The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-08-13

generation to another But the teach
ing, generally was solid. l would not
commend the old methods of teach
ing the alphabet; but, in some uneX-
plainable manner, the little ones soon
learned their letters" / do not be-
lieve the story told of a teacher in
those days, who, it is said, handed the
old Webster's blue back speller to a
little five year old boy who had just
been entered as a pupil, and told him
to go to his seat and learn the abe s.
But, once in while, there was fool
for a teacher.
One thing may be said among
others, in praise of the old pedagogue
and that is that more boys were
taught to spell correctly then than
now. In these latter days | have
wrestled with more Savagely barbarlc
spelling in the exercises handed ln
in one month, than | had fifty years
ago. Some of these words indicate
one thing-it shows. that the boy of
to- day has an inventive genius in ar
ranging letters in a word that was ut
terly unknown to boys in the forties
of the nineteenth century For in
stance, he might spell the word "cof-
fee" thus, "kaughphy.
Arithmetic was taught thoroughly.
Generally speaking; | remember well
how much pains we took in keeping
our Arithmetic books neat and all the
examples correct. This custom has
fallen into "innocous deSuetude. Each
pupil eve called them scholars in
those days. was required to copy
every example after it was correct
ed if wrong, into a large blank book.
Rummaging in a heap of old letters
books and newspapers, in my grand
fathers house, last week. came
across several of these books. The
writing and figures were as clear and
as easy to read as if copied into them
six month ago; but the work was
done during the closing years of the
eighteenth century
Penmanship was far superior to
that of to-day though we had no rules
to guide u.s. No one was considered
as thoroughly qualified to teach UNI
less he wrote a good hand" The
teacher "set" all copies in q writing
book, made at home by folding a
quire of foolscap paper into quarto
volume, sewing through the centre and
cutting the leaves Or, if the pupils
father could or would buy a copy slip
Resembling modern bankcheck
book in size and shape. These copies,
beautifully written, or rather printed,
copy being repeated on every line,
to the bottom of the page. 1t was from
one of these slips that. | learned that
| Many men of many minds, many
birds of many kinds was an indis-
putable truism. Also, from same
source, l received the statement of the
fact that Birds of a feather flock to-
gether" (This was written in 1844O
We wrote with goose quilts. The
teacher carried. habitually in his vest
pocket a small knife with one blade,
made specially for mending these
quill pens. Hence the name pen
knife" When, about the date men
toned a bove, the famous CHOU s
steu pens were offered for sale at the
bookstore, there was great rejoicing
though it required much skill and
practice to prevent the sharp point
from catching in the paper and spat-
tering the page with a small shower of
ink. Not one single blot was allowed
to go unnoticed and, sometimes not
unpublished We had many fine pen
man in our school, who followed copy
beautifully, the best being the late
Rufus L. Patterson. father of our ex-
cellent Commissioner of Agriculture,
Mr.. S. l.. Patterson l looked upon
Rufus as the most gifted man in the
State-he wrote such a beautiful
hand. Theodore Bryant Kingsbury
was a close second.
The debating society, always en-
couraged by the teacher, was a source
of pleasure, profit and fun. The quer-
| les were not very often selected with