The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1883-04-14
BREAKING UP A SCHOOL.

BREAKING UP A SCHOOL.
We sea by the dispatches that two
boys at Cumberland, Ohio, attempted
to whip schoolmaster who stabbed both
the: boys, killing one instantly and ia
tally wounding the other. There is prob
ably no position that has more annoy
ance than teaching a country school
where there is lot of big boys who seem
bent on mischief, and whose highest am
bition is to whip the teacher, and turn
him out of doors. Occasionally there is
a school that becomes so hard that no
man will attempt to teach it, unless he is
a prize fighter, and then he does not
know anything but to fight. Sometimes
the appointment of beautiful and
accomplished young lady as teacher Of
hard school will have a good effect, as
she may be able to win the big boy by
kindness. We were won that way once,
and it would have been all right, only
another big boy, who wanted to be won
also, got jealous, and hit us on the ear
with pair Of skates,
We remember of attending one school
that was about as hard as could be.
There were six or seven boys that made
it point to see that no teacher remained
in the school full term. They would
do something mean and get him to whip
them, and they would all jump on him
and throw him out of doors, and he would
leave. Most people looked on such boys
as pretty hard characters, but the rest
of us, who wanted school to be closed
when skating was good, looked upon
them as heroes, and we sll wanted to
join the gang. One winter the teacher
was locked out Of doors and hit with
frozen SNOWFALL, and stood on his head
and had water poured down his trowsers,
and he resigned and went to driving team
at saw mill. He said he had got all
the teaching school he wanted, anyway.
1t was early in the winter term, and the
trustees flew around for two weeks be-
fore they found man to take the job.
1t was splendid skating, and all the
scholars had good time, and there was
great regret expressed, as we remember
it, when it was given out in church
Sunday that school would open on Mon
day morning. After the evening SER
vices the boys got together and talked it
over, and decided to give the teacher
week. 1t had been thawing a day or
two, and the boys could afford to spend
week in going to school and educating
themselves, and so they gave him week.
On that evening we we're duly elected a
member of the class of hard citizens, and
we were to open the ball and do some
thing bad to get him to lick US, and then
the boys were to jump in and help.
Monday morning the school commenced,
and the teacher proved to be a sickly-
looking slim sort of a fellow, timid,
nervous man, with hand and face like
a girl. Every time he looked at one of
the boys there seemed to be an express
sion on his face as though he would say,
81 hope you will be good" When he
Lad anything to say to the scholars he
said "please," and gave other evidences
of being pretty soft, we all thought.
That morning the weather changed and
it froze hard, and at recess the boys got
together and said we would wind up the
school before noon, and 60 oat on the
ice. 1t was our turn to be bad, and it
commenced right off. The big boys had
to carry in the wood and lay it down
quietly by the stove. We took in an
armful and dropped it on the floor so
that it shook the building, and loosened
the stovepipe and filled the room with
smoke, but it was put back, and the slim,
sickly teacher only rsprimanded us, and
said that it must not occur again. We
just ached to 60 after some more wood,
but there was no opportunity. Pretty
soon the teacher said we might 60 and
get pail of water; and while at the we'll
we decided to stumble on entering the
school room and spill the water over the
floor, and thus give the lckly-looking
teacher chance to show what he 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
sizing 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 it was done on pur-
pose, 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 sat US
down in the water, and then he lifted us
up and shook US so that the teeth ratified
in our head, and then he seemed to grab
us all over and just maui us. We got a
chance once or twice to look around on
our axis, to see if the other boys were
coming to help us put him out of 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 as in silent prayer. After the
teacher had mopped the floor with US he
took us by the slack of the pants, just
as dog would carry duck, and went
to his desk aud 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 in them
that made a corrugated chair almost
necessity. The boys did not fulfill their
part of the programme, and when the
teacher got through drying our pants,
and said "Please return to your seat"
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 tile Legislature since, but never
saw one that was so exciting as the one
in the old white school house at the foot
of the hill. The teacher never spoke
during the proceedings, and when it was
over he looked even paier and more
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