N. S. D. A. R. Official Emblem-Recognition Pin

Send one dollar, check or postal note, with name of member to Mrs. Ellenore Dutcher Key, Memorial Continental Hall, 17th and D Sts., Washington, D. C.

Permit issued by Registrar General and Pin sent by Mail. National Number engraved FREE.

Antiquarian Examiner and Historical Collaborator

WEST SOMERVILLE, BOSTON, MASS.

Boston Libraries and New England Archives intelligently consulted. Puritan Family, Social, Economic, Military and Religious Life familiarly treated. Literary, Historical and Genealogical Difficult Questions a specialty. Briefs for English Research Prepared. Life Member New England Historic-Genealogical Society, 1878. State your case and write for a proposition.

We are makers of excellent Cuts and
Iffustrations.

The MAURICE JOYCE ENGRAVING CO.

sy

VOL. XXXVII. WASHINGTON, D. C., OCTOBER, 1910. No. 4.

PUBLIC LECTURES IN SCHOOL BUILDINGS

Taken from the report of Clarence Arthur Perry In Charge of the School Plant Utilization Inquiry of the Russell Sage Foundation.

One winter evening, while walking in the outskirts of Cleveland, I stopped in front of a public school house. The gate was wide open, and from the windows came shafts of hospitable light. A stream of people, plainly clad but eager and expectant, were entering at the front door.

Now the picture I had in mind of a school house in the evening was that of a dark gloomy building, with deep black spaces for windows, walled in by a high fence and an impregnable gate. I joined the ingoing procession. In the lobby nobody sold or demanded tickets, but in the hands of a workman in front of me I caught a glimpse of a card on which was printed, "To Parents. You are invited . .'. His manner was hesitant and uneasy, but, as he entered the attractive assembly-room and the luxury of its niched statues and tropical plants reached his senses, I saw him straighten up and his honest face assumed the look of a strange new proprietorship. This noble building and its contents were his own. He was not an outsider here. His credentials were in his hand, but he quickly jammed them into his pocket when a boy stepped forward with "Come this way, father. I'll show you a seat." Then his face beamed.

The people who sat near me nodded constantly to friends in the vicinity. A few very small children were evidently with their parents. Now and then one of the class of white gowned girls would come down and whisper to a matronly woman,

who would perhaps covertly hand her a handkerchief or shake her head for a decisive "No!" Presently one of the ladies on the platform rose and stood by the speaker's desk. A hush came over the audience. "She's the president of our club," a woman near me whispered. The presiding officer expressed her pleasure at the large number who had come and hoped that they would tell their friends of the succeeding entertainments. One week from that night they were to hear a lecture on the "Spirit of Our National Holidays," illustrated by stereopticon views, by Mrs. Elroy M. Avery, who would appear before them under the auspices of the Western Reserve Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Before listening to the speaker of the evening, they were to have music by pupils of the eighth grade.

The white gowned class then filed upon the platform and sang a lullaby with such success that they were obliged to respond to an encore. Then a boy's chorus contributed an enjoyable song, and the musical part of the program was completed. The presiding officer announced that it was the extraordinary good fortune of the audience to have with them that evening a clergyman who . . . . Immediately I spotted him on the platform. What, a Protestant! There was no mistaking his cloth. I looked around the audience, which was denominationally mixed in a way only possible in a city with a large immigrant population. Did such use of public buildings "go" in Cleveland? Then I caught the title of his address, "Give the Boy Another Chance." My fears began to recede and before he had finished his plea the audience gave a demonstration of the fact that such things did "go" with them.

The audience took a long time to disperse. The little groups into which it first broke had a great deal to talk and laugh about. Then they dissolved and formed other combinations which likewise laughed and talked. Here and there were teachers, to whom a succession of pupils were bringing their fathers and mothers. Up in front the clergyman who had spoken was receiving the patronesses and their husbands. Reluctantly the people gave way to the janitor waiting to close up.

Upon inquiry I ascertained that lectures and entertainments