USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Quincy > Town annual report of Quincy 1887 > Part 6
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Let us then briefly recapitulate our conclusions : -
If the town, upon full consideration, holds steadfast in its in- tent of re-organization, and is prepared to face the consequences, then we ought to be authorized to spend -
For a twenty-ton steam-roller $7,000 00
For water-cart and rotary screen 1,000 00
To build one mile of first-class way .
15,000 00
To build one mile of second-class way
5,000 00
To build three miles of third-class way
3,000 00
For general superficial care and mainte- nance
9,000 00
For superintendent and office expenses 2,000 00
For quarry and gravel pits
2,000 00
Total
. $44,000 00
If the town, however, staggered by this exhibit, feels obliged to put up with less thorough-going work, or is content to go more slowly, as for example, by using its machinery less and to less advantage, but also less expensively, why, then the con- struction account can be proportionately reduced. Or, finally, if the town should decide to try to get on a while longer with- out first-rate tools or improved roads, then an appropriation of ten or fifteen thousand dollars for absolutely necessary ordinary repair would answer all useful purposes.
The expense for street-lighting for the year up to Feb. 1 was about §3,500, and this expenditure for the entire year will prob- ably cover the appropriation. The amount set apart for this service should be increased for the coming year, for two reasons. First, because in a few cases we have encouraged people to place posts at favorable points, on the assurance that we would urge the town to provide for them. And, secondly, because a large number of the established wooden posts have rotted, and will require to be replaced with iron immediately. We should not advise the town to accept in future any lamps upon wooden posts. We should recommend an appropriation of $5,000 for this purpose, including care and lighting.
In conclusion, the subscribers wish to define distinctly the position which they assume at this time. They cordially concur in the recommendation to set up a far more thoroughly organized and equipped department for highway management than the town has ever had. They do most emphatically believe that it is economical, if you attempt an enterprise at all, to employ the best of tools, and put up with nothing short of the best work- manship which is appropriate to the wear it is expected to resist.
93
Poor work is always dear, and the best is generally cheapest. Still they have no defined policy to urge until they know how much money the town is willing, or can afford, to spend in the undertaking. They disclaim any intention at present of either urging or discouraging any particular line of action by the town. Thus far they have been content to gather some infor- n ation, which is submitted without argument. It is for the town on full consideration of all the circumstances to decide what it can do, and what it will do. It is, after all, largely a question of finance. It is enough for us to point out as nearly as we can just what can be done, how it can be done best, and what in our judgment it would cost to do it in the most econom- ical manner. After that it is our business to do the best we can with whatever allowance the town may think judicious and prudent to assign us.
J. Q. ADAMS. JOHN CASHMAN. GORDON MCKENZIE.
FEB. 10, 1887.
REPORT OF MANAGERS OF ADAMS ACADEMY.
THE Managers of the Adams Academy have been induced by the facts and figures furnished them by the master in his report, and in a table of statistics which he has drawn up at their re- quest, to consider very seriously whether the time is not drawing near when a somewhat altered policy would be expedient for the school in the interest of the town, and with a view to the greater usefulness of the endowment of the founder.
The figures which may be found annexed to this report seem to show that the tendency of the school of late years has been steadily in the direction of supplying a local rather than a gen- eral demand. It has become gradually more and more a day school, and less and less a boarding-school. It has at the same time dwindled in numbers, the falling-off being almost wholly from the distant attendance. For example : of a total of 69 pupils in 1879, 39, or 56 per cent, were day scholars, whereas in 1886, of a total of 39, 27, or 70 per cent, were day scholars. While of Quincy boys there were 14 in 1880, or 27 per cent of the whole school, in 1886 there were 24, or 61 per cent of the entire attendance. It is further to be noted, that, while there were presented for admission to the higher seminaries in 1878 fourteen candidates, the number in 1886 had fallen to six. Va- rious causes may be assigned for the tendency here disclosed, but it may be sufficient for us to amplify and discuss one only, which will of itself, if accepted, sufficiently justify the change of policy which we feel bound to suggest to the town. Dr. Ev- erett, in his report of last year, commented with earnestness and justice upon the heavy handicap under which the institute strug- gled in the shape of its boarding-house. The situation of this building, apart from all other considerations, would be sufficient to condemn it for this purpose ; but bad as that is, it is not its worst feature. It lacks almost all the attributes of attractive- ness and convenience which are becoming yearly more and more expected and required. The master's presentation of the diffi- culties of his position led us to study the situation which we must occupy in competition with other institutions working in the same field. A very little examination forced us to the conclusion that it was hopeless for us to meet the demands of parents for more and more attractive and salubrious physical surroundings for their sons if they desired to send them from
95
home to live, without a radical reconstruction of our present appliances, and a very large expenditure of money. We are satisfied that if we propose to strive earnestly for a share of the patronage to which Southborough, Andover, Exeter, or Groton cater, we must have lands and houses and class-rooms and dor- mitories and play-grounds on a scale entirely disproportioned to any resources at our disposal. It might be possible to find fifty acres of land near to the village, yet remote from noise and crowds; but where should we find the one hundred and fifty thousand dollars which we should have to pay for it, and for the buildings and accessories which would be necessary to equip a really first-rate public boarding-school? The income from the endowment, to be sure, is now handsome, and will some day be magnificent; but the principal cannot be touched, and it would take years of accumulation to furnish the required sum, while meanwhile the school must stop.
Nor is it by any means clear to us, that, after all our expen- diture, we should be working in the right direction. It seems to us probable indeed that the true demand which we could most wisely try to meet, the duty which lies nearest to our hand, may after all be of a different kind.
Our statistics tend to show that there is a steady and increas- ing call for the service of an advanced school here correspond- ing to the High and Latin schools of Boston or Cambridge, or the Roxbury Latin school. They may be interpreted to signify that there is what may be called a local constituency tributary to this spot, which is likely to grow fast enough to tax to the utmost the capacity of our staff of teachers and the income from our fund.
The following passage from Mr. Everett's report is full of suggestion as to the possibility of usefulness in this direc- tion : -
" The boy who entered on the preparatory footing a year ago was duly promoted into the regular school in September. He has how- ever had a successor, and I have every reason to believe that with the exercise of reasonable care the class may be made a most interest- ing and profitable part of the school. There are many young boys in Quincy, whom their parents, while finding no fault with the other private or with the public schools, would prefer to have in a smaller institution, and under male teachers exclusively. Not a few of these, and of older boys, now go daily into Boston. I must regret this fashion, not only for the sake of the Academy, but of the public schools. It is impossible for either public or private schools, in the neighborhood of a large city, to satisfy the expectations of its in- habitants, if a number of the wealthiest and most influential citizens habitually send their children to the city for training."
96
Probably such a change of direction or aspiration would entail certain modifications of treatment, and require a good deal of re-arrangement of detail and perhaps even important alteration in methods; but these things could be safely left to the care of competent officers and the slow hand of time. That this may be safely and wisely done, a further extract from the annual report of the master of the school may serve to show : -
" Another experiment which we are trying has arisen from the increasing favor in which the Institute of Technology is held. I have had very interesting and satisfactory talks with President Walker and Professor Atkinson. In consequence, without a violent or whole- sale abandonment of an established course, some modifications have been made for two of our pupils in the second class, whereby we hope at the end of this year, if they remain in the same mind, to secure their admission to the Institute ; while at the same time, should their views change, they will not be out of the line of preparation for other courses."
The cardinal point for us to consider, however, is that such a change would enable us to dispense with the whole parapher- nalia of boarding-house and paternal supervision. If any parent should be attracted here from a distance to place his son, he would provide himself for his board and lodging; the school would no longer undertake this function.
The town would thus be relieved of the most serious infe- 'licity of our present condition. We are to-day indebted solely to the liberality and energy of Dr. Everett for such accommoda- ' tion for our visiting pupils as they have. The town ought not to ask or accept such a sacrifice. We doubt if any other master could or would undertake the care and expense, and we know that this Board would absolutely decline to assume it.
Under these circumstances we have deemed it our duty to survey the whole ground about us to try to discover the way towards which it would seem wisest for the town to turn.
And when the facts of our situation are grouped together, we seem to have discovered a trace which it may be worth while to follow up.
In a short time the Woodward bequest for an Academy ex- clusively for girls will be put in operation, and will or might supply all the needs of the town for such education as has heretofore been furnished by the Town High School. If this could be secured, and the Adams Academy so modified as to cover the entire space between the ordinary common-school course and the requirements of the great institutions of ad- vanced instruction, why would it not be possible, in case a common understanding and co-operation could be obtained
97
between the trustees of these foundations and the town, to secure from the Legislature permission to discontinue our High School, making both the substitutes absolutely free schools? Undoubtedly their own endowments by that time would insure the town from any outlay on their account. But even if some slight contribution should be required for a short time, it would be more than offset by releasing the present lot and building of the High School for general school purposes. Possibly in that event the government of the Adams Academy might be rele- gated to the regular school authorities. Such a proceeding as we have thus outlined would also seem to be a movement upon the lines of a closer connection and inter-dependence between the common schools and the higher institutes of learning, which the more advanced thinkers upon education seem to favor.
But whether such a scheme in its integrity be feasible, or whether it may be deemed inexpedient or impracticable upon legal or other grounds, we must still insist upon the expediency and the necessity of some modification of the policy which has been thus far pursued by the Academy. We think that it should be transformed as soon as it can be done conveniently into a day school, the boarding-house discontinued, and some modification made in its curriculum to adapt it less exclusively to the single end of preparing boys for colleges.
In conclusion, we may be pardoned if we repeat that it is no part of our purpose at present to propound a complete plan or to urge any radical or abrupt resolve. We have merely felt it our duty to lay before the town the facts as we find them, and to offer such suggestions as have occurred to us thereon. If upon mature consideration any corporate action should seem to be required, the town can readily commit the whole subject to suitable representatives of the various interests concerned, who could ascertain whether any general re-organization of these various educational foundations is expedient, and, if so, attainable.
The past year has been marked by no very especial deviation from the regular course of proceedings at the Academy. The size of the school, which has been steadily shrinking for ten years, is a trifle less even than last, when we had hoped to have touched bottom. But as the loss is but one pupil, we are encouraged to believe that we have almost reached the lowest point in our decline.
98
Total Number of Pupils in Adams Academy.
Total Day Scholars and per cent of whole.
Total Quincy Boys and per cent of whole.
Total offered for any College.
Total admitted to any College.
1878-79
69
39 56.5%
28 40.0%
15
14
1879-80
52
21 40.0+% 25
14 27.0%
13
13
1880-81
65
37.5%
17 26.0%
20
18
1881-82
55
45 5%
27.0%
16
16
1882-83
53
41.5%
30.0%
17
1883-84
45
23 50.0%
38.0%
1
1884-85
43
6
3
1885-86
40
57.0%
21 53.0% 24
6
4
1886-87 (current year),
39
27
70.0%
61.0+%
J. Q. ADAMS.
J. P. QUINCY.
L. W. ANDERSON.
EDWARD NORTON.
PETER BUTLER.
CHAS. H. PORTER.
25
15
16
17
17
22 50.0+% 23
19 44.0%
15
14
22
REPORT OF TRUSTEES OF THOMAS CRANE PUBLIC LIBRARY.
THE Trustees of the Thomas Crane Library herewith submit their seventh annual report, being the sixteenth report of the whole series since the Library was founded.
The number of books borrowed during the year just closed is 61,931, being the largest number taken out in any year thus far. The names on the Librarian's register have been increased by 563 new ones, the total number being 7,645.
The division of the reading-matter is as follows : -
Public.
School.
Total.
Per Cent.
Fiction
24,828
237
25,065
40.4
Juvenile Fiction
12,863
1,782
14,645
23.6
Periodicals
8,596
82
8,678
14.0
History
2,309
1,283
3,592
5.8
Travels
1,658
1,024
2,682
4.3
General Literature
1,853
234
2,087
3.3
Biography
1,404
447
1,851
2.9
Arts and Sciences
1,440
242
1,682
2.7
Poetry
992
211
1,203
19
Religion .
293
2
295
0.4
Educational .
147
4
151
0.2
Totals
56,383
5,548
61,931
-
During the year 586 volumes of new literature have been added to the Library by purchase. One hundred and ninety have been presented to it. Of the books heretofore in the Li- brary, 501 volumes have been replaced, the original copies hav- ing been worn out to such a degree as to be unfit for further use. There have been 453 volumes rebound. The number of pamphlets added to the Library was 50, all from private sources.
During the year 5,548 volumes were taken from the Library by the teachers, and circulated in the schools, directly aiding in the school-work.
· During 1886 the Library was open 3052 days.
The full catalogue of the Library was prepared and published in 1875. Since then two supplements have been printed, - the first of 56 pages in 1879, at a cost of $291; the second of 85
100
pages in 1883, at a cost of $431.04. In both cases, the expense of preparation and printing was met out of the accumulations of the Catalogue Fund, the town not being called upon to make any special appropriation on that account. During the four years which have elapsed since the preparation of the last sup- plement, some 1,800 volumes have been added to the Library. These are now only accessible through the card catalogue. It is proposed, during the current year, to print an additional, or third, supplement, of the same character as the two previous ones. The cost of printing this will be met out of the accumula- tion of the Catalogue Fund. No especial appropriation, there- fore, will be needed for this purpose.
The Trustees would respectfully ask for the same appropria- tion as that of last year, namely, $2,700.
Mr. Barker's report as Treasurer is herewith appended.
CHARLES F. ADAMS, HENRY BARKER, CHARLES A FOSTER, LUTHER W. ANDERSON, H. A. KEITH,
Trustees.
101
REPORT OF THE TREASURER OF THOMAS CRANE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOR 1886-87.
Balance in treasury, Feb. 1, 1886 $10 73
Cash of town treasurer on appropriation, 2,700 00 66 60 66
66
66 dog license . 1,238 31
66 donation of Hon. Elijah A. Morse . 100 00
$4,049 04
Disbursements.
For Librarian service
. $1,075 84
Janitor
450 00
Books
. 1,327 76
Binding
136 75
Printing
113 25
Gas and fixtures
131 85
Fuel .
121 12
Expressage
35 52
Postage
5 54
Water
50 55
Plumbing .
20 32
Repairs (Norcross Brothers)
35 00
Expense on grounds .
174 15
Sundries
64 84
Catalogue Fund
100 00
Balance
206 55
$4,049 04
Catalogue Fund.
Balance, Feb. 1, 1886
·
$405 46
Cash from fines and catalogues
82 70
66 Library Fund .
·
.
100 00
$588 16
HENRY BARKER, Treasurer.
REPORT OF BOARD OF HEALTH.
THE Board of Health organized March 19. Rules and reg- ulations were adopted, and published, as required by law, in the Quincy Patriot. Francis A. Spear was appointed inspector, and Terrance Keenan and Peter McConarty, scavengers. Meetings of the Board were held almost every week during the summer and autumn seasons.
Early in the year, F. A. Read resigned his position as member of the Board. At a joint convention of the remaining mem- bers and the Selectmen, W. L. Faxon was unanimously elected to fill the vacancy.
Twenty-five hundred inspections were made during the year. Compared with the inspection of last year, a marked improve- ment was apparent in the general sanitary condition of the town. Yards and cellars were more free from filth and rubbish, and privies and cesspools were more cleanly maintained.
Five hundred and twenty-four nuisances were discovered, and more than four hundred of them were abated. These nui- sances consisted principally of uncleaned or imperfectly con structed privy-vaults and cesspools, and their dangerous proxim ity to wells and houses.
A very general and a most dangerous nuisance is the un- trapped, unventilated sink-drain, by means of which the gases from the cesspools are conducted directly into the houses. Sev- eral hundreds of these deadly contrivances were discovered in the inspection of last year. A few only have been remedied. The ordinary shallow trap that forms part of almost all kitchen sinks is wholly inadequate to prevent the passage of gases into the houses in these cases.
The privy is the most common and the most objectionable nuisance in the town. Of the two thousand inspected, but very few were found properly constructed. The vaults, in the very large majority of cases, consisted of simple holes in the ground, or were made of wood or loose stones, allowing their liquid and liquefying contents to leach into the soil, contaminating the air and earth, and very frequently the wells, with their poisonous products. All privy-vaults and cesspools should be of ample size, constructed of substantial masonry, and cemented so as to be water-tight.
Much discomfort arises from the disagreeable stenches that
103
are produced in cleaning out cesspools and privy-vaults by the hogshead-and-dipper method employed by the scavengers. It is hoped that in the near future this work may be done by the odorless excavating apparatus now so generally used for this purpose. The great hinderance to the use of this apparatus in Quincy, is the condition of the privy-vaults, the contents of which become too solid to be cleaned out in this way on ac- count of the liquids being allowed to leach into the ground.
It is believed by your Board that a by-law should be made, forbidding the maintaining of piggeries in the town. The of- fal on which the pigs are most commonly fed is almost always in a state of putrefaction, filling the air in the neighborhood of the piggeries with poisonous and disagreeable stenches. The town is now so thickly populated that there is no place so secluded that a piggery can be maintained without becoming a dangerous nuisance to the inhabitants. It was conclusively shown by a commission appointed by the English Parliament, that the flies that swarm about these places in summer are a common means of spreading scarlet-fever among the children of communities in which piggeries exist.
The necessity for a system of sewerage is very apparent. Not only is it needed in the centre of the town, where the absence of drainage facilities hinders proper improvement of real estate, and where the removing of sewage is expensive and offensive, but it is needed in the locality extending through the whole of Water and Copeland streets where the ground is now filled with filthy deposits, which the nature of the soil pre- vents from speedy decomposition, and where for several months of the year the surface-water is with difficulty gotten rid of. Many portions of Wollaston imperatively demand the construc- tion of a sewer. This locality has an impervious clay bottom, which prevents the leaching-away of sewage and night-soil, which now fills the shallow layer of loam to a dangerous extent. And besides all this, through the facilities rendered by the Water Company, more than four hundred thousand gallons of water a day are poured into the soil, principally in the centre of the town and in Wollaston, which must soon increase the amount of ground-water to a point of great danger.
Your Board is of the opinion that Town Brook, from a point south of Water Street to Washington Street, should be thor- oughly cleaned out. The bottom of the brook is now filled with rubbish of many kinds, and vegetation, which obstruct the flow of water in the dry summer-months, allowing it to accumulate in stagnant pools filled with the poisonous products of their decom- posing contents. Near Water Street, and opposite the site of
104
the John Hancock School, there is an accumulation of sediment from the street-washings and the polishing-shops above, which causes the brook to overflow its walls in that neighborhood. By clearing away these obstructions, and thus lowering the brook, the land above Water Street, which is now coming into use, would be much increased in value, and the additional taxes resulting would probably more than offset the expense of cleaning out the brook.
Two hundred and forty-eight deaths occurred in the town during the past year, equal to about nineteen in a thousand of the population. Of these deaths, forty-five, or eighteen per cent, were from consumption ; twenty-three from pneumonia ; twenty-three from croup and diphtheria ; thirteen from cholera infantum ; two from scarlet-fever; and one each from dysentery and typhoid-fever.
In compliance with the Public Statutes, requiring house- holders and physicians to report to the Board of Health all cases of contagious diseases occurring within the town, fifty- five cases of diphtheria and croup, forty-four cases of scarlet- fever, nineteen cases of typhoid-fever, and one case of measles, were reported. The principals of the public schools were im- mediately notified of the contagious cases, who took the proper precautions to prevent the spread of the diseases among the school-children. It is hoped during the ensuing year, that measures can be taken to have the disinfection and fumigation that is necessary in the management of all cases of contagious diseases, carried out, under the supervision of the Inspector of the Board. This will involve an outlay of about one hundred and fifty dollars.
In compliance with the Public Statutes relating to vaccina- tion, forty-three children belonging to the public schools were vaccinated, at an expense to the town of eight dollars and fifty cents.
At its annual meeting, the town appropriated the sum of five hundred dollars for the use of the Board. Its expenditures during the year are as follows : -
Printing
$80 00
Inspecting
.
352 00
Legal services
57 00
Vaccine virus
8 50
$497 50
In order to obtain more convenient accommodations than those secured in its present place of meeting, which is often oc-
105
cupied by the several committees and town officers, to the ex- clusion of the Board of Health, an arrangement is made with the School Committee, to use during the ensuing year the rooms engaged by them in the new Durgin & Merrill block, at a cost of seventy-five dollars. It is hoped that the town will appro- priate this sum for that purpose.
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