The Plymouth Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1869-1941, 1869-11-25
visit OF the superintendent Of
Public Instruction.

THos. MCDONALD, ESQ, School Ex-
aminer for Marshall county, has fur
nished us for publication, the following
items concerning the late visit of Prof.
b. G. HOBBS, State Superintendent Of
Public Instruction:
"The Superintendent of Public In
struction visited our place on the 18th
instant, officially. lie had previously
advised US that he would be pleased to
meet the. Auditor, Township Trustees
and School Examiner at | O'Clock on
said day, and that he would deliver a
lecture, if desired. In accordance with
his request, notice was given to the
township trustees and he was rendered the
use of the Methodist church by one of
the prominent members, who said he
acted adSisedly. We gave notice in
both the county papers, that the Hon.
b. G. HOBBS, Superintendent of Public
instruction, would lecture at the NJ. Il.
Church on the evening of the 10Th
instant. On Friday following the pub
LEGATION of the notice, we were mott
fed by another prominent member that
we could not hare the house.
On Monday, 10Th inst, we met the
Superintendent at the cars, and Informed
him of the situation. We learned al
forwards. that he called on the minister
in charge Of the NJ. E. Church, and
had an intimation from him that mat
tiers would be satisfactorily arranged
At / o'clock, p. M, Mr.. HOBBS,
Trustees, &C., met at the court house,
and after being introduced to the Trus-
tees, he stated that it was his business
to give them instruction on any point OF
law they did not understand, and
to give his views, in short, on any ques-
ton they might ask, pertaining to their
business The question came up, as to
what Trustees duty was, in reference
to opening school houses for meetings.
debating schools, singing schools, &c.
In answer to this question, he said.
where there was danger ofbad behavior, OF
tat the house would be damaged in any
way, he always advised that two or three
substantial men in the district should
become responsible for any damages that
might be done, and to see that the
meetings were conducted in an orderly
manner. lie advised the Trustees to
open the school houses for any legiti-
mate gathering.
Another mOoted question came up,
during the elaboration, which We were
clad to have settled: If school district
should be deprived of having its full
term Of school during the winter, from
sickness of the teacher, destruction Of
the school house, or from any other una
voidable cause, ought the Trustee to al
low ID time to be added to their schoo
the next winter? The decision in this
case was, that the law does not express
" authorize the lost time to be made VI
the next year, but the department has
always given tho law liberal cOnstruc
ton, and allowed the lost time to bt
added to the next winter school
At this stage of the proceedings, the
Methodist minister came in and informed
the Superintendent that he had pro
cured the Presbyterian church for hin
to lecture in that evening. Bills were
then printed and posted, and at I
O'Clock, p. m, a respectable audience, fol
so short notice, was assembled.
| The Superintendent, after being in
PRODUCED to the audience, reviewed ou
common school system from its begin
ming to the present time; gave an &C
count Of the various sources from which
our gigantic school fund has been de
rived, which now amounts to over So,
100000. He spoke very plainly agains
the efforts which are being made by SOM
of the churches to repeal the schoo
law, or for each denomination to hav
| its pro rata share of the funds. III
said if such efforts were successful, on
school system would go down, and man,
children of poor parents would fail t.
get an education. Taking it all in all
we regard it as a good, logical lecture.
T. MCDONALD, Examiner.
Command Hogs.