Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1885-03-26

y newspaper correspondent writes from
Charleston. South Carolina. as follows:
When | strike this bell,' said Supern-
tendent Do,y, OF the Morris street colored
school, when | was inspecting his branch
Of the public school system Of Charleston the
other da,, 1.-The noon recess is over. and
duty bound 10 become mo,onIess, presers-
ing whatever attitude he may happen TO be
in at the time Of the bell stroke. You may
be Interested to watch the effect"
So saving, he struck button. The loud.
sharp note Of an alarm bell responded 10 the
pressure, and | stepped quickly to the win
dow.
The assortment Of srotesque positions to
be Witnessed below beggars description.
Here a boy had bail raised in mid-alr
while over yonder stood another lad with
hands extended ready 10 catch the ball. In
one place some Youngsters were PLAYING at
leap frog. There 4 couple of hands were
locked 10 i seeming death-grlp. having been
caught by the signal in the act of wrestling
In one place an automatic game Of tag was
illustrated. In another girl had her arms
extended IN the process of e-sklppng
"Pompei! without the debris" | remarked.
This is Of course only feature OF
the discipline which We try to preserve"
explained Mr., Doty. "Ouce | rang this
preliminary signal and then walked leisure
IL from window to window TO see how il
had been obeyed. From the last windo.
discovered lad literally standing on hi,
head with HI, feet resting against the fence,
where he had been for two or three minutes.
ran. the second bell in haste aud from
That day prohibited the fine art of poi.ing
on the head. But that incident illustrates
the prompt aud lron-clad adherence 10 the
very letter OF the law which is cultivated
here. This second stroke of the bell forms
the entire school into professions
4 third stroke. md as ii by magic or by
machinery doors flew open in every part Of
the large room Still another stroke, and
in marched the files, class a, time,
through each opening. Every boy and girl
was exactly in line, the distance between
the pupils was invariably uniform, and there
was graduation of heads in each class ac-
cording 10 the height Of the pupils. During
the exercise Of a whole hour that followed
there was not the slightest deviation from
rigid military order. Never a head turned
once, neg ser hand stirred to rub tickling
ear or nose, and never a suggestion of a
mistake occurred IN the complicated evolu-
tions Of the hour.
after all the classes had in some mex
picable way found their respective quarters,
twenty monitors marched up. ten on one
side of the principals desk and ten on the
other. These class monitors submitted
their reports. Only two had failures to
chronicle, and those failures we're of the
smallest possible Importance, amounting to
lack Of sufficient promp,ness in obeying the
frs, bell.
"Are these children really alive?" | said
under my breath 1T all seems like some
ingeniously contrived mechanical puppet-
show on vast scale"
And yet there was no bored, automatic
expression on the bright faces before me.
Evidently the pupils revelsd in the very
rigidity of the discipline to which they we're
subjected. think perhaps the personal
magnetism of Superintendent Doty had
something to do with securing such su-
perb system. Certainly never saw any
thing in the north which even approximated
the ma,chless discipline Of these Morris
street colored children.