Oxford eagle. (Oxford, Lafayette Co., Miss.) 1876-current, 1904-03-10
Our plans for Improvement.

The plans for improving our rural
echoolhouses and identifying the
grounds, which reached me from the
East last week, are just that much
paper thrown away, SO far as any prac-
teal help to us is concerned. These
plans, while good Of their kind, all
presuppose the existence OF modern
school buildings, OF commissioners
who obey the legal requirements as
to visiting the school and discharging
all duties connected with it, and OF a
fund in the treasury ample enough to
pay for all needed improvements.
The only thing they lack, so far as l
can discover, is the interest and en-
thusiasm of teacher and children.
And that is the only thing on the list
that we haye-and in abundance. At
first glance l was discouraged, but as
l thought it over, finally decided that
we were better off than they, for with
all their money and their laws and
their big committeeman, 1t is precious
little they can do without the children
and the teachers But with these two
needful and potent forces we can ac-
complish great things Independent. OF
the yards and yards of red tape IN
which the Eastern schools are tied up.
| do not deny at all that the money
and the laws and the school commits
sioners would all be very helpful, and
we would be glad to get them, espe-
cially the money, but we do not pro-
pose to sit on the hard bench in our
goods-box schoolhouses and cry about
it. No. indeed. We mean Ito borrow
a slang phrase from the boys) to get
a move on us and improve our schools
anyhow. There is one way to help In
this noble work, which can be done
without money, and by the children
themselves if they will set about 1t,
the State will not let them work long
unaided You see, the State Is ike
the Higher Power, and helps those
who help themselves.
l remember, as child, possessing a
chrome which I then thought very
beautiful. and which | was eager to
have framed. After little while an
artistic frame was given me and | was
told to bring the picture(O to put IN
it. This l ran gladly to do and the
crude chrome was fastened in the
dainty frame. But l was not salts
fed. nor did | then know why. But
after | had grown little older, and
a little wiser. | understood the trouble
with my picture; nor did l rest until
the poor chrome was taken away and
in its place was put something worthy
of the frame.
Now this, dear teachers and chill
dren. is what some of us may have to
do with our schools, which have been
built, seemingly, in the least attrac-
tive spot in all the neighborhood, SO
full of charming sites. AS to how,
and of what the average rural school
Is built. we would prefer not to talk
this week. as we set out to make this
a pleasant letter.
Well. now, suppose you have a
Crude chrome" of a schoolhouse,
without any frame at all, or with q
frame that suits the picture. Can't
We go to work, and with wisdom and
patience and infinite pleasure, put
around it a frame so lovely and at
tractive that those who look upon II
will grow ashamed of the contrast and
put a new and worthy picture in it!
| believe we can; and, if SO, right now
is the time to try. 1t is not needful to
spend one cent, at first, because we
have within our reach all that we
nocd to beautify our grounds. How
lucky you country children are, WHO
can begin the work down by the dear
old spring. To do this so as to maze
charming picture Of 1t, let those who
have that spot in charge keep OPEN
eyes for lovely water plants and CAFE
fully uplift them with g0odly clunp
Of dirt about the roots and plant than
all about your spring, save where y,u
stand to drink. How blest you are
who can plant a clump of palmetbs
where their roots will be cool AID
moist, and thus have with you, H.
ways, a bit of the luxuriant beauty of
the tropics. And how much Tucker
If there is lily pond about, and yol
can dam up little pond and plant
them in it. Should there be a dead
or dying tree on the outskirts of your
grounds, bring yellow jasmine roots
and plant them all about it, or, If yot
think 1t wiser to have no poisonous
flowers where little hands can reach
them, get the beautiful grapevines, G
bamboos, or any Of the scores OF beau
tiful creepers that festoon our woods
as for a perpetual fete. In almost e,-
cry part of Mississippi the wild cl,-
MATHS grows, and it is as beautiful
through the winter, with its mist-like
wreaths, as when laden with its stars
OF cleaning Wilderness. This would
be lovely trained over the rough walls
of the schoolhouse, but would not at
wise it. lest we make the picture pretty
enough to suit the frame we are going
to have
Perhaps, If you children knew thai,
in cities, rich people pay enormous
gums of money to get upon their lawns
the trees that you pass each day unne-
ticed. you would value them more
justly. Why, dogwood tree in soma
of our cities would bring people miles
to See it! And right here in Jackson
there is little holly tree in the center
of lovely lawn and it is joy to all
who pass daily, for it is a perpetual
Christmas tree" and its red berries
and glossy leaves brighten many q
gloomy day. Why, If we could, here
in Jackson, have on our lawns damp
and shaded nook, with the big-leaved
cowcumbers sheltering it, and waist
high ferns (such as most children in
the country can fnd) growing, rank
all over it-with paimettos and lilies
and oaly few of the thousands Of
plants that love to dwell by the water
We would be envied of all our neigh
bors, and almost content, with our gar
dens.
But | shall not take up more space
here on this subject, because you chill
dren know better than l what to plant