The National tribune., 1903-09-03

of the Historical Society of Arizona Pr
oneersl l was duly appointed teacher of
the public school of that ancient and
honorable pueblo" The board of trus-
tees consisted of Messrs. W. L. Scott,
Sam Hughes Doth living to-day and w.
c. Davis. Mr.. Scott conducted me to
an oblong adobe building situated on the
northwest corner Of Meyer and McCor-
mick Streets, then the property of one
Mariana Molina. This building contained
the one long room intended for and fur
nished as the contemplated school room.
There were two long rows of homemade
desks forming each one piece, together
with its respective bench. Between the
rows a space of about six feet was left
uuoccupied throughout the whole length,
in order to allow passageway to and from
the seats and the one blackboard which,
being constructed of masonry with ce-
ment finish painted over in dull black OIL
paint, was firmly imbedded in the south
wall One of the desks being reversed so
as to face the two rows formed by the
pupils seats, was made to serve as the
teachers desk. The best feature of these
desks. which were calculated to seat. each,
three large. or four middle-sized boys, or
solute solidity. However, if we take into
consideration that the recently established
school laws admitted boys from the age
of six to 81 years. and that boys varying
in size anywhere from three to nearly SIX
feet did frequent the school, you will
readily admit that the uniform size of the
combination desks and benches was ra-
ther an Inconvenience, as well as their
manifest propensity for shedding splinters;
0f t.N,-s. nrl
poorly clad and quite often put in an ap-
pearance with bare ankles and feet Two
doors placed about the middle of the east
and west walls respectively were the
means of ingress and eGress. Two brooms
and sprnkling pot finished the inyen-
tory of the furniture, and by these means
the floor was kept in proper condition by
two boys who were detailed for that pur-
pose every day. The floor consisted of that
useful material known as mother earth,
and had acquired a good, hard, solid top
finish by previous pounding.
When / look to-day upon the first-class
appointments of our educational estab-
lishments, at our modern school buildings,
their furniture, appliances and conve-
niences which surround us everywhere,
Arizona not excepted. and then look back
wards over a space of only 81 years, see
ing again in my minds eye that dirt floor.
those two rows of uncOuth, Imprinted and
unvanislled desks and the many bare feet
Of the youngsters dangling from the
benches. then am forcibly reminded that
verify "The mighty oaks from the little
acorns grow
Mr.. Scott delivered to ne a number of
school books with the injunction to sell
them to the pupils at the original whole
sale cost. of which he gave me price
list, and to supply them free of cost to
children of INDECENT parents. OF all these
transactions / was required to make
monthly statement to the Board of Trus-
tees. 4 a
Being thus fully equipped, we lost no
time in opening the school, and within one
week of my arrival. all parents and guar
dams of boys having been duly notified,
the school doors were thrown open for their
admission. This, was on the second Mon
day of April, 1871.
A TUCSON SCHOOL IN 1871.
On the first day nearly 100 boys were
enrolled and on the closing of the lists on
the third day the names enrolled numbered
1873.
OF ali these boys, of whom few
showed already forthcoming beard,
while others could barely manage to climb
upon the benches, not one could express
himself intelligently in the English Ian
guage, although many of them possessed
quite a variegated vocabulary of bad Eng
lish words; about five or six understood
sufficient English to know what to do
when asked to perform common house
hold duty, as, for instance, to sweep the
floor, TO fetch water, ETC., and could, per-
haps, in "a sort of way" make themselves
understood in that language, when speak
ing of the most common things of every
day life. About 20 boys, ranging in age
from Is to 16 years, were in attendance,
who had been to school in Mexico or had
received private lessons in Spanish; some
of these possessed sufficient knowledge
in arithmetic to make a long division. Of
fractions none knew anything.
No little difficulty was encountered in
trying to ascertain the correct age of these
boys as their names were entered upon
the school lists; for although they almost
Invariably knew where they were born,
they had very limited knowledge as to
the when. 1t soon became evident that
the most familiar landmark Gf l may use
the expression in this connecticut in their
parents memory for the reckoning of time
was eel tempo del colera" in Sonora.
From that terrible period QS52), when the
population of Sonora was reduced about
one-haf by the cholera, they seemed to
reckon their births and deaths, speaking
of it as historian would of the French
Revolution or any other conspicuous his
torical event.
Another period which seemed to form
the basis of their later reckonings was
"the revolution Of Pesquecira." This was
an exceedingly uncertain event to reckon
by, unless some one could give the infor-
mation which of the % revolutions was
meant that took place during the COVER
norship of Ygnacio Pesguecira, which last
ed Is years
/ am afraid Of occupying too much
space and exhausting the patience of
those of my readers who are not specially
interested in educational matters if l enter
unto details describing the manner in which
] classified and taught this perfect chaos
nf boys, whose minds, intellects, former
training, or, for the greater part, absence
of all training, offered about as great a
variety of intellectual qualifications as
their complexion did of colors.
To attempt to speak English to them
and urged by member of the School
Trustees, and to teach them arithmetic
and geography in English before they
could understand a single word of tina,
language, would have been futile under
taking involving an absolute loss of much
valuable time. / therefore explained
everything in Spanish, the boys mother
tongue, so that every sentence that was
translated or read or spoken in English
was Immediately conveyed TO their intel
lect in q comprehensive manner TIT
school was taught from a. m. to - m
and from ] p. m. to 4 p. M, the littl,
toddlers being let out at 3 p. m. Thes,