SOCIETY OF CENTRAL ILLINOIS. 303 



kinds, including; oreoorraphical, historical and orranimatical: orj-ade 

 schedules and cards; "globes, cubes and other aj)j)liances for mathe- 

 matical demonstration, liesides these, in many of our schools are 

 found quite complete apparatus for the illustration of natural phil- 

 osophy, phvsiolof^y :^nd botany; and last, but not least, the (grounds 

 about the school houses have been neatly laid out and j)lanted with 

 trees, shrubs and flowers. This state of things occurs more frequently 

 in our city than in our country schools. What, in the days of our 

 forefathers, would have been declared an unwarranted and needless 

 expenditure of the school fund, we of to-day consider not only fully 

 warranted and needed by the exiofencies of the present, but absolutely 

 required for the hiojhest and most perfect development of the young. 

 In the lonij a<;o. when most of the country school houses were made 

 of loojs. with only two or three small windows and ))uncheon floors 

 and slab desks; when the appearance, both inside and out, was somber 

 and ])rison-like, when the principal school furniture were the dunce 

 l)lock, fool's cap and ferule, and the teacher was |)aid from i?8 to ^13 

 per month, and compelled to board 'round in order to eke out an ex- 

 istence, these seemed sufficient and about all that was required to 

 meet the demands of the times. In comparinj^ the schools of the 

 present with those of the jiast. we cannot avoid the conclusion that 

 <^reat advancement ha'^ been nuide. While from the old system of 

 schools and teaching a number of pupils were annually sent out, 

 qualified and equipped to take their proper ])lace in their individual 

 communities and wield good and lasting influence in the affairs of 

 the state and nation, the number was small and their knowledge and 

 influence weak and circumscribed compared with the number and 

 general character of the pupils annually sent out from our schools 

 of the present. These and other facts lead us to believe that our 

 school system of the present is in advance of that of the past. The 

 tendency to decorate and beautify school property first received its 

 greatest impetus in the larger cities, very little attention being paid 

 in this regard to country school property, and even now the excess 

 of ornamentation is always found in the city rather than the country. 

 This should not be. ^Vhat has been found desirable for the cities in 

 this respect cannot and should not be found undesirable for the 

 country. 



If the proper furnishing and ornamentation of city school houses 

 and grounds has been found to aid in giving a more thorough, gen- 

 eral and symmetrical develojiment to the j>u]iils. there is no reason 

 why the c(juntry schools should not procure the same aids and reaj) 

 the same benefits so far as their means and circumstances will per- 

 mit. I will venture the assertion that where two average adjacent 

 country school districts enter into comjietition as to the grade of 

 their schools, the interest, develo[)ment, attendance and scholarship 

 of their pupils, the one paying proper attention and regard to the 

 beautifying of its house and grounds, and the other disregarding this 



