Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1900-10-11
( Gregory MdS0n'S
s SCl00l. W " A. cURT1s.
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From the Youths Companion. Reprinted by
Special Permission.)

GREGORY MASON had not been in
II the little schoolhouse for II years,
until the morning when he returned. as
teacher. The old desks, literally carved
away by the knives of furtiye boys, had
been replaced by new ones, but except
for an increased dinginess, the build
ing itself had not changed.
AS Gregory read over the roll of pu-
pills to his father that night, he no.
ticed that the majority of them bore
foreign names. During his years at
the university he had kept little track
of what went on at home; and the ex-
tent of the change in the nationality
of the school population since his
young boyhood astonished him.
"Where have all the Yankees gomez"
he asked.
"You might ask where some of the
Germans have gone, Also" said Mr..
Mason. "Gone to the towns and cities.
They sold their farms and moved away.
This part of Wisconsin is even now
passing into the hands of the fourth
set of owners that have held it since
was child. First the Yankees. Then
many of the Yankees sold out to Irish.
Then both sold out to Germans, then
all three to Norwegians, and. few
Norwegians have sold out to Poles and
Bohemians of late years. There are
only IA Yankee families in our town
ship now, and the Irish are reduced to
one family"
"Why do they leave, and what be-
comes of them?" asked Gregory, who
had not thought of his own township
as affording. an example of the modern
movement of rural populations city
ward.
"They leave because there is no So
cial life; because they are lonely, see
so little of each other and have no so.
cial gatherings. When they get to town
there is little for them to do, for all
occupations are there overcrowded.
AS the young men can't get enough to
support wives on they pass into bach
elorhood, the girls become old mai1s,
and the race dies OUT
''All for lack of social life. Then
why don't they get up social gather
ings?"
II don't exactly know why. Our
churches are widely scattered, and the
congregations are small. AS for the
parties and societies, the men don't
know how to go about such things, and
the women don't see each other often
enough to get up anything. There are
three townships here in a row, and not
q village with over ten houses in any
one of them"
1T seems to me-" said Gregory, "that
some organized effort ought to be made
to provide little social life. We ought
to have a few 'slum settlements of
collegians transferred to the coun-
try
AS days went On the young man
realized that the school teachers of the
west had more to Go than merely to
instruct their charges in elementary
learning. 1t was for them to make
Americans as we'll as scholars.
AS he began to understand the part
in the destiny of the country played by
the school teacher, a sense of the dig
nifty of his profession came upon him
and he held his head higher. He de-
parted from the beaten track and gave
his pupils short talks on the machin.
cry Of the government and the duties
of citizens. In the questions of the
pupils he encountered SO many ole
world prejudices, SO many race antipa
thies, that he resolved to attemp,
Americanization of the parents, anc
he invited the older people of the dis
trio, 10 a series of lectures at TIT
schoolhouse.
He could not have asked for more