The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-03-31
FRESH WATER COLLEGES.

A Bostonian Defends Western Educators
Against Imputed vagariss Ut speech.
IL tho author Of Ezra Hardman, M.
A." In March Scribnor's. had given an au-
thor's reading Of this story before the
school suporintendents OF tho nation at
their recent meeting In Boston he might
have hea.d something to his advantage.
says the Boston Transcript. or possibly IL
would have been moro to his adva ntage II
he had sat and listened to the suYorin-
tendents instead. He would have realized
that II ID an inaccurate diet that lie puts
into the mouth OF his crude western np-
plicant for the degree OF Phi. d. There ID
no doubt that every college and every
university. whether In Wisconsin or In
Cambridge. receives students who speak
English of queer devintions from purity,
but the dialect spoken by tho
writer's weaterner ia wholly unknown
on Wisconsin farms and is not in the
slightest degree typical Of the language
OF a postgraduate student who has been
for ten years u professor in the western col
lege which graduated him. Ez a Hardman
leaves 'Wsyback," the "smail college
In southern Wisconsin (possibly tho uni
ysrsity At Madison praised by Charles
his sheepskin'' and goes to Max"e.l, NY.
POSSIBLY to Cornell2) to study for tho de-
gree Of Phi. D.. Now 1t would be impossi-
BILE to find any westerners who had noe on
joyed the advantages of education speaking
the dialect OF some New England farm SO
remote that it is never reached by cultiva-
ting influences like Scribner's Magazine
land the March number. by the way. 10 in
the main q charming one. az We have al
ready occasion to note In theso colunns).
Ezra Hardman, who has long been profess
---t- - ~. uNN.~LnnIr ? oA.o 81, a.
fellow student at MAXWELL Of the pro-
fessors-
''They kinder seem Z set on me. You
heard him lay out my report, an ! guess
he's tryin' q lay mo out, too. He's give me
some moe French books d read foc Exam
%ination. French amt easy for me. They
didn't use = make much Of it Waybnck.
where I was learnt, and it comes like
DRAWN teeth q me now"
This sounds extremely little like the Ian
guage of the western school superinten-
dents who were here. And it is not the
language of western farmers. They have
their bury RS and other p%eculia. tiles of
they say kind uh," not "kinder." But
this author shows scarcely more enliRhten-
ment concerning tho SOFT of language TO be
expected from the professors at Maxwell"
recognized specielists' with "keen. well
trained intel!ects" who Understood. per-
uhRb " @ Gluu VACy AGAA ~ 80
Of the university in their keeping"
One of these men gays of Hardman.
II must sny frankly that l cannot consent
70 recommending him for the degree" Now
sastorn college professors Of assured posi-
tion and broad culture may and often do
permit themselves pleasant personal liber-
Ties with lenses or cases. blu your genuine
woste n "educatots" arc almost painfully
conscious of their gram mars, and they are
very likely to be too emphatic in their cnre
concerning the pronunciation OF mnny
words. They are religiously exact with the
ZOO, in almost every "fresh-water" college
in America there il at least one professor
from New England whose authority is
made the final reference in matters of
English speech and usage. whose deli
cately slurred RS, Italian as, n gram
NAUTICAL acouFacy are considered the stand
ard OF tho best speakers" Many such
men are personally known to all who know
their west we'll. You will find a Harvard
M. A. teaching Greek in one of these col
leees; a Yale M. A. teaching biology in an
other; the president of Wisconsin univer-
sity has n New England name. and he has
both degrees NJ. A.. and Phi. D.; there are
nearly a thousand students in various de-
partments at Madison. OF course. the
author of EZRA Hardman" did not intend
TO stir up a discussion OF western educa'
tion. He has certainly limned a pathetic
BtOEys anu No buoWb power II ulIecteu u
truthful portraituro. II he had had more
knowledge OF his subject. he would, doubt
less. nave made a sketch truer to life and tc
probability. Instead his tale must inevita-
bly, suggest to all who know and appreciate
the present condition of education in the
middle west reflections like those inspired
by the following true story: In a certain
largo western university there is q pro-
fessor. New ENGLAND born md bred. whose
authority in English is supreme in the
institution. His indsfatigable efforts to
teach his prairie students tho beauties of
good English are appreciated; but students
tell sub rosa of a day long ago when the
professor. recently arrived from Boston.
was overheard ohastising his young Son,
who cried aloud as his father spared not.
And the rumor went abroad that the boy
had been swearing with a fat a." in the
prairie fashion, and the professor. deter
mined to keep the Boston standard high,
was applying the rod until his son should
pronounce the single-syllabled expletlve Of
common use with short italian.
t. &. ook xsybo< iks vro-~;atrv, cav INIT rphok