sold in some of the wards--the wards where the public schools are
almost the sole civilizing power, and where it is of unspeakable
importance that the schools should be in the hands of the best men and
women. One young lady; who had just buried her father and had a
helpless mother to support, applied for a situation as teacher, and was
told, as usual, that she must pay for it. She replied that she could
not raise the sum demanded, the funeral expenses having exhausted the
family store. She was then informed that she could pay 'the tax' in
instalments. Another poor girl came on the witness-stand on crutches,
and testified that she had paid $75 for a situation of $300 a year.
Another lady went to a member of the Ring, and told him, with tears,
that she saw no way of procuring the sum required, nor even of saving
it from the slender salary of the place. The man was moved by her
anguish, took compassion upon her, and said he would remit _his share_
of 'the tax.' It was shown, too, that the agent of all this foul
iniquity was no other than the principal of one of the schools. It was
he who received and paid over the money wrung from the terror and
necessities of underpaid and overworked teachers. We learn from the
report of the committee that the Ring in this ward was originally
formed for the express purpose of giving the situations in a new and
handsome school 'to the highest bidder'; and, as the opening of the new
school involved the discharge of a small number of teachers employed in
the old schools, the Ring had both, the fear and the ambition of the
teachers to work upon. 'There was a perfect reign of terror in the
ward,' says the report of the investigating committee. 'The agent
performed his duty with alacrity and with a heartlessness worthy of the
employers. It appears that he not only summoned the teachers to come to
him, but that he called on their parents and friends as to the amount
they should pay for their appointments--the sums varying from $50 to
$600, according to the position sought.'