The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1902-05-15
THE DABNEY SCHOOL
Can Exposure

Respected friends. to what's been said,
Attention close you all have paid,
Our warmest thanks for this are due,
And hereby rendered are to you.
But, If moment more you'll wait,
will story short relate. E.
(Now, lest to some | seem too small
To talk about the school at all,
l will, to make the matter plain,
Inform them who l really am.
Two hundred pounds and ten | weigh
Am SIX feet tall, my parents say.
My suit the tailor, | am told.
Cut by pattern ten years old.
A stupid goose! he did not know
Three inches every year I'd grow.
And so you see the dispropOrtion
IWIXt what seem and ami notion.
But pardon me, too far ran
10 show myself no little man.
These boys and girls, With much ado,
Have tried tonight to humbug you.
They've fooled the teachers all the year
And hope their shams to practice here.
And, if l may my thoughts express,
Have met my friends, with some success
Now, as I'm with them every day,
know when they study, when they play,
l have resolved to tell you true
About what in day they do;
For, as the session ends today,
1t matters little aohat say
They start from home in time to play
An hour or so upon the way,
Or longer. if they'll only state.
Our mother, sir detained us late.
At half past eight, or Whereabouts.
ITO boOkS!" the teacher sternly shouts.
This more than once he has to say
Before they will the call obey.
Ten minutes by the watch it takes
TO hang their bonnets, ShawlS and hats.
This one must find his misplaced books,
While that one for pencil looks.
And thus some fifteen minutes pass
Before Is called the grammar class.
The order 'Silence!" twice is heard
For every time they parse word
And more the teacher to disturb,
The pr0noun l is called 0erb'
Disguised quite with such case
he filings the grammar in his face;
And calls-tO stop a threatened fight
A class which should not yet recite.
And now an episode to show
What length for fun boy Will go
Our parents have forbidden us
TO chew or smoke or swear or cuSS,
! And, thinking boys should these eschew,
| The teacher interdicts them, too.
SO one day seeing Billy Tweed
With mOuthful of the dirty weed
He made bin throw it out the door
And promise not to do so more.
Then published lOud-This trick SO dirty
I'll punish next with nine and thirty.
But scarcely had he turned his head
| When Joseph Shocks to Billy said,
''Some fun now, Billy, if you'll do
Exactly as L tell you to.
! just work your mouth and move your heat
| AS though you have another quid.
| Agreed, nor need he long to try
TO catch the threatener's practised eye,
Who, seeing him again to chew,
| Or rather go the motions through,
| Although member of the church,
| Rips out, COnfOund it, bring my birch.
| III teach this fellow who has spoke.
| Thou shalt not swear nor chew nor smoke
20, Spst 1t out, you rascal young
I've nothing an sir, but my tongue.
| IT'S thus the mornings pass away
| Till dinner time and time to play,
| When he who knows proceeds to thrash
All who have missed, and need the lash
| Ills quite a task for one poor man
| For some times there are eight or ten.
| But school boys do not mind, you know,
| To take dozen ticks or SO,
| And soon it is forgotten all
| Mid game of marbles, 1eapfrog, ball.
IT'S lucky day when each boys shin
Escapes without broken skin;
| For rough and tumble is the way
| When we engage in fight or play.
| In fact, high old time have we.
AS all the neighbOrs plainly see.
The girls, too, have their share of fun
Before the short recess is done.
They jump the rope, with hop and skip
| They round the campus gailv trip,
| Or better-blesS their pretty faces
| With us, the boys. are running races;
| All heed less Of the dress that's torn,
Fen though bran new one be worn.
Dsheveled hair but adds new charms
When half way hiding brown, bare arms
But swift the happy moments fly
"YOns old man B." the urchins cry
And now the noisy scenes repeated
OF going in and getting seated.
They write and cipher, read and spell,
Some missing all, few doing well.
One fellow cries out, Mr.. b.
This gal here stuck pin in met
Another, ere that echo dies,
| "Sal, femme lone" too loudly cries.
"Next-John Forsythe your sums I'll see.
All right, the answers copied he.
And while the old man looks them DER
Some marbles roll across the floor.
| Now, haraSsed thus from day to day,
The teacher wears his life away,
Till, looking at his watch. it shows
The laborS of the day must close.
| When scarcely having strength to say
"Dismissed," he slowly walks away.
Poor fellow. They have served him ba'
He looks like downstream, giZZard shat
| And. to he candid as Quaker,
own myself CHIEF mischief MAKER!
| .~~SN..
| Know One Sure Kennedy
,or an obstinate cold. Its name is Pyny- Balsam