National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1879-07-09
MISCELLANEOUS.



galloped into the arms of July, aud the pima
fore school children have taken refuge undcr
tho wing of tho Admiral, otherwise the paron-
tai homestead. College aud academy, high
school and primary, oil professions, all ages,
all degrees have disbanded and gone; concen-
tration has turned into dilfusiveness, the
solid into its atoms, blood to blood. like to
like. Some will bask in the sunshine of FREQ
dom aud daily with the maternal apron
strings awhile, returning again to the alma
mater after the green Of Summer has changed
into the yellow of Autumn, while others have
turned their backs forever on the school forms
aud recitation rooms with their faces toward
the several worlds that, Alexander like, thoy
have TO conquer. The month of budding prom
ises opens upon the flowers of hone As tho
grain "opens for the sickle, or rather for the
reaping machine. comes troop after
troops of eager enthusiasts. Youth rarely ever
takes in the full significance OF life; June knows
nothing of September, and age to the young is
the algebrac unknown quantity that in the
hrst Hush OF freedom thoy never think 10
| search for. 1t was an old poet, we may he
sure, who, looking back upon his faded you ill.,
penned verse like this
How short is lifc's uncertain space
Alas how quickly done
How swfl the wild precarious race
Aud yet how difficult the pace
How very hard TO run
All the exclamation points arc his and II,
uses them rs though lie had just awakened out
Of a sound sleep and was astonished TO tiud
that his hair was gray and that in walking he
must have q cane.
But there Is way 10 carry the soul Of youth
into the outer caskot of advanced years by
catching his from the young. day by day,
little of its spirit of freshness. Here in this
happy land of ours within the past month
more than ten thousand schools have been dis
missed Gan such n tide flow into our botnoe
our streets our places Of business, and have no
reiuvcnatng eiiectP The oak is invigorated
by the summer rains as well as the sapling;
parents live in their children, and the entire
community is kept alive by the fresh young
blood and the elastic activities that come with
it, There was time aud it is not entirely
gone, when children thrown very early into
factories and other occupations grew prcma-
turely old they carried the sad weary faces
OF men upon pigmy shoulders and in such cases
1t is an invariablo rule that the parents OF such
children look and talk aad feel as though they
were themselves always old. Take away tho
chcerfulncss, the rosy faces, and the bright eyes
OF children, and men and women are very SIM
liar to plants brought up in darkness. The
daily renewal of the sun is no more necessary
than the springtime of the soul, making rain
bows of tears and turning discord into melody
1t Is Of these vanished schools, however, of
which we would particularly speak. Day af-
ter day they have come in until the pencil has
been laid down in very WEAKNESS with record
ing essays and oratiOns, degrees and prizes,
addresses and frewolls There is a great deal
of sameness about these affairs, yet, like the
flowers that crown the speakers, they never
lack attractiveness and beauty. They illus
trate also the wonderful eXpansiveness of edu-
cation. In England, for centuries, learning
was confined almost wholly TO the nobility
and gentry, and now there are but two coun-
tries in the world-Germany and the United
GNntn tl.nNa
versatility of education, to fairly equal chances
for all classes. But it is less the extent to
which schooling is carried than it's improved
quality that awakens admiration. The kim
dergarten takes the child of tender years
and gives it learning in homeopathic doses
rs pleasant to take as medicated sugar of
milk. Aud thence every step upward,
while not freed from hard work is yet rem
dered easy and attractive by new methods,
new apparatus, better written textbooks,
and that toned system of instruction which
| shows larger infusion OF the milk of human
kindness. The ancient pedagogue is no more;
he is replaced by the gentleman as well as tho
scholar. And in all primary instructions there
| is the added force OF woman's grace and born
faculty for teaching; that nameless quality
which we call heart for the want OF something
more substantive and definite. And great col
| leges have sprung up to specially fit women for
| these new and pleasant duties. 1t sounds odd,
| even now, to read that the Letin Salutatory
was made by Miss Arnold, but it sounds still
moro strange that thrty-siX graduates from tho
same constitution received the degree of Bachelor
| of Arts. 1t is no wonder that young ladies
| there educated should unite in erecting a statue
| to the founder of such a school, with sentence
| from his own lips inscribed thereon: Tho
mothers of a country mould the character of
| its citizens, determine its institutions and
shape itsdestiny."
| Thus ii is if the early summer takes some-
thing away-apparently-it yet has brought
us more than it takes. The grass and the
| grain are of no use while growing in the fields;
| they must be gathered and distributed, and it
| is so with college and school. Year after year
| they come to the harvesting time and are dis
| tributod. From them come new ideas new in
ventions new impulses, a fresh creation of
| patriotism, to be laid hereafter upon the altar
of the nations life. II, as some think, the
only immortality is in the perpetuation Of the
| race, IL is good thing to leave behind each
| generation wiser than the last but II, rs we
devoutly believe, Christianity is the lever
which, resting on the fulcrum of faith, raises
all men up from the dead level of tho natural
mind, then through this education we behold
the new revelations and hopes of the future.
Let the curtain of June drop; July enters tho
monarch of the summer, and in him promises
| become fruition.