The Portland daily press., 1896-12-29
STATE REFORM SCHOOL.

Annual Report Of Mrs. Annie M. L.
Hawes.
improvements Reported in the Past Few
Years-The Military Drill and Gymnas-
tics.-The Cottage System
Mrs. Annie NJ. L. Halves of the State
Board of Visitors to the Reform School
makes this report to the Governor aud
Council:
TO the Governor and the Honorable
Council of Maine:-In submitting to you
according to statute, my individual re-
port as member of the State Board OF
Visitors TO she Reform School. / will say
that in tie past two years ! have con,
tinued to make a study OF reform school
work in our own and in other states,
both by personal observation. and
through the reports of others. Last year
I spent two days at the Lyman School
in Westboro, Mass, ana lately visited
the Sockanosset School in Rhode Island.
These are both boys reform schools
though they are known by happier
names.
QUA K1n0 WI Cull 0uuCltiOA w NOtoI*AAi
improvements in our school in the past
two years. The military drill and. the
Swedish gymnastics have tended 20
chnnge the slipshod shsmble and shuttle
of the street Arab into the upright CAR
riage and steady step of the self-respeet.
ing boy. That promptness OF movement
acQ uired in the tactics has been help
in the general discipline Of the school is
unq uestionad, but deeper than all this is
81 O., Not he, h RI vuork and nIaV
of these two exercises furnish food for
the boyish mind. and SO far as boy Is
taught to think 10 new direction so far
Ia he new boy.
One of our greatest improvements is in
the Arrangement regarding school hours
each boy now being in school some part
Of the day az well as during the evening,
for though the evening school has it's
place, it must be looked upon mainly as
opportunity for oral teaching. sleepy
boys finding little for themselves in
text book.
Some of the books from the library
have been placed where they should be,
in the school rooms where they can be
used. Too much stress can scarcely be
laid upon this matter Of reading. 1t is
not to be expected that the boys will
come to the school with taste for read
ing anything but the poorest books.
ruined by what they read, and to reform
taste ana character is a double task-to
take out as well as to put in. For this
reason ! put instruction in healthful
reading, the reading OF books by the best
authors. authors who have something to
say and know how to say it-far ahead
of many things ordinarily thought more
important Whoever heard of man
that was filed with high and n oble aims
bx +ho CT, ~ nnfo har Q
But when he is taught to chooseihis books
be is provided with safe companiOnship
for life, which is only another way Of
saying forever. 1t Is suggested that a
part of the money spent each year for the
library tie put Into magazines and papers
for supplementary reading in lhe school,
and that the use of such reading be in
sisted upon. A book represents a bulk
of reading sufficient to discourage many
by something less formidable.
Life at the Cottage has proved to the
most skeptical that bolts and bars are
not needed by all our boys, at least, and
though it is question with many people
if 1t is hest to erect such expensive build
ings still Ii is gratifying to all interested
In the school to see the new house going
forward, promising home to thirty
more boys. But human nature will AL
ways sympathize with those cleft out
side the good times, = and the public is
always asking ii ali the lads at the large
house must be closely confined in their
hieh-walled yard. 1t is hard to see why
when two and three hundred boys go
about unfeLced grounds at the Lyman
and SockanOsset schools our far smaller
number must be so shut up. Boys will
run away sometimes. Pretty good boys
run away from pretty good homes ocoas-
ionally, and it by no means follows that
the best 10y ia the one. WHO makes the
least trouble; the real question is always
and every where what is best tor the boy.
Repression never makes character.
In regard to the Wander Lust as
Josiah Flynt, tie authority on tramp
life, calls the running away passion.
MIR. Flynt says: look upon this fever
"a quite as much Of disease as the craze
to steal which is found now and then in
some child's character. and IT deserves
the same careful treatment. Punishment
only aggravates it, and develops in the
boy feeling of hatred for all about him.
I firmly believe that some day this
trouble In SO many boys lives will be
pathologioally treated by medical men,
and the sooner that day comes the better
II will be for many unfortunate child
rem
1t is also a we'll established fact that
the thing you forbid asboy to do often
Immediately becnmes desirable in his
eyes. He wants to see If he can do it.
and sometimes when a boy has largest
liberty 1t is easiest to keep him within
bounds.
The building of the cottages is br ing
ing about that great reform sos much
needed the classification of our boys,
hut it is exceedingly desirable that there
shonld be at the main building
we hone with its many Inconvenience
it's lack of ventilation, and It's dark base
ments will soon be thing of the past
separs tie Fairgrounds where the hopelessly
bad-if there are such cannot influence
comparatively innocent children, and
where those who dc not abuse the priyil-
eye can have large liberty.
Many of the inmates OF our school are
young men with the strength of young
mon. and they need harder work than
the chair shop provides. Downriehs
wearyin9 of the body is one of the best
means ofsscasting out the evil spirit. In
the Rhode Island school the boys make