^HE STATE’S PURPOSE IN
ITS EDUCATIONAL EFFORTS
(Continued front Page- Two)
tonal course is being taught, including com
‘unity marketing. It will be worth the while of
reader to look up the article on Tabasco’s radi
■ departure in Collier’s Magazine of February
23 under the title of the Scourge o£ Tabasco, by
George Creel. It is enlightening from several
points of view.
While the agricultural work of the state is
worthy of the highest approval and' should be en
larged, it is unjust that the agricultural teachers*
through the joint provision of funds, by the state
and the federal government, are-paid all out of
proportion to teachers in other departments of
the schools. In many cases, the agricultural
teacher, instructing only a Few students, gets a
larger salary than the principal of the school, with
the entire responsibility of all departments rest
ing upon him, and in some cases, as at Louisburg,
for instance, the oversight of the colored schools
and, maybe, of outlying, schools also rests upon
him.
Other Practicable Vocational Studies.
Wood work, like agriculture, appeals to a large
percentage of people. Shop work is another prac
ticable vocational study. Domestic science or
Lome economy is another. Drawing, while usu
ally considered as pertaining to the ornamental,
is really basic to a variety of vocations and
should be generally taught. All these subjects
are as truly productive of mentality as are other
subjects in the curriculum—more so if the pupil
has great interest in one or all and little of no
interest in others, and less if the pupil has no in
terest in the vocation he is studying. I know a
man who as a lad studied agriculture two years,
and yet, I believe, he could hardly plant a row
of beans so as to get them to come up in rainy
weather. He was essentially a mechanic.
The great majority of vocations are beyond
provision for teaching in the elementary, schools.
But from the practical standpoint that is little
loss. If the study of those vocations were the
only means of educating a group of pupils, it
would be a different matter. As it isr the job
itself is the practical teacher.
The Comprehensive Vocational
Preparation*,
It takes a spinner or weaver m a cotton fac
tory 6nly a few days' to learn his job. A thousand
other vocations are like that. Therefore, voca
tional training in the schools for thousands of
positions is not only impracticable but needless.
On the other hand, a general preparation of
head, hand, and heart for any and all vocations
cr avocations for which the person hats innate in
terest or talent sufficient to assure attainment of
skill, is the most feasible of all methods for creat
ing a potential economic efficiency.
No knowledge, particularly that of general
principles and conditions^ no skill in any line of
mental or physical endeavor,, no habit ^ of close
observation, no habit of self-reliance or initiative,
nothing that can be learned will be found to be a
handicap to vocational fitness, but most surpris
ingly the apparently least promising observation
or fact may prove the key to success.
The airplane is a product ot tne siuuy ui
?nd almost every one of us> as a child had within
range the key to the flying machine when n€
“sailed” a disc of tin or a, keg head and saw it»
surprisingly, while sailing horizontally dart Up
ward.
The Part of Play in the Educational
Program.
Yes; play is an important means of education.
See the youth seize the baseball and With a
glance about the field as quick as lightning de
ride instantly where to throw the ball. Here are
die elements of a potential fitness for life s
emergencies. Quick and complete observation,
Prompt decision, immediate action.
In addition, play has its part in making a
healthy and vigorous body, that a healthy
vigorous mind, and that a support for a sane and
Vigorous morality. Few things are doing more
to teach boys and girls respect for the rights 01
others and a, hatred of unfair practice than or
ganized games,.... . ...
hut mind you, a thousand onlookers are not
participants in the; benefit* of the game. Sitting
°h the bleachers is far from educational. No matt
wakes a crop by looking at his neighbor pl°u|h
Ws field. A most sensible program is that ofthe
Ltog Creek High School of. Pmder county,
school was not satisfied wifit one basftetDalr t^urt
for the picked team of the
need the benefit® of the gamttdfte
school has provided many cbm** thafciegabie tne
hundreds to share the benefits and the pleasures
of basketball.
Removing Physical Handicaps.
The state has in no way for the same money
secured equal prevention- of economic and social
unfitness than by the work of the health depart
ment through- the schools. Thus many handicap*
both to physical- and mental development have
been removed. The wise state will in the future
provide free medicine and free hospitalization as
readily as it now provides free teaching. The
health and* efficiency of the body is fundamental.
No "means can assure economic or social fitness
for a sick or dead person;
Not only most natural physical handicaps be
removed, but the children must be taught to re
spect the natural laws that protect health. For
instance, the person- who goes from one of the
state’s schools and, ruins himself by drinking al
coholic liquor must do so in the face of knowledge
of the danger of the fluid. The laws have long
provided fob teaching of the physical, mental,
and moral dangers of drink, but the teaching has
been either lacking,, faulty, or monstrously inef
fective.
Th« Task of the Schools Gigantic*
In closing', let me say that the task of the
schools is gigantic. The schools call for the best
and the best in the best.
Dullards, sluggards, the immoral' and the un
moral, the silly and the insincere, the godless
and the loveless—none of these has any call to
the school room and no- increase in salary can im
prove them. They are a menace which must be
either avoided altogether or discarded when dis
covered.
The real teacher, the one who makes for physi
cal, mental, and moral fitness of his wards, is to be
cherished and, not in order to keep him or her,
but in appreciation of service well and worthily
rendered, given a compensation as nearly com
mensurate with their services as possible. Every
real teacher in the state is a benediction. Every
poor one a menace and a curse. A poor teacher
is one person who may do more harm in his job
than good. And there are teachers in North
Caroline who might well be sued for damages
instead of having their salaries increased. There
are others to whom if you would give $10,000
as a bonus* you would not over compensate them
for their unselfish and efficient labors.
William Rufus DeVane King
By CLAUDE H. MOORE, Turkey, N. C.
William Rufus Ring wasi the son of William,
and Margaret (DeVane) King and the grand
son of Thomas DeVane of Huguenot stock, and
William and Mafy (Woodson) King, of North
Carolina. He was born near Clinton, Sampson
County, North Carolina, on April 7, 1786. He
attended the private (-wheels of Sampson County
and entered the University of North Carolina m
1799 and was graduated with the degree of A. B.
in 1803. He stttdeid law and was admitted to
the bar ifr 1806, beginning practice in Clinton,
N. O.
King was elected as a Jeffefsoman Democrat
to the State House of Commons and served^front
1807-1809, and in 1810 He became citf^Rertor
of Wilmington. He vtw elected to the Twelfth,
Thirteenth and Fourteenth Congresses, and
served from March 4, 1811 to November 4,
1816. In 1847 he was secretary of legation at
Naples, and later at St. Petersburg, and ift ISIS
he returned to the United States and settled at
Cahaha, Alabama.
William R. King was a delegate to the con
vention that organized the Alabama state gov
ernment. Upon die admission of Alabama into
the union as a state, he was elected as a Demo
crat te the United States Senate. He was re
elected in 1822, 1828, 1834, and 1841, and served
from December 14, 1819, until April 15, 1844
In 1826, King moved to Selma, Alabama, ana
became a planter. He was minister to France
from 1844 to 1846. He was appointed and sub
sequently ejected to the United States Senate
toqfilI the .vacancy caused by the resignation of
Arthur P. Bagby and served from July J, I84°
to January 18, 1853'. King was eWd pr^
deat pro. W-ore of the Senate ^
slons. Hfe was elected Vice-President of Ute
United States hi 1852 on the ticket with Frank
lin, pierce. He took oath of office on Marclt^
1853, hr Havana, Cuba, where he had
his- health, which was a privilege extended by a
special act of Congress. .
King returned to for plantation En*r
Bend, Alabama, and died
1853. bo<^ was placed^heMfyv
on his plantation and was later
city cenw & Se*®3* Ma* 0atttttri Afeftam*
BLIND TOM
There seemed nothing out of the ordinary
about die lbt of slaves offered for sale in the
market at Columbus, Georgia, that morning. No
one thought of giving a second glance to the
tiny, wizened, black bundle that squirmed- feebly
in the arms of .a middle-aged Negress. The picka
ninny was frail, blind, misshapen. Perhaps thffP
is why the Negress clutched it to her breast with
such fierce tenderness. •,t
Presently the bull-voiced autioneer began call
ing for bids and in the course of time the Negress
was put up for sale. Young, able-bodied slaves
had a ready sale. But die mother of twenty,
■who carried a defective twenty-first in arms,
was not likely to excite these keen-eyed buyers
of human cattle. What good was an old slave? ,
However, one linen-clothed planter showed at
trifle indifference than his fellows. The auc
tioneer named a ridiculously low price. Tjhb
planter shook his head.
"Tell you what 1 11 qo, uenerai, wio .™
auctioneer,. wiping his streaming face, ,
knock her down to you an’ throw in the young-un
to boot for the same money! Yessuh, jest to
finish out the sale. Yes ? You’ll take her ? Sold,,
then ! Sold to General Bethune!-'
By all logic the sickly slave baby should have
died of its burden- of afflictions. But it didn’t.
Jfc got kind, treatment in the home of -General
Bethune. In its warped way it grew, learned t<*
crawl and fumble its way about the big house.
Tom,, they called the little Negro, Blind Tom.
And it became increasingly plain that something
was wrong with the brain behind those dead
eyes. He showed scant interest in anything,
could hardly feed himself.
Only one thing seemed to arouse him* That
was when the general’s daughters plhyed th«
piano. Then he would grope his way to a rose
bush by the veranda: where he would hide as
long as the girls played. When the last note
died, from hiding would crawl little Tom, hiss
ing shrilly as he always did on the rare occa
sions when something delighted him. This
went almost unnoticed, perhaps marked down as
another peculiarity of the- imbecile child.
Blind Tom was four years? old; when, as- had
\been the case with Mozart, he was. discovered)
at the piano, picking out with his little finger#
the notes of a melody he had heard the girl#
play.
General Bethune was quick' to see the extra
ordinary in this. He gave orders that Torn was
to be allowed at the piano as much as he liked.
Thereafter the boy spent most of his time at the.
keyboard.
The laws’ of compensation had done a wonder
ful thing for Blind Tom. To- make tip- for hi#'
blindness and all but blank mind, he had. a nat
ural genius for mimicry. The- absence* of most-,
of the normal senses had left room for an enor
mous expansion of the talent. Even at this early
stag#, Blind Tom could reproduce accurately any
piece he heard played through once providing
its keyboard compass could fee reached by M*
bafevisn hands.
At the age of eight Blind Tom toured tne
giving concern which left Ms audiences
gasping with amazement Yet his power off;
mimicry was not limited to the piano, life’ was •
human phonograph, recording sound of alT kmd&>
re-issumg it at will. He could imitate perfectly
birds, animals, the voices of men and Women.
His voice was a deep bass and ho liked nothing
better than to sing. "Hocked in the Cradle of the
Deep,’* all day Tong. But he could sing tenor,
and even soprano surprisingly well. Urtce whet*
he listened to a session of Congress in Wash
ington, he reproduced word for word, faithfuny
copying every small intonation and trick off
phrasing, all the speeches he had Heard. He
hadn't the faintest Idea what the words he re*
peated meant. A favorite feat of Blind xbmfr
was to sit, his back to the keyboard, and play,
with one hand, "Yankee Doodle, with the othfcr^
‘‘The Fisher’s Horiiplpe," and sing, "Tramp,
Tramp. Tramp, the Boys Are Marching" aff
the same rime, '1
After the Civil War, Blind Tom toured Eu
rope, where he astonished the foremost' must*'
dans of the time; He played simple- Foster
tunes, Mendelssohn, and difficult Liszt transcript
tions with equal ease. 1
Blind Tom couldn’t have been expected to con
duct himself as a normal person. At the piatt#
fie was always wriggling and moving Ms body
He seemed to have become a trifle more intern-'
gent with the yearn. Yet he never lost the faht
of leading the applause that greeted fils Pay
ing., He .would stand at the comer of the hey
board and bang his pink palms together vigor
ously, hissing stridently all the white.
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