Waterbury Democrat., 1901-05-11
AS YOU LIKE IT
Some stray Leaves from a Reporters
 Note Book.

Some Stray Leaves from Reporters
 Note Book.
 A fire tongs made by the first black smith that ever visited Waterbury is one of the souvenirs of the Misses Prichard, who recently vacated the premises at the corner Of Bank and Grand streets. It is as good as new.
 One of Waterbury's very prominent ladies had an experience on Bank street the other day which must have shown her that because man happens to be out of work for some time is no reason why anyone should believe he is willing to allow himself to insulted in order to hold a job after he gets it. The lady went into store and while she was on the inside the coach man leaned on his elbow on the seat and was occupying that position when the lady came out and promptly told him to sit up adding that that was no place for him to fall asleep. The re- mark took the man by surprise aad dropping the reins, he divested himself of hIs long livery coat, threw it on the seat. then Jumped to the ground. told the lady he was through and that she could drive the team home herself. And she did it. The man had been idle for some time prior to getting this job, but he declares that he will loaf the bal ance of his life if he cannot have better treatment than that.
 aTn A church in the Highlands says an exchange, ''an infant was brought one Sunday to be baptized and the minister, after the usual preiim- inarIes, gave the following address: Before administering this sacrament wish to impress upon you your duty to your child He may be gifted with extraordinary talents, which, if care fully attended to and developed, will make him a man of whom our gl0ri- ous country will be proud. This child may, perhaps, be destined to study the noble profession of law and become one of the highest magistrates of our land. or. on the other hand, his talents may find vent in serving, nay, perhaps, even giving his life for his country. There are many other ways in which he could distinguish himself, such as for example, entering the church and becoming an honored and revered min- ister of the gospel, and who can tell but that. in time to come, we may not look up to him as one of the highest in the land, perchance the prime mis- ister himself7 Having thus briefly shown you the great responsibility you are under, we will now proceed. What is the name of the child? (Awful pause) Mary AnnP
 
 Every one knows in what reverence John Chinaman holds his pigtail, yet the beginning of 1t was forced on the Chinese as token of subjection to the present Manchu dynasty. For many years prior to 1644 the emperors of the Chinese dynasty compelled their sub- 1ects to wear their hair after the style Of European women, and to twist it into a coil After that date, however, when the first Manchu emperor ascend ed the throne he deereed that all Chi nese should wear their hair after the style of the Manchurians, and have the head all shaved, with the exception of tuft on the crown, which was to be allowed to grow long and to be dressed 1n the same way as in Mig churia. This proclamation was very unpopular except in Manchuria-but it had to be obeyed, and soon spread over the whole of China, until the custom began to be looked upon with favor. It is now held in such high esteem by the Chinese that a Chinaman who had lost his queue, as it is called, would not venture back to China, knowing that he would become an object to jeer at. The Chinese would as soon lose their life as their pig-tail, believing as they do that Confucius will lift them by the queue and carry them to the Chinese heaven. Though it is nearly 300 years since the .tai1'' was first. introduced, it has not altered one jot as to it's form and is worn and dressed in the same way as at the beginning.
 s@&
 Some time ago. then a member of the board of education, and by the way, one of the most agreeable gen. tlemen that ever served on that board, stated that he did not think it wise for Waterbury to adopt the vertical sys- fem of writing in the public schools. He thought pupils who would learn it would find it necessary to take up fhe s1anting hand after they got out in the world and commenced to make entries in books where all the other clerks used the Spencerian system. MT Sperry cited several other reasons to show that it was mistake to change from the slanting to the vertical style. We quote one: "In all large concerns there are books in which everybody about the office does some writing, and if it were nothing else but the appear ance of things no concern would care to have yerticall and slanting hands in the same books, and,as the slanting system is likely to last in business offices it seems to me that that is the system our scholars should be taught That's just why I'm not in favor of the vertical hand. In many instances < it puts a boy at disadvantage after he leaves school and starts out to look for a job as copyist, entry clerk or as- {sistant bookkeeper. Do you suppose afhaf a bookkeeper who writes a slant ing hand would employ as an assistant one who uses the vertical system Of course not They couldn't work on the same set of books" In view of the fact that New York has decided to abandon the vertical system and tdake up the slanting hand. the remarks of Mr Spery have a special interest for the people of Waterbury, many of whom favored the vertical hand, al. though it seems to have become quite popular in the schools. When it was first introduced into the schools some of the teachers made hard fight to keep 1t out. but it had too much back