Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1860-11-10
WHY NY GRANDDAUGHTER LEFT
SCHOOL.
WRITTEN FOR TIE rocsIN, BY AN OLD MAN.

- WRITTEN FOR TIE TocsIN, by AN OLD MAN.
l suppose one reason I om so long getting
through life is because l was born in q slow oge,
befJre childhood was abolished, and it became
customary fo- infants to leap out Of the bib aud
tucker into brocade and stove-pipe hats. l have
heen eighty-three years on life's journey, come
next Michnslmas, and l have not as yet had q fair
view of Siyx. save when, from the delectable
mountains of the souls serenity, l have beheld its
rolling tide, golden with the glories of my setting
sun. Well always was q slow horse; there is no
telling but still another score of years may roll
round before l stop growing old.
There was not as much com petition in ny day
(fOr now i, my evening" as there is now. Com
petition, they say. is the life Of trade and it is,
no doubt; bat it has already proved itself the death
Of the trader, ninety-fve cases in q hundred, in
the dry-goods trade and experience will show
:his rule to hold good in every pursuit turned into
q steeple-chase or a hazard. This is simply an
old mans opinion.
With tho single exception of a sober and tenn
pcruts life, this age develops competition on the
mad-hpuse plan, in every department. Look, for
instance, at Dur primary institutions Of learning.
In my day, applications Of birch and ferule
were deemed indispensable in the process of teach
ing the young idea how to shoot. That was o
mistake, no doubt. 1t wGs one Of the evils of my
time, against which however, no crusade need now
be wagcd, seeing that a far greater incentive to
juvenile activity has been found in the ambition
to excel, so natural to every mind, especially the
young, who are generally inspired with it, DO the
otjec; good, bad, or indifferent. Having thus &C.
L,o,1l,o1 ~ -. n IL II
Of INJECTING the rudiments, l hope to be saved the
modification of seeing 'fogy' annexed to what
frankly confess m~yself-old. Evils are as insepa
rable from systems as are shadows from substau,
ces for every good thing may be abused. But
while teachers are ever willing to admit tina
youthful brains are sometimes overtaxed and weak
ened, through abuse of the graded System, the1
are individually very 10th to own that such har
ever been the result under their own administra
tion. This is as natural as for q tippler to owl
the truth Of oil you can say to him, provided 20,
will only apply it all to his n~eigbbors who take
glass a day more than he. Every organism in ma
ture instiuctively displays its own PROJECTIONS; ant
man Sut obeys q universal law when he seeks t
hide his defects.
Still, when young minds are injured By overta1
ing them, il has been done under the administra
ton of some jealous teacher; and if the following
which ia founded on fact should recall to tn
mind OF any reader scenes in which he has olayec
a part, let him rest assured that this old ant
slightly trembling hand is not impelled by tn
least spark Of %acrimony. There is now SO mucl
talent engaged in teaching, and the competition
in that branch Of Industry has, by the genera
diffusion Of knowledge. and also by woman's en-
trance into it, become so intense, that it is hardly
to be wondered at that the pupils brain is simply
looked upor, by the ambitious pedagogue, as a
mill in which a medley grist Of spelling and read
Ing primary sounds and genealogical definitions,
mental and higher arithmetic, physical geography
and grSmmor, philosophy and astronomy. equa.
tions, RIOS. sections and t~riaDgles, with a discord
of fats, a smatter Of parlez vous, 0eis Hichis, non
spsrr0 ma Jaggir. or ad coptandum a daubing Of
ooIors, etc without regard to the injury it may
do to The gearing. is to be ground Out. And l
feel rather inclined to pity than censurs one
whose ~situa.ion and standing in his profession de-
pehds upon his ability to set youthful brains on
Gre. With these few preliminary remarks l pro
eesd 10 my short narrative:
Several weeks ago, l begun to DO walked up,
night after night, by a person quietly undressing
and going to bed, in the room adjoining mine.
Sixty ysars ago., should never have known IL;
bat abe dnmesrs Of age are light and wstchful-
wary, for the soft tread Of tho sable angel is on
their path ] grew curious; aud, curiosity keep
ing me awake. soon learned, BY various carefully.
made noises. thu. said person sat ap, every night.
10 said roomr ill .vslgs o'clock, and, az times, in
& to tie small hours Knowing that the little a,ic