New-York tribune., 1901-04-28
&C. STEDMAN THEIR GUEST
|HOl SCHOLASTIKOT' ENTERTAIN HIM
AT THEIR FIFTH ANNUAL DINNER

last night Nearly all wore black fez cans with
gold tassels, and to Judge from the nerriment
Ihey mao highly enjoyable time The menu car
ried fine likeness Of Mr. stedman and its many
quotations were entirely from the writings of the
guest Oh the evening The toasts as follows
POEM .tTbe E 5on3os Miles NJ o. Bren
.!T5e PT3fte5tta rita :, Edmund clarence stedman
when New Book Comes out. I Read an Old one
'The Test OF Teacher ....... DR. william L. Ettinger
Bishop Potter in a letter expressing regret at his
inability TO be present. said:
NO: toa am sorry to say cannot accept kind
asko at dinner on the @ nroH Sf al shs
@ @6e prevented by an imperative official engagement
ing my keen personal interest in the work Of he
quality. and character of which our citizens know
recent visit to public school in the northeast,
l ern part OF the city was to me most delightful
and heard its ntegenee its Gt renement h
ePd e the s ssre o quality gaze me new
1t is not creditabe to the people of New-York
that they visit them rarely, and that those who
share Of Their sympathy and nerest May ali best
dressings attend ana crown their work!
Mr. Stedman received most cordial greeting
when he rose to speak. He said:
Despite the good report the gracious words
With which am presented to you do not believe
oo taa' is my Not ar sr as fns more guest s e
than II POSSIBLY can be to this cultured assemblage
did NOT realize this intensely. / would lack the
Sfh ae of relative & displayed by hs hs
brought the pinewood chief TO a county town for
tickets Is cents; family tickets. 50 cents One
farmer was SO pleased with his inspection of the
WouId come me- again and bring R his family and he
' aef only FU with his WIFE and ehidren bap
cousins and their aunts" Whereupon the show
handed him back the cost of the family ticket
ae 2our 8 oeha IT. IS % woTb e0od
for my ny to See y your @ @ ta n snn nndn
truth, no welcome could be worth more or more
Our imperial city. gen iiemen has been building
up its present school system for more than fifty
years Right here is a finely representative group
fbe dfscipine of 1 the Tast afmg of youths and chill
dren of New-York. n district after district. the
educational structures which are Your fortresses
are visible to citizen and stranger Looking upon
n m 1e charr ff Rnewn ' never so little f Of our
school methods and organization. and, lastly.
ssnes it T'i9 IS mpossbe S not to believe that you
fha onf 5 oca system our of puSc bss not
at least the elements necessary for results as
notable any other metropolis can attain.
NO OTHER FIELD so VAST.
There is no other city where the field Is vas:.
and with problems so heterogeneous; no other
where the outcome Of such patient unselfsh labor
lating 10 persistence-none requiring much wis
native stock. Here a. the gates of the ocean;
We have TO receive thousands OF the poor ana
and cleanliness courage, so teach their boys
End girls as to make then. all that Americans SO; OF
choose throughout the lard. Your task is arduouS
by ali the resources OF the city the State. And
Sou Will be so sustained in proportion as you
realize the dignity and strength of your guild ana.
binding yourselves together. make your protes-
eonal success, your public demonstrations con-
II would IN become an outside theorist to talk
domestic economy and the relation of man and
o
with mellifuous irony complained that all the
then Whese knowledge of educaIionai science is
wofully deficient may better lend an ear .ae thsil
ers. in their hour OF ease and unbendng. My
didactics / learned by. ear, rather than by note
and rule and nothing but the stern discipline OF
life brought at a late age even to self
training. You make allowance for boy
Village academy. fitting himself for college as best
he might. and then in his junior year getting him
own Such one was bound to be handicapped in
writing. by the too late development Of any true
and accurate scholarship. II is strange that you
should have him for guest and that he should
venture to speak 70 you all.
have tried to think of one or TWO things that in
Quaker poet told me that he really never Believed
That ms to % him ustic9ton c @ ndeed ni4i Whether
the fortunate lyrics were of his loftiest lightest
And so it seems to me. And it has also chanced
that In some way, without the least intent
nectation or desire on my part more OF less Of
for the last twenty,fye years has served here and
exercises
Etudents IN our colleges and higher schools This
] take TO be due entirely to the increased public
all things concerned with literature. All the same
this circumstance has caused me as much surprise
as the peasant girl would have felt in Browning's
.Pppa Passes" could she have known all that
her diversions had effected in the day the close
Of which she said:
Now, one thing i should really like to know.
How near ever might approach all these
Approach / mean so as to touch thern-so
As TO in some way move them-if
do good or evil to them slight way
EDUCATORS IN SPITE OF THEMSELVES.
cry that the large compendium Of the written his
tory theology, narrative, oratory. literature of our
work upon which Miss Hutchinson and / Iabored
without other than a literary Amin the end had
made us educators In spite OF ourselves 1t turned
out TO be not only an inclusive form of national
history, but. so 70 speak. a vastly magnfed
school reader. and we strive hard against vain
glory when we learn OF It's presence in so many
school libraries, and of foundations OF
can literature IN far away colleges that have result
&c from acquaintance with It.
But my direct ideas about instruction have been
fear, somewhat impracticable. Some years ago /
answered one of the letters which people write to
workers pressed for time-a letter which asked
me TO suggest course OF reading for youths In
fhelr early teens i replied that IL seemed m
the best way was to give boy his range-the
10 mo for himself his natural diet just
mai or any plant is sure to do. This wise saving
my interlocutor speedily made public whereupon
my dear and jovial friend Eugene Field, of
tender memory, had fun with me I'm his Chicago
newspaper He said he had hitherto had such
the instinct method in his own household-eiving
After month he observed that their conduct and
associations We're somewhat peculiar. One day he
tanned rich assortment of stories of bandits pi-
rates and mining town adventures moreover the
younger lad had obtained a bowie knife and pepper
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