The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1915-12-02
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!. BY AUTO TO THE PA
i CIFIC COAST.
(By R. NJ. Dorsey

A sreat city such as st. Louis has
many spectacles of misery and suf-
I fering. Some of these we beheld in
the wards of the Barnes Hospital
and at the st. Louis Children's Hos
/ pital. 1t seems that there is a great
! deal more of wretchedness in large
city than in the country, which there
/ is NO doubt, though one of the hos
pital physicians contended with me
there is just as much in the coun-
| try, hut 7 asked him whether there
! were not more risks in a great city
than in the country. which he re-
luctuantly admitted, and then
asked him whether the unfit were
not more ruthlessly pushed aside in
the city than in the country and he
, said he supposed he would have to
,, say they were, but said he, "You
have a better opportunity to see the
monstrous instances in the great
city than in the country" So we
separated with sort of compro-
mise in our argument,
AS remarked in my last letter
we were very much interested in all
matters pertaining to education and
took ereat pleasure in informing
ourselves concerning the schools Of
st. Louis, which we were given to
understand are in the very front
rank among American schools We
could we'll believe this when we saw
the MAGNIFICENT buildings in which
children are given opportunity for
education. Such excellent buildings
as the w. T. Harris High School and
the Louis Sedan Hi?h School COM
morate the services of great educa-
tors formerly at the head of edu-
cational affairs in st. Louis
w. T. Harris, though born in
Connecticut went to St. Louis in an
early Jay anu III lo'' DeSdu tSdCh-
ing in the St. Louis schools, in 1867
he became superintendent of schools,
which position he held until 1888.
In 1889 he was appointed United
States Commissioner of Education,
an appointment which he held for
nearly seventeen years. While
United States Commissioner he for
mulated a cogent statement of the
place and function of education in
American life and won high recog-
milton both at home and abroad.
Tho St. Louis school system is
notable in at least three particulars,
first, the place Of the public library,
which the city supports as part
Of the system of public education;
. second, in furnishing free books to
all pupils, third, in the importance
given to manual training, which it
has taken up in working out the
educational theories and practice of
/ Frocbel, work which w. T. Harris
introduced.
St. Louis lays claim to being one
of tbs. best supplied cities in the
world as regards public Libraries
and private. All visitors should see
| the St. Louis Public Library, Olive
and Fourteenth streets, and the
Mercantile Library, Broadway and
Locust street The Mercantile Lib
rary has more books relating to the
country west of the Mississippi than
any other library in the world. 1t
also possesses number of Indian
tudies. by Catlin, series of paint
ings, and number of canvases por-
traying life in the West in an early
day, by a painter whose name I have
forgotten.
i, There are several works of art in
st, Louis which the tourist should
not fail to see, some of these are
the frescoes of Wimar OF 1.-THE Dis
covery Of the Mississippi by De