The Lexington Civic League: Agent of Reform, 1900 - The Filson ...

350 The Filson Club History Quarterly [July
to preach their morning sermon on some aspect of the West
End School. Mrs. Breckinridge also wrote an article on the
subject for the Sunday edition of the Herald. In it she again
explained what the term "Model School" meant. It would be a
school better than any the community possessed and standards
would grow higher each year. Because ninety percent of the
children in public school would some day earn their living with
their hands, it was folly, she argued, to teach them Latin and
higher mathematics without first teaching them sanitation,
nutrition, and vocational skills. In addition, the school should
serve social uses. By providing young people with a gathering
place, they could be better protected from the saloons and other
evils which often filled recreation time.za
The campaign opened with a parade of 2,500 school children,
followed that evening by a banquet with Charles W. Dabney,
president of the University of Cincinnati, as the guest speaker.
On each of the nine succeeding days, one hundred and fifty
solicitors scoured the city door-to-door. The first day brought
$3,798.50 in pledges with $2,000 of that amount coming from
prominent Bluegrass horseman, James B. Haggin. Subscriptions
did not flow in quickly or easily. By the time of the ball which
was held on the last evening of the drive, the League was still
$3,500 short of its goal. A number of people attending the ball
pledged to make up that amount. As both the Lexington Leader
and the Herald pointed out, those who guaranteed the final
amount were the same ones who had already given the most
in time and money. The Leader then suggested and the Herald
endorsed a plan to ask those people to contribute who had not
done so before because they felt their contribution was too in-
significant to matter. This produced a good result but not
enough to make up the $3,500. Collecting the pledges was not
easy either. Because the money came in so slowly, plans for the
school had to be modified by postponing the swimming pool
29 Lexington Herald, 11, 12, 13 November 1910.