The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1876-09-06

! NOu u lCSCl lplloIl vi tIS lH'SSSoioki
aud speaking in your next issue.
HAMPTON AND REFORM.
Old Field Schools,
Barring Out and Duckins the Master.
mentioned in a former commune
cation that the first school house
built in the Calhoun settlement,
was within the palaisade of Fort
Boone, and that it was also
used as a injecting house" for re-
ligious services. Our fore-fathers
when they builded to protect their
little one against the t%olnahawk and
scalpking knife of the savage Indians,
also took care to guard them against
those more u%nrclenting foes-irreli-
gion and ignorance. Thus sprung up
that close relationship which SO long
suUsisted between the church and the
school-house, in which the pastor Of
ten filled the responsible post OF teach
cr in both, and when the religious i'll
flucnce which pervaded the whole re-
suited in producing that high moral
excellence which distinguished the
men OF the past, / am not disposed
to discuss the subject of education. 1t
can require no argument to shoW That
every system must be fatally defective,
which ignores, o. assigns q subordi-
nate place to the moral and religious
instruction Of the young. Better that
u son should lie kept Ignorant at home,
than sent into the world armed and
equipped for evil. The writer very
distinctly remembers the old 10y
school house at Upper Long Cane,
when more than fifty years ago he
was was committed to the tender mer-
cies of Domino Henry Fulton to he
indicted into the mysteries of "Dil-
worth's spelling book" and the more
abstruce mysteries of the lnultiplica-
ton table and the Rule of Three.
Oh, happy days! Yet, not days OF
unmixeI happiness, for sly old Dil.
worth had placed at the Threshold OF
knowledge these lines:
"'Tis education forms the common mind,
Just as the twigis bent, the trees inclined.
And their construction was u source
of continual controversy between the
teacher and his scholars, and as he
always had it his own way, it WAS a
con slant cause of irritation to the
boys, and the %girls-poor things
sometimes suffered from q want OF
harmony upon the subject. Then old
Pike, who made the multiplication
table-we often wondered why he did
not make it ''easy for beginners"-.fill-
ed O page or two as examples how
the thing was done, and gave the an.
swers to each-these, the too confiding
youth carefully copied, and when he
presented his work for the inspection
and approval of his teacher, he found
to his horror that he had been pur'
posely deceived and that the whole
was wrong-then the boy learned his
first practical lesson in life-to take
nothing for granted though he find ii
printed in a book, and which was ell.
forced by such arguments that lie
would long remember.
AS these "old field schools''-as they
were reproachfully called-were estl'
blished upon a uniform plan, and con-
Quoted for a like purpose, a description
of one will serve for all. The build
ing itself was of the most primitive
style, built of logs out near the spot
where it was erected !; there WAS not
a nail about it, except a few i'll the
door, the floor was made Of plank
when they could be had, but often OF
puncheons laid down without much
regard to s%moothness, or ovenness OF
surface, the cracks were chinked with
split billets of wood driven between
the logs. Air and light were admitted
by leaving out n OF two of the side
logs a wide plank was adjusted at 4
proper angle before the opening
which served as a writing desk for the
whole school. The roof was kept in
place by weight poles, q capacious fire
place with q stick and mud chimney
completed the ediiice. The masters
outfit CONSISTED Of a small table with
a drawer, a split bottom chair, q pei
knife, a fiat ruler, a lead pencil, and q
well-trimmed gracefully taperingh ick.
!ory switch as the symbol of authority
NO limits were assigned to his attain
ments, and many of the teachers were
good classical scholars. but it was IN
indispensable requisite that he should
be a ma of character, write u good
hand, spell and read correctly and
possess q thorough knowledge OF com.
mon arithmetic. 1t is hard for the
young people Of the present TIME to
realize the difficulties and disadvan-
tages under which their grandfathers
and grandmothers labored in obtain
ing an education. Books were few
and of M inferior quality, writing
paper was coarse and unruled, and
but little better than the wrapping
paper Of to-day. Ink was made from
the liquid pressed from the oak ball,
with a little copperas dissolved in it
steel pens were unknown, and mother
goose from the farm yard supplied
that indispensable article; pencils
were formed from pieces of lead rolled
and hammered into proper shape,
slate pencils were the fragments of Il
broken slate, sharpened to a point. 1t
may be as difficult for the "young
gentleman" of the present 10 appre-
ciate the school boy sports of the past.
These consisted inclimbing, jumping,
wrestling, running, aud had their
climax in BARRING out" the teacher.
This was rebellion of the rankest kind,
but rs the whole country is now eel
ebrating the centennial of a much
greater rebellion, [ can see no i'm
propriety in giving my young readers
an account of one III which the writer
participated long ago. The plan was
laid several days before the outbreak
occurred, the whole school was in
formed Of it, and all entered heartily
into it, from the biggest boy, who
was chosen as leader, to the little bare
footed urchin, just beginning to wear
"gallowses." When all things were
ready, the older boys repaired to the
school house. early in the morning,
and made the necessary arrangements
for resistance. The teacher arrived at
the usual time, and found the girls
and smaller boys collected in squads
under the trees, he spoke kindly to
them and inquired what they were
doing outside of the house. A pert
little Miss replies "he, he, you're
barred out, and we are going to have
holiday" The teacher smiles, passes
ON to the door, which he finds barri-
cated, he then goes round to the long
window on the opposite side of the
house, which he finds bristling with
pikes-long poles sharpencd at one
end, he calls in All authoritative tone,
"open the door," this brings the lead
er to the front, a parley is held, and
conditions are proposed on the part OF
=, 4l,t tl>n t,ohnlnr c cho1l houn