The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1885-01-08
JACKSON. OHIO. THURSDAY. JANUARY 8. 1885

weather was very bad, the boys and
girls all played in the house. The
benches were set near the walls, and
blindfold, glove, Sister Phoebe, chick
amacranycrow, and other fine plays,
were common. When the master
thought time was up he would go to
the door and cry "b-o-o-k-s," and in a
very few minutes all the scholars
would be in place.
You mast remember that there
were no comfortable seats, no ruled
paper, no metallic pens, no black
boards, no store ink, or any other OF
the essentials now used in school.
Pens were made Of goose quills, ink of
the inner bark Of the swamp maple
boiled, and piece of copperas dropped
into the liquid, with little sugar to
give it gloss. There were no graphite
pencils, but a piece Of lead was ham
mered to fiat point, and paper was
ruled with it. There were no nice
buckets to be had for 25 cents, and
drinking water was carried in large
gourd from the spring or branch.
The scholars, when person came
to the school during play-time, must
all make their manners. They must
do the same when on the way to or
from school. when they met person.
Some masters called it doing obei-
sance. The boy raised his hat, and
made bow. The gill made curtchy,
which was an abbreviation of the
word courtesy. It consisted in slight
ly bending and then Strengthening the
knee joints.
Great reforms were made in SPELL
ing about the time Of which | speak.
The letter lizard was changed to zed,
and then to zee. The termination
ton was spelled as two syllab es, but
pronounced as one. Thus: the word
action was spelled a-c ac, I'll 81, acci,
On on, action.
Words ending with C, then ended
with k. Public was spelled publick;
music was spelled musick, SC. Words
ending with ior, had the letter be-
tween the r and o. Thus, behavior
was spelled behaviour, &c.
| never heard the following very
ridiculous mode Of spelling, but old
persons have often told Inc that it was
in use before my time. When word
had in it syllable where the letter a
was the only letter, it was called a by
itself a. Take the word variation. 1t
would be spelled thus: va va, ri ri, a
by itself a, varia, tt ci, variaci, On on,
variation. Children soon became tired
Of this long description Of a, and call
ed it abytselfa. Then variation would
sound this way: va va, RI ri, vari,
abytsel fa, varia, til ci, variaci, On on,
variation.
There have also been changes in
pronunciation. In reading, the ter
mination ending with ed, was not
merged in the preceding syllable.
Thus, published, helped, passed, re-
marked, &C., were pronounced in read
ing, published, helped, passed, re-
marked. In common conversation,
such words were pronounced as they
are now.
In order to modify the ridiculous
aspect Of such pronunciation, let me
uake an extract from an article in the
Atlantic Monthly for January, enti-
tied "The H Malady in England" by
Richard Grant White:
SIT is shocking to think of Chester
field in the last century, and Sir Phil
ip Francis in this, saying e and 'an,,
cad and cart; but the sad probability
is that they did so, or at least they
might have done so without attract
ing the attention Of their elegant and
high-born associates. But only a
careful investigation Of the traces Of
language in past generations can re-
veal the capricious changes which
have taken place in pronunciation.
The speech OF our own day is to most
Of as the only utterance of our moth
er tongue of which we have any con-
ception. Even slight deviation from
that is to US not only strange but rid
iculous But for that very reason, if
our forefathers could and should rise
up among us, our pronunciation would
| be just as strange and just as ridicu-
lous to them. In either case there
would be the same reason for surprise
and laughter; that is, in both cases
there would be none Custom, the
custom of the best society, is the only
absolute law as to pronunciation. and
in most respects and within certain
limits the only law OF language. !"
Now you will conclude that the
schools Of Jackson county sixty years
ago were failure-were worse than
no schools at all. | think they had
some advantages. There was an abun-
dance of pure air in the school-house,
drawn in through the cracks between
the puncheons of the floor, the clap
board loft and door. The roaring fire
caused a great draft, thus circulating
and changing the air. Children were
healthy, and if you had spoken about
neuralgia or diphtheria, you would not
! baya hnan understood.
Only one study was taken at time
and that must be the most practical,
as time was too short in school to ex-
pect more that three or four branches.
Thus Spelling, Reading and Writing
were much more thoroughly studied
than they are at the present time. I
was rather surprised when | saw the
two letters which | received from Mr..
Wilmore. He has been cripple for