The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1893-02-16
SCHOOLS FOR COUNTRY PEOPLE.
The Necessity for Better Educational
Facilities for the Masses
Correspondence Of The Sentinel.1

Correspondence of The Sentinel
WEAvERvILLE. n. c., Feb. 13.-The
Southern half of our great union has
now perfect swell of prosperity; the
rage for Office, money and social prom
inence has never been so great, and
the danger is that the educational in
terests of our masses may be over
looked. Truly. politicians, as well as
preachers, occasionally pour out
streams Of eloquence about .'higher
education" what clod-hopper knows
what it means p while a large ma
Jority of our population have &c con-
tent themselves with the meagre pro-
visions of district schools. We appre-
ciate the gallantry of the State in
providing a system that is so much
better than nothing, while every OBJ
server must know that these schools
can never prepare the rising thou
sands for usefulness and happiness.
The commendable zeal for endowing
and constructing colleges in our lead
ing towns and cities, provides very
poorly for our teeming thousands who
are unable to foot the expenses of a
first-claSS institution in fashionable
city. and therefore are doomed to Sc
clusiou, toll and comparative igno-
rance of the great world around them.
If country people can't afford a fancy
| college, why not have plain one?
They might dispense with much of
the usual ornamentation and yet have
all the usual studies inculcated. What
advantage will boy, fresh from the
pillow handles, realize in walking. on
BRUSSELS carpets on the floor of the
halls, or by tenderly turning aside the
DamaSk curtains to look through the
~ 10
or even a dense neighborhOOd of
thrifty planters, erect plain wooden
| buildings sufficient to accommodate
| two hundred pupils? and why cannot
| a qualified man be hired for president
| for less than $4,000 for ten months?
| Why, a thousand good men could be
| hired for $500 for ten months: three
subordinate professors at correspond
| ing low figures: and if the girls want
| to come, a music teacher can be had
| for $3.50. Here now is a common
| sense college that does the work. and
pays out nothing for display. What
made the General Assembly put the
| University of the State in the woods?
| Simply because God made the woods
| and men made the towns.
Suppose the tax payers of single
| township, say 400 men, meet and agree
| to construct suitable buildings, elect
| their board of trustees, and start a
| College or Academy" like Salem did
and it has done more for North Caro-
lima than any two colleges in the
| State)-theres little in name-how
| long before the real estate around it
will have risen in value so as to more
than pay them for their expenditure
and trouble. And a College or High
| School may be run and grow in pat
ronage and usefulness upon self-sup-
| porting basis. There are 500 or more
| such institutions now in useful opera
! tion in the United States. And let
| North Carolina, instead of waiting
| for some rich man to die and leave a
pile of endowment" money, and
| build hundred cheap colleges. No
need of charter from the State:
don't want to issue diplomas or "de-
| grees"-too many of them out now.
The young people want peep at the
literary world, and they ought to
| have it; and the thing will do them
very well, without any display.
J. w. V.