The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1891-11-11
TEAcH1NG:CHILDREN TO VOTE.
The Scholars Take Lesson In The Me-
thod of Balloting.
1NeW York Recorder. I

Ne" OEh hSCCIucl
There were over 5000 votes cast yes
terday in the twenty-five industrial
schools of the Children's Al Society in
this city, and, although thevoters were
carefully watched, not single vote was
challenged. The Children's Aid So
.ciety have adopted an entirely new
plan of familiarizing the rising genera
ton with the use of the ballot. About
one-half of the children who attend
these schools are foreigners and one
shird of them are from countries where
the English language is not spoken.
The movement was started about
three weeks ago and Superintendent
George T. Balch visited each school
and explained something about the
duties of citizens in regard to the ballot
and told the boys and girls that they
were to be given a chance to vote on
the great question:
'.Shall this school salute the ma
tons flag every day at the morning
exercises"
The day fixed for the casting of the
ballot was November ,, and the child
rem have been anxiously awaiting the
day when they should cast their first
ballot. The questions that the teachers
have had to answer about the way tc
vote and what the littler ones would
have to do would have driven Tam
many heeler dizzy. Yesterday at II a.
M. the following order of exercises was
carried out in all the schools.
"A little girl or boy, as might be Sc
lected, stood in front of the whole class
with new silk flag, and at a signal
from the teacher the scholars got up
and sang in unison: 1--WE give our
heads and our hearts to our country.
One country! One language! One fag!'
The flag bearer dipped the flag three
times and the scholars touched their
heads and their hearts with the right
hand ss they repeated the salutation.
Then they all sang the 'Red, White
and Blue" with a will and got ready to
cast their ballots.
The ballots We're all in small enve-
lopes, and the privilege of folding the
ballots and putting them in the enve-
lopes had been given to the boy and
girl who had been the best little citi-
zens in their class on the preceding
day. Some ballots had been given out
last Friday SO that the children might
take them to their homes and read
them to their parents. On the face of
the ballot was Eyes" and No." and the
child was to strike out the one that
it did not want to vote. The children
had been drilled in thesuperintendent's
address and were expected to have
committed the following to memory
before casting their ballots:
"The country in which I live, and
which is my country, is called a repub-
lie. In arepublic the people govern.
The people who govern are called citi-
zens. The way the citizens govern is
either by voting for the person whom
they wantto represent them, or who
will say what the people want him to
say, or by voting for that thing they
would like to do or against that thing
they DO not want to do. The citizen
who votes is called a voter or an elector
and the right of voting is called the
suffrage. The voter puts on a piece Of
paper what ne wants.
"The piece of paper is called ballot.
This piece of paper is my ballot. The
right Of citizen to vote, the right to
say what the citizen thinks is best for
himself and all the rest of the people,
the right to say who shall govern US
and make laws for US, is great privi-
lege, sacred trust, very great respon-
sibility, which must learn to exercise
conscientiously and to the best Of my
knowledge and ability as little citi-
zen of this great American republic"
Two judges of election were selected
from the scholars, the name Of each
child was called by the principal from
the register. The little ones walked up
to the box, gave the envelope to the
Judge of election and watched until it
was dropped in the box before returning
to their seats. The election resulted in
the unanimous decision that the child
rem desire to salute the American flag
every day at the morning exercises in
each school.