St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-09-09
Education Made Subordinate
to the Wild Scramble for
Dirt.
If Continued the City will Be
Again the Haunt of the
Wolf.
Religion--How IG Should Be
Treated in the Common
Schools.
Our public schools.

Quelt sermon before the members Oh
the Universalist society. Since the
change in proprietorship of Harris
theater the UniyersaliSts now meet i'll
Society hall, corner of Tenth and st.
Peter, and there was good attendance
at Yesterdays service. Mr.. Vail said:
1.-The ring of the school bell, the gath
ering of the satchel brigade, the shout
and laughter on the streets, all tell us
that school has commenced once more.
The discussion of the problem OF our
schools in the great magazines, their
earnest advocacy in one convention, the
common complaint of all the complain
ers and the cry of godlessness from GER
tain quarters many times heard from
before, unite to call our attention 10 the
wide interest in the subject.
While l thoroughly believe in the
public school [ acknowledge its limIta-
tiOnS.
The crowded condition incident to the
growth of a city whose progress In ten
years was marvellous, the necessary
difficulties that come when you have
there nations diverse in custom.
HOPE AND RELIGION
represented, and the difficulty that
new state experiences in getting
movement that is for the good of the
common veal are facts that none
deny. 1t is hard to lay out county
road without offending half the citizens;
and general policy of city improve
ment that is independent of the infiu-
enee of long pOcket-b0oks would be a
novelty among US. Speculation has
been filling the very atmosphere OF this
state for ten years past, and has nearly
ruined the average man for conservat-
i've methods. They are too slow.
In the wild scramble for "dirt, and
for placing improvements where they
will do the holders of vacant tracts the
most good, education with us naturally
gets a secondary place:
But you may build a city as solid
as Rome, whose parks and gardens
are like the pyramidal gardens of Baby
lon, and whose rivers and lakes flash
with light, as did the mighty Euphrates
when pleasure crafts, flaming with
torches, carrying musical parties,
passed and repaSSed, while the poor
Hebrews changed their harpS on the
willows;" vet if you neglect the COM
mon school and the home, your city Will
be again the haunt of the wolf, and the
antiquaTy will seek among your ruins
for the sad story of your downfall.
In thinking Of the schoolbOy l think
first of the difficulties of the situation.
His masters have become very ambi-
tious. They give him little of every
thing, and he is apt to feel
LIFE A BURDEN
when he picks up his vast load of books.
Sometimes the boy, and more often the
girl; breaks down under the load. More
work their way through by cram and
shrewdness, leaving behind a vast deal
that they never tried to learn. And
many times these are as well off as any.
1t is not so much what we get i'll school
as what we master afterwards that
makes US.
Dean Stanley said that in college
course it was mostly a mans after-edu-
cation that was of importance. And l
do not place very great stress on the
fact that a boy can scan page of Vir-
gil, or solve all the problems of an
algebra. Just as the training of the
muscles in gymnasium may give
man power when he has to endure as
leader of an army, so he may be helped
in the same way by his education. lt is
most valuable as mental discipline. L
knew a man of ability and genuine
power, who used capital letters when
ship's captain who is truly an educated
man, who never had even the common
training of a common school. l think
you could stop Edison on the third line
of Virgil; or i'll constructing sentence
of Bishop Butler; and yet he can
touch
THE MAGIC WAND
and encbant US with his knowledge and
mower. So a school may give but a
poor grasp of the subject. be very i'm
perfect and yet tuin out many educated
men.
But there is still more to be thought
of than we have taken into cOnsidera-
ton. The chief thing, after all, is not
perfection of attainment.
Was Andrea Del SartO the perfect
painter, the perfect artist? And the
man who is so perfect that his essay
seems without flaw, does he impress
you most? Or, do you lose interest in
man as soon as you are able to measure
up and know all the resources he has?
DOre was very imperfect painter. He
did not work according to rule; and yet
everybody marveled to see the man with
an engraver's block in his pocket, a note
book in his hand, and the ability to put
on the paper or on the block an idea in
a single second of time. When he
wanted passport the officer asked him
to draw the picture of a peasant, and
the quick hand left the unmistakable
witness of genius the moment he
touched the paper. He was like the
sea, the bOundleSS waters, the eeaseless
music, the constant power. the ever
changing combinations of level blue
and foamy crest and tangled surf sug-
gest endless resources. Victor Hugo
compares Shakespeare to the sea. That
is why we like him. And our educa-
ton, wherever it furnishes finished
men, will be
A CERTAIN FAILURE;
but if it can make them so large that
we cannot measure them, and they will
show us new surprises every day, then
does it promise US something very
grand.
The claim that culture is dangerous
does not demand a moments notice.
There may be criminality in cultivated
places, and among cultivated peOple-a
refined sensualism may be the very
worst kind; but when we come to COM
parison we shall see that cultivated ma
lions are and will ever be in the van
guard of civilization,
Il have set all acorn," said an Eng
lish nobleman to his queen, when he
had planted university. "God alone
can tell the fruit thereof" and in good
citizenship, strong aggressive life, and
a sturdy manhood we have seen prom
ising growth from the plant.
But where is the promise of the Moor
ish settlement in Spain? Their Alham-
bra was the wonder of the world. Its
carved lions, its laeework of stone. it's
beautiful lines and arches, alluring
fountains and blooming courts were a
charm to the senses. Yet Boabdii was
obliged to give up the golden key,
and, gazing the last time on the snowy
pile, and on the glittering waters of the
Darro, turned away towards the
rising sun. Spain and Italy are exam
pies of nations that refuse anything but
religious Instruction.
Then, again, intelligence clears away
cobwebs and makes men clear-headed
and progressive. When our preacher
gives US certain teachings that we know
| by our reading
BELONG TO THE PAGAN
| rather than Christian teaching, we are
gong to drive him out of his theologi-