The evening times., 1899-08-01
A NEW YORK VACATION SCHOOL.
One of the Beneficent Enterprises of
the Period.
(From the New York Advertiser.y

One of the Beneficent Enterprises of
the Period.
(From the New York Advertiser)
The mullins and coffee at the vacation
school in Public School No. l. at Henry,
Catherine, and Oliver Streets at noon to-
day were excellent, and as for the house
keeping II was perfect, modern, nay even
scientific. The little girls didn't know it
was scientific. however, any more than the
forty boys who were whiting toys in the
airy workshops on the top floor knew that
they were engaged in an educational pur-
suit OF high order. They thought it was
fun. jolly good fun OF new order. In fact
even the lesson in personal cleanliness did
not impress them as anything deeper than
fun, which might be carried on indefinitely
al home The teachers knew, however
that they were engaged in putting into
practice some of the great tenets OF mod
ern education; were enabling sloyd car
pentry to do its work. and through the
teaching OF dainty muscular coordination
in cooking and the like were imparting
powers Of concentration 10 little minds
which Will be valuable when books instead
of baking powder are the lessons at hand
For that matter, however, the whole
school or playhouse or whatever you choose
TO call these wonderful vacation instiSu-
tions, which If anomalies are definite
enough in their purposes. was entirely un-
conscious that il was being educated or
taught manners or anything else The
basement rang with shouts of boys playing
tag, game the teachers seemed to enjoy
very much Up another flight was the
piping music of the kindergartens busy at
play. Here the visitor stopped a while
partly to wait for the principal, Logan d.
Howell. and partly to look over a great
stack of clean books sent by the AguiIar
Free Library for broadcast circulation in
this neighborhood, which is not oyerbur-
dened with story books or fairy tales in
books or in life either. Finally, Mr.. How
ell was found, and trip to a kindergarten
class undertaken. Here were Dr. Jennie B.
Merrill, Kindergarten, and janitor ar
ranging a large fiat box in which sand is
TO be kept Our garden to be- said Miss
Merrill. The visitor wondered il the chill
dren would want to plant baked beans.
Miss Merrill said. however, that the real
live planting was to be done In little trays
but that in this box the children were to
make parks and ponds and villages oe-
cording to the kindergarten manner, and
SO get an idea Of the country The Whit OF
country air, of course, could not be given
in the class room. but the excursions on
the boats to some country spot will do that
Next the principal and the visitor climb
ed up many stairs to the fifth floor. AS
they neared this floor there was 4 most
disconcerting mixture of sounds, some
stirring like unto the making of cake, and
much saving and swishing of planes A
door opened and the visitor was in the
home department, and Miss Mary W. Will
son was inviting him to stay to lunch.
the viands of which were TO be prepared
by the bevy of little girls, as neat as new
pins, standing about table, measuring
flour, spooning out baking powder-the
visitor doesn't know the technical terms
pouring out milk or stirring a most at
tractive dough about in yellow bowls.
Others were washing UP the floor about
a shining sink, or cooling butter by let
ting water drip on the bowl. the task being
not to let the water reach the butter At
one side of the room were two gas ranges
with boiling kettles. and evidently glow
ing ovens. The teacher showed how
mullins could be made without eggs, and
if made properly could be ready, crisp and
brown and delicious in ten minutes, at a
cost of a few cents the pan. AS she put
each ingredient in her bowl the girls did
the same, and in no time muffin pans
comfortably filled. were in the oven. Then
came coffee. The teachers aim is to make
dishes the children can make at home.
Consequently they were given the money
and told to buy exactly the same sort of
coffee as they were in the habit of using
1T was good coffee" said Mrs. Wilson,
and when few minutes later a cup of
this coffee and some mullins, which would
be good advertisements for the baking
powder, flour or milk in them, were served
to the visitor on a waiter neatly covered
with Japanese napkins, he, too, attested
that it was good coffee.
In room to the rear Of the kitchen
was class intently watching little girl
puttying up the cracks in a wire spring
taken from a bed. whose remaining pieces
were over in one corner. Questioning
brought out that already they had made a
bed, had washed it thoroughly, and had
applied insect poison to its parts, and now
were completing the work of imaginary
determination. Tomorrow they will learn
how to make an attractive couch out of a
cot using a few cents worth of material.
Later they will be taught to make screens,
and finally will know how to convert a
bedroom into tidy sitting room, artistic
and neat. The teacher called attention to
the clean hands of the pupils, and this led
to visit to DR.. g. d. Ives, a little wom-
an. who seems to know all about the East
Side. She had just finished her lesson.
but was willing to talk about what she
was going to teach and had been teach
ing.
my course is one in domestic hygiene.
and will include personal cleanliness, care
and feeding of babies, attention to Sight
wounds and kindred subjects. Just now We
are teaching personal cleanliness. I sail
when / started 1 was going to give the
little girls bath all over The authori-
ties said they didn't believe I could. 1t
turned out, however, like the answer the
convict gave to the lawyer who said Why,
they can't put you in prison. He an
| swered: They have done it already, any
how I have already washed them, or
rather have taught them to hathe. and in