The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1901-02-14
BILL ARP ON IGNORANCE
An Education is Now Eaey-O Old
Text Books Bring Back Old
DAYS.

An Education is Now Easy-Old
Text Books Bring Back Old
Days.
Sixty years ago there was some OK.
cuse for Ignorance; we had but few
schools in this Southern land and not Il
dozen newspapers in the State. There
were not half as many reading books
in all our town rs l have now in my
small library Of 400 volumes. In oul
schools we had blue back spelling
book, Smiley's arithmetic, Murray's
grammar, Smiths geography and the
English reader. TO master these was
considered good old field cducatioH.
have III my shelf a copy of that same
old English reader. A good lady sent
it to me not long ago, and l almost
wept over It's delightful pages, for there
Is no school book now published that
has so choice Il selection of varied
reading both in prose and poetry.
have letter from au old gentleman in
Florida asking where he will lind a
little poem that his mother taught him
and some of which he has forgotten.
"lt begins,' he said,
Pity the sorrows of Il poor old
man. l do not know where he will
lind it, except in the old English
reader. 1t was written in 1863 BY
Thomas Moss, and was quoted by DR..
johnson and Goldsmith. Both loved
the pathetic, and nothing more pathetic
was ever written
Pity the sorrow Of a poor old man
Whose trembling limbs have born him
| to your door,
| Whose IS:ys ~" dwindlcd to the shortest
| span;
All! give relief and Heaven will bless
| your store.
These tattered clothes my poverty be-
These hoary locks proclaim my length
| encd years,
And many furrow in my gricf-worn
| check
| Has been the channel 70 u Hood Of tears.
| Keen blows the wind and piercing is the
! cold;
short is my passage to the friendly tomb,
| For am poor and miserably old
These arc some of the verses, and
in another occurs the line often quoted:
"A pampered menial drove me from the
This copy of Murray's Euglish
reader was printed in London two
years before Queen Victoria vas born.
1t was the text book in most of the
schools when | was q boy, and from
1t we got our speeches and learned
how to bow and gesture and gi G ac-
cent and emphasis. This book, with
the teachers aid, ga c us an idea OF
clocution and bow to lcad imprcssivcly,
ard wish 1t was in all our schools to.
day. We have good scholars, but very
few good readers. 1t is rare to find a
preacher who can emphasize his text
on chapter or Il hymn. Every col
lcgc, and especially every theological
seminary, should have plofcssorship
of reading and speaking. remember
hearing an eloquent divine preach a
sermon from the text, "My sin is ever
before me" aud such was his uiterancc
of that lamentalion Of David and such
his profound and solemn rendering of
the enduring consequences Of sin, that
all his hearers were deeply impressed
" My sin is ever before men still rings
in our mem >ries.
said that sixty years ago there was
some excuse for ignorance, but never
thclcss, that age and those schools pro-
duced many very notablc mcl. The
young people were eager for kn0wl-
edge. n new book was treasure in
the house, and there was more time
more leisure, and Solomon Says that
" in leisure there is wisdom"
But now the books are almost in the
way. They crowd us and surround
us, and " the cry is, still they come. -
Young people read an average of two
or three Il week, and forget The con-
tents in Il month. There are maga-
zines in every household, and they
contain our best Observation-Disclosures.
tive and entertaining; newspapers
flood the country by the millions. The
New York World boasts that it
published 2IO million copies last year.
Every county IN our State has coun-
ty newspaper, and the editor Of the
Carrollton paper says the children read
a great deal more than their fathers
did and keep up with wars and politics
and murders and suicides.
Then what is the matter. Blshop
Gambler wrote an excellent and in
structivc article recently on "Thc pass.
ing Of great men," lie never writes
anything that does not give us food fo1
thought, and | am thankful that he
has not passed. Yet the day of great
men has passed, not only i'm Geol gla
but IN all tho South. Iiloqucnce il
the pulpit, the forum and the council.
of the nation forty and fifty years ag>
was our pride and our boast, when W,
had among our preachers such nobl,
and true men as George Pierce, DR.
Means, Longstrcet, Jesse Mercer, Ma
than Crawford, DR.. Tucker, Bishop
Elliott and Beckwlth, Joseph Stiles
DR.. Nixson, DR.. Goulding, and sucl
lawyers and statesmen as Folsyth
Tronp, the two Cobbs, Jenkins
Toombs, Stephens, Johnson, Walter
Colquitt and Ben Hill. There are
, twenty names given, and many more
, might be added, and 1t is a lamcntable
truth that their equals do moi exist IN
, Georgia today. This decay OF great
men is nDparcnt in every SOullcfIl