The herald., 1894-01-01
AT SOB0BA'S SCHOOL.
THE MODEL RESERVATION FOR
THE INDIANS.
Miss Noble Really Rules the Little viii
lage-A Quaint Newspaper Pub
lished by the Children Who Are
Under Her Charge.

San Francisco Chronicle: Helen
Hunt Jackson made Sobobs, and Soboba
will interest everybody who has read
Ramona. 1t was due to her efforts that
the government put there school for
Indian children. Mrs. Jackson speaks
of the village as zone of the very oldest
of ALL" lying at the foot of M cunt San
Jacinto and two miles distant from the
enterprising town of that name.
Miss Mary Noble, the present teacher
of the school, le the real ruler of the
reservation. To her all disputes are
referred. She is the arbitrator of their
petty quarrels, their judge, their doctor
and their coniessor. l doubt whether
any woman in the United States holds
30 unique position.
The majority of Californians hardly
know whether there are Indians in the
State, and if they possess the informa-
tion could not place their residence !;
therefore the idea OF young woman de-
liberately selecting work which Drac-
tcallv cuts her off from advancement in
her profession and condemns herself to
life of more or less exclusion, is MI the
more surprising. But Miss Mobiles
heart is in her work. These Soboba
children do not represent to her so many
small and stupid pieces of human DRIFT
wood. They are to her feah and blood,
with minds to be lifted out of Indian
darkness.
She is not the pedagogue holding
school in school hours-but the whole
village of Soboba is her school. The
young man who makes wine, and who
gets drunk and abuses his family, is as
much her ward as the 4-year-od tot
who lisps her letters. No letter regard
ing their affairs is ever cent out unless
the captain has duly consulted with
Miss Noble. The tribal differences are
brought before her for adjudication, and
the matter must indeed be grave one
if it has to go before the Indian agent.
Teachers are not sanguine as to the re-
suits of the day-school system for In
dians. In their opinion the scholar
must be far removed from all home in
huence, or else the example act by the
teacher is lost. Perhaps this is the dif-
ficulty at present, for the older genera
tion, which had no school advantages, ia
yet alive, and the squalor and morale of
their lives is certainly not elsvating. In
time, perhaps, this evil will be over
come, but still the day school is dis
tinct advantage to the Indian, as it
serves as a feeder to the schools of tech
nique, like that at Perris, where trades
are taught.
What most particularly interests us in
this school work ls the publication OF a
newspaper called the Soboda News,
written by the children. The managing
editors are Jose Juan Jauro and MARI
sno Siivas, with ak associate editors.
The Soboba News deals strictly in news.
Ii is temperate In tone and boldly un-
furls its flag in the cause OF temperance.
The paper ia edited and prepared by the
children of the school. and the illustra-
trstions are drawn by one of the smallest
OF the boys, who believes in pictorial
journalism, as is evidenced by figure
accompanying an account OF an exciting
rabbit hunt. With paper which can
assume SO bold tone on matters of
public interest there is hope that in
temperance will be eradicatcd in Sobo-
ba. This is how the youthful editors
deal with the subject.
"rhe Soboba News is going to fight
against alcohol and intemperance. We
think that wine should not be used even
in village like this, for it makes the
people give all the money they have for
wine. Winee are often made here in
Soboba.- Those that make wine ought
to be arrested for making it and selling
it and getting all the money from one
who has little money for hisicoffee and
-four. Our officers should see about
this. 1t is time that something is done
about it, for everybody is talking about
our people at Soboba. Our people could
dry their grapes for winter, when all
fruits are gone"
JoI-S HAMILTON GILMqUa.