The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-03-30

one not likely to be sought except by q
man who had genuine need of the little
profit that was to be gained By it, cs-
pecially since the big boys had the
habit, common in many a New En-
gland school of the time, of standing
the master on his head in . snowdrift
about the second or third day of his in
cumbency.
In this particular school. and in this
particular winter, three or four mas
tiers had been served IL this way, and
the place was vacant 70 tie fourth or
fifth time. Then one OF the trustees
bethought him Of a youn- kinsman OF
his own who was in college = few
miles away at Watervillc. and who he
thought would do for the place The
reason why he thought he would do
was that he was small. slight. frail-
looking boy. and he believed that the
ruffians OF the school would be ashamed
to offer violence to one of his stature.
The young man was sent for, the plaSe
was offered to him. he was warne / of
the dangers, he disregarded them and
he took it. His name was Ben ia ain
Butler.
On the first morning when he entered
the schoolhouse he made little speech
IN regard to the discipline which he
proposed to maintain, and he accom-
panied the speech by terrible look.
cast in some direction or other, but in
what direction nobody could ever with
certainty find out As soon as the BOYS
had chance to compare notes on the
subject every boy declared that the
master was looking straight at him.
The disagreement was caused By a we'll
known visual defect in the master HIM
self. Butler was n good teacher of
everything but arithmetic, and of that
he seemed to know nothing whatever.
1t was the custom for each pupil to
''cipher through the book for himself,
doing every problem and troubling the
schooi-master only when he needed
help on a peculiarly hard one When
a problem was brought to Butler for IN
explanation he was perfectly helpless,
but the trustee who was so happily relat-
ed to him was most expert in mathemat-
les, SO Butler would put off the pupil
who questioned him, saying: II am
busy; | can't attend to it now: come to
me in the morning and / will explain it
to you," and then in the evening he
would call on the trustee and ask for
solution of the problem. He would get
most extensive and elaborate one,
and at the end he would know just as
much about the problem as he did be-
fore, but he had marvellous memory,
and he would commit TO it every word
and every figure of the explanation,
and the next morning he would deal it
out like clockwork to the puzzled pupil
and get the credit of most lucid I'M
folding of the problem.
For few days Buffers stature pro-
tected him against the rufsianly ten
denotes of the big boys but they be-
came impatient and decided at last
that the new master would have to go
into a snowdrift, like the others. They
formed their conspiracy and set cer-
tain morning for the execution of their
purposes. But the big girls were on
the masters side, and one of them
overheard the plan as it was dis
cussed by her brother and others. and
she determined to warn the master.
She dared not be seen talking with him,
last she should be charged with trea-
son BY her brother. but she passed Mr.
Butler on the road as both were going
home from school. and without turning
her head she said: II wouldn't come
to school tomorrow If ] were you. Mr..
Butler; the boys are going to put You
in q snowdrift." To this Butler re-
piled, also without turning his head:
Don't be afraid; they won't put me in
. snowdrift."
The next morning the whole school
was eager to see what was to be done
and what show of resistance the mas
ter would make, il, indeed, he should
dare TO make any. He entered in the
midst of dead silence. He took off
his overcoat and hung 1t on the peg be-
hind the desk Then he seemed about
to sit down at his desk as usual, but
suddenly went back to where his ever
coat hung, rs If he had forgotten
he reached up to the
breast pocket of the over
coat. took out huge pistol and put it
in to the inside breast pocket of his I'M
dercoat; then he reached up to the
left-hand breast pocket OF the over
coat, took out another huge pistol and
put IL INTO the inside breast pocket of
his undercoat. The silence deepened
yet more, the master sat down At his
desk and the exercises of the school
went on as usual. There was not an
other murmur of rebellion that winter.
Butler said afterward that he could
scarcely keep from laughing while he
handled the pistols, because they were
a pair which he had played with when
he visited his uncle in the town as
boy: he had loaded them with ashes
then and they had never been unloaded
since. When be heard of his danger he
went and borrowed them, trusting that
they would protect him as well as a
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