The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-08-20
(Stanf Correspondence.)

(StdH
Oxford, N. c., Aug. 19.-On the third
day of September the fall term Of the cell
ebrated Horner Military school will open.
Letters from students who We're here
last year indicate that most of them
will return, and letters from parents,
guardians and young men from all sec
lions of the State indicate that the en-
rollment of new students will be unpre-
cedentedly large. The old students who
return will find that during their vaca-
ton. active work has been in progress
here. and that sixteen new rooms have
been added to the main building Of the
school. This addition was made neces-
sary to accommodate the steadily in
creasing patronage Of this far-famed
classical school,
1t is now quite half a century since
the late James Hunter Horner LII. D.,
established Horners School. It was not
founded with any flourish of trumpets
or wide publication. That wise teacher
opened his school with an attendance
that would be thought small in this
day. but he taught every boy with
thOroughness that soon made his school
recognized throughout the State as the
model school for the preparation OF
youths for college or for the work Of
life. He believed that there was no
easy road to knowledge and that it
came only from hard study. and he en-
forced that belief upon his students.
Most of them caught from him the in
SEPARATION to study and become studious
because he led them in that direction.
If any of them failed to heed his ex-
ample and advice, he found ways that
some people regard now as out of place
to stimulate their tagging zeal. If a
boy finished a book and did not UNDER
stand it, Mr.. Horner let him go through
1t again. There was no progression
from class to class as matter of course.
Boys left lower for higher class
when they had mastered the studies Of
the lower class and not before.
Thoroughness in Scholarship and Firm
Discipline have marked the history of
HOrner School from the opening day
to this good hour l was impressed on
a visit to Oxford, something like two
of three years ago, with the spirit of
study that pervaded the large study
hall, during the school hours.
Every boy was at his place. Those who
were reciting were prepared to answer
without any cumming or having"
They answered promptly and correctly,
and with such evidence of mastery OIL
the lesson as could not be simulated.
Those who were not reciting were
studying to be ready for the next reci-
tation, and under the firm and kindly
eye Of Prof. Jerome c. Horner were
doing their level best. They knew that
1t gratified him to see them make pro-
CIT ofol icr1 toc OF
boys. If any were inclined to waste
their own time and the time of other
students, they knew that Prof Horner
would not permit it. This feeling was
pervasive, and as a consequence the
whole student body is on it's mettle day
by day to do it's best.
The present principal of Horner
School, Prof. Jerome c. Horner, like
his father, is a teacher by nature and
by long experience. He was born to
teach and is an admirable teacher. He
knows how to interest boy in his
books, how to stimulate the interest he
has awakened. and how to lead him to
the love of study and reading. That was
his fathers genius, and the present
head of Horner's School has inherited
it. And herein is the secret of the sue
cess Of this celebrated school.
Prof. Horner, like his father, believes
in firm discipline. He has no fads or
theories to air. He wishes and requires
his pupils to study, to deport themselves
as gentlemen, and to acquit themselves
we'll so that they leave Horners with
its real impress of good sense, good
scholarship, and good department. AS
to the best method of enforcing discip-
line, he practices the military discipline.
1t is not the aim of Horner's per Sc
to make soldiers, but to train the body
and the mind. Military discipline has
tendency to make young men care
full in their dress, neat in their person,
and to keep their apartments in good
order. 1t also helps their carriage. gives
them ease of bearing and prepares them
to lead. If unhappily war should call
them to the field. But military discip-
line is adopted and enforced here pri.
marily as the means to perfect discip-
line, and only SO far as necessary for
the good alike Of the student and the
discipline of the school. The primary
idea is to make scholars, and military
duties are not made so onerous as to
in the least interfere with the studies
of the pupils, but rather to stimulate
study