The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1914-07-16
BEEF AND: MUSCLE
Old Time Pedagogues Had to Be
Good Fighters.
In One School 1t Was the Principal
Duty of the Superintendent to Do
the "Lickisg," and He Liked
the Job.

When l was a boy said the old
uR2c1, according to the Topeka Capt.
tal, ID was considered necessary that
boy get licking at least once
month when he was at home and not
less than once a week when he was
at school.
Teachers were hired more on ac-
count of beef and muscle they carried
round than on account of what they
knew. The teacher who built up a
reputation for being able to lick any
boy up to the age of twenty-one had a
cinch on getting job teaching in the
winter.
There were several young fellows
who attended school every winter till
they were twenty-one, and it was the
common thing to give the teacher
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 cleaned out the bunch that gen
orally 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
outdoor 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, more than one
at time-he had the right under the
code that governed such cases to use
club.
"One winter / went to sort or
graded school. There were three
teachers, including the superintendent.
He didn't have to do much teaching.
His principal business was to do the
| licking, and l never saw man VINO
seemed to me to like his job better
than he did his. He had the finest as
sortment of seasoned gads | ever saw,
and for especially aggravated cases ne
had rawhide whip that was a holy
terror. He stood about six feet two
and weighed about 230 pounds, and he
wasn't fat at that. / think he could
|
made the boy strip off his 'wammus'
and swung that whip he could make
the stoutest heart howl. The other
| teachers we're rather good hearted
and didn't care to see the scholars
beat up, but If they didn't send about
so many up for lickings each week he
complained that they were loat1ng on
heir jobs and didn't amount to any
thing as instructors.
Nearly everybody in the school
made a solemn vow that when he
grew up he would lick that principal
within an inch of his life, but / never
heard of one of them doing 1T. l
heard of one boy who did keep his
pledge far enough to undertake 1t, but
he regretted it afterward.
He was about sixteen 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 'wammuses'-and then he took
down the cowhide. The marks of that
licking lasted on Bobs back for two
weeks. Right then and there Bob reg
istered his vow to lick that teacher.
He waited five years till he was TWEEN
ty-one then took some boxing lessons
from a man who claimed to have been
a prize fighter. Then he hunted up
his teacher, who was not teaching that
year. He was running farm. Bob
sort of figured to begin with that may
be the principal was growing old and
stiff in the joints, and, anyway, he
hadn't trained in boxing. Bob discov-
cred that he had made miscalcula-
ton about his former instructor being
muscle bound
when the fight was over Bob was
worse used I2 than he was that day
five years befoa. But he wasn't alto
gether discouraged. He decided to
wait five years more and then try 1t
again. He waited the five years and
hunted up the school teacher again,
but there wasn't any evidence Of de-
clining strength on his part. He was
about forty-five years old by that time,
but the way he blackened both of
Bob's eyes, mashed his nose and bat
tered him up was very discouraging to
Bob.
Bob never tried it again. Twenty
five years after that l saw the old
teacher. He was seventy years old
and we'll preserved, but he had
changed his ideas about school discip-
line. He married a schoolma'm when
he was about fifty. They raised quite
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 teacher he would have
the teacher prosecuted for assault and
battery, and If that didn't work he
would go after him with shotgun"
Marriage Mart.