Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-07-28
THE NASHVILLE TRIP.
What Fort Worth Educator Says OF
the National Gathering of Teachers.
Texas Poorly Represented as Far SIS Number
Was Commemorative North Attended With -
Her FFejuiices-A Successful Meeting.
FORT WORTH, Tex, July &c, 1889.

~
To the Gazette.
On the evening of the 18th of July, about 80,
we boarded the good Pullman, Anchoria, ard
set our faces eastward for a thirty-sx hour ride.
Nothing out OF the usual order happened until
we came within about five miles of Dallas,
where we were met by the Dallas hotel runners,
who came swarming in at door and window.
The assidious attention of these gentry was most
iattering, if the bills they presented had not
been so suggestive OF bills that would have met
US II We had stopped in the city
our checks with drummer-like cheek and
energy, and LEFT only when reached the
of the Three Forks. Shortly after the regula-
tC1 bedtime hour of honest fOIk had our
berths made up or made down Il don't know
which IS the proper phrase and prepared to
sleep the sleep Of the Just. I may not speak of
the experience of the other members of the
party, but my own experience for that night
strongly impressed ne with its likeness to the
sleep Of the unjust forever Words fail me
70 describe the torment of that night To those
who nave tried it, it IS sufficient to say that |
occupied an upper berth and the weather was
warm; to others, only personal experience can
uteliglbly convey a correct conception of this
matter. Without the slightest Intention OF being
slaugy ] may say that 1t will be q cool night
when am caught in upper berth OF a sleeper
again. Breakfast time found us at Texarkana
that triple named town, where we broke our fast
from our own basket OF grub, and cast contempt
and defiance and chicken bones at the sandwich
meal Will give you the privilege of contributing
% cents to his Golfers. At this point we trans
ferred Ourselves to the Cotton Belt and mace our
way during daylight through Arkansas. Much
Of the country passed through seemed to be
good, capable of development. From the names
OF some or the stations, judged that much OF
this territory was being taken by the Germans.
as we approached Memphis we found a country
that is fast rivaling New York city in the matter
OF elevated railroads, though from different
reason.
Reaching Nashville about 1870 Monday morn
ing we found this city rapidly filing with the
teachers, that unfortunate class of people who,
with distinct work, are least professional, and
yet with the irony of fate, most easily dubbed
professor. - demand cessation OF the pro-
mscuOus application of this title, or else a bet
ter reco gnition Of the professional character of
our work.
The estimated number of teachers in attend
ance was about four thousand, considerably be-
low the expectation OF the officers and local com
:mitttee, who had secured lodgings for about
eight thousand. Various causes are found for the
fewnesS of the number: such as heat, fear to
come South at this season, fear or yellow fever,
etc The real cause, however, is to be found in
the indifference OF the great army of teachers,
especially in the South. OF the Southern states
Alabama seemed to have the largest delega-
JiOn. Texas was poorly represented, not having
above one hundred or one hundred and fifty
teachers in attendance, as I estimate it, less
than per cent, Of those engaged in this work in
the State
Among the notables was our own Alex Hogg,
who eioquently discussed The Problem of the
Hour
DR.. J. Baldwin of the Sam Houston normal
was IN attendance. he IS not given to much |
S3IE but discover that he stands second TO none
in tire great band of normal school workers. |
Old IN years, he IS young, vigorous, |
and progressive in his study and work OF train |
ing men and women for the great work of the |
schOOlrOOm. As q prelude ana preparation for |
the work of the association the teachers were |
rendered a splendid welcome and grand bag |
beCUe of the OlG-time, Southern, ante belium !
kind. Ii was 4 feature in the meeting, being !
doubtless quite novelty TO many OF the |
younger teachers Of the South well as to those |
from the NOfth.
OF the work Of the convention will not under
take 70 speak further than 10 mentiod this sug- !
gestive' fact, that the oIhy medal bestowed in |
the convention was an mpromptu one, |
gysd P s$ grateful 6 s9disRfe to mr.
Cor keeping within the prescribed%hiTty minutes
Allowed%orthe reatling of paper Long papers
aud addresses are an imposition at any time,
and / know that that sweltering Audience who
sat in the VendOme theater Friday morning.
July l9, will always hold Mr.. Smith in grateful
Manual training and religious instruction in
the public school were the two questions about
which the largest interest seemed to center The
papeJs and addresses were all of undoubted
worth. OF those l heard (ard of course one could
hear but small part of the total number), one
1t was entitled art Education the True Indus
trial Education prepared by W. T.
Harris, the Concord Philosopher in
which he forcibly showed the utility
OF correct artistic taste in the management OF |
even the most common implements OF industry.
lie compared the implements of Sweden, where !
utility alone Is considered, with those of France /
where beauty Of form is happily combined with
utility making it clear thar this is the chief rea-
son why the French goods the more popu- !
lar in foreign markets. He further showed |
historically, that It was only after the prince
COnSOrt had improved the taste of the English
NvOrbmen by the establishment OF art museums |
such IS found at kensingtOn, that the English
began to attain their present
in the markets OF the world
On the Sfhole I think the meeting of the asso-
ciatSQa at Nashville resulted in good, prcfes-
sionaSly ana socially. 1t would have resulted in
MOI 0f fpa Nr~rl a
LEFT behind them certain small preiudiCes in
fsYpr OF the intellectual and material superiority
Of Things Northern over things Southern as is
indicated IL q letter written by Z Kansas teacher
70 friend al. home and copied in the Nashville
Banner. That the, North is superior in material
wealth is easily conceded; that she is intellect
ually superior may best be decided by the his
tory Of the past.
But our friends of the North ought not 10 have
to be reminded that it is less than three
decades since Sherman left a broad land
Of mourning en- the face of the devasted South
Nor ought it TO be necessary TO remind them that
a still broader band of black was bound upon
the tired and wounded hands OF the South in -the
person of /, 00J 900 of helpless freedmen to be
cared for and educatedsspnaided by the rich and
cOuqgering North.
The New South accepted theTsrdict of the war
in good faith and Is trying to redeem the mis-
fortunes entailea on her b. that verdict AL she
asks of the North IS to le treated with justice in
all things. e.. w. LIpsCoMB