Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1884-09-12
NO. 81.


One OF the European improvements in ed
ucation ia the school savings bank. It's OBJ
ieot is TO teach children how to save and ao.
cumulate money The natural tendency Of
youth is to willfu waste, to spend constantly,
to be led away by casual temptations. The
habit of saving is seldom taught and seldom
learned until the rude experience of life
brings with it the iron pressure of necessity.
The folly Of extravaganza prevails chiefly
among the young, and the recent annals Of
our city and country abound in instances Of
ruined lives and wasted hopes, the results Of
the luxurious and thoughtless manners of the
age. Our young men Of business have too
often never learned in early life how to save;
their only conception of living is how to get,
in order to spend The passion of extrava-
gance grows upon them. Their salaries are
too small, their profits insignificant com
pared to the demands of a growing love Of
pleasure. They soon overstep their legti-
mate expenses they rush into speculation
they fall at last into crime. The awful mo-
ment comes too soon, and the ruined victim
of his own folly perishes, dishonored and lost,
because he had never learned in youth the
practice of saving.
1t is not SO much to the wealthy as to the
poor that this habit is al-important The
wealthy may waste the accumulations of his
forefathers but to the working.man the
professional man, or the man of business the
habit of saving is the only security from suf.
fering and often despair. 1t is a safeguard
that should be thrown over every family and
taught in every school, The school savings.
bank has been found singularly useful and
successful in connection with the public
schools of various countries. 1t was sug-
gested in France many years ago, and has al
ready extended to Germany, Hungary, Italy,
Belgium and Holland. The system is very
simple. The teacher tells his children that
he is ready TO receive their small savings, and
explains TO them how they may be made to
increase. He gathers in their pennies and
centimes, keeps a register with the name Of
each depositor, and when the sum amounts
to franc or more, places it in a neghboring
savings-bank or lends it to the state. The
business is transacted out of school hours it
teaches the pupil some of the niceties of trade.
he keeps duplicate account of his deposits,
and can only draw any part of them with the
consent of his parent or guardian.
The plan has proved very attractive to chill
dren. In Ghent, out of 40, 600 pupils, there
are l3, 900 depositors, each for more than one
franc. In France the number of school
banks is 10,2Gl, with 213, 1876 depositors
The whole amount deposited by the children
was in 1880 more than one,million dollars.
The school banks form a part of the system
that would make education practical thing,
and more than ever useful in preparing the
youth of the nation for active life. To teach
the great body of the people in childhood
the habit of saving would of itself alone
more than repay the public outlay upon edu-
cation. 1t is the foundation of honesty, the
chief source of national honor. In it lie the
safety and purity of families, and much of
the happiness of domestic life Without the
habit of saving, our young men and young
women often wander recklossly on a perilous
track, aud perish miserably for want of an
early training 10 frugality -Eugone Lap.
renee in H1rDer'S Vain