The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1884-12-27
TWO STORIES AND A MORAL.

Harper'S Magazine.
TWO STORIES AND A MORAL.
something for Fathers and Mothers to
Think Over-Sad Happenings Which
are of Too Common Occurrence.
A girl lies bedridden in Brooklyn and
q boy has recently broken down in New
York whose cases are sadly suggestive.
The girl was the pride of her parents,
and their glory in her class success in
the great school for girls which she at
tended prompted her to overwOrk. Her
application to study did not seem excess
sive. She worked only q little la Der
than is common, so far as such work
can be measured by the time devoted
to it, and she took time enough for
sleep. Yet she was eager and anxious
and somewhat fearful of being excclled
in her class; and so, without knowing
that she did so, she made heavier de-
mands upon her strength than she was
able to meet with safety.
Examination day came, and she con-
quered. Then she threw herself down
upon a sofa to sleep, and fell into a state
of coma from which it was impossible
to rouse her for nearly a week. From
that day-now about three wears gone
to this, she has been unable to rise
from her couch. The girl is a wreck;
her intellect is shattered, and every
hour of her life is a torture to her
The boy was a bright fellow, not over
ambitious on his own account, but low
ingly ambitious to crafty his fathers
pride in him. In all his studies but one
he had plain sailing enough, but in that
one-Latin- encountered unusual
difficulty because of some peculiar want
of adaptation to the study of languages.
He failed in an examination, and his
father foolishly manifested 4 good deal
of modification over the occurrence.
The poor boy was resolute in his deter
mination to spare his father second
humiliation of the kind, and so he drove
himself numerically in his study. Night
after night he arose from his bed as
soon as the house was still, and secretly
worked at his Latin until near the gray
of the morning Nobody knew of this
excess, and the father would have for
hidden it had he known. But presently
the collapse came. The boys nervous
system gave way under the strain, and
it is now a serious question whether his
restoration even to tolerablc health viii
ever be effected by the rest and outdoor
life ordered for him as the last small
hope OF saving him.
These are but sample cases. There
are hundreds of others like thcra, and
there are thousands of instances in
which no such collapse comes but in
which grave injury is nevertheless done
to mind or body or both. Bright boys
and girls are educated into dull men
and women; healthy boys and girls are
converted by educational processes into
nervous, qucurlous hypochondriacs or
are trained into incipient constipation
or heart disease, or other insidcus NAL
ady that spoils as well as shortens their
lives.
Is it not worth while to ask ourselves
seriously whether, in our high ores
sure" system of education, the pressure
is not dangerously high? Do not the
emulations of the schoolroom, tbs in
tluence of teachers, and the sepsClesS
rivalries created by the marking and ex-
animation systems, aftoro quite All the
stimulus that can be safely pa upon
childhood? And, above all. DO we not
mislead children to their hurt by
placing, or seeming to place. a higher
value upon school success thaa such
success actually has? Suppose a
boy stands rather low in his
class, what then? Does it follow
that he is lacking in capacity, or even
that he has any constitutional qr:' per-
manent lack of industry Surely no.
body who has been at pains to observe
the facts of life can noId ruci an
opinion. At the end of our loSo war Il
young man was graduated \ Il, top Of
his class, at West Point. ana friend
said to him: "Well, X, eou. career is
secure, of course" Il an aor 50 sure
of that" was the reply; Il nave gradu-
ated at the top OF my class, it Is true,
but there is Grant, you know. who grad
uated at the bottom of his. and he ism t
quite failure in life"
Moreover, and apart from Ill this, the
fact remains that some minds mature
more slowly than others, and some ac-
quire much more slowly, while acqur-
ing with admirable certainty. and assim-
Hating knowledge most proiitably.
These miss examinations frequently,
and are not the worse. but the better for
missing them, because there is profit
for such minds in going twice over
given ground. In any case Il failure in
examination is not disgraceful, and it is
false and hurtful for parents and teach
ers to treat it as if it were in some way
shameful. That way disaster lies.-M
Y. Commercial advertiser.
HE WOULDN'T SPEAK.