The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1885-10-31
Mr.. EastOm's Address.

address was delivered by Hon. warren
! Easton, State Superintendent of Public
Education, at the educational meeting
held in Montgomery October 10Th, and
is published in accordance with the re-
quest embodied in q resolution adopted
at that meeting:
In lecture before the American Insti-
tute of Instruction, q number OF years
back, the learned DR.. Howe said, educa-
ton should have for its aim the develop
ment and greatest possible perfection Of
the whole nature of man; his moral,
intellectual, and physical nature. My
beau ideal of human nature would be q
being whose intellectual faculties were
active and enlghted; whose moral senti-
ments were dignifed and firm; whose
physical formation was healthy and beau
tiful; whoever falls below this, in one
particular, be it in but the least, beauty
and vigor of body falls short of the
standard believe man is approaching,
and believe the time will soon be when
specimens Of it will not be rare.
In all avenues of life just such men
and women are in demand. The i'm
portance of popular education to State
must not be underestimate, and it will
be the aim of this paper, if possible, to
remove from the mind any doubt in re-
lation to it. / regard education as re-
ferring to the whole man, the body, the
mind, and the heart. His body should
be active, vigorous and beautiful; his
heart full of virtue and charity.
To be better prepared to appreciate the
necessity of education to q State, you
must remember that every individual will
be educated by circumstances. ALI chill
dren in every community will be educated
somewhere and somehow, and it is the
duty of every good citizen. of every faith
full parent, to provide for the children Of
this generation, 80 they shall receive their
training in the school house and not in
the street Several years ago. the super
intendent Of schools of one Of the young
northwest States was visiting village on
the frontier, where no common school
had been established, but where other
places Of instruction had been opened,
such az bar-rooms, bowlng-alleys and
billiard-rooms. The superintendent said
he was much impressed by a remark he
heard an Indian chief make, whose at
tention had been attracted to the building
of second bowling-alley. It was this:
us this the place where our children are
to be educated~ Here in Louisiana, my
friends, do such well merited rebukes fab
from your lips? When you see bowling
alleys and saloons rising in your midst to
destroy the body, and soul of your chill
dren, do you think of the necessity Of
school houses and teachers? Friends,
the idler, the gambler, the drunkard, the
Sabbath breaker, the freQuenter of these
haunts, should not be the teacher Of your
children. Remember this truth, cas- is
the teacher 30 will be the school" Keep
those institutions in the back ground
that will graduate your children for the
poor house, the parish jail, or the State
penitentiary.
As have briefly outlined the import
ance of education, will endeavor to
show: First-Education dissipates the
evils of ignorance. Second in
creases the productions of labor. Third
Education diminishes pauperism and
crime. Fourth = Education increases
human happiness.
Education Dissipatss he Erils Of Ignorance.
DR.. Dick says Ignorance is one prin-
the immoralities which abound in the
moral world as delineated in the history
of nations, or as depicted by modern
voyagers and travellers, we would find
abundant illustration Of the truth of this
remark. We would find, in almost every
instance, that ignorance Of the true God,
and false conceptions of the nature Of
the worship and service he requires, have
lead, not only to the most obscene prac-
tees and immoral denominations, but to
the preparation of the most horrid cru
elites" The evils of ignorance are not
few, nor are they small in magnitude.
Can we not see this in the land of the
pagan, where men are vile without shame,
and cruel without remorse, and IL it not
because they live in land OF intellectual
and moral darkness? Pass to the Chris
tian countries, and what do you fnd2
That in those countries in which educa-
ton prevails least, there is least morality
and the greatest indifference to suffering
humanity. A correct system OF public
education produces different state of
affairs. Instead of q love for the low,
sensual and vicious excitement of the
world, it cultivates taste for simple and
pure pleasures, it gives to its subjects q
command of themselves. Il acquaints
them with their duties, and they derive
the greatest pleasure in performing them.
In short, their one and only desire il to
cooperate with their benefcient Creator
in doing good, and endesvoring to ad-
vance the interest of the human family,
obeying and leading others to obey the
laws of God Friends, you have had but
a slight acquaintance with what is known
as popular ignorance. You have had
some schools and the most illiterate in
your midst has derived some advantages
from them You may have those that can
not read or write, but they insensibly i'm
bibe ideas and moral influences from the
more cultivated society around them,
which, in less favored countries, are de-
MED the multltudes The ignorance that
flows from one man or woman 10 deplora-
BILE, but that which results from general
ignorance of an entire race Of men, is too
n II 4