Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1885-08-28
C~OLLIERVILEE, TENN.
A S%quabbIe Over the Public school
Fund.
looRREspospEsoE OF THE AppEAL.l

CORRESPONDENTS y r THE APPEAL.l
CoLLIERvILLE, August 26.-As you
receive stated communications from Col
lierville, sent by Rodney and other able
reporters, it seems like presumption in
me to attempt to give any of the local
issues or newsy items of this community.
Somehow or other the spirit prompts
me to write down something, and | don't
feel like it is right TO resist the spirit.
1t the promptings turn out to be a
budget for your waste basket, not |, but
the prompter, must bear the blame.
First, L want you to know that Collier
vile is a little city, not quite as large as
New York, but it is a little nearer New
York than Memphis is.
We've got some mighty fine people,
too. We have some poor and some rich;
but it is mighty hard on Sunday to tell
the difference, we all look so nice, and |
reckon all our clothes are paid for, by
somebody anyhow.
If you should come out some day and
go with me around to visit our schools,
it would puzzle you to distinguish the
poor mans child from the rich mans,
for mothers take SO much pride in their
girls and boys, and don't want anybody's
children to look better than their own;
and this is right.
The children have a refined, cultured
air about them that you don't find in
every city, even as large as Collierville.
By the way, in speaking of schools,
we have two first class ones, but they
are both select, private Institutions. We
are denied the blessing Git it be one) of
a public school. But maybe Gov.
Berkeley was half right when he hoped
the people OF Virginia would not have
g. .11o.1.o -, A. f-ool1r. 81 fhn nrocc
for a hundred years. You know, Mr..
Editor. he was wrong about the freedom
of the printer, but | am not sure he Vas
wrong about the free schools.
Some of our folks take great pride in
the school of their choice, aud work for
its good, as they ought to do. The teach
ers, too, are welded to their respective
schools, and each one thinks his the best;
that's human nature, so we don't blame
them. Now, these private pay schools
suit mighty well for rich folks, but they
don't do quite so well for us poor tel
lows who are trying to keep our children
up with the rest, and at the same time to
conceal from the teacher, the merchant
and everybody else how poor we really
are, so we sorter want a free school,"
but we just don't know the best plan TO
take to get it. If we take the public
fund from our private institutions and
set up a free school, then we draw the
line Of distinction between the poor and
the rich, and that is what we don't want
to do. We also withdraw our girls and
boys from the refining influences already
named, and put them in an old fogy
school like the one [ went to some fifty
years ago; no, that's wrong, for |
am told that little children now can
read and write without ever knowing
their letters. Well, that beats the time
when | was a boy. | wouldn't be sur
prised, as the new method goes on i'm
proving, if after a while we will be able
to do away with schools entirely, aud get
an education Theoretically sealed, by tel
ephone, photograph or some such method.
Well, | am getting a long ways from my
subject. but distance don't count nova
days. As L was saying, we are in a di-
lemma, and have been almost in a SQUAD
BILE for the past two weeks about that
public fund. | notice that Memphis has
some of the same kind of trouble. Now,
perhaps Gov. Berkeley was not so far off
the track.
Both of our private schools are bid
ding for the fund, and while they are
holly contesting for it | am reminded of
the two tramps in the fable that found
a donkey in the road. Each one claimed
the privilege of riding him. Finally they
cam to blows; so the donkey ran off, aud
neither of them got the benefit of him.
So with u public fund.
Protracted meeting next Sunday at the
Baptist church. Hope all will go and
learn to feel better and act better toward
each other.
| have learned since writing the above
that the directors of the fund have voted
to centralize it in one school. 1t remains
to be seen who gets it.
Excusa me now e nu nleasa FnGY