The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-06-30

was among his scholars. and, after Z
number Of changes, finally at Geneva.
He wrote several books for children;
the most famous is his 'Colloquia,'
which has passed through innumer-
able editions, being used In schools
for three centuries after his time.
How is that for text books vitality?
1t Is supposed that this work was in
the schools in which Shakespeare re-
ceived his instruction.
Speaking of Shakespeare, the
worlds greatest dramatist, recalls his
friend, John Florio. The latter was q
Tuscan by birth, but after the access
sion of James 1. of England, he was
made tutor to Prince Henry and be-
came the personal friend of Queen
Anne, to whom he dedicated his fam
GUS translation of the essays of Mon
taigne, his best known work. Special
interest, by the way, attaches to this
translation, from the fact that of the
several copies of the first edition in
the British museum library one bears
the autograph of Shakespeare and an
other that Of Ben Jonson. 1t has been
suggested that Florio ia the original
or HOlOpernes, the pompous pedant of
Loves Labor Lost.V He died in
1926.
Strangely enough, there were some
parts of colonial America where al
most any sort of man was consider
ed good enough to teach.
1t Is asserted by the historians that
banished felons from England some
times took to the profession of teach
Ing In Virginia. Somewhere about the
middle of the seventeenth century,
Berkeley, the royal governor of Vir-
ginia. exclaimed: Thank God. there
are no free schools nor printing press
es, and l hope there will be none for
a hundred years." But there was then
going on the first established in North
America-that founded in 1884 by
Benjamin Sym, who devised 200 acres
OF land on the Pocoson river, with the
milk and increase of eight mich
cows" for the maintenance of learn
ed honest man to keep upon the said
ground free school,
should like to know the name of
the first teacher of this school, and
something of his methods. His name
has not come down to us, however,
neither have the particulars of many
of those who, even in the old-field
schools, so instructed land strapped)
the youth that Virginia was soon to
show up some of the most able soldiers
and statesmen.
We do not get all the information
we long for about the second college
established in America, William and
Mary; but there taught here a most in
teresting old pedagogue, John Camm
he was, and those who would know
more of him should read John Fiske's
"Old Virginia and Her Neighbors.
Washington was graduated from
the peoples college"-the old-field
school. His first.experience at school
was in Stafford county, opposite Fred
ericksburg, and his first teacher was
Hobby, the sexton Of the parish. While
Hobby was teaching the three RS, and
no doubt treating young George as
though very ordinary boy, he had
little idea that his own name would
be pleasantly recalled today in con-
nection with that of the great patriot.
Another of his teachers of reading,
writing and arithmetic-with a little
geometry and surveying-was Mr.. Viii
liams. His school was somewhat bet
ter than Hobby's, though both were
humble enough. A peculiar and for
tunate whim of fate is this-Hobby
and Williams, obscure and unlearned,
being as readily recalled as Ascham
and Florio, the crudite tutors of queen
and king!
The Dutch colony of New Neither