San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1883-01-11
,ppAKING UP A SCHOOL.
,...,,,,s 10 Hav. Some Fss with Delicate
h' Locking Teacher. ,kh


n ISo hoys got together, talked it over,
u 'S decided to give the new teacher
ant t a week. II had been thawing
u us, a day or two, and the boys were
~. .:u.S Of skating, so they thought they
u afford to spend week educating
s sSUsmselves in how to break up
susool. On the evening We were duly
olscted a member of the class of hard
s;trens and we were to open the ball
nd do something bad, get the teacher
s lick us, and then the boys were to
;Umn in and help. Monday morning
,Ss school commenced, and the teach
~.I nroved to be sickly-looking, slim
sort Of fellow, a timid, nervous man,
wit a hand and a face like a girl.
Ererv time he looked at one of the
hovs there seemed to be an expression
w his face as though he would say,
81 hope you will be good." When he
had, ANYTHING toisay to the scholars
he said aplease, and gave other evi-
dences Of being pretty soft, We all
thoneht. That morning the weather
changed, and it froze hard, and at re-
cess the boys got together and said we
would wind up, the school before noon
and 90 out on the ice. 1t was our
tnm to be bad, and it commenced
r;gbt off. The big boys had to carry
IN the wood and lay it quietly by the
stove. We took in an armful and
dropped it on the foorso that it shook
the building and loosened the stove
nine. The pipe came out of the Chin
new and filled the room with smoke,
but it was put back, and the slim
teacher only repriminded us, and said
that it must not occur again. We
lust ached to go after some more wood,
but there was no opportunity. Pref
ty soon the teacher said we
might go and get pail of water,
and while at the well we decided to
stumble on entering the school-room,
and spill the water all over the floor,
and thus give the sickly-looking teach
er chance to show whathe was made
Of. The teacher was near the stove
and we stumbled, and the water went
all over everything, wetting his boots.
and making him pretty mad. In slz-
ing him up we had not noticed before
that his eyes were as black as GOALS,
and that he seemed to be about eight
feet high, but as he looked at us, we
could see it plainly. He seemed to
read our thoughts and knew that it
was done on purpose, and we have
always thought he heard the boys
talking it over at recess. Anyway,
he Jumped clear across the room,
grabbed us by the neck and set us
down in the water, then he lifted us
up and shook us SO that the teeth rat
tied, then he seemed to grab us all
over and just maui us. We got a
chance once or twice, to look around
to the back seats, as he was revolving
us around on our own axis, to see II
the other boys were coming to help
us put him out doors, but they were
the most studious lot of big boys we
ever saw. They had their heads down
in their books, and their lips were
moving in silent prayer. After the
teacher had mopped the floor with us,
he took us by the slack of the pants,
just as a dog would carry duck, and
went to his desk and got big hickory
ruler, and proceeded to dry our pants.
Well, it was the meanest way to dry
pants that ever was, and while it dried
them we'll enough, it left great ridges
inside of them that made corrugat-
ed chair almost necessity. The boys
did not fulfill their part of the pro
gramme, and when the teacher got
through drying our pants, and SAID,
please return to your seats, we felt
as though his politeness was a perfect
sham. We looked at the boys as we
went to our seat, but they never looked
up. We have witnessed contested
seats in the legislature since, but
never saw one that was so excltelng
as that one in the old white school
house, at the foot of the hill. The
teacher never spoke during the pro-
ceedings, and when it was over he
looked even paler and more sickly
than when he had one hand In the
hair that once grew where we are
now bald, while the other was at work
ia the vineyard. But none of the boys
seemed to care to pitch on to
sick man, and he taught that school
two terms, and never had to whip
another boy. That was the last school
we ever broke up. The slim, sickly
teacher is an old man now, living
quietly in this state, with children as
old DC rr-a oro on1 xr-a oaca cIonallV see