McCook weekly tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 188?-1886, 1884-08-14

| chivalry and religious and knightly
self-forgetfulness are gone; the days of
trade and greed are full upon us. 1t is
one wild scramble for office and money
with scarcely disguised profession Of
patriotism, honesty or philanthrophy.
Men steal, and unless detected count it
no evil. How can l fortify my boy
against this currentP The example and
| words of his teacher should do much;
every teacher should be to his every
pupil help and god. There is no
danger of too great worship. But to
this want to see added such a teach
ing Of history as shall bring out into
glorious knighthood grim old Oliver
Cromwell and gentle Philip Sidney,
manly Bayard and glorious Washing
ton. l believe in biography rather than
in history. Give us the warm life of
noble men and not mummies, nor sta
tistics, nor facts. Do you know of any
school where they SO teach history
3. He will meet disease accident and
dangers. The best way to meet these
is not with policy in an accident in
surance company, but an education
which shall ensure presence of mind.
A few rules and principles impressed
on the mind will cause one to act the
hero in moments that try mems souls.
1 do not know why physicians should
monopolize all that education which
tends to relieve or prevent pain, dis
ease, or, if so be, death. At any rate,
want my son to know enough about
all this to be able to act the man when
he shall be called. want him taught
physiology, hygiene and anatomy, not
from text book, but by the more sem
sible method of the dissecting room; or
if this is impossible, from the manikins
which can be got so well made from
Paris, from the skeleton and the study
of the anatomy of the lower animals.
Those things relating to anatomy as
differing in the sexes, and the princi-
pal facts of gcnerative physiology, l
took pains to teach him long ago;
don't want my son to learn these
things from any lips less pure and dear
than mine. Often he has made me
his confida mt, where know other boys
would have been lured to evil. Now,
do you know where that wise man
teaches, who will wisely, with micro
scope, and skeleton and dissection,
teach my boy a practical physiology |
and hygiene, and such knowledge of
remedies as will make him of some use |
in an emergency.
4. He will meet men socially. Those |
gifts which make an evening enjoyable |
music, and the ability to talk, should !
be cultivated. He will meet them in a
business way ii. e., selfishly.) He
must learn to control his tongue, his
face, his temper and his thoughts, He
must know the technicalities of bust
ness, and broader than that, the laws
Of trade and the science of political
economy. He will meet them assOciat-
eddy. He must know parliamentary
rules and be skilled in quarreling by
rule-able to preside-and content to
60 without office. AS for Christian
he must do his part unselfishly in and
toward the church he attends.
5. He will owe duties to his country.
l would have him taught the principles
of government and of common law,
and the necessity for, and the meaning
and abuse of such terms as ''loyalty"
and '.'patriotism.
6. He will meet things. Briefly
(pedantically, if you willy all thought
comes from things. We see things:
we are thinged; i. e., we think. l don't
want my boy to 60 through the world
with his eyes shut. Who discovered
attrs ction of gravitation? Who the
phosphates under our own soil? Who
invented the steam engine, or the tele-
graph? Plainly, somebody who was
able to think and did think, and who
thought because he observed things.
Yes; want my boy to know some
thing about things. The science of
things, or SO much of it as we techni-
cally include in the branches of geolo-
gy, mineralogy, chemistry and natural
philosophy, holds almost the first place
in my idea of the Importance of the sci
ences my boy must know.
Z. He will need to know how to Judge.
Faraday says that a deficiency of judy
ment is the most common intellectual
fault. A clear judgment will cause a
man to be looked up to, when office
and money won't. | do not know what
better safeguards can be thrown about
a boy than to beget in him keen en-
thusiasm and sound judgment to di-
rect it. To be sure, much of the stuff
we make sound judgment of must be
born in us. But L conclude that the
weakest of us might have been a bet
ter Judge if he had had that faculty
earlier trained. Already he has been
taught to distinguish color, distance,
form, weight and size; these he has
been taught by his mother. What 1
want now is teacher who will carry
On what she has begun.
s. He will meet occasions. Who is
the statesman? Simply he who has
wit enough to know when an opportu-
nifty is come and has knowledge and
speech to meet it. To every man, great
and small, come these chances which
make or mar his future and which
break and make the happiness of
others. l am thinking now of ability
to speak. | want him to know how to
,1co words Mara 10 I,.yy |