The Colfax gazette. [volume] (Colfax, Wash.) 1893-1932, 1906-03-30
SPLENDID WORK OF THE INSTITUTE
Hundreds OfEducatOrS Gather to Take Part
in the Most Successful Meetings Ever
Held in Whitman County.

The most successful teachers institute
ever held in Whitman county is in pro
gress this week with an attendance 81
several hundred teachers and prominent
educators. All week tie high scho0
auditorium, the court room and the
various offices and studies where section
work and special conferences have been
held, have been filled with earnest work
ers.
Among the special features of the week
was the reception given Monday evening
at the court room by the teachers OF
COlfax and the athletic entertainment
given at the opera house Wednesday
night by the high school athletic associa.
ton. Both were unusually successful
and highly entertaining to the visitors
The program was carried out AZ pub.
Iished in The Gazette. The closing ses
slOns will be held today. Officers are to
be elected and q business meeting will
wind up the series Of highly instructive
meetings
At the reception given by the teacher5
OF DOlfaX to the visitors, Mayor Daven-
port made the address of welcome.
Much to the surprise of his audience
the mayor set up the claim that he was
house and the first school district in Col
lax. 1t was an entertaining story when
ne related how those teachers taught
school during the week and preached
sermons on Sunday. After asking the
indulgence Of the audience for the use OF
the personal pTOnOun the mayor ex-
planned that he was compelled to refer
to his own early experiences and said,
in part:
1t is a pleasure to welcome at this
time the friends Of education who are
met il tie interest of q cause to which
20 many III the past have consecrated
their time and talents.
History has recorded the patient self
sacrifice of many who have placed their
all upon the altar Of education, even to
life itself | refer TO the pioneer edu-
Gators and advance guards of civiliza-
tion in THE great northwest
From the sacrifices Of the Wbitmans,
the SnadiDEs and their cOmpatriots,
among whom We mention with reveren-
tiai pride Our own Father Eells" Of
bless memOry--ha- grown the civihza-
ton which is now our boast and pride
Our carly missionaries we're for the most
part college bred men. which evidences
tlOn and education 20 nand ID hand.
We OF today are reaping the fruits Of
the devotion and loyalty to truth of a
martyred host.
In early youth my one great ambition
was TO abtain college education, but
it was decreed otherwise The fact is,
that what little education did get was
under the most adverse conditions, After
vnc re n et-vr cob (
permitted to attend school in town.
where the only perceptibIe advantage
was the ability to exhibit a greater
number and variety Of stone bruises,
the rocky streets being peculiarly
adapted to their development. Besides
being the natural habitat OF the stone
bruiee, my native town afforded the
most ideal of swimming holes, both
above the mill dam and at the old
"drift," 20 | counted myself very fOrtu-
nate in having my lot cast amid such
favorable surroundings.
There we're DO graded schools in my
native village, one room answering all
the purposes of study and recitation ,one
teacher hearing all the classes from the
had mastered Webstcr's Elementary or
attained to the coveted eminence Of
Wilson's fifth reader.
My experience in the country school
though short in duration was interest
ing to a degree. 1t was here that under
the tuteIage Of Mr.. Pruett | mastered
the plishment OF ''sitting on moth
ing" Did you ever try it? 1t consists
in sitting against the wall on an ordin-
ary chair with the chair eliminated, the
law Of gravity being overcome by the
near proximity OF stout hazel switch
in the ready hand Of the professor.
| often wonder if the boys Of today
have as much real fun as the boys of the
Sixties and seventies" had. The
warm swimming b Jles so convenient and
inviting. Are there any like them today?
Do boys now make a record of three or
more separate and distinct sweethearts
in one school term, each succeeding one
far more enhancing than the one before,
and each one in turn SO absolutely
essential TO his happiness that life would
be a blank without her?
If you cannot answer these and other
like questions from actual experience,
you have lost much Of the real pleasure
Of living, and there is a VOID in memory
which nothing else can fill.
Especial interest was attached to the
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