The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1889-04-11

good will get worse. Friction and assim.
ilation are going on all the time, and
hence the teacher must throw himself in
the breach and raise the standard ofgood
behavior and good morals. 1t will take
parents, and teachers, aud preachers and
the Sunday school all together to make
good citizens out of boys naturally deprav-
ed. There is something in stock and blood
of course, but not as much as there
used to be. Mankind are assimilating.
John Smith is nearly as good now as John
Breckinridge, or John Randolph, and
John Wanamaker is better than either,
for he has more money. Education
is like sharp knife, or an edged tool in.
child's hand. He will cut himself or
somebody else. The knife is good
thing, and so is education if the boy
knows how to use il properly. What is
the use of teaching boy to write if he is
going to commit forgery as soon as he
becomes skilled in the use of the pen.
Moral training should go along with the
schooling, side BY side, or little ahead.
Thomas Benton says in his memoirs: 81
was in my youth social and convivial by
nature, and my mother kuew:it. 1t was
her living and dying request that I should
never drink or play cards or use tobacco,
and never have. Surrounded for forty
years by all the temptations of Wash
ington city life and iniquity in high
places, my mothers fearful injunction
ahadowed me like good angel. But
for that I should have doubtless have
fallen by the wayside as I have seen hun
dreds of promising and brilliant young
men do"
How many of our boys had such a
mother. Now, under our system of pub.
lii, education, it is a sore trial upon the
parent to send good, obedient, kind.
hearted boy to mix with half dozen un.
principled, malicious rascals who fear not
God nor regard man, but we accepted the
situation and must do it, and hence the
greater responsibility upon the tea cher.
The time was when the bad boys who could
not be controlled at home were sent to
Bsman or Fouche or Isham to be civil.
lied, but that day has passed. Boys are
now put upon their honor, which is at
best weak dependence, but good
teacher with weight of character can
strengthen it. The influence ofa college
president is very great if he is the right
kind of man. We see that DR.. Gambler
has recently expelled a number of boys
from Emory college. This is a hopeful
sign. 1t reminds me of a preacher who
met another preacher, and was tell
ing him about great revival he had
recently had in his church. ."Ah, it was
glorious revival" said he. "There has
! not been such an one in all this country
for ten years. The good Lord has
blessed u.s." "How many did you take
into the church ?" said his friend "Take
in? take in? We never took nary one
in-not one; but we turned seventeen
out, thank the Lord and the Lord has
blessed US abundantly. The church is
purged and purified"
Just as soon as vicious boy has been
fairly aud fully experimental with, and
shows no sign of reformation, he should
be shipped homeward, whether in col
lege or public school. It does not
matter whose son he is. That kind of
VIGOROUS discipline will build up o school
quicker than anything. How many
fathers have lamented the downfall Of
their favorite sons and traced it all to
their college days. If they are not dissi-
pated they are enervated-no account.
They have no inclination to work.
"John," said an old farmer, "I sent you to
college because wanted you to have moro
larnin' than L had. Your teacher said
! you was the smarteat lad in school, and I
reckon you was. You used to plow and
hoe, and chop wood and curry the horses,
but it pears like you don't want to do
nothin' now-nothin' but wear fine
clothes and gloves and silk hat and
ride about and about. You are chock
| full:of your Greek and Latin, and your
silk and your saturn, but how are you go.
ing to make living That's what l
want to know
Tom was telling his uncle 6 big yarn
-an awfully big yarn, and after he was
through, tho old man said tom, how
many colleges did you say you went to p
"Three," said Tom" "What pity you
4 dideut go to one more, and then you
mout have been the biggest liar in the
State" An Israelite friend said to rae
not long ago: "Vat kind of ting ish
dis? Isend my son Yacob to dat fine
college where de poys wear military
close, and now he come pack wild leetle
gun in his pocket, and be wear heem all
de time. 1sh dat de law2'
But We have some nobler, earnest
alumni from our colleges in every town.
Some who do honor to their alma mater.
We would have many more if the stand
ard of morality was raised higher. The
standard of scholarship is high enough.
Colleges are grand institutions for those
boys who appreciate them aud realize
what they are sent there for. But only
one in fifty can go, for their fathers are
not able to send them, and hence the
greater Importance of our public schools
that educate the masses. Let the three
"R's" move on, but the three CHS" are
better still-"Head, Heart and Hands"
BILL ARP.
1r, 81