The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-02-16

schools is one of high importance. Its dis
cussion at the present time has brought many
school grievances to the surface which it would
be well to abate. Among the rest a medi-
Cal man. the father of family, writes at
great length to Us charging various sins of
omission and commission against the lady
principal of one of our public schools We
do not publish the letter, for it is very one
sided and iong-sided but we can mention his
principal grievances The first is the presence
of pediculus in the head of his little daughter.
This fearful animal, the scientists say, has a
fattened body, divided into eleven or twelve
segments, to three Of which is attached pair
of legs These legs are short and have cling
ing hooks on the end. It is of grayish color
1t has been celebrated by Burns in poetry as
'we creepit thing" and Murillo has immortal
lied its occasional untimely death in his
Spanish Beggar Boy" picture over whose
pathetic interest scores of tourists have
wept at the Louvre. A rare specimen
of this creature appeared among his
little girls locks, and yet he was not
happy, medical man though he be. The
little girl herself, on affirmation and belief,
declares that the specimen was the result of
contact with another young lady in her class,
whereupon the parent writes in hot anger to
the lady principal. He had discovered
the pediculus, ha! ha and he now
Followed for revenge. He makes no
mention of it's fate, but from his
guilty manner and his habitual blood
thirstiness upon the matter we may fear the
worst. cat certain periods" he says, "my
wife submits them (the children) to minute
examination" in search, no doubt, of the
little animals in question, and with no kindly
feelings in their regard. The little girl was
condemned to severe course of "combing,
scrubbing and shampooing," and yet he was
not happy To the parents letter the lady
principal crispiy and interrogatively replies
by asking if the parent imagines she can add
an chronological inspection of the pupils
flowing locks to her other duties? If he
does he is decidedly mistaken, she intimates.
On the receipt of this reply the parent safe him
down and indited a violent letter. much in
the strain of Sir Anthony Absolute's
declarations of GOODNESS in the midst
of bubbling passion. The sooner,
he thinks, the lady is removed ''the
better for the community at large" All this,
too, about specimen of the pediculus. 1t is
capital offence, thinks the parent, and yet
the corpus deficit has not been produced in
Court He appeals to the public, neverthe-
less. Now it is delicate matter, and we
agree with the parent to the extent that it is
undesirable to have the family of pediculi
share to any extent in the blessings of our
public educational system; yet we must admit
that the lady puts her side of the case very
strongly when she declines to make 50 minute
examination" at certain periods of the flowing
locks Of Young America and his little sister.
Our advice on the matter is that all parents
having children at the public schools should
form compact to do all the examining, comb
ing, scrubbing and shampooing on the bodies
of their little innocents in the bathtub at
home. Wash them, scrub them and comb
them there. o parents you cannot afford to
have the pediculi in the Schools whatever
your opinions may be about the Bible.
The parent has other grievances. One
clearly arises from defective system of venti-
lation. When the schoolroom is overheated
the only mode they have of lowering tho
temperature is by opening the windows. This
produces currents Of cold air, and should be
exchanged by tho commissioners for better
mode; but why condemn the principal there
for? She and the other teachers suffer from it
as well as the children. He makes certainly
one good point, if it be true that his children
were dismissed for not recovering quickly
enough from the measles. He attacks the dis
cipline generally as too severe in cases of
natural calls-an important matter. The
closets are not clearly kept the parent
AYERS, and the boys fight in the play
ground. The first should certainly not
be so, but the latter business occurs
to as as not belonging to any one school
in particular, and certainly dates back to
our own early days, if it is not still more
ancient. The lady, it is admitted, does what
she can to check Juvenile pugilistic exuber-
ance by furnishing offenders The parent
thinks she often Furnishes the wrong boy, par
ticularly his offspring. Now this is altogether
too much for good nature. A fond parent is
beautiful thing; but how this parents son
must chuckle with delight at the spectacle of
his papa writing long, long letter, because
his sister had pediculus in her flowing locks
and he himself was sent home for fighting
Dick Somebody about their respective claims
to cents worth of candy or some other
equally important casus beli!
A Harvest OF Horrors and Corruptions.
The pages of yesterdays HERALD revealed
some very curious phases of life in America
just now. Murders, outrsgcs, scandals, thefts