The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-12-11
TAUGHT AND ALSO FOUGHT
Lively Sessions at Old Time Win
ter Schools in Maine.
KNOCK-OOWN, DRAG-OUT
Exercises at the Opening to Decide
Whether the Schoolmaster or the
Pupils Should Rule-A Story
OF Tanning His Pupils.

II was Only an OH rtu cCuoOt hOuSf
that I came upon last summer in the
course of a country drive in Maine.
but I stopped the carriage and alighted
to visit it, said Enoch Il. Davis of New
York. who was talking with friends in
the Fifth Avenue hotel Office last even
ing. THE teacher. a pretty young
girl from the village four miles away.
looked somewhat astonished at the APP
| pearance of a stranger when I knocked
at the pen door. but she invited me
in inc 1 remained while two or three
classes went through their recitations.
1t was the summer school of my boy
o days, with few changes, and
those for the better. The desks were
not so badly whitfield up. the white
washed walls were cleaner. the pupils
were heater Of attire and more studious
n orderly. But there was the same
arrangement of the desks fronting the
teachers platform and the blackboards.
and in a vase on her table was a bunch
of wild flowers such as 1 remember
to have helped TO gather Of a morning
for the teacher in days long past. The
pupils were young. IT being the season
when the larger children are needed
at home to help in the farm and house
work. In the winter the big boys and
girls come TO the district schools, and
then a master is usually required.
ITO manag a winter school in the
old days was usually a knock-down
and drag-out business on the teachers
part until IL was definitely settled
whether he or the pupils were to have
the upper and Almost invariably
there was a set of big, insubordinate
hAxv vat nat IL Annttoh 70 90 To xunrE
in the logging camps, but quite large
enough to put UP a serious fight with
a teacher. Their highest admiration
was for the riotous lumbermen who
came %whooping through the towns i'm
the late autumn on their way TO the
pine woods. In imitation of them they
wore blue or red fanne shirts and hip
trousers. and outside the larger villages.
they came to school as they went
everywhere else, without coat or waist
coat When the master on opening the
winters school saw a row OF red-shirt-
ed young fellows ranged along in the
back seats IL meant trouble, and when
trouble came IL was to his benefit to
meet IL d~ecisively In the outset and
have IL over with, after that, II he won
put, he might hope to go through the
remainder of the term with a reasona-
BILE amount of peace and comfort. or
course, there was a difference In
schools. For the VIGOROUSLY hard ones
certain teachers, rough-and-tumble
fighters like Chris Page and Jock Law
renee. were always in demand, just as
noted bronco busters are in the West
ern cattle ranges, and a single expert
ence with one of these muscular peda-
gogues was always enough to max the
toughest gang of big boys anxious to
be good.
-raot nhanoa for tho hattar I'm the he
havior of pupils in country schools.
Most Maine BOYS who reached the age
of is during that epoch went into the
army, where they were disciplined and
taught to obey. and the effect in this
training was evident in those who got
back. and it was impaired to the young
er generation. Since the close OF the
war there has been an increased am
billion among pupils to excel in their
studies, proportionate to the improve
ments in methods of teaching.
During my college course 1 taught
in country schools for four successive
winters. i had been bred on a farm,
and was strong and active. a good
wrestler, and in my first term In col
lege had picked up some points in spar
ring. The tough boys in my schools
gave me. as a rule, little trouble, and
the m~an-handling of those that 1 had
to discipline afforded me exercise and
Il ntdltHIul liOii nv ~
onous round Of daily recitations. II
was with big girls. or owing to them,
that / mad my most serious troubles
in teaching. A grown-up girl who mas
taken a dislike to the master. or Is anil
mated by a spirit of pure deviltry, can
annoy him more and demoralize the
whole school worse than any six tough
boys. To manage big girls in a coun-
try school calls for tact and finesse on
the masters part. and woe be to him
II in or out of school hours he shows
Partially or distributes his attentions
~unequally among the girls old enough
to value them.
1T was in teaching my second school
the year before the civil war began,
that the real tug of war came for me.
Among the big pupils was a girl named
Nancy Groton, who simply was deter
mined from the start to be devilish.
Persuasion and punishment were equal
ly wasted on her. What she did not do
in the a of whispering. laughing,
giggling. inattention and downright i'm
pudence IL would be useless to try to
find out. ! could not catch her by the
collar. yank her from her seat over
three or four desks and down the aisle
TO the middle of the floor. which was
the approved method OF dealing with
unruly boys in those days. and all mild
punishments. like keeping her in dur
ing recess or having her stand out on
the floor. wen for nothing. Most OF
the other pupils were disposed TO be-
have well, but when they saw that I
was unable to assert my authority with
the girl. her example became infectious.
and everything began to go wrong. I
would not give up. and had made up
my mind to cast the die by giving her
a sound punishment the mex time she
~misbehaved. when the school agent
called on me in the evening with a
warning to give.
Tom Mahaney's here-he's Nance
Groton's Teller. The SHOWS too deep
for teamin'. 50 he and some OF the
other boys have come out of the woods.
understand he means to come to
school tomorrow. and II he does. he'll
try to make rouble. He's past the
age for a district school pupil. and ~
you'd like to have me do so I'll notify
him he can't attend
LET him come ! answered quickly.