A teacher's ups and downs from 1858 to 1879.

Preface

I have felt for many years that the Lord was calling me to give all my time to preaching His gospel, at all times, and wherever He should be pleased to send me ; but as I had a large family to support, and was in debt, too, I did not see how they could live, or how I could pay my debts. I tried for several years to work and preach, and to do all the good I could. Nothing I could do seemed to prosper. I at last came to the conclusion that I must make a full surrender or sacrifice, for the Lord would not accept a half one.

The latter part of the year 1878, I felt willing to give up all and labor for the Lord, if he would take care of my family, and help me to get my debts paid. It was then that the thought was deeply impressed on my heart that if I would write a book, giving sketches of all the schools I had ever taught, and of various meetings that I have held in different places, that it would be the means, by the aid of the Lord's blessing upon it, of helping me through.

Under these circumstances I bring forth the following pages before the public. While writing the first part of this book, I held meetings every night, and sometimes in the day time, missing but two or three nights in three months. These meetings were the most powerful and successful of any that I have ever attended, showing fully, to my mind, that if I was willing to do my part, the Lord would do His, of the great work of gathering souls into His kingdom ; for truly " the fields are white unto the harvest, but the laborers are few." And how many are standing idle, with their arms folded ! Has not the language of our blessed Master been sounded into your ears: "Go, work in my vineyard ?" There is work for all to do.

" Go, work in My vineyard; oh, work while 'tis day; The bright hours of sunshine are hastening away, And night's gloomy shadows are gathering fast, When the time for our labor shall ever be past. Begin in the morning, and toil all the day; Thy strength I'll supply, and thy wages I'll pay; And blessed, thrice blessed, the diligent few Who finish the labor I've given them to do."

Hoping that the Lord's blessing may rest upon these pages, and that your prayers may go with me as I go up and down in the land, may the Lord remember in mercy,

The Author,

Index

PAGK.

First School 1

Memories 2

Noah Webster 2

Second School 6

Strange Bible Facts 7

Third School S

Curious Derivations 11

Scientific 12

Fourth School 12

Alphabetic Khymes 14

FifthSchool 15

School 's Out , 18

Reading Aloud 20

The Seven Wise Men 20

Faith 21

Pronunciations 22

Sixth School 22

Isaac Newton 24

Fretting 25

Flowers 25

Going to School 26

Seventh School 30

What Shall We Eat? 32

Many Facts in Small Compass 32

How to Float 33

It Is Not Always May 34

The School House in the Woods 35

Eighth School 38

What It Did 42

Laughter 44

Oonumdrums 45

VI. INDEX.

My First Going to School 4(5

Ninth School 41

A Teacher in God's School 51

Tenth School 54

Educate 59

Eleventh School GO

The Beautiful Old Story 62

By Their Fruits 63

Only 65

The Church Walking with the World 66

Visit Your Schools 70

Twelfth School 70

Paradoxes 73

Whittier, the Quaker Poet 73

Thirteenth School 7S

On Kindness 80

On Swearing 80

The Infidel and his Daughter 81

Epitaph 82

Fourteenth School 83

A Dying Wish 84

Sweet Words 85

George Muller 85

Fifteenth School 86

The Sparrow's Inquest 88

Sixteenth School 88

God's Baven 89

Wise Saws 91

Trip to the Southwest 91

Seventeenth School 94

The Praise Meeting of the Flowers 96

Don't Neglect the Children 97

Eighteenth School 101

Footprints of Deity 105

Found in the Snow 106

A Lamp to thy Feet 108

Nineteenth School 108

Trip through Kansas Ill

INDEX. Vll.

Honor Old Age 120

Shut the Gate 120

What is Earth? 122

Twentieth School 122

Make Eoom for the Boys 137

Kiss your Child Good-night 140

•John Jankens' Sermon 141

Twenty-first School 142

Johnny Flaxnian 14f>

Einging the Water Boy 149

Abide with Me 151

The Simple Church 151

Twenty-second School 152

The Unbarred Door 154

Twenty-third School 158

My Mother's Hands 102

Benjamin Franklin 103

A Particular Providence 166

A Teacher's Book of Thanks 107

Twenty-fourth School , 10S

A Bird Lesson 171

Consider the Lilies 172

Which Loved Best 17.°.

Power of Kindness 174

What to do with a Wheelbarrow 170

Twenty-Fifth School 177

A Prayer 188

In Memoriam 181'

Thirst of the Soul 190

Off to the Indian Territory 191

The Chemistry of Tobacco 196

The Prayers of Our Lord 197

Twenty-Sixth School 198

How he Kept House 203

Bishop Simpson's Life Saved by Prayer 204

Personal Appearance of Jesus 20G

John 207

The Christian and his Echo ... 210

Twenty- Seventh School 21 i

A TEACHER'S UPS AND DOWNS.

i I commenced my first school about the 4th of 12-month, 1858, at the brick school house on Nolan's Fork, Wayne County, Indiana. The house was five miles northwest of Richmond, on the east bank of the stream. It was a brick house, standing east and west, one door in the west, three windows on each side, blackboard across the east end, also a platform the same ; "good patent desks, good stove, well fixed with charts, maps, and things needful. There were about fifty pupils enrolled during the term, from little boys and girls to young men and women.

It. was my first attempt at school teaching, and I, like many others, thought that I knew it all, but the longer I taught the less I found that I knew.

It was a three months term : in those days we had to teach sixty-five days for a quarter. I received twenty-five dollars per month, and we did not receive our pay until the next Spring following. We commenced our work of a morning at half-past eight and closed at half-past four. The games that we played : " base," " black man," and " town ball." I enjoyed the fun of playing as much as any of the scholars. I thought it was my duty to play with the pupils so that I might have an oversight among them.

One young woman was very fond of reading novels. I noticed one day that she was very attentive, to her book, especially her geography. I watched her for awhile and I noticed that her book was wrong end up. I told her I did not want any more of that kind of work done at my school. She felt very badly about it and I never saw her read those books any more. Although not a professor at this time I was much opposed to such readingmatter, believing it to be very injurious.

] Teachers in those .days were hired by the people ofi^ach school district. They would call a meeting of the patrons of the school. Sometimes there would be several applicants for the same school. At this school there were three of us that applied. I received the highest number of votes and was elected. There were directors who had charge of the papers and gave orders for wood, tuition, etc\

There was one little boy by the name of Borton, that I shall never forget. He was blind in one eye, and seemed to feel as if every person looked down on him because he was blind. I had much sympathy for him and showed him all the respect possible. 1 1 I have often thought of what Horace Mann said to teachers : " Teachers, if a scholar ever enters your school with a club-foot, or ragged clothes on, or any other defects at all, never let on as though you see them. If any way pay more attention to them than others." There has always been a warm place in my heart for such pupils. A teacher will never lose anything by respecting persons of this class. I speak of this circumstance by way of encourage-

A TEACHER'S UPS AND DOWNS.

xnent to young teachers especially. A teacher should cultivate a spirit of love and sympathy for every pupil they have in their school. I also speak of this little boy that if he is living and his eyes should ever rest upon these pages, he may know that his old teacher had often thought of him.

This I moreover hold, and dare Affirm where'er my rhyme may go — Whatever things be sweet or fair, Love makes them so.

In those days the young and old men would meet at some of the school houses one night in the week for the purpose of debating, and we all took an interest and tried to see how much we could learn. Joseph Quigg was a champion debater, a fine speaker and a noted infidel. In a few years after this he was converted to the Christian religion, and he was now just as bold for the Lord as he had been for Satan. He said that before he was converted he was always looking for the "black sheep" in the flock, but now he looked for the white, and there were more white ones than he thought there were. He has long since gone the way of all the world, with the bright evidence behind that he had gone home to glory.

'^Spelling schools were quite common in this country in those days, and all people that attended would take part in the spelling, the main object seeming to be to see who could beat spelling.

There was a boy who attended this school by the name of Cox, that was a good speller and a good reader — good spellers will nearly always be good

A TEACHER S UPS AND DOWNS.

T, readers. fU my school this winter the pupils got in the habitof tagging. I put a stop to it on the school grounds, but they would wait until they would get nearly half a mile away, then they would go to tagging again. The school house stood in the corner of a woods pasture with a high stake and riderect fence between the house and the road. I had a pocket telescope, and after the children would get quite a distance away I would slip down to the corner and with the instrument I could see them very plain. They would tag some, then they would look to see me. The next morning I would tell them who had been at such work. It broke it up entirely, and they never knew until the last day of school how I could tell so well who were the ones that disobeyed. Then I told them how it was. The reason that I objected to that kind of play was, that trouble generally grew out of such sport.

Miles Hunt was one of the directors, and he did all he could for the benefit of the school. He has long since passed away, and his amiable wife also. His children are still living happily together at the old homestead.

There was a young slave from Cuba that had run away from his master, and was lecturing in this part of the country. He was a fine speaker and a noble looking man and no one thought of him being a slave. He spoke to several large congregations in Eichmond and in various school houses in the country. He had an appointment at my school house. Word came to Eichmond that he was a slave and that there was a reward of one thousand dollars

A TEACHER S UPS AND DOWNS.

offered for him. He had come to Nathan Hunt's in the morning before the word came to town. There were some fellows who had made it up to come out that night and take him and get the reward offered, but some one heard of the plot, mounted a horse and come out at full speed and told him about four o'clock. He disappeared in a moment across the road into a field and was not heard of any more in that part of the country. The boys come out about seven o'clock but their bird had flown.

My school closed to good satisfaction ; we had an examination of all the studies ; the pupils had made rapid advancement. I really did not know how much I was attached to and how much I did love them, until we were called to part.

MEMORIES.

Memories on which we dwell — Are they those that, well defined

By their crystal clearness, quell Saddest longings of the mind?

NOAH WEBSTER.

Noah Webster, whose greatest monument is the " Unabridged Dictionary," is probably the most consulted of all human writers. The New York School Journal asserts, as " something on which to found fame," that the total circulation of this author's works has reached a figure second only to that attained by the Bible itself.

A painstaking arithmetician has calculated that seventeen or eighteen millions pounds of paper, equal to nine thousand tons, have been imprinted with the

6 A TEACHER'S UPS AND DCWNS.

"words, words, words," which Webster used as the roadway wherewith to convey to the public the very important things he had to say. To "cover" only one class of his publications, at least three thousand sheep have patiently contributed their own coverings, and in all the departments of work necessitated by the editorial, mechanical and businesspreparation and management of all this phenomenal publication, not less than a thousand persons obtain the means whereby they live.

The man to whom we refer produced one book, the "American Spelling Book," not bulky in size, nor superhuman as to material, but which nevertheless, still circulates at the rate of a million copies a year.

Little by little our tasks are done, So are the crowns of the faithful won, So is heaven in our hearts begun; With work and with weeping, with laughter and play,. Little by little the longest day And the longest life is passed away, Passing without return — while so % , 3Phe new years come and the old years go.

After my first school closed I moved to Miami County, Indiana. I commenced my second school one-half mile west of Xenia — a subscription school for two months. It was a new part of the country. My school house was built of logs and was about fourteen feet square, with slab benches, no desks, and a small blackboard about eighteen inches wide and three feet long. I had about thirty enrolled, the most of them small. There were two little girls, by the name of HiaU, very nice little girls, that,

A TEACHER S UPS AND DOWNS.

were always there early, with their bright, smiling faces."] They nearly always brought some flowers with tltem for me. I always have loved children. I taught this school the Summer of 1859 ; the school house stood just at the edge of the timber ; the little folks would build houses with chunks and moss. I have often watched them and heard them talk. How many beautiful lessons may we all learn from little folks if we only stop to watch them. Children in this day and age of the world think that they cannot go to school unless they have a nice house and good desks to sit at. Those children at my school never thought that there could be any better accommodations. I had one visitor during the school — he looked as though he was lost. I often think of those little boys and girls ; those of them that are living are now grown up to manhood and womanhood ; how time makes his mark on all of us. We had a nice time at the close of the term. I felt as though I had endeavored to do my duty in trying to learn them all I possibly could. So closed my second term of school.

STRANGE BIBLE FACTS.

The learned Prince of Grenada, heir to the Spanish throne, imprisoned by the order of the Crown, for fear he should aspire to the throne, was kept in solitary confinement in the old prison at the place of Skulls, Madrid. After thirty-three years in this living tomb, death came to his release, and the following remarkable researches, taken from the Bible and marked with an old nail on the rough walls of his cell, told how the brain sought employment through the weary years :

In the Bible the word, Lord, is found 1,853 times ; the word, Jehovah, 6,855 times, and the word, Beverend, but once, and that in the 9th verse of 111th Psalm. The 8th verse of the 117th Psalm is the middle verse of the Bible. The 9th verse of the 8th chapter of Esther is the longest verse, and the 35th verse of the 11th chapter of St. John is the shortest. In the 106th Psalm four verses are alike, the 8th, 15th, 21st and 31st. Each verse of the 136th Psalm ends alike. No names or words with more than six syllables are found in the Bible. The 37th chapter of Isaiah and 19th chapter of Second Kings are alike. The word, girl, occurs but once in the Bible, and that in the 3d verse and 3d chapter of Joel. There are found in both books of the Bible, 3,586,483 letters, 773,693 words, 31,373 verses, 1,139 chapters and 66 books. The 26th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, is the finest to read. The most beautiful chapter in the Bible is the 23d Psalm. The four most inspiring promises are, John, 16th chapter and 2d verse, John, 6th chapter and 37th verse, St. Matthew, 11th chapter and 28th verse, and the 37th Psalm and 4th verse. The first verse of the 60th chapter of Isaiah, is the one for the new convert. All should read the 6th chapter of Matthew. All humanity should learn the 6th chapter of St. Luke, from the 20th verse to its ending.

I commenced my third term of school in the northeast corner of Howard County, Indiana, in the Winter of 1859-60. They hired me for three months at twenty-five dollars per month ; one-half of this was to be public money, the other half to be paid by those that sent the last half of the term.

My school house was a log one about twenty by twenty-four, with large wooden desks, large enough for six or eight to sit at a desk, and a small blackboard, hardly large enough for one to work at. They told me before I commenced teaching that it was one of the hardest schools in the county to manage. I commenced my school about the first of 12th month, 1859. I recollect as I went to school the first morning, with the blues to some extent, there were some very rude boys, or nearly young men, who were reported to be very rude and hard to manage. I went to work, laid down my rules plain, so that all could understand them, with the firm determination on my part to keep every one just to that line. There was one young man who thought he would try me and see how things went ; I stopped everything and brought him back. There was another young man who was counted the ring-leader in meanftess ; he attended a Methodist protracted meeting at old Antioch meeting-house, a mile or so east of the school house ; he became convicted, was converted, and after this was one of the best boys I ever saw in a school room. While he was a lion before he was converted he was like a lamb now, kind and gentle. I was not a professor at this time, but I thought that there must be some reality in religion. After this my school passed along very nice and quietly. This young man became a Methodist preacher and is now in northera Missouri preaching, if he is living. I hope that he and I may meet again where parting is no more.

The law then was that there were three examiners : one in each end of the county and one at the county seat. After I had taught about one month, I walked twelve miles to Jerome, a little town they examined in, in those days, whenever an applicant came. I got to his house about noon ; they were eating dinner, and he would have me eat with them. After dinner he began to ask me some questions orally ; in about one hour he gave me a certificate for one year. I felt real proud, as I trudged along home in the snow.

There was one man that sent eight children to school until he thought the term was half out, then he kept them all at home ; the rest of the patrons sent on until the term closed. He was afraid that he would have to pay out some money, but when school closed it was found that there was money enough to pay the full time. I think I never saw a man hate anything so much as he did that he had now lost so much, and his children needed the schooling so much at this time. His children were learning very fast. I had forty-seven pupils enrolled, I think. It was during this term, a very cold winter, that we had great times playing ball. The school house was on the south edge of some timber. There was one little girl that attended this school whom I met several years after, one evening as I was returning home from school ; she and her husband stopped me to enquire the way. After a few moments she said to me, " Is not your name Hubbard? " I said, yes. She then said she was satisfied it was now. She had grown up, and was not the little girl that she was at my school, and I knew her not when she spoke to me. We had an examination and also an exhibition ; the patrons were well satisfied with my labors as a teacher. How my heart was knit to those pupils in love.

CURIOUS DERIVATIONS.

The word " pamphlet" is derived from the name of a Greek authoress, Pamphylia, who compiled the history of the world into thirty-five little books. "Punch and Judy" is a contraction from Pontius and Judas. It is a relic of an old " miracle play," in which the actors were Pontius Pilate and Judas Iscariot. "Bigot " is from Visigotha, in which the fierce and intolerant Arianism of the Visigoth conquerors of Spain has been handed down to infamy, From Hamburg we get "humbug"; a "piece of Hamburg news " was in Germany a proverbial expression of false political rumors. " Gauze " derives its name from Gaza, where it was first made. "Tabby cat" is all unconscious that her name is derived from Atab, a famous street in Bagdad inhabited by the manufacturers of silken stuffs called atabi, or taffety, the wavy markings of the watered silks resembling pussy's coat. "Old Scratch " is the demon Skratti, who still survives in the superstitions of northern Europe. " Old Nick " is none other than Nikr, the dangerous water demon of Scandinavian legend. The lemon takes its name from the city of Lima.

12 A TEACHBE'S UPS AND DOWNS.

SCIENTIFIC.

Chemical analysis discloses the fact that among the many articles used for food, there are only two, wheat and milk, which contain all the elements of the human body, and in the proper proportions. Other articles, such as butter, sugar, syrup, and fat of all kinds, are wholly carbonaceous, or heat producing, so that if a human being were to attempt to live on these articles alone, his brain and muscles would starve. By actual experiment, it has been found that a man could not survive two months on such a diet.

My fourth school was taught the summer of 1860 at Xenia, Miami county, Indiana — a subscription school. I taught in a large room up stairs in the Addington building, called by some "Noah's Ark." My school room was about sixty feet long and twenty-one feet wide. I had sixty-five pupils enrolled, and about forty nearly of one size. The same young man who was converted during my last school, attended this summer. He was mild and gentle as a little child. The pupils were in the habit of talking just about as they pleased. I got tired of that kind of work, and I told them that it must be stopped. The same day that I told them this, I whipped seventeen ; this came very near stopping it altogether. One day as I was passing down one of the aisles I heard some whispering ; I turned around and discovered that it was a young woman talking io some one. Said I, '"'Here! come and stand up here on the floor." She got very mad, but I told her to move. She got up and came out, but at noon she went home. I verily thought that if the little ,ones had to mind, so should the older ones also. / We had some old wooden desks that made a terrible : racket when the scholars moved from -their seats. My wife assisted me during this term. There was one little boy that was always full of fun, and, to use a common expression "as sharp as a brier." Mont. Frazier was his name. He always told everything that happened at home ; if he did not get to school in time to tell it before school commenced, he would watch his chance and tell it afterward. One morning he came late ; his class was reciting on the charts. He spelled "jumps" and called it calf. My wife told him he knew that it did not spell that. He looked up at her very innocently and said, "Well, our cow's got a calf, anyhow." He knew he could make her laugh. He went home at night and told his mother how he had made Mrs. Hubbard laugh. He said, "I can make her laugh, anyway." His mother told him that Mrs. Hubbard would whip him. " I ain't afraid of her." " Well," said she, "Mr. Hubbard will, you know."

It was a very pleasant place to teach ; pleasant on account of being the second story. We had a good breeze most of the time. This, was a very pleasant town to teach school in.|I had always heard it said that it was harder to Teach in towns than in the country, but I could not see any difference. My school passed along very nicely. My pupils all took an interest in their studies ; at the close of the term we had an exhibition ; we had a nice time, and closed with good feeling among all, long to be remembered by all of us.

About this time the schools began To slack the use of the rattan ; They said " 0, no, it will not do, To use the rod on children so."

Parents have ceased to remonstrate, So children begin to demonstrate; And teachers try with various plans — Coax, plead, entreat, and keep off hands.

Some teachers fall into the way _ m0S * Of letting the children sleep and play.*

ALPHABETICAL RHYMES.

A's for Augusta, the capital of Maine,

B is for Bello, a city of Spain,

C stands for Carthage, for glory renowned,

D is for Dublin, where Paddies abound,

E stands for Edinburg, in Scotland so high,

P is for Florence, that in Italy doth lie,

G's for Geneva, where watches are made,

H stands for Havre, famous for trade,

I is for Ispahan, noted for age,

J stands for Jerusalem, where wars did rage,

K is for Kingston, a fortified place,

L's for London, the head of our race,

M is for Mexico, great in the past,

N's for New York, though not first is not last,

O's for Ontario, some people's home,

P stands for Pompeii, in Italy well known,

Q's for Quebec, Avhere Montcalm was laid low,

E is for Richmond, a nice place, I know,

S is for Sheffield, where sharp knives are made,

T stands for Troy, where great Hector slayed,

U is for Utrecht, where a great treaty was signed,

Y's for Versailles, famous for wine,

W is for Windsor, a place of some fame,

X stands for Xerses, a small town in Spain,

Y is for York, with its spires so tall,

Z stands for Zurich, the last of them all.

My fifth school was taught the winter of 1860-'61, at Xenia, in Miami county, Indiana, with a man by the name of Eli Wall. He was an old man, and taught school a great many years. We taught in the Methodist meeting house, as the district had no school house. He and I started one very cold morning to Peru to be examined. It was about eighteen miles ; we took one horse along, and rode it time about. We reached there about two o'clock; Eli went to put up his horse, and I went into the examiner's office to see him. They had no stated times to examine. When I went into the room where he was, (he was a lawyer), he was very busy writing. I told him my business ; he just kept on writing. Said he : ''Tell me what will be the interest on one hundred dollars for twelve days, at six per cent." He told me to work it mentally. After I had got that done, he asked me the capitals of several States, and some more questions. In a few moments he handed me a certificate for two years. Eftmger was the examiner's name. When Eli came in I introduced him to the examiner. Said he: "Mr Wall, tell me, if you please, what the capital of Kentucky is." The old man was not expecting him to commence so soon, and he could not nor did not answer the question at all. He turned around to me and said: " Well, Jerry, I just cannot tell what it is."