fo
business pursuits no better prepared than they
| would be by grammar school. The degree OF
| Bachelor of Arts, with the subsequently avail
| able honor of Master of Arts, is a mere farce al
conferred by the High Schools, as every grad
uate shortly learns. II he desires to follow a
| profession he generally enters some other Col
ege. where he finds that his High Schoo
training is just a good school training
but In no wise collegiate experience. A grea
many people are advocates of the - practical
| theory ,contending that the hitting OF young mel
for active business life is the most desirable enc
to be accomplished by an educational establish
ment in this country. This is well enough bu
it must be remembered that the High Sehoo
aspires to rank a Uniyersity,t to make A. M s.
when oxford and Yale can do no more and
only say that il falls short OF its pretension
in this respect. A feeling Of the kind has gaine'
ground lately among the more intellle ent OF tn
Alumni, and an effort is being made to raise III
standard of instruction. One of the first thing
to do is to change the age limitation Boy
/
age, inasmuch as many Of them graduate full
hedged Bachelors at time when young mel
are only entering at the other colleges Stlll.
| must not be forgotten that the High School IL Q
| part of the common school system of the State
and that many If not most of the pupils VIII
| enter it, do not intend to become professsiona
men. The problem you will perceive is a rathe
complicated one, demanding that happy mea
shall be adopted.
There have as yet been, notwithstanding tn
hot weather. comparatively few removals TO
the summer. 1t has grown TO be the tashlon no
to leave the city until after tine 4th OF July, ther
, being perhaps show of reason IN this aithouB
it seems strange, too. But people owning lin
houses feel sort of uneasness in closing then
until the pers of the 4th are passed. In hun
, dreds of cases preparations are made to leay
town Immediately after the holiday and tn
exodus will now begin in earnest. few day
will mako marked difference in tue orowde
Z promeuades aud in the looks of the house front
: In the fashionable quarters. may mention, b
a the way that the stylish way OF shutting u
/ | house now ia to have deal frame htted INT
a the door jam close to the outer edge. Whe
' such an arrangement as that ls in position theI
Y can be no lingering doubt of the folks not beln
at home, or tnat they have another house some
| where in the country. Mr. G. W. Childs seem
| to have set thus fashion at his new marble maj
sion at 22d and Walnut streets, and the cream
{ lest of the West Enders are fast following sult
Are any of your youth lamenting over I'll
r | seeming decadence of the champion Athletics
1 1t does seem hard, but up and down ID an o.
| rule even if not a just one. nor must we sa
h either that il is not just II things were alway
l. the same where would be the encouragement
the fellows underneath? 1t would crafty Pin
!, adelphia's vanity to keep the championship her