Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1882-01-09
THE OLD-TIME SCHOOLS.


were what the school-boys wore one
hundred years ago. The school-mas-
ter wore a wig, or his hair was braid
ed, with the braid hanging down his
back like pigs tail.
There were not many school
houses, but most dwelling-houses
were kept in one of the old square
rooms. In winter there was a great
fire in a wide-mouthed fireplace, with
a big backlog, and the smaller wood
heaped upon it. One teacher that
knew of, had crowd of lusty boys
and girls. There were no desks
nothing but benches made of slabs.
The room was sixteen feet square,
and he had forty scholars. The house
was unfinished. All the windows ex-
cept half of one were boarded up.
In the one sash there were nine small
panes of glass; that was the only
| light save the fire on the hearth.
Didn't the boys have fun seated on
the slab benches, kicking each others
shins, pulling hair, punching one an
other in the ribs? They had little
else to do, because there were only
three reading books in the whole
school, and only two or three arith-
metics and one or two states.
There were few printing presses in
those days little printing of school
books; besider, many of the people in
the country towus were too poor to
buy school books, so the boy whose
parents were rich enough to purchase
books kindly allowed his mates to
read from his.
The reading class stood with their
toes to crack in the floor, and when
the master said "Tention p all duck
ed their heads. When the boy at the
head had finished, he passed the book
to the next. When reading was
through they spelled-they spelled
the boy who missed dropping down
peg in the class. 1t was a disgrace
to be at the foot, so all did their best
all except the blockheads. There
were no studies except reading, writ
ing and arithmetic. Few of the
scholars had paper writing books, for
their parents could not afford to buy
them; but they went into the woods,
peeled the bark from birch trees and
split it into thin leaves.
They made their ink by boiling ma
pie bark; their pens were plucked
from the wings of the geese; their
inkstands were the tips of cows horns
sawed off and fitted with wooden bot
toms and shoppers. For want of
desks the boys held pieces of board
in their laps.
The master who taught this school
which l am describing was boy
eleven years of age on that day when
the British marched from Boston to
Concord in 1775, and went back
again upon the run.
He learned to write using birch bark
with charred stick for pen, lying
upon the floor in his fathers log
house during the long winter evenings
with pitch-knot fire blazing on the
hearth. He learned to read clearly
and distinctly, and to cipher, and was
so good in arithmetic that he could
solve knotty problems without slate
or pencil. He had hard time of it,
keeping forty stout boys and romp-
ing girls from turning things topsy-
turvy in that room only 16 feet square
and dimly lighted. Master and schol-
ar alike had wearisome time in Civ
ing and receiving knowledge.
Do you think it would have been
fun to kick the shins of the fellow in
front of you, or to punch him when
the master was not looking? But the
master aoas looking, and masters did
pretty much as they pleased one hum
dred years ago. They whacked the
boys over the head with sticks, bis
tered their hands with the ferule,
shook them till they saw stars, and
when they reached home the chances
were that they had second dressing
down, for it was rule of those days
that if a boy got whipping at school
he was to have another when he got
home. Boys must obey their masters
and give due respect to their supe-
riors. The boy who whimpered when
tthe master blistered his hands was
looked upon by his mates as little
''cry boy" One master know of
whipped so much and used up SO
many alders that the people said that
great swamp near the school-house
never would have been cleared if il
had not been for him!
The scholars lived SO far from
school that they carried their dinner
in little baskets. That was before
the days of tin pails-before the days
of newspapers, and so they sometimes
wrapped their sausages or slice OF
salt pork and brown bread in cab
bage leaf.