Thrashed by the Clerk

New York, 1895

Officers of Roslyn are looking for the members of the "Kettle Gang," who have recently entered a number of houses and committed petty thefts. The gang broke into the store of John F. Remsen and stole a barrel of cider and then walked into the butcher shop of A. Craft and threatened to clean out the place. They were set upon by a young clerk and thrashed.


The School War in Woodsburgh

The agitation of the proposition to establish a union free district school in Woodsburgh is likely to result in several slander suits. At the meeting held on Saturday night to vote on the question the citizens called each other forgers, liars and thieves.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, March 1, 1895, p. 1.

Local Chatauquas

1916

Going to Chautauqua formerly meant taking a railroad trip to western New York. Now it may mean taking a street car to a grove somewhere in the town's outlying district, and returning home for supper. People originally had to go to Chautauqua; now Chautauqua has been brought to them.

The most casual reader of small town newspapers is struck by the number of Chautauquas either now in progress or preparing to open their seasons in various localities. Chautauqua week is a real event, social as well as educational. It brings the small community into touch with the great throbbing world of ideas. It is an education and an inspiration — as fine an example of university extension practice as can be found.

The original Chautauqua was established more than forty years ago on the banks of the lake whose name it took. For years that was all the Chautaqua there was. The influence of its sessions reached out through the publications of the organization and through its visitors but in no other way. Relatively few people, of course, could afford the time or the money to bring themselves into personal contact with it.

Now, however, some 200 Chautauqua assemblies exist in various parts of the country, each contributing to the education and upbuilding of its community through the course of lectures, sermons and other cultural offerings. Men recognized far and wide for their eminence in various fields of thought and activity make the rounds of these small Chautaquas, discussing politics, sociology, economies and the sciences and bringing their thousands of hearers into touch with the latest thought in many directions.

The Chautauqua and the county fair are valuable agencies of progress, through which much has been accomplished and more is to be expected. — Cleveland Plain Dealer.


A Convincing Argument

Policeman — What are you standing 'ere for?
Loafer — Nuffink.
Policeman — Well, just move on. If everybody was to stand in one place, how would the rest get past? — Tit-Bits.

Women Are Best Taught by Women

1901

Womanly graces of mind and heart are best taught by women. Nothing can make up for the lack of early mother love and mother care in a girl's life. The motherless daughter knows this too well. It is much the same in schools and colleges. Girls need the inspiration of a high type of womanhood always. They should have it before them at college, and they should also have while away from home the intelligent guardianship and guidance of woman instructors who command both love and respect. — Ada C. Sweet in Woman's Home Companion.

Fortunate Twentieth Century Girl

1901

It is indeed a good time for girls to live, and I think they should realize by whose efforts it became the "good time." Do they ever think what women and girls had to contend with before this time dawned upon the world and how much they owe to some of these same women?

Just think of it! The women breadwinners of the United States, by the report of the last census, count away up into the millions, and it is not so very long ago when not only the industrial avenues, but those of education as well, were closed to girls. Think of their lack of opportunity even half a century ago and contrast it with the present. What were the possibilities of education? Unless she happened to be the daughter of a family who believed in advance of the age that a girl had the brain and ability to learn and that education would not spoil her or make less of a woman of her and a family could afford to give her private masters she had to be content with the merest common school education, less even than children get now in the lower grades of the grammar schools, and even that was grudgingly bestowed upon them. — Sallie Joy White in Woman's Home Companion.

Talk — The Manner of It

1916

The high schools and colleges of the day ought to do something more to teach students how to talk. The young men would be better off for some instruction of the kind, but in the case of the young women it is little less than a necessity. Their voices, to be candid, are by no means as pleasing as they might easily be were their possessors even reminded occasionally of the value of modulation, variation, softness and correct and fairly precise pronunciation.

As it is, however, the sweet girl graduate has anything but a voice and a manner of speaking consistent with the refreshing charms with which she is otherwise so generously blessed. In one university in the state — typical of others — a visitor recently observed that nearly every young woman in the senior class was woefully addicted to habits of mispronunciation. "And their voices," he added, "were most distressing. What they said was well enough, but the manner of their saying it was — agonizing."

The indictment, it must be admitted, is well founded. It is one, however, that should never be brought — for which there should be no support. And there would be none of it, either, if no more than casual attention were paid to the matter in our schools and colleges. Singing is taught — to be only rarely used. Why not teach talking? — Indianapolis News.

Started In With "Enthusiasm"

1900

In an interview, Booker T. Washington tells the story of some of his early experiences at Tuskegee.

"After teaching in the ordinary way awhile, the impression began to grow upon me that I was largely throwing away my time, trying to give these students a book education without getting hold of them in their home life, and without teaching them how to care for their bodies, and inculcating in them habits of neatness, order and industry. Here it was that I conceived the idea of such a work as has followed."

"Had you any capital to start such a school with?"

"I had unbounded enthusiasm. I began looking around to see if I could get hold of some land. I found a farm near Tuskegee, that I thought would answer the purpose, but I couldn't buy real estate with enthusiasm, and I hadn't a cent of money. But my boldness led me to write to Gen. Marshall, the treasurer of Hampton, and ask him to loan me $500 to make a payment on that farm; and to my unbounded surprise he sent me a cheek for what I asked, and I wasn't long in getting the school moved."

"How have you since managed to get all your buildings and the other thousands of acres of land?"

"It's a long story. I'll tell you how we got our first building, though. We pitched in and built it ourselves — yes, sir; people scoffed, but we even made our own bricks. The point at which we stuck was the burning of the bricks — none of us knew how to fire a kiln. We had no money to hire labor, but we had to have those bricks, and I owned a gold watch which I took to the pawnshop and got enough money to employ an experienced brick maker to burn the bricks."

"That was a heroic measure, sure. No doubt you cherished that watch as — "

"I have never got that watch out of pawn yet, but we are now manufacturing a million bricks a year. That was a pretty poor sort of building, but we builded self-respect and manhood into it, and when white people saw what we could do, we won their respect. Now we can put up a building that no one need be ashamed of. In our last building the steam heating apparatus and the electric light fixtures were put in by our own steamfitters and electricians. The plans were by an architect from our own school."

—The Ram's Horn, March 17, 1900, p. 14.

Duties of Brides Taught In College

1920

CLASS NOW LEARNING "HOW TO STAY MARRIED."

Engaged Girls Strive Hard for Immunity Against Grouchy Mates and Alluring Vamps.

DENTON, Texas, Jan. 1. — A school, unique in its purpose and unprecedented in the Southwest, is being conducted under the auspices of the College of Industrial Arts, a school for women here. "How to stay married" is what it teaches, and eighteen young ladies, from various towns in Texas, whose engagements have been announced, are the pupils.

For the purpose of giving these and other young ladies who expect to make homes for some good men, proper instructions in the art of housekeeping and home making, two cottages have been rented by the college. The members of the "How to Stay Married" class are actually keeping house in these cottages, and under the tutorage of a very successful married woman, are wrestling with the various problems which confront the housewife from the altar to the grave.

Right Down to Brass Tacks.

Those young ladies are making up the beds, mopping the floors, preparing sample meals for the prospective husbands, sweeping, ironing, dusting, arranging pictures on the walls, setting the table, washing dishes, polishing stoves and brushing the ceilings. Also they are preparing for receptions, entertaining guests, giving dinners, presiding at social functions and doing a little of any and everything which may fall their lot in after life.

But the mere drudgery of housework does not compose the entire course of "How to Stay Married." There are courses in the business of housekeeping. The students keep accurate sets of books showing imaginary expenses their "house" involves. They do the buying of groceries, complain about the prices, battle for reduction and full weight. They wrangle with the ice man and argue with the butcher. They skimp here and there and deposit their "earned" savings in the bank. They make old gowns over, Johnny's pants from father's old ones, convert worn out dresses into aprons for the girls or themselves and even make dishrags from old flour sacks.

Find Delight In Their Work.

They have their meals for "husband and the family" on the dot and they are all prim when the time for "hubby" to come home from work or the office arrives. It's a strenuous life, but the students declare they like it and are learning things which will be useful to them.

The matron in charge of the class and the president of the college have told the girls "that if they complete the course arranged for them and carry out the practices inculcated therein they will have husbands when they have grandchildren." The teacher said "girls who complete and follow this course of instruction need never fear any vamps, late nights, grouches or divorces."

The college expects to increase its activities along these lines during the next term of school. It is said already a number of young ladies have applied for the course next year. Those who graduate are given special diplomas.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 8.

At Last! Substitute for Booze Is Found

1920

Good Music Takes Place of Whisky, Says Pianist.

It's here! That long sought substitute for John Barleycorn has been found — and just in the nick of time. Hereafter, when the gentleman with the lustrous nose gets that longing that used to lead to the family entrance, all he'll have to do is to start the phonograph.

For music not only soothes the savage beast, but takes the place of fine whisky, declares Moses Bogulawski, the great Russian pianist in Chicago. He urges it as the social and industrial fire extinguisher of the future.

"The economic cancer with which the world is confronted now can be easily treated with music as the healing spirit," he declares. "The laboring classes have lost their curse — liquor — but good music can take its place. Beautiful tunes will put in harmony the world chaos and will soon become more popular with the laboring man than liquor was in days of yore. Good music should thus be compulsory in our homes and schools."

Professor Bogulawski also stated that social and moral conditions could be improved by the greater diffusion of a good quality of music.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 7.

Jumbled English

1919

A school patron talking with a prominent educator the other day said that with all of the effort made in North Carolina schools to give the child a fair knowledge of the English language, he did not believe there was one child in a hundred in the schools of the State who could recite a sentence of twenty words in a clear, distinct and articulate tone of voice. The pity is that there is so much truth in the statement, comments the Raleigh News Observer.

Go into a classroom and hear the children read. Is it not the exception when a child knows how to pronounce its syllables distinctly? Syllables and letters both are too often wholly ignored. Words are jumbled together too frequently in incoherent fashion. Worst of all and at the bottom of the trouble is the fact that some of the teachers are less proficient than they should be in distinctness of speech, while others who are more precise themselves, pay insufficient attention to the pronunciation of the children.

The old-fashioned elocution class in which the children were taught to utter their syllables distinctly might very well come back in place of some of the things that are more pretentious, but have less value in the school.

The Funny Side of Life

1902

Point of View

When a fellow has spent
His last red cent,
The world looks blue — you bet!
But — give him a dollar
And you'll hear him holler:
"There's life in the old land yet!"

— Atlanta Constitution.


Precious

Mrs. Knicker — "Mrs. Smith seems very proud of her diamonds."
Mrs. Bockor — "Yes, she refers to them as her white coals." — New York Sun.


Worth While

She — "I should like to know what good your college education did you?"
He — "Well, it taught, me to owe a lot of money without being annoyed by it." — Life.


The Influence

Jerry — "How do good clothes make a man a gentleman?"
Joe — "They make him feel as if he was expected to act like one." — Detroit Free Press.

Weapons of the Teachers

1917

Evil Methods Inspiring Fear Not Conducive to Best Results

Power to produce fear is a poor weapon. The teacher who uses it is not doing his best work.

Snakes are feared by reason of their sting. So are lions and tigers for reason of their power to produce harm.

Fear is the weapon of an enemy. We do not fear our friends, nor can we fear anything that we love.

Evil is just absence of good; for it cannot exist where good is. And evil chooses fear for its weapon. Neither evil nor fear should exist in the schoolroom, says an exchange.

Good is always stronger than evil; love always stronger than fear. Why should teachers employ evil methods and inspire fear in the hearts of children when springs of love are bubbling up on every side?

There are smiles, and kind words, and kind thoughts, and deeds of kindness and — but the list is too great to complete. These inspire love, and as weapons are much more efficient than is fear.

And then there is faith! When good loses its trust in its ability to overcome, fear disarms and evil conquers. An animal will not attack a man who has absolutely no fear of it. That is the secret of the lion-tamer's power. Evil cannot defeat a man who is strong in good, and therefore he has no cause to fear evil.

Still in the Kindergarten

1905

Those Who Can Be Interested in Nothing That Is Not a "Game"

After an intelligent and watchful mother had sent her children to a famous kindergarten for several months she withdrew them because she found that they were being ruined by "getting the attitude of regarding everything as a game" — that is, instead of learning through games how to go about the serious business of life, they were learning to approach everything in the careless, make-believe spirit of play.

There is a hint in this for our colleges. There is a hint in it for all those who do puzzles, and play chess, and ride to hounds, and fool with rings and bars to develop their minds and bodies. The world is cursed with tens of thousands of human beings who have the best natural advantages, but can get up the steam of enthusiasm only for some "game" that is useless in its aim, and no more useful in its method, than its corresponding reality would be.

It is as certain as cause and effect that he who takes play seriously will take serious things playfully. — Saturday Evening Post.


Sour Expression Caused Divorce

Carrie Fields has been granted a divorce from Dr. L. S. Fields at Sanborn, Iowa, because the husband did not like her make of pancakes and ridiculed them. She testified that the expression upon the doctor's face when eating the cakes was such it might work permanent injury to her health.

Early Calculator — Lifesaver for Schoolboys?

1900

In one of the statistical divisions of the Department of Agriculture in Washington may be seen a machine resembling a typewriter, which multiplies and divides with unerring accuracy and with great rapidity.

Give its operator a multiplicand of six figures and a multiplier as large, and he will write them out as upon a typewriter; then he turns a handle a few times, and before the onlooker knows what is going on, the product is written out before him. The machine performs examples in division with equal ease.

Does any one of our young readers fancy that he sees in this invention an emancipation of boys of the twentieth century from the vexation of the multiplication table? Alas! that is too much for him to hope. Nobody seems to have devised a machine for adding common fractions of different denominators, although many a young schoolboy has concluded that this is one of the "long-felt wants" of the day.


Intemperance in France

Those who assert that wine-growing countries are largely exempt from the evils of intemperance need not point to France in proof of their assertion. The habitual use of wine often creates the craving which seeks for such stronger stimulants as absinthe or vermouth.

Of about three thousand prisoners in the department of the Seine, in which Paris is situated, it is officially stated, more than two thousand were drunkards. The number of suicides induced by habits of intemperance is said to have more than doubled in recent years. Alcoholism is also largely responsible for the fact that thirty-four per cent of the young men conscripted for the army are sent back as unfit; and in the cities of Normandy, where hard cider is the common beverage, the proportion rejected is much larger. It rises in Caen to fifty per cent; and in Havre three-fourths of the conscripts are rejected.


Vested Interest in Getting It Right

Senator Vest recently sent a newspaper item to be read to the House. The secretary had the wrong side of the clipping, and instead of an editorial on the money question, began: "Ridiculous! We are giving away these goods at half price!" "The other side!" cried Mr. Vest.

That the much vaunted common sense of the American people has another side is forcibly illustrated by recent sales of a good-luck box. This precious humbug is a little wooden case, containing a worthless three-starred ring, worth in all about five cents. But within the past three months many thousands of persons have paid ninety-nine cents apiece for it, expecting it to bring good luck. In this and similar instances the notice might appropriately made: "Ridiculous! We are giving ourselves away for nothing!"

—Youth's Companion.

History of Leon Public School

Leon, Iowa

By Miss Sue E. Bell

Thinking that it would be of some interest to the citizens and old settlers of Leon, I have endeavored to write a history of the Leon public schools. It has been a laborious task to obtain the information necessary. There may be a few facts omitted, but I have done the best I could. I desire to acknowledge the help received from some of the former professors and the old citizens of Leon.

In the year 1853 Humphrey Fullerton taught the first school in Leon in a 16 foot log cabin, where J. A. Caster's grocery store now stands. The following were his pupils: Martha Ellis James, Samuel Ellis, Mary Ellis Coffin, William Tharp, Luticia Wainwright, Belle Tharp Walker, Mattie Tharp Jordan, Martha Jordan Atkins, Charlie Jordan, Benjamin Jordan, Jane Shackelford, Lyman East, Julian East, Albert Tharp, Uz Tharp.

Joe C. Porter taught at the same place in 1854. Geo. T. Young in the summer of 1855 taught in the old court house, where Mayer and Hoffhine's stores are now located. One afternoon a wind storm passed over our little village and the walls of the upper story of the school house were blown down, and not one of the eighty pupils were injured. It was afterwards rebuilt and then destroyed by fire on March 31, 1874. In the winter of 1865 Miss Nellie Arnold taught in a log cabin situated on the south-east corner of the property owned by Mrs. A. E. Chase. Miss Arnold taught a summer school in 1857 at the same place.

In the winter of 1857 L. M. Hastings taught in the new school house in the east part of town near T. J. Gibson's residence, the term being only four months. Sarah Patterson Bashaw taught in the summer of 1858 in the east school house, better known to the old settlers as Gospel Ridge. In the winter of that year J. C. Porter taught. In the summer of 1859 Miss Higby Warner taught, and in the winter, Carr Porter. Between the years of 1860 and '64 there were more than one school taught at the same time, one room not being large enough to hold the pupils. Sarah Patterson Bashaw taught in a log cabin, back of Mr. Orslan's shoe shop. Where the Farmers & Traders bank now stands, Sam Sears taught up stairs and Mr. Strong down stairs. They were succeeded by the following teachers: Mr. Adams, Mr. Wainwright, Miss Higby and Sarah Kirkpatrick. Prof. Lewis taught in a small building east of Brown's hotel, and later in a building where Frank Clark's grocery now stands; also in the M. E. church on Commercial street. Miss Sil Jones taught in a frame building west of Teale Wharton's store, Miss Emma Higby taught several terms in a building where Frank Clark's grocery now stands. Andrew Warner taught during this time, and I. P. Martin taught in the M. E. church. During this time the first brick school house was built in the north part of town by John Kirkpatrick. The building was completed in 1864, and the bell that calls us to school now, is the one that was on the old court house, and was placed on the new school house. While the school house was being built L. M. Hastings taught in the M. E. church, Mrs. Hastings and Mrs. Lizzie Simmons Vail being his assistants. At the same time, I. P. Martin had a portion of the school in a building where Frank Clark's grocery store now stands. The schools at this time were not graded and four months was the longest term taught.

In the fall of 1864 only two rooms of the new school house were completed, and Prof. Hastings occupied the south room up stairs and Sarah Kirkpatrick the north room. For the school year of 1865 and 1866, S. P. Newcomb was elected principal, and the following teachers taught in the different departments: Sarah Kirkpatrick Baldwin and Sarah Patterson Bashaw. In '66 and '67 Prof. Abbott was elected principal, and re-elected each year for the next four years. The following taught under him: Gusta Smith, Emma Blair, Mrs. Reed, Linnie Arnold Horner, Eliza Avery, Emma Dawson.

Prof. Frazer graded the schools. There were four rooms and three grades in each room. On June 16, 1871, the first graduating class was sent out. They were as follows: Samuel Gates, T. W. Silvers, A. F. Woodruff, Mrs. Matilda Jordan Critchfield.

This class bought an organ for the school which cost $275. It also started the first library, and bought a globe, a dictionary, a microscope, an electric machine and a history chart. They gave exhibitions and festivals to buy these things. On January 2, 1872, the following teachers were elected for a term of ten weeks: Emma Dawson, Hettie Rogers, Mrs. Reed.

And on March 22, 1872: Mrs. Reed, T. W. Silvers, Emma Dawson.

August 16, 1872, W. S. Domer was elected principal, with the following teachers: Mrs. Reed, Ella Eaton, Mollie Miles.

It was ordered that school commence the second Monday instead of the first. September 27, 1872, the following teachers were elected for a term of twelve weeks, beginning the first Monday in January, 1873: Lucy Black, Emma Dawson, Mollie Miles.

W. S. Domer was re-elected principal on April 4, 1873, with the following teachers: Lucy Corbett, Emma Dawson, Mollie Miles.

On April 10, 1873, a committee was ordered to rent a room for part of the primary department. The basement of the Presbyterian church was rented. Miss Hyatt was elected teacher. In the school years of 1873 and 1874 Aaron Frazier was elected principal. The following teachers taught in that year: Emma Mills, Mollie Miles, J. L. Harvey.

In 1874 the Babbott writing book was adopted as one of the text books of the school. The teachers were: Lucy Corbett, Emma Mills, J. F. Kirkpatrick, Mrs. Hyatt, Esther Sanger, Laura Dye, Leota Haywood, Josie Miles, Mettie Pitman.

It was decided December 31, 1874, that five more months be added to the school year, with one week vacation. On July 28, 1875, R. L. Parrish was elected principal, and in 1876 was re-elected. The following teachers taught under him in 1875: Laura Dye, T. J. Hasty, Esther Sanger, Josephine Kellogg, Ellen Gammon.

In 1876 were: Kittie Stone, Josephine Kellogg, Belle Thompson, Laura Dye.

On August 12, 1876, it was ordered that this school year be held for nine months, and commence September 4, 1876. The first term seventeen weeks and two weeks' vacation; the last term nineteen weeks.

July 2, 1877, C. M. Des Islets was elected principal for the following four years. The teachers were as follows — between 1877 and 1881: Ellen Gammon, Emma Wilson, Esther Sanger, T. J. Hasty, William Field, Allie Porter, W. H. Albaugh, Mrs. M. A. Critchfield, I. P. Martin, S. J. Calhoun, Stephen Varga, Miss Davidson, Mrs. Reed.

Miss Pollard was elected to teach music in each department of the school, giving two lessons of fifteen minutes to each department, twice a week. The old school house which was completed in 1864 was torn down and the bricks sold, and a new one built in 1876 and 1877. It was completed September 13, 1877, B. F. Roberts being the contractor. On December 10, 1877, a new department was established in the school and was called the second intermediate department.

May 6, 1878, the school year consisted of ten months. For the school year of 1881 and 1882, A. B. Cornell was elected principal. The following teachers taught under him: Frank Gardner, Eva Kirkpatrick, Georgia Brown,Sarah Johnson, Retta Biddle, Finley Frazee, Merge Jordan, Augustus Roy, assistant principal.

—Decatur County Journal, Leon, Iowa.

Note: The second half of this article may be found at this link.

Teachers 1882-1898, Leon, Iowa

Leon, Iowa area — From old scrapbook

History of Leon Public School [second half of the article, see bottom for link to first half]
By Miss Sue E. Bell

July 3, 1882, B. F. Miller was elected principal for the next school year.

On June 18, 1883, S. M. Mowatt was elected principal, and was in charge of the school for the next seven years. The following teachers taught in 1883: Mrs. Reed, Mrs. M. B. Harvey, Eva Kirkpatrick, Esther Sanger, Sarah Johnson, Nellie Parris, assistant principal.

In 1884 the same teachers, with the exception that Grace Arnold took Mrs. Reed's place.

In 1885 W. J. Edwards was assistant principal. The same teachers taught, with the exception of W. M. Scott who took Grace Arnold's place, and Jessie Forrey was elected teacher.

In 1886 Susie Young was assistant principal. The new teachers were: Olive Logan, Cora Brooks.

In 1887 Miss May Wilson was assistant principal. The other teachers were: Emma Roy, Jennie Haskett, M. B. Harvey, Elva Noble, Cora Brooks, Esther Sanger.

On September 17, 1888, the following studies were introduced in the Public schools: Ray's Higher Arithmetic, Ray's New Practical Arithmetic, Eclectic U. S. History, Harvey's Revised Grammar, Eclectic Geography. Teachers in 1888: Emma Roy, Kate Hall, Henrietta Vogt, M. B. Harvey, Jennie Haskett, Esther Sanger, Lillian Howard, assistant principal.

In 1889 V. R McGinnis was elected assistant principal. The teachers were: Eva Kirkpatrick, Jennie Haskett, Mrs. Reed, Kate Hall, Lillian Howard, Emma Roy.

May 10, 1890, A. L. Lyon was elected superintendent of all the schools for two years, and V. R. McGinnis was elected principal of the High school. Teachers for 1890: Mrs. M. P. Lindsey, Mrs. Haskett, Hortense Dilsaver, Mary Parrish, Lillian Howard, J. E. Cummins.

Those who taught in 1891: Mrs. Lindsey, Mrs. Haskett, Hortense Dilsaver, Mary Parrish, Kate James, John Parrish, Cora Brooks.

May 2, 1892, V. R. McGinnis was elected principal and J. M. Howell assistant principal for two years. The teachers for this year were: Mrs. Lindsey, Mrs. Haskett, Eva Kirkpatrick, Mary Parrish, Homer Dye, Hattie Drake, F. R. Porter.

Prof. M. Schoenert was elected musical director. Teachers in 1893: Mrs. Linsey, Mary Martin, Mrs. Haskett, Mary Parrish, Eva Kirkpatrick, Mabel Horner, Hattie Drake.

M. Schoenert was re-elected musical director.

April 2, 1894, Sam L. Darrah was elected principal for the following four years. The teachers were: Mrs. Lindsey, Mrs. Haskett, Mary Martin, Mary Parrish, Eva Kirkpatrick, Mabel Horner, Carrie Hoffman, Hattie Drake, assistant principal.

April 1, 1885, M. Schoenert resigned and Miss Mame Penniwell was elected to fill his place. Teachers in 1895 were the same as in 1894. The new south school house was built in the summer of 1895, S. L. Lorey being the contractor.

In 1896 Miss Helen Radnish was elected first assistant principal and Miss Virginia McKee second assistant principal. Teachers at the North school house were: Mrs. Stuart, Henrietta Vogt, Eva Kirkpatrick, Mary Parrish, Ophie Clark, Mrs. Lindsey. South school house: Hallie Moore, Mae Lorey, Ella Kemp, musical director, Mabel Horner, elocution teacher.

In 1897 Miss Mamie Allen was elected first assistant principal and Harriet Shields second assistant principal. Teachers at the North school: Mrs. Lindsey, Mrs. Roy, Claudie Clapp, Henrietta Vogt, Mrs. Stewart. South school house: Eva Kirkpatrick, Hallie Moore, Mae Lorey, Ella Kemp, musical director.

In 1898 Miss Mamie Allen was reelected first assistant principal and Miss Maggie Young second assistant principal. Teachers — North school house: Mrs. Lindsey, Mrs. L. Roy, Ethel Bowman, Henrietta Vogt, Hoyle Gilreath. South school house: Hattie Kirkpatrick, Hallie Moore, Mae Lorey.

The schools since 1853 have progressed rapidly. The teachers are more competent than in former years.

The scholars numbered fifteen in the first school and they number nearly 500 at the present time, which goes to prove that the knowledge is more complete at this age than before.

Note: The first half of this article may be found at this link.

Gossip About Women – "The New Woman"

Feb. 1896

Ella Wheeler Wilcox believes in reincarnation.

A training school for waitresses is a new Philadelphia institution.

Miss Helen Culver, of Chicago, has presented the University of Chicago with $1,000,000.

Mrs. Livermore has explained that when she called newspaper reporters a "pestiferous set" she spoke in a Pickwickian sense.

Victoria Morosini-Schilling, who started the fashion of eloping with coachmen, is now in St. Joseph's Convent, in Rutland, Vt.

Twenty-one sculptors competed for the statue of Sarah Siddons to be erected in London. The model chosen is by a Frenchman, Chevalier.

Mrs. Anna R. Aspinwall, a millionaire recluse of Pittsburg, Penn., has just died in Edinburgh. Her property is estimated at $4,000,000.

Annie Besant was a religious enthusiast in her early years and was inclined to become a nun, but compromised by marrying a clergyman.

Girls of sixteen are called "under buds" in fashionable designation, and have occasional social relaxations the way of a dance or a matinee theatre party.

E. W. Clark, of Nevada, Mo., tried to make Mrs. Caroline Stewart pay him $50,000 for declining to marry him, but the jury decided that he was undamaged.

The Society of the Daughters of the Holland Dames, Descendant of Ancient and Honorable Families of the State of New York, has been incorporated at Albany.

Two contemporary miniatures Joan of Arc, now in a private collection at Isenheim, in Alsace, are said be portraits of the Maid of Orleans, taken from life.

Miss Clara Barton is going to Armenia herself, to head the work of the Red Cross Society in relieving the distress of the Armenians. Five million dollars are asked for.

For several years a woman has driven the stage between Mancelona and Bellaire, Mich. She handles the reins as well as any man in that region, and has never been troubled with stage robbers.

It is reported that the Home Secretary of the British Government has consented to reopen the Maybrick case, and the friends of the unfortunate woman have high hopes of her at last gaining her liberty.

Mme. Dandet, wife of the French novelist, has a beautiful voice and thinks that this fact has caused the rumor that she was an actress before her marriage. She has never sung outside of her own salon.

The new woman is very much in evidence in Marcellus, Mich. The Town Council is composed of women, the local barber is a woman, the undertaker is a woman and many of the business houses are run by women.

Miss Melvina M. Bennett, a graduate of Boston University, has been appointed to the chair of Public Speaking and Vocal Interpretation in that institution. Miss Bennett is the first woman to gain a professorship in the university.

Girl ushers have just been appointed in the Arkansas City (Kan.) Opera House in place of men hitherto employed, There are six of them, and they are alleged to have been chosen from among "the handsomest young ladies in the city."

The Dowager Empress of China has been much affected by the Japanese war. She used to be a rather loud and violent person, who imagined that the whole world was created for her special benefit, but now she is quiet and humble and listens to advice from those who formerly dared not address her. She shows signs of aging rapidly.

Women in Hungary will henceforth be allowed to enter the Budapest University and become doctors and apothecaries, or study in the philosophical faculty. They must pass the same high school examinations as the men, however, and for that purpose the Government will provide them with opportunities to study Latin and Greek.

An Incomplete Education

1899

Ignorance, even dense ignorance, is often to be met with in this country of public schools, but it is seldom that one finds a man in all his senses whose mind does not contain some suspicion of a world beyond his potato-patch or logging-camp.

Among the European peasantry, however, education is often absolutely unknown. Sad to say, a conversation which occurred between a French conscript recently taken from his farm and the adjutant of his regiment is not unique, although it may sound so.

"Come!" said the adjutant. "You are a Frenchman — a soldier; do you know why you are here instead of working in the fields? I ask you why you are here — a soldier? You give no answer. Have you never heard of the Germans?"

"No, my adjutant."

"You have never heard of the Germans? What is Germany?"

"I don't know."

"Are you a Frenchman or a German?"

"I don't know."

"This is wonderful! Where were you born?" "At Vaucouleurs, my adjutant."

"At Vaucouleurs, and not a patriot! Did no one ever tell you of the invasion?"

"No, my adjutant."

It would be hard for a Jacques of Vaucouleurs to grow up in the United States. — Youth's Companion.

Objects To Boys Sewing In School

Illinois, 1910

We received a very strong letter this week from a mother protesting against her boy being taught sewing in school when the time is needed to each branches more suitable for the scholars, at least the boys.

She says: "I think it's a shame. My son has to put two and three hours a week at sewing when they don't half know their arithmetic. John forgot to bring something to sew on this morning, so his teacher sent him home at 11:15 a.m. to get something to sew on, and as I was not at home he couldn't find anything, and when he went back to school again he forgot it. Well, his teacher got angry and shook him and sent him down to the principal. The principal sent him home, with a note and told him he couldn't come back to school again until his father came with him.

"I think it's an outrage in these civilized times to waste two and three hours a week at something they will never have any use for. I think every mother ought to sign a petition to have such nonsense stopped and to have that time devoted to the need of the times, which is business. I think it a shame taxpayers have to pay for such nonsense."

—Suburbanite Economist, Chicago, Oct. 28, 1910.


His Accent

An American-born girl was boasting of her English ancestry in public, and said: "Grandpa has lived in this country over 40 years, but he's just as English in his accent as when he went to Oxford; for instance," she added, "he still says horanges!" — Harper's Magazine.

'Frisco Has Child Linguist Prodigy

1910

SAN FRANCISCO. — Leland Stanford University is to acquire a child prodigy of whom quite as great things are expected as of Harvard's boy wonder, William James Sidis. In this case the prodigy is a girl, Winifred Sackville Stoner, better known to her familiars as Cherie. Her mother is a daughter of the late Lord Sackville West, ambassador from England in one of the Cleveland administrations, and her father is Col. J. B. Stoner of the Marine hospital service.

She is now aged eight years, and as a linguist is in a class by herself. Her knack for poetry enabled her to print a book of 52 pages called "Jingles" when she was five. At the age of four she was proficient enough in Esperanto to receive from the founder of that composite language a medal for proficiency. She had heard this tongue from infancy, as her mother is a recognized authority in it.

In addition she speaks and thinks in English, French, Spanish and Latin, and she can speak well enough for conversational purposes Japanese, Russian, German, Polish and Italian. While accumulating this varied vocabulary she has gone along at a precocious rate in other studies and has had her full share of outdoor romping. Dolls are still her companions when the weather keeps her in.

"Her advancement is simply due to the way she was educated," her mother said. "I began when she was three weeks of age by placing beautiful pictures on the walls of her nursery. From the first she was accustomed to the best literature. We did not recite silly nursery rhymes to her, but only the best. Instead of giving her the stories usually told to children I read to her from the Bible and from mythology. She had Latin from the cradle.

"At three months I read to Cherie from the Latin writers and recited for her from such poems as 'Crossing the Bar.' At eight months she began to talk. At the age of one year, she could scan from Virgil and she read before she was two. I was teaching her the language all the time.

"At three she could operate a typewriter. By its use she learned to spell and also to memorize what she was writing. It was by copying poems and articles on the machine that she learned much that she knows. When she was at this age Puck accepted and printed a little poem of hers. Afterward she became a regular contributor to St. Nicholas. She did not learn to write with the pen until she was four. We have always made play of her work. Games similar to 'Authors' were devised for history and mythology."

Note: The article at Wikipedia says she was born in 1902 and died in 1983. She had a "Jr." on her name, as her mother was also Winifred Sackville Stoner.

Training for Left-Handedness

1915

Positive Results Not Seen as Anticipated

Some time ago the development of left-handedness in children was warmly advocated by various persons, not only because in this way reliance could be placed on both upper extremities for mechanical work, which would undoubtedly be of advantage in case of serious disturbance of the functions of the right arm, but also because the hope was entertained that by training the left arm a second speech center might develop in the right hemisphere of the brain in the same way as the well-developed right arm corresponds with the speech center place in the left half of the brain.

The Berlin physician, M. Frankel, was especially active in the advocacy of this idea — in fact, experiments in this direction were undertaken in various localities. The practical results which have been so far reported do not correspond in any degree to the optimistic expectations of the advocates of the method, says the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Doctor Schafer, on the basis of permission granted by the school deputation, collected statistics with reference to the left-handedness among about 18,000 pupils of the Berlin public schools. These statistics show that 4.06 per cent of all the children are left-handed, 5.5 per cent of all the boys and 2.98 per cent of the girls. The percentage of children in whom both hands are equally developed is very small, being only .21 per cent. The overwhelming majority, 95.73 per cent of all the children, are distinctly right-handed. In several school districts, among 448 teachers, there were ten who were left-handed.

L. Katscher's work on "Training the Left Hand" was the theoretical basis for the exercises to train the left hand. They included exercises in writing, arithmetic manual training and gymnastics; especially in the last two systematic efforts were made. In general, the result showed that the possibility of employing the hitherto unused left hand at first excited great joy and marked interest, but the physical awkwardness generally was a great hindrance.

The outcome of the whole experiment shows that in no case could a preference for the left hand be developed. It may be trained to be a welcome assistant to the right hand, but never a substitute for it. In teaching writing the complaint is made of a deterioration in handwriting. The children refused to write with the left hand, became nervous and worried over it, and increased intellectual development was in no case observed. Almost all those who gave an opinion were unanimous that the advantages stood in no relation to the expenditure of time, pains and patience.