Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1914-11-05
BY RICHARD sPiLLANE.

number OF successful men to rather
emphasize the fact that they had
little schooling in their youth. Maybe
they picked up more in the days OF the
stone bruise and the blue-back speller
than they realized. Maybe they are OF
the class who learn in flight and to
whom the schoolroom drill means lit
tle.
Because John A. is 80 much like
Johnny, John A. Hill always has been
Johnny Hill. He was born near the
top of the Green mountains In Yer
mont on Washington's birthday, In
1855. His father was a wheelwright
They make pretty good wagons in
that part of America and the average
wheelwrlght is likely TO be a pretty
good mechanic In 1868 the Hills
went out to Wisconsin and year later
the family moved to Iowa.
When John A. Hill was eight years
old he went to work. AS a barefoot
boy with only shirt and a pair of
trousers he shepherded a flock of 300
sheep. There is a city now on the land
those sheep browsed over. 1t is not
very big, but everybody in Floyd coun
ty and various other counties of Iowa
knows 1t. It is called Charles City.
The lad got no schooling then. There
were no schools near by. The nearest
nelghbor was three miles away. In all
Iowa there were not as many people
as there are now in one county. The
boys mother died before he was eight
years old and late in 1866 his father
took him back to Wisconsin. There
he got little schooling. He worked
in the summer and in the winter for
five terms he trudged through the
snow and the sleet and the cold to a
country echoolhouse and, to the
despair of his teachers, showed little
or no interest in his studies. 1t was
not that his mind was not bright He
had picked up reading, writing and
arithmetic in a rush. But he could not
tolerate the monotony of the school
rom. He was eager to read and was
most inattentive on that account. The
stuff he read was not what a school
ASaNuCi "OO4u dPpiONGs he ulIlt
novel was the most absorbing of liter
ature to this boy. When he did not
have one OF those things to read he
tried to follow the teachers directions,
but his mind strayed to other subjects
One Teacher Understood Him.
or the various teachers he had.
only one. a Mrs. Mann. sympathized
with him or understood the lad. She
caught him one day reading a dime
novel. He was eleven years old at the
tine. He had been ordered not to
read such trash. but had wilfully dis
obeyed the injunction. Mrs. Mann
looked at the lurid bit of literature.
then she looked at the boy.
Finish It," she said, "and when
school is dismissed at four o'clock, you
are TO stay in"
Il was the rule then to neither spare
che rod nor spare the boy. and Johnny
Hin and all the other pupils expected
Johnny Hill was going to get rousing
good licking. Instead of whipping that
child, Mrs. Mann sat down alongside
of him and told him she wanted him
to tell her the story that was in tina;
novel. He Numbered through the first
chapters of the tale as best he could in
his agitation. The story was about In
dians. She stopped him there and
wanted to know what tribe Of Indians
He didn't know. She made him lool
II up and then she told him a lot about
the tribe. There was a marvellous es
cape of white man from the Indians
because the white man had rubbed hii
horse with phosphorus and the In
dians thought it was something super
natural. The school teacher explained
what phosphorus was and then mad
Johnny Hill proceed.
Taught Him How to Read.
The boy, treasured, went along witt
his tale with little more spirit Whel
he finished the woman told him tina
he had done pretty well. There wer
lot of things in the book that he di
not understand, however, and whic
he was skimming over. She advise
him never to read In that way, but a
ways TO ascertain what the meanin
of thing was. Therein lay the prof
ia reading. Then she told him that b
was strange boy, one not to b
Judged as other boys were judged an
that If ever he got an education
would come through his inordina,
desire for reading
Reading is good for you, my boy
she said. You've finished one move
I'm going to bring another one to yo
tomorrow"
There was no novel reading at hon
for Johnny Hill. His father did NJ
permit it. But the boy somehow ma
aged to put in hours a day with
book. Without his knowledge III
school teacher weaned him away fro
dime novels. She brought one thrillir
story to him. II was tale OF the Sc
After he read It she made him 8
dAusp anH bal fh.