Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-06-25

II
said (hs eyes the while in fine phrenzY rolling):
IF any of you young gentlemen say Jesus
wept again I'll make you weep" Prayers broke
down, and the boys unanimously resolved IL
there was any licking 70 be DONE the pillar of
salt could stand it betterfhau they could.
Those were the good old days when teachers
whipped with vengeance and can well APP
preciate from experience the course of discpi-
line which made a youthful genius translate
the words Of Virgil
"Arma virumque cano."
ARMS and the man with cane"
Since Bergh has been so successful with his
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Ami
mails and the old bachelors and maids tutored
by those ''glimpses that saints have of heaven
in their dreams, established a Society for the
Prevention Of Cruelty to Children" school
discipline is on higher plane
There is no law of gravitation to make school
boys rev0lve tremendously around a teacher,
and never cross each others orbits inharmo-
niously; SO our modern system of discipline de.
mandS of the teacher that strength of charac-
ter tempered by self-controi which enforces a
moral restraint equally potent
Boys are natural rebels; as great sticklers
for what they believe their rights as even their
ancestors were from Runnymede to I716 If
they cannot cut off q teachers head as their
English forefathers did the Kings, at least they
feel like it when the common law of school
No more tender and honorable relation exists
than when scholars are bound to teacher by
thorough respect for his abilities and grateful
love IOE the conveyed.
He has watched carefully the tendency of
each child: marked the growing capacity,
curbed the too precocious intellect,
encouraged and built up the timid
shrinking mind just half awakened
to its growing capacity, refreshed the dun
lesson with spring example or apt ilustra
ton and moral drawn from history or biogra-
ply, that has illuminated the whole and
made every boy feel a pride and delight in
working for him. With perfect care he leaves
no part misunderstood; so no task is irkSome
because the student is inspired with an ardent
thirst for knowledge. The manly nature of
the boy is reused. He feels that his teacher
takes sincere interest in him; there is no
Sinking, for he would sooner lose his right
arm than practice a deceit upon one SO faith
fully devoted to his welfare 4
Who wonders. then, that the greatest and
wisest have given themselves up to this ele-
waited profession. A socrates. an Ascharn. a
Sturm. Milton, an Arnold, men whose genius
was fitted to adorn and dignity the loftiest
places upon the worlds STAGE yet, who v it'll
that peculiar fascination that links migd to
mind. felt it a higher calling to train what OF
us is immortal for its glorious destiny.
IL mas been wisely and correctly said by
Charming:
Much as we respect the ministry of the
Gospel, we believe it must yield in Importance
to the office of training the young
And why? Because the work of the minister
presupposes for its successful result that the
teacher has preceded him-that the growing
and expanding minds have been prepared by
INC anu QlSClpiln6 the SCHOOLS TO
comprehend the oivine truths of Immortality
How much, then, do We parents owe to the
teachers? OF course no ministrations can
take the place Of those sacred il fluences that
MAKE home the holy of holes to child's SOUL
where he feels as il the Shekinah descend
cd upon his mothers brow rendering
her halowed name word Of worship through
all his after life. But, do we ever think how
much more the teacher has to do with mould
ing the characters of our children than we do
How many minutes each day do we spend
looking into the hearts and minds of our boys
and girls How often. with eager interest do
we inquire from the teacher what he has
learned by contact with our children! Or do
we only take hasty glance at the card which
records their monthly progress, and never
s-arch with tenderest soIictude lest the
shadow Of ataint has rested on the clear die
of the soul /?
II we wake up to such interest as suggestit
is impossible to calculate the aid we can give
to those to whose guardianship we have en-
trusted. for veal or woe, the future of cur
children. Is it not then our duty 90 see that
their instructors shall always be the BEST the
purest, the wisest So important has this
subject become that many States have estab-
hshed normal schools for the education of
teachers in which all the elements that
adorn the noblest of professions
are cultivated to perfection. How wise the
provision, how true the conservation, when all
the purest and highest attributes of men and
women are trained for this matchless utility.
In our country there can be no such lazar-
Wackford EQueers, described by the ipimitable
Dickens, in Nicholas Nickleby. While our
higher schools may not have attained the dis
tinction OF Elton and Harrow and Winchester
and Rugby, there are many, notably in Vir-
ginia, worthy rivals OF the great English
schools.
To my mind it is a mistake to send children
abroad to be educated. The American boy in
contact with his fellows, learns to appreciate
and love the institutions of his own country,
and drinks the inspiration OF freedom with the
air he breathes- He does not believe that God
booted and spurred the favored few to be
be riders, and bitted and bridled the millions TO
ridden like beasts of burden. Every instinct
takes the impress of his own individuality
He learns to act for himself, to think for him
self, to reason for himself. and can
"On reason build resolve
The column of true majesty in manu-
The proficiency you boys have exhibited to-
day proves your appreciation Of your oppor-
tunities Never mind how faithful ami pains
taking teacher may be, unless his labor is
supplemented by earnest study, the fruits will
be imperfect. Without the strictest attention
The daily instructions will leave no more inn
preston on your minds than the fleeing
SHADOW leaves upon the mountain side. The
object OF these schools is to discipline your
minds while imparting instruction A
boy who graduates under the Savannsh
system is prepared for college, if his ambition
and opportunities lead him to cultivate the
higher branches; but, otherwise, he has laid
Y.
he can rear the noble structure Of learning.
You have been taught how to study: and the
mind expanding with years and application,
develops with marvellous rapidity. Learn to
be thorough in everything. What is worth
knowing is worth knowing WE'LL Cultivate
clear ideas. Never mind how simple the sub
lect may be, >. master it in all
prehend a thing at once. labor al It
until you do, for nothing so quickens the intel
lect as working out everything for itself. Con-
hdence in his own ability makes one self-poised
and original The boy who, without trying for
himself, runs to some one else to untangle
what he cannot at once understand, will grow
into the man who Is ever ready to shirk labor
and responsibility, while the boy who meets
and overcomes difficulties with undaunted
spirit is sure to be leader among men. Real
izing the nobility and potency of his Godlike
gifts, though he may not have the
divine mission of the little Nazarene boy, who.
in his early years could reason with the doc
tors IN the temple yet he feels as every boy
should feel, as every man should feel. that he
has, under God, work to do, mission to ac-
been made strong and great through the dis
cipline of adversely. The masters of elo-
quence failed in their earlier efforts. Daniel
webster at first could not declaim poem sue
cesSfully, yet he became enc of the most
finished of our orators i'll his elegant classic
Engli h, and his speeches will ever remain
the masterpie ces of perfect style
The guardians to whom the father of
Demosthenes left his estate in charge attempt
ed to defraud the boy. He determined to
study Oratory, and vindicate his own cause.
His first public effort excited the brutal ieers
of the mob, who laughed him from the stage
preferrfng to listen to the dwellings of a
drunken sailor. Retiring to solitude he en-
riched his mind with the treasures of history
philosophy and poetry, and, to perfect his
style, copied the whole of the writings of
ThucydideS. II is useless for me to remind in
telljgent boys like you how his name has been
handed down as the examplar of all that is
glorious and iliustrious in eIoquence
When the great Cardinal Richelieu gave in
charge to his young page Francois the peril.
GUS mission for the packet on which his sue
cess depended the brave lad, Qverw helmed with
the import Of his task, said, with hesitation:
IF fail ~
s'Faila said the Cardinal;
I'm the lexicon of youth, which fate reserves
For bright manhood, there is no such word
as-faill"
When the dread Cardinal and his imperious
King were at the zenith of their power, aud
Europe trembled at their frown, England her
self become almost vassal of France there
head of a great house and great party. Com
hinations that appalled, the stoughtest- hearted
of his cOuntrymen only reused his lofty soul
to Sterner resistance. A mere child, he became
a general. the leader of his people, Drawing the
might of Louis XIV. and the great Conde
Under the inspiration OF his splendid genius
and dauntless valor. the Dutch cut the
dykes that kept the hungry ocean from their
homes and baffled the naughty invader. Viii
liam of Orange, the savior of his. country, be-
came the savior of England, too, when the
folly and crime OF the second James drove the
accused race of stuarts forever from the
throne they had dishonored.
j have only given these examples to show |
you how boys became great men by being
brave, dauntless, men whom no difficulty |