Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1886-05-01
LOCAL CORRESPONDENCE.
MORE GOOD WORDS FOR GOOD
TEACHERS.
FpoSTRJ'RG Mn Snrjl o6 1873

FRosrBURG, Mp, April %, 1886.
To the MINING JOURNAL
read your editorial address to the teachers
last week with much interest. 1t embodied
several wholesome reflections, not the least
of which was contained in the enumeration
of the fruits of your own labor in the school
room. You might have carried the idea
further i'll 4 consequential sense with great
profit. Once teacher myself am prepared
to point with some pride to the work of ny
own hands in several instances, and | know
there is an enjoyment in contemplating i
which no one can adequately anticipate.
| was pupil, however, before n teacher
with fewer advantages in the one than in the
other. The "old field" methods held in that
day. Nothing was known of the eclectic and
inductivc systems. The rod was the great
conservator and persuadcr, and my teacher
| trust he is in heaven in the language of
Bill Nye, copied from late letter:
He was Il noble brute. lie taught our
school, reckon, because he hadn't education
enough to engage in other manual pursuits.
He is now dead. do not go over to the
cemetery every Spring to decorate his grave
Spring is q very busy season with me. If
he had died in the Winter, about forty years
earlier than he did, would have gone out of
my way to decorate his grave. 1t would
have been a pleasure to me.
When he died, your mother asked me if /
was going to the funeral.
nc" says |, speaking in that drol way of
mine-"No,' says l, II shan't go to the
funeral, but, as the ieler says, approve of
It, That's tlre way am about everything.
| speak my mind right out and nobody ever
knew me to hesitate about saying what I
tbnnobt nf N iall, IL No
With better educational advantages, | al
ways thought our schoolmaster would have
made a good pirate; but his parents were
poor and so he had to hustle for himself. He
had an earnest desire to advance in his pro.
teSsion, but he did not succeed in carving his
name on the heights of fame He yearned
for glory and grub remember that he used
to teach school Winters and work out Sum-
mers on farm. In this way he kept up his
muscle all the time; and though he frequent
" got mixed up in long division, he was
never successfully licked, up to tie me that
old Mr.. Bright came along with his justly
celebrated disease and introduced II INTO the
schoolmaster's daily life. Then he yielded
gently. Like flake of ice cream on the
bosom of a fat man. the schoolmaster began
to subSide. Ohe by one his kdnies began to
fade. Paler and paler grew the great educator,
TIL at last, one evening in Spring, just as the
bull-frogs over III the north medder had I'M
wrapped the red flannel from their
thrOatS and sounded a. our Old school
master skun out for the sweet ultimately.
Hundred of his old pupils all over the
State telegrafted their consent. 1t was the
most harmonious thing | ever knew, | re-
garded it as great success.
Thus you see, the grave is not always the
terminus of glorious path. We (my COM
rades and myself had rough experience
one to which we cannot look back with
pleasure Long hours, hard seats, constant
and useless rack of memory, and punis hments
for inlirmties as well as iniquities make up
hard school history.
Comparatively speaking, the wonder is
that the teachers of this day are not more
enthusiastic. With so many "short cuts"
improved accessories, text books luminous
with illustrations and bristling with defn-
! itions, expositiors and demonstrations
nothing to contend against but human weak
ness and youthful perversity, they should
| march on conquering and to conquer.
| During the ensuing holiday | bid them
speed | bid them success; 1 bid them Joy
over the redemption of Young America from
| ignorance-over the stars that shall glitter
in their crown Of rejoicing.
| ANOTHER EXP