The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-12

over1owlng, hence there are at least 800 white children in Florence who If they l wished to go to school, could not find seat or a roof to cover their heads.
 9 Teachers. I will only mention to you again the 800 children we have in Florence without teacher. You know how many are needed here.
 B. Play grounds, A healthy child must play and it is healthier for 1t and the school house if they play out of doors.
 Our state law says that agriculture must be taught in every public school in the state. My friends, you know and 1 know that agriculture cannot be success fully taught in the woods nor upon the public roads.
 f. Furniture. The school children of Florence have desks. Is not your chllu good enough to have one? Did l say all the white children of Florence have desks? If I did please excuse me, men5 toned before that we have 800 that have absolutely nothing.
 B. Apparatus for heating, ventilation and fuel. There must be a stove and hue for ventilation to keep the children warm and free from poisoned air during cold weather There has been trouble enough in this beat about getting wood for the school house. so that I know that everybody wants 1t compulsory. | 6. School desks, tablets, slates, pencils. 1 It is useless to send your children to school without them unless you want the teacher to whistle and give them dancing I lessons.
 '. Clothes. No boy can study when his back is cold, nor little girl when her feet are wet.
 1 8. Food Bread and meat; the staff of 1 life. Remember when you have been hungry, how all that you could study about was that you were hungry We l .1l nAxy wi admit the necessity for houses, teachers, desks, stoves and books so 1 shall con- l fine the remainder of my address to food ]. and clothing. Are there white children in this county that do not have good cloth l ing and good food? You know and l know that there are great many of them and that we only have a right to favor compulsory education when we fa- vor warm backs and full stomachs,
 Now, it will be well to suggest some l methods by which neat and comfortable | clothing Is to be had. The first proposi- tion I lay down is that 1t must be uni form for boys and girls, just the same for everybody, rich and poor. I have my | opinion as to what the cloth and the color should be for both boys and girls. Confederate grey for the boys and navy | blue for the girls. Why navy blue for the girls? Because it is pretty and we must have everything to match. Why the grey for the boys? First, because there Is no better cloth on earth, and, by no means last, because it has been made sacred by the blood of our fathers and hallowed by the tears of our mothers. The county will furnish everv child its uniform free just as it pay for teach CTS, and every child will be furnished a suit of clothes of the best goods and
 of the best make absolutely free of charge the first day 1t goes to school.
 fhn nf 1ft,ar Tho, obi
 dren once day-that Is dinner time. At present we have law compelling every child to study agriculture, even the girls.
 Well, l think this is right and I also
 think that the boys should be taught cooking and sewing. In every school there shall be a first grade teacher whose busi-
 ness it is to teach cooking and sewing
 She shall have charge of the cooking in
 the morning and teach her sewing classes
 in the evening. Every day she will be
 furnished a detail of boys and girls to
 cook the dinner, just like they detail a
 mess squad among soldiers. This detail
 will gather vegetamles from the school garden, prepare them for cooking and
 with the aid of the grocery supplies, of which there shall be a good supply of the best, prepare first class dinner The result will be every school child in the county, old and young, rich and poor, will every day sit down at nice table with white cloth and enjoy a square meal of the very best the land affords | Give child a chance at all It's wants of the best once day and 1t will make out the balance of the day somehow and | be pretty comfortable in the waist band, and thank God under 1t. To illustrate to you the pitiful need of what I am urging upon you I will tell you of two school in- cidents that l happen to know. Living | upon Mobile street in Florence there is | a nd a week driving a wagon. She has two children, a girl and a boy. Only the girl | Is old enough to go to school and she was sent the first day the school opened, feel ing as fine as a fiddle with a pretty blue sunbonnet on her head. When she came | back home that evening instead of the pretty blue sunbonnet of the morning, her head was covered with worn rusty | straw hat. Her mother said to her. | Why Gladys are you not ashamed of yourself to take the pretty bonnet that l worked so hard to make and swap 1t off for an old straw hat that aint fit for a nigger to wear
 | The little girl said she did not swap it off but gave 1t to a little girl named Annie that she felt sorry for that she just had to give 1t to her. The history | of the bonnet and hat told by the lit tie girl was about this: At big recess | when we all came out of doors to play, l l heard lltlle BlTl crying ana when 1 I ran to see what was the matter I found | a lot of mean little girls was pulling at | her hat and was calling her old fodder stack and when they did I just sailed into them"
 | I do not know what she did when she just sailed into them," but God knows l | hope it was plenty. This blessed moth | CT took her child into her arms and hugged her tight, telling her she was just 1 as proud of her as she could be. and l that she would make her a new bonnet and a prettier one If she had to sit up all night to do 1t. I speak to you moth- CTS, now because you understand heart l talk the best. How much did the little fodder stack girl suffer? Poor but proud | God bless her. The body suffer when | we are sick. but the heart can ache when | we are well, and you know and I know | that little innocent heart ached almost to bursting. May God pity the little fod-