The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1872-06-22
/" Barring Out the Master. :"
BY DOM PIATT.

My early life was made miserable
by one old Mulberry Bangs, gentle
man of the old school, who devoted
himself to reading, writing, arithmetic,
and the general use of IL stick. Upon
my head and hands and other parts
of my person he imprinted himself so
positively that l can see him now
plainly rs if we had parted but yes
lerday.-He was a stout man, who
made in his figure, when seen in pro-
file, Hogarth's line of beauty, being
round shouldered and crooked in his
legs. He was blonde. The hair of
his head had that sunny tinge SO much
admired to-day, and when rubbed
down with a tallOw candle, as was
his wont to dress, it was so smooth
and straight, that the boys believed
that flies slipped down upon it and
broke their legs. His eyes were dark
and fierce, and hid under the cavern
GUS recesses made by his bushy red
eyebrows, seem'd to watch like evil
spirits over his precious nose. The
nose was ruby nose, bottle i'll shape,
and appeared to be all the time, it
glowed like the headlight of loco
motive. His mouth was finished
without lips, and resembled slit in
Il piece of sole leather.
My early experince gave me a dis
taste for the whip in schools. But 1
1 don't agree with sentimentalists of the
present day, who advocate kindness
and moral suasion. The earlier teach
ings, the rod that gives lis realizing
sense of pain to the body, and drill
us into patience and self-denial.
Boys are of two sorts-good little
boys who die young, and bully boys,
who cannot be killed.
AS the last named, only, live to be
men, instead of being translated into
! angels, it is well to discipline them
/ through the only process known as
animals, and that is the discipline of
/ fear. The adage is not far wrong that
said: when you meet boy whale
him-for if he has not been i'll mis-
chief he is going in
What may have been my feelings,
when suffering under the stick of old
Bangs, my objection to him now rests
not much on his Use of that instru
ment as the beastly appearance and
character of the man. Later in life
was the scholar of man who was as
severe with the rod, almost, as my
enemy Bangs but to my dying hour
! | shall remember him as one of the
noblest of men and the truest friend
| ever encountered. Alexander Kin
mot lived and died in the obscurity of
Il select school, with the generous inn
| pulses and large, healthy brain that
ought to have secured him high po-
sitiOn among the teachers and leaders
of men. From the school came boys
so disciplined to study, and so filled
with the love of learning, that they,
in making their mark in the world,
lived to illustrate the beauty of his
system.
/ l did not, however, sit down to
write of this, but give in brief some of
my earlier experiences. 1t was ln-
derstood throughout the country that
the boys were justifiable i'll barring
out the master, and if successful,
were not only entitled to a weeks re-
cess, but the admiration and praise of
their parents. Old Bangs was famous
for his powers of resistance, and boast
ed that no school of his had ever sue
ceeded in conquering in such attempts.
On the occasion to which refer we
had two big boys in school named
Bill Henning and Bob Strong. They
were knotty- headed, broad shouldered
and hard-fisted fellows. who worked
through the summer for means to at
tend school during the winter. Each,
i'll turn, had been numerically whip
ped by the master, and it was under
stood throughout the school that in
barring out Master Bangs was to be
punished and old scores settled.
The evening before the general en-
gagement Bill and Bob, our noble
leaders, with few confederates, stole
back to the school house armed with
hickory poles. Breaking open the
door they whitfield one end of these
tough saplings to a point, and then
hardened the points in the fire. Then
/ placing these in Il corner ready for
use, with stout cord, they gave or
ders to the boys willing to take part
in the fight to assemble at the school
house before daybreak the next morn
ing.
At the time indicated, nearly all
the lads were in attendance. others
were noisy and boastful, but / OBJ
served that the real leaders and re-
liable soldiers were quiet-so indeed,
that one might doubt them. " Men
are but children of q larger growth, !"
said Dryden, and that solid pump of
II post, Wordsworth, assures us that
"the child is father to tho man." In
the animal propensities and tastes
that survive our boyhood, that is nn-
doubtedly true, and many and many
a time since, in hours of peril, have
seen re-enaeted the same exhibitions
of character that occurred on that cold
morning in December among the
boys. -
Our first order was to cut and car
ry in wood enough to serve the gar
rison during a sledge. This was
/ ,,ro,oOtly oxnn,,tnI Then the win