Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1875-01-08


ABOUT ten months ago, says German
paper, a rich patron of the sciences and
arts in Berlin offered prizes amounting
to about $3.50 each for the best essays on
the history of the Middle Ages, astrono-
my, geology, poetry, and metaphysics;
and about $500 each for the best romance
and the best poem. A committee of
members of the several university facul-
ties was appointed to award the prizes.
A large number of persons competed
and the works offered had great amount
of excellent material among them. The
names of the writers were inclosed In
sealed envelopes, on the outside of which
fictitious names were inscribed.
The prize for the essay on metaphysics
was awarded to young man named
Max Markham, who had sent his essay
under the name Of Hans Wildenstein."
When Markmann's name was announced,
apale, poorly-clad, exceedingly wretched-
looking young man stepped forward and
was greeted with hearty round of APP
plause. His hair was thin and already
sprinkled with gray, and his whole APP
pearance excited the sympathy OF the
audience. After receiving the prize he
quietly returned to his seat. One after
another as the titles of the best essays
were announced the accompanying en-
velopes disclosed Markham as the au
thor, and the applause grew tumultuous
as the young man, looking more weary
every time, stepped forward. The eX-
element among the students was so
great that they were ready to carry him
off in triumph. The essays being all eX-
amined, the poems came next in turn,
and the prize was Markmanns. 1t was
entitled The Village Schoolmaster."
and Berthold Auerbach, who was one of
the committee, pronounced it one of the
most gracefully written stories he had
ever read. This was the last prize
awarded; but hardly had the fortunate
competitor arisen to go and receive it,
when he fell fainting on the floor. A
death-like stiffness reigned in the hall
while they carried the young man into
an adjoining room, where the physicians
succeeded in restoring him to conscious
ness; but that was all, for four hours
afterward he was a corpse!
Such story reads more like the rO-
mances of the German school than an
incident in real life. But it has so many
facts to back it up that we may accept it
| as true, or read it only as story to show
the danger, folly and sin of stimulating
the brain beyond what it is able to bear.
We go on year after year in our systems
| of education under the impression that
because cit always was SO" it always
ought to be so. We have had to excite
the dull and the indolent by rewards and
punishments, and holding them up before
| all alike have given the prizes Of success
to the bright and strong, when the dull
| who did we'll deserved more praise than
/ % hpi1 inf Win off, OF n
| in the daily lessons of the school, in the
| wretched night work to which children
are condemned by the combined mis-
| takes of teachers and parents, the brain
of the young is inordinately taxed at a
period of life when there is the greatest
danger of doing lasting injury to the
nervous system.
1t is very grave error of teachers
and parents that young people do not
study while they are reciting, and some
teachers and parents give it as a reason
why their children should study out of
school, that they are reciting half the
time in school, and therefore do not study
but six hours day if they take three of
them at home. But under teacher fit
to be in a school the scholars mind is
more stimulated to learn during recita-
ton than while he is at his desk and
book. The boy before a blackboard
works harder than he does while prepar-
ing for his recitation.
| My plea then is that rewards may be
given in school to those who have made
| the greatest progress, not to those only
who have come out ahead. I plead for
| the slow, the weak, the neglected, and
ask that they may be helped by encour-
agement, and that they may not be
stimulated to hurt themselves. The
waste of brain power in youth is so great
that thousands who, in school and col
lege, are considered geniuses, amount to
little in after life. They burn out in the
morning. Some who are moderate schol-
ars become men of the greatest power
They developed strength when the work
was to be done.
Great students sometimes waste them
selves in work. One man made a die
tionary on which $50, 900 were expended
and it was sold for waste paper. Artists
have put their lives into their work and
died unknown to. fame or fortune. Mod
crate work would have won both How
many poets have persisted as did Kirke
White. But it is the steady, patient
labor that builds the pyramid The
| rivals of Domenichino called him "t the
SICdt VA, Uut uOt one u Lucm Is now
known by name, while his great work is
priceless and immortal. Fabius Maxi
mus was called " the little sheep" in de-
rision when he was young, but the meek
ness and placidity of his temper proved
| to be the quality which made him the
savior of his country.
That German youth, Max MarKmann,
the story of whose brilliant victories and
| sad fate in the hour of his triumph we
have read, would have filled Germany
and perhaps the earth with works had
he not been stimulated to death in the
morning Of life. Like the man who said ::
Water is good enough occasionally, but
for steady drink give me rum,h this
youth had nothing but excitement, and
died of exhaustion. 81. I
Genius, like all other gifts, is to be
| used with discretion or it is worse than
vain endowment. And the real friends
of man, who deserve the most gratitude
and applause, are the men with sound
mind in a sound body who do the work
of life patiently and faithfully, and then
lie down and die.-Iren@us, IN ". 2. Oh