Another World

however, all
required to rise at the same hour, and this is the mode adopted for
rousing them. At the end of each room, opposite to the sleeping-couch,
is a kind of gong made of metal and formed like a pair of cymbals,
united at the base by a hinge, and kept together by a bolt at the top.

At the hour of rising these cymbals are set in motion by the matron in
the watch room, who touches a spring by which the bolt fastening the
cymbals together is removed. Thereupon the cymbals immediately clash
together, and produce loud discordant sounds. The girl, not liking the
discordant noise, loses no time in stopping it, which is beyond her
power unless she leaves her bed and fixes the bolt that keeps the two
cymbals together.

This done, she goes into an adjoining room, in which are a bath and
other preparations for her ablutions. The door communicating with the
sleeping-room closes of itself, whereupon the matron enters the
apartment, pulls off the bed-clothes, and opens a large skylight at the
top, to admit the fresh air.

The ablutions of all the girls ended, they descend to their repast,
after which they say a very short and simple prayer. In this thanks for
their refreshing sleep and for the food they have partaken are united
into one petition that the labours of the day may be blest by the
Supreme.

The practice which formerly existed of saying long prayers before the
girls partook of their first repast is abolished. Many young people have
keen appetites after a night's rest, and when the old custom prevailed
their thoughts would be wandering in a direction very different to that
ostensibly taken by their prayers.

Although saying set prayers before the early meal is now not required of
the young girl, gratitude to the Dispenser of all good is successfully
inculcated. On the walls of the repast room are inscribed in large
characters appropriate precepts adapted to the young intellect--such as
"Think of God before you eat." In the meaning of these the young are
instructed at an ea

John Addington Symonds (October 5, 1840 - April 19, 1893) was an English poet and literary critic. He was an early advocate of the validity of male love which included for him pederastic as well as egalitarian relationships, and which he would refer to as lamour de limpossible.