The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1888-01-09
LIKE CLOCK WORK.
EXTRAORDINARY SCENE IN THE PLAY
GROUND OF A COLoRED SCHOOL
A Single Tap ON Bell and Fifteen
Hundred Children Become Instantly
nTotionIess Other Examples
of Marvellous Discipline.
ATLANTA (aa.) Cor. Inter ocean.l


sWhen strike this bell, T" said Superintend-
emit Doty, of the Morris Street colored school,
when I was inspecting his branch Of the
public school system OF Charleston the other
day, "the noon recess is over, and every one
of our ], 400 boys and girls is in duty bound
to become motionless, preserving whatever
attitude he may happen to be in at the time
of the bell stroke. You may be interested to
watch the effect.
So saying he struck button. The loud,
sharp note Of an alarm bell responded to the
pressure, and I stepped quickly to the win
dow.
The assortment of grotesque positions to
be witnessed below beggars description.
Here boy had a ball raised in midair, while
over wonder stood another lad with hands
extended ready TO catch the ball. In one
place some youngsters were playing at leap
frog. There a coup,e of lads were locked in
a seeming death grip having been caught by
the signal in the act Of wrestling. In one
place an automatic game of tag was illustra-
ted In another a girl had her arms ex-
tended in the process Of rope-skipping.
"Pompeii without the debris, remarked.
"This is of course only feature of the
discipline which we try to preserve" ex-
planned Mr. Doty. "Once rang this pre-
Iiminary signal and then walked leisurely
from window to window to see how it had
been obeyed. From the last window dis
covered a lad literally standing on his head
with his feet resting against the fence,
where he had been for two or three minutes.
1 rang the second bell in haste, and from
that day prohibited the fine art of posing on
the head But that incident illustrates the
prompt and iron-clad adherence to the very
letter of the law which is cultivated here.
This second stroke of the bells forms the en-
tire school into professions"
A third stroke, and if by magic or by
machinery doors flew open in every part of
the large room. Still another stroke, and
in marched the files, a class at time
through each opening Every boy and girl
was exactly in line, the distances between
pupils was invariably uniform, and there
was graduation of heads in each class &C
cording to the height of the pupils. During
the exercise of whole hour that followed
there was not the slightest deviation from
rigid military order. Never a head turned
once, never a hand stirred to rub a tickling
ear or nose, and never g. suggestion of a mis-
take occurred in the complicated eVolutions
of the hour.
After all the classes had in some inexpl-
cable 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,
anu CQOS6 Idilur0S W0I0 Ol ULc S4IIh1l0SO pOSSl-
BILE Importance, amounting to lack of sufti-
Gent promptness in obeying the first bell.
"Are these children really alive?" l said
under my breath. at 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 reveled in the very
rigidity of the discipline to which they were
subjected. l think perhaps the personal
magnetism of Superintendent Doty had
something to do with securing such superb
system. Certainly never saw anything in
the north which even approximated the
matchless discipline of these Morris street
colored children. The effect was beautiful
beyond my power to express.
81 will order special exercise in singing"
said Mr.. Doty. But he didn't say anything.
More bell-taps, and more doors flew open,
more children filed into the hall from the
adjoining recitation rooms, and the room
was full A single verse followed from each
of half dozen selections, embracing
chief styles of classic music. Here again
everything went like clock-work. There was
no announcement of the piece to be sung save
that involved in the opening bars as played
on piano; and every darby lads voice was
heard, as also every girls, while all eyes
were fixed irrevocably straight ahead, and
ali nanQS were cIaSpeu ana nOClOnIeSS on
the edge of the desk in front
In company with Mr.. Doty then took a
cruise through the building.
The same unalterable system was evident
everywhere. Sometimes L would think,
Surely we will take this room unawares
and discover some impropriety." But we
never did. Every class preserved strict mill
itary order in passing to and from recita-
tion-rooms, while if it was writing-cl
the pen was invariably between the thumb
and index finger of the right hand, which
hung at the side and the copy-book and ink
wiper were carried in regulation fashion by
the left hand, and left arm being bent.
Even the primary rooms, with THAR 800
tiny inmates, were models of order, the
little ones being in amphitheatres and gal
leries. Indeed, Mr. Doty says the secret Of
his discipline consists in beginning with the
primary department..