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ORPHANS’ FRIEND. 4>cfo2pi’V 81?, NOTIil-S IfV TSaS:: WAY. (continued.) Tlio storm spent itself on Fri- cliiy night, and on Saturday morn ing we gave an entertainment in the Metliodist Church of Prince ton. The attendance was large and curiosity was high ; but no one proposed a collection. The officers of the Lodge were—well, bashful, perhaps. Easy drive to Selma, though we had to ford a deep swamp and cross two bridges literally floating. One small bridge was washed away, but the water was not very deep. Messrs. Watson, Hood, Dr. Vick and others, were very kind, and we wore soon distributed. We mot in the Baptist church, and had room to seat the people. This is an excellent house, and can be made warm or cool at pleasure. On Monday we took a long ride to see a little girl, reported white, living with negroes. She proved to bo a deserted child and the daughter of a Scuffletown girl, of the Lowrey blood. At Smithfield we found them waiting for us. And noble people they are. Rev. Mr. Brown prayed for the young and requested a collection. The colored people drop down their contributions from the gallery. The children are also loaded with presents. Now we cross the no ble Neuse on a covered bridge, and are soon rolling over the hills to Elevation. Wo stop to dine, and the citizens invite us to spend the night. Here we find a splendid spring and a comfortable church. Mr. Lynn Adams, of Raleigh, has been preaching here, and an Engineer (Mr. Peters, ot Philadelphia) has an appointment for to-night. There seems to be a rage for “ lay-preaching.” Our deliberate opinion is that “ lay- practice” would accomplish more good. But brother Adams hath a song and a sermon, and so hath brother Peters. BEA1>IJV« AEOED. The three “ Rs ” once mention ed by an ignorant pupil, “ Read ing, Ritin, and Ritlimotic,” are still taught in all our schools; yet many young ladies and gen tlemen who have received diplo mas from our best colleges and seminaries, cannot lead a news paper article without torturing their audience with poor reading. The reason of this is apparent; too little attention is paid at home, to .children’s reading. Practice is necessary to make a fluent reader; in the best regula ted schools sufficient time cannot be devoted to reading. Half an hour per day is little enough for each child to spend on this im portant branch, but in a school of even twenty, one will readily see the impossibility of allowing the half of that. No one would ex pect a girl to become a good mu- gician if she spent on music, only the time allotted for her lessons. It is the patient practice day af ter day, hours at a time ; persist ed in for years, under the guid anoo of skilful instructors, that makes her an accomplished mu sician. The same patient practice and skilful instruction is equally necessary to make a good reader. If mothers and older sisters wish the little ones to become fluent readers, they must require them to read aloud regularly and fre quently, from well.ohosen books. It is of great importance that tiioy should understand what they read, and feel interested in it. A sprightly little girl once said to her mother, “ I hate for you to tell mo to get a hook and sit down.” Her stock of books con sisted of a pictorial primer, “ I’lie Life of Banyan,” “ Tales of the Covenanters,” and a few more of the same sort. No w'onder that child had developed no taste for literature. “ The Rollo Books,” “Franconia Stories,” and above all, “ Parent’s Assistant,” will make reading a delightful task to children. Books will bo their dearest possessions; and wdiile improving their reading, they will be storing their minds with bits of useful information, and form ing their manners by the excel lent models to be found there. True it will be considerable expense to supply suitable books; but they are not more expensive than music; nor is reading aloud, even simple childish tales, a great er annoyance in a family than the inevitable piano practic, where tliere are music pupils. Some Mothers will not be troubled with their children’s lessons: they select good teachers, and think it unreasonable to expect more of them. But while a teacher does all that a teacher can do, it will invariably be found, that those children, who are the pride of the school, are the ones who recite their lessons to Mother or sister, before going to school. No school, however admirable its system, text books, and teachers can sup ply this home assistance. If it were always given to children while in the primary department, teachers in High Schools would not have so many indifferent readers, whose bad habits are of long standing and are thei’efore, in most instances, incurable. I IT III MISQEO'i'ATSOSi OF TEXTS. THE C'EETEKE OF ISFAMCF. Whimsical errors sometimes are made in quotation from the Bible, and it may bo that there are many ‘ household words ’ which are generally supposed to bo in the Scriptures, which would bo sought there in vain. ‘ We know a minister,’ says the Religious Herald, ‘ who wrote a sermon from what he supposed was a passage of Scripture, and was surprised and somewhat confused on Sabbath morning to find that there was no such passage iii the Bible, and hence that his sermon had no text. Another minister read before a number of his brethren, a discourse from the words: “Work while the day lasts.” It was a carefully pre pared production, and he was taken quite aback, when one of his hearers asked him why he did not take for his text, “ Make hay while the sun shines;’ for if the former passage was in the Bible, so was the latter.’ We know an excellent man, who in his prayer, was in the habit of anticipating the da}^ when ‘ the heathen would cast their idols and moulds to the bats.’ Another—not a professor of reli gion, however, who used to pro test, ‘ in the language of the apos tle,’ that such and such things, were ‘ Greek and foolishness.’ The sweet sentence of Sterne —‘ God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb,’ is still supposed by many to be from the Bible. And how many there are who will he surprised to be informed that there is no such sentence in the Bible, as, ‘ God cannot look upon sin or sinners, with the least degree of allowance.’ Instances of general and clerical error might be innl- tiplied.—Baptist Farnihj Magazine. Davidson College opened with TO 0(1(1 students. iTearly forty of whom are new. It is saying too little when we affirm that the greatest care should be exercised in the education of children. The Great Teacher has said in language so strong that it could not be stronger, “ Except ye become as little children ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Are these words mere rhetoric 1 Who will deny tliat there is a depth of meaning here, equal to the importance of the subject f Some sago older than Socrates engraved on the temple of Delphi the sentiment “ Know thyselt.” What this knowing self is, the great Naza- reno declared, when he called a little child to him and said “Who soever shall offend one of these little ones, it were better for him that a mill-stoiio were banged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” If, then, children are of such great importance, how necessary is it that the teacher should be armed with the most perfect prep aration, and the best and most appropriate instruction, to offer to these little ones. Children are constantly pre paring for coming life. Sometimes the boy is a farmer, his chair a plow, another chair, his horse ; he he utters his commands with all the authority of manhood. Per haps Mamie’s doll is sick, Johnnie is sent for, and with papa’s hat and cane he comes along with the gravity of Escuiapius himself, and administers his powders of sand and flour, while Mamie's countenance assumes almost ma ternal anxiety and distress. A few block,s and a box constitute a railroad train—and so in all the plav's of childhood the creative faculty is extremely active. This disposition of mind should be especially noticed in the educa tion of children. Josh Billings says, “ Would you train up a child iu the ivay ho should go, go that way once in a while yourself;” good advice, especially to those who are con tinually trying to teach children as they would grown up people. Education is the harmonious development of all the powers of the mind. Suppose a gardener should prune a tree, with the ex ception of one limb ; or a farmer persist in raising but one thing, 3’ear after year, it is evident they would not succeed. Is it not ecpally absurd to persist in culti vating only one of the powers of the mind in childhood, excluding all the rest! It is certain some faculties may be perfectly devel oped in childhood and among them is attention. Things high, low: soft, hard : hot, cold : near and far, are noticed. The uses of things are soon learned, as chair, cradle, broom, hat, door, and a multitude of others. The imagination soon is vivid ; the real world opens an ideal one. It soon learns to step from what it can see to what it ,oan not see ; from what it sees with the 03^6 to what it sees with the mind. Healthy childhood is active, restless, impulsive, devoid of rea son, full of passion, eager for something new, loving stories, confiding, and even detecting humbugs with the quickness of thought. There are two theories relating to the education of children. One is they should do nothing improp er for older persons to do. They should be quiet, walk slowl}^, never ask questions, alway’s go to church, keep awake while listening to a long sermon as in comprehensible to them as Latin. They' must be made to do just what they don’t want to do. The boy must go to college. Ids tastes must not bo consulted, he must study a profession even though he has no lovo or fitnes for it. This is one theory-. The other declares that a child’s habits should be studied, that God has made him just as he ought to be made. If he wants to play- let him playq if he wants to laugh, let 1dm; let him jump, kick up his heels, yell like a wild Indian, stand up for his rights, and know ing, dare maintain what he knows. It directs the impulses of Ids nature, curbing here, pruning there, but iu all things letting his God-given nature, exactly fitted for God’s intended work, have its full playu In training childhood nature must be followed. We must make our school centres of mind cult ure, just as our gardens are cen tres of plant culture.—•National Teachers' Monthly. ANOMAEBES OF EXOESSSI SFEEESNG. HOW THE ALPHABET IS TORTUKED TO GIVE OVER FORTY SOUNDS. One of the principal difficulties in learning the English language is the inexplicable manner in which most of the words are spelled, the twenty-six letters of the alphabet vying with each other to represent the forty or forty^-two sounds of the language in the most bungling and disor derly manner. Be the capacity of a child ever 60 good, y'et he must spend y-ears in learning these “ cuiiosities ot literature,” while a foreigner can only master our noble language by a vast expense of labor, pa tience and time. The Protean nature of the vow el sounds is familiar to all. A few amusing examples will show that the consonants are nearly as bad: B makes a road broad, turns the ear to bear and Tom into a tomb. ►». C makes limb climb, hanged changed, a lever clever and trans ports a lover fo clover. D turns a bear to beard, a crow to a crowd and makes anger dan- ger. F turns lower regions to flower regions. G changes a son to a song and makes one gone. II changes eight into height. K makes now know and eyed keyed. L transforms a pear into a pearl. N turns a line into linen, a crow to a crown and makes one none! P metamorphoses lumber into plumber. Q, of itself, hath no significance. S turns even to seven, makes have shave, and a word a sword, a pear to spear, makes slaughter of laughter, and curiously chan ges having a hoe to shaving a shoe ! T makes a bough bought, turns here there, alters one to tone, changes ether to tether, and trans forms the phrase “ allow his own ” to “ tallow his town I” W does well, e. g., hose are whose ? are becomes ware, on won, omen women, so sow, vie view; it makes an arm warm, and turns a hat into—what ! Y turns fur to fury, a man to many, to to toy, a rub to a ruby, ours to yours, and a lad to a lady !—Moses Patterson. During the month of Septem ber tliere was shiiiped from tlio sta tions (111 tlio North Garoliiia Kailroad 1,920,088 pounds of dried fruit. From the whole eastern portion of the State we hear of great damage by the flood of last week, and from the state of the atmosphere we very much fear that the end is not yet. Rev. Wallace Duncan, of Wof ford College, S. C., has been elected President of Eaudolph Macon College iu the place of his brother, Eev. Ur. James A. Uuncau, recently deceased. The North Carolina Annual Oonferonee, iM e t h 0 (list Protestant Church, will convene in the town of Winston on Wednesday, the lltli of November, 1877. The annual sermon will be preached by Eev. C. A. T. Whitaker on Thursday. Durham Tobacco Plant: Wo learn that a railroad fyom Unrham to Chapel Hill is a fi.xed fact. W^e are indebted +0 a friend just from Ealeigh for this important information. Tlio road will be built by the company owning tlie iron mine at Chapel Hill, and is to be a wide guage. Wilmington Star: Among the strange incidents of the war in the Bast is the eagerness the Eussian sol* diers show for the purchase of the Bb bios sent for their use by the British and Foreign Bible Society. Over CO.- 000 Bibles have been bought by them since the Eussian armies crossed the Pruth. Printer’s contest at State Fair. —For the fastest compositor first premium $15; second piremium $3, Type to be used small pica, to be set solid, without paragraph or break lilies; measure twenty-live ems; copy to be used. Constitution of the United States. Contest to be for one hour, and to take place in the general oxlfl. bition hail, on Wednesday, between the hours of 13 and 1 o’clock. Wilmington Star : In the death of the late Eev. Dr. James A. Duncan, of Virginia, the South lost one of its greatest, possibly its greatest, orator. His elocution was superb, and he could tell what he knew better than any man we have ever heard. Eev. Dr. Eead, Presbyterian, of Eiclimond, use to say during the war, wdieu Dr. Duncan was stationed in that city, “ When I hear that young man preach I always feel as if 1 were never called.” The elo quent Sonthrou was buried in Eich- mond. Bishop Doggott preached the sermon, which was every way appro priate and impressive. The faculties and students of Eiclimond (Bajitist) and Eaudolph Macon (Methodist) Col leges were present. ASSOSJT SIETAES. The South Atlantic.—Wo learn that the Table of Contents for the first issue of this magazine is about made up, and that it will appear promptly on the 15tli, the day aih ertised. Of the fiffy known metals, va nadium is reckoned the most costlyq and iron the cheapest, though really the most valuable of all. As estimated by commer cial prices current, a pound of vanadium costs more than two hundred tons of pig iron. There are nineteen metals more costly than gold, though many of them are rare and practically valueless as far as applied to any- practical use in their metallic state. None of the metals are poison ous by' themselves, probably be cause they are insoluble in their metallic condition When metal lic compounds are decomposed by electroly sis the metals are al ways attracted to the negative pole, and hence they are called electro-positive.—National Teach ers' Monthly. ■iijem A pupil in an English school w'as asked in an examination pa per, “ Why is the tropic of Can cer so called, and why is it situa ted twenty-three and a half de grees from the equator I” The an swer, constructed on a basis of purest logic, was : “The tropic _ of Cancer is so called from a Lat in word, cancer, meaning a crab, because there are a great many crabs in that portion of the globe; and it is situated twenty-three and a half degrees from the equa tor because there are more crabs there than any where else.” An other pupil, asked to define the word “buttress,” wrote out its meaning, “A ffimale who makes butter.”
The Orphans’ Friend (Oxford, N.C.)
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Oct. 10, 1877, edition 1
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