IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICA. 



3i3 



cubical feet of internal space " for each child in 

 average attendance, is far from being liberal ; but 

 the regulations of the New York board, as far as 

 the younger children are concerned, are less lib- 

 eral still. In the three lower classes of primary 

 schools and departments the allowance is five 

 square feet and seventy cubic feet for each child ; 

 in the three higher grades six square feet and 

 eighty cubic feet. In the grammar-schools the 

 regulations are more generous ; there must be in 

 the four lower grades seven square feet and nine- 

 ty cubic feet for each child ; in the four higher 

 grades nine square feet and one hundred cubic 

 feet. 1 If the space were calculated on the aver- 

 age attendance as in England — a most absurd and 

 pernicious principle — the New York regulations 

 would be intolerable ; but as it is calculated on 

 the number of pupils on the register in each class, 

 the absentees afford those who are present a wel- 

 come relief. But it was quite clear to me that 

 the limit fixed by the regulation is not rigidly ob- 

 served. Some of the class-rooms were so crowded 

 that I wondered how it was possible for the work 

 to be done. 



The Normal School for Girls in Philadelphia, 

 and the Normal College in New York, are fine 

 buildings, and must have cost a large amount 

 of money. These institutions are the special 

 pride of the educational authorities in both cities. 

 In Philadelphia the chairman and the secretary of 

 the board were particularly anxious that I should 

 be present at the " opening exercises," which 

 commence, if I remember aright, at nine o'clock 

 in the morning. When we reached the school 

 I was first taken into a very handsome private 

 room, and introduced to the principal, Mr. George 

 W. Fetter, who, in addition to discharging his 

 duties as principal, lectures on mental science. 

 After a few minutes' conversation, we went up- 

 stairs into the " audience-chamber," which oc- 

 cupies about half of the second floor, and is a 

 large hall, rather more than one hundred feet in 

 length, and nearly seventy feet in breadth, with 

 a gallery on one side and a platform opposite to 

 it, fifty-four feet by fifteen. On the platform there 

 were twenty or thirty visitors, including several 

 members of the Board of Education. The body 

 of the hall was occupied by young ladies, whose 

 ages appeared to va/y from eighteen to thirty. 

 Every young lady had a separate desk of black- 

 walnut, prettily mounted with fittings which 

 might have been silver, but which I believe were 



1 "Manual of the New York Board of Education," 

 p. 135. 



nickel. In the gallery were the children of the 

 training-school, with a strong staff of teachers. 

 The lady students number about nine hundred, 

 and the children in the training-school about 

 three hundred. Mr. Fetter read a few verses from 

 the New Testament, and then announced a hymn, 

 and I noticed that the hymn was extremely col- 

 orless in its theology. This was followed by a 

 prayer offered by a clergyman who happened to 

 be present. Then the young ladies were invited 

 to come to the platform and " declaim." Three 

 volunteers responded to the invitation. Two of 

 them did their work -very moderately, the third 

 most admirably. For the information and warn- 

 ing of English travelers in America, I must tell 

 what followed: When the declamations were 

 over, the principal delivered a very brief address 

 to the students, to which I listened with interest 

 until there came an alarming sentence about the 

 school being " honored that morning with the 

 presence of a distinguished stranger from Eng- 

 land," and, before I had time to recover from 

 the shock, I was called upon to make a speech. 

 This was the first occasion on which I fell a 

 victim to the remarkable American superstition 

 that every wandering Englishman is capable, at 

 a moment's notice, of getting on to bis feet and 

 addressing any audience on any subject. I could 

 not plead that I was " altogether unaccustomed 

 to public speaking," but I confess that it required 

 more nerve to address these nine hundred young 

 ladies, looking at me with keen eyes over their 

 dainty-looking desks, than to stand up in the 

 Birmingham Town-Hall and to face fifteen hun- 

 dred or two thousand excited Conservatives, 

 shouting themselves hoarse on behalf of the pol- 

 icy of Lord Beaconsfield's government. How 

 many times during the remaining weeks of my 

 American visit I heard the ominous formula about 

 the " distinguished stranger " I am afraid to es- 

 timate. Fortunately, I avoided prisons and lu- 

 natic asylums, or else I suppose that it would 

 have been my fate to find suitable words to ad- 

 dress to convicts and mad people. 



The " opening exercises " at the New York 

 Normal College were rather different. In the 

 great hall we found twelve hundred young la- 

 dies and seven hundred children belonging to the 

 training-school : the long, narrow platform was 

 crowded. A few, words of Scripture were read 

 by Mr. Hunter, who, like the principal at Phila- 

 delphia, is also Professor of Mental Science. Then 

 came a hymn, or what Dr. Watts would call " a 

 moral song," but I think there was no prayer. 

 The young ladies were asked for " declamations ; " 



