The Jasper weekly courier., 1876-05-05

Barnes, the schoolmaster in suburb
an town, read i'm the Educational
Mongsiy that boys could be taught his
tory better than in any other way by
letting each boy in the class represent
some historical character and relate
the acts OF that character as il he had
done them himself This struck Barnes
AS mighty good idea, and he resolved
to try IL on. The school had then pro-
crossed so far in its study of the his
tory of Rome as the Punic wars, and
MIR. Barnes Immediately divided the
boys into two parties-one Romans and
the other Carthaginians-a certain
OF the boys were named after the lead
crs upon both sides All the boys
thought it was a big thing, and Barnes
noticed that they were so anxious TO
get To the history lesson that they could
hardly say their other lessons properly.
When the time came Barnes ranged the
Romans upon one side of the room and
the Carthaginians on the other. The
recitation was very spirited, each party
telling about its deeds with extraor-
dinary unction. After awhile Barnes
asked Roman TO describe the battle Of
Gamma. Whereupon the Romans heaved
their copies Of Wayland's Moral Sci
ence at the enemy. Then the Car
thaginians made u battering-ram out of
a bench and jammed it among the Ro-
mans, who retaliated with vollev of
books, states, and chcwed paper balls
Barnes concluded that the battle Of
Gamma had been sufficiently illustrated,
and he tried to stop it; but the war
riors considered it too good a thing TO
drop, and accordingly the Carthaginians
sailed over to the Romans with another
battering-ram and thumped couple of
them in the stomach. Then the Romans
turned in and the fight became gen
eral. A Carthaginian would grasp
Roman by the hair and hustle him
around over the desks in manner that
was frightful TO behold, and a Roman
would give a fiendish whoop and knock
IA Carthaginian over the head with
Greenleaf's Arithmetic. Hannibal got
the head of Scipio Africanus under his
arm, and Scipio in his efforts to break
away stumbled, and the two generals
had a rough-and- tumble fight under the
black board. Caius Gracious tackled
Hamilcar with ruler, and the latter
in his struggles TO get loose fell against
the stove and knocked down about thir-
ty feet Of stove-pipe. Thereupon the
Romans made grand rally, and in
five minutes they ran the entire Cartha-
ginian army out Of the schOol-room
and Barnes along with il, and then
they locked the door and began to hunt
up the apples and lunch in the desks of
the enemy. After consuming the sup
plies they went to the windows and made
disagreeable remarks to the Carthagin-
ians who were standing in the yard,
and dared old Barnes To bring the foe
once more into battle array. Then
Barnes went for a policeman, and when
he Knocked at the door II was opened
and all the Romans were found busy
studying their lessons. When Barnes
came in with the defeated troops he
went for Scipio Africanus, and pulling
him out Of his seat by the ear, he
thrashed that great military genius
with rattan until Scipio began 10 cry,
whereupon Barnes dropped him and be-
gan to paddle Caius Gracious. Then
things settled down in the old way and
next morning Barnes announced that
history in the future would be studied
as it always had been, and he wrote Il
note To the Educational Monthly TO say
that in his opinion the man who sug-
gested the new system ought To be led
out and shot. The boys do not now
take as much interest in history AS they
did on that day. Philadelphia BHliciin.