Morning journal and courier., 1882-11-10
Jack Tar at School.
From the New York Times.

From the New York Times.i
 The common seaman is not, as a rule, an educated man. He has had few opportuni- ties for cultivating his mind, and, consider ing the circumstances which have surrounded him from his childhood his ignorance is quite excusable. Education would prove of little use to him unless he was ambitious to become an officer. While on shore he spends and makes no attempts toward educating himself But at sea it is different. If he is bound on long voyage, around either Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope, there are long spells of favorable weather, during ; which he finds much leisure time. It is not unfrequently the case that he will then be seized by an educational fit which will hold possession of him for some time. His brain
 has remained fallow so long that he finds the cultivation of it very difficult, and he is sometimes obliged to give up in despair. His attempts at education are rarely very pretentious, reading, writing and arithmetic being the only branches of learning which he is ambitious to master. After few weeks study, however, he is apt to be seized by a sort of mental dyspepsia Outraged nature can stand the strain no longer, and his brain clamors loudly for rest. Then he abandons his leisure moments to sewing or to some species of amusement. By such means he Is soon able to forget the little which he has learned, and when during his stay in some foreign harbor he is seized with @ desire to write home to his friends he finds himself unequal to the task If there should be a long spell of fine weather during the return voyage he may be again seized with the sdu- cational fever and lay in a little store of knowledge, which he carefully forgets dur ing the stay shore which follows.
 ships forecastle during the afternoon and evening watches when this mania for acquiring knowledge has broken out among the crew presents a scene of great interest. Perhaps two or three of tho sailors during their early years have enjoyed the advanta- ges of a common school education. These men act as schoolmasters and at the same time knock little of the rust from thelr own intellects. search of the effects of the whole crew may result in the production of one or two slates few old school books, and small stock of writing material The captain may have been appealed to for what ever states and school books were to be found in the seamsn's library with which nearly every ship is supplied by some port society. With this educational capital the men go to work and cudgel their brains in the most earnest manner. A great, brawny six -footer will sit on a chest with his figure twisted into the most awkward position and grasping a tiny slate pencil ss if his life depended upon hls retaining possession of it. He mutters to himself over some simple problem and every now and then gazes up appealingly at the greasy little lamp which night and day swings from the ceiling of the forsoastle Another sailor holds a small reader in his lap | and bending over tbis with his brow knitted l in the most determined manner he spells over the short words and skips the long ones | Near him shipmate is kneeling on the deck l and bending over 8 chest on which there are 1 writing materials. He is endesvoring to | write few lines. He clutches his pen firm
 \ ly in his right hand, while with his left he
 holds down his paper lest it should fly away from him. He forms his letters slowly and
 with great deliberation. Intense anxiety is
 indicated by troubled look which rests upor | his weather beaten countenance. Every now ] and then he stops and looks at his work
 l He moves back few steps and gazes at the
 letters which he has formed. Not content