The herald., 1898-03-30
TIE INSTITUTE IN THE LOS ANGELES THEATER

ton of light. There is a common belief
that black eyes are stronger than blue;
they are not, for purposes of vision, but
they are in vitreous humor.
Disease of the conjunctiva is very preva-
lent and contagious, and here is where the
school towel gets in it's deadly work.
Trachoma is one of the oldest, most widely
spread diseases of the eye; it was one of
the plaques the Lord sent on the Egyptians,
and it has remained with them. Disease of
the cornea is the cause of more blind eyes
in this country than any other agent the
cause of which in most instances is lack of
cleanliness 1t should not be forgotten by
/ teachers that lice attack the eyelashes as
well as the hair of the scalp"
DIR. Thorpe illustrated that part of his
address that related to the refraceion of
light with blackboard drawings, and gave
many practical hints to teachers on the
lighting Of the school rooms, indications of
defective eyesight in children, and what
course to pursue in certain emergencies.
COUNTY INSTITUTE
There was no general session of the
county teachers held in the morning, the
time being given to section work At 80
both bodies united in general session in
| the Los Angeles theater. An overture from
Martha by the orchestra opened the ex-
ercises, and was followed by chorus song
by the Harmony club, 1.-The American
Flag" which was applauded loud and long,
as feeling inside and out of the building
was running pretty high on the subject.
Prof. j. M. Quinn read a scholarly and
exhaustive plea for Local History"
A PLEA FOR LOCAL HISTORY
Prof. Quinn began his address by stating
the opinions and definitions of what his
tory is, as given by distinguished historians
and authors. History writers too often d.
vest history of its human interest by max
ing it thing OF theories and generaliza-
TONS History and fiction both treat of
the same subject-human deeds and the
life of men and women; but while the dust
of unusage too often gathers on the vo,-
umes of history in our public libraries the
popular novel is read to shreds and tatters.
History is potent factor in the formation
of national character. A people proud of
their past are patriotic people.
Prof. Quinn advocated the systemati
teaching of local history as a means of
cultvating love of history and prelim-
mary step to the study of national history
and history in general.
No state has a more instructive a more
interesting or more varied history than
California, and no state has had so many
and so various forms of government as
California. Fist a mi-military, semi
ecclesiastical dependency of Spain, next
territory of Mexico then the Estado
Libre de California (the Free State of CAL
ifornia)-a republic all by itself, with q
self-constituted governor; back again as
territory of Mexico, then the Pacific re-
public, with the bear flag as its emblem;
then a conquered territory of the United
States with military governor; then
civil territory and lastly sovereign state
of the union.
In the story of the founding of the old
pueblo of Los Angeles and its subsequent
history under Spain, we can trace some of
the causes that lost Spain her American
colonies and wrought her decadence.
Spain in the sixteenth century was the
most powerful, the richest and the most
adventurous nation of Europe; today the
most conceited. the most bigoted, the
weakest and wickedest of all the nations
of Europe, barring, possibly, the unspeak-
able Turk. The common people in the
Spanish-American colonies had no voice
in the government. They were governed
by horde of rapacious office holders sent
from Spain.
In the old pueblo of Los Angeles it took
them thirty-five years to establish a school
and after year of "licken and larnin' ;"
the school took vacation of ten years to
allow the knowledge acquired to settle
and possibly the pupils backs TO heal
In the forty years that Los Angeles was
under Spanish rule there was but little