Evening star., 1951-09-16
Public School Choruses
Troinine Choral Groups for Patriotic Appearance:
Once important Port of EurIy Schoowork Here
By John cIoeett Proctor

the Avenue out of sight, carrying his
rider sitting firmly in the saddle, but
bent forward, with his long and pro-
fuse Saxon locks streaming back in
the wind, while the school children
looked on in amazement and deep
concern. Their anxiety was soon re-
ljeved. however, by the welcome news
that the horse did not get away from
his rider, and then came the pleasant
surmise that the runaway was only
ruse to compliment the school
children with a little exhibition of
his horsemanship.
For six hours during the march,
without sign of WEAKNESS, the boys
and girls presented their floral Of
feringS, waved their flags, rent the
air with cheers, and at intervals a
grand chorus of $500 voices. under
the lead OF Director Daniel, sang The
Star Spangled Banner Battle Cry
OF Freedom When Johnny Comes
Marching Home Victory at Last
and other patriotic songs and hymns,
all of which were most gratefully re-
ceived and heartily acknowledged by
officers and soldiers. From all sides
the highest praises were showered
upon that great chorus of school chill
dren, and the sight of those grand
Armies, with their bronZed faces.
soiled uniforms and tattered flags,
was to them an object lesson in
patriotism never to forgotten.
School Concerts
In this connection am reminded
that during the period of which
am writing the singing of the school
children was so highly appreciated
by the public that concerts, with
programs made for the most part of
selections from their course of study
in music, so as not to interfere with
their regular school work, were given
always to crowded houses The pro-
ceeds Of these concerts in the days
Of limited school appropriations were
indispensable in supplying many
things not otherwise provided for.
All the pianos and other musical in
Struments, most of the important
reference books, all the expenses in
cident to the various school exhibits
made from time to time at home
and abroad, and other things greatly
needed were paid for in this way.
A safe estimate of the total amount
received from concerts and applied
to the purposes mentioned would be
at least $4,000"
Compared to the present, the pub
lie school system, in 1856, when Mr..
noninl fret hnaop
indeed very small affair, and then,
in May 1865, there were but 27
schools, 81 teachers and about 2,065
scholars. OF course it grew greatly
in the Al years of his service, and
any one of the big modern buildings
of today would be worth more than
all the Districts school property
when he began to teach. But every
thing in Washington has grown in
proportion, for that matter, and we
are getting bigger all the time, and
If We just had some say in what
should become of our tax money we
no doubt would be a happier and a
more contented people.
Old Time SchooIrooms
The following description of an old
time school given at the dedication
of the Wallach School Building back
in 1864, is interesting in the light of
our present fine public school system.
"Hip-roofed and leaky and looking
for all the world as if it might have
been the stranded pilothouse of the
Ark, washed off in a storm, through
uhncn o0iYan
to take his nightly observation of
the stars. The few remaining clap
boards which the boys, making fire
) in turns, had left upon its sides.
clattered in the wind and the empty
woodShed. stripped to its ribs and
sacred to neatnesS' under whose
dripping caves the Sled-length wood
pile, green from the forest, resounded
with the sturdy blows of the stu
dents AK, mingling the clatter of
the chopper with the voices of the
schoolroom, served to suggest to the
passerby the assiduous care with
which the fathers of the Republic
guarded the health and the morals
of the rising generation. The capa-
ciouS fireplace received upon the
broad arms of its lofty andirons,
often supplanted by bricks, the mas
sive fore-log and backlog with an
intervening woodpile that would
have answered for the funeral pyre
of a Homreic hero. The picture
forms, whitfield into mill privileges
and grotesque images, ascending
from the center backward, like the
seats in the Coliseum, left an arena
in the center where the students as
sembled.