When I asked them if they had
tooth-brushes, one of the girls replied, pointing to a brush:
"Yes, sir. That is our brush. We bought it together, yesterday."
It did not take them long to learn a different lesson.
It has been interesting to note the effect that the use of the
tooth-brush has had in bringing about a higher degree of
civilization among the students. With few exceptions, I have
noticed that, if we can get a student to the point where, when
the first or second tooth-brush disappears, he of his own motion
buys another, I have not been disappointed in the future of that
individual. Absolute cleanliness of the body has been insisted
upon from the first. The students have been taught to bathe as
regularly as to take their meals. This lesson we began teaching
before we had anything in the shape of a bath-house. Most of the
students came from plantation districts, and often we had to
teach them how to sleep at night; that is, whether between the
two sheets--after we got to the point where we could provide them
two sheets--or under both of them. Naturally I found it difficult
to teach them to sleep between two sheets when we were able to
supply but one. The importance of the use of the night-gown
received the same attention.
For a long time one of the most difficult tasks was to teach the
students that all the buttons were to be kept on their clothes,
and that there must be no torn places or grease-spots.
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