The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-01-02
SCHOOLBOYS IN FRANCE
MAX O'RELL DECLARES THE ROU-
TINE is WORSE THAN IN PRISON.
Discipline of the Great French Lycees
Has "a Tendency to Make Either
Scholars or BIockheads.
Max o,Rell. in youths Companion.

Max O'Rell in Youths Companion
| French parents are fond of telling their
| boys that there are no days so happy in life
as school days, and little French boys swal-
low the statement until they go to school.
Then they reflect. After l had tasted what
school life really was, I can well remember
| that | formed very poor idea of what
awaited me beyond the school gates. Now
that 1 have seen the English at school, it
makes me shudder to remember what had
to go through as a French schoolboy.
| Things may have changed since was boy,
but we in France are such routiniers that
l don't suspect that they have changed to
| a great extent. My opinion is that when
| French parents have decided on sending
boy ten years old to school till he is twenty,
| they have sentenced him to something very
near, in severity, to ten years hard labor
or penal serVitude. This is how a French
| boy often spends happy day, or how he
did thirty-five years ago: In the summer
| the French schoolboy rises at in the morn
| ing; in the winter at Cor, rather he is
| supposed to do so. The first bell rings at
5 O'Clock, to tell him that he is to get up;
! a second one rings at 5;25 to inform him
| that in five minutes he must be down; and a
| third bell at $3.50 enjoins him to leave the
| dormitory and so to the classroom. OF
| course he rises at 5:25, puts on his clothes
with prodigious rapidity, gives himself a
| dry polish a la Squeers, with towel or
more often with his knuckles, and is quite
| ready at $50 to go down to the study room.
| A pint of water goes long way in a dor
mitory of sixty French boys.
| In the study room, under the supervision
| of an usher, called pion, he prepares his les
Sons for the masters till 1855, all the time his
-1,.~ ~sx1r~
| poor little stomach growing ana shouting
| to him, II say, boy, when will that break
| fast be ready?"
Breakfast is ready at s. Considering that
| the menu consists of soup and bread, L have
| always wondered how it could take the
| cook so long to get it ready. During the
| few minutes that precede breakfast time, a
| few boys go and have a wash. They go by
| the name of aristos-swells, or dudes, if
| you like-and excite great scorn in the
breasts of the majority of the school fell
/ lows.
| Most boys keep chocolate or JAM or buy
some of the doorkeeper, to eat with their
bread. At $50 they have to he in their
respective classrooms with their masters.
| The class lasts two hours, after which they
return to the study room to prepare until
u, for the afternoon class.
| From IL to 1 they dine and play. Both
| these words would convey to an American
or an English mind a meaning that, I'M
| fortunately, they do not convey either to
the mind or to the stomach of a French
schoolboy The dinner consists generally
] of one help of boiled beef and vegetables
| Oh, how we loved Fridays, when the fare
consisted of haricot beans or lentil, and we
were allowed to TASK for more Not that
| the dish was dainty. 1t was sauce mainly
with some haricots or lentils swimming
about rari nantes in gurgite vasto; but we
could have as much we wanted, and the
capacity of boys of fourteen is ''unfillabe."
| Bread, in French IyceeS, is ad libitum
| When boy has finished his piece he holds
up his hand as sign that he is ready for
another. A man, holding a basketful of cut
| will allow him to fill all these pairs Of
empty hands as fast as they are put up. He
| Gus game. If the boy misses the piece that
was intended for him his neighbor fire.
quently catches and pockets 1t, partly as a.
precaution against possible pangs of hun
ger before the next meal, partly for the love
| of disobeying the rules, one of which enacts
that no food shall be pocketed. The drink
made up of a good tablespoonful of wine in
| a decanter of water.
The way in which French schoolboys dine
| is not so strange as the way in which they
] play. Recreation has to take place in a
! more or less large yard, surrounded by high
walls, very much like a prison walk Not a
| tree, not blade of grass to be seen-a mere
! graveled yard. bare and uninviting. There
the boys walk. two by two, or in larger
| clever and Industrious ones discussing sci
entific problems or questions of literature
! and philosophy, the little ones indulging in
game Of top or marbles in one of the cor
ners of the ground
BY and by the bell rings At o'clock
| they all have to be I'm their places In the
Study room until 2. when it is time to go to
| the afternoon class, which lasts until 4
o'clock The timetable is regulated by the
| minister of public instruction. There is no
deviating from it. On leaving the profess
sors, to be Immediately handed over to the
| ushers, they each receive a piece of bread
which they are allowed to eat in the play
yard with whatever relish they may pos
| sess or buy of the doorkeeper. They play
| till 5. when they return to the study room
| to prepare their lessons for the following
SUPPER AT O'CLOCK.
At o'clock supper is ready. To this, as
to all other meals, they go two by two,
after having previously all formed into
ranks in the playground. The supper con-
sists of stew, or more boiled beef, or two
sorts of vegetables. Sometimes an apple
or few cherries, according to the season,
brighten the not very festive board In my
time cherries were the most popular des-
| sert after refreshing the inner boy they
| provided him with missiles, which were
| turned to good account on the spot, when
| ever the usher had his back turned. For
drink, should add. we had the same mix
| ture as before
After this frugal repaSt the boys repair
| again and always two by two, to their re-
| spective dormitories. Those who care to
! indulge in a little washing may do SO be-
| fore going to bed, so as to be clean the fol-
| lowing day. l say those who care" for
| never will an usher make q remark to
| French boy over 12-when he is no longer
under the supervision of matron-becauSe
| he is dirty, not even in the Iefectory. Pro-
! vided he has cravat on, nobody will scoid
| him for having dirty neck. If cleanii-
ness is next to goodness, the French school
| boy is most ungodly
| The French schoolboy gets holiday on
| Thursdays-that is to say, no class is held;
| but he has to be in the study room the
| whole morning and evening. In the after
| noon he goes for a walk for an hour or
| two, when the ranks are formed again, and
| they are marched back to what / have no
| hesitation in calling their barracks, not to
| say their prison. On Sundays the boy who
| has his parents or guardian in town is al
| lowed to go home for the day if he is not
| kept in for one of those hundred and one
| petty offenses invented at pleasure by the
school on Sunday morning he receives an
exeat, on which the hour of his leaving
| school is marked and the parents are to
| write on it at what time he has reached
| home He is obliged to be back at school
| at 10 o'clock in the evening to the minute.
| and as before, his parents are requested
| to write on the exeat at what time he left
| their house He generally returns on Sum-
day night in a cOmatOSe state, and the home
| fare two good square meals, tells sadly on
| the work he does on Mondays. This regime
| is followed not only at school, but in the
| colleges.