Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1880-03-12
School Affairs.

from my warm and uncompromising .t6dtty
to the school interests ofthis dear old county.
Isolemnly dedicate this,production, however
frail and faulty, to every hearthst0ne in the
county, around which gather the ruddy
lads and lasses, who receive their all, edu-
cationally, from our primary schools. Men
of Montgomery county, there is more IN
volved in this struggle than mere squabble
for position. There is coming time, if GER
tain ends be consummated, that will make
your cheeks tinge with shame, when you
contemplate your supineness in this-the
crisis of your destiny. Ask the keen-sighted
Waterman what of the night? and he will
tell you that dark and somber clouds fiecked
with the lightnings glare are athwart the
scholastic horizon. But let us join issues.
So far as our worthy and talented Judge is
concerned / have nought to say, except that
it were sad thing that such allegations
should be banded about, if untrue but
sadder still, if they have foundation in fact.
AS for me individually, my true apprecia-
ton of things judicial was paralyzed by
aliunde Joe in the Electoral Commission.
do not propose to occupy your valuable
space in discussing the constitutional ques-
ton involved in the present appointment of
School Boards, but will present my brief
Gf write one) to the Court of Appeals,
where the matter is now pending, regarding
that place as more apropos than the columns
Of tie county papers.
l will call your especial attention 10 the
first act of the Board now fighting for the
de facto and de jure existence. Thevshib-
boleth of the worthy President of the em-
bryoic board is and has been reform. lfthis
pure motive alone was the handspring of ac-
ton, why in the name of common sense was
a.@.4 Aol HOY han
their ablest abettor in these very premises
The Office was purely executive, and with a
nod and bow Capt A. must have carried
out their every edict He had passed through
twelve years Of arduous devotion to the cause,
and was acknowledged on all sides to DO the
right man in the right place. His retention
would have appeared indispensable if the
redI good of the schools were the sole aasanus
of the "neply created" Now let me explain
this summary decapitation in my old-tash-
Toned way Two of the neaoty created, it is
said, had already been ripened for the trans
action now, how did it happen that the
third, armed with u letter in favor of Capt.
A, from the very man who had. appointed
him, land by the way one of the purest men
in our county, struck boldly for the re-
moval of that gentleman
1t is generally reported throughout the
county that the presiding officer Of the
newly created Jao0rs free education only
in curtditcd and restricted form; that his
opposition to the Normal school is bold and
OutspOken. If this be true, then the decapi-
tation of Capt. A. is readily explained. He
represents the very antipodes of such a
hallucination, and aeoer get CO.'S clay IN TIC
hands Of the potter. Blue, white, black and
gray spirits may mix and mingle, but no
such discordancy as Capt. Anderson was
wanted in that harmonic circle, where all
will go merry as a marriage bell, attuned by
ono symphonic hand. Then let Capt. A. that
learned and gifted man--normally and in
tuitively a school man-ordained by high
Olympus the peer of any man in that capa-
city-weighed in the balance and never
found wanting-must be removed. Why
Because his well-known broad views on ed
ucation were heterodoXy in the eyes Of the
"neaoty created" ! ignore the "bosh" con.
corning his official accounts, and so do all
my children.
Must accept it as fact that the man who
is to preside over the future of our schools
holds that the three RS, reading, 'rting and
'rithmetic, shall constitute all that shall be
dOied out TO the children of our honest
yeomanry and mechanics? Must this be
their pabulum, while the sons and daugh.
tiers Of men, like him, lave in that goodly
stream that flows through College curricu
lum and Seminary green? Shall tho dia
mond lid an tic rU6buSb never sparkle In
the genial sunshine? Would you cause that
stream TO flow backward that gave us Ben
Franklin, Patrick Henry, Henry Clay and
Andrew JohnsonP
Let not ambition mock their useful toll
Their homely joys and destiny obscure;
Nor Grandeur hear with disdainful smile
The short but simple annals of the poor.
Line by line our English ancestors ex
torted Magma Charta from the crown. Foi
full fifty years, we of this State and county
have battled for our present educationa
status, and we would as soon relinquish ont
jot of the former as to surrender little Of
the latter Beware for you who tread here
should know that volcano sleeps beneath
your feet. Not an X do we propose to have
stricken from the algebra of our boys and
girls-not n single molar or hygienic law
from their physiology-not single Newto.
MAN law from their philosophy-not a
theorem from their geometry, except that
We might lend any such theorists, the pons
asinoruni, over which to pass to everlasting
oblivion. | make this statement and defy
contradiction. Our boys and girls after inn
billing all the education attainable in our
well conducted primary schools, at small
cost, can pass TO the Normal school and issue
from its portals in few years with an educa.
ton fully as thorough, and really more prac.
teal, than if they had passed through Yale OF
the best endowed seminary in the land. Men
Of Montgomery are you willing to let this
benson slip from your graspy Never;
know your leal hearts too well; especially
when MANAGED by those who hob-nobbed
with women-hanging Puritans during the
war, and welcomed the blue-coated gentry
around our polls. The people of Mont
gomery county will never submit TO this,
and when, If ever, the "newly created" shall
have been established beyond peradyenturc
in their dc facto and de jurc position, they
will find that the victory will turn 10 ashes
on their lips.
II these reports are untrue the people OF
this county ask you to step to the lnotights
aud explain; no lodging, but a square yea
or nay, is respectfully solicited the people
are anxious and restless, because they be-
hold in the President of the School Board a
man above their walk patrician--and in
this age of CgSarism the pebeians are very
distrustiul
Again, if this method of selecting School
Boards is 80 deectablc and highlyseatn
mendable, what is this we have from Allie
gany county2
Again, il our model friends adhere 81
closely 10 the law, what is ii the school law
says in reference to sectarian and partisan
mattersY
Suppose, instead of Baptist minister
either Father Cunningham or Burchc, Catho.
lie priests of this county, had been selected
for the Examinership, what howl ther,
would have been all along the line-an espe.
cial rattling among the old dry Know Moth.
ing bones. 40, Temporal O, Mors - Vide
Monies parturiunt ct mascitur ridiculus mus
Yours truly,
r. T. HERcIm
NJ. Editor Some Of your correspondents
are in the habit OF using what we call "big
words" in their letters to the public through