44 Environment and Efficiency 



I stayed for several weeks in the neighbourhood of this 

 school, and one often met these boys in the town and bought 

 flowers from them (the produce of their own garden) at the 

 door. 



They are very popular in the neighbourhood, and people 

 one knew would sometimes say : " Oh ! whenever we want 

 a boy we get one from the Industrial School, they are so smart 

 and thorough about their work." 



When I went to the Industrial School No. I the door was 

 locked, and on the other side sat a small boy knitting. Before 

 I left, this boy hastened to tell the superintendent, who either 

 came and let me out himself or gave the boy the key. I went 

 only twice, and I do not know whether I saw a different boy 

 on each occasion or not. The impression I got was of a very 

 subdued, almost cowed, little boy. This may, of course, have 

 been the boy's natural attitude, and not the result of discipline 

 at all. 



I have mentioned that I have not gone into the question of 

 the administration of these schools at all, so that I do not 

 know in the least in what way No. I differed from No. 2 in 

 this respect. I simply give the general impressions received. 



No. I was a very splendid modern building, with a fine 

 entrance hall. The entrance to No. 2 was distinctly insig- 

 nificant, and the door opened on to a narrow stone passage ; 

 the whole place, moreover, was more or less at sixes and 

 sevens, owing to the building operations then in progress. 



It may be thought by a strict disciplinarian that the boy 

 who opened the door of school No. 2 ought not to have 

 whistled. One knows that such behaviour is prohibited for 

 instance during lesson hours. What I personally felt was 

 that to the boy who whistled the institution was a home ; to 

 the boy who looked subdued it had never been anything but 

 an institution. 



I had an opportunity of reading a great many letters from 

 old boys. One boy wrote at the time of the present coal 



