Omaha daily bee., 1895-12-05
IKE BARnooM AND PRIZE RING. d
School Directors Lose Their Dignity
mud Almost CONC to nIONs.

and Almost Come to Blows.
II has bsen many moons since the atmos-
phere Of the bar room and prize ring was
so perceptble in a meeting Of the school
board as II was at a meeting which was held
in Secretary T. c. Dawson's office last night
1t was supposed to be a secret session for
the purpose Of discussing further the matter
Of allowing the supervisors Of music and
drawing to give special instruction to the
teachers outside OF school hours, but the
scheme fell through, so far as the secrecy
was concerned. a newspaper man appeared
on the scene shortly after 1t had COM
merced and found red-hot debate in prog
ress. President Moore and Members Rob
ertson, Snyder, Thomas, Morgan ana Fonda
were present. At the previous meeting of
the board Snyder, Robertson and Morgan
were opposed TO granting the supervisors OF
music and drawing permission to receive
pay for instruction furnished the other teach
ors, while Moore. Thomas and Fonda were
in favor Of 1t. 1t was hoped that by last
evening either Snyder. Robertson or Fonda
would have changed his mind so that the
plan might carry, but they were all on hand
ready for a fight,
Robertson was the pugnacious one OF the
lot He had come loaded for bear, and he
didn't care who knew 1t. Fonda tried to
make a talk on his side Of the question,
but Robertson persisted in interrupting him
dered him to keep still. accused him of not
being a gentleman, and finally threatened to
punch his head IL he did not keep still. And
Robertson talked on. but his conversation was
Of so rambling, disconnected sort that
nothing but a verbatim report would give
any idea OF It..
Rob rtson brought the matter of politics
up, AMI accused the board of being political
machine. President Moore, who is a staunch
democrat brided up at this and remarked,
J',,, h, 80 n1,n,l IN,n, To- Ia
there is no politics. DR.. Robertson, no mat
ter what you are. and I want to say right
here that think 1t disgrace 10 bring poll
tics into It,"
at used to be pretty respectable" was
Robertson's reply, "but it's gettin' disreput-
able lately''
Please keep still few moments" said
Fonda to Robertson; "you ought to be
Ell ough of a gentleman to do that
Yes doctor" said the president, "I'll look
after Mr. Fonda, and If he says anything
out Of the way I'll call him down"
That's all right" said Robertson, "but
l amt a-goln' to take any cracks off Fonda
you are making this a personal matter
Robertson was Fondas reply, land I'll
make 1t that way, too, IL l get started, you
bet"
But Fonda didn't punch anybody, and
finally had to give up the floor to Robertson
simply because he couldn't find a place for
word edgewise.
said Robertson, when he had risen, that I
don't object to the supervisors teaching pri-
vately, you know, but what l object to is
their getting pay for it, you know. When we
hire supervisors Of music and drawing, you
know, and pay 'em as much as we do some
OF the others, you know, we ought not to give
em chance to earn extra pay, you know
AS far az l know there hasn't been a COM
plaint made by any of the teachers because
OF this plan you know, and know I'd have
heard the complaints, you know, because l
know EN- al-danced with a good many of
'em, at private dancing parties, you know"
He rambled on in this interesting way
awhile, and then Director Thomas introduced
a resolution that the supervisors of music and
drawing should be allowed to instruct all
teachers who wished to be instructed, pro-
vided there was no compulsion and no COM
pensation Robertson objected loudly to hav-
ing this even voted upon, because there
amt any dispute over that"
During the discussion Fonda had stated
that one Of this supervisors had come to him
and said that she had never tried to coerce
any of the teachers into going into her class
but had simply sent circulars to the princi-
pals, not to the sub-teachers, announcing the
formation Of the classes and inviting every
one who wanted instruction to join at $3.50
a term. Morgan, on the other hand. stated
just as positively that one of the supervisors
had told him that the new teachers were
given to understand that they were expected
to take the lessons. On account Of this dis
crepancy Fonda made a motion, which was
seconded by Morgan, to adjourn subject to the
call Of the president, and cite the supervisors
to appear before the board and explain away
the discrepancy
II don't want to see EN- said Robertson;
they never came to see me, and haven't
any reason to want to see em now."
But the motion was carried, Moore, Fonda,
Morgan and Snyder voting aye, and Robert
son and Thomas no.
II don't approve of this thing" said
Thomas; Its small piece of business all
the way through, and l think we should have
been men enough to settle it right here
mo, | don't approve of it either seconded
"it's all d-d nonsense. all ID