Wichita eagle., 1886-12-10
IN A MEXICAN SCHOOL HOUSE
Ragged Urchins Shouting Their Lessons
in Singing Chorus-Thc Small Boy.

Ragged UrclIins Shouting Their Lessons
in Singing Chorus-Thc Small Roy.
While the mules We're resting and the
drivers enjoying their usual siesta, we wan
dered out to view the village, whose low
rooted and no-roofed casas are nestled at the
foot of dark hills. Its quaint church-as
usual, tie prominent feature of the place
rejoices under a fresh coat of sky-blue plaster
without and much gliding within, spread
over the mold and cracks of centuries which
gives it the appearance Of wrinkled octoge-
marian fashionably bewigged. The weedy i'll
closure behind that serves as a campo sante,
or graveyard, has rows Of Grinning skulls
ranged all along its adobe walls. | picked up
one of these with the intention Of adding it to
my somewhat varied collection Of 'rccuer'las
de Mexico but it crumbled to dust at a
touch and filled the air with fine powder.
Then we stTaycd into the school house, whore
q bevy Of ragged urchins were shouting their
lessons in sing-song chorus. In Mexican
schools children never study silently, but all
tasks are committed to memory by loud repi
titIon making. as may be imagined, the
vicinity of these temples of Minerva By no
means desirable places Of abode. Here the
noise was deafening, and the poor, pale,
shabby-looking old woman who presided
seemed half distracted, as 10 doubt she was.
The dO~-carJd books which these children We're
using bad been selected by some local
priests years and years before The girls
were also taught needlewOrk to the extent
of embroiGeIIng altar cloths for the village
sanctuary and vcstments for the Virgin, while
upon the blackboard We're some lessons IN
spelling and arithmetic, which were given by
the preceptrcss -out Of her own head, rs she
explained to Us.
1t was immensely hot, with the tropic sun
beating upon the roof without tree to inter
cept its rays, and streaming into the uncur-
tanned windows, everybody was sleepy, the
teachers cross and the pupils irredeemably
stupid. a fat centipede was slowly dragging
his loathsome, grcenish-ycllow body and hun
dred legs, surcharged with poison, along the
floor in Il corner, and counted more than
dozen scorpions darling about the walls; but
nobody minds such triileS as these in Mexico.
| observed that the inmate cusSedness' of the
small boy seems to be about the same the
wide world over, FOR a little Mexican urchin,
who had evidently been made to stand up in
the corner for some misdcmeanOr was de
lighting himself beyond measure by tortur-
ing n small lizard, which he had fastened to
the wall by the tail, sticking pins into it and
otherwise proving the doctrine OF total de-
pravity, ct least SO far as small boys are con-
ccrned.
We left the little Babel reluctantly, know
ing full well 10y the vicious clutch Of the
schoolmarms thin claw upon the stout stick
she carried, and by an ominouS snap in her
beady eyes, that she only awaited our de-
parture to urge certain lettering steps up the
thony sleeps Of learning by vigorous switch
suasion. Poor little raramuiiinS, The nerv-
ouS irritability of that ancient maiden vented
upon their half naked and poorly fed bodies
must be hard, indeed, to bear. And the
small amount of useless knowledge which
may be beaten into them viii not abate. ~
one jot or title, theuttcr hopelcssness OF Il II
lives, nor ovou result in 50 much rs improving
their apparel, the first taste of ''thc tree OF
good and evil is said 10 have done by our
earliest ancesto@s,-Famie b. Ward in
Boston Globe