The comet. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1877-1882, 1880-07-31


= to me the sacred, silken chords that have
r gently drawn and lurcd me back to the
: paths of honor and of right. All, who can
b estimate the inestimabe blessing of good,
and faithful, and pious mother! Who can
measure the hight, and depth, ahd volume
of mothers love for her child? 1t is
something that will not--cannot die. 1t is
a sweet inheritance that can never be lost.
1t is touching remembrance that still
fingers about the deep rccesses of the most
wretched and abandonded bosom. There
is nothing like it in this world. 1t is a
, foretaste of heayen-thc connecting link
with eternal love. Where will you 90 to
find kindred inspiration? No where but
Heaven. lis God-given in its boundless
plenitude -- God-lke in its immaculate
purity!
But let me come back to my Sch0omaster
l don't know whether l am going to make
success in drawing his picture or not, but
with your permission will try it. have
no prejudice against him. He never
} Whaled me with his snake-pole, and if he
had | am not an Indian to nurse anundying
grudge against him for it. There he sat,
near the door of the log-cabin school house,
with its long paralelogram opening for
Wlhdow ana It's wide board for desk in
the rear, both running the whole length of
the building, - with its rough benches
made of heWed puncheons on which the
squad of learners were consigned. A
virtual prison hut, and the Schoolmaster
playing the part of Grand Sentinel to the
nly.entrance, with huge terule on his
table and Il villainOus switch stuck in a
crack within reach, to Oycrawe the trem-
bling culprts. There he was panopied in
the insignia of despotic power, the major
general Of the schoOl-room, and the per-
sontication of the sold field Schoolmaster,
as he sometimes presented himself thirty
years ago.
He was slightly turning the period of
| life which marks the point where the shade
begins. At the date of my introduction to
him should say that he was fifty or there
abouts. But he had good constitution
and fine appetite, and was well preserved
for his age. He was a professional school .
master-had begun early and had followed |
this role for thirty years. During all that |
period he had brayely held his own, moving .
around in his narrow little intellectual
circle-round and round--Iike Il mule in
mill-advancing neither back wards .
nor forwards, sideways, edgcways, up
wards nor dOWnwards- forgetting nothing
and learning nOthing-obliviou of all i'm
proyemcnts IN text books, reading nothing
and caring for nothing-aimless-p -pithleSs
obj blectless-ambition --idealeSs- flavor
less--tasteless. But he knew enough for
his business--had committed TO memory
all the thirty-One rules of Kirkhams Eng
lish Grammar, but concerned himself not
upon the application of any one of them.
His triumph was to know them by heart.
lie could work out every sum in Smiley's
Arithmetic with his eyes shut, but didn't
have the knack Of solving any problem not
found in that book. He wrote good hand,
but was unable to explain any of the SIM
pie principles of penmanshlp. If any of
his pupils had an ambition to excel in
writing, let them learn as he did-there
was the copy" When his cyphering
squad got stumped on a "sum," as they
did about as fast as they come TO
them, he could silently and mysteriously
work it out aS quick as the figures could be Z
made, in the old and regular way, and then
the squad were permitted to go out of
doors and find out for themselves how the
thing was done. Sometimes bright boy /
did learn something, but he did it in spite
Of the teacher.
When play-time was approaching little
before twelve O'Clock, the whole school was
called up in line of battle for the semi
daily spell After this exercise was over l
the pupils were dismissed and broke for !
heir dinner-baskets, and he broke for |
his. Then followed the rOmps and games, q
Orming about the only part of the pro-
sramme which affords me any real pleasure II
II religious consolation in remembering. u
regarded the two hours of play-time >
hen, and l look back upon it yet, as the IL
hief charm and benefit of this "cld field
chool." But did this SchoOlmasler of 5
nine go out and direct the sports of the b
hildren, and occasionally take a hand 81
With them himself? Not Il bit of it. They g
we're left to their own unrestrained and III
ntrained resources. while he quietly nj
oiled nm ON a bench and buried himself in OF
eep sleep for two hours. Sometimes he al
foud oyersleep himself, but that was only III
IN for the boys. M
He would generally take Il school for the -
,rm of six months, and when that expired VI
migrate to another ''sctilcment" where III
ne same tread-mill routine was re-enacted
e never taught two terms at the same 70
ACE. Sometimes he would get school I'll
orth as much as twenty dollars a month, !e
I'd that was his maximum figure. He felt nu
ke highwayman if he robbed the people ''l
more money than $50 month. But mi
,nerally his schools paid from ten to fifteen co
'llars month, and if he only got ten he ="
ade the ends meet by "bOarding around" uu
id he grow rich? Not much. Did he re-
'ep abreast with the progress Of learning oil
ID of events Not any. He was to all lN'
actical intents and purposes as perfect a ma
man blank as ever numbered the earth. ou
the problem of life he figured through MS
i as a negative quantity. ! contemplate on
is character from this distance with pro- 1"
md amazement, that a man could be
lie TO grope through thirty years of h'l
althy physical existence in the line Of WI
Icher, and yet learn absolutely nothing an'
out it. But he was regarded as great oi
lolar. With me aud the other little boys ma
was a prodigy Of errudition. Wegazed ma
ON him with wonder me
"- snd still the wonder grew, :"
low one small head could hold all BE- knew" lus
Il OBJECT OF THE FOREGOING sKETCH. "y
Iy object, ladies and gentlemen, in this lib,
Itch of one type Of the school-master do,
rty years ago. is not to throw reproach the
on the humber walks Of the profess one
n. God forbid that l should ever be mo
lily Of the weakness and ingratitude Of Ian
ing TO bring into ridicule the humble bes
Irces Of my own poor educational adyan- for7
es. l have drawn an extreme picture had
order to make vivid the application. ing
. nil