The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1886-02-10
"PROF." SIITH's SCHOOL
Forcing Young Ideas In the South
west Idany Years Ago.

Thirty years ago education in the
Southwest was lucky accident. Any
man who happened to know more than
his neighbors became a teacher. There
was no system Of schools, the only
common belief being ia the birch rod
as a quickener of the intellect.
Throughout this section of country
were a number of families from the
older Southern States, and chiefly from
Virginia. These families were usually
of good lineage, and drawn to the new
er country through land grants for mill
itary and other services. With them
they brought the habits and opinions of
the mother State. These included,
above everything else, devotion to some
particular religious sect and respect for
letters. The Sons of the families were
usually sent to college, and were con-
sidered Oracles of learning when they
returned.
Such teacher belonging to one Of
bhese old Virginia families, was Will
lam Smith. His grandfather had
moved with his numerous family at an
early day into the famous blue grass
region Of Central Kentucky, in cOnse-
quence Of grant of six thousand acres
from the mother State on account of
military services. Owing to the imper-
feet surveys of that day and the result
ing litigations, he threw up the grant
in disgust and retired to a neighboring
State.
When William Smith was a boy, the
center Of all accessible learning i'm that
country was the Miami University, at
Oxford, o., and to it the youth was
sent Such an event in those days is TO
be compared with that of a modern ex-
plorer to unknown lands The family
seamstTess who got up his wardrobe,
was much in demand in social circles,
owing to her acquaintance with its de-
tails and her opportunities for cOmpre-
hending the famiIy's state of mind in
view of the great event.
When William Smith returned from
college no youth was thought to have
ever carried away so large a burden of
learning. All disputed questions-suc
as the spelling of a word, puzzliug
problems among the bricklayers, and
bitches in the exchange of butter and
eggs for calico-were brought before
him. Parents were fired by his sue
Cesses with ambition for their own
sons; and William Smith, instead Of
becoming the teacher in ordinary as
the other college men had been, opened
a school for boys preparing for college.
Into this it was the hope of every
father and mother to get their boy.
The school house was a large brick
building, painted white, with a porticO
and those imposing columns that were
part of the dignified architecture of
that country, and was called the col
lege. In keeping, William Smith was
styled professor. Years after, when
the school was only a memory, middle
aged men would occasionally drift
around 20 William Smith's home, then
in a different State, and to the astOnish-
ment of his family, who knew him only
as an active business man, call him pro
iessOr-a title that sent his grandchIl-
dren siggling behind the tables and
chairs
At that time, however, as II to make
amends for the restraint of the title,
the boys out of school spoke famiiarly
of him as Bill Smith. A real college
professor has since told me that his life
was made miserable at one time, when
an installment of William Smiths boys
was sent to his college, by being con-
Cinually told that wasn't what Bill
Smith said;' Bill Smith didn't do it in
that way
William Smith himself used to tell
with glee how little Drake Beasley,
whose father begged to have him sit in
the school room and gather what
crumbs Of learning he could, since he
was too young to be admitted, too pre-
COciOus for other schools, and too bad
to keep at home, used to tWitch him by
the elbow in the midst Of a lesson:
"Say, Bill Smith, lend me a chaw of
tobacco
The familiarity was all the more
marked since little Drake might have
borrowed tobacco from any of the boys,
for wooden boxes filed with sawdust
were as much part of the school fur
niture as the desks.
/ knew William Smith as an elderly
man, although for some time familiar
with the reputation of this school,
which is one of the traditions of the
country he had long before left. Since
he has retired from active business, as
all men whom circumstances have
turned aside from chosen pursuits, his
mind delights to dwell on those early
days This pleasure particularly keen
after he has been invited to some clos
ing exercises on public school examine
tiOns. 1t is announced by % series Of
"ahemsn' an uneasiness in his chair,
an anxiety about getting his trousers
properly adjusted over his shoe tops,
an of which the children would call
getting a good ready" His friends
understand these signs, and usually
some one considerably says;
"Mr Smith, the high school exercises
were very fne now, weren't theyP The
essays were creditable and the declama'
dons just grand. Well, we'll, children
nowadays are greatly best. We didn't
have such schools in our day. ehP'
This is enough, William Smith gives
bis person a final adjustment. "Well
II you call it a school whore one-half OF
the time Is spent in getting the chill
dren's toes on crack, and the Other
half in keeping them there, all I've sol
Go say Is we didn't have any such
schools ia our day. Why / happened
TO go in the public schools the other
day, and the teacher, a young thing in
frills and buckles, was trying TO get th'