Evening star., 1900-08-18
THE WORST SCHOOL
London Has It IN Black 'Orse
Court.
PUPILS DEFY LAW AND ORDER
Costers Thrive Where Chaucer
FIourished.
THE III A ST ENIN G ROD


| Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star.
LONDON, August o. 1880.
| Until few days ago the worst school in
London had almost forgotten that it pos
sessed that distinction. Then the Amazonfan
mother of one of it's pupils took occasion to
publicly punch the head of woman teach
er who had ventured to correct her off
| spring, a pleasant thrill of excitement ran
through the neghborhood of Tabard street,
and the "Chaucer' school, which stands in
the center of that delectable locality of
slums costers and goats, reawakened to its
| reputation.
| The "Chaucer' seems curious name for
school in sum district, especially when
| that school has earned painstakingly so I'M
enviable superlative that teachers require
| especially high salaries before they will
| consent to grapple with the depravity and
| filth that enter its class rooms simultane-
! ously with the youth of the neighborhood
But this name is not so incongruous as it
| appears, for it was through this identical
| district. now a jumble of little alleys reek-
| ing with filth and seethng with crime a
| district that goes even Seven DiaIs one bet
| ter. that the sober pi grims to the shrine of
| Thomas Beckett at Canterbury used to
| hle and Tabard street gets its name from
| the old Tabard Inn, which stood near by,
| where the Canterbury tales We're told. So
| 1t is not without either rhyme or reason
| that the worst school in London is named
| The Chaucer."
The cockney aborigine of the neighbor-
| hood directs you to the "Chaucer'' thus:
| Bear up Tabard street till YOU see the
public 'ouse with the gaslight in front;
swing over the road. forst turnin' the
| left is Black 'orse court pass the other
pub there an you see the school Fol
| lowing the simple formula and penetrating
| the squalor and stencil Of Black Horse
court you do see see the school-a clean-cut
brick building at the end of a broad, but
| terribly sunny playground. apparently
scooped out of the mass of close alleys and
| chimney-potted houses either side, like
a clearing in a thick forest.
Two Families to One Bed.
| The "Chaucer's" head master, Mr.. Show
elier, is a short. thck-set with
stubby beard, and he unqualifedly indorsed
public opinion of his school.
Yes he said, cheerfully, we're the
| worst. Whitechapel and Deptford run US
pretty close. but even they haven't things
as bad they are here 1t isn't that the
| children here are so hard to get along with,
it's that their dirtness, poverty and the in
| fluences of their home life are worse than
anywhere else in London. The children
are dull on account of being tired, sleepy
and half starved
II questioned boy, who seemed to be es-
pecially listless. the other day. and found
that the only sleep he ever gets is in the
early hours of the morning-he's SO tor
mented all night by vermin. Another boy
was in the same condition. He admitted
that he usually went to bed between ! 30
and o'clock in the morning. His family
and another one. or possibly two go
'snooks' one bed. The first family oc-
cupies it from, say, in the evening until
midnight; then the second family-father,
mother, and daughter-get into it.
THE greatest difficulty in getting public
schools attended is that the parents want
to work their children, that they them
selves can have more time to loaf and
drink, and now that the law forces them
to send the children to school, they work
them all they can outside 1t. The boys
have to get up every morning at 5 or
o'clock and load costers wagons so that
they're dead tired by the time they come
to school at 8. And between u and .
o'clock, the school recess, the boys have to
sell papers or peddle fish.
One Pair of Shoes for Three.
Sometimes when a boy has been absent
for day the mother sends as an excuse
that he has been out notwithstanding.
AS soon the girls come home from school
they set to scrubbng the floors and |
doing other housework while the mothers
sally forth to the pub You'll find it
crowded with them as you go past.
you'll notice, too, In going round the
school, that most of the boys are barefoot.
and others in the merest relics of shoes
1t isn't so bad In the summer as in winter.
Then, perhaps, besides the fathers in some
of these poor families there is only one
pair of shoes. One day the boy wears
them. the next his sister. If the mother
gets a job of work and has to go out.
neither Of the children come to school.
In winter half the boys here will be wear
ing women's shoes"
The boys in this school are not big They
range from five to fourteen or fifteen. They
all look pretty much alike. All are grimy
of face and touseled of hair. all, according
to coster tradition, innocent of collar and
necktie, wearing greasy handkerchief
knotted around their necks as a substi-
|'tute. All their clothes are old Some gar
ments evidently have clothed other boys
before, others are manifestly mems clothes
cut down-or rolled up. The toes of those
who are not barefoot peep through their
ragged shoes, and are caked with dust and
| blue with bruises.
Had to he Taught How to Play.
There are 400 boys and as many girls in
| many infants under female teachers
are neither especially bright nor particu-
| larly dense, though they especially
precocious. They have actually to be
| taught how to play. In their homes they
speak a perfect patois and proper spelling
grammar and construction are the hard
| est things for them to learn. Trained up
| to barter and haggle, simple arithmetic
comes easiest Of all, and calculations of
profits down to the last farthing easier
| still.
The head master says that to deal with
them a teacher needs a world Of tact and
| to be many sided. They demand that he
shall be their master In everything, play as
well as work, or they won't respect him
He must be able to run faster, jump fur
| ther and kick higher than they can. He
| says 1t Is sometimes inconvenient. Not
| long ago he took his collection of inno-
cents down to the baths that they visit
every week. The boys like to dive, and
| have been in the habit of using the old
Sprtngboard there. but on this occasion