Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1914-06-16
Mistellaneuus Grading.
OLD TIME TEACHERS
Were Failures Unless They Could
Lick" Pupils.

Lick" Pupils.
When | was a boy" said the old
timer. 1t was considered necessary
that a boy get licking at least once 4
month when he was at home and not
less than once week when he was at
school," says the Topeka Capital.
Teachers were hired more on ac-
count of beef and muscle they carried
round than on account Of what he
knew. The teacher who built up rep
utation for being able to lick any boy
up to the age of 81 had cinCh on get
ting Il job teaching in the winter.
There were several young fellows
who attended school every winter till
they were 81, and it was the common
thing to give the teacher a whirl just
to see if he was man enough for the
| job. If he came out second best he had
to give up the school, but if he clean
ed out the bunch that generally settled
it. and he had no more trouble after
| that.
| Some of the young men were as big
as the average sized teacher and some
| times bigger. Then they were used to
| out door work and were stout as young
bulls. The teacher was up against a
hard proposition but he had one thing
in his favor. If the big boys double
teamed on him, that is, came on more
than one at time, he had the right
under the code that governed such
cases to use a club.
| "One winter went to a sort of grad
ed school. There were three teachers,
including the superintendent He didn't
have to do much teaching. His prin-
| cipal business was to do the licking,
and ] never saw q man who seemed to
me TO like his job better than he did
his. He had the finest assortment of
seasoned gads l ever saw, and for es-
pecially aggravated cases he had a
rawhide whip that was a holy terror.
He stood about six feet two and weigh
ed about 22O pounds. and he wasn't fat
at that. think he could lift about half
a ton and when he made the boy strip
off his 'wammus' and swung that whip
he could make the stoutest heart howl.
The other teachers were rather good
hearted and didn't care to see the school
ars beat up, but if they didn't send
| about so many up for lickings each
week he complained that they were
loafing on their jobs and didn't amount
to anything as instructors.
| Nearly every boy in the school
made q solemn vow that when he grew
up he would lick that principal within
an inch of his life, but l never heard of
one Of them doing it. heard of one boy
who did keep his pledge far enough to
| undertake it, but he regretted it after
| ward.
He was about 16 when he got the
licking that burned into his soul, also
into his hide. The principal had an
extra crouch on that day and the first
gratifying thing that happened to him
was the sending of Bob Williams up
for punishment. He made Bob take off
his 'wammus-all the boys wore 'wam
muses'-and then he took down the
rawhide. The marks OF that licking
lasted on Bob's back for two weeks.
Right then and there Bob registered
his vow to lick that teacher. He walt
ed five years till he was 81, and then
took some boxing lessons from man
who claimed to have been prize fight
er. Then he hunted up his teacher who
was not teaching that year. He was
running a farm. Bob sort OF figured to
begin with that maybe the principal
was growing old and stiff in the joints,
anyway he hadn't trained In box
ing. Bob discovered he had made
miscalculation about his former in
structOr being muscle bound.
when the fight was over Bob was
worse used up than he was that day
five years before. But he wasn't alto
gether discouraged. He decided to wait
five years more and then try it again.
He waited the five years and hunted
up the school teacher again. but there
wasn't any evidence of declining
strength on his part. He was about 45
years old by that time, but the way he
blacked both Of Bob's eyes, mashed his
nose and battered him up was very
dscouraging to Bob
Bob never tried it again Twenty
five years after that l saw the old
teacher He was 10 years old and we'll
preserved, but he had changed his ideas
about school discipline. He married a
Schoulma'm when he was about so.
They raised a family and he told me
that if any teacher would beat one of
his boys the way he used to beat up
the boys when he was q teacher, he
would have the teacher prosecuted for
assault and battery, and if that didn't
work he would go after him with n
shotgun"