Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-08-24
SOUTHERN EDUCATION.
Finished Scholars In the south and
ia the North.
Boston Herald.

bOStOn Herald.
It has been the fashion in the North
among a certain class to discount South
ern intelligence, and when they are re-
quested to show reason therefor thew
refer triumphantly to the educational
statistics of the various Southern States.
and point to the large percentage of
lliteracy as justification of their con.
tempt, saying; Figures never lie, and
these are the figures" Figures may
never lie outright, but they not unfre-
quently Outrageously deceive people.
The class of persons referred to, relying
wholly upon the testimony of statistics,
always seemed amazed when they meet
one from the South who is cultivated,
intelligent, learned; and, 10th to Weld
their prejudice, they imagine he must be
an exception. They are, consequently,
stupefed at the audacity of any
scholarly Englishman who returns home
from an extended tour in America, and
ventures to say that he found the Eng
lish language spoken with greater purity
in Charleston than in Boston, and they
vOciferously demand an explanation or
an apology. The Englishman responds
that he did not mean to say that Web.
ster did not speak the language as purely
as Hayne, or that Summers accent was
more defective than Pettigru's; but that
the people, as he met them in ordinary
intercourse in general society, seemed to
care more for the nice distinctions be-
tween words and for the meditation of
their voices than those met in Northern
society. Such an explanation serves
only to add insult to injury, and the
British scholar wisely avoids snubbing
by making no additional visit to the
States. You will recall the chorus of
Kisses that greeted Arthur Mursell S
statement a few years ago when he
declared that the most accomplished
gentlemen it was his fortune to meet
during mis- soj0urn in America were
some Southern scholars to whom he was
presented in the city of Washington
The poor man was really frightened
when editorially excoriated in numerous
papers and denounced as a man who had
violated all the Inequalities of the North
that had been so abundantly shown him.
He never wholly recovered until he
landed at Liverpool. Happily this class
of cOntemners of Southern intelligence
as rapidly diminishing as the educated
people of the two sections come oftener
and more Familiarity together. Yet met
a gentleman not long ago who expressed
surprise that certain public man,
the purity of whose style he had
come to admire, was educated in the
South; and he said he had always
supposed that the better educated men
of that section were invariably trained
at Northern colleges. When | informed
him that several distinguished scholars
occupy professors chairs in not few
famous Northern institutions of learning
were men who were born, bred and edu-
Gated at the South, his faith in my state
ment was of so slow manifestation as to
make me afraid he was committing the
heinous Offense of doubling my word.
But as | have just intimated, the noses
of this class of persons, which used to be
elevated TO the extent of lifting hats,
have now taken a downward tendency
and no longer affect a mans horizontal
vision. The only thing that Southern
men claim is that thoroughly
educated man at the South is as
thoroughly educated as a thorough
ly educated man at the North. They
well know, and none so sadly lament the
fact that there is more illiteracy at the
South in comparison to population than
at the North, and this arises solely from
the superior common school advantages
of the more favored region. There is a
wider diffusion of rudimentary knowl-
edge in the North, but, when you rise to
higher education, think the proposition
can be maintained that there is as large
a per cent. of finished scholars in the
South in proportion to the number who
are educated at all as in the North. The
above sentence expresses my deliberate
conviction, formed after long and init
mate association with many represents
tive educators and educated men in both
sections of our country