Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1854-12-29
jf!igrGllanr0llg.
The Unseen w orld in
Vermont.

Monday, Of this week, was a great day TO
nearly one hundred thousand people IN Yer
mont. About twenty-five hundred doors
were opened which had been shut for months.
About one half Of them had been secured
by locks, and opened into decent rooms, well
washed, and not altogether repulsiye. Ia
the other half the doors opened OF their own
accord, harshlY grating on their hinges
The first conner heard the boards creak un-
der his ieet,-saw the dark and hieroglyph-
ed walls.-the seats and desks cut and hack
ed as is the toriuring cage OF an imprisoned
animal. There stood the masters char,
long since disabled with the spinal complaint.
There stood the rusty old stove halt toll OF
ashes, and beside 1t lay one leg Of a pair Of
iongs, to do the punching
twenty-five hundred new fires were kin
died on hearihs that had been cold for six
months. There was difficulty in some cas-
es At one hundred doors there was no
wood. At five hundred more It was green
AT twelve hundred, there was wood, dry, and
in abundance. In eight hundred Of these
houses, there were cleanly, good-ooking
stoves. In the rest, they were cracked rus
ty, foul, and hateful to look upon.
la walked fifteen hundred schoolmasters.
each one with books in one hand, "a small
trunk in the other, looking serious, deter
mlneu, tuOueutrai, ---l i's,---. --r-- 1-s-.e.
good work lccH even tho it should never be
known. In walked also one thousand
school-mistresses, with books, portfolios a. c.,
&C., few children already by the side of
them.
( But the boys and girls lseveniy-fye thou
sand of them are there before them ITO
choose seats select companions for the win
ter, and look out for the first chance to uade
/ knives, &c.
"rhe master has come I" say twenty. lie
steps as II the sound OF his feet was made
the criterion BY which the scholars would
Judge him. How tormenting to walk across
the iilur hat and cloak on, and with books
balancing the little trunk, and forty pairs OF
Young eyes looking through you he coat
aud hat are disposed of-the books, ruler,
trunk, &c, are chucked away, you can't tell
where,--and then what somebody must
speak, the silence is fearful. The master
speaks. and his audience hear every word
and weigh them in balances, and then proph.
ecy with all care. The e is ipork before
him Forty minds are TO be made more
knowing, more capable, stronger and better
Forty wills are to be controlled by one will
and in such way, if possible, as not TO de
stroy mutual good will. These minds are
TO be taught not only to know, but to obey
to understand obedience TO good rules ant
laws, without which other knowledge is dan
gerous. A school teacher must be a schoo
master, or he cannot fulfil half his duty.
A coward cannot teach and govern I
sehool,--a bad man will not,-and an igno
rant one will be rIddled Teaching requires
a rare combination of good qualities in heat
and heart, such as few human beings pos
sess, which cannot be acquired, but must b'
born with the man. Teaching is an art
high and noble, and, TO succeed well, mus
be accompanied with courage, patience, per
severence, and self-denlal.
!, a deal of work is left for, rather than en-
trusted to, the teacher. He must do q larg,
share of the "bringing up and not littl'
of the "preaching." Many parent dislike
TO govern, and cannot endure to teach hi