Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1890-01-30

1h5 most aSt0n1Shed man In the Wh0le
country was that teacher when | landed
square on his shoulders. How easily the
four Of us could have borne him to the
ground was shown by the fact that my
own jump nearly accomplished this de-
sired consummation. The teacher was
forced down on his knees and had to
spread his hands to prevent himself
from lying prone on the floor. When /
saw that the other boys did not take the
Jump thought it most prudent not to
assault the teacher alone. | therefore
did not strike at him as had been ar
ranged. ! picked myself up while he
rose in the full dignity of outraged man
hood.
"What do you mean by that?" he
shouted to me.
replied with the ready prevarication
of school-boy: 81 fell from the bench,
sir. II am very sorry, sir.
''l1l teach you to fall from bench"
he cried, and then looking at his switch
and finding Jnat he had worn it to
| pieces on us little time previously, he
ordered me to go to the woods, which
were near by, and cut switch to whip
myself with. This was a refinement
of cruelty that the teachers of that
day loved to indulge in. l went out to
the woods and in the fence corner cut a
long, slender alder branch, which /
trimmed neatly and brought in to him.
| fingered until it was nearly noon time
and then presented the switch. An alder
| switch is about one of the most in
noxious things in nature. j often won.
der why teacher who was raised in the
country and among the weeds anyhow
did not know the utter uselessness of
such an instrument of punishment. But
this teacher took it in his hand and
took me by the collar and dealt a
fearful blow, whereupon the alder
switch, being full of pith, went at once
to pieces without inficting any injury.
This was always considered very
great stroke of humor on my part, al
though l suffered for it from genuine
blue beech CAD early that afternoon.
However, that day was a very notable
one in my career, because the heroic
leap upon the teachers back, which the
pupils knew the true inwardness of,
whatever the teacher might have
thought, gave me sort of recognized
rank as being the very worst boy in the
village, and upon this reputation
plumed myself for many day.
Before bidding farewell to this
teacher may say that retribution over
took him in the shape of his owr
brother. He had younger brother who
went to his school, and the teacher was
harder on him than on any of the res
of us. / always 10 oked on that brother
as a sort of heroic fellow from the way
he took his terrible thrashings. Inevel
saw him whimper or cry, but he simply
grit his teeth and stood it grimly. The
teacher, however, overlooked the fact
although he was the elder, that Will,
he was attending school the brothe
7 was working hard on the farm, and tina
the physical condition of the younge
was superior to that of the elder. On,
day after particularly atrocious whip
7 ping the brother said nothing unit
: they were going home together, where
upon the younger one, making some re
. marks about being outside of the pre-
cincts of the school-room, sailed int
t the teacher aud thrashed him within al
< inch of his life.
After this episode the teacher re
signed, and there were few mourners il
that scho u when he left.-Luke Sharp
" in Detroit Free Press