The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1896-10-05
SCHOOL 100 YEARS AGO.



waa Called upoa - Unasrwe.
Il was not In this joyous fashion,
however. that school presented It.
self TO another and far brighter lit
tie girl. Mary Fairfax, who was
born over 100 years ago. and who
afterward became Mrs. Somerville
and one Of the most learned women
In England. Mary was fortunate
enough 20 live the first ten years Of
her life by the seashore. the happi-
est, widest, shiest child that ever
played all day long on the yellow
sands and made huge collections of
shells, and weeds, and pebbles, and
other treasures brought her as play
things by the waves. When IL rain
ed and her mother would not per-
init her 10 run out she read over
and over again the three books
which formed her hbrary-"The
Arabian Nights, Robinson Cru
soc" and Pilgrims Progress.
Now and then her father. who was
an ofioer in the English navy, came
home from sea, and finding his lit
tie dAughtrr as ignorant as q child
could be he made her read aloud 70
him every morning q chapter Of
Hume's History Of England"
This was all her education until
she was 10 years old. when one
dreadful day her parents sent her
TO n boarding school, n small and
very expensive boarding school, kept
by Miss Primrose, who was 30 state
ly and so severe that her pupils used
TO say they never saw her smile.
Thanks TO the healthy outdoor life
she had always led. little Mary was
straight and strong rs q young In
dim. but that did not save her from
the ingenious tortures designed for
atooping children and which she de-
scribes for rs in her memoirs:
"A few days after my arrival I
was inclosed in stiff stays with .
steel busk in front. while. above my
frock. bands drew my shoulders
back till the shoulder blades met
Then a steel rod, with a semicircle
which went under the chin. was
clnsped to the steel busk in my
stays. In this constrained state ]
and most Of the younger children
had 20 prepare our lessons
Think of IL, you luxurious little
people who prepare your lessons
lolling ON rocking chairs. nesting
In sofa corners or lying comfortably
on warm hearth rugs before cheer
full iresl Think Of studying n whole
page of Johnson's Dictionary every
day. spelling. definitions, even the
very position of each word in the
long columns, and all the while un-
able to lean backward or forward
or turn your head from side 10 side.
unable even to SEQ what the girl
next to you was doing. That was q
discipline which must have made
home and the dear shining ocean
sands a picture of paradise-of para
disc lost-tO poor. tired, timid Mary
Fairfax. And the worst of IL was
she learned so little at Miss Prim-
roses school that. when she escaped
for her first holidays, she cove ed
herself with disgrace by writing
bank knot" for bank note and was
severely scolded for being 50 idle
and wasting such golden opportuni-
ties.
She was taught 70 sew, however.
very neatly, and in after years she
grew 30 passionately fond Of study
of real, hard, severe, uDoompromis-
ing study-that it was necessary,
when she was Is. to take away her
candles. so that she might not sit
up half the night over her books.
Even then she used 10 arise at day
break, wrap herself in n blanket
not being allowed a hre-and work
away at algebra and Latin until
breakfast time. She wrote number
of valuable works ON scientific sub
jects. and she lived to be % years old.
proving that neither hard schools
nor hard study IL certain % short
en- our dAya.-Agnes Repplier IN st.
Nicholas.
Msa - n Rs1aa In ths nsp~ras