The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1923-09-06

Upper Cut.
the most picturesQuely successful bit
of deyiltry in his varied record. Jim
Irwin put out his team, got his supper
and went to the meeting of the school
board.
The deadlocked members of the
board had been so long at Ioggerheads
that their relations had sway2d back
To something like amity. Jim had
scarcely entered when Con Bonner ad.
dressed the chair.
Mr.. President said he, we have
wild US t'night, a young man who nades
no Introduction to an audience in this
place. Mr.. Jim Irwin. He thinks we're
Dullheaded mules, and that all the
schools are bad. AT the proper time |
shall move thai we hire him FIR teach
er; and pinding that motion, / move
that he be given the floor. Ye've all
heared of Mr.. Irwin's ability as q
white hope. and know he'll be lis
tened to wild respect !"
Much laughter from the board and
The spectators. as Jim rose. He
looked upon il as ridicule of himself,
while Con Bonner regarded it as a
tribute to his successful speech.
Mr.. President and Gentlemen of
the Board" said Jim. I'm not going
10 tell you anything that you don't
know about yourselves. You are SIM
ply making a farce of the matter of
hiring a teacher for this school. You
know. and | know, that even if your
silly deadlock is broken by employing
a new candidate, the school will be
the same old story. 1t will still be the
school it was when | came into it a
little ragged boy"-here Jim's voice
grew d little husky-"and when | left
it. a bigger boy, but still as ragged as
ever"
There was a slight sensation in the
audience, as if, as Con Bonner said
about the knOck-down, they hadn't
thought Jim Irwin could do it.
Well" said Con, you've done well
TO hold your own"
I'm all the years | attended this
school," Jim went on, ~ never did a
bit of work in school which was
economically useful. No other pupil
ever did any real work of the sort
farmers boys and girls should do. We
copied city sch0ols-and the schools
we copied are poor schools. We made
bad copies of them, too. If my of you
three men were making a fight for
what the Country Life commission
called a new kind of rural school, I'd
say fight. But you aren't. You're just
making individual fights for our ia
vOrite teachers"
Jim Irwin made a somewhat lengthy
speech after the -awkwardneSs wore
off. He adjured Bronson, Bonner and
Peterson to study his plan of a new
kind of country school-in which the
work of the school should be CORE
lated with the life of the home and
the farm-a school which would be
in the highest degree cultural by be-
ing consciously useful and obviously
practical.
Sharp spats of applause from the
useless hands of Newton Bronson
gave the final touch of absurdity to a
situation which Jim had felt to be
ridiculous all through. Had it not
been for Jennie Woodruf's "Humph !"
singing him, had it not been for the
absurd notion that perhaps, after they
had heard his speech, they would
place him in charge of the school, and
thof hn rnfohk ~ ILL 81 a. ro-oz4Is--
really important in 1t, he would not
have been there. AS he sat down, he
knew himself a dreamer. The nodding
board Of directors, the secretary,
actually snoring, the bored audience
restored the field-hand to a sense Of
his proper place.
1--WE have had the privilege of lis
said Con Bonner, rising, ito a
great speech, Mr.. Prisidint. Maxim q
good spache Is one thing, and teach
ng a good school is another, but In or
Ter to bring this matter before the
BOARD, / nominate Mr.. James E. Irwin,
he Boy Orator of the Woodruff dis
riot, and the new white hope, rr the
OBJ of teacher Of this school, and I
move that when he shall have received
majority of the votes OF this board.
he secretary and prisidint be In
thructed to enter into a contract with
i'm fr the comm yesr." +,
The president followed usage when ,
e said: If there's no objection, 1t
I'LL be so ordered. Prepare the bal
ITS for a vote on the election of teach I
r Mr.. Secretary" I