Martinsburg weekly independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1873-1875, 1875-01-30
FROM WASHINGTON CITY
"Reminiscences of Berkeley
Boys COntinued---A Sc.
que1 to the Barring
Out Scrape.
CORRESPONDENCE OF THE INDEPENDENT. I
WASHINGTON, ID c.,
January %, 1875.

i titdt WIG IiCICSclllC0
the case, apart from your general
notification to correspondents, re
quired that should be brief in tn
chapters of my scheel-boy remini,
cences-for chapters they are with
| out the name or form resisted
the temptation, when / last wrote,
to give the sequel to the " barring
| out" of the venerable " Dickey
Wood"-peace be to his ashes -
for I.feel little but gratitude for my
teachers, faulty as some of them
were. | will give it in this article.
before / enter upon brief record
of sad unpersonal event linked in
memory to the old mountain
school-house, now amongst the
things that were, at which said
barring out" took place.
The sequel to that story, so far
as your correspondent was person
ally concerned, was this: Although
the old teacher, demanding the re-
turn of q copy of " Bonnecastle's
Algebra" which he had loaned to
me, and which had been of but lit
tie more use to me than the teacher
in name had proved to be-for. like
too many others, Richard Wood.
while a splendid calculator, was
no teacher in the true sense ofthat
word-a although, as / was about to
say, with this demand angrily Civ
en-. from the outside, to which he
was barred, came the proclamation,
=" You're expelled Joe; you're ex-
PEELED" Still some how I found
myself, after the barring out, on
one of the big boys benches, which
were ranged along the Southern
side of the house, Just as if nothing
had happened to disturb the even
tenor of my school-boy way. And
there sat the imperious, but sloven-
ly old master in his Southeastern
corner, with the well-remembered
ferrule beside him,
Monarch of all he surveyed
in feeling and appearance, at least,
though not in fact, as the reader
has already learned But of him
might have been literally, been
aptly quoted from another poet
Richard was himself again.
And the sequel proved that it was
literally 50. Forgiveness was evil
leaiiy 10 more trait of the mas
ter than the scholar. Hence it was
not long before pretext for the
Il tempt 10 use that unWarrantably
large and knotty rod upon your
correspondents back, was found,
leading to the boy proving too ac-
i've, II not 100 muscular, for the
feeble old man,and the consequent
tly notifying scene of defiance to
his authority, and the prospect of
utter decentralization to the whole
schoo,-that is, unless a second
more formal and final expulsion
were proclaimed.
But / saved the old man the ne
cessity of this. He peremptorily
ordered me to leave the house, as
soon as he regained sufficient wind
to do so. Telling him
that I would leave when
the school was dismissed, and
not moment sooner, carried the
huge apple tree sprout to my seat.
There in the presence of the schol-
ars, who by this time were all in
the house, from which most of
them had fled during the scuffie,
l deliberately took my counter
rule"and a string in hand, straight
ened out the rod, which was in
fragments, only held together by
the tough bark, and measured its
length and thickness, for / had
learned enough of ''rithmatic" to
work that ''sum" at least.
This done, l made a note of the
result, and proclaimed my purpose
to let it be known to my own faith
er, while giving the parents of my
schoolmates chance to know with
what sort of a club under the name
switch" he had undertaken to
punish me-alluding, also, no
ing til primary motive for his
attempt to fog me in so unwarran-
table way, bad boy though / very
likely had proved myself to be,
and no doubt deserving many a
chastisement in proper temper,
which ] had managed to escape,
before and afterwards
When the school was dism issed.
which was not long after the dis
scene described (for the
grand old North Mountains wes-
tern spurs were already common
cling to cast their shadows around
the old school-house.) / gathered
up my slate, the "sum book" into
which the algbreaic figures had
gone instead of going into my un-
derstanding, and the compasses,
rulers, and all the other school
parapt-rnalia, and walked sullen-
ly out OF the door;never to return.
Yale sacred old school house.
Gone art thou, with the old teach
er referred to,more in sorrow than