Northern tribune. [volume] (Cheboygan, Mich.) 1875-1885, 1879-08-16
NORTHERN TRIBUNE.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 16, 1879.
oaioiaIPaper ofthe County and village
/ OUR scIlodLs AND ooLLEGEs.


above toast 10 be responded to, because
knowing personally but little about our
public schools for 40 years past, and
nothing Of our colleges except as an oc-
casiOnal reporter, / should feel ridicu-
lous in bearing you with long speech.
There are three ways Of filling the in
ner man: 1, to follow that economical
clearinghouse keeper who gave her
boarders dried apples for breakfast,
warm water for dinner and let them
swell for supper; 2, to follow the confed-
crate soldier who, being seen to chew
green persimmons by his commanding
officer, was told that they were wholly
unfit for food, whereupon he replied, Il
don't take them as food, gineral, but to
pucker up my stomach to fit my IA
TONS" and 8, the method you have
adopted, of spreading abundant, whole
some and delicious viands before your
guests, and giving them time to eat and
enjoy the same.
OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS
furnish the newspapers with readers.
They are the fountains from which sub
scribers flow. Close the schools and the
printing-presses would stand still and
the editors would have to work at some
thing which, in q majority of cases,
would pay them better. But our schools
should be made more practical andthOr-
Ough. They should reduce their field
and cultivate it better. They should
turn out correct spoilers, plain readers,
legible writer's, ready arithmeticians,
with enough geograpy and history
thrown In to enable the pupils to move
around in society and in the world like
intelligent beings. A graduate coming
out Of $4,000 palatial schOol-house,
who does not know in what ward in his
city that school house stands, nor how
his county is bounded, nor what race of
men first settled his state, nor what
caused the war of the rebellion, is prac-
ticing fraud on the tax.payers.-0r, at
least, those who got up such system of
education are practicing a fraud. The
text books on which studied geogra-
ply began with the solar system, tray-
eled down to this globe, then to the con-
tinents, then to different nations, and
scarcely got as far as the state wherein
/ lived. But the true system, / think,
would be to begin with the childs era
die, proceed to the different room, then
to the outside Of the house, then the lot,
the block, the street, the ward or the
township, the county, the state and ma
tiOn, and lastly the globe. In this way
geography would teach the pupil at
every step and turn he made, and would
be q vital, useful branch of knowledge,
instead of shadowy abstraction.
once took boy to learn the printing
business, and ne set up in type the word
committee" in three different ways, and
all of them wrong, namely: "comittee,"
"cOmlttie," "c0mmitty;" and when !
criticised him, he said / was "too particu-
lar" and so 1t became necessary to look
for another boy, and several months pass
ed before could find one who appreciate
ed this little matter of spelling correctly.
And yet good spelling is at the very base
of all our written and printed language,
and errors here are likely to bring more
disgrace than anywhere else.
are to be especially thanked by the press,
for they send us out large crop Of first
class editors every year. These Young
men walk into the variOns sanetums OF
the land, fOurishing their diplomas, and
claiming the highest positions. They
despise the long and painful drill to
which printers are subjected and expect
to jump to the top of the ladder in about
two steps. There may be exceptions,
but have never yet known any fresh
college graduates who did not need to be
trimmed down, spurred up, rubbed,
sharpened, held to rigid hours of labor,
taught to be exact in details, and to have
their punctuation and capitalization
corrected, before they were of much
value on a newspaper. The most car
less, troublesome, and aggravating copy
] have ever seen, for the press-and
have handled cords of it, in the regular
course OF business-was prepared by
some d. D., LII. D., M. D., A. H., A. B., or
other owners of q college title. You have
probably heard that when Horace Gree
ley listened to the show" Rotations in
French of some schoolgirls at Battle
Creek, he told them lit would be Of much
more value if they would find out under
what conditions milk soured;" and when
the boys recited in Latin, he advised
them to "learn to swim instead of spend
ing so much time over the classics"
/ wondered, in riding to your city this
afternoon, what could be done with the
enormous quantities of shingles near
the various stations. Shingles at the
right, shingles at the left, shingles in
front, shingles everywhere, and the buzz
of shingle-mills was the prevailing sound.
But it Is explained In the fact that our
university turns out multitude of new
lawyers and doctors every year, and those
shingles are all needed for their signs.
You may keep on making shingles and
be sure of a market, 50 long as the State
keeps on producing lawyers and doctors
at the cost of the people generally.
That good cOmmOn-sch0ol education
Is of superior value In practical affairs
Is shown in the educational history of
our governors during the last 80 years.
Seven of them out Of ten were trained
In the common schools and the practical
business of life, while three were college
learned. Michigan has been fortunate
In the ability and integrity of her execu-
tive officers. and very fortunate indeed
to get them for $1,000 per year. The
same rule applies to our Legislatures,
which, although regularly scolded by
disappointed lobbyists, have yet made
this state nearly model in wise econo-
my, joined with iberality. No state
manages her institutions with better
success or less waste and mistakes. Two
thirds of the senators this year were ed
ucated only in the common schools, and
a large majority Of every house of repre-
sentatiyes- popular body, which con-
trolls appropriations derived all their
early education from the common
schools. / will not bore you further with
statistics.
Ezekiel Webster, on being asked "why
his brother Daniel was sent to college.