The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-05-25
50 broad that hardly know where to

so DfOdu that HdIdly KNOW Where to
begin.
Upon examination of nv Invitation.
| find that this social gathering is held
under the auspices of the Sons of ST
George, a society formed in honor of
England's patron saint.
Even though this, myth goes back
into the twilight of fable, the story of
st. George entertains US and especially
engages the credu,ity of every child
stimulates our imagination when we
are first told how the fairy dragon de-
manded child every evening and its
Unsuitable greed had to be satisfied, I'M
til st. George, armed with spear and
mounted upon a charger slew the
dragon and delivered the country from
it's terrors. With these premises, even
though all this is not true. 1t is a
pretty story.
Educatio begins with the beginning
and is coeval with mans advent or
creation.
Human life is one constant course of
study from the cradle to the grave,
humanity must learn everything they
know and few make many original dis
coveries, so we must learn from the
wisdom of others, and for many gen.
erations posterity was deprived of the
advantages of the experience of their
ancestors, as education proper had a
very SIIldlI pldCS III l0e cOnQuct OF
human affair, and progress was very
slow.
There is some conflict of authority as
to the origin of letters, but it is gem
orally conceded that We are indebted
to the ancient Phoenicians for them
but in the rude ages of simple words
and vivid Impressions, when paper had
not found it's way into use and every
thing was carved upon stone, the mem
o,,r,{o
For 400 years the Odyssey and Had
ere sung by the rhapsodists and
Homer's name immortaized by these
strange soothsayers and these delight
full epics preserved for mankind by the
wonderful mechanism called mem
ory.
We find, during the time of Alexan-
der the Great, that there was an ad-
herence to the strictest policy in keep
ing education confined to the rulers and
philosophers.
That Aristotle once prepared man
ual of philosophy, so we are told by
Plutarch, and 1T was found that al
most any person could comprehend it
and Alexander. in a manner almost
amounting to rage, directed the great
philosopher to distort the manual and
put it in monitor form so that no one
could understand it without the as
osophers, so jealous We're they of the
little knowledge possessed at that
time.
We are not aware al this distant day
of the power of oratory how the fate
of whole republic like Rome depended
upon Cicero or the republic of Athens
was swayed and governed by Demos
themes.
People depended upon the orator and
l1a vi, hot, I'D,
ton and information and too often they
were in the direct employment of the
rulers themselves, so that for many
ages ignorance and blind superstition
prevailed.
The dawn came when Gutenberg of
Germany invented printing. This
wrought a wonderful change.
AS Lord Macaulay says in his essay
on the "Athenan Orators" that the
day of the orator is past, that the edu-
Gator now is the press that you can
enter parliament and see the great
speakers speaking to the press re-
porters and small audience, while the
press brings the speech home to all
England and all English speaking peo-
pie. I5s
With the decline of the orator came
! the decline of the poet, as we dwell
very little in the muses. and flights of
the imagination. the fictions which so
long had insinuated themselves into the
literature are displaced with the stern
realities of life, might say that fiction
has been compelled to give away to
facts.
Sentiment is now moulded by the
press and the people are kept so thor
oughly informed through it's columns
that 1t is difficult for the speaker upon
almost any given subject to raise above
his audience or to place before them
anything novel or new, and with that
condition marks the decline of oratory
and his influence as an educator.
The next epoch. seats of learning are
established and the orators and phil
osophers are retired
Among countries most prominent in
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