Daily American telegraph., 1852-09-11
OUR PUBLIC sCHooLs.-No. VIII.

/ !
OUR PUBLIC sCHOoLs.-No. VIII.
| BY 3. 3. RANDALL.
There are those in every community who claim
an equitable exemption from general contribution
for the extension of the blessings of education,
upon the ground that they have already provided
for, or are prepared to give, suitable education,
| at their own proper cost and charges, to their
oVn children, and that it is for others to do the
same or to omit it altogether, as they may deem
most expedient. Let US examine for a moment
the strength and validity of this plea.
Have you, my friend, q daughter, whom you
value as the apple of your eye-whom you have
nourished and cherished with all the fondness and
warmth Of parental love-whose fair and sylph-
like form you would scarce permit tle winds of
heaven to visit too roughly Whose mind, under
your vigilant supervision, has been made the re-
ceptacle of all high and holy and pure thoughts
and for whose future welfare you are tenderly
and anxiously solicitous? While she remains un-
der your protecting roof, and within the pale of
your constant guardianship, happiness may in
deed, attend her every footstep, and peace and
| JOY be the companions OF her well-spent hours.
But day is coming when she must leave the
hallowed sanctuary of home, and go forth, strong
in her native innocence and unsulled purity, to
mingle with the world. There, the heartless Sc
ducer the unprincipled fortune hunter, the empty
and frivolous coxcomb, the subtle and malignant
ruftian, the ignorant and degraded vagabond, and
the brutal sot, await her coming, and lay their
terrible snares for her destruction. Is it not o
fearful trial? Can you look coolly on and await
the issue with complacent eye, satisfied that
| you have done your duty, and that all will be
well? Is the conduct and character Of your
neighbors, and Of your fellow men, indeed nothing
to you that you should interest yourself in their
education?
/ Or have you n son, upon whose mental culture
| no time, no pains, no expense has been spared?
He, too, has been daintily brought up and vigi-
lantly cared for No vulgar child Of poverty and
degradation has been suffered to pollute the fair
surface Of his ingenious and aristocratic mind
| His companionship has been with the gentle and
well born; his associations have been exclusively
with the yirtuous, the high-minded, and the no.
BILE. All that the most eminent and successful
instructors, and the most ample stores Of ancient
and modern lore, could give him, has been freely
and literally bestowed; and he goes forth into
the scenes of active life with q proud brow, q
fearless heart, and cultivated mind. Surely it
were the height Of presumption to expect that q
father could do more. What is it TO him that
others have neglected the culture Of their chill
dren? True, the licensed yender of alcohol turks
| in his neighborhood, with his well-flled dens Of
infamy and of darkness, and the gambler, the
debauchee, the prostitute, the robber, and the
murderer are abroad in the land; and they, and
such as they, are now the men, who few short
years since, as luckless and poor, but still inno
cent and unhardened boys, were haughtily and
contemptuousy passed by as unworthy Of notice
or regard. But was it any part of has business
to see to their education? Alas few brief
years clapse and that fair-harcd boy, in an evil
hour, has yielded to the alluremcnts Of passion;
and his swollen and bloated cheeks, his trembling
and palsied limbs, his pcstiferous breath, his
haggard face and bloodshot eyes, tell that for
him the drunkard's dishonored grave is rapidly
preparing Or it may be that, with wretched
hopes and blasted expectations, he stands at the
convicts bar to receive the merited retrbution Of
a career Of ignorniny and crime, directly trace
able to the depraved associations Of his earlier
manhood. Had you, indeed, my friend, no in
tcrest in the conduct and character of your
neighbor's children? Let your solitary and be-
reaved hearth stone and your lacerated and
bleeding heart furnish the melancholy but in
structive answer
"a moor Irish widow" says Thomas Carlyle,
cher husband having died in one OF the lanes Of
Edinburgh, went forth with her three children,
bare of all resource, to solicit help from the cha
ritable establishments of that city. At this cha
ritablc establishment, and then at that, she was
refused; referred from one to the other helped
by none till she had exhausted them all her
strength and heart failed her; she sank down in
typhus fever, died, and infected her lane nth fe-
Der 50 that ssuenteen other persons died Of feOer
there IN consequence. Would it not have been
economy to help this poor widow? The forlorn
Irish widow applies to her fellowcreatures. Be
hold am sinking, bare Of help; ye must help
mep They answer, No, impossible; thou art
no sister Of ours But she proves her sisterhood:
her t1phas Jsuer Hills them they actually Were her
brothers, though denying it. You are no sister
of ours what shadow Of proof is there /? Here
are our parchments, our padlocks, proving indis-
| putably orr money-SdfeS 10 be ours and qou 10
hare no business ,oith them Nothing is left but
that she prove her sisterhood by dying and in
fecting you with typhus. Seventeen Of you lying
dead, will not deny such proof that she was flesh
of your flesh; and perhaps some ofthe living may
lay il to heartw