The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1877-09-07
BARRING OUT A SCHOOLMASTER.

My early life was made miserable by
ono Mulberry Bangs, a gentleman of the
cld school, who devoted himself to read
ing, writing and arithmetic, and the gen.
oral use of a stick. Upon my head and
other parts of my person he imprinted
himself so positively that L can see him
now as plainly as if we had parted but
yeste rday. He was a stout man, who
made in his figure, when seen in profile,
Hoga rth's line of beauty, being round
shouldered and crooked in the legs. He
was blonde. The hair of his head had
that sunny tinge SO much admired to-
day, and when rubbed down with tai
low candle, as was his wont to dress it,
was so smooth and straight that the boys
believed that the flies slipped down it
and broke their legs. His eyes were dark
and fierce. and hid under the cavernous
rece sses made by his bushy red eye
brows, seemed to watch like evil spirits
over his precious nose. The nose was a
ruby nose, bottle in shape, and when
Bangs was angry, which appeared to be
all the time, it glowed like the headlight
Of locomotive. His mouth was finished
without lips, and resembled a slit in O
piece of sole leather.
My early experience gave me distaste
for the whips in schools. But / am fan
from siding with the sentimentalists OF
the present day, who advocate kindness
and moral suasion. The easier teach
iugs-not the best, but, in fact, the only
ones-are those of the rod, that gave lie
realizing sense of pain to the body,
aud drilled us into patience and self
denial.
BOYS are of two sorts-good little boys,
who die young, and bully boys, who can
not be killed.
As the last-named only live to be men,
instead of being transplanted into angels,
IL is well to discipline them through the
only process known to animals, and that
is the discipline of fear. The old adage
is not far wrong that said, "When you
meet boy whale him-for, if he has
not been in mischief, he is going in."
What may have been my feelings when
suffering under the stick of old Bangs,
my objection to him now rests not so
much on his use of that instrument ms
the beastly appearance and character OF
the man. Later in life 1 was the scholar
of man who was as severe with the rod,
"iAiooey 40 my tDClny l)tuBb Dub w III y
dying day shall remember him as one
OF the noblest of men and the truest
friend / ever encountered. Alexander
Kinmont lived and died in the obscurity
of select school, with the generous inn
pulses and large, hearty brain that
ought TO have secured him high posi-
hon among the teachers and leaders OF
men. From that school came boys &c
disciplined to study, and 30 filled with
the love of learning, that they, in max.
ing their mark in the world, lived to il.
iustrate the beauty of the system.
did not, however, sit down to write
OF this, but to give in brief some of INV
earlier experiences. It was understooa
throughout the country that the bows
were justifable in barring out the mas.
Ger, aud, II successful, were not only en-.
titled to a weeks recess, but the admira.
ton and praise of their parents OLD
Bangs was famous for his power of re.
sagtance, and boosted that no school ~
his had ever succeeded in conquerino IN
such attempts. On the occasion to which
refer we had two big boys in school
named Bill Henning and Bob Strong
They were knotty-headed, broad-shonl
dCred and hard-fsted fellows. who