The Rock Island daily Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1872-1873, 1873-10-25
Che 1ailpp Argns,
From the New York World.
The Village School Mastar

/ The Village sehool-Master.
The verses appended hereto must be
familiar to every reader of newspapers in
the United States, as there is scarcely a
journal between the two oceans that has
not republished them more than once in
the ten years OF their existence. Aside.
however, from the beauty of sentiment and
tenderness of expression which shonld
have been sufficient to assure such lasting
popularity, it cannot be doubted that their
pertinacity OF circulation is larely due to a
typographical blunder first in a country
paper, and then IN the Times, of this city.
by which they were attributed to the pen
OF Charles Dickens. 1t is safe to say that
the illustrious English novelist could no
more have produced them than their trne
author could have written David Gopher
field - for Dickens was VIGOROUSLY without
the faculty OF versitication, and excepting
the not artistically remarkable song Of
THE Ivy Green in ''Pickwick, and some
trifing rhyming in prose-form in the
Cricket on the Hearth, he never turned a
passably smooth stanza in his life. Poetic
! thought he had of course, but no facility
of rightly poetic execution. The verses 10
question, 50 often ignorantly quoted as his
| (even like other verses as mistakenly So
credited when appearing in the contribu-
| tional sections of his later Christmas stO-
riesl, were really written in or about the
year 1862 by Mr.. Charles S. Tor VI Dick
enson, nephew of the late Daniel s. Dick
enson, at that time teaching village school
near Binghamton, in this State, in the in,
| terval between the close of his collegiate
1 4 90
tessit of law. First appearing in print
over the signature Of The Village School
Master, in a weekly literary paper in thi,
city, of which the present commentator
was then editor, they were subsequently
included in volume of poetic com pilation,
by the late Mrs. C. NJ Kirkland, with the
author full name, and so passed into wide
| circulation Four or five years ago tht
types OF copying rural journal abbrevia
! ted Mr. Dickinson name by two letters
and thence the long-continued blunder:
THE CHILDREN.
When the lessons and tasks are all ended,
And the school for the day is dismissed,
And the little ones gather around
To bid me goodnight and be kissed;
! Oh, the little white arms that encircie
Ny neck in a tender embrace
o. the smiles that are halos of heaven.
| Shedding sunshine of love on my face
And when they are gone sit dreaming
OF my childhood too lovely 10 last
OF love that my heart Will remember.
When il wakes 10 the pulse of the past,
Ere the wo Id and its Wiekedness made me
A partner of sorrow and sin.
When the glory of God WIS about me,
Ana the glory of gladness within.
Oh. my heart grows as weak as a womaus,
And the fountains OF feeling will flow,
When think OF the paths, steep and stony,
WHere the feet of the dear ones must go;
OF the mountains Of sin hanging Ger them
OF the tempest of fate blowing wild;
oh there's nothing on earth half 80 holy
As the innocent heart of d child
They are idols of hearts and of households:
They angels Of God in disguise;
And his sunlight still sleeps in their tresses,
! And his glory still CLEANS in their eyes.
Oh! those truangs from home and from heaven,
They have made me more manly and mild!
And know how our Saviour could liken
The Kingdom OF God TO child
| ask not life for the dear ones.
4 All radiant. Others have done,
i But that life may have just enough shadow
To temper the glare of the sun;
p would pray God 10 guard them from evil
But my PRAYER would bound back to myself;
+ All a seraph may pray for sinner,
But sinner must pray for himself
The twfg is so easily Bonded,
have banished the rule and the rod;
! l have taught them the goodness Of knowledge.
They have Taught NE the goodness OF God;
: My heart IL a Dungeon OF darkness.
u Where shHt them Tor breaking "A rulei
Ny frown is sufficient correction:
My love is the law of the school.
}. shall leave the old house in the autumn.
Is To traverse the threshold no more;
All how shall sigh for the dear ones,
$50 That meet me each morn at the door;
/ shall miss the good nights and the kisses,
And the gush of their innocent clee,
The group on the green, and the flowers
That are brought every morning to me.
shall miss them at morn and at evening.
\ Their song in the school and the str tct;
l shall miss the low hum of tLeir voices.
And the pat Of their delicate feeI.
n When the lesson and tasks all ended,
va And death says -'the school is dismissed
~ MAY the little ones gather around me.
II To bid me good night aud be kissed