Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1893-08-23
BUTLER AS A SCHOOLMASTER.
Why the Boys Did Not Throw Him Into q
Snowdrift.

L
remember Benjamin T. Butler as a sol
der, as a lawyer, as politician, as a
yachtsman, and there are a few who
remember him as schoolmaster. The
writer is not prepared to say how many
times or in how many places Ben"
Butler taught school, but he certainly
did teach school once in a little town
in Maine, and he made an impression
on the minds of some of his pupils
1t was one of the good old-fashioned
country schools which gathered to-
gether for few weeks in the winter
the half-grown men who worked on
the farms in the summer, the little
children and the big girls, and tried to
drive into their heads and rivet there
some scraps of intelligence such as
might seem adapted to the in
dividuals, without any thought
of classification of intellects The
place of master in such a school was
one not likely to be sought except by
man who had genuine need of the little
profit that was to be gained by it, es-
pecially since the big boys had the
habit, common in many 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
ters had been served in this way, and
the place was vacant for the fourth or
fifth time. Then one of the trustees
bethought him of a young kinsman of
ia nyxv hn
miles away at Waterville, 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
rutfians of the school would be ashamed
to offer violence to one of his stature
The young man was sent for, the place
was offered to him, be was warned of
the dangers, he disregarded them and
he took it. His name was BENJAMIN
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 bows
had chance to compare notes on the
subject every boy declared that the
master was looking straight at him
The disagreement was caused by we'll
known visual defect in the master him
self. Butler was a 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
school-master only when he needed
help on a peculiarly hard one. When
problem was brought to Butler for an
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: Il am
busy; [ can't attend to it now; come to
me in the morning and l will explain it
to you," and then in the evening he
would call on the trustee and ask for a
solution of the problem. He would get
a 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 a 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 un-
folding of the problem
For few days Buffers stature pro-
tected him against the ruffianly ten
dc, Of no hi
came impatient and decided at last
that the new master would have to go
into snowdrift, like the others They
formed their conspiracy and set GER
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: 81 wouldn't come
to school tomorrow if / were you, Mr..
Butler; the boys are going to put you
piled, also without turning his head:
Don't be afraid they won't put me in
a 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, if, indeed he should
dare to make any. He entered ia the
midst of dead silence. He took off
his overcoat and hung it on the peg be-
hind the desk. Then he seemed about
10 sit down at his desk as usual, but
suddenly went back to where his over
coat hung, as if he had forgotten
something. He reached up to the
right-hand breast pocket of the over
coat, took out huge pistol and put it
into the inside breast pocket of his I'M
dercoat; then he reached up to the
left-kand breast pocket of the over
coat, took out another huge pistol and
put it into the inside breast pocket of
his undercoat. The silence deepened