Evening star., 1894-02-03
AT SCHOOL BEFORE The War
Some Interesting Ante-War Prob
lens in Arithmetic.
DOWN IN NORTH CAROLINA
written for The Evening Star

ieoeracy made in the early sixt,es Th,
ciholng was strong, the cotton back dvaJ
lhe prevalent butternut. The tvne ua,
worn' battered and broken and eviden,l,
'hat used on some daily newspaper. Alto
gether 1t was a miserable little book. anf
yet TO man of forty. who picked Il ur
'he other day, it possessed a wondrou,
cnarm. He lifted it tenderly In his hand,
as monk might some thrice-blessed mis-
sal. he felt OF its wrinkled, dirty leave.
as tenderly as a blind child touches hi,
magic page. He turned its pages eagerly
sometimes reading a sentence aloud. ther
muttering to himself, then shutting tn.
oook and looking its covers over vacant,
as If he had forgotten where he was. Their
he opened and read again, until the payes
and their story melted into a blurred liouid
mass, and the man was crying like a babv
The little book was simply an old arith.
metic, published at Raleigh, N. c.. I'm lss:
py Branson Farrar. and printed at the
oihce OF the Biblical Recorder. The type
on the title page was not artistic, and the
absence of letter in the address of Bran.
son & Farrar, Fayetteville street" sug.
gested that the T box in that particula,
font had been run low by the blockade
The editor was Il. johnson, A NJ. Pro.
fessor of Mathematics in Trinity College -
and in his preface he said: "The great de-
mand for books at this time of an elemen.
tary character in the southern confederacy
has called forth this little volume Moth.
ing new or original had been attempted The
compass Of the work is such that 1t can
be thoroughly learned by the youth OF
either sex, before their presence at home
or the demands Of their country debar
them the privilege Of attendance a,
school,"
The author plunged resolutely into his
work with this puzzling problem: How
many thumbs have You on your right
hand?' And after ascertaining how many
thumbs you had on both hands proceed
ed to have William give James two more
apples in addition to the one he already
had He then expresses a sense of curios-
ity as to precisely how many apples James
had in all. a curiosity which in all prob
ability some bright-eyed little confederate
satisfied thirty years ago.
Warlike Problems.
There runs through the book a warlike
rndertone, that lie the long roll, aroused
many a boy to thoughts of the field, of
arms and battle.
Five soldiers are in one teat and ten in
al other. How many soldiers are there in
both?"
Ninety soldiers are in one company and
twenty in another. How many soldiers are
''Twenty-eight men were sent out on
picket duty, four I'm a company. How many
companies Were there?'
A captain of cavalry paid 800 for a
horse and S1OO more for a pistol How
many dollars did both cost him?''
"A company of 100 men went into an en-
gagement where 50 were killed. How many
We're left?'
The mind Of L. johnson. professor of
mathematics in Trinity College. was eyi-
IDENTIFY far away when he wrote this little
book. He saw brave men charging in line
OF battle. or pacing up and down on sentry
duty in the cold and darkness of a winter
right. Perhaps he fancied himself a can
tam OF cavalry riding a 500 horse with a
SlOo pistol in his holster Perhaps. too he
would have been a captain but for the
necessary 500 representing horse and mis-
tol, without which he could not go TO hat
tie. 1t may be he saw himself sleeping ten
in tent and discretion modified his alor
or did he think of the company of twenty
men and speculate whether he would be
one OF the twenty or of the forty or fifty
others lying buried pell nell in a ditch al
Manassas or Antietam? He nevertheless
put such stirring numbers as the following
in the heads of his pupils and taught them
TO be patriots. as well as mathematicians:
IF one confederate soldier kill ninety
yankees, how many yankees can ten con-
federate soldiers kill?'
He meant no offense by spelling Yankee
with little Y. He probably had no other.
He likewise spelled confederate with a
lower-case {, doubtless for the same rea-
son.
Again. further on to illustrate the process
or division, he asks: IF one confederate
soldier can whip seven yankees how MANY
soldiers can whip forty-nine yankees?''
In another place Mr.. johnson records a
remarkable instance Of good luck: "A con-
feoerate soldier captured eight yankees
each day for nine successive DAYS. How
many did he capture in alp
Seven confederate soldiers captured
twenty-one yankees and divided them
one have?'
This sounds as If the Yankees were eaten
up alive, and as the author does not eluci-
date his fearful statement, his scholars
will probably go down to their graves with
this impression firmly fixed in their minds
The commissary features of war were
not ignored in the work of Mr. johnson
of Trinity College. He says in one place:
beef in a week. how many pounds will 115
soldiers eat in a week. At the time the
book was printed this problem was rather
apocryphal. II the thirty-two soldiers were
satisfied that they would not eat one pound
of beef in S96 weeks. One hundred and
seventy-fve confederate soldiers would only
have multiplied the weeks and Increased
the uncertainty to the beef.
Supplies.
The cost OF supplies for the army is
thought of.
AT SO a pound how much coffee can YOU
buy for SOP
AT $40 bushel how much wheat can YOU
buy for SS0?''
If eleven ouires Of paper cost So, what
is the cost of one quire?"
III one bushel Of potatoes cost 81, how
many can you buy for $4S?"
How many hats can You buy for slOs. If
one hat costs s12?"
1.-The sum of s1O5, 900 is paid to an army of
1900 men; what does each receiyey''
IF a trader makes 40 cents a pound ON
every pound OF butter he sells, how much
will he make on eight pounds? ?'
a local flavor pervades the book In one
place Lemuel goes out and gets sixteen
In another a boy reads eighty
pages in the North Carolina Reader and
seventy pages in Our Own Reader and the
whole school is put to the trouble of estt-
mating how many pages he has read in all.
Peola, on page &c. buys eight crackers and
sells them to a company of boys selling two
to each boy. The problem is to tell how
many boys there were in this COMPANY TO
which Peola sold his or her crackers. The
answer is not given. All through the book
are hickory nuts, walnuts, apples peaches.
pears, oranges. melons and other good
things capable of addition, division and
silence.
Financial.
The author tells US. on page l21. that