Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 October 1895 — Toeing the Line. [ARTICLE]

Toeing the Line.

The reign of graded schools and scientific methods of education has deprived the rising generation of many of the experiences, laughable, instruct tive, pathetic, which live in the memories of gray-headed men who once figured as the prototypes of Whittier’s “Barefoot boy, with cheek of tan.” It was the hour for the spelling lesson in one of those fondjy remembered red district school houses, and the boys and girls had taken their places on the floor. “Toe the mark,” commanded the teacher, and a rustling and shuffling indicated obedience. The line stretched clear across the school room; now a pair of bare and dusty feet, next a eonple of nicely blacked shoes, side by side with a pair of rawhide boots guiltless of the suggestion of blacking. The teacher inspected the line approvingly until his eye rested on one small urchin standing so far behind the others as to be almost out of sight. “Nate,” he asked, “why don’t you toe the mark?” “P-p-please, sir, I am,” falters the boy, “but I’ve got on dad’s boots.” Sure enough, the toes of the boots were all right, on the mark, two or three inches beyond the toes of the youthful wearer.