The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1879-07-09
The Schoolmaster's Conquest.

elizabeth w. Denison.
The SchOOImaSter'S Conquest.
Bronson .Alcott, of Boston, once
told Joseph Cook, and Joseph Cook
told everybody he met, that he made
it regulation in his school, that if a
pupil violated a rule, the master
should substitute his own voluntary
sacrifclal chastisement for that pu-
pills punishment; and this regulation
almost Christianized his school.
zone day." Mr.. Alcott said; Il
called up before me pupil who had
violated an important rule. ALI the
school was looking on, and knew the
rule and the penalty. Iput the ruler
into the offenders hand; 1 extended
my own hand l told him to strike.
Instantly | saw struggle begin in
his face. A new light sprang up in
his countenance. A new set of shut
ties seemed to be weaving a new ma
ture within him. kept my hand
extended, and the school was in tears.
The boy struck once, and burst into
tears. He seemed to be in bath of
fire which was giving him a new ma
ture. He seemed transformed by the
idea that should suffer chastse-
ment in place of his punishment, and
ever after was the most docile pupil
in the school, though he had at first
been the rudest."
Now, this is very affecting and rea-
sonable and striking. No one can
read the incident and very readily
forget it; and it contains lesson
that every school teacher can GER
tainly read with profit. The incident
came to the know ledge Of Willis X.
Stoddard, who, for some years past,
has 80 aching q district school in
Is mt ffvei1c0wnshlp IN iowa. He
read this extract from one of Joseph
Cooks lectures, and never forgot the
great moral it conveyed. And, in
deed, he privately informed clergy
man who called upon him during
critical period in his career, and with
whom he was very intimate, that he
didn't think he ever would forget it.
Young Mr.. Stoddard had some few
pretty hard boys in school. They
were big and noisy, and rough and
turpulent. He had reasoned with
them; he had expostulated; he had
begged and wept. He had whipped
them until his arms ached, and the
directors threatened to dismiss him
for unnecessary severity and abso-
lutte cruelty; and the boys grew worse
and worse every day. But when he
was at his wits end, and was seri-
ously thinking of running away and
losing all his back salary, rather than
stay at the school another day, he
read this incident. and it gave his
troubled mind new light. He treas
ured it mp, and thought it might
help him.
He had treasured it up probably
half a day, when, one bright June
afternoon, Samuel johnson, the big
gest and strongest and worst of all
the big bad boys, violated all the
rules OF the school, one after another,
as fast as he could think of them, and
wound up by tearing seven leaves
out of his geography. These he
GRAINED into his mouth, and, when he
had chewed them into pulp, he took
the "wad" into his hand, and pro-
PEELED the whole mass with great
violence into the ear of Ellis Haskell,
who, although also big and bad-a
little bad-was not possessed of suffi-
cient presence Of mind to look calm
and unconscious under this avalanche,
merely because the eye of his teacher
was upon him, and he accordingly
signified his very natural dismay and
astonishment by tremendous howl.
And all the school howled in re-
sponsive chorus. Not only because
the scholars were delighted to see
Ellis Haskell with his larboard ear
full of paper mache, as though he
were going to take a cast OF it for the
physiology class, but also because
they knew the teacher would
promptly, and without further cere-