The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-12-06
BY MARTHA NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS..

took TO school keeping as an easy way
OF INDUCING their tastes, yet escaping
the reproach of idleness.
School kept intermittently in most
neighborhoods. There might be a
winter session one year, summer
one the next, and none at all the year
after, but ii was somewhat a point
of honor in populous and thriving re-
gions to keep school going in some
fashion every year. The sessions were
none so long--three to FIVE months.
Getting UP a school was easy, and at
the same time hard. There was never
lack of children, and seldom a lack
OF tuition money. The rub was to-
persuade many men of many minds
that one particular man was exactly
the right sort to have charge over all
their boys and girls. Thrifty caution
had play over school entrances in
case of strange teacher-the father
of four or five stout youngsters might
subscribe no more than half scholar.
How the Pioneers Paid Their School
Bills
This meant that he bound himself to
pay half sessions charges. for which
he was free to send one pupil upon
half the days of the term. He might
send different pupil every week, or
slip in an extra one upon days that the
regular missed. If things went we'll
at school through the first fortnight,
the whole flock might go--and be
duly paid for at the end of the term.
But half-scholar subscriptions were
81
derstood to be about the lowest limit
of good neighborhood. All under
stood the importance of schooling,
and how was it to be achieved unless
everybody helped, even at some risk!
Pity the children. School took
in" at sunrise, winter and SUMMER, and
likewise held until shutdown. There
were recesses morning and afternoon,
with long noon playtime; but think
of sitting through long days upon a
hard backless bench, dangling aching
toes above a splintery floor, and pain
| fully studying one book. Few pupils
had more than one, besides the all
pervading blue-backed speller. Books
were rare and precious possessions III
those days. One scholar had geog-
raphy. another grammar, third
possibly wrestled with a reader, from
third to fifth, history or natural his
tory. Boys invariably got some
grounding in afithmetic-if they had
no books all their own they studied
with a luckier seatmate. or else got
loan of the teachers private copy.
Big boys went on from arithmetic to
surveying, even sometimes to algebra
and geometry. Some few teachers
also had Latin pupils. There were,
in fact, exceptional cases OF going
straight from the old field school to
the halls of college.
The Difficulties of the Arithmeticians
Were Great
The arithmeticians studied and
ciphered out under the trees. They
could not well have done otherwise.
The sehool-house proper was fair
snatch of Bedlam. Everybody got
lessons of every sort out loud. Fancy
the effect upon abstruse calculations
of thirty shrill young voices, each
/ pitched in different key, piping out
snatches OF unlike textbooks or rising
and falling in droning ullullation,
through columns and pages OF the
spelling book Spelling in those days
was 4 fine art, and full of nice points
that would puzzle modern scholar
eve and ear. The letter IS" ex-
ceptng at the end of a word and
when used as a capital. was print
ed in such a fashion it was almost
indistinguishable from az" z was
called "zed." or lizard" thus the
word buzzard was phonetically in 4
spoilers mouth Northumberland
ard. A as a double initial was a
corresponding puzzle: as for example
in the proper name Aaron II was
spelled out loud, "A-by-itself-a-r-o-n.
That is TO say, by purists and those
slow on the tongue. Quick scholars
and careless ones sounded il some
. VIVA, fhuswise. Adult seif-fs-r-o-n.'
4 later locution something less cum