The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1883-12-08
BINGHAM SCHOOL.
AN OLD Boys RECOLLECTIONS
OF THE SCHOOL. YEARS AGO.
The Spartan Method of Making Nen---
The Old Barracks--The FacuIty--The
OId BOYS, LOxaIfX.


In 1865 the Bingham School | have no
doubt, III lts appOintm and in the cdu-
catonal work it did, took the same high
rank among schools for bows in the South
that it takes now. Yet | have no hesita-
ton in saying that if the Bingham School
OF 1883 were no better than the Bingham
School of 1868 it would in spite Of its name
within very few years sink into iusignti-
canoe. / know Of no other change in y orth
Carolina that has been so great and so
great change for good as the change that
has been made in our schools.
When. in 1868. | was led a trembling
Prep to the shanty where Col Will
liam Bingham slew himself by over-deyo-
ton to his books, and was assigned to
NO. 4, the heart Of q stOuter lad than |
would have sunk at the sight of the old
stockade very like that around the peni-
tentlary.) 1t was not comfortable day
and my memory is above all things deceit
ful if NO. A. was comfortable abiding
place 16xl6 feet and four boys in a room :,
The corn cob mattresses upon which youth
took solace in dreams Of home We're turn
ed up against the wall in the morning to
make room for four boys to sit down.
The rats above us in the loft | daily envied,
and IN the whole world Of living things [
saw nothing in SO much more wretched
plight than I, that [ felt called on to pity
it. The life was eXecrable for the fare
its model.
presume that there We're two reasons
why such life was tolerated by our fa-
theirs. They had recently come home from
years OF camp-life and had cot the notion
into their heads that rough fare was the
normal condition of heaithful men. But
the main reason, | fancy, was that our
fathers read about the classics and had fall
len into the habit OF admirng the Spar
tans. Certain it was. the doctrine which
was advanced in justification of the situa-
tIOn was that the boys VINO did not rough
it would neve!r be chvalrous. Civilization
Except for girls was looked upon as a
crime-at least civilized appointments for
| making life comfortable.
All this to indicate what progress we
have made these fifteen years.
Colonel William Bingham, whose name
must be reverently mentioned in the pres
ence of every one of his thousands OF pu-
pills, was, [ am persuaded, the best teacher
that we have had in North Carolina these
twenty years. He was as precise in his
thought and in his methods as he was in
his dress and he was the neatest man
ever knew. He had the faculty for teach
ing, and therein he was very great man.
Aud in tie list OF all our great men he must
come near the first. He taught what he
taught better than any other man except
our greatest mem do whatever they do
best. That is to say, if our farmers work
ed their crops as we'll as he taught the ele
mentary facts of language, our State
would be the richest spot God's foot
stool. He was not a mas er OF men or Of
boys, as Major Robert Bingham is. He
was not man of the world. In very
| many ways especially as regards his
| scholarship-he has been Overrated. His
| son, Prof. William Bingham Of Davidson,
| is unspeakably greater scholar than his
/ father, but as an elementary teacher, Col.
Bingham was supreme.
In those days. Maj. Robert Bingham was
q farmer. He had not himself found out
! that he was an executive genius. He had
keen eye for business" however; for
| the boy that failed in his recitation room
! pulled his garden-plow the next day, or
robbed his orchard OF stout twig. His
! small farm. Mrs. Bingham and their little
| children We're his ciief delights. and no
man that knew him then could have pre-
dicted such future for him. Maj. Wm
! Lynch was also a farmer: at least he lived
under the deluSion that he was. The most
amusing thing in my memory is the keen
| enjoyment he got IN fl gging lazy llrchin.
| Col. Bi CHAM used the rod with precision
and apparently from sense Of duty. Maj
Bngham-by the way, he was Captain
| then-used it iocula'ly; in his hands it
was a stern joke; but Maj. Lynch, think,
| took a sort of spiritual delight in t.
| Good teacher as Maj Lynch wa, excel
lent teacher as Maj. Robert Bingham was
and is, and pre-eminent as Col. illiam
Bingham was, the mental training at the
school fifteen years ago was onc-sided.
Every boy knew Bingham's Latin Gram
mar, but few boys knew anything else
| Yet [ am speedily reminded that the most
/ treacherous Of all things are thu ories-es-
! pecially about education. OF course. the
I boy who goes away from the Bingha m
/ School now knows more facts and has
4 vivid r fn1|o ~
! who went to college therefrom fifteen
4 years ago. There is no comparison. But
1 the boy who goes away this year, somehow
or other, after all is not sure to make the
better man or even the better scholar.
have during the last five years met my
contemporaries at Bingham's in many
/ States. They are in all professions and in
none. Some are scholars and some are
/ dnllards. Some are rich and some are
! poor. Some are successful in life and
/ some are pulling against the stream.
| They all speak of the old barracks as Of a
/ dungeon. Yet every man of them retains
! tender recollection OF the years spent
there. Every man of them has rever-
ence for the Binghams. Every man Of
/ them will send his sons there. And, what
ever they know or do not know. thev
know that man who tells lie or betrays
friend thereby forfeits at once and for
ever his claim to companionship in the
great army Of Bingham boys.
While, therefore, [ do not hesitate to
confess that the back Of my memory is vet
sore from cob mattrasse. and that my life
there was not only rough, but very, very
rough, having escaped indigestion and
grown to vigorous manhood, l am not so
sure after all that the old Spartan notion
| is wrong.
/ At any rate. however uncomfortable the
process, it made men. ANO OLD Boy.
! Raleiyh, Dec 6.
/ The Penitentiary as a Social In stitut ION.
/ From the Slaelby 4 4aroro
Ten jail birds, three whites and seven
negroes who were tried and sentenced at
Cleveland Superior Court, left us this week
under guard. Most Of then was as happy
! as big sunflOWer and it will not be much
! punishment for them to 90 Nc Aden,s fac