The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1855-03-08
NO. is.
sincerely hope their case will be fayora
bly noticed

tress issues mostly from those schools
where females are employed. The world
seems niggardly in the extreme, in its
: pecuniary appropriations to woman; and
perhaps it is wisely ordered that it should
, be SO; for if that sex we're as well paid
and prosperous in the single state as re-
|, formers would have them, it may be,
they would never decline the verb To
Love, with such easy and graceful en-
, phasis as they do now. Nevertheless
this has always seemed to us matter
that needed reform, and We plead for Ho-
mans rights decidedly, till this abuse is
. work performed by the weaker sex equal
y we'll as by men, ought to be as well
paid. And we believe that it may be set
down as one of the indications of reform,
that the compensation of female teachers
has been raised throughout most of the
Commonwealth. Still, it is authenti-
Gated fact in Massachusetts,, (and other
States are not more free from the re-
proach,) that women have kept hunger at
a distance at less than "a dollar week
and boarded around" And it has been
handed down by tradition that some en-
terprising districts have expected their
instructresses to split meal OF vlctuals,
if not bisect nights lodging, to make
the board come out even! If there are
any teachers employed in this or a sini-
lar way now, they should at once be
handed over to the Humane Relief So
ciety; as objects of pity they certainly
stand next to Sir John Franklin.
But we confidently believe that the re-
proach is in measure, passing away;
and though teachers as class are not
paid as they should be, their compensa-
tion is far more respectable than former
~. The time is fast approaching, if not
already come, when good teaching will
command good pay.
Perhaps we have treated this subject,
which is really matter of sober concern
to many, with less sobriety than We ought.
But we cannot close this train of thought
without adding few considerations of q
practical, and perhaps to some painful,
nature.
First; In the cry of too small pay, it
must not always be taken for granted
that the blame is wholly on one side
They are common maxims, that 1t re-
quires two to make a bargain, and that
every story is good, until another is told.
Perhaps teachers have sometimes in their
vanity over-estimated their merit, and it
is very possible that the much DETAINED
community has paid them all that their
service was really worth
We remarked again, that perhaps the
same amount of talent and enterprise in
other kinds of business would not have
made progress towards wealth any faster
than here. We have as much vanity as
o teacher ought to possess, and as much
pride of profession; but We will not at
tempt to conceal the fact that in some
instances, surprisingly little tact and in
telligence have been exhibited in connec-
tion with the ruler. It has long since ac-
quired the force of proverb, that talent
and skill will command success; but we
find no promises of competence and wealth
to the opposite qualities anywhere. We
have seen teachers,-and it we remem-
Der correctly, have "cried at the sight,"
who in our opinion received all they
were worth. They had never expended
a shilling in qualifying themselves for the
work; they seemed to be walking illustra-
tions of the idea of the poet,
"a little knowledge is dangerous thingr'
Their chief merit evidently lay in their
perfect orthodoxy; for they believed with
Solomon, that to "spare the rod" was to
"spoil the child; and as one says, they
"thiuned the forests all the way down
from Vermont" in demonstrating their
belief! The increasing light of this cen
tury however, put very emphatic per-
iod to their vocation long ago. We would
always speak we'll of the dead; but We
have no idea that they left any unsettled
claims upon the world for insufficient payl
Again: 1t may be at least a comforting,
though perhaps not palliating, thought,
that the world has never been in the hab-
it of rewarding labor according to its real
merit. The standard of its prices, as we'll
as of its morGlS, needs reformation. We
know some persons who never spent q
dollar upon their education, and whose
sole business is to disseminate whips and
cigars over the map Of the world in a
small wagon, who receive more eompen-
sation than the most fortunate teacher
We wot of. They could outbid the wealth
lest clergyman in Western Massachusetts,
and supply half dozen pulpits every
Sabbath, with their weekly pay! So in
ancient times this abandoned world had
the same peculiarity, though perhaps in
more exceptionablc way; bufoons dwels
in courts, saints dwelt in caves. There
was strange propensity to construe ben
efactor and malefaetor in the same case,
as we read near the close of the gospels.
And if by special dispensation of char
ity, earth's best heroes have escaped cru
ci6xion, it has been zoo often only to be
handed over to starvation;
"Seven cities fought for Homer dead,
Through which Homer living begged his