Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1880-03-06

1HNA va MAN1 q = ~ AUNO vi
glory, has styled herself the "City of
Poets. A beautiful epithet, and in
deed, a peculiarly striking one 10 a
stranger. who might wander about in
quest ola palace lifting TO eternal
summer its marble walls, from out a
glossy bower of coolest foliage musical
with birds" thinking it strange, for
sooth, that such a mighty manifesto
tiOn of genius should fountain forth in
sparkling melody, only to gurgle into
the sandy swamp land or be swallowed
by the thirsty quagmire, whichhath no
ear for song. A few days tarry, how
ever, will speedily change the notion
of the traveller. He will soon learn
that Wisconsin poets are not such a
wonderful production as might at first
be supposed. They are painfully un-
cultivated; grow wild, as the saying is,
in patches like cabbage heads, or
breed in the fetid bog-pool. where
their first poetic idea was produced by
the mirrowed leg Of some fshmon-
gers od-hopping daughter in search
OF frogs. 1t would be an almost hope
less task to single out any person from
the multiplicity of poets deserving
special mention. They all grow,
cheek by iowl, in the same sunlight,
and, aside from an occasional "Sonet
to a Maiden's Corset-string," or an
lode to a Stocking-leg." they all pre-
pare their gush from the same divine
formula-that is to say, the principal
ingredient in their golden song is
invariably a bare female. The super
abundance Of raw material easily ex-
cites their poetic frenzy, and with the
skill of an ambidexterian they adorn
with little fig leaves of song and sprigs
Of verse, making a most ingenious
modern Eve, who could offend no one.
but the fame-loving Anthony Com
stock, who is reputed to be the most
meek and lowly parsonage outside of
the holy writ. lr4l
For the last quarter ola century I
have visited this state semi-annually
in the interest of publishing house,
whose educational textbooks are
favorably known throughout the
states. | have carefully watched
Wisconsin, carefully studied her in,
tellectual development. Where is she
to-day? What is she doing for the adj
vancement of her people? Ali ask of
her hundreds of tumble-down log
school novels that ten or eleven
months in each year are the home of
the hedgehog, the habitation of fowls
and badgers and bats. Ask of her
larger aud more pretentious schools,
most of them decrepit with age and
dry-rot. | can point out village schools
by the score that are to-day using the
identical textbooks that were con
sidered out of vogue in Kentucky
twenty-five or thirty years ago.
Badger children are still taught that
the inhabitants of Minnesota terri
tory" are chiefly Indians, and that
the principal exports are buffalo
skins and wild rice. They are also
taught that Pekin is the largest city
in the world, and that the highest
mountains are the mountains Of the
moon. Teachers throughout the
state are generally of the sweet sex;
they teach on third grade (no grade
at all) certificates.
A short time since l attended a
teachers institute, where there we're
over three hundred teachers ION a
lark" Not one present could de-
scribe the fifth pair Of nerves; no one
knew anything about the rule of fall
ing bodies. A county superintendent,
arriving the last day, rendered his re-
grets to the assemblage, and said his
only excuse for absence was the I'M
happy fact that his wife was bed-rid-
den with "pee-neumonia." Thus
Wisconsin WAKES and wanes. One
halfof her stupid inhabitants think
Grant is still president, and entertain
the idea hat he will marry Queen
Victoria if reelected in 1890.
L0UGSVILLIAN.