Newspapers / Forest City Courier (Forest … / Dec. 15, 1927, edition 1 / Page 17
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REMINISCENCES By "Judge" D. F. Morrow, * i ' . Rutherfordton Soon after the. war between the states, education was at a low ebb. This was distressingly so in all the -ural districts; especially so in West ern North Carolina, including much of the Piedmont, (meaning foot of the mountains) and the mountain sec tions. The people then in these sec tions, like now, were much interest ed in their children and anxious that t 6y get so rye education. Money was scarce, times hard and everybody had to work. To meet these condi tions there appeared on the scene teachers of subscription schools, some to run for a month or so in July and Was In Misery All Over **l was in a dreadfully * run down condition," says Mr#. Chits, k Lacroix. of Montgomery, la. "I suffered a great deal $f jpaik. I was in misery all over. I could not sit up X cpuld not lie down. I couldn't sleep and at times I would have dreadful vomiting spells. Hie Aches and pains seemed to cover my whole body. "One night my * husband brought me home six bottles of Cardui and 1 began to take it. I could tell that I was improv ing from the first bottle, but I kept on taking the medicine, for I knew that I needed a tonic that would build me up and strengthen me where I was weak and run-down. That is exactly what Cardui did for me. After I had finished the six bot tles I felt fine. "I feel truly thankful for what Cardui has done for me, for I could not have gone on living in the desperate condition I was in." For sale by all druggists. IM># CARDUI USED BY WOMEN FOR OVER 50 YEARS $ What Is It Worth? * The measure of property value is the dollar mark ... and the val ue of property depends on its in surance against fire. No matter what it is worth today, it is worth less if fire sweeps it away tomor row.. Look well therefore to your insur ance policies. m SECURITY Itlpl Insurance & Realty Co. G. B. HARRILL, SecV-ZHreas. —: PHONE 64 Forest City. ■ August, then a like term in the svinter. The object of these schools was to teach reading, writing and arithmetic, rarely anything else taught. These schools wbre supple mented by ten day subscription schools wherein only grammar or writing was taught. The ten days were not taught consecutively but us ually one day in every week, thus making the term run over a period of several weeks. If it was a writing schqol the teacher and pupils would meet, and on the first day the teach er would "set copies," that is each pupil would carry a certain amount of paper to school and for the first lesson the teacher would make or set copies on the paper. The pupils would then practice making letters under j the direction of the teacher that day. For letters were only made in the beginning by the teacher and the pupil had to practice making let ters till the next school day usually one or two weeks off. This gave the pupil that length of time to com plete the a, b, c, degree. The next school day copies would again be "set." This time it would be words, with instruction how to hold the pen and how to connect the letters into words. In the next week or two as the case might be the pupils were expected and usually completed the word making degree, and then sen tences were set to copy by the teach er and the writing begun in earnest. At the final closing day the majority of the pupils could write. Any way they were graduated in it and if they continued to practice usually became experts. These teachers were in a way cir cuit teachers, much after the order of the old time Methodist "curcus' - riders, for they often had half dozen f or more schools in operation at one time in different communities. They often "boarded among the scholars" as did many of the every day teach er class. Our writing teacher in my boyhood days in the seventies, was Webb Yarborough. He taught the Spencerian system This was some thing new for before his day it had been only the "Hooker-hand." The usual tuition fee to these "curcus'" school teachers was $1 per term. So if a boy or a "gal" got through and could write good or bad it had cost a dollar. Many of those ten day "curcus" taught boys and girls are still living. and can write today so THE FOREST CITY COURIER, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1927 it can be read and after all that is all writing is for. Professor Ira Irwin He was not a writing teacher but j a grammar teacher and he was all | that and then some. Kirkham's gram-' mar was the one he taught or Kirk- i ham was the author of his favorite [ grammar. Now Professor Irwin was i unlike many professors, he was not j only professor but a possessor for i what he did not know about gram-! mar was not worth knowing in that j day. He knew Kirkham's grammar! from back to back by heart. I never j saw him take it in his hands to look I for anything in it. I have seen him j have the boys and girls take the I book, and try to select some page! where he would not know it. He nev- j er failed to tell them what was on j the page even the punctuation marks, t or marginal notes. He just knew it i and was endowed with the happy fac-1 lilty of imparting it to his pupils. He was grandfather of Clyde Erwin, County Superintendent of Ruther ford County at this time. Professor Irwin was a small man, that is he was not very tall but heavy set, weighing about one hundred and fifty pounds, bald head, blue eyes, and comely face. While he was an old man at the time I attended his schools he had much aimable ways and charming countenance that every pupil was his "pal" and friend. They had so much respect for him, obedi ence to the laws of his school was a pleasure, hence order and decorum in his schools was perfect. His Circuit His circuit included part of Cleve land and Rutherford counties at the time I am writing about. I attended at Providence and Cool Springs schools A scholar being a subscriber in any of the schools on professor's cir cuit or system of schools had the right to attend any or all of the schools if he wanted to and had the time to attend Very few ever did this for if he or she did it was a re-hash, or the same lessons as taught the day be fore at the other schools. It meant a double dose and some did it for that reason, and "when the terms ended the fellow that had taken the double dose usually was the better off be cause of the double dosing. I took Campbell's Removal Sale Moves on with increasing interest. Many of our customers who attended the opening days of this great sale were so impressed with the wonderful values that we were of fering that they have visited us repeatedly since and are still finding more interesting values. The opportunity is rapidly passing and the merchandise is moving fast. Don't postpone your visit any longer, but come at once. Perhaps never in your life and likely never again will you be afforded such a startling opportunity. We are losing heavily on this merchandise which we prefer to do rather than bear the heavy expense of moving it. Don't forget that this is a clean sweep sale, not one item being omitted. LADIES' & CHILDREN'S COATS .... MEN'S OVERCOATS ♦ Since the opening days of this sale we have One of the most sensational numbers in received several lots of the season's very our sale is our Overcoats selling at 55.95 best numbers in ladies' and children's and worth up to 535.00. Coats, bought as closeouts especially for this sale. They are selling in this sale at less - SHOF? than one-half their former price. Forgetting costs we are pricing our Shoes FLOOR COVERINGS !° I ? ove the ™ quick ; The neatest oppor tunity ever dreamed of to shoe the entire You will need some new rugs for Christ- family. mas. Buy them here at less than factory EL ices - . FLOUR 9XI LSI AINTEED RUGS ' aSS ?K "CRESCENT", Virginia's best grade Su patternp - *0.115 periative Patent Flour, absolutely guar- CERTAINTEED Linoleum, yd .SI.OO anteed, 53.50 per 98-lb. sack. If you visit us you will find many other items even more interesting than those men tioned. 0 If 7 0 t St SHELBY, N. C. the double dose and never regretted it. v ! The First Day of the Term | This was the day of organization, ! and assignment of lessons and a lec- I _ j j ture by the professor telling the i j pupils what could be accomplished • I in the ten days term. It seemed im- ! i possible and yet the professor prov- 1 led his case by-aiding many to un-. ! derstand grammar in one ten day ses j sion. The secret of that dear old j professor in producing such results, ! was that he had the inspiration and jin his lectures on the opening day, j that inspiration was injected by his j eloquence into many of his pupils and j it was that class of them that caught I the inspiration that succeeded and at i the end of the ten days term could | answer any question in that old j Grammar. There were drones then as ;now, both as to teaching and as learners. The First Lesson Well do I remember my first day at Cool Springs school house, which j stood near the Baptist church, and the same place where the cemetery at Forest City is located. This was a good school house for those days'. It was weatherboarded, had one or two small glass windows. It was not sealed, had a chimney at one end, a few benches, one chair and table for the teacher's desk. Behind this table stood the professor, no book in his hand, nor rod under his arm but telling the scholars how they all could become great. When I enter ed, he stopped, looked at me and | said just in time. (I had walked four j miles to get there.) Have a seat, and jnow let every one turn to the first | page and you will find, and with this he read the whole thing off by heart. He then told us the first lesson would be the ten parts of speech and could and must be gotten by heart by every scholar before the next school day which was ten days off. He said there are but ten parts of speech and of course it was easy for any girl or boy to get one part of speech each day for ten days and then they would have the parts by heart In his lecture to us in assign ing our lesson he gave the definition of each part and by illustration made many of them plain. Why, he said noun is the first part of speech and noun means just anything that has a name, like cat, dog, pig or pup. At this the whole school breathed easy, and you could hear Tom, Phip, and Jake saying in a whisper I know what a noun is, and they did. Then he said a pronoun is another part of speech and one of ten divisions in to which the language is divided. And it meant a great deal but was easy to remember for if pig and pup were nouns, and they were, then any word that will stand for either pig or pup would be a pronoun. Just at this time Tom's pup came into the door and the professor seized his coming into illustrate his point and said whose pup is that and "Tom said! mine." Put him out then. Then he told us "him" stood in that case for the pup for he told Tom to put "him" I out, meaning the pup and again there was a twitter in the class same as to say I know pronoun and they did in a way; for among the girls could be heard yes I know its him and that's a pronoun, and it was. The professor could see the pick-up and enjoyed it for Jane asked him is "him" a pronoun when it means a boy as well as a pup. Certainly he said there is no difference, if the pup is a male. Other parts of speech, in fact all of them were illustrated to the class on that opening day by the professor as well as the noun and pronoun. Each scholar noted in his book the page where the professor said we must get by heart before the next school day and thus ended the first day enroute to a graduation in a grammar school in the days of my boyhood, at a ten day pace, i As the girls and boys away i home, some for miles, to do first their chores at home, and then by pine knot or tallow candle light, study till | the wee wee hours of the night. And {many things they had learned that day for Phip said everything he saw was a noun, and Jane said most she could see was a pronoun, Him. CHRISTMAS PROGRAM AT HARRIS SCHOOL Harris, Dec. 12.—0n Thursday evening December 22 at Harris scTiool building, the following "program will be given by the grammar and pri mary grades. Immediately after the program there will be a community- Christmas tree. Welcome song. Writing to Santa, Louise Bland. ; Song: Upon the house top, Louise ! Bland and Lewis Robbins.. "The Reason", Benard Harris. "What Makes Christmas," by six first grade children. Song: "Away in the manger," primary grades. Not too little to help, Myrtis Car roll and Virgil Lee Butler. "Christmas Symbols", by six girls. Christmas Gifts: Clyde Robbins. Song: "0, Little Town of Beth lehem." Reading—"Miss Prim's Christmas Shopping," by Martha Ruth Harris. Play: "The One True Gift of Christmas", by seven grammar grade children. A Visit from St. Nick, Eugene Smith. Song: "There's a song in the air." Play: "Squire Hawley's Christ mas," by grammar grade pupils. Princess Theatre, Shelby, N.C. Thursday Friday Polo Negri IN "Barbed Wire A Paramount picture. News Comedy Also Mystery the man that knows all— Matinee 10c and 25c Night 20c and4oc Saturday Barze Barton IN Sling Shot Kid Comedy—News Monday Tuesday CLARA BOW IN "Get Your Man" Comedy News Wednesday Oh, What a Night I Also St. Louis Stock Company presenting "OVER THE HILL TO THE POOR HOUSE." In 3 Acts Always Welcome • At The Princess
Forest City Courier (Forest City, N.C.)
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Dec. 15, 1927, edition 1
17
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