Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1876-05-19
Reformed Method OF Studying His.
tory.
Philadelphia Bulletin.

Barnes, the schoolmaster in subur-
ban town, read in the Educational
Monthly that boys could be taught
history better than in another way by
letting each boy in the class repre-
sent some historical character, and
relate the acts of that character as if
he had done them himself. This
struck Barnes as a mighty good idea,
and he resolved to try it on. The
school had then progressed so far in
its study of the history of Rome as
the Punic wars, and Mr.. Barnes i'm
mediately divided the boys into two
parties, one Romans and the others
Carthagenians, and certain of the
boys were named after the leaders
upon both sides. The boys thought
it was big thing, and Barnes no
ticed that they were SO anxious to get
to the history lesson that they could
hardly say their other lessons pro-
perly.
When the time came, Barnes
ranged the Romans on one side of
the room and the Carthagenians on
the other. The recitation was very
spirited, each party telling about its
deeds with extraordinary unction-
After while Barnes asked Roman
to describe the battle of Cannn.-
Whereupon the Romans heaved their
copies of "Wayland's Moral Science
at the enemy. Then the Carthagen-
ians made q battering-ram out of
bench and jammed it among the Ro-
mans, who retaliated with a volley
OF books, states and chewcd paper
balls. Barnes concluded that the
battle of Gamma had been sufficiently
illustrated, and he tried to stop it,
but the warriors considered it too
good thing to let drop, and accord
ingly the Carthagenians sailed over
to the Romans with another batter
ingram and thumped couple of
them in the stomach.
Then the Romans turned in and
the fight became general. A Cartha-
genian would grasp Roman by the
hair and hustle him around over the
desks in manner that was simply
frightful to behold, and a Roman
would give fendish whoop and
knock Carthagenian over the head
with Greenleaf's Arithmetic. Han
ibal got the head of Scipio African
us under his arm, and Scipio, in his
efforts to break away, stumbled, and
the two generals fell and had a
rough-andtumble fight under the
blackboard. Caius Gracious tackled
Hamilcar with ruler, and the latter,
in his struggles to get loose, fell
against the stove and knocked down
about thirty feet of stove-pipe.-
Thereupon the Romans made a grand
rally, and In five minutes they ran
the entire Carthagenian army out of
the school-room, and Barnes along
with it, and then they locked the
door and began to hunt up the ap-
pies and lunch in the desks of the en-
envy.
After consuming the supplies they
went to the windows and made disa-
greeable remarks to the Carthagen-
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 it
was opened, and all the Romans were
found busy studying their lessons.
When Barnes came in with the de-
feated troops, he went for Scipio Af-
ricanus, and pulling him out of his
seat by the ear, he threshed that
great military genius with rattan
till Scipio began to cry, whereupon
Barnes dropped him and began to
paddle Caius Gracious. Then things
settled down in the old way, and the
next morning Barnes announced that
history in the future would be stud
led as it always had been, and he
wrote y note to the Educational
Monthly to say that, in his opinion,
the man who suggested the new sys-
TEN ought to be led out and shot
The boys do not now take as much
interest in Roman history AS they
did on that day.