Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-09-27

~ YER since man began writing his
history down whether II might
be the story of some great deeds
IL or merely something his wife
wanted al the department cave
around the lush: since he first started
out to carve his thoughts with a stone,
with a stylus, with a quill and with a
metal pen, he has fastened upon some
certain few hours of the long. long day
and made them stand out far beyond
their other and more retiring brethren.
Dawn, the high beat of noon. the hour
Of sunset, u O'Clock; the fateful stroke of
midnight have figured in the fate of en-
pires. Kings have married and loved and
died and won battles-aIways it seems
with an eye one-haf directed toward the
things at issue and the other half on the
clock.
But tomorrow the honor of the day will
not lie with the hour when the sun leaps
over the hills OF Anacostia nor when 1t
sets beyond Arlington. To the busting
hour of 8 O'Clock the hour when man,
more sluggish than nature. begins his
daily toll. will go the palm, for when the
hour strikes 5000 school boys anG girls,
gay and Joyous, quick-eyed ard bright,
sluggish and Indifferent. glad or sulien.
will sit once more within the confines of
the clty'S schools ready to take up once
more the work of learning to become good
citizens OF the great republic.
True the virtual beginning of the school
year was Wednesday. But 1t was only
the preliminary details of the year that
took up the attention of the teachers and
scholars IN the few days that have al
ready passed. The engine of the school
machinery was oiled and groomed and
prepared for its nine months run last
week. but tomorrow the engineers in the
schooIhCuses Will put the fire under the
boiler and will start on the lorg journey
toward knowledge and good citizenship.
William Shakespeare. VIII is quite gem
orally acknowledged to have possessed
wonderfully complete knowledge and in
sight into the human mind has. in a
famous passage in LAS You Like It," i'm
mortaliZed :he schooIboy and his snail
like pace. Just So a modern singer. not
Shakespeare. but a singer withal. has
done his best TO immortaliZe the joys of
''readin' and 'riting' and 'rithmetic.'
Between the sad picture of the Avon
poet and that too joyous one Of the Amer
lean singer there is but middle course
for one To take who is looking for tAe alb
solute truth and nothing else.
Probably Mr.. Shakespeare was quite
not:ceab.y nearer the real truth Of the
matter than was the writer of the pOpu-
lar ballad, for there isn't any doubt that
the schoolbOy and his shining morning
face does 80 reluctantly TO school-for the
first few mornings az least.
But then while the hallelujahs which
accompany the announcement of the lat
est lessons in ere din. 'ritin'" etc are
not so loud as to endanger the dome OF
the Capitol with their conclusion, there
are circumstances which go with those
announcements that make school life
not too Respondent and gloomy
AS James Allen. il, who lives some
where in the northwest but who was
decorating the curb in front of the Force
School when approached by a reporter.
remarked about this quite veXing prob
lem:
school amt so bad. Schools all right
The only thing what any Teller can OBJ
ject 20 is study!n'. Gee, If they'd only let
us play bout four hours and then study
one that'd be fine"
But can't you imagine the boy whom
Mr.. Shakespeare depicted in a few words
Probably YOU don't think of him in dou-
blet and hose and jerkin. with a little
round cap. peaked like an Alpine summit,
with Ted feather in 1t. Probably you