The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1893-11-25
Address of Prof. Israel Smith.

lue IOilOWlnR duureSS Oh u Otlsut COL
ored native OF Grant parish, delivered at
the colored teachers association at Alex
andria, Nov. Sd and Attn, 1893, is publish
ed by request, and as q compliment and
encouragement to the colored people:
Ladies and Gentlemen-It Is with more
than pleasure that l appear among you
to-day for the purpose of discussing the
methods Of teaching different branches
of the text books now used in our pub
lie schools.
Fellow Teachers, it is with great pleas
ure l appear among you after long alb
sence, during which time nothing which
has been associated with my boyhood
and early manhood. my success or fail
ures, has been forgotten. Everything is
written ON the vanished years, and l go
back to my boyhood and remember the
golden sands along the shores of yonder
river, its limpid waters, the mellow suns
and laughing moons that lighted boyish
sports And as years have rolled by with
gentle haste on Times plumed wing, my
love and affection for this locality has m
creased. To me it is the brightest spot
in Louisiana. Here the springs and sum-
mers bloom with fresher verdure, and
autumns fade with grander colors, the
waters sparkle with greater brilliancy,
the SUN rises with greater splendor, and
at his setting unequaled beauty rests his
crimson car on the brow OF night. And
you, fellow teachers and patrons, are
people bound to me in ties beyond all
others, for how often have / met with
your kind encouragement, enjoyed your
hospitality and received your applause!
Here have been my Idols, which memory
holds with sweet caresses, the electric
fire, the lighting along the wire of all my
ambitious hopes. In all OF these memo
ries, one by one attuned to harmony in
the quiet evening twilight, comes music
sweeter than all earthly sounds, ripping
with enraptured melodies over the soul,
irresistably directing my thoughts and
affections to this, my native State.
But, while my affections first center
around my home, they go out and en-
brace the whole of Louisiana her great
fields OF waving cane and golden grain,
her vast forests aud prairies, her flowers
and bright waters, her hills and valleys,
and fruits tit to grow on the Hesperian
tree. Is there q son of Louisiana who
has ever been abroad and felt the warm
breath of the South upon his cheek, who
did not feel desire to hasten back to bis
native State to inhale once more the fra
grant orange and magnolia,an look again
upon thu beauty Of her landscape?
Fellow teachers, with sucn State
claiming our devotion, what do we owe
To her children 10 educate them to be
good and useful citizens; to love their
State; to exercise the duties of citizen.
ship with intelligence and fidelity; to
place them beyond the possibilities Of
faiiure by making them competent ar
lists and artisans, engineers and profess
sionai men, laborers and mechanics, with
such moral training that they will not
be pensioners npon the worlds bounty.
Let them learn that man must win his
bread in the sweat of his face, and that
from mans first disobedience aud his fall
this has been his doom and burden.
Fellow teachers. side by side the me-
chanics the lawyer, the laborer, the theo-
Logan and teacher, should struggle for
knowledge, gaining from each other use
full lessons for his or her eninence in the
economy of the world. Dignity labor
and make II honorable in every walk Of
life by educating your children at an
early age to an appreciation of its worth
ind nobility, so that with willing hearts
they can CLEAN in the rich harvest of the
earth, ana look upon their occupation in
life as blessing and not as a heritage of
pain. Teach that the honors and profits
in life follow the. industrious brain and
the strained muscle, and that while ge-
MUS may smile and. awaken into beauty
the day dream, yet success will not fol-
low its creative fancy without labor I'M
ceasingly and unremittingly applied; that
genius born may grovel in the DUST but
genius made will mount to the skies.
Fellow teachers, with such useful
knowledge in our fair State of Louisiana,
our brothers in white who are intelligent
will certainly appreciate our calling.
Fellow patrons, Addison's definition is
no longer applicable. 1t is no longer
confined to the construction of the cour-
tier or the literary gentleman, the shap-
ing and polishing into a smooth surface
the rough marble. We want to preserve
the rugged outlines of the granite and
give the angles such force that they will
cut through the obstacles in life, from
every nugget forge glowing light bright
as the genius of Burnett, in the hum of
every workshop words as sagacious as the
practical wisdom Of Franklin, and in the
fields rhythm sweet as the songs of
Burnes, as the laborer joyfully drives his
pillow over the furrowed land.
What / have said on education is APP
plicable to both sexes. knowledge is no
longer the prerogative OF man. Modern
progress and liberal thought are too pow.
erful to be inclosed in the armor OF sex.
Woman has from the earliest age exercis-
ed her power with influence as the breath
from the seraph's wing that famed the
cheeks of Eve in her first sleep, and as
bright as the sunbeam that played among
her tresses when she sang her matin
hymn. She has been worshiped as d.
vinity for the great and good deeds she
has done.
When David, King Of Israel, in great
strait, and overwhelmed with impending
punishments for his sins, was offered
three ways OF retribution and escape, he
chose to throw himself into the hands of