Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-08-21
divided the honors with McGuffey. but

| McGuffey's were the first great success
! In the reader line. and it may be ques-
| toned If they have ever been excelled by
the many authors and publishers who have
| attempted and wellnigh succeeded in root
| Ing them out. Many editions of the books
| were published and the sales Appropriated
| the 1.O00,00O mark annually for a number
| OF years. They had a strong hold upon
| the affections of both children and grown
| folks from about 1915 to 1885. They are
yet found In many of the schools of the
west and south.
| The selections in these readers are mod
| ern,- diversified and entertaining; in fact.
the higher readers contained the best
| thoughts Of the best minds of this country
| and Europe. in both prose and poetry;
lind in them the great speech of Patrick
Henry before the Virginia convention; the
| Elder Pitts eloquent defense of the colo
| rfsts; extracts from the memorable debate
| between Webster and Hayne. selections
from the poetry of Poe. Bryant. Whittier,
Holmes, Sake, Halleck, Drake. Willis,
Prentice, Longfellow, and the British po-
cts. not forgetting the popular Burial OF
| Sir John Moore" by Chaplain Wolfe, his
| only poem, it is said. but it is quite suffi-
cient for bis fame: then there were the
pathetic "Genevra," Mary the Maid of the
Inn" "Bingen on the Rhine" and Miss Mil
| lords breezy 'RienZis Address to the Ro-
mar McGuffey INDUCED in occasional
| 'Romaneing," too. That is an affecting story
is is not, in McGuffey's Fifth" about the
poor barber, originally from Kingston near
| Iaurton, who would not shave people on
| sunday, ana so by a chain of circumSt anceS
| IN dim cellar, lit by penny Dip met
| the man who brought him fortune? Then
| there is another fine old story in the
| sixth, about Sir Matthew Hale. who on
being assured that there was some soul
| duggery going on in one of the courts of
| ms diocese, consented to put on a mil
| ler's suit, and succeeded in getting him
| sell drawn on the jury a talesman, and
subsequently warmed it to a periured
| rascal, who, with the conivance of the
court was attempting to steal his brothers
tatrimony. How the reading class reioice.,
| LOT the young usually have high sense of
| hohor wneh the miller announced that he
was Sir Matthew Hale, chief justice of the
klhg bench, turned on the unjust judge
and told him to climb down out of there,
| ana don't you forget it.
Reading and Writing.
AND That was great exercise in articu-
iat1on that NcGuffey set up for u.s.
Theophilus Thistle, the successful thistle
sitter, in sitting three thousand pecks of
| uns1fted thstles, thrust three thousand
| rhistles through the thick of his thumb"
! etc, etc.
In the matter of 'riting" there were no
copy books in use before the fffties; that is.
Hthe OF Inc Spencerian variety with fancy
paper covers ard script copies. Many
learned to write with slate and a soft
pebble from the brook for pencil The first
copy books were made of double sheets of
very blue FOOLS cap. 'spooned" together;
lne balance of the kit - consisted of a
goose gum pen and a bottle of homemade
INK, usually pokeberry (our first love letters
were also written with this same luriu fluid
conveying the intlmation that it was o,,I.
aSiy heart blood. 1t was no small part
OF the oid-time teachers duties to share
ana daily sharpen these same eoose-u,,1ll
pens, and set the COPIES
"A feature of the district school of fifty
anu more years ago from the present point
| of view is that there were no women teacn.
ers to speak Of. OF the teachers of those
tunes 1t can be truthfuly said:
"A man severe he was and stern to yiew-
| l TX. knew him well, and every truant knew:
wen did the boding tremblers learn to
trace
Inc Jay disaster in his morning face
Inc schools of those days, to quote the
Old geographers, were absolute monarch
les. Moral suasion was an untried and
| an unknown quantity; it had no place in
the curriculum. The scnoolmaster never
mace a detour about the school room with
Out being armed with hickory ruler; DO
hceman-llke, 1t was always in his hand
and not fhfrequently in evidence upon the
shoulders or palm of some luckless wight
| He had, besides. always on hand a liberal
supply Oh birchen "gads," which usually
decorated the wall in rear of his desk well
seasoned by passing them through The
name in the long-lcng, to obviate cutting
the cord wood in two-school house stove
SO they would better take hold of the
Jackets of the refractory ones. Girls were
whipped, as well as boys, and as richly de-
served it, no doubt.
An Inhuman Punishmcnt
This reference to the old-time teacher
and his methods would be incomplete were
no mention made of an ingenious and most
dreaded form Of punishment inflicted upon
| the small boy in those days, which was to
surprise him in some trifiing pecadiIIo
| firmly grasp his sinister ear with the fore
| finger and thumb of the schoolmaster's
| dexter talon. lead him across the school
room and seat him between two of the
largest girls. Never a Christian martyr
awaiting the inevitable stake endured
more mental anguish than did the average
small boy while smarting under this hui
initiation Verify, time moved on Ieaden
wings during the hour or more of his
| abasement. And when at last permitted to
resume his proper place in the school room,
or tearfally join his playmates on the cam
pus, even they would not fail to accentuate
and supplement his degradation by pointing
their fingers and crying Shame. Been Sit
| ting with the girls" Indeed. he must
| needs endure full week Of chatting and
contumely before the stain is wholly eff
faced from his "escutcheon.'
Inc sub1omed cut represents the old
| log school house of fifty and more years
| ago, and the incident an actual occurrence.
mischievous boy. having secured permis-
sion to go OUT during school hours
thought 1t would be great sport to smoke
out the school. How well he succeeded is
teacher and pupils to speedily get out of
there 1t may be safely assumed, however,
| that the punishment meted out to that
self-same lad, SO soon as the teacher got
some of the smoke out of his system, very
nearly fitted the crime.
| And here is a reproduction of the old
puncheon seat with which these same
| old log school houses were furnished ca;
| the diagram near the end is not the demon
stration of a proposition in Euclid, as would
appear at first thought, but device for
the diverting game Of Fox and Geese"
1t must not be inferred from the fore
going structures on the eld-time teacher
and his methods that they were all boors
petty tyrants and ignoramuses; on the con-
trary, they were by no means a bad lot.
and their foibles were largely the result
of their environments. but about 1915 to
| 1850 there was a marked Improvement in
| the morale of the teachers; a brighter day
was dawning for the public schools or
America, for really superior class OF
young men and few young wo-
men. clever, ambitious and fairly
well equipped for their work. very largely
became the school teachers OF the coun-
! try. The emoluments of the position,
though quite modest, not often exceeding
SIS and board per month: more often not