The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1874-03-14

This was popular school IN It's day and
the house was generally wei! filled with
pupils. There were many pedagogues
reigned in this old school house within our
recollection. The first we had any knowl
edge of was named NJ Donald, a native of
the cold country we suppose from his
name, but then We were too young to know
much of his pecularities. Another named
John Hall, held sway there number of
years, who was a vicious, i'll -tempered man,
after whom came another and altogether
different specimen, who went by the cog
nomen of M'Knidley. He had many traits
in common with Ichabod Crane, in fact
came the nearest to that doughty peda-
gogue of Sleepy Hollow, of anything We
ever met Like Tchabod he INDUCED in
psalmody, and in the Winter evenings
taught the lads and lasses to sing. In
fact his singing schools became famous
in the neighborhood. He had that peculiar
/ nasal twang which Irving represents form
cd SO marked feature in the singing of
the pedagosue of Sleepy Hollow. Presby
terans and Friends being the two leading
denominations of Christians in the neigh
borhood at that day, M'Kindley professed
to be a strict member of the former Church,
at his advent into the neghborhood; but
in the course of time he began to take oc-
casional sprees and sometimes got glori-
ously drunk. He was harsh and indulgent
to the scholars by turns. A stock of
splendid wattles was always kept on hand,
cut from the red ozier bushes and hazels
which grew in the meadow hard by. These
were splendid switches, long, tough and
slender, and when handled with that ex-
pertness acquired by long practice, would
crack like a stage whip when brought down
on the back of an urchin. We have often
seen the stout homespun cut through
and through, and the skin laid open.
The door of tie school house faced to
the south, and the boys had noon mark
cut in the floor. How slowly the sun crept
toward that notch in the floor on long
Summer day, when the lesson from the few
books had be9n heard, and the teacher Civ
ing way to the enervating influence of the
season, grew careless Of his charge, and the
his desk. But the moment the sun reached
the meridian mark, and the word was CIV
en- dismissing the school, away the whole
school bounded for a two hours play
Through that glorious old woods they
bounded and played, hunted ground SPUR
rels, which perched on every stump called
chip, chip, chip, as if to tantelize the
boys, ready to flee into their holes at the
approach Of DANGER lished for minnows in
the run, built messy seats under the beech
trees in the marsh, pelted frogs with stones
when they showed their green heads above
the starnant ponds, played ball, ran, leap
ed and shouted, grew strong and healthy;
and though perhaps not many graduated
with astonishing attainmcnts from that old
school house, scores of healthy boys and
girls went out from it to fight lfe's battles
with good strong arms and stout hearts.
Many Colored children attended school
with the whites played and studied togeth-
CT and never once thought of "nigger
equality which has grown to such bng
bear since then. Among some of the color
ed children we recall the names Of Berry
Butter, Body and others. The ma ority of
those grew up to be industrious, thrifty and
good citizens; so that the simple training
in the rudiments of reading, writing and
ciphering in the old log school house by
the green wood side, was of incalcuable
benefit to the recipients, bringing forth
fruit in time an hundred fold.
We have witnessed some terrible fog
gings in those old schools. The Irish
teachers who kept most OF the schools i'll
those days, We're very severe, and often
brutaly cruel. The most revolving piece
of brutality we ever witnessed, was perpe
trated at the old Rowlandsville school by
an Irish teacher named John White. This
man was an accomplished scholar, but
natural brute, and added to the iiend with
in him, the love of strong drink. He
knew of no means to impart instruction
but that of driving the pupil forward with
a goad. The boy he numerically fog
red on this occasion was named McElwee
a stout, lively, rough hammered urchin
about twelve or thirteen years old. His
offence merited moderate castigation, not
being very heinous one. But this brute
supplied himself with three heavy white
oak wths, the branches of which he
toughened and plated, and stripping the
e Oh; IT fa11 thaSn
goads When completely exhausted and
out of breath, the brute would rest and
renew the ilogging till the three tough
white oak golds with their plated pronss,
were shivered and worn till nothing re-
NAMED of each but short handle. The
screams of the boy brought Joseph Roman
and one or two other men up from the viii
lage A repremand and threat to dis
charge the brute was all that came of it.
If such a fiend perpetrated similar out
rage at the present day, the whole county
would rise against him, and if he was not
shot in his tracks, he would certainly have
a term in prison.
The old system Of driving the pupils to
study by the dint of hard fogging was
wretched practice. 1t made school and
all study irksomc and distasteful to chill
dren. But we fear the present loose sys-
TEN of moral sausion is As far on the other
extreme. Corporal punishment cannot
be wholly dispensed with in schools of chill
dren of all ages from six to twelve years if
the school is kept in proper discipline. but
it should be governed by strict rules and
no child punished on the spur of the mo-
ment The child is entitled to fair hear
ing, and if guilty, let sentence be passed
and the penalty named, but not inflicted
till some hours after When a teacher
Furnishes in passion it is revenge and not
justice that prompts the castigation; so the
culprit thinks and spirit of counter
enmity is aroused in the youthful breast.
Mr.. Il resides in Fourth street,
/ New York. His wife, who is an economi-
cal body, had sent costly silk gown to a
French dyer. The dyer himself brought