Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1898-12-22

Whitewater, Wis, Dec. 2l.-There
was q notable celebration of fore
fathers day here last night. Among
those who responded to toasts at the
big banquet were President c. X. Ad-
ans of the state university, Rev. w. D.
Simonds of the Unitarian church of
Madison, President Rogers Of North
western university. President Adams
made an especially fine address in re-
spending to the toast, The Puritan as
an Educator. He said:
II am very happy to respond to the
toast which as been assigned me. The
subject of education is one of peren-
NAL interest, because education can
never be completed and transmitted to
our children. Whatever impulses we
may plant in them, the process of
growth and the cultivation of taste
for higher things must be developed
by the difficult methods of training. No
class of people ever understood this
more perfectly than did the Pilgrims
and the Puritans, who came to New
England in the early part of the 18th
century.
1T was a fortunate fact that the
early settlers of Massachusetts con-
tanned an unusually large number of
literally educated men. At the 250th
anniversary of the founding Of Har-
ward college, attention was repeatedly
called to the interesting circumstance
that the Puritans, desiring an educa-
ton in the days of James l., had gone
in large numbers to the University of
Cambridge. They had become men,
bers of Emmanuel college, and hence
1t happened that an unusual proportion
of the early immigrants in New Eng
land had been trained in that branch
of Cambridge university.
1t was for this reason, no doubt, that
almost Immediately after the feet Of
these wanderers in the western world
had taken hold of Plymouth rock that
they proceeded to make provision for
the education of their children. AS
early as 1886 Harvard college, was
founded by act of the general court,
that is to say, the colonial legislature,
and it was only seven years later that
the same court provided for the estab-
lishment of schools in all parts of the
colony which should be able to fit boys
for college. These schools were to be
supported at public expense and the
taxation which at that early time was
levied for education was far more than
has been levied for education any
where in the country from that time to
this.
"For the college, the legislature gave
the income of the ferry between Bos
ton and Cambridge; it gave grants of
money; it gave lands; and these spe
cific legislative acts during the colonial
and provincial period amounted to
more than one hundred, an average of
more than one every two years. But
this was not ALL The public was sue
cessfully appealed to for private benev-
olence. The example of John Harvard.
who gave his name his library, and a
large part Of his fortune to the college,
was initiated by many others. These
gifts were sometimes considerable, but
often they were very small. In the
whole history of that noble and glori-
GUS university there never has been
anything more profoundly referred to
than the fact that part of this en-
dowment consisted of a widows mite.
The one item of the peck of corn and
the silver-tipped Jug tells the story of
a woman who brought all she had and
put it into the lap of the university.
"The interest in schools was COM
prehensive. 1t embraced schools Of
every grade. There was no elaborate
system of superintendent. There
were no voluminous sheets of reports
made out to the legislature. There was
no waste of effort in machinery. But
there was the rigid requirement that
every hamlet should make provision
for a grammar school, in which boys
could be taught Latin, and otherwise
trained for college. The system was
different from our own. 1t was more
like the modern Scotch 'Domsie.' He
was expected to see that all the chill
dren were taught, and that whenever
lad o. PARTS was found, he was to
nurse that lad, carry him forward as
rapidly as he could go, show him how
and fill him with a
desire and a determination to get the
advantages afforded at college.
Thus often the best of the lads at four
teen. and some of them even at twelve
years of age, were ready to continue
their studies at Cambridge. They
were taught fewer subjects than are
the boys at the present day, but there
Is abundant evidence that the boys
knew more of what they had learned
than do our boys at the present time
One of the evidences OF this truth Il
the fact that Latin was the official Ian
guage of the college; that the boys
were required to talk Latin: that the
recitations were largely heard in La
in; and that Latin was the language 81
all the official announcements OF the
college.
at is sometimes said that the sys-
tenn was one which was set up especial
ly for the training OF the clergy.