The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1873-01-01
MISCELLANY.
sCHooLMAsTER OF RUSSIAN BAR.

"When is he expected?"
"They said he was coming in to-nights
STAGE
'He taught in Frisco didn't hep"
yes, guess he was in the department !"
The doctors wife was an authority ON all
matters in Russian Bar, and on this last SEN
sation-the coming of a schoolmaster-she
freely enlightened her neighbor, Mrs. Budd, a
plump widow, whose husband had died few
months before.
There was not much to gossip about in that
quiet village. The arrival and departure of
the stage brought the people to their doors
three times week, and if stranger was no.
ticed, ENJOYS were Immediately dispatched to
the hotel to learn his name and business and
the probable length of his stay.
But now Russian Bar was to have new
schoolmaster, and the folks wondered much
if he would have any trouble with Sam Sey-
mour, the butchers boy, or Ike Walker, an
unruly spirit, who had knocked down and
pummeled the last preceptor,, who undertook
to teach him school discipline.
The trustees were powerless in these mat
tiers, and declared that if a schoolmaster was
not able to "gct along with the boys in a
square, stand-up fight, he might as well pick
up his traps and leave Russian Bar
On the evening of the expected arrival, Sey-
mour and Walker, the leading spirits of the
mutinous boys, met at pool, from which both
were endeavoring to coax a few speckled trout.
"Have you heard what the new chap is like,
Sam?" said Ike, as he impaled wrggle worm
on his hook.
emo; have your"
"Father told Jake, the bar-kccper, that he
was very young"
"And small?"
eyes"
"Guess he won't stay long in town, Ike"
81 guess not, Sam. School amt good for
us such fine weather as this
| The worthless sat and fished in silence for
some time and then Ike produced bunch OF
cigarettes and passed them to his friend.
AT last finding that the fish would not bite,
they shouldered their poles and struggled up
towards the village, pausing for a moment to
stone a Chinaman's rooster which had strayed
too far from the protecting wash house.
THE scHooLMAsTER.
Philip Houghton was schoolmaster from
necessity, and not taste. Like many who
have been educated as gentlemen in one sense
of the word, that is, without the acquaintance
with any special pursuit that might be turned
to good account in the struggle for bread, he
found himself adrift in California, with nothing
| to fall back on.
Seeing an advertisement in city paper fol
a competent teacher to take charge of the
school of Russian Bar, he answered it and was
accepted at venture.
Putting his few movables together--a pail
of old foils and a set of well-worn boxing
gloves, for Houghton was an accomplished
boxer and fencer--he bought his ticket fol
Russian Bar.
He found the stage driver communicative
pleasant fellow, who, at first request, described
the characteristics of his future home. In
deed, his description of the class of boys whom
Houghton was to take charge of was not very
encouraging.
"You'll find them hard lot" said he
"and they're all on their muscle, too"
"What is about the weight of my oldest !? ,
asked Houghton, good-humoredly. "Yor
see, if l have got to exercise something mort
than moral suasion, want to get posted OF
the physique of my men,"
"Well, Sam Seymour is about the strong
est"
"And what is about the size of the redoubt
able Ike?"
swell, guess he tops you by half a head ;
80, expect we'll get along well enough
together" said Houghton; land suppos'