Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1940-05-17
Recollections of Boyhood Days
BY Eben Hearne

read from the Bible and the teacher
would explain the meaning and make
comments on the passage of scripture.
Never were words spoken with more
meaning than were the words of Sol
ONION when he said, Train up child
in the way he should go, and when ne
is old, he will not depart from it." 1
recall with great appreciation one
teacher that 1 had in Sunday School
who showed such devotion to the men
tai improvement of the members of
our class, that, being printer by
trade, he furnished us with the first
printed lesson leaves ever used in
our Sunday School. He, the late Mr..
George H. Mock, was the foreman on
our town paper, "The Record and
Gazette, for some time. He later
went to Baltimore and became the
Superintendent of the Maryland State
Sunday School Union, and for several
years became very active in that as
ISOLATION. l have found by long ex-
perience the best way to become ia
miliar with the Scripture is to read
the Bible daily, to study the actual
text of the word and to attend faith
fully the preaching of the word. Par
ents should insist upon this method
for their children. We hear a great
deal about the Youth Problem. When
we come down to "brass tacks", this
problem lies at the door of parents.
The influence of the home is what
counts in the final analysis when we
consider the moral and spiritual in
terests of the young.
Now it is in place to give some ac-
count of my earliest school days. I
have very pleasant recollections of
them. The first school remember
was one that might be compared with
the proverbial Little Red School
House." It was one-story, two
room building and was located on an
eighth of an acre lot on Linden Ave-
nue., near Church or Third St., which
lot is now a roadway or prospective
town street adjoining the present
home of Mr.. and Mrs. George L..
Bounds. I started to school at eight
years of age and the teacher was
Miss Rose Humphreys, formerly of
Princess Anne, Maryland. She was
fine teacher. The schools were not
graded and the ages of pupils ranged
from six to eighteen years. learned
rapidly and in a little over two years
l was advanced into Primary Geo.
graphy, besides other elementary
branches. It is worthy of note that
Miss Humphreys later married the
late Mr.. Isaac Costen, of Dublin Dis
trict, Somerset County, Maryland.
The little school house was burned to
the ground a few years after l was
promoted to the Newtown Academy,
and at the time l entered the Acad-
envy the Public School System had
not been established in Maryland, but
the law was enacted soon after. The
Academy was located on the corner of
Maple Street and Clarke Avenue
where the Eagle Flour Mills now
stand. 1t was a story and half
building surmounted by a cupola in
which hung bell. My teachers there
were Edward w. Stevenson, John A.
Graves and Joseph Levin Mills. The
last named later entered the ministry
and joined the Maryland Annual Con-
ference of the Methodist Protestant
Church and filled a number of very
prominent pulpits of that denomina-
ton. The three named above were
excellent teachers and their work paw
ed the way for launching the build
ing and opening of the High School
in Newtown. I recall that Mr.. Stew
enson adopted novel way of punish
ing disobedient pupils. He hinged
two ordinary doors together and plac-
ed them in the corner of the room in
such position as to form COM
partment about three feet square. He
called it the "guard house." If two
boys deserved punishment, he station
ed one boy inside and the other boy
outside, the latter with an imitation
gun in his hand with which to guard
the entrance. I can testify to the
fact chat such form of punishment
was extremely irksome and in many
cases was effective.
The Fairgrounds were small and