The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1912-01-16

70 NAV at all when we first tooh
nossess;on of the island. The spanish
80 ~ the past rather looked GOWN on
atb1otica To-day he is as crazy w.
$500, as his little American prot'o
IL belongs to his football team anu
Ne aniovs watching the grown OIL ms
n;cens We now have athietlc iliee.s'
al which the companies from tns ~
earont schools take part. We had one
i 81 laar IN which more than 200 con-
tastod They came from many oI-
faran+ towns and their recOrOS Weie
creditable. .a~.r
I'VE are now establishing scnooi
| Fairgrounds everywhere. Moie ha nc.
$4,000 have been invested in Inelf
EQUIPMENT, and the day Will collle
when every island school VIII Ha'e
its gymnastic machinery.
timed DR.. Dexter. 1.-The Porto XII
cans are naturally musical, n nearly
every school has it's band. Atthe atn-
letic meets these bands contest as 10
which can play the best, and the oah-
ner is given to the one making eho
best showing. At the last
twenty-one school bands contested.
Among h instrument players wore
children only eight years BIC
.How were your Fairgrounds estab-
q IIo" WA 1870
lished?"
They are comparatively a new
thing on the island. We had only one
in 1909. but at hat time DR.. Henry
s. Curtis, secretary Of the American
Fairgrounds Associations, came 10
Porto Rico and lectured on the play
grounds Of the world, and especially
Of the United States. That started
the movement and the towns took II
up. In certain cases private lndlVld-
uals granted land, and in others the
grounds were bought by the schoo
boards. In some towns the Sehoo
children gave entertainments to obtalI
the money to buy the apparatus, ane
now tens of thousands Of school chill
Oren are exercising Stneif muscles q
never before
"What kind Of apparatus do the.
use?"
much the same as hat Of tn
United States. The San Juan play
grounds are equipped with kindergar
ten tents, giant strides, swings, see
saws, rope ladders and jumping stand
ards. They. AVE climbing ropes
climbing poles and climbing spars
They have bean bags, quoits and base
ball outfits. In the smaller towns tn
equipment is much less and some
times it is limited only to a baseba
outfit. Baseball is the most popula
game in Porto Rico, n every schoC
c has its club"
K School Savings Banks.
i. Il understand hat you nave schoe
- savings banks?"
Yes, we AVE q regular h
banking system with more than min
thousand depositors. They now hay
eight or ten thousand dollars Of say
10 ings in such banks. the averag
l. amount being less than a dollar. TT
10 child can deposit as little as one Gel
le at q time. The teacher gives a car
or slip on which a record Is mad
re and when the child has as much as :
l. he can transfer his account to one
the savings banks Of the island. ]
j. these school banks the supervisor T,
ceiyes each week the deposits made
70 the children through the teacher
c s the custom is teaching economy a1
er thrift"
"Have these banks anything to
:. with the Postoffice Department."
- "No. They were first organize
about two years ago some time befo
,Ia our postal savings banks were begu
an Already about seven hundred of Il
~; children depositors have started int
vidual accounts in the national or ci
banks of the towns in which they Liz
al AS it is now. on the average, after ty
10 years only, we have about one oh
in every eighteen who is carrying
,h"a account in the school savings banl
This means much for the future
~ Porto Rico"
IRE A Good Place for Spare Books.
to The conversation here turned to t
ger subject Of school libraries, and
Dexter told me hat the governme
ay- Is anxious to increase this education
feature, and that arrangements ha
ties been made with the steamship CONN
OF MES to carry free from New York
ATT San Juan and books that may be d
mated. Said he:
tial Il brought up the subject at t
peace conference at Mohonk Iact we
ese and asked for donations since ~
ou- we have received 40 200 volumes a
have established 246 libraries !
IS. have also travelling libraries. cons,
a: ing OF boxes holding about fifty boo
each. These boxes are made OF a
ant or soldiers kits that were sold at a,
oot 'on at San Juan a couple Of We,