Any City. No, I really don’t care to.
Education. To paraphrase your own words, “It is good for a city to be forced into right ways at times.” Now is such a time for you. Come!
Education leads the reluctant Any City behind the curtain.
Eighth Glimmer: Force
A DAME SCHOOL
The Dame (teacher) is a sour-looking old woman. She wears side curls and a high comb, a kerchief and hoop-skirt. Her voice is loud and rasping.
The pupils in old-fashioned costume—boys in long trousers and short jackets, girls in full long skirts and plain bodices and aprons—are seated on benches made by placing boards on two wooden horses or other supports. There is no rest for the pupils’ backs; the feet of the shorter children swing above the floor. The boys are seated on one side, the girls on the other. A boy with a high peaked cap, on which the word “Dunce” is printed, stands on a stool at one side of the room. A little girl stands on a stool on the other side. About her neck is hung a placard on which is written, “I brought my puppet to school.” Her puppet, a rag doll, lies at her feet.
The Dame carries a switch in her left hand. A bundle of switches lies on her table. On the middle finger of her right hand she wears a great brass thimble. Whenever a child is reprimanded or punished, the other pupils laugh as if enjoying the discomfiture of a class-mate, thus showing the worst influence of the teacher in the lives of her pupils.
As the curtain goes up, the Dame is speaking to the girl who brought her puppet to school.