Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 February 1903 — OUR SCHOOL AND HOME TEACHING. [ARTICLE]

OUR SCHOOL AND HOME TEACHING.

If you get a comic valentine to-day it might be well to do one thing before getting mad about it. Ask yourself if it does not quite likely represent your character. The gift of seeing one’s self ns seen by others is possessed by mighty few people. Very likely you nre not an exception to the rule. In many cases it would be more blessed to receive a one-ceut comic than a dollar affair. The first might bring you to your sensos; the latter might fill you with vain conceit. See? Over in Pulaßki and Starke counties the county auditors and treasurers made no extra charge for their services on the board of review. Now, that the supreme court has decided that they nre entitled to such extra compensation, they have put in claims for same and the commisioners have allowed them. This action, in not taking extra pay until they knew whether they were entitled to it or not, is the same or that taken by Auditor W. C. Babcock of this county. It is, however, in direct contrast with that of other officers in this county who drew pay for the services right along without waiting for the courts to decido if they were entitled to such extra pay. It is announced that “Honest Abe"’ will retire from active business on his salary of $22.5 per year as county commissioner, and move to the hub. 110 may, however, make a few dollars on the side by acting as county attorney. The fact of his removal from his district will not vacate his office, although it should do so, and there is not much danger of the affairs of the county going to the demnition bow wows by Abe’s resigning. The Democrat is glad to learn that Abe’s statemanship and thrift during the past few years have been such that out of $225 per year he is now able to leave the sand dunes and gravel roads of Keener and come to the city and retire on his well earned competency. Semjxr felix, semper Jidelis, semper idem, semper pa rains. A bill has passed the state senate requiring that when a nonresident holds a mortgage it shall be listed for taxation from the j recorders’ books, and that the owner of the lien must pay the taxes unless he can show a certificate to the effect that the mortgage has been taxed in another state. The bill is designed, as the author explained in the debate, to require foreign money lenders to pay for the privilege, of coming to Indiana and loaning their money at a good rate of in- j terest here. At present they en-j joy absolute exemption from taxation, it is claimed, and the bill sought to remedy this defect. A report on the debate when the bill came up for passage, says that Senator Wolcott of this district lend the opposition, and with 21 others voted against its passage. The farmers and others, who believe that every man should pay his just share of the burdens of government, would do well to paste this in their hat. The Democrat this week publishes the report or inventory of poor farm personnl property as tiled by the retiring supcrintmi. dent, Mr. Clark. The vnhu pi, c ed on the different items iu AE, Clark's valuation, and we think our readers will agree with us that it is a low valuation lor example, 200 chickens are valued at S3O in the inventory, when *1(0 would be about the correct figure; 150 bushels of potatoes are inventoried at sls, win n s'.H> would be about the correct value; 3 sets of work harness are inventoried at $35, while S.)O would be about right, one of them being a new set purchased last year; 45 shoats averaging ovor 100 lbs. each nre valued at $5 each,- while tlioy would probablly bring $7 ench, and so on. The grain is inventoried at market price. But. taking the inventory at its low valuation, and it foots up to $4,341, against about SI,BOO at the time Mr. Clark took charge of the farm. March 1, 1900.

Interesting Paper By Lee E. (llazebrook, of Marlon Township, Read At the Farmers’ Institute Meeting.

(Conclusion.) We fear that in this liberty-lov-ing age we nre too. lax in our home and school goverment, too apt to let young folks have their own way. Children pass too quickly from parental control. Boys of fifteen and sixteen, with a horse and buggy and a nightkey, are turned loose to go where they like and to do as they please. The up-to-date young man feels that his liberties are greatly abridged if he can not be out till midnight at least five nights in the week. We attribute half the waywardness of our boys to this now almost universal practice of running about nights. Wo do not wish to try to put old heads -on young shoulders; they must have amusement suited to their years, but it had just as well be innocent and profitable amusement as unprofitable and hurtful amusement.

In order to have our children do right we do not necessarily have to stand over them with a club to keep them from doing wrong. If properly presented, there are natural incentives to right conduct as well as natural incentives to study. The desire to do right is a virtuous affection of the mind; we desire that which brings peace, pleasure and satisfaction. The desire for happiness is a natural incentive to right conduct. The love of approbation is another natural and strong incentive to right doing. Some would not, perhaps, class this among the natural incentives to right living; We think that men should desire the respect and esteem of their fellows, should wish to have an honored name among men, for “a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold.” The dosire of an approving conscience is a natural incentive to

right conduct. An approving conscience brings to us the purest and sweetest pleasure of life; though the whole world oppose us, should that still small voice whisper “You are right,” we could bravely bear all censure and reproach. The blessings of an approving conscience can only be had by right conduct. Our desires for the happiness and welfare of others are natural incentives that leads to right doing. Sympathy for the suffering and needy is a strong incentive to right conduct; it leads man entirely away from self, from ease and pleasure, sends him a mourner among the mourning, a sufferer among the suffering, and for neither pay nor praise he does whatever his hands find to do. These are some of the natural incentives that should be cultivated, for they lighten the burdens and sorrows of life, make men better, happier and wiser, make the earth a much more desirable place on which to live. While our schools are failing to fullv present proper incentives to study ami proper incentives to right conduct, they art' fostering and encouraging a spirit of lawlessness, of rowdyism, of brutality and heathenism that is dissagreeable, disgraceful and degrading in the extreme. We arc going back to the days of Sparta. Compayre, in his History of Kducation, says; “At Sparta mind wns sacrificed to body; physical strength and mili--1 tarv skill are qualities most de tired; the nole care is training nth--1 letes and soldiers. Sobriety and I courage nro the rcsu» of this onesided education, but so are ignorance and brutality.” In our attempt to follow heathen Sparta we get but one-half of this onesided education—ignorance and brutality. There is an athletic or sporting spirit pervading all our high schools and colleges; in fact our high schools and colleges nre, of late, only known to the gonoral public by their so-called athletic sports. To excel in physical strength, brute force, is a great accomplishment with the average

student of to-day. It is in the rejoicing of the pride of their strength, in the pleasure of the exercising of their brute force that the students indulge in the many college rushes and classfights we most every day read of Only a couple of months ago, when out-door athletic sports were at high tide, at the Anderson high school, (this state) class pride and the desire to excel in brute force ran so high that a general battle among the students had to be indulged in, in which one young man had an eye completely gouged out. The trustees of the school came forward and stopped so much display of muscle, abolished all class colors and like foolishness, and brought the school management to a commonsense basis. There is scarcely a college in the United States that there has not, in the last few years (since the athletic craze struck the country) seen more or less hazing class fights, college rushes and, the like. We scarcely pick up a paper but wdiat we read of some student being dropped in a well, carried away into the woods and tied to a tree; of some student being beaten into insensibility, of some being half drowned, treated to the “water-cure” and the like, and all from the prompting of the athletic spirit. It has reached the point that to attend college is just about as dangerous as going to war; you do not know what day you will hear of your boy being crippled or killed in college fights, college hazing or college games. This athletic spirit, this craze for physical training, these sporty fads, have reached such a point that our Governor in his message the other day called upon the legislature to take action. He said, “take action which will in-

sure to the public protection against disgraceful exibitions of brutality under whatever guise it is to be given.” It is needless to multiply words about this rowdyism and lawlessness that is indulged in by tha students of our high-schcols and colleges; everybody that reads the papers know of it. The rowdyism and lawlessness seems to reach its zenith in foot game that is brutal and usually attended by gambling, drinking nnd the other kindred vices that the sporting world lives upon. We are not making an attack on our local foot ball teams, being ours they are the “best what is,” we are taking foot ball just as we read of it in the daily press and hear of it on the street. There is, perhaps, never a matched game played but what there is more or less betting; right here at home little boys put up wages on the outcome of the game. There is a rough, sporty crowd following nnd backing every team of any importance. The same crowd that patronizes the horse race and prize tight are aiders and abetors of foot ball. The headlines of the sporting page of the daily papers read. “Sports of track, field and ring.” Foot-ball right in between horseracing and prize-fighting is the way the public views it. A game in which there are so tnamy broken bones, so many crazed aud dazed by list and fall, so mnny maimed for life nnd so many hurried to premature graves is a game that not one father or mother in a dozen wants their boys to play. and yet teachers are encouraging their pupils to participate in it. Wo are told that the school boys are full of life, that foot-hall is only an outlet for the overflow of vitality. We farmers have a way of regulating this super abundant vitality when it attacks onr stock; we either increase the work or lessen the feed; it never fails in bringing them to time. If it could only be arranged so that these athletes of superabundant muscle and vitality

could, an hour or so each day, take the place of the laborer on the street, or in the shop, how nicely it would help to even up things and teach boys useful, practical lessons. How nice it would be if this overflow of vitality could be turned to useful work; it is just here that our industrial and training schools come into good use. That we may not appear too severe on athletic sports, run to seed, we give here a few press dispatches and comments: PENALTY FOB BETTING AT ANN ARBOR. Ann Arbor, Mich., l)ec. 10.—The University Senate this morning adopted a resolution and appointed a committee in reference to student gambling on football games and other sports. Any student who is found betting on sports hereafter will he expelled from the institution. “It is the intention of the university authorities to stop the sensational reports concerning money put up ongumes, It has been a regular thing to send a purse from here to the opposing university,” said Professor Pattengill to-day. “We intend to stop this gambling, and we think this is the proper step to do it,” he added. “It is hurting the institution aud it must be attended to.” “The action of the University of Michigan, although a good one, will require mneli collecting of evidence.” said Secretary Goodspeed, of the University of Chicago. “Gambling is wrong at any and all times, and the students of a great university should not take part in it. “The University of Chicago has always insisted that the students make no wagers on a football game, Of course some may do it. However, I do not think they doitopenly. “I fear the majority of students would be expelled from some of the universities if such a rule should be carried out to the letter. More seems to be wagered in Eastern colleges than here in the West. However, it is nearly as had one place as auother. I am glud Michigan has taken this step,” harvard's heavy losses. A press dispatch from Boston reports that Harvard men lost about $50,000 on the football game recently won by Yale. It is a wellkiiown fact that thousands of dollars change hands on the result of each important game and the demoralization resulting must be considered in measuring the influence of football as a college game. It is time that the friends of athletics were entering a protest against the sportiug features of college contests; time that the college officials were attempting tocultivateu public opinion that will discourage wagers and bets on the players. The gambling spirit is destructive of sound morality. EVANSTON STIRRED UP. Residents of Evnustou were aroused today over the actions of Miss Genevieve Taylor, principal of the I,arimer School, iu forcing the pupils to submit to an examination in a nude condition by a doctor. Little girls were forced to remove all their clothing, mount a chair and go through a trying ordeal at the hands of Ur. Anna Gloss. They were asked scores of questions, mauy of which the little ones failed to understand the true meaning. Outside the boys were in line waiting to he examined. The girls, none over sixteen years old, had to leave the room after the inspectiou and pass by the crowd of laughing boys. Nearly twenty five pupils have been compelled to remove their clothing by the principal of the school. Members of the Board of Education of Chicago said to-day they had never heard of such an outrageous action on the part of a public school. The evil effect that follows such an occurrence along with the humiliated feelings of thechild.it is argued, will leave an everlasting impression on the iniuds of the children. Superintendent H. H. Kingsley, of the Evanston schools, says he understands the examination was to see if the children were being helped by physical exercise. He could And no fault with Miss Taylor, the principal of the school. While the members of the Evanston Board of Education may fail to see any wrong in the practice, the parents of the children do, and the result of aroused Indignation of the public may he felt soon. football’s deadly work. A list of the accidents resulting from football during the season of 1902, which hus just drawn to u close, shows that the game has claimed more victims this season than ever before. Carefully compiled reports front all sections of the country place the number who have died as a result of Injuries received ou the girdirou at fifteen. More than 100 minor hurts have been recorded, ranging all the way from concussion of the brain and iii-msiiit y. down the list through Injured spines, crushed skulls, broken legs and arms, to such smaller matters as broken ear drums and the tearing loose of ribs. Such are some of the reports and comments of the public press upon this gnme as carried on at foot-ball headquarters. It is high time parents, teachers and school officers step iu and either stop the game entirely or bring it withiu the bounds of reason. Some of the states we understand are about considering laws to control it, Missouri, we havo been told, having already taken action. Oar schools are the grandest institutions in our land

but nothing is really yet perfect beneath the skies; progress is the watchword of all the civilizing influence in our great and grand country. Of our schools we must ever be watchful, criticising whenevetdeserving, commending whenever worthy.