Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1867-12-17
For the Spectator.
HARNASSUS V A.,
November, 9th 1867,

november, Ztn 1901.
MEssRs. EDITORS We have come to the
dear old county of Augusta, to spend the win
ter, and to have employment, and also to be of
advantage to our neighbors, and more particu-
larly their children. We have taken a class,
and are now at the pleasant, but the laborious
task OF training their young minds We are
aware Of the important position we occupy,
and that we cannot be too careful in instruc-
ting, these youths; but really the minds of the
parents, here as we'll as other places we have
been lately,) are too completely wrapped up in
their own narrow concerns, of raising wheat to
get money, to buy, and buying land to raise
wheat to get money, &c., continual, and end
less round; which is wealth and only poor cool,
selfish wealth-whie the education of their chill
dren is too much neglected.
They all agree that their children need school
ing badly, that houses ought to be built and re-
paired, and that some one ought to take the
lead, and call for volunteers to follow; but we
don't, and L have not seen the leader in this
all important undertaking, and fear very much,
that the horn will blow before he comes.
He would beg them to know, that whilst 9TH
er things can be put off from time to time-'tis
very dangerous to defer the education of their
sons and daughters that every day they are
coming nearer and nearer, to manhood and wO-
manhood, ahd then business will be necessary
for their support, and that of their families !;
and they live and die ignorant men and women,
and leave behind them children to follow in
their iootpaths, which have been the same
trodden roads for centuries past.
We appeal to fathers and mothers, and insist
that now in the time, and the important time
for them to be aroused from their lethargy, and
attend quickly to this all important duty-for
If not now, they will feel it only too keenly
when they are surrounded by awkward and ig-
norant youngsters
The offices of the County, State and Nation
are to be filled, and why should not these good,
honest farmers who are the life of this and ev-
cry other county, and who crowd your streets
daily with heavily ladened wagons of fine -four,
fat pork, rich corn and ripe apples, be repre-
sented What father would not rather see his
son return from the halls of yonder Congress,
with an upright walk, proud heart and shouts
of applause ringing from those courts, through
the presto the people whom he had so ably
tons from his neighbors and friends, which
they so bountifully shower around those they
love and delight to honor" We say, what
father would not rather see and hear all this,
than have his son come home to him a poor,
ignorant, outcast, who when from home could
not abstract common pollteness, and who was
the scof and sport of the public.
1t is education that makes these miraculous
changes in the minds and business of men, and
it is only through this medium, that they can
be raised from humble grubbers, to honorable
law makers and executors
Talent is not alone among the rich, and time
worn aristocrats-but we see remarkable heads,
both in size and shape, among people who live
in comparative obscurity, and we too plainly
know that they only want development. These
people from more regular and industrious hab-
its, enjoy better health which is the foundation
for learning, and with their remarkably well
developed organs no men can be their superiors
There are but few neighborhoods, that have
not some educated men, but the majority are
certainly lacking in all this all important quail
Geetion, and We beg that parents be at once
alive to this necessity, and dispute that few
have the right to dictate, both laws and social
customs and that in morals and intellect men
are each others superiors and none other.
We would like to say more, but for fear of
trespassing, where so much of good, and inter
esting matter is weekly put for the advantage
of willing public, we desist promising in a
future day to notice more particularly the other
sex, who act as important part, and should
be as well educated as our own.
Respectfully,
EXTRA"