The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-07-17

i
In 1898 an act was passed by the
Legislature providing for laying off
1 the State into school districts, and for
| submitting the question of School
| or "No School, to the people of the
| several counties. The election was
held in 1899, nearly all the counties
voting for schools; and. so, in 1910
the machinery was put in proper con
| dition, and, in the year of our Lore
one thousand eight hundred and for,
! ty-one, the common schools were
Iopened.
| In 1910, the year before the com.
| mon schools were opened, there wers
| two colleges in the State with about
one hundred and seventy-five stu
dents; one hundred and forty acade
mics with about five thousand stu
| dents; six hundred and thirty-two pri4
mary or "old field schools, with
about fifteen thousand pupils, making
| 4 total of twenty thousand children
| at school, in State whose white pop
ulation, at that time, was 4S4,S70:
| the entire population. white and col
ored was 753,419. Wake county has
today nearly half as many children at
school as the whole State had in
1910.
If we will incarnate the idea, which
| the history of our State furnishes
| from the first settlements to the open
| ing of it's common schools in 1841, /
think it would be we'll to name that
incarnation Rip Van Wrinkle, as our
| State seems to have been asleep more
| than half the time, from 1860 to 1871.
upon the subject of education. For
| the sake of curiosity let us see how
| much of the time Old Rip has slept as
| we'll as how hard he has been to
wake.
Gov. Johnston gave him a nudge in
| the ribs in 1886. when he had been
asleep &c years, which nudge had the
effect of making him yawn and partly
open his eyes; but he didn't move
hand nor foot, nor speak a word for
| rs additional wears. when in 1862, he
! reused up enough to say "let us build
| a school house in New Bern" and
| dropped of into a nap of 3 years,
which seemed to do the old gentle
man much good: for. in 1775, at the
Halifax convention, which framed a
| Constitution for the State, he actually
sat UP and spoke out in meeting, say
lin: "a school or schools shall be cs-
tablished by the Legislature, for the
| convenient instruction of youth, and
one or more universities for the en-
couragement of all learning"
| But that effort so exhausted him,
|
which lasted IA years. at the end OF
which Tin the year 1880, he reused
up long enough to build one univer-
sity, but, couldn't keep awake long
| enough to start the common schools.
After so fatiguing an exercise the
| old fellow took a thirty-three years
nap, and so dead asleep was he, in
1856 that he could not be aroused to
| complete consciousness, although
Hon. Archibald ID. Murphy in the
Legislature of that year, did his ut
most to wake him up.
Eight years later, 1926, CHS thirty
three years nap having grown to
| forty-one years., Hon. Bartlett yam
cey of Caswell got the old fellow by
the beard and gave him such shak-
| ing, he walked up sufficiently to drawl
out: ",rhose schools for the conVen-
lent education Of youth must be
started" -
From that time, 1925, until 1S41.
when the common schools were OPEN
! ed, the old fellow had no chance to
take another nap, though it must be
confessed he did not swing to his
work like a wide awake man should
do. Whenever he became little
drowsy. an apparition, in the shape
of Bartlett Yancey, would appear be-
| fore him, with hand extended as il
reaching for his beard; and sleep
would vanish. In fact. he has not
slept wink since; and it's the opin-
ion of the best informed, that he will
never be able to nap it any more. on
account of the noise the world is
making. He was a little drowsy, at
times. until Gov. Aycocks education
al policy struck him under the burr
| of the ear; since then he has had
such a roaring in his head he can't
even nod
Rip Van Wrinkle is now wide
| awakei
f, The reader must not suppose North
| Carolina had no educated men and
women, before the common schools
| were started. The carly settlers were,
manv of them, well educated and, as
very natural consequence, they ed
ucated their children. They even had
| classical schools, scattered here and
there, and while the poorer classes
could not be educated. the sons and
daughters of the weather. people
were moderately well taught in those
| branches which fitted them for the
age in which they lived.
The old time log cabins, the punch
con floors the broad chimneys, the
rude benches the creaking doors, the
play grounds, the spring just down
the hill, the gourd that hung on q
stake; the rude boys, the rollicking
girls, the Webster spelling book, the
Pike arithmetic, the Columbian Ora
tor, the New York reader; the long
writing desk the copy book,
the quill pens, the Master
with rule in hand Furnishing
the boy who stuck a pin in Bill, or
stepped on Jacks sore toe a purpose
or threw a paper wad and stuck il
on James cheek; these and thou
sand things which memory calls up
will give the boys and girls of today,
some idea of what the old time school
was, when their ancestors were cut
ting down the forest, building houses
laying off roads and driving back the
Indians. And while the children of
this age may, in the pride of their
superior advantages, turn up theft
noses in disgust at the idea of going
to school in log huts, they are bound
to admit that their ancestors, witt
their meager advantages were heroes
patriots and statesmen. whose lives
and examples are worthy of initial
ton.
Wake county has cause to be proud
of an ancestry which wrought ouI
and bequeathed to this generation
conditions which make IL so easy tol
children to acquire an education
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