Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1891-04-02
AROUND THE EDGES.

A paragraph in this column several weeks
since and commented on rather radically in
last weeks impression of contemporaneous
sheet under the signature of "Dorthea Ann u
certainly was read by that lady through
spectacles of vindictiveness and prejudice.
That friends of this paper may not be led in
10 the erroneous construction, and with q
view of vindication, please tarry, gentle
reader, with me, few lines of explanation.
sss
1t is fact we'll known and substantiated-
for received it from the fountains head"
that in many rural districts in this and other
counties, directors actually hire teachers in
the same way a contract for wood. etc., is
made, viz several who have pedagogic as
pirations meet with the board and verbally
bid for the place, not being limited to one
bid. As a natural sequence the second un-
derbids the first and the third the second.
Coming back to the first. the wages are chop
ped down to sill smaller proportions, and so
on, until when the contract is at last closed,
the one to whom it is awarded works for a
salary which capable teacher would spurn.
ness are not teachers, and nine times out of
ten their worth in the profession to which
they claim membership is commensurate
with the salary stipulated, small as it is.
This class consists of graduates from, or
schools with standard on a par with, ou r
grammar department, who desire to ''try
their hand" Also of those who have had
several years experience and are content
with their progress, although at the end of
oh N. kha;v laA ~ nalIoH xxyac
known to be dismal failure. They desire
not to excel. They know not the RESPONSE
bility of their position. Migrating to the
county seat yearly, by dint of cheating and
other dishonesty, they secure certificate for
the minimum time Zone year, and return to,
as before said, ''enter aschoolroom to slaugh-
ter the youthful intellect" t"-top pose before the
coming generations as ideals!
1t was to this class, and this alone, that
the paragraph in question had reference.
-
Experience teaches dear school but fools
will learn in no other" Dorothea quotes, for
getting, or ignoring the fact, that many of
our greatest men have used the same quota
ton substituting ''wise men" for that ele-
CANT and lofty word, "fool." As quoted by
my incensed friend, this practical side of the
Atlantic has no use. It is the veriest of fal-
lacy.
That "odious paragraph" WAS suggested by
experience with the class to which it re-
ferred. But short time before brace OF
these precious school teachers (?) came
asked that the examination questions be
smuggled into their possession
~
That Napoleon is happy in the possession
of, with bat few exceptions, an able and
comnaendable corps of subordinate teachers
can not be denied. That this excellent stan
dard was obtained by shear labor and sell
denial is elso incontrovertlble. The last lines
of the squib. 20 viciously attacked by D. A.
read:
Napoleon may we'll congratulate herself that itt
present corps Of teachers realizes the value Of
study even after certitit tie has been gained
and how with any congruity, it could be con-
strued as it was, is an enigma.
@%@
Readers care not for the private affairs Of
any individual and it is with exceed ding re-
luctance that / refute any of the despicable
personal attacks upon myself by this lddg
(oh, misapplied wordQ: That lost my posi-
tioG as teacher in the Union Schools is de.
liberate falsehood, and she or he who assert
ed such knows full well it to 40 be. The unani
nous support of the board was mine-the
position was given up on account of made
quate compensation--all of which unjust
Dorothea is cogniZant AID which the board
will verify.
a ~
nom de plume is fortress, to him be.
hind it, as impregnable as the world-kn owr
Gibralter, so long as the writer remains in
cognito, but if Dorothea is basking in the
sunshine of belief that around her fairy con-
tour is wrapped this cloak of safe but cow.
ardly concealment, let such comforting be-
lief "melt, thaw and dissolve itself into dew
Dorothea; we know you. We know your
long lire of ancestors-also are we perfectly
familiar with the whole family of skeletons
confined within that proverbial closet, bnt il
will not be this paper that will officiate as 9
key to set them free to roam about the com,
munity and gain flesh. Personal abuse is not
journalism neither is it argument in
stead is it boomerang and SO regarded by
those not members of the cattle strata.
have known lawyers just entering the pro
fession to devote their time and energy il
abusing the opposition and his client. I havt
also known indignant judges to take this
manner of argument into weighty considera
tion before giving decisions or passing sen
tence, and often does the client suffer for hi
counsel's mistaken idea of what constitutes
real lawyer.
They say that happiness lives in the light
of the future; attack the present-she defes
you; darken the future-and you destroy her
We have long admired those delicate flowers
known as "dog fennel' and ''stink weed'',
and since the facile pen of a schoolmarm
insinuated that these hot-house plants, sc
aesthetically named, will never "do we'll
above our last resting place, the future looks
black-happiness has made an assignment
with no assets.
JAvERT JR.