The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1896-06-27
SOME RAMBLING THOUGHTS.
Written for the Demoertic Advocate.
BY MEMO.

Most of us are apt to underestimate the
power Of the silent influences in the world.
We exclaim with wonder at some engulfng
land d-slide and overlook the fact that the
sluggish Mississippi is carrying away vastly
more solid material than all the nd-slides
of year put together. We marvel at
the disruptive force of lightning and of
waves and give hardly moment thonght
to the immensely greater power of the
bioplast, the infnitesimal transparent speck
of Jelly that can compel the inert elements
of nature into living forms. Elijah had
to learn that the real power was in neither
roaring fame nor howling tempest, but in
the STILL small voice and so must we, If we
are to gain proper estimate of things
The trumping may arise from the band
wagon till the Heavens split, and the
speakers may lash themselves into fury
until the voice fails and mouth foams, but
neither music nor mouthing have over a
mans mind fraction of the influence that
dwells in the good clear argument Of
printed page appealing to him in the
quietude of the evening hour. We too
often associate hustle and noise with infu-
ence, whereas it may be entirely absent
from both
The members of an unobtrusive class of
the community, who make no great stir
nor pose for the admiration of the crowds;
whose work for the welfare of our nation
is frequently left entirely unnoticed by the
general public, have already or will soon
quietly drop the duties of the school year
and silently steal away to rest during the
long vacation. Some of them will return
to the place they filed, no more forever;
and it is not only fitting but urgent that
we should give these silent public servants
and the work they do, more than passing
thought
Whether you choose to regard teaching
either as trade, calling for just so much
effort for so many dollars; or profession,
demanding years of preparation and men
tai enthusiasm as well, it is, in either case,
line of work particularly adapted to
women because of their functional tender
ness and yearning towards children, and
because of the intuitional sympathy which
belongs to them so much more decidedly
than to men. Men are being crowded
more and more out Of the teaching field
In 1901 out of total of 293, $50
teachers only 128, ,5l1 were males, and in
1923 when the teaching force had in
creased to 1888, 010, the male teachers had
decreased to 122, 056. Teaching is an
eminently respectable employment for
women and the money reward attached TO
it is even better than that arising from
clerical work, or attending counter. 1t
also leaves the worker number of hours
of leisure, the work being usually con-
densed into seven, and Saturday is entirely
free. So are we not apt occasionally to
think of the teacher as rather pleasantly
situated, with an almost pre-empted field
of work, fair salary and some leisure ?
Then we have not looked fairly beneath the
face of this career
Viewed as a profession teaching is the
most unsatisfactory of them all. Its re-
wards, except to the inner sense of duty
faithfully done, are too remote. Neither
physician, nor lawyer, nor even minister,
would be entirely content to wait whole
generation to see the results of his labors;
and he would be a most emphatic protest
ant if he found that increased experience
and ability did hot carry with them decided
increase of earning capacity. Yet for the
teacher. though she has studiously pre-
pared for years, there is nothing but SOW
ing in order that others may reap, and the
tread mill recurrence Of the self-same du-
ties from year TO year. She cannot travel
with her charges, but after giving them
her portion of the curriculum they are
passed onward, only to leave her hands
empty for more material, to be similarly
nodded and passed on.
Neither must we forget in considering
the teacher that her duties verge upon the
abnormal and that therefore the strain upon
her is more than ordinary. The teacher
exists because of the human tendency to
delegate duties. We are by nature set
into small families, the man being made to
struggle for the food and the woman SEEM
ing most fitted to train the children and
direct the household The man is apt to
delegate his religious head-ship to the Sun
day school teacher and his good thinking
to the minister at 50 much per thought,
and the lady Anglo Saxon: hlaefdie--
loaf -giver) in our modern complicated civ
ilization delegates her maternal duties to
nurse, her training duties to a teacher, her
domestic duties to a servant. But no
woman ever yet had the misfortune to look
after 20 or 80 Of her own children of
nearly equal ages at one time. To her
they have come gradually and the older
ones soon are taught to look after the
Younger ones and thus ease the mother
burden, Teachers, however, are expected
for small, hardly living, wage to calmly
curb here, restrain there and control every
where possibly as many as half hundred
restless little entities who are not her own
nor even perpetually under her care and
whose ways are sometimes of such an ex-
asperating nature that two of them will
serve to drive mother nearls distracted.
Ii the teacher be at all sensitive TO the
burden of responsibility upon her, burden
that is made up Of the knowledge that the
only moral training some of her fdgetty
little charges will receive. must be impaired
by her, though quite foreign to the one duty
she is paid for, then her condition is most
pitiable The painful realization is present
with her, that the pure atmosphere of the
few hours she has with the little ones,
hours fragrant with the virtues of self-con-
troll concentration and duty-doing, is fire.
quently counteracted by the vile fumes Of
wicked homes. She is aware that the too
often morally spineless midgets that come
under her care will receive no real prepa
ration for life by a mere conquest Of the
three Rs while the home is daily incul
eating lessons of wrong, recklessness, and
rudeness And thus daily this reserved
little lady, going about among you many
times without corporation in the home,