The Survey, Volume 30, Number 24, Sep 13, 1913Various
History
The Survey, Volume 30, Number 24, Sep 13, 1913
Various
Charities -- Periodicals; Social problems -- Periodicals; United States -- Social conditions -- Periodicals
“While looking around I could not express my joy, when I
went to see the library department and saw on a sign what
is to be in Rochester, which was no other than this--that
there is to be a public library and fifty other branches of
it at different places in the city. Although I have read
ever so many books, I could not help then to be overjoyed.”
Near the library was a booth showing the guns, cards, jimmies, daggers,
etc., taken away from small boys in the children’s court. There was
also a lurid collection of dime novels from the same source. Of these
Katherine writes:
“I was talking to Mr. Killip about the boys he had to
handle, and he was telling how some of them acted. It was
very interesting to see the things he had taken from boys
under sixteen years--the revolvers, dice, knives, books,
cartridges, and other things. Some little boys came along
and saw the books and one said, ‘Didn’t I tell you those
were good books? See, they got them here!’”
This booth and the explainers in charge--the explainers seem to have
done effective work in the Rochester exhibit--impressed the boys very
seriously. Moses states the case:
“When a child reads a novel he gets interested in them and
likes to buy more of them. After a boy reads a great deal
of these novels he gets so that he thinks he is the things
that he is reading about. And soon after that he starts to
murder.”
Tabulation was made showing the distribution of references among the
four main types of exhibit material--entertainments, models, motion
exhibits, and photographs, maps, diagrams, charts, etc. To reach
conclusive results, it would be necessary to secure the exact number
of exhibits shown in each of the four classes. We know, however, that
there were more photographs, cartoons, charts, maps, etc., in the
Rochester exhibit than numbers on the program, or different models, or
motion exhibits. Donald tells us--“There was charts of the teeth, mind,
nostrils, ears, throat, various organs, limbs, and feet.”
But most of the children who attended the exhibit have only a vague
memory of the photographs which lined the walls, and every reference
of this kind is capped by three references to the program numbers.
Models and motion exhibits receive practically the same amount of
attention in all the grades. The lower grades were more impressed by
the entertainments than the higher, and the higher were more impressed
by the photographs than the lower. The per cents for all the children
run: entertainment 35, models 28, motion exhibits 26, and photos, maps,
etc., 11.
There were 271 favorable comments and 44 unfavorable comments on
the exhibit. The favorable run from one little girl’s reiterated
exclamation of “Oh, it was grand!” to Ralph’s dignified statement:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account