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

I - - - " - -
Judging from history and confirmed
| by observation, | ann strongly Of opinion
| there has not been aIosncr half century
| within ten centuries where, there have
| been so many seeming ~ apparent inn
| rrovements, nor so many actuai losses
| II the hardihood and integrity 81 charac-
| ter and principle. is the one POW clos
| ing.
| Wealth has increased enormously,
| conveniences have multiplied amazingly,
vet we find far more squalid poverty,
| beggary, Ca tramp was an unheard-or
| thing before the late war; indebtedness
| disregard for obligations. discomfort
| and increase of crime
| Take for illustration the subject Of
| debt. We promise that the real stand
| ard of honesty is the lebt-paying dispns-
ton. The honest man will not make 4
debt he does not intend to pay, will not
make a promise he does not intend 10
| keen. Hence such people are afraid Of
| making debts
While a boy a debtor who refused to
pay his debts. or attempted 10 defraud
| creditor was jailed until he paid the debt,
! or came out under the insolvent debtors
oath There were but few mortgages
| given then-no hohesteads. but few
cases of bankruptcy. \ ma ms property
then was obund for his debts. This APP
piled to famous men, to rich men as wen
as to others There was no partially
shown the rich. A lawyer that would
attempt before Judge Caldwell to per-
vert justice would have been in danger
of the jail himself.
For years before the Civil War and
until its end very wealthy man had his
prison limits in "a town of this State for
debt. He could not leave the town. l
name this to prove the stern character
of the law before the war concerning
debt.
Then man that would not pay his
debts was disgraced. How is it now?
The court records now are plGstered ali
over with mortgages and liens that ear
scarcely be made stiff enough to hold
property.
l do not remember single case in
my boyhood of divorce. Indeed then
it was a most difficult thing to obtain.
Now we count them by the dozen.
There was no penitentiary then in this
State. When one was convicted of steal
ing lie was fastened to a whipping post
and publicly whipped-the sheriff inflict-
ing thirty-inen lashes on his bare back.
He was made infamous, not afteryfhat
allowed to bear testimony in COURT and
not allowed to vote. But few men COM
ritted the crime OF stealing; men then
feared the law. Judges of courts were
a terror to evil doors. Our fathers pro-
ceeded on the rule that an ounce OF
preventive is better than Il pound OF
cure
Duh,
twenty fold since that time Now there
is not a large city in the world out of
debt and but few small ones, nor do
they ever expect to pay out. There is NOT
a government scarcely on earth now
but is whemed in debt so deep they
never expect to pay.
Now the poor attempt to ape the rich
in dress and style. This manufactures
rascals rapidly because when these lusts
scat themselves i'll people they must have
money. and if they cannot obtain it by
fair measures they will by foul ones.
r. ID. GOLD.
Perhaps in the matter Of schools there
is as great a contrast as in any subjects
that may be compared, with all the ad-
vtantages i'll favor of modern schools.
The school house in my fathers
school district was about twenty feet
long, about eighteen feet wide. and
about eight feet high in its wall There
was one large chimney, one door. and
one small window. 1t was built of pine
logs. the cracks daubed with clay. and it
was covered with boards. About forty
or fifty boys and girls were crowded in
that one room. They met early in the
morning, and remained until late in the
evening. They spelled and read or
studied aloud. They We're not much
classed. 1t was sore work for the teach
ers and laborious for the children But
little studying if any was done at home.
The parenst did nothing scarcely in
preparing the children's lessons.
My teacher then did not pretend 10
teach any thing higher than arithmetic
He found a good many questions i'm
arithmetic that he said were wrong, and
he would skip them. and pass on.
How little was learned accurately Mt
such schools. Boys and girls that attend
school now all the year round in COM
mGdious houses, under competent teach
ers. and with access to many books have
no conception OF the em1arrassments
that hampered children then under such
incompetent teachers, and that were re-
Guired to help make and ALSO gather
farm crops. and attend school but a few
weeks, say not more than one-fourth of
Il year.
There is as much difference in methods
then and now as there is between walk
ing one hundred miles in the rain over
a muddy road and riding in a palace
car the same distance.
II. ID. GOLD.
OUT OF THE RACE