The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-03-17

mt that SHE lS HOW SeluOm SPOKEN III saw
as poor and weak. More and more, it
seems to me, are we inclined to offer these
Influences in excuse of our misdoings, and
less and less grows the sense OF individual
responsibility. We should make a dete--
mined stand against these tendencies. and
remember that in the same connection the
prophet says that every one shall die for
his own iniquity, and every man that eat
eth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set
Just now, when we street-bred people are
running to and fro, trying to get our cult
being a great deal said and written on the
interesting and somewhat important subject
OF education, and by education is meant
under discussion, from the free kindergar-
ten to the university extension course. Ev-
cry segment of society, from the submerged
in every possible educational aspect. I'm
der all this smoke of discussion there must
argues a great educational awakening and
denotes a determined and de-
II not the royal, road to learning, over
which every one may, and some contend
every one must, pass. Inc constant dis
crssion brings continual change in our sys-
tenn of education. The schoolboy of yes
terday, would scarcely know the schoolroom
of to-day. / remember a well-meaning old
gentleman, under whose unsteady aim my
young ideas were taught to shoot, and gem
orally miss. | can see him now, standing
IKE some great giant of the woods, gnarled
and twisted, yet .erect-a thing of bones
and bunions, his long arm stretching out
Z you a. nduQ Oh which every knuCklG was
a knot, around his high, retreating fore
head the scanty hair, like withered leaves,
rustled in disorder; between his kindly eyes,
ever striving to look stern, a high-backed
nose was proudly set, and on it's bony ridge,
in digniied repose, his massive silver spec
tacles were placed, and around them his
cleanly-shaven face, marked with the strong
lines of life, was brought into high light by
MS brightly polished black suit, of awk-
this primeval pedagogue, a victim of the
new training school for teachers, gone with
the birch rod and the spelling class. gone
to meet the writing master and his copy
book, the singing teacher and his tuning
fork. The old order changeth,. yielding
place to new" and no doubt it's all for the
best, but in our headlong struggle to edu-
cate every one and to do it quickly do not
let US forget that we can have excess in
TINS passion as in any other; do not let US
turn out a class of educated idiots. Some
one has said that most boys pay so dear
have a shot in their locker, and begin the
world bankrupt. And it seems to me that
there is much truth in this. Men are say
ing nowadays. with considerable gusto, that
the education of a child should begin a
hundred years before it is born"
1t is a very pretty epigram, and they ask
you to consider the children of this day in
the light of it and see how derelict in duty
were the forefathers of a century ago. But
no matter how agreeable or advantageous
1t might be, no matter how firmly we are
convinced that We could do a better job, I
think we fully realize that we cannot go
back and start the race over again. The
children OF the now must struggle along 90
pest TINY can. Smiling, at the claims of
long deseent, unfortified by the pride of
birth, ana realizing all this, we see our
present duty plainly, and have set our, faces
to the rising sun, standing ever ready to
sacrifice ourselves and our hearthstones to
some yet undreamed-of tieth-cen
child. The path is steep and the things Of
the present beset us round about, but how
glorious 1t is to live for the future-and how
great the reward to know that somewhere
down the ages a new and improved Little
Lord Fauntleroy will rise up and call you
blessed. And to this end we join a class
in English literature.
CLASSES FOR EVERYTHING.
1t was once said that society was divided
into two mighty tribes-the bores and the
bored. These we have always with us, but
we have added unto them two other tribes
the teachers and the taught. Every child
does not go to school, which is a pity. Ev-
cry youth cannot go to college. which is a
lucky thing. But every man old enough to
have the right to vote. and every woman old
enough to have the right to want to, can
and does join in a class, to study
The languages, especially the dead;
The sciences, and most of all the abStruSe:
The arts, at least all such as could be said
10 be the most remote from common use."
But really the class habit has grown on
lis to an alarming extent. We are natur-
ally a nation of 'jiners'-all that's neces-
sary is for some one, male or female, to an
nounce that by virtue of a long residence
abroad he or she is Singularly fitted to
teach ladies and gentlemen the polite lam
guages, and as a class is just now form
ing, ali interested will please call, etc, etc:
French spoken fuently in six weeks or
money refunded. Just a simple little card
~ distributed. is ali that's necessary. We
may be depended upon to do the rest. OF
course, fashion has a great deal to do with
this sort of thing, as with many another of
the worlds industries. / have no doubt,
when the first throat specialist looked down
the rough and ready jugulum of his first
patient, and finding all well, that he clipped
the tonsils just to keep his hand in, and
that this tonsilless victim told his wife and
had sore Threats; and SO the fashion grew,
until now whoever hopes to keep his name
tonsils-just as the first fox who had his
tail cut off in, a steel trap, though really
chagrined. announced it the fashion, and
foxes have worn short tails ever since.
But there is something more than Just
the style back of our passion for classes,
for it appeals to all conditions Of society.
We may be too poor to buy, too proud to
beg, yet we join a class. 1t is a passion
that knows none of the limitations of years.
highway, from ale and cakes in our youth
to ails and. aches in our dotage. / once
knew an old lady whose seventy years had
been untouched by any of the c~ontaminat-
ing Influences of art or literature, whose
social position was as assured as wealth
and ignorance could make it, and yet, final
ly trembling on the brink of dissolution, she
joined a class in china painting. Now, a
single case like this is little else than pa
lletic. But tHIfik OI the pOSSlDlllIleS. Inlnk
of all our dear capped and specialized
painting on china! The prospect is not
pleasing. 1t is in women we find the
ideal classicist. She will organize, join or
teach a class with equal felicity. She takes
it all seriously, and has no fear of the
that turks in a little learning. She
has the faith and hope that are never cast
down, and is ever ready to welcome the
coming and speed the parting class. When
she began, a few years ago, to study French
or German with a few friends little was it
dreamed that she mao started a system
which was to spread like a circle in the
water. From the languages to Shakespeare
and the Avon Club. and then naturally
broadening into English literature and his
tory. the circle has grown wider and wider,
Until now there is some hope that the last
great circumference may be washing itself
away in the distance.
The woman who is afflicted with classo-
mania knows no rest. From the Ping and
the Book to Whist Up to Date she
sweeps the literary firmament-the mys-
teries of esoteric Buddhism one day and
the novels of Maria Edgeworth the next.
She studies the higher criticism in the
morning and turns the rays of her intel
lectual searchlight on the complexities of
parliamentary law in the afternoon. Every
hour is taken up; not a moment is left in
which to read the doings of the day; so
she joins a newspaper class and sees the
world go round through some other wom-
ans glasses. There is no rest for the joiner.
She ''sows hurry and reaps Indigestion"
She has not time for mental ntrospection.
Che loses the uIIief hour nv tho rhirnnav