The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1901-09-27
Barlow Man Has Little Faith In
Manual Training Scheme.
lie TRIED IT MANY LONG YEARS AGO
Furnishes Interesting and Lauuhable
Narration Of HE Experience In
that Line While a College
Student.

ABOUT sixty years ago we boys had IL
at the Manual Labor school In old
Gwinnett. We had to work with our
hands three hours a day. We worked
with the hoe or the AK or plowed corn
and cotton or hauled wood or did some
kind Of farm work and the three hours
OF manual labor was intended to pay
for our board. But that was a mis-
take. The boys didn't do one hours
faithful work; they frolicked. Captain
Germany, the old hero of Shepherds
plantation during the Creek war, was
the overseer and he said he had rath-
er fight Indians than watch those
boys. He was a good-hearted, brave
man, but he couldn't manage a hun
dred boys who hadn't been raised to
work and whose fathers were rich and
had negroes to work their farms.
Most of these boys had been wild at
home and had been sent to this school
TO be tanned and reformed. Poor Cap.
tain Germany. He pleaded with them
and took the foremost row and showed
them how to hold the pillow or split
rails or grind an ak, but when he was
watching and training one squad u
one field, another squad in another
field would slip off and go in washing,
The old-fashioned wagons had Inch
pins to hold the wheels on and some
times the boys would lose a Inch pin
on the way to the woods and the wheel
would come off and they would go back
to the blacksmith shop to get another
pin and fool away the time until the
three hours were out and not load OF
wood hauled. Captain Germany gave
up in despair before the year was out
and they tried another with no better
success. AS general rule, rich mans
son is not going to work with his
hands. We had very fine lot Of
boys from the best families, such as
the Gouldings and Hollis, of Columbus;
the Lintons, of Athens; the Aliens, Of
Gainesville; the Hendricks, of Butts
and lot Of Harrises and Hoyles and
Woffords and Johnsons, but they eat
more than they earned and so the eX.
pertinent proved a failure and the
manual labor feature was abandoned
and my father who had inaugurated it
and was president Of the board, had
to foot the bill of $4,000 for its failure.
Since that day it has been set down as
@ ~
a rich mans son won't feed him. But
these boys didn't turn out bad Most
of them made good scholars and citi-
zens. Thomas Allen became comp.
troller general Of the state, Ned Gould
ing was colonel of the Ninth Georgia
and William T. Wofford a brigadief
general and DR.. Jim Alexander and
DR.. Hendricks stand high in their pro
fession. Gig Wright and Bill Wright
and Ramsey Alexander and James
Maltbie became judges of the circuit
courts.
was Illuminating about good old DR.
Patterson, our principal-how fat he
was and how faithful and indulgen
and sometimes of a hot sultry after
noon, while we were laundering along
through Caesars commentaries, hC
would go fast asleep in his chair anC
we would skip a whole paragraph anC
keep on reading and skipping until hi
book would fall on the floor and walk
him up Then he would hunt all abou
to find out where we were at, but h
never complained or made any sign 0
suspicion. I remember our debating
society and how once a month, on Fri
day evening, we had to take side
and discuss some great question
About a dozen of the older boys wer
engaged in it, and though l was tn
smallest, / was right smart and M
father helped me and l held my owl
with the big boys. remember whe
the question was who was the great
est man that ever lived and each DO
had to choose a different man and &C
vocate his claims If two or NOR
wanted the same man, DR.. Patterso
had to settle it. My father told m
to choose Ben Franklin and have neV
er changed my opinion since, for cor
WINGED myself that he was the bes
all round man that history tells Of. H
was the fifteenth of seventeen chi
dren, never went to school after h
was ten years old, was apprenticed t
his brother, who was printer; ra
away from him when he was II, hire
to a printer in Philadelphia; next yea
was sent to London to buy stock for
new printing Office, but the promise