Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1910-12-06

II
Give the teacher her due
For her heart IL true-blue,
And with more than undergraduates
| She labors for you.
| She has more than her share
OF dull, nerve-racking care;
Let all mothers appreciate,
And help her to bear.
Think of her evening hours
The waste Of vital pow'ra,
While those long rows OF rankcarus
Her attention devours.
Think Of the anxious night
On what Il due to right,
When some trouble In school makes
OF life Q weary fight.
Put your arms around her,
Let your love surround her,
And fortify her soul 'gainst the
Trials that wound her.
Give the teacher her duel
Her hearts warm and true
May good angels guard her life.path
Its steadfast way through!
Many a time have heard mothers OF
small families of children speak like this:
20. dear! l shall be so glad when school
begins and these children are out of the
way; they have worn me to FRAGILE
this vacation"
Now, II three or four of the little dar.
lings can wear a mother TO fraZzle In
three months, what must become of the
teacher, who perhaps has forty of them
to contend with? She must be frazzled
out entirely and in danger of annihila-
ton before the end of the school year,
surely.
The old saying that Education begins
at homew seems to me true one-and
especially is it true In regard to teach
ing the evil consequences of the use OF
intoxicating liquors and of tobacco.
Where the fathers have bottle put
away in the cupboard for their own
special delectation, and keep barrels of
old cider in the cellar, and invite the
neighbors in, to sit and swill il down,
and the children have access to it at all
times, and nothing said of its injurious
effects, what can you expect the words
of teacher to accomplish? and where
the fathers smoke and chew tobacco,
and the children hear nothing at home
against it, and get used to the offensive
odor, what wonder is it that they taste,
and soon get the habit, of chewing? or
smoke, first cigarettes, then the strong
pipe? And they won't believe a word
when the teacher tells them that nico-
tine will poison their blood and make
them stupid and doltish. And when she
tells them that alcohol will destroy the
nerve tissues, weaken the muscles and
muddle the brain, they won't believe it
because their parents have not learned
the lesson themselves. What teachers
need is the backing and encouragement
of the people at home.
This brings little incident of the
long ago to my mind. My first term at
winter school was in 1854 at seven years
of age. The teacher (then called
"schoolmaster') was that man of blessed
memory, Ebenezer z. Kinds. l was
new to the restraint of schools, and apt
to laugh aloud at the least thing OF
ridiculous or amusing nature-and to
make it worse, sat beside Vic Nancy,
who would sit there as sober as grave
stone in a pasture lot herself, and wbis-
per the most mirth- provoking things in
my ear Mr. Kinds had spoken to me
several times, but so pleasantly that |
didn't give much heed to what he said,
but one day, when Vic was mp to her
tricks, laughed so loud that it startled
the whole school. Mr.. Kinds called me
to him, seated me on his lap and raised
his large hand as il to strike me with
great force right on top of my head;
Just as it descended, very gently on my
hair, cringed with fear and ran out my
tongue, which set the whole school to
Mr.. Kinds turned my face to
his, looked in my eyes moment and
laughed himself, but his voice was stern
when he said, "Alice! don't do it again"
When we got home from school one OF
the older children told my mother, who
was an old school teacher herself, what
had occurred, and she told me, very
earnestly, that I must learn to control
myself and not be trouble to the
or she would have to
punish me at home. That was the end
of laughing out in school, but not the
end of all the mischief my makeup con-
tanned.
Mr.. Kinds visited at our house several
times that winter, and he and my father
had some grand talks on temperance,
and both were interested in the water
cure" which was then new thing and
cause of much talk.
Where have read this | can't think,
nor who said it, but it is worth place
in memory: "If you want to preserve
dead man put him into alcohol; If you
want to kill live man, put alcohol into
him."
Here is another, "Rum may be all
right 10 it's place; but that particular
place grows harder to locate every day,
and it certainly is not in any sane mans
stomach"
In the cure of some human ills 1t has
been said that old cider is quite efficaci-
Gus, but remember a case where it was
decidedly the reverse and increased the
suffering. We had a cousin who was
nicknamed "Shanks," and my brothers
and be were very much of the time
together. All were at the awkward age,
from thirteen to sixteen, when arms and
legs seem to outgrow bodies. One
stormy day ia March when eggs were
plenty in the hay NOW, the boys were
together at the barn, and had a bout at
sucking eggs. The limit was dozen, |
think, and Shanks beat the crowd by
swallowing ten. They came in from the
barn and all went up into the shed
chamber where Frank had carpenter
shop and room for general tinkering-a
great resort on stormy days.
Shauks was soon in great distress at
the stomach and wanted the boys to do
something to ease him-and Win, 1.-THE
only doctor available, as they didn't
want their mischief known,) prescribed
two quarts of old cider, procured it from
the cellar and administered it to the sick
one, but no sooner was it down than the
gripes came on harder than before.
was running through the back porch
and on hearing the most terrific groans
and squawks coming from the direction
of the chamber, ran up the ladder and
peeped over a pile of culch near the
top, and there lay poor Shanks rounded
over an old wooden cheese cradle; his
long legs sprawling this way and that as
the pains drew on them, and the cow
hide boots on his feet scraping together
with every groan.
Why! those prodigious cow-hide boots
looked as il they might have contained
the essence of all the pains on earth. l
can see every crease in them now, all
shining with cold tallow, and let me
whisper this,) Shanks wore them so
large, because his feet were growing,
that sometimes be got turned around 10
them, and when he thought he had got
almost to the school-house found him.
self down to Macomber Corner, on the