The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1900-09-29
in WIREGRAss.
Sees the Spot Where His Father
Taught School.
Btn Jenkins, the RebeI-Old Man Arp
had n ard Time with His Red
Headed schOlar-AR Inter-
eating Fight.

~ - BgQ4 4QL - AAdM. 10 N4dNEL anu /
study geography without a book. ]
am down here in the wiregrass talk.
ing to the people living along the line
from Cordele to Savannah. This is q
new road to me. It is only ten years
old and is called the 'SAM7' road.
The seaboard has got it now. Sal
has bought Sam and is running him.
IF railroads have sex the feminine is
ahead. Some mighty big things are
feminine. Ships are called she, but
that they say is because the rigging
costs more than the hull.
An old man showed me the spot at
Mt. Vernon where the old log school
house stood in which my father
taught school some 80 years ago. Fa-
ther used to tell us his varied expert
ence there. How some bad boys had
run three teachers off in succession
and broke up the schools and how re-
l%uctantly he undertook the work of
~refoHming them. He had about so
scholars, boys and girls, and their
ages ranged from eight to Is
years. The Oldest boy was six feet
tall, a sapling with long arms and
legs, a red head and a freckled face.
He was the ~ringleader in running the
teachers off and father was cautioned
about him. The first day he made
them a good kind, friendly talk, told
them he came to do them good, to
teach them books and morals, and
manners, and he wanted them to
obey the rules and help him to make
the school a success. "You can't af-
ford" he said, "to grow up without
some education. No nice young man
would marry the girls, and no smart
girl would marry an uneducated boy.
Now, boys, when you come into school
after dinner 1 want you to come in
good order. Don't rush and crowd
the doorway like you did this morn
ing. You ran over a little girl and
threw her down and hurt her. Be
quiet and orderly and come in two
or three at a time, and before you
take your seat make a little bow to
me. That's nice; that's good man
ners. I will like that and I want all
of you boys and girls to do that. Will
you do it.? If you will please hold up
your hands, All hands went up
promptly except those of Bill Jenkins,
the r~ed-headed rebel. Next morning
he declined to make a bow, but looked
sour and defiant. When school
turned out that evening, father heard
him say: 'Tu be burned if I'll make
a bow to any Yankee" Next morn
ing two other big boys failed to bow,
Bill jenkins had worked on them.
That evening father told Bill to stay
in q little while, as he wished to see
him after school broke up. He stayed
and the door was shut. The other
boys peeped through the cracks be
tween the logs to see and to hear
what was going o Father talked
to Jenkins kindly and told him of the
bad example he was setting, and so
forth, and begged him to conform to
the rules. "Now," said he, civilian,
will you promise to make a bow to
me tomorrow morning?" 'No, III
be burned if I do" said Jenkins. That
settled it. The crisis that father had
dreaded had come. He got between
Jenkins and the door and said firm
": sWell, sir, you have got to do one
Of three things. You have got to bow
or quit school, or take a whipping
Which will you do?' 'Tl be go.
burned if III do airy one" said Bill
Fathers hickory was within his reacf
between two logs. He seized it anC
began on Jenkins with stinging
strokes and Jenkins made for hin
with his long arms, and used Gus.
words abundant. They fought Xix,
wild cats, turned over benches, brok,
the water bucket and for ten minute.
fthe conflict ragged, for father wa
stout and was in the right and KEEP
the hickory going and Tended off tn.
strokes of BiI's long arms. Ate.
awhile they clinched and father go
him down between two puncheol
seats and pummeled him good. H
hollered enough and to let him up
and after they got their breath ia
Their said: NOW, jenkins, what vii
YOU do?' He blubbered out: "T'r
gwine home and stay there. I'll b
gol burned if Pm gwine to school t
YOU any more.' well, why didn'
you say that at first and save tn
whipping?" said father. All this tim
there were a hundred eyes peepin
through the cracks between the logi
hut not a word was said. Jenkin
never came back and the crisis wa
over. From that time on for tw
years there was a good, orderl
school and my fathers reputatio
was made. The Yankee had whippe
Bill Jenkins and that settled him j
the favor of his patrons.
I wish everybody could visit the Ii
tie village Of Longpond. It is in IL
country, eight miles from Mount We
non, and eight miles from a r~ailroa0
I never was in a better settlement
farming people. I spoke there in Il
daytime and those country poop
came from far and near and sprea
before us the finest picnic dinner ev,
saw. 1t is a Scotch settlement, an
their fathers and grandfathers all can
from Robinson county, in North Car
lima. At least three-fourths Of Il
names begin with the prefix Of Nc.
-o1o a voauaopandum of the many M