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Article THE COMING FESTIVAL OF THE BOYS' SCHOOL. Page 1 of 2 Article THE COMING FESTIVAL OF THE BOYS' SCHOOL. Page 1 of 2 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Coming Festival Of The Boys' School.
THE COMING FESTIVAL OF THE BOYS ' SCHOOL .
IT will be seen from an advertisement in another part of our columns that the Anniversary Festival of the Boys' School will be held on Wednesday , the 28 th inst ., and the Alexandra Palace , as last year , will be the scene of the gathering . Lord Leigh , P . G . M . Warwickshire , will
take the chair , and will be ably and enthusiastically supported by a Board of Stewards , having Sir H . Edwards , Bart ., P . G . M . West Yorkshire , for its president , and numerically the strongest that has ever been formed on any occasion for either of our charitable institutions , there
being just two hundred and fifty-six brethren from the metropolis and the provinces who have undertaken to act for the Boys . The examination and distribution of prizes will take place on the Monday previous , under the auspices of the Supreme Council 33 ° of England , and we doubt not
the occasion will be one of which the Governing Body , the masters , and the boys themselves will have every reason to be proud . That tho stewards will leave no stone unturned
to swell the subscription list to an amount tinprecedently large we are well assured , and a few reasons why these efforts should be successful may very properly be discussed on this occasion .
It cannot be too frequently or too emphatically urged upon the Craft generally that our Boys' School is , in one respect , on a worse footing than our other charitable institutions . It has little or no invested funds . What Stock it had was used for building purposes . Therefore ,
beyond the annual contributions of Grand Lodge , it has no permanent income whatever . It is absolutely dependent on the beneficence of the Craft for support . That support has been yielded with no ungrudging hand . Year after year the Festival has been productive of results grander and still
more grand , until , last year , the aggregate of the stewards ' collections represented an amount somewhat in excess of £ 13 , 000 . Naturally we are hopeful of a success more brilliant on Wednesday week . More stewards , more money , is only a just concatenation . We might rest contented , indeed ,
with the degree of support hitherto accorded to this charit y , provided the demand upon its resources were an unvarying quantity . Bat generous as have been the contributions of the brotherhood , they have only sufficed to meet the current expenses . If we are entitled to hope that a greater body of
Stewards than ever will secure a greater subscription than ever , we may state beyond the possibility of a doubt , that the more pupils there are to educate and maintain , the greater the outlay . This year the number is in excess of every previous year . Consequently the expenditure has
been beyond all precedent . Then , not only are we maintaining and educating more boys then we were , the number of candidates is regularly increasing , and , unfortunately , each election shows us that the number of applicants foi admission to the benefits of this charity is out of all
proportion to the number of vacancies . If we take the last three elections only , we find that in the spring of 1875 there were forty-eight candidates for ei ght vacancies , in the autumn of the same year there were fifty-eight for ten vacancies , and on the last occasion there were fifty-nine for
sixteen . Thus the number of approved candidates for whom it was impossible to find room at these three elections was forty-two , forty-eight , and forty-three respectively . Hence , gathering up our reasons as we go along , we find that more money is needed , because , in the first place , more boys are being educated now than formerly ; and , in the second
The Coming Festival Of The Boys' School.
place , because tho number of applicants for admission ia considerably beyond the number that can be accommodated . Then , in order to keep pace with the times , in order that our boys may receive such an education as will fit them to play their part in the world as men , it has been
found necessary to extend the curriculum of study . Thb three R ' s of proverbial fame are no longer sufficient . The present generation of scboolboys must know more than merely reading , ' rifcing , and rithmetic . To begin with , he should have a good sound basis of Latin on which to found
the solid superstructure of his knowledge . Many a man has succeeded in the battle of life with no knowledge of Latin whatever , but it follows not that an acquaintance with this important dead language , is not in the highest degree beneficial . It may be that a man does not miss what
he has never enjoyed , bnt this is certainly no argument to prove that he would not have fared better with than without the enjoyment . So a man may say : " Look at me , my boys . I never learnt no Latin , and here am I , worth—well , not one pretty penny only , as
the saying is , but several pretty pennies . I am possessed of twenty , fifty , or a hundred thousand pounds ( as the case may be ) . I learnt no Latin , but I worked , I did , and precious hard too . " This , we admit , may be very true , but it furnishes no proof whatever that our imaginary friend
with the long purse would not have fared equally well , or even better , had he received a Latin as well as a plain English education . He wonld certainly have been better able to appreciate and speak his own language . Again , we are no longer an isolated people . We mix a great deal with other
peoples , and especially with our next door nei ghbours , the French . Hordes of Frenchmen visit England , and hordes of Englishmen visit France . We trade together largely . We buy of their produce and manufactures , and they of ours . Thus , a boy who starts in life with some knowledge of the
French language has , cceteri paribus , a wider field open to him than the boy who has not . Indeed , it has come to be recognized as an indispensable part of onr school studies that every boy shall have an opportunity of learning French . The same may be said of the German language ,
and for similar reasons , and the boy who can read and speak German has manifestly an advantage over one who can do neither . Hence it is that now-a-days a reasonably well educated youth is expected to have some knowledge of German , and the knowledge is worth having , not only
from a literary , but from a commercial point of view . So , as it would be cruel not to give our boys the same kind of liberal education they would doubtless have received had misfortune not overtaken them so early in life , the Governing Body of the school has very wisely extended the course of
education , so as to meet the requirements of the present day . Hence , Latin is taught , French is taught , German is taught , and other branches of knowledge are taught , so that when the boys of the Royal Masonic Institution get their first insight into the stern realities of life , they may
be reasonably well furnished with knowledge to earn an honest livelihood . Bnt this higher scale of education can only be imparted at a large annual cost , and the higher we raise the standard of training , both mental and physical , the greater the demands upon the coffers of tho Institution .
Here then is another reason why more funds are needed . We have said that more boys are being educated than formerly , and there are still more who require to be educated . To
these we now add a third and equally valid reason . It is the duty of the Governing Body , in orr ' er to keep pace with the times , to give our boys a higher standard of education than was thought necessary in , years gone b y ,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Coming Festival Of The Boys' School.
THE COMING FESTIVAL OF THE BOYS ' SCHOOL .
IT will be seen from an advertisement in another part of our columns that the Anniversary Festival of the Boys' School will be held on Wednesday , the 28 th inst ., and the Alexandra Palace , as last year , will be the scene of the gathering . Lord Leigh , P . G . M . Warwickshire , will
take the chair , and will be ably and enthusiastically supported by a Board of Stewards , having Sir H . Edwards , Bart ., P . G . M . West Yorkshire , for its president , and numerically the strongest that has ever been formed on any occasion for either of our charitable institutions , there
being just two hundred and fifty-six brethren from the metropolis and the provinces who have undertaken to act for the Boys . The examination and distribution of prizes will take place on the Monday previous , under the auspices of the Supreme Council 33 ° of England , and we doubt not
the occasion will be one of which the Governing Body , the masters , and the boys themselves will have every reason to be proud . That tho stewards will leave no stone unturned
to swell the subscription list to an amount tinprecedently large we are well assured , and a few reasons why these efforts should be successful may very properly be discussed on this occasion .
It cannot be too frequently or too emphatically urged upon the Craft generally that our Boys' School is , in one respect , on a worse footing than our other charitable institutions . It has little or no invested funds . What Stock it had was used for building purposes . Therefore ,
beyond the annual contributions of Grand Lodge , it has no permanent income whatever . It is absolutely dependent on the beneficence of the Craft for support . That support has been yielded with no ungrudging hand . Year after year the Festival has been productive of results grander and still
more grand , until , last year , the aggregate of the stewards ' collections represented an amount somewhat in excess of £ 13 , 000 . Naturally we are hopeful of a success more brilliant on Wednesday week . More stewards , more money , is only a just concatenation . We might rest contented , indeed ,
with the degree of support hitherto accorded to this charit y , provided the demand upon its resources were an unvarying quantity . Bat generous as have been the contributions of the brotherhood , they have only sufficed to meet the current expenses . If we are entitled to hope that a greater body of
Stewards than ever will secure a greater subscription than ever , we may state beyond the possibility of a doubt , that the more pupils there are to educate and maintain , the greater the outlay . This year the number is in excess of every previous year . Consequently the expenditure has
been beyond all precedent . Then , not only are we maintaining and educating more boys then we were , the number of candidates is regularly increasing , and , unfortunately , each election shows us that the number of applicants foi admission to the benefits of this charity is out of all
proportion to the number of vacancies . If we take the last three elections only , we find that in the spring of 1875 there were forty-eight candidates for ei ght vacancies , in the autumn of the same year there were fifty-eight for ten vacancies , and on the last occasion there were fifty-nine for
sixteen . Thus the number of approved candidates for whom it was impossible to find room at these three elections was forty-two , forty-eight , and forty-three respectively . Hence , gathering up our reasons as we go along , we find that more money is needed , because , in the first place , more boys are being educated now than formerly ; and , in the second
The Coming Festival Of The Boys' School.
place , because tho number of applicants for admission ia considerably beyond the number that can be accommodated . Then , in order to keep pace with the times , in order that our boys may receive such an education as will fit them to play their part in the world as men , it has been
found necessary to extend the curriculum of study . Thb three R ' s of proverbial fame are no longer sufficient . The present generation of scboolboys must know more than merely reading , ' rifcing , and rithmetic . To begin with , he should have a good sound basis of Latin on which to found
the solid superstructure of his knowledge . Many a man has succeeded in the battle of life with no knowledge of Latin whatever , but it follows not that an acquaintance with this important dead language , is not in the highest degree beneficial . It may be that a man does not miss what
he has never enjoyed , bnt this is certainly no argument to prove that he would not have fared better with than without the enjoyment . So a man may say : " Look at me , my boys . I never learnt no Latin , and here am I , worth—well , not one pretty penny only , as
the saying is , but several pretty pennies . I am possessed of twenty , fifty , or a hundred thousand pounds ( as the case may be ) . I learnt no Latin , but I worked , I did , and precious hard too . " This , we admit , may be very true , but it furnishes no proof whatever that our imaginary friend
with the long purse would not have fared equally well , or even better , had he received a Latin as well as a plain English education . He wonld certainly have been better able to appreciate and speak his own language . Again , we are no longer an isolated people . We mix a great deal with other
peoples , and especially with our next door nei ghbours , the French . Hordes of Frenchmen visit England , and hordes of Englishmen visit France . We trade together largely . We buy of their produce and manufactures , and they of ours . Thus , a boy who starts in life with some knowledge of the
French language has , cceteri paribus , a wider field open to him than the boy who has not . Indeed , it has come to be recognized as an indispensable part of onr school studies that every boy shall have an opportunity of learning French . The same may be said of the German language ,
and for similar reasons , and the boy who can read and speak German has manifestly an advantage over one who can do neither . Hence it is that now-a-days a reasonably well educated youth is expected to have some knowledge of German , and the knowledge is worth having , not only
from a literary , but from a commercial point of view . So , as it would be cruel not to give our boys the same kind of liberal education they would doubtless have received had misfortune not overtaken them so early in life , the Governing Body of the school has very wisely extended the course of
education , so as to meet the requirements of the present day . Hence , Latin is taught , French is taught , German is taught , and other branches of knowledge are taught , so that when the boys of the Royal Masonic Institution get their first insight into the stern realities of life , they may
be reasonably well furnished with knowledge to earn an honest livelihood . Bnt this higher scale of education can only be imparted at a large annual cost , and the higher we raise the standard of training , both mental and physical , the greater the demands upon the coffers of tho Institution .
Here then is another reason why more funds are needed . We have said that more boys are being educated than formerly , and there are still more who require to be educated . To
these we now add a third and equally valid reason . It is the duty of the Governing Body , in orr ' er to keep pace with the times , to give our boys a higher standard of education than was thought necessary in , years gone b y ,