The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-01-26

| k(OnIlnue0 from clTSI Ea&e.l
| visitors ranged themselves around the
walls of the dining room while the 1874
boys marched in with locked STEP Each
boy marched with arms folded and his
cap held to his right shoulder.
In front of each plate was a stool in
stead of q chair, and at the ringing of
a bell each boy deposited his cap be-
meath the stool and sat down, still with
folded arms. At another tap of the bell
each boy bowed his head and closed
his eyes, and at a third tap of the bell
every boy in the room began to say
grace-some mumbling it, but most of
them in a loud, ringing intellectually
without feeling and apparently without
meaning.
There were boys of all kinds, more
little boys than large-bIack and white.
Some of the boys showed intelligence.
AS soon as the boys began eating the
visitors scattered to examine the build
ings and grounds.
II think they need new table cloths,'
said one of the ladies.
Kitchens, school rooms, play rooms,
dormitorieS and wash rooms were in
spected, as well as the chapel.
Boys of all kinds are sent here
said Superintendent Butler, land many
of them ought not to be here. Orphans
are sent here because they have
homes; shiftless parents complain that
their children are incorrigible and have
them sent here, when they are not in
corrigible at all.''
Within the last two weeks part of
the rooms in the school have been reno
waited and present a vast Improvement
over what they have been. The board
of charities has authorized the expendi-
ture of what funds they can to fix up
the school, but they complain that the
appropriation for the school is far too
small to meet its needs. The dormi-
tories are so arranged that one person
can not see but a small portion of one
of them at a time, and the result is
that the boys are not watched as close
ly as they should be at nights. The
heating plant was put in twenty years
ago, and the pipes are so filled with
rust and lime that it is almost impossi-
bic for steam to get through some of
them.
Then again it is impossible to heat
part of the buildings without heating
the whole institution, and as a result
the hospital cannot be kept warm I'M
less every building on the grounds is
warm also. FoOrS are worn out, plas-
tering is cracked and falling off.
Superintendent Hart is doing all he
can to remedy these evils as fast as
possible, and he has made marked
changes in some of the rooms, having
them kalsomined and thoroughly clean
ed, and new carpets put down on floors
that had not known new carpet be-
fore 20 years. Lack of funds, however,
interfereS with carrying the work very
far
The interest of the legislators was
awakened in all these things, and it is
probable that a sufficient appropriation
will be made at this session to cover the
pressing needs of the school.
One of the greatest needs of the
school is a library. At present the Iii
brary'' consists of some agricultural re-
ports, public documents, few singing
books, and number of magazines
which have been taken out from time
to time by DR.. Harding, the school ply
sician.
THAT is the extent of the reading
matter these boys have" said DR.. Hard
ing pointing to the library" And In
the evenings 40 to so boys gather in the
play rooms and the only amusement
they have is to sit around on the bench
es and make the little ones get out in
the middle of the floor and dance. The
fault is not with the management, but
with the state itself, in denying the
management sufficient funds to proper
ly run the institution
At 1 o'clock the visitors were sum-
moned back to the dining room, and the
members of the Kansas legislature, the
"Honora bIes" of the state, with their
wives and other visitors, sat down to
the same tables and ate off of the same
dishes as the supposedly 'incorrigibles''
did. To be sure the bill of fare had been
varied a little, and the legislators were
given oysters and cold ham, and a few
other deIicacies which the boys had not
had, but otherwise everything was just
the same.
At 2 o'clock the Rock Island switch
engine returned and took the visitors
back to the city.
Most of the Legislators who carefully
WINGED that a manual training school
ought to be conducted in connection
with the school. Now all the boys have
to do is farm work and gardening, and
attending to their studies, which does
not occupy near all their time, they
can not farm in the winter time.
Nearly all of these boys have an in
clination towards some trade said
Major Anderson. "If there was a man
ual training school out here to teach
them the trades they could learn to sup
port themselves and do much of the
work around the school in the mean
time. But they don't all of them want
to learn to be farmers"
Zone of the great troubles with this
institution" said DR.. Harding, lis that
no one has taken any interest in it,
Formerly the appropriation for it's sup
port and maintenance was 5000, but
now it has been cut down to $780, 900 and
there are nearly as many again boys
here. These boys will either become
good citizens of the state, or else they
will fill the penitentiary, and think the
state ought to be enough interested in
them to look after them while they are
young. 1t would be the part of econ
omy to do so in the long rum
''Wot's tibet book you've got there,
Weary?"
That's the Art of Dining Well"
f'Say, that a rum sort o. book for a
gentleman in your position, Weary"
"Oh! / dunno. A Teller can admire
art without bein' artist, Limpey."-
Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Coughing Injuries and inhames sore