The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1884-02-02
School Mistress in ShantyvIlle
New York Ledger,

| -NC" VI i@SuSCi.
| The establishment of the men in Shan
| tyville when the announcement was made
that school-mstress was coming to the
place, would have been comic had it not
been so perfectly uncalled for.
| The movement which resulted in the
building of the school house was caused
as much by chance remark of Shorty"
Davis as by anything else. Shorty"
on returning from visit to the neigh
boring camp of Buster Gulch, said to
the assembled crowd in Higgins saloon.
IN low ez how that place kinder
lays over this yere. The men hez re
spect fo knowidje, an they hez the
finest schulz house you ever see.
| The rivalry between Shantyville and
| Buster Gulch was bitter in the extreme,
and men said that when stranger from
| Virginia City like 'Shorty" Davis could
make such remarks, it was time to move.
| 1t must be confessed that the raw ma
terial for schools were not abundant in
| Shantyvile. OF children there We're but
three in all; one belonging to the I'M
foreground boss of the "Star of the
| West''-a great quartz mine-and two
were the pride and glory of the Widow
Black. Still, though there were not
many children to be taught, it could not
be denied that they needed teaching and
then, too, there was that disagreeable
fact of the school in Buster Gulch.
1t being clearly impossible to do any
thing in such a matter without public
meeting and it being as clearly move
ment with which it was respectable
thing to be connected, the meeting in
question was called by no less person
than Squire Hatton--a gentleman about
whom could write at great length, had
be any earthly thing to do with my story.
AS lie has not, it must suffice that | say,
he was in Shantyville the representative
of responsibility. Under such auspices
the meeting went off beautifully, and as
there was absolutely no opposition, it re-
solved to build the school-house.
The house being built, the committee
of which Squire Hatton was chair
man-went to Virginia City for teacher
and Miss Mary Kennedy arrived in time
duly certified to as being competent.
And now you can see the unreason of the
establishment. There had been no secret
about the thing tine very men who ex-
pressed the greatest amaZement had
been foremost in the movement. Yet
the feeling was there, and it was thor
oughly genuine. 1t gave rise, in time,
to another feeling very mnch more Gu
rious-that the school-mistress was not
SO much school mistress as she was a
payers had personal interest.
AS have said, Miss Mary Kennedy
arrived in Shantyvile and went to live
at the Widow Blacks. This arrange
ment was felt by all to be thoroughly
right, for in view of the fact that the
widow was not we'll off, and her husband
Sam Black, had been one of the most
popular men in the camp, part of the
money subscribed by the camp could not
be better bestowed than upon her. 1t
suited Miss Mary very we'll, because the
place was convenient and clean, the food
was good, although plain, and the widow
herself was one of the cheeriest, incest
little bodies any one ever saw.
Miss Mary having arrived, took posses
sioE of her school-house, and the open
ing of the school was naturally made
the subject Of a celebration. The house
was large, much larger than was re-
CURED, having been built with an eye to
its use as place of public meetings, and
was at the opening comfortably well
filled. The contrast between the three
pupils and the crowd of visitors was some
what amusing, but still the incongruity
of the thing did not seem to strike any
one. The Committee of Arrangements,
probably with the idea of convincing all
present that there were some children TO
be taught, placed them prom inently upon
the platform, where they sat in high
seats, their legs dangling down and ex-
ceedingly uncomfortable, 'the observed
of all observers" The opening of the
new school passed off beautifully, and
Squire Hatton received the congratula.
ton of every man in camp.
But this story of mine is not so much
about the Shautyville school as it is
about the Shantyville schoolmistress.
AS there would not have been any school
mistress had there been no school, it
was necessary perhaps to account for
Miss Mary's presence in Shantyville,
but this having been done will go on
to the story itself. And perhaps it is
unnecessary to state that Miss Mary
was very pretty. She was small, rather
dark, with large brown eyes and brown
hair, and charming. In the latter all
men in the camp were agreed, and none
were more thoroughly convinced of the
fact than Jake Slocum, commonly called
Rhody, and his partner, Tom Freeman.
These two men were, respectively, super
intendent and assayer of tho 'Rattle-
snake" great quartz mine lying to
the north of the Star of the West"
They lived together in one cabin, they
shared what they made, and they had
been ''pards' for a very long time; in
fact, long before they had arrived in
Shanty vile. 1t had become bye-word
in camp. las fast friends as Tom and
Rhody." OF the two, Rhody was older,
being about forty, while Tom could not
claim more than twenty-five; but in