Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1882-08-17

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and his non-existence. But the boy was
a bouncing reality, unkempt and un-
comely, slcuchy and slatternly, most
outlandishly ill-featured by nature, and
for this particular occasion, like "Moses
setting out for fair" aItired in a most
unsightly garb, yet assuming such over
lordly airs that the master at once con-
cluded that he must manage that boy, or
| that boy would manage to make trouble
in school.
But he had already made a discovery,
and that was that this rude and rOwdy,
trag-tag urchin, though he appeared to
have no other possessions, really pos
sessed reasonable SOUL" and even if
his heavy-knit brows and square-set
teeth betokened an indomitable will, the
| rippling waves of the surface resolution
pointed to a hidden force, boundless
sea of restless ambition, where
-"unseen fingers wrote
His name in burning letters over all.
Here was the cue to the next step in
the performance. That sturdy gamin
must be kept busy. Page nor HOlbrook
never had such case. The "HOOsier
school master" never saw his like. All
the works on "Theory and Practice"
were consulted, and every journal of
education was examined in a vain
search for help.
One day, after exhausting all his pre-
viously arranged devices to furnish that
boy employment for the last half-hOur
of July afternoon, the master in an
agony of despair proposed: "You watch
the school, while set the copies Agreed
to. This worked like CHAIN. MOni-
tors multiplied; and the teachers chair
was thereafter the post of honor in that
school, the highest throne to which the
pupils could aspire. Many of these
monitors made lucky score, and mani
tested high order of gubernatOrial
tact, and might each have developed
into another DIR. Harvey, DR.. Harris, DR..
HarkneSs, DIR. Kickock, DR.. Hopkins,
and stood at the head of some great in
stitution of learning. but that they all
lacked some impelling force to push
their early progress further.
Call this force what you please-ge-
MUS, talent, instinct, or destiny's trend,
/ a thousand fail of renOwn where one
succeeds. Certain 1t is the human fami-
ly, if all born to greatness, barter away
their birthright; or If all are born equal,
they soon betray more fitness for special
callings, and of the hosts that turn to
teaching the fewest number are born
teachers. But the educator is true
teacher born, for the reason that he is
both impelled first by love for the
work, and then compelled by sheer ne
cessity to work up his profession.
l think it is DR.. Holland who says,
"The greatest blessing young man
can enjoy is poverty" Of this
our prospective teacher had dou-
BILE share. Horace Mann claimed it was
good thing to be dandled little in the
lap of poverty, but thought his own
youth had received rather too severe a
shaking up; so the early life of this un
happy boy had been so set in commo-
tiOn that he could not be satisfied with
out an exciting scene on hands.
AS his impecuniosity had saved him
the reading of many cumbrous tones of
standard literature, his relish for the ro-
mantle had been festered by the few
that fell into his way. Even his prim-
er and first reader were second hand,
and given him as presents. But he val
ued and read his two-book library more
than some of the neighboring children
who were furnished story-books by the
hundred, did theirs. Such thing as
'Child's Paper Youths Companion,
had never fallen to his lot; but one of
his teachers had permitted him to read
in her Arabian Knights the story of
Sindbad the Sailor, and one Christmas
vacation she allowed him to take her
diamond edition of Uncle Toms Cabin,
and read it through. He was hungry
nay, famishing for intellectual food, and
if the portals of good library could
have opened to him there, it would have
been like the treaslre-gates to Paradise.
Every teacher that came into that dis
trict found it necessary to stop and
study that boy.
When Pestalozzi threw away his books
and burned up his manuscripts, he had
still his subject before him. When good
old father Comenices arranged his Ma
ternal school, it was SO disposed as best
to suit the proclivities of the big boy.
When Jean Jacque Rousseau provided
for the education of his young Emile it
was only to give his propensities more
natural play. To every educators mind
that .bothersome boy furnishes the
toughest textbook in the schOOl-he is
himself the hardest problem to be solved.
When the Great Master sat down to
teach his disciples, he took child and
set him in the midst of them, adding
with significant point, Except ye be-
come as little children"
"Can't you set the copies while
watch the school" inquired the old
master. Here was another advance in |
the duties of the schoOlroom, and our
would-be teachers ambition awoke to
fan his fancy into the belief that he was
the best penman in the school. Though
many excelled him in this accomplish
ment, he still continued to do his best,
filling all the top lines in his classmates
copy books. In fact, as he wrote more
he improved faster, until he found his
idle moments fnlly occupied in writing
for his neighbers.
The thing was done-the conquest
made. The most unmanageable boy in
all these parts was working sVith will
to keep at the head of the class and beat
all the boys in school, who snubbed him
in their play.
Year after year the same strife went
on, with the same unvarying results. A
prize was given every term, and Melvar
Gf we may coin name), always came
in close. The first Bible he ever owned
was thus secured, and read more care
fully than Don Quixote of the term be-
fore.
"This is hardly fair the old precept-
or one day remarked. "You enounce
the words in spelling, and give the sec
ond chance. A new high school die
tionary at the end of the year is yours.
if you teach the class what is in the old"
The next day reading class was heard
while the master was working that long
sum under the Connecticut Rule in
Rays Part Ill. Thus branch after