5 I 8 HIST OR Y OF C OH ASSET. 



citizens was frequently exhibited when they would point 

 out the beautiful building to strangers as " Town's Folly " ; 

 but its success has been so much more than its friends an- 

 ticipated that instead of being empty, it is so crowded that 

 an enlargement of it or an additional building upon the 

 same lot must be undertaken. 



The children who grow up under its advantages need no 

 words of apology to justify to their minds the existence of 

 the Osgood School. People who look upon the event from 

 the outside wonder why so much opposition should have 

 come from men whose taxes are so insignificant and whose 

 children receive so many obvious advantages from the 

 school. The trouble was mainly that it was a step so far 

 in advance of the times ; but now that several more towns 

 of the State have adopted the same system its value seems 

 more readily confessed. The expense of conveying pupils 

 is large ; but some conveying to the high school had been 

 done before the Osgood School was established, so that the 

 principle of the work had only to be extended. 



Provincialism is now being abolished by bringing all 

 sections of the town together under a variety of instruc- 

 tion, so that it is no longer possible to tell in what part of 

 the town any children live by the peculiarity of their 

 speech. The advantages of this sort, which really vindi- 

 cate the town's expenditure, would not have been a potent 

 argument in appealing at first for a school ; but steadily 

 the work of improved instruction is being wrought into 

 the fiber of the community, and the day will come when 

 those who labored under great abuse without compensa- 

 tion to advance our public schools shall receive their well- 

 deserved praise. 



Next to the schools as an educator should be mentioned 

 the town library. 



This institution had for its forerunner two semi-public 

 libraries, the Social Library and the Washington Library. 

 The Washington Library was legally organized in the year 



