The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-09-24

Testament from which we always read
a morning lesson before the active
duties OF study and recitation began.
The selection chosen by the teach
er was that relating the incident of
Ananias and Sapphira and their hypoc-
risy in pretending to contribute all
their possessions to the comomn fund.
With solemn voice and slow the teach
er, with significant glanceS toward the
front bench, called the attention Of
the school to the fact that these old
time disciples had not lied in SO many
words or as it were to man but to
the Holy Ghost. which was the greater
offence. If ever a scripture applica-
ton were to the point and effective, it
were this and the --ouno conscience
not yet so calloused by sin, got in it's
sharpeSt lashes and we would gladly
have welcomed the carreSSee of teach
erS keeneSt cedars could they have
wiped out the recollection of that holi-
day bought with such a price.
This teacher was Miss Lucilla r.
Harris, the oldest sister of my Uncle
Geo. Badger Harris, a former member
OF the Henderson bar.
My next teacher was Robt. w. Nc
Cormick, a man of superior culture
and most refined and gentle disposi-
IlOn WHO ny Ills ScHllc dIShIty NOII
the respect of his pupils. He seemed
pleased with the entrance examination
he gave me and | recollect it as a
great era in my life that the first
work he gave me was lesson in
Latin grammar. | was to do that
the boys about my age had already
had a half year in it and it was de-
desirable that / should give special
attention to this study and catch up
with them, which / had the proud
satisfaction of accomplishing by the
end OF the term.
This teacher did not live to conduct
the neighborhood school long, his frail
body yielding to the ravages of that
dreadful diseaSe-pulmonar con-
sumption.
Mr.. Joseph Venable, of the teacher
family of Venables, in Virginia, next
took up the reins of government and
proved himself to be an able teacher,
preparing we'll in the languages and
high in mathematics. AS an illustra-
ton of how thoroughly he drilled his
pupils | remember he was accus-
toned to review on Friday all the
studies of the past week, in fact it
was regular review day. On oen oc-
casion he heard our class in review
of Andrews and Stoddard's Latin
grammar from cover to cover, orally,
and there was very little tripping; nor
to this day have / forgotten many of
those declensions and conjugations,
rules and exceptions. The forty years
have not effaced from my memory
the twenty-siX propositions followed
by the accusative and the eleven by
the ablative-the very appearance of
the print and this place upon the
page.
My recollection of my next school
is peculiarly pleasant not small fac
tor in which was the association at
a somewhat impressible age with a
number of bright girls as my school
fellows. / remember that we boys
found them no mean rivals in the
studies in (which we had prided our
selves that boys We're prone to excel.
But this teacher, Mr.. Samuel Venable,
of Virginia. another member of the
distinguished teacher family, was pc
culiarly adapted to teach girls whom
he regarded almost as his own chill
dren. While he was somewhat ad-
vanced in age he was young in spirit.
He was very fond of fishing. knowing
well the art of beguiling the finny tribe
to their own destruction by Turing bait
prepared in the form of a kind of ash
cake of flour with cotton worked up
i'm it to hold it together and prevent
its readily dissolving and washing
away. With this bread he would bait
a deep hole in the mill pond for quite
a week and then some morning be-
fore sunrise we would be quickly
ranged along the bank with lines in,
bailed with worms, the hook just
clearing the bottom and pole stuck in
the bank. There was no cork and this
necessitated careful attention to the
end of the pole, which was usually
a long springy reed, to prevent the
round-fish or sucker taking the bait
unawares. We never fished later than
nine o'clock in the morning, since it
is a rare thing for a fish of that species
to bite later than that hour. Some
times four of US would have upward
of forty to our string, weighing from
oen-half to two pounds EACH
This good soul, our teacher, was
wont to walk about the school grounds
quietly talking to himself and one of
his favorite quotations casually over
heard was these lines-from Cowper's S
Task | think:
ooh for a lodge in some vast wilder
ness,
Some boundless contiguity of shade,
ceit,
OF successful or unsuccessful war
Might never reach me more"
This being near the close of the
War Between the States, was quite
apropos and it suited his quiet medita-
tive nature.
Some one venturing to ask him why
ne thus talked to himself was re-
warded with this answer for his te-
merity: why for the want of some
person to talk to-
1t was the habit of old teacher
to drum with his fingers tips upon
the rounds of his chair while he sat
his billygoat whiskers
waving under the vigorous action of
his Jaws in chewing-hi thoughts far
off perhaps with his favorite classics.
He was not so much absorbed how
ever. on one occasion as to fail to no.
tice that some youth was softly imitat-
ing the sound of his fingers upon the
chair round.
Calling the attention of the school
by a significant glance toward his
imitator he aptly told the anecdote of
the young Athenian student who aped
his preceptor by leaning upon his staff
when he arose to address an assem-
hIv and who was rebuked by his elder