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

vine of Virginia, who for over thirty
years sixteen of which We're spent as
principal of the academy eXerted the
widest possible influence in the state
He was u man of learning and OF a
compelling force. He was one VINO
knew how to combine SternnesS with
kindly soul. He made no COM
promises, set his duty high and lived
his professions. Under his manage
ment the academy thriVed as it had
not done before 1t out-grew in infu-
ence its locality. Pupils came from
many other States to attend. The
sixteen years in which Rev Nc
Pheeters-m q ID. ID. by the Uni
versity in 1819-waS at the helm, was
a period of honor and usefulness.
DR.. K. p. Battle, in his centennial
address on the city of Raleigh in 1892,
we'll caught the spirit and gives a
fine mental picture of that remarkable
man. / quote:
There was no more influential man
in the State than DR.. McPheeters. Be
sides his ministerial duties he was a
great power in education. Two years
after coming to North Carolina he was
elected a Trustee of the University.
His school received patronage from all
parts of the South, from Virginia to
Louisiana. He was impartial in his
Kindness and his severity, as eXacting
with large boys as with small. Once
when a boy, almost ready to enter the
University, presuming on his size, and
possibly on his being the son of the
great Colonel Polk, ran from the
threatening rod in fun speed towards
home, the Doctor pursued, and in
sight of the aWe-Struck pupils captur-
ed the fleeing youth and administered
such a tanning as was the source of
abundant good to the future Bishop
of Louisiana and Lieutenant General
Of the Confederacy. The Bishop
thanked him afterwards, saying that
it was the turning point of his life.
"Dr. McPheeters had some able as
Among his pupils were some of the
most eminent men in the land, who all
testified to his superiority. Among
them / recall is mentioned a young
emigrant from Scotland, who was
married while a citizen of Raleigh and
afterwards became one of the most
distinguished teachers in the South,
Rev. Alexander Wilson, on whom our
University conferred the degree of
Doctor of Divinity in 1889. James
Grant who graduated at our Univer-
sity in 1881, by teaching in the same
school, raised the money which en-
abled him to emigrate to Iowa, become
an eminent lawyer and judge, and
near the close of his life to be a bene-
factor of his Alma Mater"
The Old Time Regime.
Speaking of the old-time schools
and the teachers, DR.. Battle says
Education was not made easy in
the old-time schools for boys. Their
teachers were faithful and learned, as
rule, but the methods were not cal
culated to make learning and litera-
ture popular with the rising genera
ton. People believed that teaching
and medicine We're alike in the respect
that the more nauseous they We're the
greater good was effected. Most
teachers ruled by fear rather than by
love The combined din of body
wrapping switch and bowling boys was
often heard from the school room. AS
2 necessary consequence schools were
odious to the pupil. The average
scholar" as he was called looked on
any youngster who claimed to love
school as a devotee of the Father of
Lies rather than of the God of Truth,
and as seeking unholy pretenses to OBJ
tain the praise of the teacher. The
books taught were, as a rule, without
and expressed in language
above childish comprehension. 1t
strikes one With establishment to see