The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-10-16

ness that includes John Brown, but why
did he include Washington, Franklin, Lin
coin and other small potatoes? Seeing
that Lincoln condemned Browns browning
act of "greatness" Harpers Ferry
raid; that a committee Of the United
States Senate condemned it as "the act Of
lawless ruffians under the sanction of
no public or political authority" that
the Republican leaders denounced the
act as the "gravest of crimes;" that even
in the excited and then partisan North 1T
was condemned as an act of insane folly;
and that Frederick Douglass and Garri-
sou condemned the proposal when it was
made to them before the invasion, it will
be seen that Mr.. Tighe's action is not
condemned on partisan Democratic
grounds but on. the grounds that
he first attributes greatness to
an anarchist and then by implication
holds him up as an exemplar for the chill
dren in the Asheville public schools. His
act has been justly condemned by the
Raleigh News and Observer and other
representative southern papers
OF course it's Tighe's own affair if his
mind is so much in need of repair that he
considers a murderous anarchist as John
Brown was, great enough to be cata-
logued with eminent statesmen who be-
lieyed in law. order and constitution, but
it is the serious affair of the people or
Asheyille if Tighes mind is directing
their public schools. He has right to
his own ideas as to the essentials of
greatness Brown was a great ass, great
fanatic and a great criminal, and while
it may be we'll for public school pupils to
study crimnology when they have moth
ing better to do, they should study crimi-
nails and anarchists as such and not as
great men. Tighe is responsible for his
lop- sided point of view but the Asheville
school trustees are responsible when
they permit Tighe to put that point or
view into course of study. From
certain point of view the Younger and
James brothers, Benedict Arnold, Boss
Tweed and J. Iscarjot were great men.
The point of view makes a difference.
Tighe surely has point of view, but in
the case of John Brown he should have
kept it to himself or taken it out in the
dark of the moon and buried it, for it is
not good point Of view to turn loose in
the schools of an intelligent community,
whether of American or HOttentotS. 1t
isn't fit for publication.
1t is all right for Tighe to think in the
privacy of his closet that John Brown
doomed large enough in greatness to be
catalogued with Washington and Lin
coin. but to let that thought escape into
the free air raises a question as to his
ability to teach the multiplication table
and is convincing proof that children are
not in good hands when he has charge of
their education. The sanity of the school
superintendent should not be open to
question. If Mr.. Tighe's mind is so con-
structed that he has Authorizations re-
garding murderers and anarchists, he
should go to the postmaster at Asheville,
who can tell him that a certain man
named Kirk once well known in North
Carolina. was almost as great man as
John Brown. But perhaps by this time
Tighe has discovered that John Browns
soul can't have a triumphal procession
through the schools of Asheville. Per-
haps he is ready to revise his opinion
of Brown. And peradventure he is now
ready to repeat Longfellow's lines:
Lives of great men all remind me
/ can be an ass sublime,
And, in teaching. leave behind me
Hoof- prints in the sands of time.
In making his next hall of fame Prof
Tighe will probably omit the name OF
john Brown.