The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1889-03-21
SOME DANGEROUS DISEASES.
THE "sCHOoLROOM SMELL" AND ITS
FRUSTRATING EFFECT.

THE "sOHOOLROOM SMELL" AND ITS
FRUSTRATING EFFECT.
Shirley Dare Writes About the Physical
Ills which are Liable to Attack Children
in Schoolhouses-Imp aud Foul Air
Inspection for Actual Disease.
The little lad in knickerbockers can
hardly stand on his feet, those light,
skipping feet, which rather fit than
tread, for this lie his first day at school.
He is Tn have that dearly sought ambi-
ton to be "'long with the other boys"
To be sure, there has not been mo-
ment from early breakfast till school
time and from O'Clock till moon rise
that he has not been with them, in
games and adventures, from Closter to
Tenafly, after mud turtles and arums,
up the Palisades after berried boughs OF
cedar, into the midlands region Of de-
serted orchards and hospitable cider
mills, or heading straight for the Sha-
mokln, and good deal nearer that than
home. Every engineer on the Northern
road knows the crew tramping the track
and is in moral dread of running over
them some day. Every snake in the
coverts knows their beat and feels his
chance slim in the sight of them. But
to be with the boys all day, not shut out
from them by the o'clock bell, or COM
PEELED to:hover like Perrin in short pants
around the school-door till 4 o'clock; to
have marks" and spell his way to the
head of classesAnd share the responsible
tiles of boys entire life so fill his soul
that he only eats on one leg, with his
head screwed over his left shoulder to
catch the first glimpse of his comrades,
God bless the boy, but the house is so
very still without him, it seems gone
away.
What does he find at school as its
doors close behind him? Have you meyer
attended scientific association at its
annual meeting and listened TO topics
not of thrilling interest. While you felt
forbidden to move in your seat or in
dulge in cough or a yawnI And didn't
forenoon or two prove enough for you
all that muscles and nerves cared to
bear? You can't stand being shut in
your office day after day because some
advantage ia coming of it, but when the
result is mere information, not exactly
available in your walk Of life, it is re-
markable how tired your body feels after
a day of hard sitting still. But our boys
drudge at their Society for the Advance
ment Of Useful knowledge week after
week, year after year, without much
idea of the service it may be to them.
They want to be at their natural gym
nastics Of play and effort, which knits
muscle and sinew in that great virtue OF
hardihood, the one thing which makes
the difference, Professor Huxley says,
and all successful men know, those who
grasp success and their fellows, equally
well informed and talented who close
their Grip" on all that life holds good.
Our grandfathers thought it we'll to keep
BOYS at their lessons from daylight till
dark, and in English phrase "tended"
them we'll for not liking it as we'll as
being out with the lark. They were as
well persuaded their system was the
best possible as we are of ours today,
and 1t seems just imaginable that our
habits may be as susceptible of improve
menE. OF course, looking. at the child
from the view of many worthy per
sons who hold him a sort OF intiic-
tion. to be held off and kept with as little
trouble as consistent with existence, the
closer he comes to being shut up in a
dark closet till he grows up the better.
was born of very conscientious parents,
who proffessed to believe children sent
from God, but never could feel my
self anything but cross and burden to
my father and most other relatives, who
only seemed to tolerate me in their pres
ence tout of which had much rather
be), lest | should be in some mischief or
some comfort out of it. And | find not
lilter of that feeling prevails in the
grown up world today-that children
are not sources of comfort in themselves,
but much like wild animals being
slowly domesticated, but whom nobody
wants about the household fire or on
cheerful occasions. Those who feel so
toward children lose much and great
pleasure for their own part, and have
lost the key TO the child's heart and I'M
derstanding, which is the reason why
they have not in 30 many years found
out that children can gu t as well
learn all that they have to know in half
the ime, with 1.-THE the strain now
used.
Not one parent in a thousand ever
knows theinside of the school building
where his children spend most of their
waking lives. l own that, calling for
my lad one day in school hours, l was
obliged to step down stairs to get fresh
air while waiting. 1t was December
and the heat must have been 80 degrees
in the room. where the breath of sixty
children, and the smell of boys CLOTH
ing, not the cleanest, and of stale lunch
cons mixed powerful brew that al.
most drove me choking to the porch.
Yet it is school of the best sort, whose
teachers go abroad to learn more infor-
nation for their classes, and the town
is quoted for it's excellent schools
through the State, 1t is no wonder that
children of uncomfortable houses beg
ged TO go school on cold days, because
the school house was kept 80 much
warmer than home, They were 30 ener-
waited by the vitiated hot house air that
sitting rooms at 70 degrees were too cold
for them. have kept an eye on schools
since, and am compelled to say this IS
no exception to the rule. Rooms are
either over heated or under heated, for
this same building with four large fur
naces could not be kept warm in certain
states of the weather, and school has TO
be suspended the worst days OF each
winter. The Boston city schools have
to dismiss their pubpils for days nearly
every winter, because no amount OF feul
will keep the buildings warm, as any
one may see by the items Of the daily
papers. Yet to these extremes our chill
dren must be consigned, or we commit
crime against the law.
We are shocked at the horrors OF
crowded tenements, with their dangers
of foul air, closets and contagion. One
block was pointed out to me in New
York whose population was 800. But
does it strike any one that the ward
schools, which seldom occupy half
block, yet number 500 and 900 pupils
daily, if not twice as many, are no less
dangerous TO the delicate children who
attend them? The tenement people are
in and out of their dwelling through
the day, more than half going away to
work twelve hours Of twenty-four. But
the children are condemned to spend
so many hours daily within those
gloomy walls, crowded close as they can
sit, breathing the same air over and
over with its fumes from Easements
drains and closets, with no escape into
fresh air, 1.-The schoolroom smell" sat
urates walls and clothing; and if you
wish to know what it is like think Of
Cooper Union closely packed for polit
ical demonstration.
The effect of such air on teacher is
prostrating and pitiable. l recall the
beautiful graduates of the New York
Normal College as they used to pass in
filmy dress, with bouquets Of loose roses,
and the same girls not five years after,
aged as they should not be at 30, their
conn nIaxion fadad and linad their hair