Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-01-17
BENZ BUTLER As A scHooLMAsrER,
why the Big Boys Did Not Throw Him
Into . Snowdrift.

"BEN" BUTLER AS A sCHOOLMASTER.
Why the Big Boys Did Not Throw Him
Into . Snowdrift.
From the New York Tribune.
When q man dies everybody who ever knew
him begins to remember everything that he
ever know about him. There are many people
just now who remember Benjamin F. Butler as
soldier, as . lawyer, as a politician, as a
yachtsrnar, and there are q few who remember
him as q schoolmaster. The writer is not pre-
pared to say how many times or in how many
places "Bcn" Butler taught school. but he GER
tainly 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 together 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 rs might seem adapted to the
individuals, without any thought OF classical
ton 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, especially
since the big bows had the habit, common in
many a New England school of the time. of
standing the master on his head in a snowdrift
about the second or third day of his incum-
bency.
In this particular school and in this particu-
lar winter three or four masters 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 young kinsman Of his own
who was in a college few miles away at Water
vile and who he thought would do for the
place. The reason why he thought he would do
was that he was a small, slight frail-looking
boy, and he believed that the ruffians of the
school would be ashamed 10 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 dsregarded them and he
took it. His name was Benjamin Butler.
On the first morning when he entered the
school house he made little speech in regard
to the discipline which he proposed to main
tain, and he accompanied the speech by terri
BILE look. cast in some direction or other, but in
what direction nobody could ever with GER
tainfy find out. As soon as the boys had a
chance to compare notes on the subject every
boy declared that the master was looking
straight at him. This disagreement was caused
by a well-known visual defect in the master
himself. Butler was good teacher Of every
thing but arithmetic. and of that he seemed to
tom 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 pecu-
liarly hard one When problem was brought
to Butler for an explanation he was perfectly
helpless, but the trustee who was so happily
related to him was most expert in mathematics,
80 Butler would put of the pupil who ques-
toned hil saying: ~ am busy; can't attend
to 1t 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 a sou-
ton OF the problem. He would get a most ex-
tensive and elaborate one and at the end he
would know just as much about the problem as
he did before, 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 ont like clockwork to
the puzzled pupil and get the credit of a most
lucid unfolding of the problem.
For few DAYS Buffers stature protected him
against the ruffianly tendencies of the big bows,
but they became 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 certain morning for the
execution of their purposes. But the big girls
were on the masters side. and one of them over
heard the plan as it was discussed by her brother
and others and she determined to warn the
master She dared not be seen talking with
him, lest she should be charged with treason bv
her brother. but she passed Mr.. Butler on the
road a. both we're going home from school. and
without turning her head she said: II wouldn't
come to school tomorrow il l were you. Mr.
Butler; the boys are going to put YOU in a snow
drift" TO this Butler replied. also without
turning his head: Don't be afraid: they won
put me in a snpwdrift.'
The next morning the whole school was eager
to see what was to be done and what show of
resistance the master would make. if. indeed.
he should dare to make any. He entered in the
midst OF dead silence. He took off his over
coat and hung it on the peg behind the desk.
Thenhe seemed about to sit down at his desk.
as usual. but suddenly he went back to where
his overcoat hung. as if he had forgotten some
thing. He reached up 10 the right-hand breast
pocket Of the overcoat, took cut huge pistol
and put it into the inside breast pocket Of his
under coat. Then he reached up to the left
hand breast pocket of the overcoat. took ont
another huge pistol and put it into the inside
breast pocket Of his under coat. The silence
deepened yet more, the master sat down at his
desk and the exercises of the school weet on,
as usual There was not another murmur of
rebellion that winter.
Butler said afterward that he could scarcely
keep from laughing while he handled the pis-
tolls, because they were 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 uuloaded since
When he heard OF his danger he went and bor-
rowed them, trusting that they would protect
him as well rs q battery.