A SCHOOL FOE STEEET AEABS

By EDMUND R. SPEARMAN,

AUTHOR 01^ ARTICLES AND REPORTS ON EDUCATION IN FRANCE

The Municipal Council of Paris and the " Morally Abandoned"—Street
Children without Care—Plans op M. Brueyre—Dr. Thulie—D'Alem¬
bert School for Paris Street Boys—Montevrain—Occupations of the
Boys—Printing, the Turning-shop, Cabinet-making — Value of the
Boys' Work — The Daily Routine — The Drill — The Veterans — The
School Table—Health Statistics—Future of the Pupils.

STEEET Arabs are often picturesque to look at, especially on
the canvases of the fair bride of an African explorer. They
are also amusing in their " cheek" and their " lingo " espe¬
cially in the pages of Dickens. But they are also highly dangerous
to the public peace if allowed to " run to seed," the seed being often
robbery, outrage, and even murder. The street Arab battalions of
London during recent years have kept whole districts under a
reign of terror, and one notorious murder in Marylebone, connected
with the wild excesses of the London urchins, a few years ago set
all tongues to wagging over the necessity of some sweeping reform.
The street Arab grows into the " larrikin " and " hoodlum," the
" rough " and " plug ugly," and becomes less picturesque and more
obnoxious.

While London has been talking, Paris has been acting. The
philosophic guardians of the French capital have, during the last
decade, taken the street Arab in hand to some purpose, and have
dealt with him in a manner to serve as a model to the other great
capitals of the world, where the same questions are sure to present
themselves for solution.