Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1860-10-27

Newrpnper. nnd EdncntInn.

Some days since, little girl accosted us on
ferry boat "Please tell me what o'clock it
Is, siri' at is just nine "Then,n said
she, a shall be late at school ado you
cross the river to 20 to school2' "No, sir,
but have been to my aunt's on a visit and
| an now going back; I'm afraid my mother
will not let me 60 again if lam late "What
are you studying" aim in ancient geogra.
ply, rhetoric, composition and grammar. -
''Do you not study modern geography2' "No,
sir, but am going TO stndy physiology, ge-
olOgy and metaphysics care you, indeed?'
"Yes, sir, my mother says they are the fashion,
able studies modern geography and arith-
matte are so common, you know-eUerybody
learns them. She wants me to learn the high
er branches" "Will you take message to
your mother from me?" ayes, sir" "Tell her
that you met a gentleman on a ferry boat
who told you that ancient geography, rhetor
ic and physiology are not the studies for a
child OF your age and thatmodern geography,
arithmetic, and a good newspaper are the
higher branches. Don't forget this
1t would be for US a perilous undertaking
TO assert that girls in general are not
equal TO boys, and consequently that women
are not equal TO men. We assert no such
thing. We are afraid TO do tive fear al
mos. to put the case alphabetically. Are
girls equal TO boys, and women equal to men,
in tact and ability to accomplish what is equal
ly within the capacity of either sex? Have
they equal presence of mind in danger, equal
readiness Of resource, equal knowledge Of
passing events, equal power TO seize new arts
and take advantage Of opportunities To sum
upin a word, do they make as much and as
good use Of their faculties as boys and men?
Why not? Is it because master Bob as
serts II divine right to the newspaper of morn.
ings, so that his sister, poor little soul, is
obliged 10 90 10 school to have all the philO-
sophy thrust down her intellectual throat,
without any knowledge of the real matters
IN life by which they are illustrated and to
which they are applied? Is it because the
poor child must drink in rhetoric without hav-
ing read the fine periods Of Seward and Ev-
erett, or the glowing eloquence and the criti-
cism of the leading columns? Is it because she
is in the maids hands, to be "fxed up" with
her thoughts and aspirations directed TO a
new hoop skirt, and to have her hair and
mind twisted into curls, while Bob is catch
ing the magnetism Of great deeds, by
reading telegrams from California, France,
England, Italy, and China? "Hurrahl Carl
baldi is at Naplesl Hurrah! The Sardinians
have whipped Lamoriciere, and the Pope is
going to be kicked out of Rome, shouts Bob,
as little hoop-skirt comes into the breakfast
room, and shippers in her darling accents
''Ma, l want pair of jet armlets-Evelina
Louisa SophrOnia Smith has a pair, and !
think its a shame that can't have them
Won't you make Bob stop that drea-a-dful
nnise?' "Yes dear, you shall have the arm
lets. Ma will go out and get them this very
day"
Ma is going to make herself over again in
her child. She never reads the papers, ex-
cepting the marriages and fashions, and the
horrors, and the sickening romances, and the
small gossip, and why should her daughter?
Some judicious families and circles must be
excepted from this not caricature, where We
see girls equal to boys, growing up iutO wo-
men who will not be inferior to men.
1t is possible that we overrate heinhuence
of the newspaper as an educator, but we
think not. 1t is the voice OF the living world.
1t is history, art philosophy, science, truth,
rhetoric, grammar and everything else not
unmixed with talsehood and nonsense, but
not more so mixed than the home infant
school for girls, from which the boys break
away before their bones are out of the gristle.
Take Grammar, Natural History, Rhetoric
and CompGsi,tiien. Where are ttbaSa f,,,-i -ai
WHAT better Rhetoric than to see some popu-
lar writer or famous scholar roasted alive on
the Goals of criticism? Where are {better ex-
amples of tasteful composition? Where is a
better cabinet Of natural hiSforv9 What in
all the world escapes the newspaper editor?-
And if be commits blunders in grammar or
logic, or fact, or philosophy, is he not forth
with served up on the gridiron by another
editor? Where, but in the newspaper, will
be found a running history of all. the litera-
ture of the day? Where else are you told
what books you may safely buy, what are
not worth putting on your shelves, and what
would be as hurtful to the minds of your
children as henbane to their bodies?