Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1899-01-07
CARLYLE AS A TUTOR
AN AMUSING ANEcooTE OF THE
GREAT AND. GLOOMY MAN.

He Hnd II FrOwn That Terrified and
II Laugh Thnt Startled His Pupils.
The Day the Donkey Came to School
AgnInst His VIII.
4 writer in The Scotsman has un.
earthed an amusing anecdote of Thomas
Carlyle as country dominic, for
the accuracy of which he vouches. 1t
was told in 1858 by Cupar Fife law
yer and provost who had been one Of
Carlyle's pupils at Kirkcaldy, to the
writer and Hugh Miller. The interest
of this gentleman "reminiscences of
bis schoolmaster was heightened by his
utter unconscousness that his old do
mimic was the Thomas Carlyle who was
then beginning to be known to fame.
The old gentleman described the older
race of Scottish schoolmasters as always
during school hours wearing their hats
at least keeping their heads covered
and many of the boys, viewing the Pc
culiar anglo at which the hat stood up
on the head and how near it came to the
eyebrows, could conjecture if the saw
age mood were to be that day predomi-
nant
"But my teacher, :" said the provost,
"a strict and gloomy disciplinarian
with the name of Carlyle, never wore
his hat in the school, and indeed his
brow was SO ovorhung with dark threat
ening that no extra expression to alarm
us was needed from his lum hat! He
did not thrash us either very often or
very severely, but we had fear that,
if provoked, he would go great lengths
in punishment. have seen his mere
scowl hush at once the whole school. I"
Hugh Miller here interposed by ask
ing, Ibid your teacher ever burst into
strange laugh in school?'
"That is very odd question. re-
turned the provost why do you ask?
But now that l remember, he had at
times a verv extraordinary laugh that
made us all stare. 1t had train of
queer chuckling which exploded in a
succession of loud and deep outlaws that
shook his whole body and displayed all
his teeth like the keys of n piano. He
then clapped his hands on the book he
held against his knees. Yet none of US
never knew at what he gas laughing.
He had grim smile in reproving pupils
and habit of tapping their heads with
his knuckles as he told them that the
heads would never be worth the price
of bats or the charge Of barber, though
mammas and aunts had that morning
combed, kissed and blessed them, as if
they were teeming with the suhlimest
inventions and designs u
The provost saw that Hugh Miller
and some other guests were listening
eagerly, and he proceeded;
lone morning, few minutes before
the school hour, when most of tho pu-
pills had arrived, and, as rain was fall
ing, they had gone into the school,
donkey, which had broken loose from
its tether on a grassy spot near, was ell
tering the playground. Bill Hood and ]
were so far on our way, and Bill. who
was stout and frolicsomo lad-the
ringleader in many sports and tricks
rushed to mount the animal and began
to guide and force it into the school.
with desperate squirting the donkey
was induced to carry its rider over the
Threshold, and what a reception both
of them got from the juvenile crowds!
Bags of books were at once fastened to
the tail and around the neck of the ass,
and SO busy wers Bill and half dozen
companions in urging the animal to
canter around the school and to ascend
the short stair of the masters desk that
they did not notice how time was speed
ing, and before they could remove the
stranger Mr.. Carlyle appeared.
eve expected a tremendous explosion
of wrath, but he burst into roar of
laughter-such roar, however, as, in
stead of tempting US to join in it, pro
duced sudden and complete hush, and
that roar was renewed again and again
when the ass, withdrawing its forefeet
from the first step Of the desk stair and
turning round, took q pace or two slow
ly toward the master as if to salute him
" THAT, exclaimed Carlyle, is the
wisest and best scholar Kirkcaldy has
yet sent-m me. He is fit to be your teach
or. He tapped the donkey's head as be
was wont to do ours and said, There's
something here far more than i'll the
skulls of any of his brethren before me,
though these skulls are patted in fond
admiration by papas and mammas, and
though that far grander headpiece meets
only with merciless blows.
HE then gave some hard taps on
Bill Hoods head and would not allow
him to dismount, but for penalty or
dered him to ride up aud down the
school for an hour, while those boys
who had been most active in helping
Bill to go through the farce had to
march in pairs before and behind the
perplexed looking ass He did not re-
quire the other scholars to attend to
their several school lessons but silently
permitted them to stand as spectators
of the grotesque procession. Then he
himself, seated within his pnlpitlike
desk, surveyed Bill and his company.
81 have not for years thought of this
scene" continued the provost, "but it
has now come back to mo freshly, and
| remember that my old master had
very strange laugh. don't know what
has become of him, nor indeed have |
heard of him since / left Kirkcaldy
school,"