Cherokee County Teacher from Galena, Kansas • 4

if first School. It is nearly iifty-iivo years ago since I taught my tirst chooI, among the nil's of eastern Now York. 1 began topi to school at thirteen: Levari to teach at eighteen. What little 1 knew I had learned mostly outside of the school-room and with hut little help from teachers. 1 read and studied, amid poverty and toil ami much hen others were idle or asleep.

I luved and it inspired me to obtain it under great When 1 begun to teach in New-York there were hut eighteen states an I only I wo-west of the Mississippi. There was then hut a very -small and teachers had make CLhsrokEE County A NX A WIDMAX, KniToit. Published by the Galena Times PuKishins Co. Entered as second class nail matter at the postoftif at Galena, Kansas. Subscription price.

f0 cts Per Annum. It a stated in an address before the convention of comity superintendents, hold in Junction City, in June, that few of us could transmit to our children groat wealth- rower still can open the way to them for great deeds. wo may in some measure laake free to th a heritage of learning. Of this heritage they can not fartake without being onricln-d and ennobled. The public school system inaugurated in our land is the means ly which we may give this to them-Ourscli 'ois may not ho ail that you in your ideal would paint them, but they stand in plain view numerously dotting our prairies aid they have ac- are making a Grand Closing Chit Sale of all sura, mcr- goods.

Everything in the way of Light Goods must le closed out by the FIRST OF AUGUST. Vc have a full line to select from and will save you money if you will come in. A big lot of corded Jaconets at 7 1-2 cents a yard, goods that usually sell at 12 1-2 cents. A great line of Mack Lawns, Plaid and Stripe: at 10 cents. Lawrence nuis-at 5 cents.

Ye also have a fine line of Shoes and Slippers made by Krippendorf Jittnian and Co of Cincinnati, Ohio, nil and see us and we will save you money. STEWART out raio-Mlis to he collected l.y a col-lector at five per cent, commission. 1 received but twelve dollars a month for my tirst term and had to hoard around at each house from which scholars came, in proportion to the number. 1 did not proportion it very equitably, but went more by my eomnlished and are accomplishing a South Side Square. Kansas.

Columbus, irreat task. It is our plain duty to attractions, which consisted of many v.v nnd encoiirae-o the public factors: house, air, food, neatness, in- so.hooi. It has lifted manv a poor man's child up out of despair and ghen him the means of gaining a livelihood and made him a better man. It is one of the most beautiful (lowers of our civilization, planted on the coast of the Atlantic ami spreading until to-day it has reached the Vaeiftc and extends from the North to the South. and each pupil recited the lesson to the teacher atone.

Each problem in arithmetic was solved by the pupil on his rough slate, or for him or her, by the teacher, iu way to the answer," without much explanation from the teacher, or satisfaction to telligence. persons and the wife and mother. 1 had to teach twenty-four days for a month. so my wages were just fifty cents a day. I was very ambitious and worked as hard and did as much as though I had been paid what teachers get now.

What little pay I did get, 1 had to wait for a long time, to be collected. Most rfiral school-houses in those days would be a curiosity to our young teachers and pupils. My little, old. unpainted house stood by the road-side, at the corner of four roads, so that the teacher and pupils could bo annoyed and diverted by rattling wagons and jingling sliegh bells, men, boys and animals. The rude, rouah, uneomiortable seats and desks were a great contrast to the houses now.

inside and out, in Kansas, then the Groat, or a part, of the Great American Desert. The housa was unequally heated by a fire-place in one end, in which wood lour feet long could be burned. Often did I go from one to two miles in the snow two to four feet deep, to build a tire hi the The Teachers of Cherokee county should remember that the Hamilton liook Co. extends to them a cordial invitation to make their store their headquarters when in Columbus and mifke free use, for reference, of any books on their shelves. They are always glad to extend courtesies to teachers or students.

Be sure to call and see them. Their store is a credit to -Cherokee county and dt serves the hearty support of all friends of education and lovers of good literature. A Man of Honor. Bryant and his brother Abe each owned large tracts of land near lioston and they were bachelors. One day the brothers agreed that the one who married lirst should have the other's laud in addition to his own.

One Sunday about nine years ajro Abe called at .1 elf's house. "Good morning, delf." "How a'ye do, my boy," answered off. "Jeff, you remember that marriage agreement we asked Abe. "Well, 1 reckon 1 do," said Jeff. "What about it?" 'I'm going to be married Wednesday.

Are you ready to keep your "Sure as your alive." answered ain't got no use for the man as will go back on his work." "Well, you are right, Jeff, and you. shall be my best man." So the compact was sealed, but Jeff, did not intend to give up his l.WM acres so easily. lie just fooled Abe. Instead of waiting' for Abe to gret married Wednesday, Jeff hitched up and called on a neighbor's daughter, and proposed that very Sunday night, lie was accepted and they were married Monday. Then he went to Abe.

saying: "A he, that little agreement of ours, you remember" 'Yes, welly" "You see 1 was married this morning and want to know if you allow to keep your promise?" this is a little sudden like, butl reckon it's all right. I'll keep my word." And he did. Abe transferred his property to Jeff. Wednesday Abe was married as per contract and went to live on a rented tract of land. Singularly enough, the brothers have early morning.

Sometimes I would i the pupil. Few studied geography and a very large part of present geographical knowledge and discoveries were then In the future. The Andes mountains were thought to be the highest; and the interior of South America, Africa, North America Australia and the oceanic islanas, had not then been much surveyed or explored. Geographical knowledge was mostly coast 'limited. Grammar was studied by a few only in each school and that in poor way on the old plan of word-parsing: without system or analysis.

Natural philosophy and chemistry wore seldom taught and without means of illustration or experiment. Teaching was mostly abstract teaching and it required a vivid imagination to picture ''matter and force" in their action, relations and co-operationit docs 1 was very ambitious, sensitive, critical, precise, timely and prompt myself, and in vainly attempting to make my pupils so, I suffered most intensely in my failure and disappointment I would have saved myself much of this mental suffering if I could have read the human organism as I can now. Blessed are they who expect nothing, for they shall not he disappointed." I expected more of my pupils than they could door be, because of ray own ignora nee. 1 suffered so much in that vain attempt to make something- from nothing; to keep feet, hands, tongues and muscles still and heads at work. Free Text Bocks a Success.

State Superintendent Luce of Maine says the free text-book law has increased the attendance of the public schools. His idea is that the greatest-benefit is derived in cases where children have progressed a certain distance in the schools, and been obliged to -step out because their parents do not have the money to purchase books, which increase in cost the further the pupil advances. Now the books are free and the scholar can continue attendance until the education is completed, if the cost of text-books is the. Educational only consideration. Advocate.

find the snow up to the top of the door, and have by some means, to get the snow away to get into the house. Often did 1 build a fire before daylight, and by its light read and study till it "was light enough to read by sun-light. I usually carried my ow dinner in a pail or basket, which consisted of bread and butter, meat or sausage, dough-nuts and apple or mince pie. There were no black-lioards, no maps, charts or diagrams and no apparatus to illustrate and picture art or nature. spelling book, a juvenile book, Cobb's reader and the old English reader, were the only reading books.

Spelling and reading occupied a large part of the time: and in proportion to the number, scholars in the rural districts in those days, were on the average, better spellers and readers than scholars are now. They devoted far more time to looking at the forms of words and repeating them. I beleive there were more good readers among teachers in those days, in proportion to their numbers, than there are now. There were no writing hooks for several years of my teaching and writing papercoarse fool's cap was unruled. With my ruler I marked or ruled the paper for the pupils and made the pens out of goose-quills, as steel pens were not then in use.

To make a good pen out of a goose iu ill required some natural skill and much practice. Our young teachers would not enjoy the art or the trouble. There was little or no classification 1 COUHl huu u.aivu iu urn at aU tions for books. I look back and see G. M.

SHAW, Areliltect i Joplin, Missouri. that I did not know much: and those among whom I labored knew much less. Well, who knows much yet? Do you, or vor or YOtT, some great somebody? Well I have given you a sketch or clue to my first school life, condition a ad experience, long ago. PnoF. J.

II. Cook, Columbus, Kansas. Stories of Travel in Many Lands. The current issue of Alden's illustrated weekly paper, Knowledge, begins a series of Illustrated Sketches and Stories of Travel in Many Lands, by Many Travelers, which, as indicated by this issue, will prove highly entertaining and instructive. This tirst paper is by E.

G. Squire on "Peru, or the Land of the Incas," and has several tine illustrations; this is devoted to his personal adventure and observations; another paper will be devoted to the ancient civilization and the antiquities of Peru, some of its monuments and fortifications, dating hack, it is supposed, to the age of the pyramids of Egypt, being illustrated. A specimen copy of Knowledge may be had free; the price is only 50 cents a year, amazingly cheap, as Alden's publications always are. John B. Alden, Publishers, 57 Rose Nvv York.

Plans and specifications furnished on all classes of buildings. Public buildings a specialty. Correct estimates of costs of buildings free. Write if you intend building. In Kansas they call members of the People's party "populists." Indiana has more Germans than any other state.

'Ihey constitute fifty-five per cent, of thft population..