Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1888-04-04
4 USEFUL STATE INSTITUTION.

4 USEFUL STATE INSTITUTION.
Ohio has quite number of very interest
lag and useful benevolent and reformatory
Institutions, but we do not believe that there
Is quite as much possible outcome, for good,
to any two of them, as there is 10
the Girls Industrial School, at the White
Sulphur Springs, twelve miles from Della
ware, and its twin institution, the Boys In
dustrial School, located among the Hooking
hills, six miles from Lancaster. We have
already described the girls school, and
spoken of its management and good fruit,
and we take pleasure now in speaking OF
the boys school, located on the state farm,
which is certainly beautiful for situation" Z"
From the administration building" one
may see lines or ranges of hills, the more
remote of which are twenty miles dis tant.
The larger number of these hills are
crowned with forests, but the intervening
valleys are fertile, and on Easter, April 1,
1855, they were already green. Chestnuts
and pines abound, and on the eastern slopes
of the hills are fruitful vineyards. Straw
berry plantations around. and in June the
locality Is indeed, in beauty and In Its
traits, a terrestrial paradise.
The school was organized thirty years
ago, many of the buildings-all Of brick
having been erected at that time. 1t has
sent out so many graduates who have be-
come good and useful citizens that the wis
dom Of its original establishment and its
continued maintenance has already been
abundsntly vindicated. How many there
are Of these, in all, we do not know, but
there aTe now In the school 525 boys Of
ysrious ages up TO the verge OF 81, and sta
tistics have shown, SO far, that 20 per cent
of the boys of the school go out into the
world from it into the various avocations of
life and scquit themselves well and honor
ably. The school is not intended to be a
nursery of scholars and statesmen, but a
factory for the grinding out" of good citi-
xenship. The boys are given q good prae-
tical education, mainly such ss that given
In the public schools, with due attention
paid by the management to instruction in
physiology and hygiene. Then, we have
In the policy of instruction a blending of
mental and physical training. The boys
are instructed in educational branches and
they are trained also In industrial pursuits
so that the head and hand are symmetri-
cally developed. But we can say better
thing than this of the institution. The
heart, as well as the head and the hani, is
cultivated, and all three are nutured In
common.
The boys are subject to discipline. Each
family constitutes a company and on pleas
ant Sundays, when in their blue coats, and
with their neat officers caps, they stand III
long line for inspection, they present
very neat and martial appearance. The in
stltution has band, composed of the
boys, and it really makes fine and stirring
music. The military system as applied
gives habits of precision, neatness, erect
ness OF figure, and discipline. There is,
however, a moral discipline that goes be-
yond and higher than this. The boys are
not simply taught to submit to government
but TO learn TO govern and control them,
selves. This quality or power they re-
ceiye through wholesome and practical re-
ligious instruction. The boys ask the bles-
sing at meals, in unison, and Join, univer-
sally, in family worship in their several
groups. AT church and In Sunday school
they are most intelligently and effectively
taught. The superintendent, Col. Charles
Douglass, Mrs. Douglass, the matron, Mr..
c. E. KahIer, the conductor of the institu-
tiou's newspaper organ, and the en-
tire force, We should say, are well qualified
for their positions. Some very superior
instructors and mansgers-both men and
women-are in subordinate positions Il
this institution. We must not begin 10
name any, for if we did we should make
the list too long for publication. We must,
however, speak Of the superior fitness OF
Colonel and Mrs. Douglass, the assistant
superintendent, Mr.. Jewell "a man rightly
named-and the assistant matron, Miss
Bane. We believe we could name quite q
number of others who would rank well
with these.
The boys study half day and work the
other half, and have leisure for reading,
play and exercise. They work on the farm,
In the brush shop, and in the stocking
factory, tie bakery, the printing Office, ETC.,
etc. We would be glad if the average
American boy were as well taught and
trained as are the boys in this school, on
our state farm. Were this the fact, we
should have fewer loafers and criminals in
the next generation. But the boys are not
taught to be merely farmers, or mechanics,
or scholars, but they are taught to be men
and gentlemen-they are taught morals and
manners, as well as educational branches
and handIcrafts. They are by no means a
regiment Of rascals and incorTiglbles. They |
are generally more unfortunate than vicious !
and it is well for them and for community |
that the state OF Ohio has gathered them |
into so comfortable a home, so generously |
provided with all the elements that consti- |
tute an institution worthy of that name