The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1881-01-20
Grammar.

| UlduIui4ls
. r.
There is magic in the sound. How j
summons before US the old school room
with its lines of benches, ard desks, ane
the rows of juvenile heads above them
The black. board, white with its serrie
columns of "sums" and divisions i:
eschelon the desk, rough with its veteran
scars, where we tested our newly bough
blades and tried our earliest skill in cary
ing; the globe in the corner, which
squeaked as it turned upon its axes; tht
fat boy in the spelling class, who always
settled gradually to. the foot by the law o
grayi,ation; the big girls across the aisle
whose eyes laughed back to us while
their lips pouted, and whose cherished
names and sunny faces we have strung
among the brightest gems in memory's
oft counted rosary; the parsing class
the elect few in grammar--the elite ol
grown.up boys and the creme de Ia crem.
Of blooming girldhood; where the teache,
relaxed his stern fatures aad "laid his
terrors by" wheA the saucy eyes across
the broad aisle turned soft and languid
under nearer view, and the pouting lips
smoothed down to mellow smiles; when
We sat and "parsed" the time away, while
the low sun shone in with slsnting beams
and touched with still brighter lustre q
brace of golden heads, and painted the
heightened window in checkered squares
of light upon the floor.
Such are few of the bright spots that
glow upon memory's canvas as our school
day scroll unfolds under the wand OF
grammar. This was the first class, u
the "large grammar"-the plant whose
rudiments grew up from the lower
grounds in the primary grammar. Our
earliest rccollections are of small book
about 7x5, sewed in calico cover,
pretty we'll thumbed and dog-eared with.
in, with "Robbie St. Clair" in every va
riety of penmansbip all over the fly
leaves, and full of man, mans men, time,
her it, love, you love, we love, and such
things. We remember one place where
we might, could or acould do something
was repeated so many times that We often
wondered why we never did it.
There were three distinguished pro.
nouns iu the book, I being always the
first one of them, which naturally gave
rise 10 some suspicious Of egotisnl.-
There were verbs which told what things
did, as Tom whipped Ben. 1t always
appeared to US that Ben was the verb, as
be generally told what Tom had done.
Some of these verbs were regular in all
their moods and manners, while others
were subject to Irregularities. We con-
sidered whipped regular verb, as our
experience testified that it became a
pretty regular thing in our class.
There were "prououns" also, some of
them personal" enough to point Con-
gressional debate. Being from home, we
were glad to find some RELATIVES" among
them. There were nouns done up in
Ceases" Some of them we liked quite
well, especially if done up in calico" :"
Others We decline" "adjectives" and
"adverbs," also as good boy; Jack
learns rapidly. Here we couldn't see the
point, as Jack always wore the 'dunce
cap" four days in the week.
Of the "moods" there were several
kinds, and our teacher used to get into
some rather unpleasant ones sometimes,
when several persons were generally put
through the "passive voice" with his
ferule, and We used to pay him back by
qualifying him sundry select "adjectives"
in the "su perlative degree" The "inter-
iections" were useful as safety valves, to
keep us from exploding when we got a
whipping.
"OrthOgraphy" reminds us of the spell.
ing class at the end of which we gener-
ally stood-we 'tsay positively which
end. We were reminded of the big die.
tionary by technology andsyntax," which
we thought it Il sin to tax US with.
"Adiuncts" we shall never forget, for
we were once required to present original
examples in this line, when Bob Johnson,
who was Of a very practical turn of mind,
brought in an old cat with tin-pan tied
to her candal extremity. You may be
assured that the master went into the
imperative mood" instanter. "He con-
iugated" Bob to post, and applied the
upper extremities of hickory and chin
quepin in a very "active transitiye"
manner. Bob came out in the collective
case" after traDsitiye verb." The
switches ended in the list of obstructive
conjunctions," while the master stood in
the "nomiuative case absolute" Bob
dealt freely in "interjections," joined by
the cat in shrill ''auxiliaries. On the
way home Bob applied some not very
illogical predicates" to the master
threa.ened to put his yisular organs in
tho singular number" and to "punctu.
ate" his person according to the approved
rules of 'prosody."
The girls on the back seats used to
"coujugate" I lore, ave love, he loves in the
most agreeable of "mouds" and sweetest
of "voices." There was one big boy who
was almost dying to be put in the cob
jective case" to these verbs, but the girls
did not put him in. Some time after
wards he ventured to put all "iDterroga-
tive" to one of them upon certain sub.
ject. Her Relatives" in:erfered; she
looked up his "antecedents," put him in
the Second future tense" and finally
"declined" him in the emphatic form"
of the indicative mood" Having failed
to become the "possessivc case" in this
proposition" he Immediately placed
himself in corresponding conjunction"
with fair substantive" who happened
to be put by "apposition" with him at an
evening party. He always appeared af-
forwards as an "adjunct" to her. They
were finally Corrugated" ard became a
"compound subject"
These school-boy days have glided into
the "past tense," our I" mood" is the mild
"subjunctiye," and we have become rath.
er an imperfect participle" in the "active
voice" of life. When we reflect what we
might, could, would or should have done
when strung in our potential mood" !"
the "interjections" flow afresh, and we
weep to think that, like all sublinary
things, our days of grammar are "pars-
ing away."-Scho0l Boym Baptist Courier.