The Chautauquan, Vol. 03, June 1883Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
History
The Chautauquan, Vol. 03, June 1883
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
Chautauqua Institution -- Periodicals; Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle -- Periodicals
Out of a population of 43,000,000, Germany sends 22,500 students to her
various universities; while England, with a population of 25,000,000,
has 5,000 students—less than half as many in proportion to population.
* * * * *
This year is the centennial of the evacuation of Savannah, Charlestown
and New York, of the signing of the treaty of peace between the United
States and England, and of the final evacuation by the British.
Celebrations will be of every-day occurrence. The 26th of November,
Evacuation Day, will be the last.
* * * * *
Superintendent Ellis, of Sandusky, takes strong ground against
introducing industrial education into the public schools. He believes
that the evils prevalent in society, attributed by some to the public
schools, are due to other sources, notably to the greed for gain.
What is needed for the workingmen in all departments of labor, he
says, is the kind of training given by the public schools. Industry
is cultivated in the schools, and the same quality that sends a boy
to the head of his class will push him to the front in whatever
business or work he may engage when he leaves school. The object-lesson
craze and the natural-science craze in the public schools exhausted
themselves without any serious detriment to the schools or any
increased expenditure of public money, but if there is to be an annex
of industrial training it will involve a large expenditure of money
in addition to what some people now consider the highest limit for
educational purposes.
* * * * *
Of all feats of engineering skill the most remarkable is the Brooklyn
bridge, now completed and open to the public. The bridge roadway from
the New York terminus to Sands street, Brooklyn, is a little over a
mile long. The whole structure is upheld by four cables containing
21,000 wires. A cross section shows two railroads, two carriage ways,
and a foot bridge, giving a width of 80 feet. The company was organized
to build the bridge in 1867, and work was begun early in 1870. Though
the cost was originally estimated at but $7,000,000, exclusive of the
land, it has overrun that sum by $5,000,000. The total cost will be
about $15,500,000 including the land. Two men deserve especial mention
in connection with the enterprise; the engineer, John A. Roebling,
and his son. The former lost his life while directing the work, and
the latter has contracted the terrible “caisson disease.” To their
intellect, oversight and faithfulness much honor is due.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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