Buchanan County bulletin and guardian. (Independence, Iowa) 1866-1869, 1868-02-28
EARLY TRAINING.

! The school house is the alma mater Of the
people, where strong-hearted yeomanry
graduate aud go out into the strife and bats
tie of life. The more school houses and
rightly conducted schools we have, the few>
er prisons. 1t is much better and cheaper
TO educate the boy, than it is to imprison
and hang the man. Keep the mind pure
By intoxicating the great principles Of virtue
and morality, and after life will bring forth
the fruits. School books are cheaper than
letters, and good teachers than jailors and
courts. Let all remember that our free
school system is one Of the noblest institus
ton of our country. Though but feebly
supported in proportion to what it should be,
yet tits welding power that cannot be es>
timated. The common school is pronounced
the under strata Of good society aud good
government. Governments tina. are not
based on, and supported by. the intelligence
of the people, must fail. Ignorance begets
vice, and vice leads to ruin. AS there is o
power behind the throne, so there is pow
er behind the school room-a power deeper
and stronger. France wants Mothers"
said Napoleon. Let our nation have the
right. kind of mothers, and they can point
to their Jewels as did the mothers Of the
Graech. The Preside is the great primary,
and the lessons there taught the yielding
mind of childhood will DEFY all other infu,
ences, and whea the mind hardens into the
granite of maturer years, the early impress
sions remain to guide, console and comfort
the heart. Those anchors dropped so deep
" into the still waters Of innocence and
trust, may be wrenched out in the storms
and conflicts Of after years, but there will
be Gains when the lovelight Of another
eye-;he first .eacher-like beacou-light,
will beckon the wanderers back to virtue
and peace.
"All that is good in me to-day, owe to
my mother" said John Q. Adams, shortly
before he fell at the post Of duty. The
lessons my mother taught me has had much,
yes, all, to do with my success in life" said
United States Senator, after long and
successful public career. Is il not beautiful
to contemplate the hearthside influence
when properly welded, but sad and melan>
choly when not? The future of the man
or woman all depends upon the education
received in the nursery and around the
Preside. The words Of the mothers Of the
Revolution, were more to be dreaded b.
England than the cannon upon the smoking
bulwasks, and when strong men turned to
besray and stab their country, woman stood
mistaken, and wrestled with the great Je>
hovah for the triumph Of right.
Our common schools are great institu
tons but they only train the young to
practice the preeepts taught at the ireside
Give to virtue, religion, truth, sobrety and
honesty all the influence of our homes and
schools, and foster them by fearless pull
pit and an untran.meled, independent
press, and the vices Of the age will give
way. Drunkenness, with all the degrading
vices that deprave the human heart, and
blacken the character of man will be forced
to yield to the intelligence and virtue of q
properly trained generation. Responsible
and great is the duty that devolyes upon the
parent, and much will be required of the
teacher.
CT.