Some Stray Thoughts on Our People. 93 



Speaking in public on one occasion Charles Dickens said " Mere 

 reading and writing is not education, it would be quite as reasonable to 

 call bricks and mortar architecture." 



And so we have it : the ill-conditioned home, too often the scene of 

 senseless rows, generally a mass of confusion, no gentleness, no refine- 

 ment, little honesty, often enough a number of people herded together 

 that makes even simple decency impossible. No kitchen — a savage 

 scramble for meals, ill-prepared, and worse yet, no bathrooms. 



In New Amsterdam recently the writer noticed that a man was put 

 before the Magistrate for wasting the Corporation's water by bathing 

 under one of the standpipes. And yet, mark you, there is not a single 

 public bathhouse in the whole of the town, and the ordinary rooms 

 occupied by the majority of the people do not possess anything even pre- 

 tending to be a bathroom. Our people are wonderfully clean when one 

 considers the grave difficulty presented in getting an ordinary daily wash 



From the home to the school — what sympathy do they get 

 at school ? Often the tiny mites are dazed with want of good 

 food, the ready lash makes them still more dazed ; a monotonous 

 gramophone method of shrill sing-song that is enough to prevent 

 the smartest man from concentrating correctly the brains his God has 

 given him. There is no such thing practised as games, the physical con- 

 dition of the children is a matter of no importance at all. 



Look at one of our large primary schools pouring out its children, 

 watch their behaviour, note their language and gestures, observe the dis- 

 gusting bullying, 6ee their ideas of fair play, look at their efforts at so- 

 called games. All confusion, and disorderly rabble, a disgrace to the 

 teachers and still more to the school-manager. 



Can the Church dare to pride itself on its schools ? 



Is the Church satisfied with her progress ? 



Are we building up men ? Do we know anything about the affections 

 and temper of our young men and women, our boys and girls ? Do we 

 know how this balata-bleeder, that young clerk, that sturdy young porter 

 treats his wife, his mother ? Are his relations with his neighbours 

 what you would expect in a young and healthy man ? Is there any 

 attempt at fashioning what Locke called a " whole, sound, round-about 

 man ?" 



We know right well that we are making a mess of things, though we 

 may not confess it even to ourselves. 



Ask those whose opinion is worth having what the rising generation 

 gives promise of, and see if the answer is such as to leave us satisfied 

 with the progress we are making. 



