The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1874-11-13
The Coming Sohoolmaster.

ine SchoOimaSter OF tne past anu by
the past we mean those not good old
times when our grandparents were
school-boys and schoolgirls, was almost
without exception foreigner, often an
Irishman.
He was a stout believer in corporeal
punishment, and made up in the sever
ity Of his discipline what he lacked i'm
the knowledge of human nature or the
science Of governing. If learned and
refined, he was yet an overbearing ty-
rant, il illiterate aud vulgar, which
sometimes happened, he WAS a monster.
In all cases We might say Of him, in the
language of Wordsworth,
Full twenty times was Peter feared
For once that Peter was respected"
But the rod of his power is broken,
and over his grave, moistened by but
few tears, the shadow of forgetfulness is
deepening year 10y year.
The schOolmaster Of to-day is not
known by that appellatiou, but is called
the professor. / have attended his ex-
aminatiOns and exhibitions, and have
discovered him TO be fossil, or 3 ghost
from the shadOwy past, cropping among
the mists and shadows of darker ages
and eternalIy harping upon the great
ness Of Greece and the splendors oI
Rome.
He confines himself to his textbooks
and when he would edify or entertain
his classes with more than his wonted
sprightliness he delivers y lengthy disser.
tatiOn on the mperishability OF the
sayings of the seven ages of Greece
those celebrated maXims justly deemed
worthy of the places assigned them as
notices in the Delphian Temple.
Hear them, oh, you wide-awake, dliUt
American bOys-listen while your hear
beats quicker, as though you heard the
ring of clarions and voices Of trumpets
'Know thyself" lSOlon); "Considel
tunity," (Pittacus); "Most men are
bad" Bias; Nothing is impossible to
industry" (Periander); "Avoid excess"
(CleObutus); ''Suretyship is the precur-
sor of ruin," (Thales). All, boys, these
have lost their original flavor.
! admit that this wisdom of past age
is still wisdom, but have these old
Greeks a pre-emptive right TO all our
reverence? Does the schoolmaster,
that is the professor, of to-day, expect to
lead the young American up the sleeps
of the highest usefulness by the faint
glimmer of the burned-out lamps of
Greece, to the dying echoes of her
heather utterances? Vain expectation
useless expenditure of effort; the boys
OF to-day are marching ahead of the
schOOlmaster.
But let us come now to the coming
schoolmaster. Aye, gladly, for he will
know that We have utterances from
men of our own land worthy to be pom
dered over and acted upon till they per-
wade the whole structure of society.
The coming schOolmaster has in his
boyhood been thoroughly instructed in
that is TO say received smattering Of
the lore. of ancient Greece, but he has
asked himself, where was the Greek
whose spirit ever caught the faintest
CLEAN of grand truth first uttered by
Thomas Jefferson, "All men are born
equal ~ He will know that in "Give
me liberty or give me death % Patrick
denry even transcribed the severe
simplicity of the classic ages.
de VIII declare the saying of Benja-
MIN rankin, There never was a good
war nor bad peace" is more than
worthy OF place in the Delphian Tenn
pie, aye, worthy to be q motto in the
temple of Christianity. He will apos-
trOphize thus: ''Oh, shades of the i'm
mortal thinkers of Greece the mind of
your most gOdlike philosopher never
scared to such height as this reached
by William H. Seward when he pro-
claimed, There is higher law than
the Constitution
He will show how in the stern SIM
plicity of his pure patriotism Henry
Clay could say: AZ would rather be right
than President" He will tell how the
rough, outspoken backwoodsman, David
Crockett, gave US the true metal, though
the coin was too hastily struck to be
perfect in its finish, when he said: "Be
sure you're right, then 20 ahead nn
The emphasis aud pluck of this phrase
could never have been uttered in any
lSnd but our own, being an outgrowth
Vi tle circumstances of the New World.
nor VIII he neglect the unforgotten
seutehee ot poor, half-romantic, half
Nasaooha sam Patch: "Some things
eau oe zone as well as Others" which
notneiS phrase, teaching of the feasibil-
NY ~ al tnlhgs, Is the fitting watch
Iui the Inventor aud adveuturer
who but breathes his native ar -, ,i,i.
western continent. VI 'uis
And the coming schoolmaster ha,,;r
given these seven wise savings ~ a ,.Ie oine
lean sages for the instruction and ad.,si
ration of American youth. will nroa-n-,
10 give one more by way Of pooA r,aas
ure, and 1t will be this plain but gr.,,d
aphOrism from the lips Of the msrtyr
John Brown, "Itis u mighty big thing
for a man to do all he can"
Then will the coming BOYS begin to
feel for what glorious destiny they are
born, then will they sing Yankee Doo-
die" with fresh jOyOusness, aud with a
sublime contempt Of what nations less