Evening star., 1924-01-06

washington fifty years ago was de
: veloping into az.
Pr1vate Schools educational cen
in the District ter. as shown b.
IA .ne oiSlllct. the followjn.
printed in The Star of December 80.
1873:
Statistics of institutions for in
struction outside of public schools in
the District of Columbia. collected bl
the bureau of education during the
present month. show that there has
been an increase in the aggregate at
tendance of those institutions, not
withstanding the heavy increase in
the attendance Of the public schools
during the year. The number OF prl-
vate schools. academies, etc. not.
however, including colleges and uni
versities in Washington. is il6, with
an aggregate attendance of e.02a
showing an increase of about fifteen
schools over last year and an in
creased attendance of about 500. of
these schools, twenty. with an at
tendance of 2.S63. are conducted uri-
der Roman Catholic auspices; there
are eighteen colored night schools, =
large increase over last year. with al
aggregate attendance of Sss and four
colored day schools with an attend
ance of 109- There are in the city
of Washington twenty-three institu-
tions for secondary instruction, such
as seminaries, academies. etc, with
a total attendance of 1,142. It is
proper to explain that probably a ma
Jorlty OF the pupils attending sec
ondary institutions study only the
primary or common English branches
There are twenty-one private
schools. including six secondary, IN
Georgetown, with an aggregate at
tendance of S94. There are three col
ored night schools with a total at
with Al pupils and four Roman Cath
olic schools with an aggregate at
| tendance of Al.
There are twenty-five institutions
In the District of a charitable or re-
formatory character with 2,4S7 in
mates. Combining the aggregate at
! tendance of Washington and George
town private schools we have in
| round numbers 1000. Add to this
the number of inmates of charitable
and reformatory institutions who re-
celve instruction, and the total mum
! Der of students attending colleges
universities, business colleges, etc
and an aggregate of over 5000 pupils
under instruction outside of public
! schools is obtained.
THE fact that notwithstanding the
| increased attendance of the public
schools during the year the attend
ance of private schools has also in
creased during the same period can
be accounted for only on the suppo-
sition that our population is RAPIDLY
| increasing and that our educationaI
, facilities are expanding with our
growth.
y x
Not much is heard nowadays of
lamp explosions. partly because OF
the rarity of lamp il
| "Coal.Oil" Elimination, but also
because of the better
grade of kerosene In
use. But fifty years ago oil lamps
were the prevailing means of domes-
tic and business lighting. The fol-
lowing in The Star of January 3,
1874, bears on the point of the re-
sultant danger:
THE frequency of coal oil accidents
has induced the underwriters, repre-
senting the presidents and agents of
various fire insurance companies To-
Gated in Baltimore, TO hold meeting
in that city to consider the expedi-
ency of obtaining municipal legisla-
tion against the storage and sale of
explosive illuminating fluids within
the corporate limits of the city. All
this meeting a letter was read from
Fire Inspector Holloway. in which he.
stated that in a report which he made
in 1869 1t was set forth that out of
sixty-nine samples of oil collected
from various parts of the city only
eight stood the tests for purity and
non liability to explosion, and that
since that time the sale of adulter-
F, ated oils has increased tenfold and
accidents FROM their use have in
creased 500 per cent The meeting
| appointed committee to obtain Leg
islation on the subject. The presi-
dent of the meeting said he would
rather a house full of gunpowder
than a house containing illuminating
| oil, for In the first, no person would
presumptuous and handled frs reck-
lessly."