Rensselaer Journal, Volume 12, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 September 1902 — The Schools Have Opened. [ARTICLE]

The Schools Have Opened.

The wheels of that ponderous piece of machinery—the school—have begun to move again, turning a little slowly at first with rusty creakings, but gathering momentum each hour, and sounding aloud with all the determined rumbling and bumbling of Rensselaer young Americans. In his little box office sits the wise and determined engineer, Prof. Sanders, silent, watchful—a morose Jeremiahlike director of energy; a sort of Thoreau, with the guiding, mechanical instincts of an Edison, and the patience of a Buddhist yogi. He is not playfully inclined; he understands the omnipresent danger signals too well to smile during the opening month run. When the buzzing of the huge organism that conserves and ultimately furnishes the thinking power of the government takes on an unsteady note, this master mechanic reaches out his hand, and—lo!—harmony transmutes discord into music; the thews and sinews of majestic energy regulate themselves to the discretionary command of one brain; there is no rude lurching of line-shafts, no roquetting of loose pulleys, no creakings of agonized gearings; mind has conquered. Under the control, and acquiesing to the leadership of this mechanical Titan are a number of sub-engineers, directors of sections of tne prodigious power plant; energized by the profound enthusiasm of years of similar effort, they sit in their places impassive of countenance, borrowing from their leader the cloak of masterful imperturbility, yet übiquitous withal and alert as the fabled Martains. They fill their places admirably regarding their duty alone they find no time for dalliance of wit. They will not permit procrastination to sit upon their shoulders, but rather the fasce of divine authority—the majesty of laws immeasurable injunction, the direct commission of the master of scholastics, whose Napoleonic word is inexorable.

It is no slight task these coadjustors set themselves to do. The preservation of energy, the saving of it for purposes of good government and citizenship is an immense task. The divinity that hedges about republican institutions must be foisted at the expense of every selfish interest. Anarchy and its loathsome free polity must be abjured and its thrice damned teachings purged from each aspiring mind. The reserve and hellish instincts inciting to immorality must be crushed at the inception. Growth in the public school must be regular, institutional, directed with all the care of a life and death mission. For it is this growth in free America that produces and developes our Lincolns, Garfields and McKinleys, that produces our great Calhouns, Clays and Websters. From this endless humming of thought-progress steps the philanthropist and statesman, the queen of arts, the mothers of Americans. (What can be grander than to be the mother of a free-born hero—an American?) From this creaking machinery of the public schools comes forth the eye that guides the five-mile shot, the man behind the guns, the man with the hoe, that cultivates the Sahara of the north, and digs a tunnel through the Rockies, the Wall street giant, the martyr of freedom. Let us take off our hats to these engineers of progress. Hats off to these coadjutors of Liberty! The schools and their teachers, ladies and gentlemen—hats off to the schools! We will be coadjutors also—coadjutors all! Genuine Rocky Mountain Tea made by the Madison Medicine Co., is made of rare ana costly herbs not found in any other preparation, therefore get the kind ycu read about. B. F. Fendig.