Pittsburgh Post-Gazette du lieu suivant : Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 22

"Tire PITTSBURGH GAZETTE TIMES, SUNDAY, JUNE 5. T92Tr" Early Public Schools of Pittsburgh By George Fleming FIFTH SECTION' PAGE TWO O'HARA SCHOOL AND TWO NOTED PRINCIPALS The Old Ninth Ward School, Later the O'Hara District Ward -Number Changed to Twelfth. The Division of the Original School District Many Noted Educators Mentioned Lists of Directors, Principals and jTeachers Henry G. Squires and William A. Proudfit, Principals With Long- Services The McCargo Brothers.

School Buildings in District Described. Into Two The Springfield District School in the attendance at the school this year owing principally to the opening of schools in the Howard district, affording accommodations to a number of scholars who had been allowed to attend the O'Hara School. Methods in Use. "Drawing was introduced into this school in September, 1869, and it has been pursued with the same thoroughness and regularity aa penmanship and the result is very gratifying. In five of the upper rooms the improvement was not only satisfactory, but it was general, while the lower rooms a smaller number made satisfactory progress.

History Back to Township Years. 9 passed onward and completed the building, trusting that the future A Mm, principal of the schools the MX. Albion district, the old Eighteenth Ward, where he remained until death in 1916. The many thousands of pupils he taught during his long career remembered him with rever URIXO the 20 years. 1848-1868, that the peninsular city of Pittsburgh had but nine wards, the outer ward to the eastward between the hill and the Allegheny River waa numbered the Ninth TJB II 1 1 and In the re-number- Ing after the annexation of the East End districts in 1868 was called the Twelfth, but with no change in the ward lines.

These were as follows: 4 Beginning at a point on' the Alle-r. cheny near Nineteenth street, thence up stream to Thirty-first street, thence to Penn avenue, to Thirtieth street, to Arch street at the top of the hill above the Penn- sylvania Railroad, now Arcena street, thence alone Arch to Gum street, now Manilla street, and thence in a straight line to the place ot beginning. This line bisected the old French spring works on Liberty street, its upper end on Twentieth street. i The territory covered by the above description when outside of the. city 1 was part of Pitt township, the last of which was annexed in 1868.

7 of the history of the school district, first known as the Ninth Ward, and later as the O'Hara sub- school district of the Twelfth Ward, will be given below in Mhe report made by Principal Squires to Superintendent Lackey in 1870. It is to be understood! that Pittsburgh as a whole comprised single school district with many sub-districts. The references to the Ninth Ward School, the old Twelfth Ward School and the O'Hara School are to the same district school. Principal Squires' Report. "Sir: In compliance with your cir cular letter I submit the following report of the O'Hara Public School "This district was admitted as the Ninth Ward of the city in December.

1846. Prior- to this it was a part of Pitt township, and a public school was held in a small house himself for his position and was most successful in directing the school until his death a few years after. In JS69. three years after Principal Squires, took charge, he was given almost an entirely new corps of teachers. That year those in the grammnr department were the two Misses Martin and Fannie Brooks; in the medium, or intermediate department, Anne M.

Jack. Sarah R. Hips-icy, Mary Hughes and BHla McFall, in the primary, Anne. B. Heckert, Junata' De Armit, Maggie V.

McCandless, Bella Scott, Kate M. Wolfe and Lucy De Armit. There was an interim without a principal from September 1S7T, to January 26. 1878," when Principal Squires, who had retired in June, 1877, returned and 'served out, the remainder of the school year. July 1, 1S7S, Principal Proudfit began his long service, Two Notable Principals.

Henry G. Squires, who was for 12 years principal of the O'Hara dis trict, was a native of Susquehanna county, in 1835. His first teaching in-this section was done in Pitt Township School No. 1, better known as the Minersville in the old building at Morgan street and Brackenridge avenue, in 1861. In 1863 he took charge of the schools, of the Fourth Ward of the former city of Allegheny, now our North Side, and from thers he went to the O'Hara School, or the Isinth Ward School, as it was known prior to 1868.

Mr. "Squires was in charge when the district was divided in 1870. In 1878 Principal Squires re turned to Minersville, where he re mained six years, retiring in 1883 when 'he in business, his line being hardware and buggies. For many years he resided in Walnut street, in the Shadyside section of Pittsburgh. William A.

Proudflt was a native of Allegheny City. He obtained his education in the public schools of that city and Pittsburgh, attending successively the Old Third Ward School on the North Side, the Eighth Ward, Pittsburgh (Forbes district), and the Old Fourth Ward North Side. Mr. Proudfit taught for several years in the State of Cali fornia and on his return to Pitts burgh taught one year in the old Central High School at Fulton street and Bedford avenue. His exceed ingly long service with the O'Hara School affords ample evidence of ap preciation and recognition of merit His demeanor was gentle and his kindliness of disposition marked.

He had the good will of all and kept in touch with the people of the dis trict. Citizens, directors and teachers- all worked with him harmoniously for the best interests of the school. It is conceded by old residents of the ward that Principal Proudfit might have remained in charge as long as he lived had not the politics of the ward changed with the nature of the population of the district. With the ascendancy of certain political leaders a score of years or more, every public position, especially if lucrative, was grist for the leaders' mills and school principals chairs were not exempt. In fact the job of conduct ing a city school was esteemed a particularly fat plum as many a principal learned.

As a result of changed political conditions in the district Mr. Proudfit failed re election, but soon after was elected 'Mt 111 n.t Smallman Streets. Upper left, William G. Squires. Building, in charge of Principal Cov ell in 1848, was three stories high.

with one room on the first or base ment two on the second and one on the third. Mr. Covell's assistants were his wife Jane A. Covell, and Mrs. Cornelia A.

W. Boyd 11 Kerr, who came after Mr. Covell, had for his assistants Misses S. Emily Wilson and Matilda Thompson. Prin cipal Covell taught but the single term, March to October, 184S.

In 184S, during Principal Kerr's second year, his assistants were Misses Mary Hill, Mary J. McCracken and Susan Price. Miss Hill, who had been a pupil of the school, married Principal Charles D. Whife, who conducted the school 1850-51. Principal White's assistants were Miss Susan Hunter and Misses Wilson and McCracken.

Robert McCargo taught music in the school at this time. John J. Wolcott remained in charge of the school from 1S51-1854, having succeeded Principal White. His successor was W. Whittier RedJick.

Among the teachers of 1851 were Mrs. Jane Cooper, Misses Martha Glass and Sarah A. McLean. The next year Misses Elizabeth Adelaide Bailsman and Julia McCandless are mentioned, and in 1853 Misses Man- Produfit and Emily Martin-. Miss Martin from 1833 to 1873.

Miss Proud-fit was the sister pf Principal William A. Proudfit. I ft 1855 Henrietta Martin and Margaret Craig were teachers, both continuing in the school for long terms. Schools CraJsJ. When the-Central' Board was formed in 1855 the city's schools were systematically and uniformly graded.

Miss Glass beca'me-the assistant principal this year undar Principal Red dick and Miss Kachel XeHass, a teacher in the grammar department. Misses Thompson and Emily Martin were assigned to the medium depart ment and Misses Craig, Henrietta Martin and Rebecca Noble to the primary department. Daniel Shryock was the music teacher. Miss Martha A. Brown was added to the teaching force in 1S56.

Principal Reddick opened the first night school in the district this year. The Rev. V. L. Conrad, who came after him, did not fill out his term and part of his term Miss Glass was in charge Miss Mary Matthews at this time became a teacher in the grammar department.

about one square east of the present O'Hara school house, and near the corner of Twenty-sixth and Small streets. -The" first Xinth Ward Board of School Directors entered upon the duties of their office in January, 184 7, and immediately purchased a lt 2 100 feet on the corner of Twenty-fifth and Smallman streets. where the school house of this dis- trict now stands. A house of four rooms was built, and in March, a public school was opened in 0 Snder the direction of L. T.

Covell, licipal. This building proved to not only too small, but quite in- Vure on account of the weakness fhe walls, and in 1855 several 2 additions to the size of the lot having been made, this house was taken down when the present build ing was erected. Before under taking this enterprise the directors weighed and discussed the present and prospective demands of the ward as fully as possible and then determined upon the erection of a 1 house of 10 rooms and an audience hall. Laboring faithfully and gratuitously for the public good, the would demonstrate the wisdom of their action, and their hopes have been fully realized; for after dividing and seating the hall, the school- house was not large enough to seat the ordinary attendance of scholars. This evil was partially remedied by renting and furnishing a room in the Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church.

This church is immediately op posite on Twenty-fifth street. "When the wards of the city were re-numbered in 1868, the Ninth be came the Twelfth, and in 1869 the Central Board, at the suggestion of the local board, named it the O'Hara sub-district, after Gen. James O'Hara, one of the original owners of the land of the ward. Growth and mprowincnft. "In January, 1870, the directors purchased two more lots of ground and prepared for enlarging' the building so as to provide 18 well- lighted, well-ventilated and con venient school rooms, together with a large audience hall.

About this time, however, a number of citizens petitioned tile Central Board to' divide the O'Hara district into two school districts, and after a good. deal of discussion the prayer of the petitioners was granted. As there was no longer any necessity for en larging the school house, the di rectors with commendable zeal turned their attention to improving it, and the following improvements were made during the ensuing year: A new slate roof with ornamental cornice and belfry; third story 'altered so as to make a hall 78 by 83 feet, with -two good stairways to it; in side shutters throughout; new yellow pine floors; painting the building inside and out and paving and fencing the recently purchased ground. "The directors have been as fol lows: In 1847, Christopher Reynolds, Levi G. Berger, John Norroine, David McKee and Thomas McCandless; X84S.

Matthew Edwards and George Dobbs; 1849, James McCune and Thomas Simpson; 1S50, John Herron and Thomas Howell; 1851, John Har rison, John Lightner and Thomas Stanger; 1852, Warren Billings and John Brown; 1853, James Littell, J. H. Nobbs and Allen Dunn; 1854, Hugh McKelvy; 1855, P. H. Corbit and Wil liam Varnum; 1856, Hugh Hammond; 1859, James Snyder; 1861, John Welsh and J.

S. Miller; 1863, C. Nauman; 1S64. Robert M. Reed and Young; 1866, Jacob and James C.

Rayburn; 1869, J. B. Nobbs and Wil liam Johnston; 1870, G. A. Murn- dorff, J.

H. Irwin, Robert Liddell and David McClelland. "The district has been represented in the Central Board of Education by the following gentlemen William Varnum, from February 20, 1855, to March 11, 1S62; John Harrison, from April 8, 1862, to February 9, 1864; James Littell, from March 8, 1864, to February 14, 1865; Joseph H. Nobbs, from February 14, 1865. "The following table shows the names of all the principals from the organization of the ward, and the year when each began: T.

Covell, March, 1848; B. Kerr, October, 1848; Charles White, 1850; John J. Wolcott, 1851; W. W. Reddick, 1854; V.

L. Conrad. 1858; T. F. Lehmann, 1857; James M.

Pryor, 1859; I. N. Forner, 1860; William Boyle, 1865; Henry G. Squires, 1866. "There has been a slight decrease ration In the Czecho-Slovak nation.

In a word, all ground the edges of the new countries, or of the newly ex panded small states, there is friction, there may well be readjustments and time alone can bring about real stability. Yet aside from the Austrian issue, conditions are plainly approaching a condition of stabilization. The several treaties, the arrangements between small countries, these give solid basis for Old Isms SmttUd. Moreover, when one looks at the larger states, the situation Is even more promising. Italy has at last established her guards on the crests of the Alps from Flume to the Swiss frontier.

Italia Irredenta, that source of many wars in the last century has disappeared as an issue. If there are now Slav and German mi norities within Italian frontiers, as the recent election showed, their claims do not now constitute a Euro-. pean menace. The Treaty of Rapallo between the Jugo-Slav and the Ital ians has, on the whole been accepted on both sides of the new frontier and has brought an end to intrigue by Italy and unceasing threat by Slav. As to France, she has returned to the Rhine and with the reconquest of the "Lost Provinces" has, like Italy, parted with an issue which has been in the back of all French minds ever since the Treaty of Frankfort.

Real peace between Germany and France was impossible while Ger many held Strasbourg and Metz. But with France returned to her own, this basis for trouble is eliminated. To be sure there is the German hope of reconquest. Seated on the Rhine and the Sarre France has an immensely fencible frontier. To attack.

Germany must now invade, not alone through Belgium, but also through Holland, as some of her generals urged in 1914 and this means adding Dutch and Belgian armies to French, and almost inevitably insures the reappearance of Britain on the Continent, jsven the Sarre Basin, which is a throny problem, can be disposed of when the hour thirteen years hence, without necessarily constituting a cause for war. The simple fact Is that the geo directors hoped to meet public ap probation, but of this, the ence and his teachers, many yet in the profession, can testify in truly feminine words that "He was a grand man." However, all the story of the old Twelfth Ward's schools can not be told in one short chapter. A few paragraphs ahou't the division of ths district are in order and a succeed ing chapter will deal with the re maining history of interest for some of the most interesting has been un avoidably passed over today. Tha SpringfiaU District. The single director who resided in the new district was Jacob Focer.

who was retained on the. first board appointed by the court -for the dis trict. His colleagues were: Prof. William R. Ford, John TC-.

Hagus. Peter C. Messick, George J. Rowley anj Robert Young. Messick was elected president and Prof.

Ford, secretary, and Robert Young, representa tive to the Central Bd. There were 400 children to be provided' for, and through the kindness of Mrs. Elizabeth F. penny the district was granted the use of six lots on Smallman street, between Twenty-ninth and Thirtieth streets, on which to erect a temporary building. This was a long one-story frame, which the children named "The.

Shanty." was opened in September, 1870. Mr. Ford was the first principal. In December that year Messrs. Caldwell and were elected to the board of directors.

This board proceeded to erect a permanent building on eight lots, each 24x100 feet on Smallman, near Thirty-first street. This site cost $24,000. The foundation was laid for the building early in 1871 and the corner stone laid June 30 of that year. To Miss Hettie Messick was given the honor of performing this ceremony as a reward for diligence and good deportment, and for the purpose she was presented with a silver trowel. The building was completed and occupied in September.

1872. At the dedicatory exercises the principal address was delivered by-Judge John M. Kirkpatrick, then on the bench of the old District Court of Allegheny county, a famous orator. The to'al cost of the building, furniture and ground was $76,000. Principal Ford said the building stood as a monument to the enterprise of the people, attesting their devotion to the cause of common schools and their willingness Jo provide liberally for the advancement of education.

The same is true of all public schools and the school law then in force made it obligatory upon each school district to provide accommodations and teach ers for all pupils of school age apply ing for instruction. This was long before the passage of the compulsory school law. The line of division of the old district was at Twenty-seventh street. There was a large part of the new district's population on the hillside above the Pennsylvania Railroad. The Springfield district from 1872 has a separate history which will follow with, the remaining chapter on the O'Hara.

TO BE CONTINUED. Simonds be economically first and politically later, the mere creature of Germany, which would hold the Danzig gate--way to the sea and possess alt the coal, or most of it, which is essential to the development of Polish industry. There, in a nutshell; is the real situation with respect ot Poland and the truth about British and French policies. This is the chaos into which we Americans have Just come, after having stayed out of European discussions for many, many months. If you read British newspapers you find great and always increasing irritation with the French, because of their championship of Poland.

Stripped of all camouflage, this means that Poland constitutes In British eyes a danger to world peace, a possible occasion for British participation unwillingly in a new world struggle. It is the fact of Poland that the British, with their unerring instinct in foreign' politics, object to. because the fact of Poland constitutes the greatest single danger to European peace henceforth as far as one can see. Read the French newspapers, agahl eliminating all the portions of the articles which deal with moral and sentimental issues and it will be seen that Poland Is for France the corner stone of the new Europe and French resentment at British policy, which has been constant at the Paris Conference and since, grows out of the fact that, for the French, Erit-taln, in her readiness to sacrifice Poland, seems in reality to be sacrificing France. Actually European history today is beginning to revolve around a new pivot.

New alliances are taking shape, new policies are coming to the surface, but most -important of all political questions, accepting the reparations dispute as henceforth economic, which is a large assumption, is the Polish problem, of which the lTpper Silesian dispute is only a detail. (Copyright. 1921. by McClur Newspaper eradicate, I DC.) "Writing on slates was systematically and thoroughly taught in Nos. 3.

4 and 5, with very good results. There is no longer any room to doubt that children from 6 to 8 years of age an learn to write with about the same facility that they will learn any other branch of common school education, and as so many leave school to work in our manufacturing establishments at a very early age, it is exceedingly, important, that this, be taught early. 'Gymnastics were tanght and prac ticed in all the rooms, except that when the weather would admit of it. this exercise, was in the yard after the regular recess instead of the school rooms. This we believe to be an improvement.

It needs no argu ment to convince anyone that if gymnastics are good in the school room, they are better in the open air. 'As compared with former years the instruction Is' more systematic and thorough, especially is this true of the primary rooms. But all the grades are in excellent condition. I can speak more confidently on this point on account of my frequent ex animations of the classes. Whenever any one subject is completed "or a portion of the reader or speller satisfactorily learned, the teacher reports the class to me, and I examine the scholars, marking the results in a register.

These markings, besides stimulating both scholars and teach ers, serve as the safest possible guide for promotion. These examin ations enable me to know whether the instruction is thorough and the improvement uniform and rapid, and in justice to our teachers, it should be said that they have done their work in a manner worthy of their high vocation. The subjects most noticeable 6n account of the excellent management of the teachers, are reading, phonetic and letter spelling, tables, notations, writing on slates and in copy books. Accuracy of all calculations and neatness of all work done on slate, blackboard or paper. In explanation of the roll of the directors note that Mr.

Squires has given the new members under each year designated and there were al ways holdovers. Early Schools. The first free school In the district was opened in 1837 under the direc tion of Nathaniel Nelson, afterwards an attorney in Pittsburgh, who was succeeded by a man named Moore, who Mr, T. Loveless writing the Chronicle Telegraph In 1897, says was one of the foremost. teachers of the but he" could find out 'nothing more of Moore.

Then came John Mc- Eldbwney whose children, Mr. Love less said, were well-known in Pittsburgh perhaps his grandchildren now. The Rev. Robert Hill and Rob ert M. McCargo followed.

The latter for- many years was Pittsburgh's leading' photographer, one of the daguerreotypers before the modern art of photography was improved and in use. Many thousands will remember McCargo as one of the supervisors music in the Pittsburgh schools for more than a decade prior to his death in 1902 and real elder ly people who resided in former Al legheny City In the seventies can re member him as their singing teacher Poland graphical settlements of the Paris Conference in the West and South, despite all the outcry which they have occasioned, represent a gain for European order as well as for racial integrity. Certainly economic adjustments between the Succession States of Austria are essential, must come, but, deduction again being made for Austria, reasonable solutions are not impossible. Accepting for the moment the view that the reparations issue passed out of the debate, European peace would seem probable, were the Western obstacles alone to be considered. 4 But it is at fliis moment that the Polish question takes on its true sig nificance.

We may believe that Ger many, in the end and with reluctance might accept the Alsace-Lorraine decision of the Treaty of Paris, because the present and the future dangers of challenging it are enormous, would not impossibly bring Germany again into collision with the nations which defeated her in the recent war, all of whom have a debt of honor to France so far as the question of Alsace-Lor raine is concerned. We may believe that the Western frontier' of Ger many would be accepted by Germans, well as by Frenchmen and Bel gians, just as it seems probable that what constitute the natural frontiers of Italy will stand the test of time. Germans Will Not Accept. But can any German accept the Polish settlement? Let us concede at once that this settlement, so far as it has been made, represents an injustice to the Poles, rather than to the Germans. The partition of Poland, engineered by Frederick the threat, was one or the supreme political crimes of all history.

The steady colonization of Germans on territory which was clearly Polish has represented only the second step in the wrong done the Polish people. If Upper Silesia in whole or in large part is retained by Ger many, more Poles will still live un der German rule that Germans within the frontiers of the new Polish republic. But this does not In the least change the fact that the Treaty of Paris cuts Prussia in half. It sep arated East Prussia from the main mass of the old Hohenzollern mon archy, thrusting the notorious Dan zig "corridor" northward. In giving the Poles Posen, a province in which the Slav majority was overwhelming, the Paris Conference made Berlin almost a frontier city.

cry of extravagance was raised, the 'J motives of the directors impugned a great deal of unpleasant dis-eussion indulged in. But in the face iRHBf all this opposition the directors A. Proudflt; upper right, Henry New teachers abbnt the same time were Misses Margaret J. Hamilton, Nancy J. Paisley and Julia Ward.

In' during Principal Lehman's incumbency, the new teachers were Misses Elizabeth Brown, Jenny Bates and Adelaide Richards'. Miss Glass resigned In 1859 to become assistant to Principal Andrew Burtt in the old Fifth Ward, later the Ralston School. She was one of the best teachers of her time and is justly accredited with bringing the city's schools up to the standard of her ideals. Miss Glass was at her death one of the oldest teachers, in point of service, in the city. She was weil advanced in years.

Miss Glass was succeeded as as sistant principal by George R. Coch ran, who was well known to the elder gr-neration of attorneys for his long service as tipstaff in the Court of Common Pleas No. 3, and who had been an attorney previous to occupying this iosition. Principal Lehman was a veteran of the Civil War, first as lieutenant colonel in the Sixty-second Pennsylvania Regiment and subsequently colonel of the One Hun dred and Third Pennsylvania. James M.

Pryor has been in the -story of the old South School as the first superintendent of schools of Al legheny county, and late in life as truckman for many years in the old Diamond Market. In I860; when he took charge Of the O'Hara School, he had a force of 10 teachers, some of whom had been teaching for several years. Isaac N. Forner, his suc cessor, was another old time principal who taught in a number of the Pittsburgh schools, last in the Wick-ersham district on the South Side. He remained at the O'Hara School for five years and later was an in structor in the old Western TTniver sity of Pennsylvania at Ross and Diamond streets, now the University of Pittsburgh.

William Boyle, who came in 1866, remained for one year and gave way to Henry G. Squires in 1S66. Mr. Squires remained 13 years, retiring in 1878; his successor was William A. Proudfit, who remained 20 years.

Mr. Boyle's name is incorrectly printed in Superintendent Luckey's first report as "Bogle" due to a typographical error. Principal Proudfit was succeeded by John McMahon, who, although with previ ous experience, by Hard study and summer courses in pedagogy at the University of Chicago, fully qualified Konigsberg, which has a peculiar hold upon Prussian sentiment, is now the capital of an enclave in Slav territory. Goals Seek Security. Now British policy, as contrasted with French, has always looked at the question' of peace.

France has sought and seeks security. Britain, secure within her islands, aims at such adjustments in Europe as will avoid war, and above all, 'any war which may affect Britain. A cen tury and a quarter ago British policy consented to the last partition of Po land, because it was a detail in obtaining Prussian and Austrian assist ance in the war against the French Revolution, which was a menace to British security. At Paris, two years ago, Britain was ready to make any sacrifice of Polish interests to avoid the certainty of a later German challenge to the Versailles settle ment. Today, in Upper Silesia, British pol icy folloTrs the same course.

It will necessarily continue to follow it. The more that is taken from Germany, irrespective of the moral claims of Germany to it, the more certain Germany is, when she becomes strong, to seek to recover the lost ground. But such an effort spells a new European war. Therefore, the British deem it the wise course to take as little as possible from Germany. Even the return of Alsace-Lorraine to France found British unofficial opposition before the armistice and finds present critics today, for precisely the same reason.

Take the British view from the Brit ish standpoint. Before and during 1914, Russia supported Serbia. Serbia was in dispute with Austria, the merits of the dispute are clear, but they are unimportant. As a consequence of this dispute came the Sarajevo trag edy, the Austrian ultimatum, the decision of Russia to support Serbia, of Germany to back Austria, of France to remain faithful to her Slav Ally. Then came the invasion of Belgium and finally Britain was driven into a war, which in its origins did not touch her at all.

that is in its ap parent origins. While the question was Serbian, Sir Edward Grey mani fested actual sympathy with the Aus tro-German case. While it was still Rush o-German, he stood unmoved. Even when it became French half of his cabinet were cold. But when it became Belgian, it became British.

Now here, beginning under British O'Hara School, Tventy-flfth and in the public schools of that city at that time. Mr. McCargo was one of four brothers all' well-known citizens of' Pittsburgh; the others were John. city controller, 1S62-18G7; William Frank and David the latter a pioneer telegrapher and boyhood friend of Andrew Carnegie and many years superintendent of the Allegheny Val ley Railroad, now the Buffalo and Allegheny Valley Division of the Pennsylvania. Robert McCargo and his brothers attended the original public school in the district and often spoke of it.

The first school houses in the dis trict, like all others of the time, were primitive in character. In 1897 one of these was still standing near Twenty-sixth street, which was' erected in the, early forties. It was a two-room frame building, near the site of the present O'Hara School on Smallman rtreet. The first lot on which the Ninth Ward school was erected cost $500 and was purchased from the Bayards, the family who gave name to the district of which the ward was generally called Bayardstown. Covell came from Michigan; his salary was $33 a month.

When the school waa opened in March, 1818, it was not; strictly free, but was conducted a a many others on the jay school Tuition for the several grades for the quarter was as follows: 'm First, or highest grade. $1 50; second, $1 25; third, $1. School was conducted in this original building for seven years as Principal Squires has stated and; Mr. Loveless jn his article thi Chronicle Telegraph tells of. the cry of extravagance that raised? against the expenditure of such a vast sum of money.

Just how much the new school cost waa not stated. In 1S70, after the purchase of the additional the building was too small for the number of pupils, which made the Central Board of Education divide the original district into two. This brought about the forming of the Springfield district, dated May 10, 1870, an account of which will appear below. It will be remembered that some of the new wards taken in the city in 1868 were divided into two sub-districts. The O'Hara, or Twelfth Ward, was the first and only one of the old wards so divided.

The original Ninth Ward School a granted that only a portion of the Silesian mineral fields fall to Poland ultimately, Germany will lose a con siderable source of wealth and a portion of her resources for modern war, which is founded upon coal and iron, beyond all else. Every German, statesman from Frederick the Great onward has spoken of all other problems of his country as minor, by comparison with the Polish question. To be lieve that 60,000,000 or 70,000,000 of Germans will permanently endure a situation In which their country is divided by the Danzig strip, will accept the loss of Danzig, Posen, Thorn, Bromberg, to say nothing of other lands that may be lost In Upper Silesia, is to believe what is on the face of it impossible. Moreover, whatever be the expansion of Poland in the next two or three decades, whatever the gain in consolidation and reintegration, Poland cannot to be a match for the Germany which must presently become again a world power. In this situation the French policy makes itself felt.

France, too, with a prospective 40,000,000 of people, a few decades hence, cannot resign herself to impotence in the presence of a Germany of 70,000,000, setting out on a new career of conquest, with Poland as the first objective and the whole of Middle Europe as an at tractive artichoke, to be eaten leaf by leaf. Granted that the restored Germany might long delay an attack in the west, given its dangers, the time might well come even there when British intervention would have no peril, no threat for a Ger many expanded cover all the lands between the Vistula and the Rhine and between the Baltic and the Black Sea. France Cannot Stand Alone. Following 1870, French policy sought and found in the Russian alliance the only possible counterweight to Ger man menace. Fdance could not then stand alone against Germany, she cannot tomorrow.

The British alli ance will not suffice, for Britain does not and will not maintain an army based upon conscription. In 1914 Britain could only get four divisions to Mons in August, she had but six at the.Marne in, September and the seventh did not reach Belgium until October. This small but infinitely precious reinforcement, moreover, was was not sufficient to bridge the gap between German and French eliec- tivea. The Question of S. By Frank Germans Will Not Accept Settlement Desired by Situation as Regards Silesian Affair Declared to Be Gravest to European Stability Controversy Outlined.

Poles, Writer Asserts Britain Will Not Aid France in Move. HE persistence of the Up per Silesian trouble, the most disturbing single element the European situation of the moment, should surprise no American observer of foreign affairs for the simple rea- that Poland, talcing the larger of which the Silesian affair is but one of many phases, is, and will remain for the future, the gravest menace to European stability. It would be a mistake to charge the responsibility for this to the Poles, themselves. In the past three cen-turies they have been almost habitually the victims rather than the r. authors of European disorder.

Yet the fact remains that the situation in -which the Polish race finds itself, its to its neighbors and its tan- portance to France, in the new Eui'o- i pean adjustment, combine to make it a source for future dangers even greater than that traditional Eastern question, out of which arose the World War. Since this situation exists and will continue, there is reason for a brief reexamination of the polish question, as it now rises once more to trouble world peace. Looking first at the gen- efal European situation one can perceive that, aside from Polish mat- ters, there is gradually coming about adjustment, which might easily be of long duration. True there remain many disputes between rival countries, disputes between the Ital- It was the Russian offensive in East Prussia, not the British divisions, which saved France at the Marne. by compelling the Germans to send two corps and a cavalry division east be fore the decisive battle.

Today, with Russia gone, France must still seek an eastern ally, and that ally is, in the nature of things, Poland. With 30.000.000 of people, with a system of conscription, with an army trained under French direction, Poland can supply the numbers essential to in sure French safety, to take off enough of the German mass to enable France to make good the Rhine barrier at the very least. There, after all. is the naked truth of the new European situation. French safety depends upon Polish strength.

If France is to be insured against a new German menace, that insurance must be found in Poland. But to obtain the Polish insurance France is bound to lend all her assistance to the Poles, she must stand with them against the Russians, as 6he did in the crisis of last summer, when Wcygand and Jusserand went to Warsaw, she must stand with them Upper Silesia. Every ounce added to the weight of Poland is an ounce taken off the burd-en of France on her own frontiers when Germany regains her strength. But, and the fact is capital, Ger many cannot and will hot accept the Polish settlement. If an accident ot war should bring an American defeat, and, as Zimmerman in his notorious proposal suggested, California, New Mexico.

Texas and Arizono should be returned to Mexico, can anyone imagine the American nation accepting the decision? I am not suggesting the situations are intrin sically identical, Polish rights to Posen, West Prussia and Upper Silesia are something far more solidly founded on present ethnic conditions than the Mexican title to certain American states, but the German feeling in the present situation is precisely what the American would be in the instance I have suggested. Prussia remains the dominant fac tor in Germany and will remain. The greatness of Prussia was found ed on the seizure of Silesia and the partition of Poland. Berlin, the Prussian as well as the German capi is an open city, barely 100 mile3 from the new Polish boundary post East Prussia is divided from Pomer- ania by the Danzig corridor and Danzig, one of the truly great German cities, is lost to Germany, while eyes, is a new condition quite comparable with the old. The British are not interested in the frontiers between Poland and Germany.

They are not prepared to fight to sustain Poland, either against Germany or against Russia just as the United States is not. But French policy makes an eastern policy a western question. If Germany acts against the Poles, France will move against the Ger mans, Germany can only fight France through Belgium and in a moment we are back at all the old evil cir- cumnces of the World War, with all its terrible consequences. Put the thing very simply. The British want peace in Europe, peace because peace is essential to their own domestic existence, let alone prosperity, since the closing of the European markets brings ruin to British industry.

To obtain that peace they are prepared to sacrifice Polish interests to German, just as they subordinated the interests of the small Balkan people to Turkish, when Tur key was a vital factor in British for eign policy in the Near East. A con tinuation of present European unrest. a repetition of the recent war any time in the next century means the ruin, not alone of Europe but of Great Britain itself. French Must Support Poland. The French on their part want se curity.

This security can be obtained only by the construction and main tenance of a Poland sufficiently strong to bridge the wide and ever growing difference between German and French population. France, therefore, must support and maintain all Polish claims, which have a basis in right or a relation to French necessities in the matter of Germany. If Poland is crushed, then France can no longer maintain herself against Germany, save as the British consent to an alliance and to an adoption of conscription and the British will do neither. As for the Germans, they will not accept Poland as it has been constructed, they would not have accepted any Poland which contained territory once included within German frontiers, although stolen by Prussian sovereigns in the past. And Poland, without such territory would ians and the Southern Slavs over Adriatic frontages, between the Greeks and Italians over Albanian marshes and Aegean islands.

tween the Hungarians and their sev- eral neighbors, who have taken from the Magyar state provinces which contain Rumania, Slovak and Serbo- Croat majorities. There is a Bulgar- ian question for Serb, Rumania and Greek alike. There is a Turkish ouestion for the Greeks. Looking at the center of Europe thers is the familiar problem of Austria, which is seeking by almost V. daily demonstration to arrive at union with Germany.

The new Bohemian state, too, has a German minority. which accepts with, ill-grace lncorpo- I 'i.