I felt from the first that mere
book education was not all that the young people of that town
needed. I began my work at eight o'clock in the morning, and, as
a rule, it did not end until ten o'clock at night. In addition to
the usual routine of teaching, I taught the pupils to comb their
hair, and to keep their hands and faces clean, as well as their
clothing. I gave special attention to teaching them the proper
use of the tooth-brush and the bath. In all my teaching I have
watched carefully the influence of the tooth-brush, and I am
convinced that there are few single agencies of civilization that
are more far-reaching.
There were so many of the older boys and girls in the town, as
well as men and women, who had to work in the daytime and still
were craving an opportunity for an education, that I soon opened
a night-school. From the first, this was crowded every night,
being about as large as the school that I taught in the day. The
efforts of some of the men and women, who in many cases were over
fifty years of age, to learn, were in some cases very pathetic.
My day and night school work was not all that I undertook. I
established a small reading-room and a debating society. On
Sundays I taught two Sunday-schools, one in the town of Malden in
the afternoon, and the other in the morning at a place three
miles distant from Malden.
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