The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1859-02-23

with hesitation and diffidencc, because it
may be regarded as assuming, and yet I
cannot withhold it. That experience hero
and elsewhere, has led me earnestly, as
the friend of my pupils, to oppose these
amusenlents but not because I have
no sympathy with routb. in the buoyance
and vivacity natural to them.
l most heartily endorse the saying
of noble hearted teacher who remarks !;
81 have a strong and living sympathy
for youth. l have spent the best part of
my energies in labor for their welfare
delight in their pastimes,--in the exu-
berance of innocent mirth and pleasure
that springs from hearts unburdened with
care-l would not repress this desire
! for amusements-I would rather regu-
late and direct it to harmless and seasonal
bic indulgence" But I would most earn
estly beseech them to refrain from cards
and dancing from their known effects.
During an experience of more than
twenty years in teaching. in which
time have had under my care three
thousand students, | have found, with
scarcely an exception, that these practi-
ces have been detrimental to scholarship,
aad attended with evils that every earnest,
faithful teacher must deplore and that
when a student has once become addicted
to them, bis interest in study declines,
and learning loses its attractions, -all
salutary restraint becomes irksome,-he
seeks for unhealthy excitement, and is I'M
happy unless so excited. Books become
insipid, and its usual accompaniment are
fickleness, frivolity, boisterous mirth, row
dyism, gambling and other low forms of
dissipation. Nor do they stop there;-
such students will always sacrifice their les
sons and school duties however ilnporta mt,
when they come in the way Of their pleas
ures; and thus, they allow pleasure to in
terfere with business or duties to which
they should at least, be subordinate; and
this has boon marked feature in their
subsequent lives. Reform seems almost
impossible. They have carried their hab-
is into the college, to the counting room,
shop or farm, and in more than one in
stance to the penetentiary. I have never
known an instance where the card play
ing, dancing student excelled in scholar
ship, or in subsequenthfe, excelled in any
thing complimentary to his talents, taste
or Influence. Their attendance upon
school is usually irregular. The day be-
fore their parties, (and such parties are
not unfrequent here there is very little
study, and they generally lose part OF
their recitations by leaving school to make
arrangements for the dance; and the day
after, they are almost invariably late, 1T
they attend school at all, inattentlYe In
tLeir Rotations and utterly unfit in mind
and body, for staeetv.
This has been my experience here, as
well as elsewhere. | do not see single
feature in these amusements as practlced
here, that is less Objectionable than at
other places nor can | see any special
conservative influence that is operating
here to counterfeit these sad results. They
may not be as apparent NOR, for we are
as yet, a young community; but time
will doubtless develop them; and Unless
YOU can show me that human nature is
different here, or point me to some special
checks, or countelsailing tendencies, |
must still believe that they are detrimen-
tai to our educational interests, and OPP
pose them from convictions Of duty.
There is one feature here, different
from any other place in my experience;
and that is, there are more parents found
here. who advocate the hsrlnlessness Of
these practices in their children, than !
have ever found elsewhere.
l am aware that you may
call a. this mere indiii lual
opinion, and say this is peculiar to me,
and ultra; but am sustained in my views
by the testimony Of men, whose position,
wisdom ard experience, cannot with any
| Justice be set aside.
I have several letters before me, recent
" written, from which [ will quote.
PRoF. G. DEWEY, LID, for ffty-ttree
wears a celebrated teacher in academies
and colleges, now professor in the Uni
yersity of Rochester, says: "Ihe world
does not consider it (card playing) proper
for professors Of religion, if they have any
religion. This is we'll known. and the
wicked have tainted professors for doing
it. as bound next to give up their profes-
4 sion. It raises a feyerish excitement
keeps up late hours,-ruins scholarship,
and leads to dissipation. All colleges
have special laws against it, because the
| evils are SO well known. 1t is irreligious