Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1907-05-22
SCHOOL DAYS Of THE LONG AGO.
THE HOLLY SPRINGS BOYS USED TO DUCK
THE TEACHER Ir He DIDN'T "TREAT."

Holly Springs, May 2l.-Editors Cou-
rier: There is quite difference in this
community now and thirty or forty years
ago. We'll can 1 remember when this
whole settlement consisted of four per-
manent settlers--C., s., l.. and G. Al,
Of these gentlemen were heads of large
families-MosTLY boys and girls.
Our school house then was different
from the one we have now. 1t WAS built
of logs and not very high, and looked
more like a pile of timbers than house.
l have seen this building ohock full Of
young ladies and men, especially on
rainy days, az all could 20 when it rained
or showed. ">.... ..... .
The house had one door in one end
and an open fireplace in tho other. The
windows were long notches, two on
either side. So you see we didn't have
any too much light. The ssats were
mt le out OF logs. split in the middle,
and the split side turned up. The legs
were all the same length-that is, the
bench legs were But all this did not
hinder Us from having good time.
Our teachers were good men and dis
charged their duties. But it was so diff
ferent from the present. Why, Messrs.
Editors, have seen some of the biggest
cases tried in this house you have ever
heard of, and that wasn't the worst of it.
IT your sentence was hard you had no
chance to appeal. You walked out, and
the ten acher lid tho rastt W. hol ...,
one protector, and that was the top of
the house. The roof was 80 low that it
stopped the upward swing of the withe.
Ten was the number of stripes in most
cases, but the low roof would sometimes
bother the "court" and you would get
of with less, especially if the teacher
was tall man and his fist hit the boards.
But this didn't 60 on all the time.
Sometimes the school would run a whole
week without jar, and we would have
what we called "match spelling." In
those days we used the old blue ba ok
speller. Two Of the best scholars would
choose sides from all the pupils, and
then line up in two rows, facing each
other. The teacher would "give out"
and If one missed word he took his
seat, and 30 on until all were down but
one, and he got the apple.
We did the best we could to make il a
place of learning. We would march,
play cat and town ball, roley hole, etc.
We had no bell to call us in, but the
teacher would holler Books" 30 loud
you could hear him a mile.
Then we had what we called "the last
day of school," This was the day most
talked of by the boys. We had rule
that every teacher must "treat" on that
day. If he refused the boys would take
him to the creek and "duck" him. This
we never had to do, as most of them
would treat after riding them on a rail
for while. What would the boys of
to-day think if they were to sec a
teacher, tied hand and foot, swinging on
a pole and riding around over the play
ground, enjoying himself on the last day
of his school? This would be An odd
feature of the present age.
1t is to be remembered that the chill
dren of those days did not have books
and papers like the children of to-day.
We had no pretty picture cards for book
marks. A common playing card sold
readily for one dozen of apples. The
picture on the heading of The Keowee
Courier was worth one quart of chest
nuts, or one-half of it would buy a nice
clay pipe, and if the picture of the wo-
man was on the half you were trading
you could get stem "to boot"
If this misses the waste basket I will
give sketch of boyhood life in the Holly
Springs settlement forty years ago. c.