Mexico weekly ledger., 1890-01-30
W. o. FORRIST.
Another Interesting Contribu-
tion From the Judge.

mait shn-s. wtn'y years
a. NJ. IL sn., he friri.d, jus. .e
Iacfdrlane, Was The Recorder of
Mexico, holding his office, think,
IN a room in the northeast corner
# the Court House. This was a
tile ru m. by 9Th. law and
| real estate office Of the Judge aud
his brother, Capt. Macfariane, long
,ince deal. but whose memory l.
cherished :" well-the Judges
| tecorder's office. | suspect that in
| | little law III before him | rep
esenting one side and - whole
'ar the o.her side, the opinion.
which he finally rendered has lead
he way to his great and well de-
-erved reputation as a jurist to-.
| lay.
The city had undertaken to de
are fire limits aud, by ordinance.
ad forbid anybody To erect a wood
n structure therein under II
penalty OF $50 Col A Ladd.
Frank Leavitt and A. D. kellogg
owned the lot whereon the LEDGER
"tfice stands, and they prepared to
erect a large wooden building, the
lower floors for merchandise and
the upper for one grand hall for
public meetings. The ordinance
Was passed To prevent them from
putting up this building wilhou,
permit. TheJ asked no permit
and went forward executing their
plans and the CITY prosecuted them
under the ordinance. The entire
bar was for the city, volunteef
counsel at that.
Two points were made by me
and argued in behalf of the de-
lendants-thati defendants had
purchased land, material, etc., for
The building as well employed
mechanics to do the work and were
in process of making the building
when the ordinanceNwas adopted.
and hence to apply it to them
would make it retroactive, AMI
that there was no grant \of power
TO the city to declare fire limits and
hence the ordinance was void. On
this latter point the Judge held for
the defendants. Such holding wa-
revelation. A City Recorder hold
ing an ordinance void Thls
would warrant a justice to hold
any statute void! They desired
To re-argue the case and we've per
mitted After two or three day
Searying the Judge, he rendered
mis- opinion. His office Was crowd
d and he rose to the occasion and
rendered an opinion, which none
since has excelled
So the city, in her school matters,
had her day of ''small things"
nut out of which has come a com
mon school to excel which none in
he Union Can be fuuLd as an edu
cationaI instrumentaiity-indeed,
,s matter Of choice / should prefer
Il thorough course OF study ana
graduation from it, as better evi
dence of education and naturat
mental decipline, than the four
year course in any college in the
State. Sometime soon / will give
| reasons for this opinion. But the
contrast between our schools to
| day and its first efforts Is ludi
crous beyond measure. Promising
that Mexico never attempted a
worthy object and failed, we knew
the schools would succeed, but un-
expected difficulties arose after
the central house was completed
and ready for occupancy. Among
these was the procurement of a
proper superintendent to take
charge of and organize and build
up the institution. Experiments
over and over again were tried with
failue. Some how we could not
get the right man for the place.
Men of books we could find, but
This was not enough. The super
intendent must be an organizer, a
man of affairs, commander; but
he must also be a man of books as
we'll. This, the scnool officers full
| we'll understood and made every
effort to succeed, but experiment
simply wrote failure at the end OF
each year. One of our early super
intendents was a Mr.. Davis-a
man Of learning but not of affairs
He was said to spend much time at
the noon hour sitting on the front
steps of the school house eating
halogns sausage and overlooking a
-ort of prize fight between two
y,ung pugilists. In his place-in
a ward school house-he was an
Excellent teacher and made grand
success at K 'nsas City as such, /
am told, afterward.
Then in the rotations of the of
fee of supeitendent came, | think
one year Prof. Robinson, a man of
books, abunddntly able to teach, l.,
entirely willing to do as little labor
as consistent and was not man nf
affairs and, as an organizer of men
and children, was not a success.
| Then we experienced for year
with Prof. Curry, gentleman
from Ohio of great learning, much
experience in pedagogy and who
made something of a success in his
Il