The Democratic advocate., 1884-07-19
oLD-TIME soHooL-TEAoHING.
"REMINISCENCES OF AN OLD rEDAaoeuE

1t is always a very pleasant thing to let
boy bring his punishment on himself /
noticed as [ stood at an upper window in
large school house where taught, that the
boys came out the back door into the play
ground as if they had been fired from
cannon They shot out one after another,
and generally landed in convenient snow
bank On going to the head of the stairs
l saw the reason. The boys jumped astride
of the banister and were sailing down the
inclined plane, jumping clear off the steps,
and landed, as general thing, on their
feet. The end of the banister had no
newel-post, and the open door was only a
few feet from the bottom of the stairway.
1t was great fun, and the amusement was
increased when big boy could rake in
with his projecting feet some unfortunate
youngster who was going down the stairs
in the ordinary way. told the boys when
school vas called that this sort of rapid
transit would have to stop. Boys usually
don't have much respect for the commands
of new master until they find that he
means what he says. At the next recess 1
went to the foot of the stairs to find out
whether they proposed to obey me or not.
l found as expected, that they didn't.
When the lads came sailing down the ban
lister grasped each as he flew past by the
collar and swung him around into the lower
passageway and stood them up one by one
somewhat dazed by the whirl they got.
1t was lively work, for the supply of the
boys exceeded the demand. They came
from the upper regions with bewildering
rapidity and had my hands full in every
sense Of the word as | gathered them in.
At last the news spread that the master
was at the foot of the stairway with a
standing invitation to all sliders, and the
downpour of boys suddenly ceased. [ was
just about to turn my attention to the row
of captives when l heard the following
conversation at the head of the stairs:
"Don't. The masters down there"
II don't care.
"He'll collar you
0I'd like to see him do it. I'll give him
dig thatll double him up mighty quick,
you bet. Like to see him collar me-
The latter speaker made no attempt to
conceal the fact that he didn't give hang
for the new master.
| stood at the foot of the stairs and
waited for him. He threw his leg over
the banister, and, spreading out his feet
| launched himself down toward me. A
glance showed me that l would be raked
in the next moment, and would be the
laughing stock of the school, so | kicked
/ @bo Joo, ,b,t oY1 stood opi1o
The big fellow, whose name | did not
then know, came down like whirlwind.
The moment the door closed he tried to
| fling himself off, but he was too late. He
shot against the door with a thud that
made every window rattle, and fell back in
a heap on the floor.
helped him up on his feet, assisted by
one of the boys, and he said, feebly, that he
guessed he would sit down for little while
[ let the row of culprits 90 ''and told them
that an accident like that might happen at
any moment if the door chanced to shut,
and so after that we had no more slipping
down old Grimes cellar door.
1t is seldom that school-master has a
hand to hand encounter with pupil; yet,
in the backwoods [ have known such a
thing to take place. l once was one of a
party of five who undertook to thrash our
schOol-master, who was terribly severe
man. He gave me the worst thrashing l
ever received, and to this day | don't know
| what it was for. However, thrashing never
went amiss with me at that time. l al
ways deserved it, and this one | merely
placed to account, knowing there was still
a large balance coming to me. But as |
was saying, five of us agreed to climb on
the teacher at a lonesome place about half
a mile from the school where he couldn't
cry for help. We climbed. But alas it
was not the teacher who had to cry for
help He thrashed all five of us. He had
got so accustomed to thrashing boys that
he seemed to do it quite from the force OF
habit.
The school-boy of my day was born
fighter. Every new boy had to fight his
way to his place among the boys. have
fought, when | went to new school as a
pupil, with good-natured fellows who hap
pened to be the champions, who had not
the slightest ill-will toward me, nor to
them. But school etiquette demanded that
we should fight, and we did, I don't sup
pose this occurs to any extent in town
schools, but, no doubt, it does in the coun-
try, where hollow behind the school
house or piece of woods down the road
offers secure fighting ground. Little the
teacher will know of these combats if there
is stream near by where the victors and
yapquished can wash their bloody noses, as
an East Londoner would say. | was al
ways coward, and never took kindly to
these fellows whose fist was ever ready
for knock-down blow The boys of that
far off time had no idea of the rules of the
ring. They fought in a savage, rough and
tumble way, and when one got the other
down it was considered no dishonor to
pound away at him until he cried enough.
At this cry the boys generally pulled the
upper savage off if he didn't quit,
One day tramp circus man taught me
some valuable wrestling tricks My favor
ite was hip-lock, which invariably brought
to earth the opposite party. The beauty
of it was that when you raised your oppo-
ueu1 oh hiS 1SC1 you OOuIu lay hih oub
almost any style you chose. He was per-
fectly helpless, despite his struggles, the
moment you got him in the air, and then
it was delightful after literally keeping him
in suspense to lay him fiat ON the ground
in any particular style that fancy suggested.
This point, however, was not lasting, for
the boys after tumbling to it in various at
titudes generally 'tumbled to it, as the
slang phrase has it, and then its usefulness
was at an end Still it was wonderful
accomplishment in new school, and on
several occasions, although was terrible
coward, gained victory over my oppo-
nent by clinching and hip.locking him and
then pummeling him in such rapid success
sion that thefght was over before he
thought it had begun.