Morning journal and courier., 1889-04-23

handed up her money and card. "I'se
 washed the dishes and minded the baby.o
 A six year old girl came slyly up to the
 teachers desk and as she laid down ten cents
 and her card she whispered in her teachers
 ear: 'Here's ten cents. We's dot 8 new
 baby at home. Put down five cents for the
 baby and five cents for me-"
 The teacher took the money and made out
 8 card with the new baby's name, and the little girl went back to her seat. In answer
 to his name bright looking boy came up from the rear end of the school. He had on pair of muddy boots and he succeeded in making himself heard. A home made ball protruded from his jacket pocket. He put 8 bright silver dollar down on the teachers desk with bang.
 "Why, Johnny, you are rich this week, 1"
 "Yes'um," he replied. ssUncle Jim was visiting us last week, and I showed him my bank book and he gave me paper dollar. got it changed for a silver dollar"
 Any one who wishes to is allowed to de- posit their money with the teachers. As result there are a great many children de- posting money who are not yet old enough to attend school. After leaving school some of the pupils still continue to send in money
 every week. There are many boys who work during vacation and save their money, which they deposit to their credit at the opening of the fall term. Almost every pu- pil who deposits money in the bank has some special object in view. One little girl said she was saving money to buy a piano; an- other one to buy clothes. Another said she was saving to help her mother. A boy, who left school recently and is working in New
 York, sends his teacher all of his spare mon- ey. He says he wants to get money enough to enter college. Another boy who has left school and gone to work has more than two hundred dollars in the bank, which he keeps adding to. He says he is saving to go into business for himself. A teacher in one of the schools who has brother older than herself who has not learned the benefits of economy, has started bank account for him, as if he were in her class. She now makes him deposit a certain amount every week.
 The largest amount deposited so far be- longs to an eleven year old boy, who has four hundred and twenty seven dollars and ninety-ive cents to his credit. This is an exceptional case. As general rule the de- posting of large amounts is discounte- nanced. The teachers say it has depressing effect upon other pupils. They think no pu- pil should be allowed to deposit more than one dollar at time. Since the inauguration of the system in the city about twenty thou- sand dollars has been deposited, of which nine thousand dollars has been drawn out. In the majority Of cases the children drew out their money to help their parents. Oth- CTS bought themselves clothes, boots and shoes. A great many drew out money to buy Christmas presents with. In order to draw money out the children must have a note from their parents to the teacher. The teacher makes out a check, which the youth- full fnancier signs and takes to the bank along with the bank book. Then the check is cashed. The money is all deposited in the Queens County Savings Bank in Long Island City. An individual account is opened for every pupil having twenty-five cents and over to his credit in the bank. Any smaller amount is simply credited to the school. The bank has on its books the names of two thousand depositors from all it's schools.
 A principal of one of the schools told story about boy who attended her school at the time the system was first introduced in 1885. When he left school one or two years afterward he had quite large amount to his credit. He left his money in the bank and the principal lost all track of him. About a month ago young man called at the school. The principal recognized him as her former pupil. He wanted to draw his money. He told the principal that he was living in New York. Since leaving the school his father had died, and now his mother had just died, and he wanted the money to pay the funeral expenses.
 The higher the grade of school the fewer the depositors. It is in the primary and in- termediate grades that the largest collections are made. Although the girls outnumber the boys as depositors, yet the boys have the largest amount to their credit.
 J. H. Thiry is the father of the system in the United States. He is sixty-seven years old. He is Frenchmnn by birth and has been in this country about thirty years. He was a teacher in France. The house in which he lives in Long Island City is known to all school children. There is not boy or girl attending school in Long Island City who does not know him. When he first started the banking system he met with a great deal of opposition. He used to attend the schools every Monday morning, when the collections were taken up, with pocketful of small change, which he would distribute among the children who had not yet deposi- ted anything. He devotes his entire time to perfecting the system and looking after his grapery. He says he does not wish to make misers of the children. If they have five cents he would like to see them spend two and deposit three. It is 8 lesson of econo- my, thrift and responsibility that he would teach them. When 8 boy gets two or three dollars in the bank it makes him feel like man, sets him thinking. MT. Thiry has cor from all over the world in rela- ton to the school banking system. Accord ing to figures furnished by him there are fifty schools in the United States that have a | banking system. Their total deposits az yregate fifty thousand dollars; Belgium has I {, 700 schools with banking systems, with a \ total deposit of $S7S. 167 France 23, 375 \ schools, with a total deposit of $2, ,467, ,6S0, | md Liverpool 180 schools, with O total de- II oosit of $122, 590 He predicts that in the I lear future the system will be adopted ! throughout the United States.