American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1874-09-05
Hurrying Through.

| FeI5"HH JoF Ipijte{Oit J"HFHn.
Hurrying Through.
| THERE is nothing more characteristic
| of the American than the rapidity with
which he gets through his work. While
| others are planning he is executing, and
| before they have finished their designs he
has already completed his structure.
| There was Il time in our history when
| men suddenly cast adrift in Il wilderness
were forced to resort to the first eXpcdients
| which presented themselves for the salts
| faction of their urgent wants. They had
| need to be hasty in providing for a life
| the destitution of which was not only
| very great, but its requirements excess
| lively eXacting. They had less and wanted
more of the prime necessities of existence
| than others. They were forced to do not
| only what most men in civilized countries
| have to do for themselves, but also what
| the community ordinarily does for them.
| They had so much to accomplish, and its
urgency was so gre at, that there was no
| time to spare in giving perfection to plans
or finish to work. Every structure they
| raised, whether material or intellectual,
was thus more or less rude and incom-
plete, though it may have tolerably
served its temporary purpose. Every
thing being wanted for immediate use,
everything was supplied in the shortest
possible time. Houses were built in Il
hurry of the rude material at hand, and
the green tree of to-day became the pro-
tecting roof of the morrow. 1t was the
same with the human being, whose
services were so Immediately required
that no time could be spared for his
thorough development, and he was called
to do full duty as member of the COM
munity before he had reached maturity.
Boys were thus eXtemporized into men,
and assumed all the responsibilities of
manhood while they were still children.
Scholastic education, of course, under
such circumstances, amounted to little
or nothing. Strong arms, bold hearts and
readiness of eXpedient were most wanted,
and these were to be acquired in the
practical discipline of a settlers life, and
not learned from the set lessons of the
academy.
The early practice, engendered by ne
cessity of fastening immature youth
into the full activity of life seems to have
become so far national habit as to sur
vivc the occasion which led to and may
have justified it. Children claim, in this
country, to be emancipatcd from school,
college and home control and proclaim
themselves to be men at a period OF lie
when in other lands they are contentedly
eating the parental bread and butter, or
submissively bending to the magisterial
birch. Parents in the United States,
moreover, encourage this precoclous
eagerness for freedom from discipline of
the home and academy. Many of them
are ignorant of the requirements of edu-
cation, and are apt to suppose that 1t Is IA
welldefined process which can be gone
through with the certainty as to time and
result as, say, shoemaking, or any other
mechanical operation. The common
eagerness of people in this country for
the practical, as represented by tangible
value, impels them to hasten their chill
dren into active life, that they may be
engaged as quickly rs possible in the
eager pursuit of the dollar. The richest
man would begrudge to his son. if he had
to provide for his material necessities out
of his own pocket, life devoted to some
abstract study, the results of which,
though of undoubted service to the whole
world, might not be computable in dollars
and cents.
The practice which so generally pre-
walls of limiting the education, as it is
called, to certain fixed, and in this
country a very early, period of life Is alb
surd. Michael Angelo, when met in his
old age by an acquaintance, and asked
where he was going, replied, "Io school,"
Education can never be completed, and
those who speak of having that of their
children finished at sixteen, eighteen, or
twenty-one years ofage rs it may be, should
be reminded that although they are able to
compute their familiar mOlasSes and tape
by the gallon and yard, the intellectual
capacity of man is not to be graduated
according to any standard of dry or
other measure.
Parents should learn to take more
liberal view of education, and those who
have the means encourage their children
in the continued pursuit of intellectual
study.
There is nothing so much needed by
our wealthy communities as ii class of
men and women exclusively devoted to
mental occupations, Without such the
increasing riches of"Our corn ry will only
lower more and more the aims of life,
and give its pleasures IL grosser impress
of sense.
Children should not be allowed to in
dulge in their fond and foolish fancies of
early emancipation. When heard, as
they often are, to talk cxultingly of the
time when they are to finish school for
ever, as they express it, they should be
severely rebuked.
Those who control the private institu-
tionS of learning are responsible for much
of the popular and erroneous views in Ie-
gard to education. They get up astound
ms ct'' e'tt" VI S'uNiS iNPi''. "i'i' -
the olOgies, and, to tiatter their wealthy
patrons, pretend to take their pupils
through them all at an impossible pace,
without Il falter, in the course of half Il
dozen years, with the long vacations in
elusive. There is not an advanced school
or college in this country which does not
fail to accomplish in ninety cases out of
hundred what its programme of study
promises. The mastery of any subject
cannot be the result of a system which
consists in hurrying through all the
WHEN the train from the West rolled
up to the Perry street depot yesterday,
one of the wheel sounders discovered Il
bulky object among the bars and timbcrs
u & - L. i