The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1876-12-01
The Boys Of Ny BoyhOod.
By WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.

The boys Of the generation to which
I belonged-that is 10 say, who were
born in the last years Of the last CEN
tury or the earliest Of this-were brought
up under system Of discipline which
put far greater distance between par
ents and their children than now exists.
The parents seemed TO think this Deces-
sary in order to secure obedience. They
we're believers in the old maxIum that
familiarity breeds contempt. My own
parents lived in the house with my
grandfather and grandmother on the
mothers side. Ny grandfather was a
disciplinarian Of the stricter sort, and ]
ran hardly find words to express the
awe in which / stood of him-an awe
no great AZ almost to prevent anything
like affection on my part. although he
was in the main kind, and, certainly,
never thought Of being severe beyond
what was necessary to maintain proper
degree Of order in the family.
The other boys in that part of the
country, my school-mates and play fel-
lows, were educated on the same system.
Yet there were at that time some indi-
cations that this very severe discipline
was beginning to relax. With my
father and mother ] was on much easier
terms than with my grandfather. If
favor was to be asked of my erandfath-
er, il was asked with fear and trembling;
the request was postponed TO the last
moment, and then made with hesitation
and blushes and confused uterance.
One Of the means of keeping the boy'
OF that generation in order was a little
bundle Of birchen rods, bound together
by q small cord and generally suspend
ed on a nail against the wall in thu
kitchen. This was esteemed as much I
part of the necessary furniture as th'
crane that hung in the kitchen fire
!. place, or the shovel and tongs. !
sometimes happened that the boy suffer
ed fate similar TO that of the eagle Ii
the fable, wounded by an arrow fedge'
with feather from his own wing; i
other words, the boy was made to gathe
the twigs intended for his own castiga
tion.
II has never been quite clear to m
!, why the birch was chosen above all 9th
|. er trees of the wood to yield its twie
. for this purpose. The beech of our fol
i. ests produces sprays as slender, as fex
bic, and as tough; and farmers, wherev'
:. the beech is common, cut its long an
+. plant branches for driving oxen. Y
the use of birchen rods for the CORE
q ton Of children is of very great antic
uity. In his discourse on Fore
!. Trees" written three hundred years ag
"a Evelyn speaks of birchen twigs as {
>. implement Of the school-master; al
Loudon, in his "Arboretum," goes y
further back. He says: "The bir'
has been used as the instrument of CO
rection in schools from the earle
" ages" The English poets of the last ce
a tury make frequent mention Of this u
). Of birchen twiRs; but in Loudon e tin
:, whose book was published thirty yes
since, he remarks that the use of the
- =, rods, both in schools and private fan
;, lies, was fast passing away,-a chan
. on which the boys both of England a
the United States may well be congr
ulated,- for the birchen rod was, in l
time, even more freely used in
school than in the household L
Nicholas for December.