The Tombstone Epitaph

OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

That a special tax for the support of the public schools would be voted there can be no question. The reports that have gone abroad concerning the unsettled state of Tombstone have been of great injury to this community. If further, added to this, went forth the statement that Tombstone could not support its public schools, it would indeed be a sad following to what has already transpired, serving to substantiate harmful, preconceived notions.

Within the past year the schools have considerably more than doubled in size. The additional expenses which such an increase has rendered necessary have caused an unlooked-for and unprepared-for drain upon this district's apportionment. It has not only required the employment of additional teachers, with the payment of their salaries, but it has also necessitated the rental of buildings to accommodate the growing school.

These buildings have had to be furnished with seats, desks, stoves, blackboards, and other school fixtures. To have sustained the school at a year ago the ordinary provisions were sufficiently ample; but the extraordinary expenses to which the board of education have been subjected, to meet an extraordinary growth of our schools, have rendered a special tax a matter of imperative necessity; or the closing of the schools till January next—a period of eight months. The people of Tombstone will not, we are confident, accept this latter alternative.