THE FIGHT AT DAME EUROPA’S SCHOOL.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2538, 5 April 1871, Page 2

THE FIGHT AT DAME EUROPA’S SCHOOL.

[We are indebted to a friend for permis • to publish the following witty story, inte dec! to explain the origin and course ot tie Franco-Prussiau war. Sixty-nine thousan copies have been printed and circulated m England. We do not .agree w.th its condemnation of the policy of Great Britain, which, in our opinion, displayed a firmness and decision which must result beneficiary in the cause of peace. Jl.ul the foolish counsel of Mr Disraeli been followed, instead of Europe, and tbe World la ing left to repair the damages of the Lit- 1 terrible struggle, war would have been only begining—the end none could predict. Great Britain has set an examp.o which other nations will not be slow to follow, and lias taken the lead in breaking through that traditional policy which treated men’s lives as if they wvre valueless, compared with extent of empire, and the perpetuation or establishment of dynasties. Though condemned by the unthinking, it is a wide step beyond what any other country, cxep ! ing the Uiv'cd .States,‘has taken, and in future ages will be looked upon ns higher glory than could have been gained by compelling a peace, bought with the blood of tens of thousands of her sons, and which could only have been maintained by the sword.] Mrs Europa kept a Dame’s School, where Boys were well instructed iu modern languafes, fortification, and the use of the globes, ler connexion and credit were good, for there was no other school where so sound and liberal an education could be obtained. Many of her old pupils hold Masterships iu other important ts ablishmcnts, tivoof which may be mentioned as consisting chiefly of dark sw.u thy youths, decidedly stupid and backward for their years ; while a third was a large modem Academy full of rather cocky fel’ows, -who talked big about the institutions of their school, and talked, for the most part, through their nose. The lads at Mrs Europa’s were of all sorts and sizes—good Boys and bad Boys, sharp Boys and slow Boys, in. ustrious Hoys and idle Boys, peacable Boys ;nd pugnacious Boys, well behaved Boys and vulgar Boys ; and of course the good old damo could not pos ibly mamge them all. So, as she did not like, the masters to be prying about the playground out of school, she chose from among the biggest and most trustworthy of her pupils five monitors w r bo had authority over the rest of iho Boys, and kept the unruly ones in order. These rive, at the time of which wc are writing, were Louis, William, Aleck, Joseph, and John. If a dispute arose among any of the smaller Boys, the monitors had to examine into its cause, and if possible to settle it amicably, rihould it he neces-a-y to fight the matter out, they were to see fair play, stop the encounter when it had gone far- enough, and at all times to unhold justice, and prevent tyranny and bullying. 'I be power thus placed in their hands wa s for the most part exercised with discretioiii and to the manifest advantage of the school. Trumpery littlb quarrels were patched up, which raightotherwischavcled tothepatching up of bnusesaud black eyes; andnmnyatime, when two little urchins had retired with their backers into a corner of the playground to fight about nothing at all, did the dreaded appearance of Master Louis or Master John put them to flight, or force them to shake hands. The worst of it was that some of the monitors themselves occasionally took to bullying, and then of course it became more than ever the duty of the rest to interfere. There lingered a tradition in the school of a terrific row in times past, when a monitor named Nicholas made a most unprovoked attack upon a quiet but very dirty little Boy called Constantine. John and Louis stuck up for the child boldly, and gave Nicholas such a thrashing that he never got over it, end soon afterwards left the school. Each of the upper Boys at Dame Europa’s had a little garden of his own, in a corner of iho pbyg'onnd. The Boys took givat interest in their gardens, and kept than very neatly. In some were grown flowers and fruit, in others mustard and cress or radishes, which the youn, f cultivators would sell to one an ther and take into Hall, to help down their bread and scrape at tea time. Every garden had in the middle of it an arbour, fitted up according to the taste and means of its owner. Lewis had the prettiest arbour of all, like a grotto iu fairy land, fid of the most beautiful flow.-rs and ferns, with a vine creeping over the roof, and a little fountain playing inside. John’s garden was pretty enough, and more productive than any; owing its chief beauty, however, to the fact that it was an Island, separated from all the rest by a stream, between twenty and thirty feet wide. But his arbour was a mere toolhouse, where he shut himself up almost all play time turning .at his la'he, or making nets or sharps dug knives, or cutting out boats to sail on the river. Still, John was fond of a holiday now and then ; and when he was tired of slaving away iu his own garden, ho would punt himself across the bro ik, and pay a vist to his neighbour Louis, who was always cheerful and hospitable, and gad to sec him. Many and many a happy hour did he spend in his friend’s arbour, lying at full length on the soft moss, and eating grapes and drinking lemonade, and thinking how much pleasanter it was over there than in his own close fusty shop, with its dirt and litter and its eternal smell of tar, and nets, and shavings. Anyhow', thought Johnnie, I make more profit out of my garden than any of the otk.r fellows, so I must put up with a few bad smells. For Dame Europa, by way of encouraging habits of industry, allowed the Boys "to engage pretty extensively in commercial pursuits, aiul it was said that Master John, who had been working unusually hard of late, had sometimes trebled or quadrupled his half-yearly pocket money out of the produce of his toolhouse and garden. (To he continued)