Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1875-07-10
The Supine Hometown Members of
n school Board.

n school Board.
To the Editor of the Ledger;
Your correspondent who signs himself
Justice" is not as well posted on school
affairs as he might be He seems to
think T~rezevant, Rambeaut and Hill are
the only home men in the Board. This
is a mistake. Folkes and Mitchell are
both natives of the South. The trouble
is they are no match for the shrewd,
wire-working men who run the ring.
They are innocent, u%nsuspicious fellows,
consequently easily imposed on. Some
men, like sponges, absorb ideas that per-
wade their atmosphere. The carpet
bag ideas pervaded the School Board
and Southern men absorbed them.
When the carpet-bag ring modestly put
forth that pretty proposition, which Mr.,
FARMLAND was frank enough to state to
outsiders, THAT there was not a man in
Memphis fit to serve as Superintendent"
DR.. Mitchell, with sbame-faced humility,
confessed the low state of letters in our
unfortunate community, and eagerly
seized the suggestion Of Pierce and
Barnum, that the Board should send
up to the more cultivated regions
whence they had emigrated and bring
down a man to take the place.
The man was brought and DR., Mitchell,
in a burst OF gratitude, that a being from
favored ATTITUDES, a church brother of
Pierce and Barnum, should be~nevolently
consent to come among US and superih-
tend our schools, Immediately voted to
give him $1,000 more than any other
Superintendent mad ever been paid.
Now, although Pierce and Barnum
found it so easy to pull the wool over
our dear, innocent Doctors eyes, they
felt they were on ticklish ground; they
had done a bold, impudent thing, and
they must cover it up from the public
gaze as best they could. They had
brought down a church brother, with
hardly a decent English education, mex
perienced in graded schools, impracti.
cal, with the %loosest ideas of school
management, with a most vicious New
England pronunciation, and placed him
over the best educators the South affords,
over graduates Of universities, classical
scholars and experienced teachers. OF
course they were too shrewd not to know,
sooner or later, their audacious impo.
sonation would be exposed. But as
1893 333 per month was just about
times as much as church
brother Picket had ever before
earned, his friends determined to move
heaven and earth to hold him in the
place as long as possible. To this end
most reckless system of putting was
begun and kept up so persistently it sue
,eeded in humbugging persons who
have been more discerning. Even
he sedate old Appeal was for a time be-
'ooled and befogged. Its eyes did not
begin to open until the Picket party pre-
pared to make the teachers contribute
% pay some paper to keep up the puff
ng. This was a little too much. The
cannot help but see that any
party willing to resort to such means to
sustain itself before the public is uu-
sound at bottom. But all the exposures
hat have been made of the selfish policy
If the ring, Of the selfish and sectional
,pite of Picket against our best teach.
srs, does not in the least swerve the
ponderous mind Of our good Doctor; he
IS soaked too full of carpet-bag ideas; he
wag his way and work for the ring
Not another idea can be got in until
Of the old are squeezed out.
ANXIOUS.