Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 November 1879 — Educational Department. [ARTICLE]

Educational Department.

The Forty-sixth* Congress will meet in its first regular session next Monday, and it will probably be continued until some tin\e next summer. Mrs. Charles Dickens, the wife of the late English novelist, is no more. It will now be in order to raise the dickens again about a former domestic scandal. How does the reading of the fol** lowing president! al ticket strike you: For President, Hon. John Sherman, of Ohio; for Vice President, Gen. Den Harrison, of Indiana. A veteran Mississippi Democrat has become so enthusiastic for Grant that he wants him elected President • J the United States for life. In the production of political idiots the Democratic, party comes boldly to the trunk

The late great liepublican boom ha* a death-blow to Sammy J. His former “best friends” are turning rhe cold shoulder, and it is even reported that his right-hand man, Thomas A., lately denounced him aaa “trickster and a fraud.” Woe M Democracy. We learn through the Wabash Plain Dealer that a yonng man named W. D. Norris, of Monticello, is charged with forging several notes of large amounts on different parties and sold them at the First National Hank of Peru and at other places. Norris is still at large. In a “fr.ee for all” racc.for county treasurer at Vicksburg, Miss., a full-blooded negro was elected by a handsome majority. Sdid colored brother was formerly a slave of Jefferson and Joseph Davis, but is now one of the richest men in that State. He is also well educated and there is some talk of running him for congress next year. General U. S. Grant and General Phil Sheridan will take a horseback ride through the streets of Indianapolis, on the 9th of December next, if the weather permits, simply' for the gratifieatiou of several thousand Hoosier patriots who desire to do them honor. Shortly after this demonstration General Grant will visit several cf the Southern States/ and we are informed that a goodly number of the Southren brethren Mho have become tired of Democratic misrule will welcome him with open arms.

The National Distillers Association, held at Cincinnati, last Friday, passed a resolution against any change being made in the tax on intoxicating drinks, not that it would have any material effect upon their pocket-books, because tho dupes who drink it would be required to foot the bill, but because it might have a.tendency to unset the business without any advantageous result. How very considerate for the people’s welfare the manufacturers and dealers in liquid poison have become, all at once. Some ten years ago several prominent parties in New York, Philadelphia, Boston and other large cities concluded it would be a nice J- thing to secure a species of the leathered ’ tribe that would build their nests in town and remain all winter. Accordingly the English House sparrow was imported' for that purpose. The result is the sparrows multiply so fast apd their habits are so bad tlirit they have become ,a nuisance instead of a pleasure, and an effort is being made to legislate them out of ex- ■ istence. Eveh Rensselaer and other county seats and small towns arc infested w;th them, and now, notwithstanding the creator of the universe has promised he will, notice . their fall, the “sparrow must go.”

Not a few of the leaders in the Republican rank’, who have an eye to the presidency, are very considerate of the welfare of Gen. Grant and are pushing a project to establish the office of Captain General of the U. S. Army for him. The bill has already been drawn, with blanks left for the insertion of the name and salary. This verifies the prediction made by the Retublican two weeks ago—that if the masses compel Grant to accept the nomination tor President many of our prominent leaders, who would Jike to have a chance for the White House, will '“kick” and probably attempt to organize a new Republican party. We feel enclined to favor a bill to establish the office of Captain General, which would be so ably and honorably filled by exPresident Grant. It looks very much as thongh the Democrats had determined to make Maine the theatre of an attempted swindle next year by swindling wholesale jhis year. It is alleged that the present state officials down in Maine arc about to issue enough fraudulent certificates of election to Democrats who were defeated for the legislature by Republicans to give the Democrats a majority in both houses, so that next year, no matter how the people vole for presidential electors, the relurus

can.be manipulated to give Maine’s vote to the Demociatic candidate. It is a bold scheme, and if carried out will be about the worst thing the Democratic party ever did in the way of blunders, because it will ruin the hopes of all the good men in that party that their erganixation can be redeemed by any influences within itself from low practices of trickery and fraud m national affairs, and they will abandon a hopeless situation in despair. New Orleans and the State of Louisiana is experiencing the curse of Democratic ring-rule. The Kellogg administration left the city and State in a prosperous financial condition, but shortly after the shot, gun policy was adopted financial rgin began to stare every taxpayer in the face. Among the other fruits of Democratic misrule in Louisiana we quote what a New York Times correspondent assures the public is a positive fact He says: “Two of the candidates for assembly are murderers; one for Senator is a notorious bribe-taker, another is an ex-Franch convict, a third is not a ciliaen of the district in which he is running, and, with only two or three exceptions, the whole list is made up of outcasts and vagabonds.”

The indications are that every Southern Democrat who has grown tired otthe shot-gun policy will support Grant for the presidency. Judge Lochrane, a prominent politician, says: “Gen. Grant is the man for the South by all odds. He could be more magnanimous, and president Hayes is only carrying out that which Grant inaugurated. The south is sati-fied with Grant. It recognizes the fact that it would have been better if Lincoln had lived. He would have acted differently from Johnson, and whatever he would have done would have met the approval of the people, because be had their hearts and confidence. Grant has expanded in statesmanship since he has been abroad, and profited by what be has seen in other lands, but he is still a man of the' people. He is absolutely the only man who could rally the Souib. I speak now as a Democrat.” The Inianapolis Journal Company have just issued a work entitled “The Journal Atlas and Political Hand Book for 1880,” which they offer as a premium to subscribers of the Weekly Journal. This boek r is alone worth the price of subscription and every voter in the Stale should have a copy of it. It is a complete cyclopedia of politics, giving just the information desired. The Journal does not expect compensation for the many weeks of labor bestowed upon it, but devised it for use by the Republicans of the State in 1880, and as a lever with which to push the circulation of the “Weekly Indiana State Journal” from now' until the next presidential election. The book is not for sale without the Weekly Journal at any price less than the price fixed for the Journal atlas, that is 81.50 single subscription and 81.35 in clubs of ten and upwards. Every new subscriber to the Weekly Journal is worth a vote to the Republican party in 1880, and Republicans who read a daily paper and do not want the Weekly, but want the Hand Book, can well afford to send in the price and have the paper sent to some man who does not take a Republican paper.

The thing most necessary to the further settlement and development of Jasper county is thoroguh advertising. How this work should be accomplished will be suggested at some other time. Now that so many thosnands of emigrants are passing through Indiana, every month, from the east to the west would it not be the most profitable thing the land owners and business men of this town and county could do to have about one or two hundred good families locates here. To do this.no deception need be practiced, no untruth need be told, for every practical observer can see at a glance that Rensselaer and J asper county are about to experience a degree of prosperity that will not be equalled elsewhere east of the Mississippi. There is ample room and abundance of work for all who may eome, provided they come to stay and are willing to work. Men of every race and color, possessing a little means, with a fair share of brains and muscle, can establish here a comfortable, profitable home. There are thousands of broad acres here, composed of as good soil as there is in the State, waiting to be cultivated and developed into elegant farms. The increase in the value of cultivated land will be nearly sufficient to make a man rich.

There is no question but that big returns reward and enrich the farmer in Kansas, when agriculture is followed on a large seale, when plowing, harrowing, reaping, threshing, etc., are done by contract and the expense of realising from an acre of wheat is kept down to four or five dollars, if a ipan has a large farm, and wheat is worth anything above half a dollar a bushel. But many of the small farmers in that stale have been utterly impoyer-

isbed by the failure of moat of their crops from early draught last summer, aud many of them would get away home again to the Mates they left “to better themselves,” if they could. There is no work for them to do this winter; their larders are empty, their credit used up and suffering awaits them. This situation extends over a large portion of the newly settled parts of Kansas, but it is not the condition usually set forth in the newspapers. From all sources of information on which we have been able to draw, Kansas does not seem to offer inducements to people who intend to farm on a moderate scale and begin without capital, or little of it It is eminently the land of big agricultural operations—perhaps big gains, perhaps big failures. The chief difficulty seems to be in the climate and weather. Miles and miles of the richest farming land are unshaded by a single tree, which supplies the conditions necessary for long droughts and violent storms and hurricanes, both equally destructive. A good season may run through without any of these, and even small farmers along the railroads may make money. But to be a pioneer farmer in Kansas is running a heavy risk, with the chances all against you, that whatever you plant will be parched up by the beat, eaten up by insects or blown away in the fury of the gales that play such destructive pranks on the unprotected prairies.

This is the time of the year when the interests of both business and pleasure impel people to forcastlhe weather probabilities from Thanksgiving to Lent, and even through the latter, for by it very little of either business or pleasure is interfered with, in these days when few people eat or drink less because of the forty days in the wilderness; being apparently in conceit of their luck that the hunger was somebody elae’s and is not their own. To hear our business men who follow seasons with different lots of goods talk, they will be in despair if the winter is open and leaves them with a huge bulk of unsaleable stock on their hands, which they are confident they can sell at a fair advantage if wc now have immediately succeeding a few months of crisp, cold weather. The people of pleasure want the sleighing, the dancing, the balls and the parties which they are stimulated to indulge in and perhaps enjoy when “November’s wind is chill and drear” aud a close winter compels them to some invention aud exertion for their amusement and to keep time from killing them while they are trying to kill time. We do not run a weather bureau of our own, but we can repeat from our great cotemporaries who have that modem scientific appliance to their daily business, that the similarjiopes of both classes concerned in the season are likely to be gratified. The why and wherefore of this being so we will have to omit mentioning, because we have sought for it in vain; but the “unanimous opinion of the press'* seems to be that we are about entering on a cold and severe winter, calculated to afford business, pleasure and charity opportunities for their largest exercise. We shall see how great an influence that powerful “opinion of the press” will have on the skies and the mercury.

Edited by D. B. Nowels, Co. Superintendent.

The Teachers’ Paradise. “ If we wish to know where the profession of teaching is most honored and best prqvided for, we must go to Brazil. The teaoher in Brazil having once passed a satisfactory examination, becomes a government official for life, and is promoted, not as vacancies occur, but according to his term of service. After five years comfortable salary with house-rent, he receives a small pension, and for every scholar above thirty, which is supposed to be the average number in country schools, he gets an addition to his salary, an equivalent to one third of the estimated cost of each pupil’s tuition. When sick or disabled a small extra pension is provided. After ten years service, the pension and perquisites are doubled. After twenty.years it is again increased, and a life insurance policy is then bestowed upon him by the government, sufficient to keep his family from want in the case of his death. He is put on the retired list and receives the same pay as army or navy officers of a certain rank: but he may even then continue to teach and receive a regular sal ary.—[Aew York Journal. PSYCHOLOGY—ATTENTION. [C. P. Mitehefl.] There are many difficulties which the teacher and pupil have to encounter in the prosecution of their studies. But perhaps none are more difficult and perplexing than the inability to hold the mind on a given subject any length of time, or a lack of attention. If we attempt to master a given lesson, we commit to memory a shoit poem, or anything which requires concentration of thought, we find thoughts foreign to the thoughts which we are trying to master, constantly

coming before our mind, and we are compelled to reach ’out and draw oarmind back again and again from some other subject, and coneeotrate it upon the work be* tore us. Attention, ad, signifying to; ten. rfere, to stretch; ion, the act of; literally, the word attention means the act of stretching to. Attention, however, may defined as that state, of the mind in which it is energetically exercised, w tiretcM out on, 3. given object. Attention is a voluntary act of the soul, and the capacity of the soul to put fourth an act is a power of the soul, and as such, it can be exercised as long as we will to do so. The ability to withdraw our minds from an object of thought and concentrate it upon, and hold it too, the work immediately before us, is an acquisition which, when oaee attained, its worth cannot be estimated. Indeed very few ever do attain it. There seems to be three phases of attention. One, we may call a sort of irresistable attention; that is, we eannot help giving a loose, inactive notice of the things which we meet, but wo do not gain any knowledge of the objects nor do we remember anything about them. The second is a semi-conscious attention. We have a vague idea that a "given object is before us, but w’e are not conscious of why we are taking any heed of it, or why we have it before our mind at all. We have no object in view, and hence gain nothing. The third is voluntary attention, action of the mind on a given subject because we will it to act. It is this power which we should have as teachers, and which we should strive to cultivate in our pupils. The two other phases of attention are exercised by all persons, and even by some of the lower orders of animals; voluntary attention is exercised by the lew. This is the kind of attention that is exercised by the astronomer when, in the observatory, he steadily watches the course of a planet for hours, almost forgetting self. Tbs editor at bis desk takes no heed of anything but his work, simply because he has cultivated the power of attention until he can bring to bear his whole energy on his work, and at the same time be surrounded with associates and persons having charge of the various departments of the work. Go into a large manufacturing establishment and notice how strictly each attends to his own branch of the business. Each one has learned to bold his mind to his particular work amidst the clang and clatter of the shop, till the whole establishment moves on without the least confusion. It is said of Sir Isagtc Newton, the greatest philosopher of his age, that he had the power of bolding his mind upon an object, as small as the point of .a needle,for two long hours. Teachers, I believe yoa will readily see the educational value oi cultivating the power of attention, not from what I have said,but from a little reflection on the subject. Seeing is believing and believing is preparatory to successful doing, but before you do, remember to secure attention!—Terrellaute,Oct. 13, ’79.

BRIGHT LESSONS. Conduct all youy lessons in a bright, cheerful manner. A schalar will much longer remember dry facts, if they are presented in a lively way. I have in mind a certain singing class whose instructor is of a gay, jovial character; the dull points in learning music, are explained so brightly and vivaciously, that good humor is in every heart, attention on every face, and the rules are committed to memoryTeachers, get out of your 11811688’ indifferent method of conveying information.’ Tell something fresh to your pupils, keep a note book and enter in it things that strike you; in this way you will have-no difficultd in fitting subjects together. Do not be like the young lady teacher who said: “I pride myself on never doing any school work after three o’clock.” She has her reward—you can guess what. A child can soon tell from the lighting up of your face, from your interest and manner, from your eager voice, that you are in earnest, and a re-, sponsive chord will be touched. You will gather inspiration from the listeners themselves, and your class will brighten as the teacher.brightens.—[AT. Y. School Journal.