Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1858-05-29
TAFroN HIGH SCHOOL CLOSING EXERCISES

f1tgHCcho0t III company Will ". W. Do"eii'
ESQ. The latter ma med gentleman Is
known everywhere as the particular friend
of school children.
Pref DAVID PARSONS and his accom-
plished lady are the teachers. The quail
ficatiors of Mr.. PARSONS as Principal
and Teacher may be judged from the fact
that he was for long time the Superin-
tendent and one of the Professors in sew
eral departments of the Be!fontas'ae (Ohio)
Union School, an institution Of high mer-
| it during his presidency. The catalogue
for 1856, numbered 1876 students; at the
close of which year, and while his popu-
larity as teacher was on the ascending
scale, he resolved to leave Belfontaine and
enter a new and almost uncultivatei field
in the far west. These facts are before us
in the offit ial report of the above named
school.
For several months, Tatton High
School has been KEEP: in small room of
90 by 30, poorly lighted and seated and
furnished in the rudest manner. Bnt,
teachers possessing such warm hearts and
SO much energy and fortitude can always
manage to change small things into great,
darkness into light and howell into pal
ace. On the evening we met in that
small room, the dimensions Of everything,
material and intellectual, seemed ayni
fed to dou BILE size: From an apparent
small population in and around Tafton, a
multitude Of at least six hundred was
gathered to witness the performance, most
of them however had to stay without; the
children appeared full grown and with in
tellects like a legislature or tea-party !;
low and squallid things looked grand,
common matters arose to magnificence. -
Esqr. Beach will say, "that's so, every
word of it,"
In this our day Of school ambition, per-
haps no intellectual entertainment excels
in real attractions the closing exercises of
our best public and private schools. By
real attractions we mean the substantial
rs we'll as amusing parts, worthy Of re-
Wondering for useful purposes in our life
time. Such exercises remind us of what
we thought and how we acted, what we
wrote and how we spoke when little boys
and girls. We are sure to follow up the
lesson by thinking of what we have since
learned and how we now think, act, write
and speak. Also, that gem of school
house, where we received the first lesson.
is brought back to mind and that teacher,
how he taught US to speak and write, think
and act. This very moment we are re-
minded how the school rakes from OBJ
security every pearl and brightens every
mothers jewel of little boy and girl in
the country; also reminds US of the teach
er, whose head is a living spring of life for
youthful minds. Truly, the pleasures of
school are living pleasures; music may
give us communion with angels and poetry
send sunbeams into our prison windows,
but only in the school is found the pleas
ures of nowledge
Youthful oratory and defamation, such
as was heard at Tafton, unfold to full
view that terminating process prece eding
the perfect man and woman. Our future
leaders in social, civil and moral govern
ment are seen at closing exercises of school,
as so many twinkling comets-very dis
tant now, but the day of their power will
soon come. Let them speed and install a
better world, as we believe they will.
1 The task of noting minute particulars
of names, parts, characters, &C., with crit
cisns, would be too much for us at this
time. We remark in general way that
the spectators were deeply interested till
the close, which was after midnight. The
parts were so arranged as to afford vari
: ETY.: determinations were followed by music
and moral farce: eloculionary exercises
r were followed by dialogues and diverting
exhibitions, every part being well relieved
by something that would change the Of.
feet.
The next term of luton High School
; will commence in September next. A
building, % by As feet, height two stories
is being erected for the school, and it is to
be ready by September. More particulars
of Tafton next week.
CLAYTON, IOWA-BUSINESS- STEAM MILLS