Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1903-05-06

were almost fixtures, and when wor,
was missed in this part of the class
created great exoftement. No one eve
became too proficient, too old or Co,
largo to be excused from spelling. 1
was the first and the last days work o
every student who ever went to Mr.
Kennedy's school. Mathematics wa,
taught and insisted upon; also the Eng
4 ligh branches, but on the classics Mr.
Kennedy laid special emphasis, and {
boy could not take up Latin and Greel
delight when he had large class il
| Virgil and Homer. 1t was when he in
troduced GLASS to the first book of the
Asneid that his whole soul fired up with
chivairy, music, poetry and love as he
began, "Arma Virnmqua Cano,v and
Joined as companion the class in the
perusal of the mythical story of wan.
dering hero, and tue siege of ancient
| Troy In classic verse, mingling the5,mor.
tai with the immortal, the natural with
the supernatural, loyalty with perfidy
pathos and love with hate and envy, and
painting defeated warrior retreating
from the fallen city of mythical gods.
carrying his aged father and the statues
OF his household gods ON his shoulders,
and leading his little sou by the hand,
with his loyesick queen following behind,
fleeing for safety-all teaching mans
fail, the Immortality of the soul, the GER
tainty of reward for the Just, beyond in
the Elisian fields, and the punishment of
the unjust in hades below, forever.
10 love this man was to know him and
DC with him, to see and hear him. No
pen picture can truly portray his char
acter. can see him this moment rising
to full manhood In stature and mind,
holding up the CROSS in the pulpit, in the
QNhnnI ot,A s,,I IL Il L n
can hear him, "The fool has said in his
heart there is no God" "The heavens
declare the glory of God, aud the firma-
ment showeth his handiwork"; ''Jeho-
yah, the same yesterday, to-day and for
ever" and many other fayorite quota
tions from Holy Writ.
Mr.. Kennedy's method of teaching
Latin and Greek was orally and he never
had any written exercises. The Latin
into the. mind, as 1t were, by sledge
hammer blows.
lt was q custom with Mr.. Kennedy,
when boy became uumanageable, to
place three options before him, namely,
apologize, be dismissed, or take q
whipping" The first was the one gene
rally selected, and this is not strange
when we rememember that under the
daily teaching OF such q man every boy
desired at heart to please and even imi-
tate this noble preceptor. 1t was not an
unusual scene to see a>dozen boys lined
up In the school room, approach an in
jured comrade with extended hand and
beg forgiveness and pardon. This virtue
was daily taught and even practiced by
this Christian man. have seen him
stand before the smallest boy in school
aud in submission and Christian love,
ask forgiveness. To see this giant in
tellect standing captive at the feet of
childhood, weak and helpless, was les
son never to be forgotten. Mr.. Kennedy
taught that the greatest man was
he who could govern himself; the
bravest was he who could acknowledge
a wrong. / hear that voice, in all it's
purity and goodness, "To acknowledge
wrong and ask forgiveness for it is the
quintessence Of bravery
Mr.. Kennedy believed in mixed schools,
in tire mental equality of the sexes, and
In woman's moral superiority to man.
He always put the girls in the classes
with the boys, even in the classics and
higher mathematics. He held them up
as models for the boys. He held woman
In the highest esteem and worthy of all
honor, respect and love. And why not?
She was the last at the cross, the first at
risen."
The claim that woman was mans in
tellectual equal in those days was denied
by many of the ignorant, and even COM
batted by some of the learned; but that
was in the days when woman's mission
was thought to be by some ito love, to
marry, TO rock the cradle, to feed the
chickens, to darn socks, to sew on but
tons and 20 entertain the preacher; but
that was before our utilitarian age, which
is gradually drawing aside the veil that
former ages and customs placed over
woman's fair brow.
In Mr.. Kennedy's school there were no
short cuts or rapid flights to an educa-
ton. 1t WAS hard, persistent study. The
aids and helps of the present day, in OBJ
tanning an education, are the products of
the olden time methods of study, col
lected and arranged in convenient form
MIR. Kennedy's school was not for day,
o month, or year, but for years. He
thought that from four to six years were
necessary for o student to devote to study
Ia his school after the languages and
higher mathematics were taken up.
This, added to four years course In
college, seems to-day a long time to spend
in study. In those days the objects of
an education ane the avocations of life
in the South were not so diversified as
they are to-day. Then the professions
were the objects sought, and by some the
tion and letters, for self-satisfaotion and
pleasure. No doubt this state of affairs
prompted the teaching of the dead
languages to such an extent. But what
ever may be said in this utilitarian, and
/ might say electric age, against the
study of the classics, yet the theologian,
the statesman, the lawyer, the doctor,
the. scholar, the teacher, and the man
of letters and thought, all demand them
and will tell you that no education is
complete without them. So long as
language and letters remain the literary
monuments of ancient Greece and Rome
will be perpetuated to adorn and beautify
the tongue in all languages. This MIR.
Kennedy taught with enthusiasm and
earnestness. He admired elegance aud
diction of speech. He abhorred slang and
condemned 1t, and while every student
had the greatest possible respect and
reverence for him, yet every one de-
scended into 1t, especially in one impor-
tant respect--doid Bossh was the aame
applied to him by the students This
epithet, however, was never given in his
presence or hearing.
The browning feature of Mr.. Kennedy's
N 4, a.. 4