The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1914-11-25
DOLDRUMS.

Sounds innocent enough. 1t might
be a compound word of two parts
peculiarly attractive to children.
And then it would seem that the
first part is intended to appeal to the
little school girl while the latter is
intended to appeal to the little school
boy. Doll-drum. Well, what is a
doldrum? Here is the definition
that ten-year-old children are ex-
pected to comprehend: SAT the
Heat Equator the warm, lighv air
rises, and at a great height flows of
toward the polar regions of the
world. Immediately bordering the
Heat Equator, therefore, is a region
where the air is slowly ascending,
and where at the surface we have an
are of calms known as Doldrums."
This is a far cry from the innocent
little "dolls" and "drums" that
would be better suited to the COM
prehension of a ten-year-old child.
And then we have "Alluvial Fans"
"Peneplains," "Monadnocks,"
"Meanders," "Monsoons," Drum
lins," "Moraines' and so on, ad in
fnitum." Every one of these new
geographical terms has a definition
that would have made Socrates well
come the deadly hemlock if he had
to choose between it and their mas
terry. And yet these r the lessons
the State Board of Examiners have
set apart for t~en-year-old children to
learn.
And detritus. Well, the modern
geography couldn't have been writ
ten if this word had not been invent
ed. 1t adorns EVERY page. To the
modern geOgrapher it is a live thing,
amphibious in nature, creeping along
from mountain summit to sea level,
moving mountains and building up
islands in the sea. 1t is as compre-
hensive as the solar system, en-
bracing everything from a huge
bowlder down to clay or soluble salt.
The modern geographer seems to
have tried to keep pace with the
medical profession in discovering
new names and then inventing new
diseases to fit. Now and then one OF
this profession might be found who
finds it difficult to clearly define
some of these new medical terms.
They are invented by the big doctors
just to let the little doctors know
what a wide expanse of knowledge
there is between them. But let some
of the most learned of these who can
discuss learnedly of epithelioma, ap-
pendicitis, neurasthenia and the like,
tackle doldrums, penipiains. monad-
nocks, and all these varying condi-
tlons of earth, air and sea, and their
hack feathers will go up at once.
The modern geographer takes the
Bible literally when it says there are
some things known to babes that
may not be 'comprehended by the
wise and mighty.
Geography has undergone great
%evolutions in the last half century.
In olden times a singing geography
teacher would come around about
once a year and guarantee to teach
all the essentials of geography in
three weeks; and he did it. Then
came along in another period the old
fashioned teacher of the "Blue Back
epeller" type, who taught the chill
dren where Europe, Asia and Africa
could be found-that the Mississippi
river was the longest river in the
world and the Amazon the largest,
and that Africa's rivers were the
Nile, the Niger, White Nile, Blue
Nile, Zambezie and Congo" They
Taught the real things of geography
by asking a lot of sensible questions
appended to each lesson, and based
strictly on it.
The modern geography Just
touches in high places, rarely ever
coming closer to earth than the
snowcapped summit of Mt. McKin-
ley. 1t is more the geography of the
air than of the earth or sea or if if
gets down to the sea it doesn't dis
cuss anything less common than cur
ents or calms. Perhaps it is only
little in advance of the age, and is
intended to be studied in airships.
The modern geography defines as a
young river" a river that has kept
on It's course for something like six
million years, and as a ''young val.
ley" the Colorado Canyon, something
over a mile deep and less than thir-
teen miles wide in it's widest place,
having about as much the appear.
ance of a valley as the incision of q
cross-cut saw in a log. And then a
''young valley" that in all probable.
ity was there two million years be.
fore Adam tickled Eve under the