Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-12-17
SOME MUNICIPAL EVILS
The Lack of School Accommodations and
Other Troubles
The Perils to the Young ms Pointed
Out I'm a Sermon by
Rev. Mr.. Allen.

| ton and Its Perils' last night at the First
Presbyterian Church and called attention
| to some matters Of local interest. He took
| as his text Luke xix: Al: "And when He
| was come near, He beheld the city, and
| wept over it." ''Our Lord was now on his
way to the capital of the Jewish nation.
He had reached the Mount of Olives, about
half a mile northeast from Jerusalem. AS
he looked at the city, with its many stately
buildings, his heart was touched by the
| fact of the citys moral and spiritual con-
| dition, and We are told that he wept. If
| either Paul or Christ should come to our
! national capital in this month of December,
in the year 1894, there Is reason to behave
| they would find much to bring sorrow to
| their hearts and tears to their eyes.
"One OF the perilS to our city Is the want
| of proper facilities for the education of the
children Of school age. Every American
knows that there Is no defense to our insti-
buttons like the public school, and that edu-
cation is therefore the safety of our Ie-
public. In the opinion of our fathers, the
school house was the companion of the
church, and both education and religion,
they believed, were essential to good titi-
zenship. The history of our nation bears
testimony of the strongest kind that they
were correct in their belief. Now, with this
before u.s. it Is proper for the pulpit to ask
| the question, and it is for those in official
positions to answer it: Why is it that here
at the capital of the nation the public
schools are so few in number? That ac-
cording to the careful estimate of Mr.
Cook, superintendent of colored schools
not less than 5000 coored children of school
age are deprived of a common school edu-
cation; that there is a square mile in one
| portion of our city, well populated by col
ored people, in which there is no school
building at all.
Lack of School AccOmmoL ida lions.
why is 1t that several thousand white
| children of school age have the doors closed
against them? Upon investigation any one
may find that here at the seat of our ra-
| tons government, the capital of the
wealthiest power on the globe, our public
school buildings are insufficient in number,
overcrowded, poorly ventilated and a dis
grace to our land and for no reason ex-
cept the unwillingness of those who are in
power to appropriate the funds that are
needed to correct the evil.
Fully 1,o6O arrests were made in this
District during the year ending June, 1894
OF children under sixteen years of age
Here is a peril to our city that is beyond
estimate. If schools had been provided
and If law were enacted by Congress-
and enforced, compelling all children Of
school age to be in school. Is it too much to
| gay tfat fully 1000 of these children would
not have been arrested and had their first
lesson In crime?
Another peril to this city is found in
the fact that there is want of a reform
school for girls. The civilization of any
people Is determined by the condition of
woman and not by the condition of the
man, and yet, while girls are growing up
in the alleys and slums of this city, amid
wickedness of every description, We have
no more provision for them than a reform
school only large enough to accommodate
thirty-two. Eight hundred and sixty-five
girls under twenty-one years of age, 2O6
of them under sixteen years of age, were
arrested in this District during the year
ending June, 1894 for various offenses.
This is an alarming state of things, and
still more when il is remembered that
if held by the court they must either be
sent to the Jail or the workhouse. because
there is no room for them in the reform
school, But to send girls when arrested
the first or even the second time to the jail
or the workhouse is only to sink them
deeper into sin, and harden them against
all that is good.
immoral Pictures.
But If they could be sent to large re-
form school, what numbers OF them might
be saved. If one person In this town is
stricken with smallpox the people are
aroused and heroic means are used to pro-
tect the public, and to stamp out the
plague, but 1 submit that $50 girls, under
tWenty-one years of age, gone astray In
one wear l49 of whom were Migrants pick
ed up off the streets, with no place TO
which they can be sent, but to the jail or
workhouse or back to the street, tells or
a peril to this community many tunes
| greater than smallpox can ever BE-
"Another peril Is found in the open and
public exhibition of pictures wpich must
| destroy coed morals. No parent Oh sounC
| mind would let his son or daughter De 1ed
| on poison, but the indifference OF fathers
| and of good people in this city to the
| deadly work that is going on by the med
| nm of immoral posters on bill-boardS, and
| by pictures hung up in store windows, Is
| something amazing. All this Is food to the
mind 1t is mentally digested, II goes 10
determine character Each time the eyes
| fall on one of these representations, some
| evil is photographed on the mind, and what