To say merely that they were poor
gives no true idea of their situation to an American reader. They
were extremely poor, and grinding oppression still keeps them so. In
1837, Mr. Stocking found very few pupils in the schools wearing
shoes, even in the snow of midwinter; and one sprightly lad in
Sabbath school had nothing on but a coarse cotton shirt, reaching
down to his knees, and a skull cap, though the missionary required
all his winter clothes, besides a fire, to keep him comfortable.
Another evil growing out of their poverty was, that the
missionairies, in order to give the first impulse to education,
resorted to some measures which, after an interest was awakened, had
to be laid aside in order to increase it. For example, poor parents
could not be persuaded to earn bread for their children while they
sent them to school; hence, to get scholars at first, the mission
furnished their daily bread; and this having been done for the boys,
had to be done for the girls also. So, in the winter of 1843-44,
twenty-five cents a week was paid to the day scholars, the others
having their board instead.
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