Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-07-26
OVER IN ALLEGHENY.
DESKS IN ONE SCHOOL THAT HAVE
BEEN CONDEMNED.

Some Measurements Made of Northside
School Furniture-Boys Whose Backs
Ache So ut Night That They Can't Sleep
One Regular Daniel Quilp Found.
A tour was made yesterday of the schools
over in Allegheny to learn if the school
children were in the same position as their
brothers and sisters on the Pittsburg side.
The Allegheny schools are well nigh mac
cessible on account of the vacation time,
and the ianitors and attendants are appar-
emily availing themselves of the shutdown
to go away. At all events, they are con-
spicuous by their absence, with the excep-
tion of the High School and the First ward
school.
The desks used in the High School are of
an old pattern, the chair being separated
from the desk proper. They are supposed
to be adapted to the use of pupils
from Is to 20 years of age A reporter
dropped into one of these chairs and found
the desk to be slightly lower than it ought
to be TO prevent pupil from becoming stoop-
shouldered. The desk in general use at the
High School is about two feet and half
high. This would be high enough, if the
chair on which the students sit were not SO
high. 1t is not to be wondered at when
pupil spends about six hours daily at these
desks, posing over books, that stoop shoul-
ders result
While strolling through the park report
er came across youth named John Robson,
sitting on the bank of the artificial lake with
his elbows resting on his knees, peering into
the lake. He held in his hand piece of
twine with a nice bit of meat on the other
end, which, he stated, he used to tempt the
festive crab to, take hold, when ne would
thereupon pull him in. He had hump on
his back which was only equaled by the one
Daniel Quilp sported.
NEVER WILL BE ERECT.
Master Robson stated that he had been
engaged in the pleasant pastime of fishing
for the wary crab at that particular spot
ever since school shut down, and whether
he succeeded in getting the quilp on his
back fishing for crabs or from bending over
his desk at school, is a question open for
discussion, but at all events he has it, and
it will require the combined efforts OF all
the shoulder braces on the market to get the
young man back to his original shape.
Another boy. John Melby, who lives at
354 Rebecca street, and attends the First
ward school, was found at the school build
ing. Young Melby has no perceptible
effects of using low desk at
school, but said he experienced pain
from STOPPING over his desk at school, and
that it prevented him from sleeping soundly.
Walter Lysle, fat young man, aged II,
who attends the Sixth ward school, was
found in the park, riding about on safety
bicycle. He was far above the average
school boy in weight. Walter said he had
to do some very tall squeezing to get into
the II inches of space allotted between the
desk and seat, and many times, he said, he
had to call in the assistance of his teacher
and the other pupils to extricate him from
his seat
At the First ward school the pupils in
room A are compelled to do business on
what it is called the "RegaP desk, COM
bination desk and seat. In the young tots
room, the No. desk is used This is 12
inches wide on top. The floor space occu-
pied by this desk is 25 inches, and the
height of the seat front is % inches This
is supposed to accommodate children ranging
from to 9 years. The seats and desk in
crease in heights and proportion as the
pupil advances from room to room. In the
High School room, the desk is 26 inches
high, and the seat IL inches. This is made
to accommodate pupils from Is to 20 years,
ranging in height from to feet. Sitting
at this desk, the reporter found no difficulty,
and was not compelled to stoop to any ex-
tent to write upon the desk.
SOME HAVE BEEN CONDEMNED.
Isaac r. Hedges, who furnished the school
with desks, was talked with about the effect
small desks had upon school children. He
said: 81 don't believe that the growth of a
child is impaired in the least by
using our desks. If you were to
make a tour among the schools while
they are in session, you would find in nine
times out of ten that the desks were too high
to be used to good advantage by the pupil.
In some exceptional cases it will be found
that the pupil is too large for the desk, but
this is very rarely the case. The children
advance SO fast, by the time they reach the
rooms in which the large desks are used,
you will find that their feet dangle in mid
air. This should always be averted, as it has
q tendency 10 stop the circulation of the blood
while the pupil is compelled to sit in this
position. The desks at the Allegheny High
School, I know, are such that they will
produce stoop shoulders. This style of
DESK" continued Mr.. Hedges, "has been
condemned by the State board of Educa-
ton in Massachusetts, on this account I
don't believe there are such bad results as
some think here among our school children.
The pupils become hump-back from some
other cause"