The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1876-03-23
The Anti-AGon0P0liSt.

instructed his pupils to read and write
while plying his vocation. These teach
ers were as ty, annical as ignorant, and
Martin Luther says he was whipped 16 |
tic.es in one forenoon, BY one OF these
pedagogues Goldsmith has in his
Deserted Village" embalmed one OF
them for posterity like bug in am
ber.' Fielding, Maryette, and Dickens
have each IN turn, pointed the sharp
barbs of their satire at them with telling |
effect, and though many exist to day,
yet they are fast disappearing before the |
better, more useful. and less expensive
common school free to all maintained
upon the certain endowment Of public
taxation.
The morals Of those schools were just
what they happened to be. Duelling IN
many was common occurrence among
pupils, the rank Of the parents was
punctiliously recognized by teachers
and pupils, the larger boys were invari-
ably the tyrants Of the play ground
Hanging and other practices, equally as
shocking to all moral sense, were gener-
al in nearly all the schools OF the last
century.
The common school as we know it,
was first legally established in this coun-
try by the colony Of Plymouth. This
occurred in 1928; and that old Church
Fort, where Cap. Miles Standish dis
played so much military genius and
learning, on whose roof he had wisely
mounted all the guns of the government
OF Plymouth in such manner as to
sweep the entire horizen-(for it was
single swivel,-)was the first school
house. and John Alden the first teacher.
It is not to be presumed that John was
greatly troubled by the publishers OF
school books. for the now venerable
Ghost OF Kindley Mussay was not even
invented, and in all this landless con-
tinent OF ours, at that time, Noah Web
ster's spelling book had not been dis
coursed, for the reasons every body ar
ranged his sentences and spelled his
words according to the dictate of his
own conscience. But with all the poor
surroundings wha beautiful picture it
must have been to have seen the ''golden
haired stripling,n engaged at his labors
with the beloved Pricilla perhaps tor an
assistant he the least stern OF all those
| pulitans and she, brave soul, bearing
the first flower of motherhood in that
classical old bark the Maytlower, into
the New England Wilderness.
Drop a tear to their memory, and to
those stern old puritan fathers too, who
cast the heather out OF this wilderness
aad planted this glorious vine. that has
taken deep root and filled the land, till
it has caused allthe hills with its branch
es twining equally about the goodly
cedars OF California, the magnolias OF
the south and the pines OF the north,
bathing its sprays in the flowing tides
Of earth's two greatest oceans, and she'd
ding its golden fruit in every valley.
What nobler trophy to their greatness
than the school houses now dotting
every hill Of this vast continent.
The common school gradually spread
from Plymouth into every other New
England colony, yet so slow was its
yrowta and so poor were the people,
that but small benefits had been derived
beyond the recognition of the right to
tax all property for their support.
Washington in a letter to his steward
in l775, characterized the average
"New Englanders as extremely filthy
and dishonest but his assertion is EVIL
IDENTITY too strong and sweeping. 1t i
probable that the filth ne saw resulted
from the lack OF system in policing the
) camps: for at that time the good old
. New England dame had her sanied
, floor. her pewter tea sets polished to .
, mirage-iike brightness. Yet after all
it is certain when we examine the towr
. records Of those old states, that ouI
! fathers were not more virtuous and IA
!, less intelligent than their sons. Iht
: old fashion school house Of the last cen
fury was usually . log structure. built III
at one end against stone chimney
/ where fireplace opened toward t.
: room. The desks was generally mad
. fast to the wall around three sides OF tn
room, and as many forms about ~ inch
. es high were placed before them. Tn
4 scholars sat with their baca to the teach
E er. The New England primer and tn
new testament were often the only tex
. books: sometimes Beams Life OF Wash
), in gton. little Ratchet story and all
a along toward the very last Of the Isl
: century was used tor re Iing book
! Horace Maan attended one OF thes
:. schools in the town OF Franklin. Massa
= chusetts. and SAYS. that the oil. thing wa
= 50 open in winter that he hal the IN
= freeze in his pen many bitter da
: while attempting 70 write.
In 1902 the free school crossed u
! frontier and invaded New York. Thi
:. same year that Congress donated sectio
!, Is to the state Of Ohio as public educ;
= ton stock. The first school was es.ah
i ished BY the female association for q
"a relief of the poor. In 1906 > strict
= common school was started under
- chartered grant Of the legislature ofNe
~ York, and in 1875 the first apportioi
- ment was made from the school fund
If New York. It may be well to add u
n every state admitted from the public Q
s main subsequent to the admission
- Ohio has received section Is OF eal
:. township: and that to this in 1S49 in u
ha act organizing the territory OF Nina
"A sofa. section IS was added which b
n been granted to every territory since 9
oanixed; till now there IS not state
!. territory without its common school