Explore "All Taut" by Oliver Optic on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
It was within two weeks of the time for the opening of the Beech-Hill Industrial School. Only one-half of the students for the coming year had been engaged, and this was the circumstance which had given the principal so much thought during the summer. It was not that there was a lack of applicants; for, while he could accept only sixteen in addition to the number which remained over, he had more than a hundred applications for admission.
The subject had almost elevated itself to a question of political economy in the mind of the old shipmaster. He found that more than one-half of his pupils in the past had been the sons of wealthy or well-to-do people, who were abundantly able to pay for the tuition of their sons, including all the branches pursued in his school. He had come to the conclusion that he could make a better use of his money than in educating the children of those who were able to pay for it. The institution was no longer an experiment, and the most important question was in regard to those who should be selected to receive its benefits.