The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1921-08-29

Writes Of Moses Waddell and Old
y II Willinstsn.

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(William Banks in Columbia State,
In these days of efficiency" "pro.
duction" and such like, do We give
full credit to the efficiency of the men
who dared the wilderness and its per
lis to give US the great state that we
have? These reflections are caused
by a consideration Of the 'buried cit
les" of South Carolina. Among them
is old Wilmington. Standing in the
door of the general store Of Covan
& Kennedy, at the new town Of VIII
lington, and looking due west, the
eye comes to rest upon the ensemble
at q distance Of mile, of a patriar-
chais isgrove of white oaks-the site
Of one, Of the most famous seats of
instruction in the whole history of
the United States. Here at. old Viii
lington were taught by Moses wad-
dell a great number of young men
whose names subsequently We're EN-
blazoned upon the pages Of our his
,tsry--John' G. Calhoun, William a..
Crsyford Of Georgia, who SO nearly
achieved the presidency Of the Unit
edzstatss;s George McDuffie, Hugh S.
Legare, James Il. Pstigru, Pickens
Butler, whoasat with Calhoun in the
United States senate; Patrick Noble,
Bull, Dawson, Walker, Marshall,
Shields, Simkins and LongsEeet; of
this state, together with Cobb, Gil
mer, Appling and other towering
Georgians. All, the efficiency Of those
days, and the product! Two former
pupils atone time representing South
Carolina in the United Statees sen
ate. Incompatible. ,''.'>
All that remains of old Wilmington
is the record of the great men and
good who themselves have passed in
TO history more than half a century
gone. The heritage Of such man as
Moses Waddell, and the influence Of
his life rpon the history of the en-.
tire South for later he became pres
ident Of the University Of Georgia
and his son chancellor of the Univeer-
sity of Mississippi-is priceless, yet
how little appreciated. The American
ism character of such men was due
TO the discipline under which they
had been reared and the same infex-,
ibility Of regard for principle; which
they imposed upon the youthful
mind. The so-called cultural stu
dies are laughed at today in compsr-
json with the practical and technical
but in those days at least there was
q place for the drilling, in Latin and
Greek. Latin grammar, studied me-
moriter, definitions of the parts of
speech. declensions and paradigms,
and conjugatiops, regular and irTegu-
lar, all committed to memory and as
familiar to the student of those days
as the rules of the baseball diamond
are to the normal boy of today.
Think of studying Latin in rhyme
from "Ruddiman's Rudiments of the
Latin Tongue" book of many ex-
pediments for the purpose Of aiding
the memory to overcome the stub
born obstacles Of ,syntax. And yet
the psyehiatrists of today think they
have discovered something new in the
mental tests they gave the recruits
coming into camp during the war. All
of those tricks and puzzles were
"small town stuff" compared with
the intricacies of "Rudiman's Rudi-
ments." The days of the old schools
have passed and the problem of the
day is teaching Gin the mass" and it
is a problem in which the foresight
ED educators would have the sympa-
Fthy of all who wish to see the mind
:Iof'the child developed properly. When
we think Of DR.. Waddell and his as
sociates having as many as 180
young men under their training at
one time, when we think. of the
soundness and the symmetry of the
finished product, we must confess
that there were giants among the
schoolmasters of those days.
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Let no one nispronounce the name