The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-03-25

Presbyteries make it their business to select ant
encourage youths of promising piety and talents
and such as may be expected to turn their at
| tcntion TO the ministry of the Gospeli'd
Later. in 1905, Dr. James Hall, in urging tn,
cause of education, said l.t0therwise (if schools
| be not fostered) our churches. IL any should re
main, must be supplied with ignorant and litter
ate preachers, or they must receive foreigners
which past experience has for the most pari
shown not TO be very eligible
Since women could not preach. their education
was very generally neglected. When DIR. DayG
Caldwell, after giving his daughter ell that he
could teach her, sent her away 10 Philadelphia
to receive further instruction., it was considered
quite marvel. a.
Now what was the plan of these school aron
HIS to 1920? They were usually taughtNsin a
house, built of logs, of course. placed either in
the yard of the teacher or by the side OF The
church. Sometimes there was but one room,
though generally two were built around an i'm
mense chimney capable of accommodating great
lengths Of oak and hickory 1t was part of the
students duty to keep the fire supplied in the
winter and this was of the ways in which
exercise was secured. The seats were simple
slabs ranged crosswise, with perhaps board for
writing plain chair for the Master COM
nleted the equipment. In the summer time the
pupils allowed TO go out to study ano
when wanted, the teacher would come to the
door and in stentorian voice call for the class
desired. This went until all the classes had
recited, without any fixed time. table,
The pupils sometimes occupied it'll ehuts con-
structed around the school, doing their own
the family of some farmer near by, sometimes
helping to pay their hoard by assisting with
the chores. This was the form that their ath-
letics took, though "bull pen,' wrestling, jump
ing and running among the list OF sports.
Little respect was given to the physical man
then, and only their healthful simple lives out
side the school room preserved their strength;
At Princeton game played with ball and
stick was forbidden as unworthy of the digni
ty of college students and also being the cause
OF much violent altercation."f Would not Presi-
dent Witherspoon turnu over in his grave TO hear
OF his beloved institutions athletic record 10
day?
The curriculum Of all these schools would be
considered scanty and dry now. Some Latin
and Greek. mathematics through geometry ana
sometimes trigonometry, particularly IN 'ts ap,
nlicafion to land surveying. little theoEetical
physics, taught without any experiments, SONY SONY
of the dry rules OF rhetoric and possiply Vtlle
bald ,netaphysics Nothing OF Engllsh literature
or modern languages was taught; There n.is no
science worth the name, and the only history
known was, perhaps, COMPENDIUM OF teci t
siastical events. The possibilities OF the STUDY
To show the working out Of theories and 10
stimulate thought were unknown. The Blble.
and the Catechsm with it, formed q part OF
every days programme
Much of the difficulty was caused by the lack
of books The boy learned his rudlmentS IRON
the Latin grammer, and was compelled to mas
ter that before he was allowed to go on Mis-
cellaneous books scarce. Judge A. ID.
Murphy says:g
Il spent TWO years carter competing MS tSi ~
under DR.. CaldwelD without finding any books
TO read excetp some old works on theological
subjects At length ! accidentally met with
yoltaire's History OF Charles MI, OF swenden,
an oil volume of Rodercik Random and an
abridgement of Don QuiXote These books gave
me a taste for reading which | had no o2por.
tunity of gratifying until became STUDENT oil
the University in 1866.
But there were strong minds and strong wills
among these earnest backwoodsmen. Their par
ents had been thinkers for generations thoagh
the only excitement their quiet, commonplace
lives had known had been the recital Of the
tales Of Tory and ''Britisher during the Revolu-
ION or the animated discussion OF theology.
There were no cities to dazzle the eyes with
a show of magnfcence. To their natures starV
ing for want OF stimulus, the pathetic story OF
Dido the suferinss of Aeneas, the wrath OF
Achilles. the wandering of the Ten thousand
appealed with particular force. They were VIII,
ING TO work to get the story. Some wondelth
tales are told of the amount of Latin prepared
by some of these Young men. studying before d
pine knot ire George McDutfie, the distinguish
cd Governor of South Carolina, whlle pupil oa
Moses Waddell is said to have prepared III -
lines of Horace for a single recitation, ana tne
poorest of the class read more ttan hundred Ih)
They did not learn many Things, hut tnt,s
thoroughly mastered what they attempted TN
fact, so FAR as discipline is education, it Is
doubtful whether we have had any schooiS pei
teri Pupils were prepared for the junior CLASS
of such institutions as Yale. Princeton Some
entered the Junior class and few the senior
class of the University of North Carolina from
DR. David Caldwell's school. These pupils were
able TO hold an honorable place by the SIDE OF