The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1891-04-10
The School Committee.

tt0 0OtlOOt OOutIttttIIOOs
THE following lines were read at the closing exerci
es at Newbury Seminary, Feb ~, 1891, by s. L. Sw
sey. near the close Of his duties as prudential COMM
tee They were hastily prepared, and not designed
publication, but by request Of many friends they
printed just as read, without corecton,l
! have been q school committee,
For the past year or two,
I've had many perplexities,
But I've tried my best to do.
did not seek the Office,
did not want II Though,
did not ask for profit
AS you all ought to know.
But when they had the school meeting,
For me unanimous they did vote,
! would not shrink from duty,
And OIL pulled my coat.
So | am a school committee,
And have been two years or so,
will briefly state my duties,
That You may all truly know.
Although am school c0mmittee,
/ am only one OF three,
So II mistakes have been many
DO not lay them all to me.
Well, we must have a teacher.
That was the first thing to do,
And upon consultation
We decided to have tao.
You would have thought by the applications
That teachers were most plenty,
And that instead of having two,
We expected to have twenty.
They were indeed motley crowd,
From which we might freely choose,
Methodists, Congregationalists, Presbyter-
Universallsts, Unitarians, and Jews.
Some were short, and some were tall,
And some looked wOndrOus wise,
Some were large and some were small,
A nd some had cross SuuintinD pVpS
But they were not all to be despised,
Some were plump and fair patrons of
good cooking,
Who did not need to be disguised
To show they were good looking.
But goOd-loOks was not all to recOmme nd
them,
Certificates of character free from stains
Was best OF all to commend them.
Although they showed they had brains.
They were all first-class teachers,
Had taughth for many years,
Each said if you hire me to teach
You need not have any fears.
We did not attempt to dispute them,
Or tell them they were not believed,
But we were quite positive,
That somebody was deceived.
Whatever may have been their qualities
tons,
They surely ought to be great scholars,
AS their lowest price per week
Was from eight to forty dollars.
OF course we treated them all politely,
And showed them much attention,
Asked them to stop to dinner
And other things too numerous tOmentiOn
Still the applicants kept coming,
What had we better do,
We cannot hire them ALL
We only wanted two.
So we came to the conclusion,
We would at once decide
Would pick OFT the two best ones
And let the others slide.
But when we come to talk it over,
We did not all agree,
For instead of one committee,
OF us there were three,
We got quite excited,
Came very near getting mad,
When one thOughtfully proposed.
Keep the same teachers we have had.
was new committee,
Had never served before
And thought instead of Old teachers.
We had better have some more.
argued. the old law has been CHI anged,
Our schOOl-building is new,
And to have everything correspond,
We ought to have new teachers too.
That wanted to have good big school,
AS really believe we 'can,
II you VIII Un.y do as 4 say, '.y '"4
And hire good snlCsft man.
But we were all schOOl-cOmmittee,
1t was plain, we could not agree
For two Is more than one,
And of u.s. there were three
Which cannot now be undOne,
IF n cfaQ6 Of fhrnQ MiffQp |