Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-21
THE OLD Log sCHooLHoUsE.
twn1rrrx ron THE prsrAroH.l /

WRITTEN FOR THE DrspArcH.t
Fond memories 60 back to little, old
| log schoolh ouse on the border of a wood
located on the side of country road, and
| another, q small unpainted frame, near what
! was then village but what is now thriv-
| ing, prosperous city. In the lapse of 30
years what changes have comel But those
| old-time school-houses have vanished, the
| teachers have long since laid down the
fefrule and the birch and most OF them,
"s1eep the sleep that knows not waking
| The girls with their sweet young faces, are
| girls no more, though others with forms as
| fair, with cheeks as red and eyes as bright,
have taken their places; and the boys, as
they occasionally show up, how changed
| they are.
Changed? Yes, all Of them, and not a few
| only, have names on craven stone, telling
the passer-by the old, old story, of having
lived and that they now live no more. And
some are sleeping where no man knoweth;
resting beneath the cypress, in far OF fields
where surged the martial fray and rolled the
crimson tide ofvalor some, where the marsh
| reeds quiver," but all so silently sleeping,
only awaiting the archangel's triumph.
A Picture the Elders Will Recognise.
But no palatial cdifice can evoke more
tender recollections, nothing can more en-
twine into kind remembrance, than those
little. plain, unpretentious, but honest and
,welimsanipg common non schoolnouses sn Of the tn
terfors, long, slanting desks against the
walls and long benches; somewhat uncouth
perhaps, and not over educated, were the
teachers, "the jolly old pedagogues long
ago." but still there was a heartiness and a
wholesomeness, and the very atmosphere
was bracinz and every urchin felt elated
1t is true, the modern ornateness was lack
ing; those who drank from the fountains of
knowledge in those days did not stagger
the day OF mental examining had not lot vet ~ SET
in, there were no Examination days. to
show of glittering surface tinsel to school
what wrestling with the spelling book and
readers, and what Goliath in learning was
he that had vanquished the "single rule of
three" It seemed so surprising that SO
Grammar? There still comes an echo
something like this:
Indicative mode, present tense, first per-
son love, second person you love, third
person he, she or it loves etc., etc, with the
other properties and forms of lenses, and
grimaces, for the science of the thing was as
logarithms to them, but the verb in the
case was beginning to unfold its defn-
ition.
Glory Of the Old Day Scholars.
There were two great pinnacles of am
bition, one, to write as good hand as the
master, the other, to be the best speller.
The fntricacies of English orthography are
such that ready and correct spelling is SIM
ply matter of prodigious memorizing,
there being an absolute lack Of reason,
order, method, sense, proprfety, precedent
or justification in the orthographical cast Of
the letters that form multitudes of words
and which, once authorized it seems, have
to be endured. But, there were those who
got the ways Of these words packed away in
fnar t,a1 Ia
who in a duel of orthography, could "stand
up" after whole battalions were downed.
But the great function of the common
is there that are imbfbed the first grand
lessons in true republicanism, there it is
that is laid. par excellence, the true founda-
meeting on common level, that wiping ont
of all petty cannish distinctions, all rank
save that of clean-cut inherent merit; that
common jostls and common hustle, and
polishing of of prOtruding angularities, this
is the supreme condition for practical
citizenship in a representative government.
In the common school are learned grand
lessons in liberation. forDearanoe, equality
and homogeneity. Here may meet Jew and
Gentle, rich and poor, dull and bright and
learn tnat to be simply an honorable, in
telligent American citizen, upright, moral,
cultured. is enough; is to be the peer OF any
people anywhere on the earth.
What the School Has Undertaken.
The common school proposes to deal with
the entire weight of the whole rising genera
tion. 1t proposes to elevate the entire men,
tai avoirdupois to n higher horizon-think
of It'll What q grand, what a stupendous
conception! Does the process seem slow?
Certainly. One may not see the motion Of
the glacier, as that OF a snowflake, and yet.
when we measure and compare their relative
movement, how superlatively greater is the
former.
Our wise and grandlv far-seeing forefath-
ers declared and committed themselves and
their all to the great proposition that &c ov-
consent of the governed" How necessary,
then, that the governed should be intellf-
gent, that they may delegate their "con-
people, by the people and for the people can
long endure that does not look care fully to
the welfare OF all the people. It Is the only
the one ana scSoa Sny al a o
the children OF toll, OF narrow means,
the humble, the barefoot boys and girls
all these are hidden to come to take an equal
chance to aims in life, to that goal to which
leads no royal road, but which must be ap-
preached by rendering an exact measure OF
mental effort for each gain that Is made,
avail, where the treasure can only be
secured by the digger, and where no dele
gate can gain admission.
A Foundation Not to Be Shaken.
Tempests may come to shake and rock,
foes may assail, but SO long as lives In the
American heart one spark Of the love Of
liberty and equality, so long the common
schooi-the jeweled star in the galaxy Of
American institutions will be safe.
Then prosperity and perpetual youth, to
the common school, the peoples sch ool, the
great lever that lifts the grand total Of all
the weight of the whole body polite, that
gives to the numblest child the same oppor-
Sunfty as any other. that takes the human
product of many clfmes, OF varied races and
diverse faiths and molds them into homo
geneous mass, broadens them, expands
them, transforms them, eradicates all mar
their feet In q newer, nobler and higher
life May this grand agency then
live, the proud pillar of the Republic and
NAV the starry flag that waves over its roofs
be maintained and sustained long as the con-
stellations these stars typify remain to gilt
ter in the heavens.
My alma mater, grand and great,
Hold to the breeze this snowy sail