The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1913-02-12

leader of his fellows or to keep
abreast of the times, of the loss
that comes to the state and the
community from his lack of
knowledge and ability; and all
these things are indeed worth
considering. There is, how
ever, another question of equal
Importance with any of these
to consider-what must it mean
to a man to be unable to share
in the thought of the world, or
to commune with other men,
only in so far as he can talk
with those he meets?
Must he not feel at times al
most as if he were among be-
ings of a different class who
have powers and pleasures of
which he can know nothing?
1t must be so. The illiterate
man, no matter how fine his
character, or how strong and
clear his mind may be, is, by
virtue of his inability to read,
placed, to certain extent, in a
position below that of the men
who have this ability, and worst
of all, is doomed, as long as he
is illiterate, to remain in this
position.
Perhaps no stronger state
ment of the position such a man
occupies can be found any
where than liz Charles Dickens
account of 10, the street sweep
er, in BLACK House,"
ut must be a strange state
to be like 10! To shuttle thru
the streets, unfamiliar with the
shapes, and in utter darkness as
to the meaning of those mys-
terious symbols, so abundant
over the shops, and at the
corners of streets, and on the
doors, and in the windows! To
see people read and to see peo-
pie write, and to see the post
man deliver letters, and not to
have the least idea of all that
language-to be, to every scrap
of it, stone blind and dumb! 1t
must be very puzzling to see
the good company going to the
churches on Sunday, with their
books in their hands, and to
think (for perhaps 10 does
think, at odd times) what does
it all mean, and if it means any
thing to anybody, how comes it
that it means nothing to me?
1t must be strange state
to see the horses, dogs
and cattle go by me, and to
know that in ignorance | belong
to them, and not to the superior
beings in my shape"
Is not this tragedy, real
tragedy, this deprivation from
any reasoning person, for all
his life, of a source of strength
and delight shared by all those
about him? The burning words
of grim old Thomas Carlyle
might have applied directly to
10:
THAT any man should die
ignorant, who had the capacity
for knowledgc--this call
tragedy, though it were to hap
pen more than twenty times in
the minute, as some computa-
tors say it does"
And they apply, gentle read
er, to that boy and girl of your
own community who are grow
ing up illiterate, shut in by the
darkness of ignorance from all
the light struck out in the great
world by the thoughts and
dreams and deeds of all men
whom they do not personally
know.
1T may seem to you thing
to be sorry for that some pa
rent you know neglects to edu-
cate his children, but it is more
than that. 1t is tragedy-deep-
er and more pitiful than would
be any material loss that could
come to them. Under your
very eyes, those children are be-
ing doomed to a life in which
there will be no chance for them
to develop to the full ability
that that God has give nthem.
Right there beside you, those
boys and girls are being denied
the privilege of ever being what
other boys and girls may be.
Many persons fear compul-
sorry education; but is not COM
pulsory education better than
compulsory ignorance And