The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-08-13
.F|L|AL DEVOTION
Loved Ralph Graves for
His Simple Faith in
God.
In His Great Admiration for High In.
teIIectuaIitY, Mr.. HOrner May not
Have Been Best Teacher for
Dull Boys.

To the Editor: ~ our communi-
| cation asking me to write a
short article on Some Great
Teachers 1 have known, / herewith
| acknowledge. But your parenthesis
restricting the Great Teachers" to
North Carolina teachers modifies
rather moderately my competency to
comply with your request.
Almost all the yeacs of my school
training after l was tffteen, both at
preparatory schools and college, were
spent outside of nay s5teBte consequent
ly have had little acquaintance with
North Carolina teachers.
But if while writing of the few
great North Carolina teachers that l
have known, | would feel it is for me
q shameful omission if | did not men,
ton my own father, Rev. n. c..
Hughes in that category True, he
did not have under his tuition any
large number of the youths of North
Carolina, nor do l think him specially
notable for large attachments in any
particular subject matter of education
nor was he conspicuous for genius in
the mere gift of teaching, but his
deep-seated and unWavering purpose t.
labor for the good of the youth of his
day and generation, in his broad and
far-searching conceptions of what
constitutes good education, in his per
sistency and faith in the educational
work which he himself undertook to
do. and which resulted in the estab-
liShment of Trinity school, and in his
power to impress upon kindred spir-
It's his own purpose, and conceptions,
and faith, he has always seemed to
deserve the title of a great teacher.
He was my first teacher may say
also my last--and him of couse /
knew well.
The only other North Carolina
teachers l have known well enough
to form any estimate of either as men
or as teachers were Mr.. James
Horner and Mr. Ralph Graves the
senior, and these l knew only for a
short time, and for the most part un-
der adverse circumstances.
[ was a sort of transient pupil
under "HOrner and Graves at Hills
borough, from March till June in the
year 1874. In the fall and winter of
1875 l was employed by them for a
short while as teacher to relieve Mr..
Horner, who was then in broken
health and spirits, and in the late
spring of the following year after the
dissolution of the firm, / was again
employed to relieve Mr.. Graves at
HillsbOrough, who had also failed in
health and was with him in his last
IL.
| repeat that | knew neither of
these gentlemen at his best, but even
from such limited knowledge and I'M
der such unfavorable conditions, |
can fully concur in the general Opin-
ion that ranks them both among the
great teachers of North Carolina
AS teacher of the languages, par
ticularly of Latin Mr.. Horner had one
habit which my own experience in
Valuable-the constant reiteration of
the elementary forms of a language
until they became almost a sponta-
neous effiuence of the mind I re-
member with pleasure with what rap
idity and accuracy his crack" boys
could spout out all the forms of the
Latin verb. / remember with amuse-
ment that whenever boy would
make the slightest trip or hesitation
in this recitation, Mr., Horner would
shout out, next, next, next" some
times to the end of the line and around
again to the starting point, always till
he struck another crack boy, and al
ways to the utter bewilderment of
the ignorant and the inattentive
1t occurred to me, when l was I'M
der him, that he was a famous teach
er for bright and ambitious boys, but
not a good teacher for boys who were
naturally slow or dull Not that he
was ever unkind, but the brilliancy
of his own mind and his great admira-
ton for high intellectually in other
seemed to me to put him somewhat
out of the sympathy with intellect of
the poor fellow who had no natural
gifts. But as a man, ali his boys, /
think, loved him. The bigness of his
heart was in good proportion to the
bigness of his bodily frame. and he
was habitually kindly, genial, and af-
fable alike to the Oldest and youngest
the brightest and the dullest. And
ever since 1 first knew him the men
tai vision of the towering figure, the