It required just one minute and fifteen seconds for three
thousand pupils and teachers of Public School 22, at Sheriff and
Stanton Streets (New York), to file into the streets after the
“four taps signal,” indicating that the building must be vacated
with haste, a few minutes after a fire had been discovered.
One incident indicated particularly the degree of discipline
instilled into the children.
Harry Kagel, one of the smallest boys in the primary department,
asked permission to go down-stairs just after the pupils had
assembled for the afternoon session. As the boy was passing a
room near the vestibule on the ground floor, he scented smoke.
Opening the door, he found a fire blazing in waste paper and
baskets. He did not cry out or run with fear from the building,
but, remembering what his teachers had told him again and again,
he ran quietly up-stairs to his class-room and whispered about
the fire in the ear of the teacher, Miss Dixey.
She called an older boy and sent him to investigate. In a minute
he was back with a verification. Then Miss Dixey hurried to Miss
C. Knowl, principal of the primary department, and to John P.
Townley, principal of the school, and the signal was sounded.
At once every child in the school went to his or her station,
and all were in line or at the post assigned in a few seconds.
Altho the thin smoke in the hallways, creeping into the
sixty-six classrooms of the four-story building, indicated
to pupils and teachers that this was not one of the regular
drills, there was no confusion, and with the exception of the
faces of pupils and teachers, which were a trifle more serious
than at daily drill, the program was carried out perfectly.
One of the teachers, assigned to the piano, began the march, and
the pupils began to file out of the rooms after the last bell.
Monitors took their places on the stone steps to guard against
confusion near the exits. Every door in the building was thrown
open by those assigned to that duty.
As soon as they were in the streets, the classes hurried away
from the exits, so that the march of those in the rear would not
be hampered.
In the meantime the janitor, Duncan Robinson, had gathered a
number of large boys of the grammar department and formed a
bucket brigade. They made short work of the flames. There was no
call sent in for the fire department.
(780)
=Discipline, Easy=--See SLACKNESS.