The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1897-01-04
Citizens Complaint About
the Schools.
Says Pupils Who Arrive Early
Are Kept Outside
On Cold Mornings-Facts About the
Sorting Of Peanuts.

| This Is the complaint q citizen rho
sends two children to the pub schools
makes: "A morning or two ago .ny llttlo
boys started for school about 8 80 O'Clock.
The school is not more than tive minutes
walk from the house and as tho air was
very biting, imagine tho hoys reached
there in ive minutes or even less. Poss-
Ing the school house myself at $40 on
my way down town / was surprised 10
see my Titles boys In the school yard
kicking their feet and thrssbing their
hands TO keep warm. When asksd them
why they were not inside where It was
warm they answered thar tho doors were
locked. A personal examination con-
vinced me that such was the fact. More
over, learned that some. II not ell the
teachers were inside the school house at
the time. Now, what would like to
know Is why the pupils who arrive early
are kept outside on cold mornings.
Remember. my boys were not the onIy
ones there; there were several others In
the school yard that morning. 1t seems
to me the teachers should remen ber thar
small children cannot DO made to time
thSia ~ tbc SCnOOi 10 1DutG
and that the ambitious ones are more
likely than not to reach there earlier
than the prescribed hour. When they do
this the doors should be opened and the
children not be compelled to remain out
In chilling atmosphere which would
threaten the health OF older persons. 10
tell the truth, think a little common
sense in the enforcement of such rules
might be used by the public school
tsach chers."
A wholesale dealer In peanut, gives an
interesting account of how the latter are
sorted and packed. The bags are first
taken up by iron arms projecting from
an endless chain to the tifth story of the
factory. Here they are weighed and
emptied into large bins. from these
bins they fall to the next story into
large cylinders, IA feet long, which re-
volve rapidly, and by friction the nuts are
cleansed from the earth which clings 10
them and polished, 90 that they come out
white and glistening. From this story
the nuts fall through chutes to the third
and most interesting floor. Imagine
IoWs oI iOuR, uarrOW toDleo, oRcn o1v10eQ
lengthwise into three sections by thin.
inch-high strips of wood. These strips
also surround the edge Of the table. Each
of these sections is foorcd with a strip of
heavy white canvas, which moves incss-
sanity from the mouth of chute to an
opening leading down below at the for
ther end of the table. These slowly
moving canvas bands, about foot wide,
are calico the picking aprons.
Upon the outer aprons Of each table
dribDles down from the chute a slender
stream of peanuts and on each of the
ia bles, so close together a. scarcely to
have elbow room, stand rows of negro
girls and women picking ont the inferior
peanuts as they pass, ana throwing them
into the central section. So fast do their
hands move at the work that one cannot
see what they are doing till they cast 4
handful of nuts into the middle division.
BY the time nut has passed tho sharp
eyes and quick hands of eight or 10 pick
ers, one may be quits certain that it is
4 first cless article.