Newspapers / Watauga Democrat (Boone, N.C.) / April 5, 1923, edition 1 / Page 3
Part of Watauga Democrat (Boone, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
APRIL 5. 1923 SCHOOLS FIFTY YEARS AGO RALEKiH. N. C.. March II .?The old "deestrict" school, with its hardworked teacher, her hair "combed straight back from her forehead and twisted into a knot at the back of her head:** its huge log chimney; its benches of poplar or juniper, and with all its true atmosphere has been accurately described by 1) P. McDonald, in h?' Harnett County School News, according to state educational officials. The vt >ry on the schools of fifty years ago, attended by so mttny North Carolinians that lived in rural sections and small towns, is as follows: "The command was given by the tea?hcr of the 'deestrc* school and ?strict school it was, too. as she stood in the doorway of the school house one November morning in the year of our Lord, 1872, and in the year of our independence il*0 minus three, and the thirtieth year of our stat?' educational system. The sun was directly over the crooked pine down che road, which showed it was time to begin school. "Her hair was combed straight back from he forehead and twisted into a knot at the back of her head. She wore a white collar, a basque waist with button down he front, and a plain skirt with a wide ruffle at the bottom. "The children rushed in pell-mell, each trying o get in first and occupy the best seat pi the house, which \va the one next the fireplace The house was type of all the community school houses at that time. It was built f logs and he space between them were stopped with boards on the outside. On the inside these space were used by pupils to put their books in when not in use. A huge log chimney with clay took up nearly one end of the building. A log was sawed out of the ther end, a convenient height from the floor, to afford light for a 'writing board,' which was a plank resting on pegs, driven in the log below it. A rover was arranged for his opening, made by hinging the edge of another plank to the log above, keeping the plank raised ir. fair weather, and letting it down when it was rainy. The house was covered with hoards and whhile some had lofts in them, others had none; and the pupils soon learned to tell the time of day by he place on the floor on which a ray of sunlight rested as it streamed through a knothole of a board in the roof. The seats were benches of poplar or juniper logs split open, and the flat part smoothly hewn to an even surface. Legs were driven into holes bored at the proper angles on the road side. "When the pupils were all seated around the fireplace, and the teacher had taken her place in ttu corner (in a split botom chair, borrowed of a neighbor,) the business of the day began The fij>. lessons were in si el ling, and Webster's bine back was dissected from a-b, an to incompre hensibi'ity. Some times, a s;.?gle book served f<?i seviua; ?upiN. IVo old-fashioned way of n-\ing a pupil 'study out load' had ( discai red and the children t-m on the ! n? h? without a!?yJb.r*.g to i? t their ha k against, ar.d nothing to re.t ihc>r books upon, and "holding the! i.i ween their thumbs and fing* is on a level with the eyes, they 'went o\er A?nd over' ih - Ie.->v.; in a v. n-,.. r "A pupil couul be heard spelling 'a-m-i-t-y' ?oi;?v%d by another : ear him pronoun- .hj: 'horseback.* It soon became a mono! mous chant. One lioy, whose ir^tu r had show 1 him row her teac:. j require:! her to study 'elementaries* when she was a girl, could he heard repeating, b-i-a l?Ia, . b-I-e, hie. b-l-i, bli, to my bla bly. C-l-a, cla, e-l-e, cle, c-l-i, cli, to my clo, clu cly. Note: Those who are not acquainted with the first pages of Webster's spelling book will not understand, but there are grey-headed boys and girls who will be carried back to other days by this. A class comes up and fluently spells: cessation, libation, foundation, and as the next word was given out a commotion was heard in the corner? * " 'If yer don't give me my thumb paper I'll tell teacher! " 'Shan't nuther, 'taint,* > " 'Tis, too.' snatches at it. " 'It haint. I found it on the floor V 'I drapt it/ snatches. " 'Findin's owning.' iai t nutner, snatcnes. " "[is with thumb paper.' "The teacher stopped in the middle of 'tarnation' and sternly demanded. 'D. P., what are you and Frank fussing about? "Instantly everything was quiet Both boys looked towards the east corner of the room. A tall broom made of old field sage grass stood ir it. Then they looked towards the corner behind the teacher, and there it stood, a hickory switch about three feet long. With a feeble voice the Vupil addressed replied: " 'Frank's got my thumb paper. Swallows. " 'Picked it up off the floor.' " 'It's mine. Ma cut it out of th< y almanac and folded it for me. It ha< ' the picture uv a cow on it.' Swal lows. "With a voice as sharp as a two edged sword the teacher continued " 'Give it to me,' and without wait ing for the culprit to bring it to her she crossed over to the boys. Th< switch was in her hand, and deliver ing three rousing whacks on the bad of each boy. she confiscated the disputed proiyrty. The pupils all began studying as if their very lives depended on it. and the teacher calmly went back to her place and gave out tin next word, 'damnation.' (Note: A thumb paper was not only a bookmark. but was also held undler the thumb during study hours to keep tinthumb from spoiling the page and wearing it out by continual rubbing as there was nothing for the book to rest upon and the pupil he'd it in his hand while studying. Even the teacher had no desk.) "After the spelling lessons came reading, and the younger pupils gravely read: 'She fed the old hen.' 'The old hen fed her.' The old ones used the North Carolina Reader, a reading book gotten up by 0. H. Wiley, the first state superintendent of public instruction. The first lesson was read by a big girl who attacked it with a vengencc, for she knew it 'by heart' and she told in a falsetto voice pitched in the key of C, how: ?? TU.-.V. ?M.?n ..n* dam' "Fur a 'eart suh warrum an' true, " 'She's gawn ti^h the lake uv they dismal swamp " 'W'erc ol night long "ith er flier-fly lamp " 'She paddles 'er w'ite canoe.' The children were now watching the edge of the sunlight shining through the knot as it neared the twelve o'clock across the floor, and when i; was parallel this mark, the j teacher announced. 'Intermission.' The children rushed to their basket where they get a piece of corn pom ; ami a ra-her of bacon and hurried tc ! ! the playground, eating as they went.' "When the dreadful, awful, tor- j | rible word 'Book.-' was again calle.l . ! b\ the teacher from the doorway, tin 1 l?ig boys left their three-handed game 1 <?f 'cat,' the big girls and small boys! ?]uit theis games of prison base, while the little girls hid their rag dolls under some convenient log. where no : mischievous boy would he likely t?? find them, and they all hurried in to begin their lesson in arithmetic and get more intimately acquainted with] figures. The beginners could not ; help associating them somehow with' niggers.' "Emerson's 'mental' and 'written' was studied in turn while! one or two who were unable to get an up-to-date book used Pike's or 1 ; Smith's. Ar. advanced pupil or two! j also recited a lesson in Monteith'sj geograpny. Alter me regular ses-i sons were over, all the pupils were' allowed a short time to study the] 'spellings'?the last recitation of the day. When the teacher called the j class to take their places on the floor, all in the school who were in the least proficient in this study stood up behind a chalk mark across the floor' with their toes on the mark, learning: I to 'toe the mark' in future yours, and ; as each word was pronounced by the ' teacher it was spelled by the pupils from the head to the foot of the class. After this lesson was over school was dismissed, .and the children went' home to help do the evening chores,) eat a frugal supper and go to sleep' and dream that a long row of hard! words with dunce caps on them were! demanding to he spelled, or that the] j multiplication table, standing on very] wobbly legs, was insisting that the j dreamer repeat it. ? "Itcfore casting a sneer at the efforts of the people Cf this. pCiiuu iu attain a higher development <?f character by education, we must remem!...? thuo. . ... il l I I ays when the state governor was! controlled by 'carpet-baggers' and i grots. The school funds were all squandered and not one penny was | appropriated for the cause of educaj tion. The south had been devastatj td by four years of terrible war, followed by the most damnable oppression that was ever inflicted on a helpless people. There was no money to buy the necessities of life or pay the burdensome ta* that was imposed tyi them. Many of the children were orphans whose father had been killed in the war, and their widowed mothers worked in the field day after day to feed them, and the sound of the spinning wheel or the loom could, be heard in the late hours of the night as they made the cloth that later they would make into clothes to keep them warm. "And that tired, conscientious teacher, working so faithfully at a salary of *we promise to pay $30 per month,' which promise the patrons were often utterly unable to fulfill, surely her place is among the immortals. Sometimes an order was given her on the public treasurer by a local school committe for her services when it was certain there were no funds for the payment of teachers and it was uncertain when there would be any. She was lucky if she CinH nnunno wtin ha/1 flin m.irow ...... ?- ?. ..W H..U wv - . and faith enough in the future credit [ of the county to discount her order for -her. The first obligation of . Harnett county known as the "Lilly ; debt' was largely composed of school i vouchers which were bought for t three-fourths of their face value. > "And, from these schools of limiti ed opportunities went men of chari acter, able to withstand the terrible 1 temptations on every hand; men of intelligence, striving to bring about ' better conditions and a higher place of living; men of ability, who were able to build on the ashes of desola2 tion the new south, great in intellec1 tual achievements, winch is our herit age today." PEACEABLE An actress who was married foi , the third time last June has seperated e from her husband. Not a shot was u fired.?Texas Exchange quoted bj lc the Boston Transcript. THE WATAUGA JOHN D. JR.'S INCOME FROM OIL STOCK ALONE $229,742 PER WEEK. ! New \ ork. March 31.?Each week: $229,742 accrues to John D. Rockefe.er, Jr., in dividends from stock; owned by him in nine Standard Oil Companies, it is revealed by a calculation made by Dow. J one- & Co., from testimony given in the Senate's recent investigation of the oil in- i dustry. The younger Rockefeler's annual j dividends from his stock in the concerns?approximately one sixth of all j shares?total close to $12,000,000, it, was shown. At current prices hisj holdings ni these companies are: worth approximately $1 10,GOO.000. ; TI . ,U \ . 1 .. 1? .. i iic tunci'nis ait- nuoiuii. ivefining Company, the Standard of N'ew Jersey. Standard of California. Ohio Oil Company, Prairie Oil and (las, Prararie Pipe Line, Standard of New York, Illinois Pipe Line, and th?- Yacum Oil Company. The elder Rockfeiler, founder of the Standard Oil group, is not the; owner of as much as one per cent of the stock of any of these companies the survey shows. i j) miii a??? I LOW j PRI S W _ O W W? I In the Mis Ford Moto Chassis Runabout Touring . Truck Chs Coupe ! Sedan All Prices F. At these lowest with the many n Ford cars are a day than ever i the time to p! for reasonably ] Terms it J. B. ! uE BOONE AND i[ ? io" ? I "Slimy "When 1 feel stupid, get constip two oi Black-Draught and it sets ir Haislep, of R. F. D. 2, Columbia, i all riehl. and have not used anv oil of M. I am a guard al the State or more years. When 1 first heart S BLACK-E Liver ] 911 and the good medicine it was, I E I'd get up in the morning. I wouii I bad taste in my month, but didn't I stupid and didnt led like eatingwas then I began Black-Draught, I |3 kind of work, ready to eat and sle< ' H I take Black-Drangbt, and for 25 y wouldn't be without it at all. My lot. I am out ot doors, and Ires ; I Sold Ev DEMOCRAT fcnn:, !' " * rTutfs Pills-, Enable Dyspeptics to eat whatever they wish. Cause food to assimilate. Nourish the body, give appetite. DEVELOP FLESH 6B&53I '"EST jj CES tory of the >r Company ! . $235 j 269 . 298 ?ssis 380 li . 530 . 595 o. b. !' !r ill! |i;|j jjjj ' !S jeiore. Now is [ace your order prompt delivery. : desired. ? ] ' I|l:? TAYLOR gj :al?r VALLE CRUSIS I'iiU - P rTnWMKiwt^rrwc. j umf" , *: .tnr. :;ssjrr.*csark^5v B" "tr~ "?'Dnn Taste" 9 ited, or bilious, 1 take a good dose or |j|j le straight," writes Mr. George B. Nil >. C. "It cleanses the liver and I feel QD icr medicire as I do not see the need ng Reformatory, and have been lot three |||J R AUGHT I Medicine had been having a tired feeling when Eg i be ctiff and tore, and had a (ttnay, 99 think to much of It till 1 began to feci ? then I knew I needed medicine. It Bfl red I felt an made over, ready lor any I p. So, for any return of this trouble, j ear* it hat been my medicine, and I II work is constant. 1 am on my feet a I ih air and Black-Draught are all (he I I to others for 1 know it is good." erywhere. / NOTED MEOA LION ARTIST G* X W'iin only a small, pointed knife and a pile of soft flay not larger than a ! silver dollar, Theialore Spk-er-Slrapson, 1 the ' tll-kuown English seuiptor, who i? ari..-,a!r?.r tlio ul.Oar Ir. M'nml V1?, produces medallions which are considered - . unusual as to be prized by the bir^e museums In the world Including i! Metropolitan Jri New York and the British museum In .London, lie j makes a specialty of jwrtralt medal| lions which ore cost In gold, silver or j bron; e and has made thein of many not ah persons. 8IG SALARIES IN PALESTINE Disco fit Over High Pay to British Officials In Impovertshed Land Jen salem, Palestine.?The Palestine buik'i for the < mains fiscal ye?r culls for >ii; expenditure of nearly hmi. Comment lias I men caused by the high -laries paid to British officials and the relatively small amount allotted to education. Tw and one-half million dollars goes for the maintenance of prisons and public security. This, however. Is not surprising In view of the large number of Indian troops kept here. wbos?* presence Is deemed necessary because of the hatreds engendered by the Bulfour declaration. Less than half a million dollars ! appropriated for educutiojt. and half of this sum ifi?H? to administrative expense. The country would be In a bad way indeed, from the standpoint o? education, were It not for the excellent schools maintained by the Christian missions and the gm>d work done by the Zionist organisation hn looking after the education of Jewish children. The head of the department of education draws a salary larger than that o? the secretary to the I'renldent ol the United Stales, and the salaries : of all the British oillclals are correIspondlngly large. The British high commissioner la paid ?10,000 a year and has in ;?ddirlnn an expense allowance of $1,500 annually. These high salaries have created disontent among the people. In judging ' :?? situation it should he remembered bat Palestine is ; poor country, with area about equal to the state of j aenqont. Until recently all the beads f :;ov?w: iHri.iut do;-artuiei.ts had thelf a a .i. idles, maintained at great h>? : > the government. But an ?- We -paper it, .B-rusalm mad? ;;u '.-ry against this practice ' .it it as speedily abolished. i-X-CON. !CT REGAINS RESPEC1 Bigamist Returns to Work in Village Where He Was Sentenced to Prison. New York.?Alexander I>njai 01 Cort>na, farmer county clerk of Queen! county, who served time In Sine Ship for blKuniy. has assumed his duties a* harbor i:::. tor at the state barge cans terminal, I ong Island City, at a salur^ of $1,800 a year. When Dujat was released from Slnp Sing on A i.rust 23. he expressed confide ? in his ability to regain th? esteeui diosc- who had known hln as the village blacksmith for 80 yean before became county clerk. li was on ?; eve of his expected reuoni (nation ' r tlmt office that he was In dieted ' convicted on a charge oi having :rrle' Miss Edna Marie Young of Corona, while he had anoth er wife. Mr-. Matilda Vernolca Clif ford Dubit. In Brooklyn. Los Buoy Floats 3.000 Miles. London.?A whistling buoy, reportet lost from the St. Lawrence river i year 1ms been washed ashore a Bryher. one of the Scllly Islands. I Is 80 Ir; circumference and 12 fee high. The carbide gaslight case wai wrenched from the top of the buo?y oi Its Journey or 3,000 miles. Twenty years ago a shriller marks drifted to the Seniles from the Mexl can const and Is now being used as i i water tank. I I - -T Saves 8,140 Buffalo Nickels for Bank Deposit North English, la.?A consignment of 8,140 buffalo nickels, amounting to $407 and hauled to the bank on an express wagon, was the unusual deposit made by Mrs. Itosa Miller of this city. Mrs. Miller had hoarded the nickels ever since the pieces were coined. ?1 P?Re Thre? Ws^owTobe I SLUMLESS CITY ! Scottish Metropolis Providing ! Municipally-Owned Homes in j Suburbs for Working Class. iS SECOND CITY OF BRITAIN Though Inland. Glasgow Dominate# the World's Shipbuilding Industry ?Pioneer in MunicipallyOvtncd Public Services. VVashingP. O.?Glasgow, Scotland. wlxi.-iM otH.-ials have announced (hat thej will wipe out one of the last of Its slum distrhts and provtd# mMeud munlfiiiallv-owned homes In the suburb*, thus bids fair soon to I becooie one ' f tfew slum! ess great cities. Something of this Scottish metropolis, which in many ways is one of the most Interesting cities in the world. Is told In a bulletin Just issued from the Washington (1>. C.) headquarters of the National ideographic society. "tiSasgow is inland, yet it dominates the world's shipbuilding industry and has turned in ore of the great ships that daily carry the plea si re seekers and busin- - men. the mail* and freights, and the grim steel engines of war than any salt-water rival " says the bulletin. ' And in spite of Its off: he-sea location on a stream across wliah. a century ago, a child could ' wade the tor.nage of ships that now berth at its mays and docks is twothirds that of New York. * In '-mentally, ?i!a>gow. though it* name tr.ny m?t be quite as f:.miliar lis other British towns, is surpassed lu size In fSreot Britain only hv London; and with its more than n million inhabitants, It is barely outranked by only two other cities In the far-dung British empire?'Tnb utta and Bombay. It is In easy reach of becoming tno second city under the Brftisn Made the Sea Ccrrte to 't. "How (ilusgow, relatively a small community on a shallow stream?ae dating and more successful than Mahomet with his mountain made tha sea come t<? It. Is one of the most fascinating of the romances of engineering. For a long time freight for the city was brought In ships to a point 40 miles down on the Clyde estuary and carried the rest of the way on pack-horses and In carts. Later a port was established 19 miles away ; but as . th? city grew the need for a port at Its door became more apparent. The , 1 situation seemed hopeless hut in 1773 engineers hit upon the scheme of nar rov. ng the channel and making It dig , 1 Its bottom deeper. "The plan worked. The pitifully uieager 2-foot depth of those days had become 8 feet by 1836, 22 feet by 1!Mh?, and Is now 20 feet?sufficient t? accommodate the huge modern ocean liners. Picks, wielded by wading men, started the loosening of the river bot-j | torn lit the old days; then on in e horse-; t drawn harrows. In late oears explo-j f i slvea and the most modern o< steais! , dredges have helped keep the channel to Its depth. Though Glasgow's waterway Is where the river Clyde has flowed . for ages It has been truly said that , it Is 'as artificial as the Suez canal.* , "Kxcept where there are commercial quays and docks, practically every fool of the n.vde waterfront from Glasgow . to the estuary is now taken up with the worlds greatest and busiest ship-j ards. 5 "Glasgow's fame has gone farthest oerhans. because of the wonderful rec. ord of its city government and th? somewhat unusual municipal enter ' prises w hlrh It has conducted for Its ' inhabitants. Its numerous municipal* ? ly-ownetl and oj>er;;ted services might - well have drawn the charge of *Bol1 shevlsin* had they not proved success ful business ventures l??ng before that term was invented. The city took 1 ??> er Its water w orks at an early data * and oe\elo|jed them. It has operated 5 lu own gas works s?ince 1S60. and 1 even rents* cook stoves to household* * era for a small fee. Since ISSV2 thtj r city has n??t ?nly lighted its street! from munlcipaily-operated electric engineering ?taM?*?>* hut has also fun* r tit shed current ''or Industry and for - lighting dwellings. The street rah* * ways have been owned since 1S72 and " operated since ISSM by the city. Municipal Wash Houses. There are a s- ore or mo re of city* owned bath houses and wash house* ^ where family washing may be dona 1 with modern facilities; and since 1870 * the city has conducted municipal lodg* j lug houses. There is also a municipal * I 'family home' where children are as* 3 aured good care while their parent! 3 are at work. In the provision of public markets, libraries, parks and play-; r eronnds. the cif.v was a oloneer. A number of bands are kept busy pro vidlng musk1 in the parks during the summer. "Industrially, it might be said that ^ 'Glasgow made the steam engine, and | the steam engine made Glasgow/ James Watt made his great invention t at Glasgow university. A few years J after Robert Fulton's 'Clermont* had [ i made Its first trip on the Hudson, the \ first steamboat In Europe was oper' a ted on the Clyde ut Glasgow. Goal [ i anu Iron ore were developed near by. Blast furnaces and machine shone came. Now Glasgow, having made her river, built her ships, equipped them with 'made-ln-Olasgow' machinery, and bunkered them with Glasgow coal, sends them to the ends of the earth to reap profit for the old home town."
Watauga Democrat (Boone, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
April 5, 1923, edition 1
3
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75