Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1898-07-23
are likely to SO ontinue.-Globe Dem
DROPPING FROM THE RANKS.

hat is the matter WIN Jne w est
ern Kansas pedagogue? He is all
right 1t has been noticed that he is
abandoning his profession in great
numbers but that doesn't intimate
that there is anything wrong with
the gray matter in his cerebrum. He
merely believes that there are greener
fields and fairer pastures in other
walks of life. Let us see how that is.
A farmer has six sons. He gives them
a good common school education and
as they come of age he gives them
each 81 900 and his blessing. Three
of them board the train and go to
college, where after a few years faith
full study they each receive adiploma,
one as doctor, another as a lawyer.
and the third as a school teacher.
The other three sons invest their
patrimony in various ways, one
in farming, another in stockraising
and the last in business. Five years
go by and they meet around the old
tireside. Our young doctor is COM
fOrtablv situated in small western
Kansas town with practice OF $4,000
to $4,000 a year. Our young lawyer is
''toughing'' it along, not making any
great money, but he is a man of af-
fairs, has a growing reputation as an
orator, has been to the Legislature,
and has an air of quiet assurance that
he has learned the keyboard of men
and events and knows how to play on
them.
Our farmer has no reason to COM
plain. He was brought up in the
west so that crop failures has no ter
rors for him. His COWS, pigs, chick
ems and alfalfa fields make him indie
pendent and, three years out of the
five, he raised enormous crops of
wheat and corn and the world goes
well with him.
His brother put his money into cat
tie, and. by faithful attention to his
herd he is now thrifty cattleman
with a nice bunch of steers to sell
every fall and his herd growing larger
every year.
The brother who went into bust
ness is now the proprietor of a fine
hardware store and his years profits
are very gratifying.
That meek-eyed, specialized, correct
individual at the far end of the table,
half strangled by the fragrance of the
weed which his brothers so much
enjoy is the brother who espoused the
profession of school teaching. He is
grandly educated, he knows five Ian
guages, is familiar with the poetry of
Lowell, Longfellow, Byron, Moore,
Pope and Milton. He has read every
thing from Dante to Trilby, he can
quote Virgil as easily as the Lords
prayer, he has delved into the philos-
ophy of Kant and Leibnitz and yet
poor cuss!-he does't know where he
will be this time next year. He tries
to make himSef believe that he is do
ing much good in the world when as a
matter of fact it is like sticking a fin
ger into bucket of water, pulling it
out and then looking for the hole
His children never know what is
meant by the word ''home,'' and at
best he is but a ship that is passed at
night-Only a- word and a CLEAN in
the darkness and then onward again.
That is why the school teacher gets
discouraged and falls by the wayside
! 1t is striking to note the number OF
school men who are dropping out.
Prof. Kuhn of Campbell university
and member of the State Board of Ed
ucation has bought grain elevator
and hung I'D the birch forever.
Prof. Merwin of Stockton has in
vested in hardware store.
Supt. Miller of Rocks, who has been
school man for fifteen years, drops
out and will practice law.
Supt. Stout of Graham will go into
/ business.
Supt. Pearson of Sheridan will en-
gage in stock raising.
Supt. Connolly of Thomas has
bought a newspaper and studies law
during his leisure hours.
Supt- Smith of Sherman will enter
the ministry.
Prof. w. S. Coleman of Goodland
will engage in the grain business, and
so it goes. The best men in the west
are dropping out.
What is the remedy? There isn't
any. / t might be that if school
boards were not swayed so much by
political, religious and kindred preju-
dices and held their positions for five
or ten years, and that school districts
built houses and gardens and paid at
least as much salary to their teachers
| as they pay to their time-Seryinp.