The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1880-01-08
An Address to the Teachers Of Pre-
Bile County.


of Mayor ABBoTT's recent address to
the Teachers of Preble County, at
their meeting in Eldorado:
To explore all fields of useful
knowledge, to attain a high standard
of general qualifications, i'll a word to
become q leader of thought, is the
high duty OF every one who aspires
to success in teaching. AS the con
ception of his great work, with its
momentous responsibilities unfolds to
the mind of the teachers what one will
not be ready to exclaim, "What shall
[ not do for the sons and daughters
of this great people? What shall l
not do to make myself worthy to min
lister to the thirst of the aggregate in
tellect which gathers around me?"
What must we all do in u various
eallings2 How our way to higher at
tainments, not merely lose ourselves
amid the elementary and technical
p%erplexities which protect the elevat-
ed threshheold acknowledge of every
department of knowledge from the
intrusion of the minority, attain the
strength and steady poise of the
athlete, who, without the culver of a
muscle, can bear a load beneath which
ordinary strength would reel to the
earth. Thelack ofthe world is strength
and efficiency. Do what we can to
supply that deficiency ; there is al
ways the better way of doing every
thing. Search out and teach that bet
ter way. Skill is the right hand of
knowledge, and comes from the prac-
teal application of knowledge to the
performance of duty. Through and
from this is realized the wisdom of
experience. Impossibilities are mis-
nomers and are simply unknown
qualities amid life's unsolved prob
lens. What a long catalogue of form
er unknown qualities, nicknamed i'm
possibilities, have vanished, as patient
investigation. and through it advance
ing thought, have solved their mys-
terry. Earnest, successful teachers are
always busy setting the corner stones
of now and advanced lines of the
known. The knowledge of each in
dividual forms one of the ~concentric
circles around the common center of
established truth.
What the world terms originality,
is nothing more than conclusions
reached by greater than average men,
tai labor, the announcement of facts
which lie beyond the range of vision
bequeathed to near-sightcd intellects.
The relative power which men pos
sess among their fellows bears a much
nearer approximate ratio to the rela-
tive study and thought they have Sow
orally undergone than many suppose.
If, when electrified by real power, we
wish the glorious possession ours, we
must not forget the price the possess
or has paid for it. THERE'S a show of
fairness in the world after all, espe-
cially in the domain of mind. There
at least is a mast without false weights
and measures. Never fail to teach
your scholars, that in the grander re-
public of thought, individual opinion
wea the cap of Liberty, and from
the highest towers of that great do
main an Independence bell rings by
invisible hands, forever proclaiming
freedom throughout the land. Breathe
into the souls of the young around
you the spirit of lofty ambition and
lively hope. Clear from their paths
all doubts of success, by showing
them the impossibility of failure,
when an honest purpose is sustained
by an honest endeavor. 1t is doubt,
and doubt alone which drives thou
sands of poor moral towards into the
dark caverns of despair, while honest,
earnest, hopeful spirits cut like eagles
the high empyrean.
Teacher, wearied and worn with
your tolls, have you ever reflected
that your best thoughts, your most
beautiful sentiments find q worthy
and appreciative audience in your
school rooms? Boys will be boys
and girls will be girls, groan misan-
thropes with al ominous shake of the
head. So they will, and as long as
the world turns upon its axis spring
will come, and fountains sparkle in
the sunlight, violets spring up among
the cool moses, buttercups sprinkle
the meadows with their stars OF gold,
rills, like silver ribbons sparkle OIL the
mountain sides, and music and beau
ty make glad the earth ; and should
you, who work amid the sublime
beauties of life's springtime, lose
heart so long as nature abhors a vacu-
UNI of humanity al idler. Teach your
pupils that honest labor should be the
high result and cheerful accompani-
ment of solid culture, and that suc-
cess in any department is utterly I'M
attainable without it. That system of
education which only produces Idle
dreamers is worse than q failure-lt
is a crime against humanity. Beech
er once said in substance, off q far
mer would succeed he must mix his
own sweat with his own soil. Medi-
ocro minds, trained to the patient en-
durance of toll, write their indelible
epitaphs in the triumphs ofthe worlds
| slow progress, while really brilliant
minds often go out in darkness. Fix
in the hearts of those who cross the
| thresholds of your school rooms, a
cheerful reliance upon the general
justice of what we call the world, for
it keeps with us all a generally cor
rect balance sheet. So courage and
forward!
have heard people, even teachers,
complain that they were not appreci-
ated. They are centrifugal forces
which repel every kindly influence of
society, and society is not to blame
for either their defeats or discomfi-
lures. In one of Sir Boliver Lythons'
plays, an actor hands to a messenger
a certain package with instructions
where to take it. AS the dangers of
the way rise before the imagination
of the youthful herald he exclaims
musingly, "But if I fall !" The no.
BILE response ZONES quickly: "Fail
fall" In the bright lexicon of youth,
which Fate reserves for q future glo.
rious manhood, there is no such word
as fail. The world will do us justice
if we will even attempt to deal fairly
with it. Any other conclusion is un.
worthy of ourselves, and unworthy
of that generous system of free edu
cation which is the pride of our PEG