houses are built in the old style, are too small
to be convenient, and, with one exception, too near the public roads,
having generally no other play-ground."--_Report_, 1840, p. 47.

Say the visitors of another large and wealthy town in the central part
of the state, "Out of twenty schools visited, ten of the school-houses
were in bad repair, and many of them not worth repairing. In none were
any means provided for the ventilation of the room. In many of the
districts, the school-rooms are too small for the number of scholars.
The location of the school-houses is generally pleasant. There are,
however, but few instances where play-grounds are attached, and their
condition as to privies is very bad. The arrangement of seats and desks
is generally very bad, and inconvenient to both scholars and teachers;
most of them are without backs."--_Report_, 1840, p. 28.

In another large and populous town in the northwestern part of the
state, it appears from the report of the visitors that only _five_ out
of twenty-two school-houses are respectable or comfortable; none have
any proper means of ventilation; eight of them are built of logs, and
but one of them has a privy.

According to the report from another county, where the evils already
enumerated exist, "There is, in general, too little attention to having
good and dry wood provided, or a _good supply of any_; or to have a
wood-house or shelter to keep it from the storm." This neglect is very
common. Another neglect, noticed by many of the visitors, is "the cold
and comfortless state in which the children find the school-room, owing
to the late hour at which the fire is first made in the morning."

Three years later--and after the appointment of county superintendents
in each of the counties of that state, who collected statistics with
great care--the Hon. Samuel Young, then state superintendent, after
making a minute statement of the number of school-houses constructed of
stone, brick, wood, and logs; of their condition as to repair; of the
destitution of privies, suitable play-grounds, etc., remarked as
follows:

"But 544 out of 9368 houses visited contained more than one room; 7313
were destitute of any suitable play-ground; nearly 6000 were unfurnished
with convenient seats and desks; nearly 8000 destitute of the proper
facilities for ventilation; _and upward of 6000 without a privy of any
sort_; while, of the remainder, but about 1000 were provided with
privies cont