Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1873-04-17
EDUCATIONAL COLUMN,
The Old Fashioned School
Master.

Whatever el Sc the "whirligig of time
may have spun off into eternal swoon
never to recover breath, l think the ole
fashioned school-master,. of my boyist
recollection, mas certainly departed this
life, leaving lively hope of no return
and now with that easy forgiveness that
comes in when an enemy is everlastingly
out OF the way, | say, Peace be to his
ashes! I dignity him with the name OF
enemy" not because / have the slightest
remaining feeling Of animosity towards
his birchin memory, if ever had. hut
from that high moral and philosophical
standpoint, aloof from passions and
resentments, in which he appears to us to
have been the natural enemy of all short
jacketed and pantaletted humanity, and
not little obnoxious to the maturer
specimans of the family.
Culture had done nothing for him, and
nature little to the purpose; for she, inno-
cent grandmother, thought she was
building a wood chopper and root
grubber Ct the old style, so gave him
much Drawn, and only brain enough to
save salt. He farmed the land through
the summer and autumn, and then for the
ends Of thrift rather than the fitness of
things, farmed the children through the
winter and if his twelve dollars month
was small as salary, it was too much as
an equivalent. He was solemn sort of
being, next only TO the parsol for
gravity, but with nothing of the parsons
geniality of face and manners. He did
not feel so we'll assured Of his place,
which tends to self assertion on doubtful
ground and then withal his place was
not one that bestowed much precedence
among full-grown men and women.
School teaching had been too long the
cheap-make suit of unprofessional Haw-
Bucks to compel respect from other men.
He felt in a vague way, tha. the earth
still clung to his boots, in thier eyes; and
that in supplementing summers good
with winters birch, and filling up the
dead season of the year with his new
office, he did little more than to transfer
his empire from the stable to the school
house, with the same sceptre and with
only less grace, for the constraint of
conscious clumsiness that accompanies
want of culture into the wrong place.
l we'll remember that his very boots
were formidable and symbolical,- ,-er pede
Herculem.-as they stood up, under the
tour-legged desk, in stolid self-sufficie..cy
of imperturbable Wilde; and it needed
but little imagination to see the awkard
knees bulge out over them, and the great
dim specter of authority in holden grey
ormore exactly, holden butternut, scowl-
ing out from their corner, while the solid
body OF it tip-toed apout in slippers to
snick unwary heabs, and tweak obtuse
ears.
To have provoked smile by some
cheerful anecdote would have seemed in
him, higl. treason to his dignity; to have
seen anything but rebellion in the merry
eye ofa fun loving boy would have been
to imperil all authority Many time
have | seen one bright little fellow
before his awful judgement seat because
the vivacious black eyes would laugh
and snap, though the face were sober as
Euclid, and not dream of mischief had
crossed his brain. And yet there was
sort of grim humor in the masters soul.
that, by kind providence, would find
pleasure where one less accustomed to
the stern duties of a judge and executioner
would hardly have seen the joke. 1t is
mercy that it can be so. For example
One little speckle-faced lump of timiditv.
not remotely related to this deponent,
had hit upon the unique and entirely
original method of receiving chastisement,
with his mouth wide open, and sort of
dithyrambic dance on alternating tip-toes.
without squeak of the usual music
accompanying that exercise; and this, s,and
only this, would move the bucolic soul
of my boy to an internal gurgle of
delight And as the gravest Judge must
have his little recreation, the good man,
with proper regard to his invalid cheer
fulness, made daily, and semi daily
appointments with this lad, to meet him
ON the floor for silent dance, for no
reason the lad ever knew, but the pleas
ure, not reciprocal, of his company, an6
The desks of the old establishment
were close boxes for two, into which it
was difficult to worm them without a
screw-driver, or out of which to extract
them without corkscrew; and in front
of these was place to hang littla boys by
their middle.
On certain occasion, which I recall
more readily than 1 can the number of
any rule in Murray, an exceptionally
tough case of tall boy was located in
one of these boxes, and was requested.
"a L.