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About The Valentine Democrat. (Valentine, Cherry Co., Neb.) 1896-1898 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 24, 1896)
s is I A EDtJCATIONALCOLUMN NOTES ABOUT SCHOOLS AND THEIR MANAGEMENT 4The Collcpe Graduates as Teacher in the Public School Instructions Tell ing How to Make Relief Maps What to Teach Children Which Succeeds BeBt It is a current question whether the college graduate or the normal school graduate succeeds best in school work The difference between them arises in the larger scholarship of one as set over against the professional training of the other Each has its respective advan tage and also his respective shortcom ing The logical conclusion is that every teacher must have the liberal scholar ship of the one and the professional training of the other should be a grad uate of both schools One of the most pleasing and hopeful signs in the edu cational growth of Indiana is the large number who take both the normal and university course But It is not my purpose to speak of this matter in general but to call at tention to the conspicuous defect of the college graduate for public school work This defect Is that of failing to take ac count of the psychological or chrono logical factor in education He has been absorbed in the logic of the subject for Its own sake and when he comes to teach it the only factor in the process which he is accustomed to consider is the subject itself He teaches as he was taught If he began his work in zoology with the microscope and protoplasm it must begin thus to whatever grade of pupils It is taught notwithstanding that the child naturally and necessarily begins with the external facts of color and form and parts in action and hab its of the animal A scientist of the State once insisted that for the child to study the color forms and external structure of leaves as was being done in the schools was worse than a waste of time He held that a child should begin wTith the inner the vital principle of the leaf by microscopic study and thus construct logically the botany of the leaf Yet up to the time of enter ing school mother nature had taken an opposite course with the child An eminent teacher of botany in a univer sity who is a graduate of a normal school said recently that his students do not teach botany well in the public school because they take the order which he pursued with them to the proper order to pursue with pupils in the grades and In the high school This university professor differs from the one referred to above in having consid ered the childs order of learnipg in ad dition to the subject matter to be learned c Everywhere the logical order of the subject has been forced upon pupils so that just now there is a general and heroic effort to readjust the course of study to the natural order of the child In learning We are ho longer satisfied to follow in the course of instruction the logieaJ order of addition subtrac tion multiplication and division or that of arithmetic algebra geometry and trigoaometery While grammar logically precedes composition the school course reverses the order His tory must not be deferred till geog raphy is completed The recent fruit ful agitation of the question of the course of study enriching it correlat ing it and concentrating it is only an effort to the psychological order of the growjng pupil The college graduate is apt to make a mistake in management similar to that which he makes in Instruction He tries to manage children as he would young men and women He assigns lessons to the child and the adult in the same way and assumes that chil dren will prepare a lesson by being told to ddso Little precaution therefore is taken to secure the full effort of the pupil during the study period Since college students prepare their lessons at home the same custom is carried far Into the public school Recently a col lege graduate was superintendent of the schools of a city and he required fche pupils of the high school to meet only for the recitations and that in the forenoon This superintendent was succeeded by a normal school graduate who immediately changed the plan and required the pupils to attend the full day and to prepare lessons under the direction of the teacher No matter which of these was right their differ ence illustrates the point under discus sion One who manages a school suc cessfully must consider the develop ment of the pupil There is a time when the pupil should have the most minute and direct attention from the teacher during the preparatibn of the lesson and there comes a time when such attention would not only be use less but harmful a time when the- pu pil should be left wholly free to choose his own time place and manner of pre paring his lesson t The college man makes in many ways a college out of a high school He preaches or has it done a baccalaure ate at commencement He calls his classes freshman sophomore junior senior They must organize and have class presidents and above all class colors and class school yells They have foot ball teams and oratorical contests J Are they notsoon to don the cap and I gown at graduation I do not mean to say that these things are bad but to point out a natural tendency of the col lege man in managing a public school Of course the normal school graduate tends to make parallel mistakes along the opposite side of the foregoing but jl am not considering those now They lie in the direction of of method in Instruction in management Arnold Tomp kins in Indiana School Journal How to Make Belief Map To great Importance cannot be at tached to the value of relief work In v8KMttVJaa teaching the study pf geography writes Ella J Douglas in American Teacher It impresses upon the mind the conspic uous features of the continent and aids in imagination to picture its surface It is by all means the best method for securing the attention of pupils and to lead them to acquire a useful knowl edge of correct geographical form from nature It will be best to first model a map of our own country Obtain the services of a mechanic who can make a suitable frame upon which to work the relief It must be made of pine boards well seasoned to prevent warping They must be doweled and glued Rim it about an inch In height Maps are made of modeling wax plaster of paris putty and other sim ilar substances The following materi al is a very good one and easily work ed For a map about two feet by three feet In size melt two heaping handfuls of glue into which place half a pint each of varnish and oil Into this put more water and stir whiting into it as you would flour in mixing bread Use as soon as prepared In order for it to adhere to the board it is necessary that a coat of paint in which there is plentyj of oil be applied Use blue to represent the ocean except on the rim which may be painted some darker color With a palette knife spread the ma terial over the whole map which you have previously outlined in pencil Build up the western highland and the basin between the Rocky and the Sierra Nevada mountains Let the eastern slope be gradually downward toward the great central plain and at the north and upward toward Mexico Spread more of the material for the Appalachi an system and the height of land north of the Ohio River and near the source of the Mississippi Next build up the mountains making the Rocky moun tains higher as you proceed south ward Locate some of the principal peaks and cut depressions in the map to indicate the canyons of the Colorado and Arkansas Rivers After the work Is well laid in put it away to dry You will be greatly sur prised upon looking at it again to dis cover many cracks and crevices in your work Do not be discouraged as it is only the water drying out of the tex ture These must not be worked over until thoroughly dry as there is danger of the under coat being raised from the board Repeat this process until per fectly dry when it will be as hard and firm as a rock Now give it two coats of white paint in which there is about as much oil as you had for painting the board and it Is ready for the final coloring which must be of artists paint Your palette should consist of the fol lowing colors Flake white Naples strontian and chrome yellows Chi nese vermilion Prussian and cobalt blues For the flood plains less than 500 feet which are along the Atlantic coast Gulf of Mexico and Ohio val leys the eastern and southern shores of Lake Ontario the valleys of the Colum bia Sacramento and San Joaquin and a narrow strip along the Pacific coast use Prussian blue chrome yellow and a small quantity of white Next paint the low plains 500 feet to 1000 feet which are found on either side of the Appalachian mountains and the remaining portion of the Great Cen tral Plain not included in the flood plains also along the Red River of the North and the Colorado Add white to the previous mixture of green for painting these Make it considerably lighter for a contrast For the remain der of the map the height above 1000 feet mix white and Naples yellow Paint the snow capped peaks white and the volcanoes vermilion Trace the rivers in blue These will require two coats The lakes are made with Prussian and cobalt blue yellow and white After all is dry give it two coats of white varnish and you will have a map which will be of great serv ice to your pupils Educational Jour nal Do It Peter Gooper who founded the Coop er Institute in New York city had a hard struggle As a boy his health was of the frailest He went to school but one year in his life and during that year he could only go every other day But when he was eight years old he was earning his living by pulling hair from the skins of the rabbits his father shot to make hat pulp He had not half a chance It seem ed almost literally that he had no chance at all He went to New York when he was seventeen years old He walked the streets for days before he got a place and then apprenticed him self to a carriage maker for five years for his board and two dollars -a month He had neither time nor money for what the world called pleasure of hope While he was working for fifty cents a week he said to himself If I ever get rich I will build a place where the boys and girls of New York may have an education free and so be did Teach Children That teasing is a positive crime That they must eat bread before cake That bedtime is not a movable hour That they must speak respectfully to the servants That bawling over bruises is unwor thy sturdy beings That they should not appeal from the decision of one parent to the other That punishment follows in the wake of prevarication and hiding more swift ly than it follows active mischief That it is bad taste for them to tell all that they learn of their neighbors domestic arrangements through play ing with the neighbors children Ex Undl 1871 there were no shad in waters In that year a few thou sand were introduced by the United States Fish Commission Last year the catch sold for nearly 40000 THE BOOMING CAM0N RECITALS OF CAMP AND BAT TLE INCIDENTS Survivors of the Rebellion Helate Many Amusinsr and Startling dents of Marches Camp Life Forag ing experiences and Battle Scenes Another Lincoln Story It would seem that even as early as 1852 Lincoln had acquired a reputa tion for story telling When not busy during the session of the court he was habitually whispering stories to his neighbors frequently to the annoyance of Judge Davis who presided over the eighth circuit If Lincoln persisted too long the judge would rap on the chair and exclaim Come come Mr Lincoln I cant stand this There Is no use trying to carry on two courts I must adjourn mine or yours and 1 think yours will have to be the one As soon as the group had scattered the judge would call one of the men to him and ask What was that Lincoln was telling In his law practice Lincoln seems to have been singularly conscientious his first effort being to try to arrange mat ters so as to avoid litigation Nor would he assume a case that he felt wasnot founded upon right and justice We will not take your case he said to a man who had shown that by a legal technicality he could win property val ued at 600 You must remember that some things legally right are not mor ally right We will not take your case but will give you a little advice for which we will charge you nothing You seem to be a sprightly energetic man we would advise you to try your hand at making 600 in some other way One of the most interesting anec dotes is the one quoted from Joe Jef fersons autobiography Jefferson and his father were playing at Springfield during the sesson of the Legislature and as there was no theater in the town had gone to the expense of building one Hardly had this been done when a religious revival broke out The church people condemned the theater and pre vailed upon the authorities to impose a license which was practically prohi bition In the midst of our trouble says Jefferson a young lawyer called on the managers He had heard of the injustice and offered if they would place the matter in his hands to have the license taken off declaring that he only desired to see fair play and he would accept no fee whether he failed or succeeded The young lawyer began his harangue He handled the subject with tact skill and humor tracing the history of the drama from the time when Thespis acted in a cart to the stage of to day He illustrated his speech with a number of anecdotes and kept the council in a roar of laughter His good humor prevailed and the ex orbitant tax was taken off The young lawyer was Lincoln The notes of one of his speeches in a case against a fraudulent pension agent have been preserved They are amus ingly brief as were all Lincolns notes No contract not professional ser vices Unreasonable charge money re tained by deft not given to plff Rev olutionary war Soldiers bleeding feet Plff s husband Soldier leaving home for army Skin deft Close Another one of the anecdotes is re lated in connection with a case ivolv ing a bodily attack Mr Lincoln de fended and told the jury that his cli ent was in the fix of a man who in going along the highway with a pitch fork over his shoulder was attacked by a fierce dog that ran out at him from a farmers door yard In parrying off the brute with the fork its prongs stuck into him and killed him What made you kill my dog said the farmer What made him bite me But why did you not go at him with the other end of the pitchfork Why did he not come at me with his other end At this Mr Lincoln whirled about in his long arms an im aginary dog and pushed his tail end toward the jury This was the defense plea of Son assault demesne loosely that The other fellow brought on the fight quickly told and in a way the dullest mind would grasp and retain McClures Magazine Blowing Up a Fort xt was thirty two years ago writes a reteran that the memorable mine ex plosion took place at Petersburg Va For weeks the Union men had been at work building a mine under the Con federate fort At a late hour the night of July 29 the troops in the vicinity of the mine the Fifth and Ninth Corps and the forces that had been ordered up from across the James river were awakened very gently and directed to be ready to move a the gray of day next morn ing Those veterans of many battles did not need to be told what was com ing The mine is to be exploded passed through the sleepy crowds and as quickly as the telephone could have sent it From then until 3 oclock the army was silent and sober It seemed to them that one of the bloodiest strug gles of the war was just before them Many wrote letters to their dear ones All conversed under breath or in whis pers Some wrote their names com panies and regiments on slips of paper and pinned them to their shirts They did not want to get lost in the shuflle in case of death Hearts beat a little faster that morn ing thirty two years ago when a glance at the east told of the approach of the gray of the morning The mine was to explode at 4 oclock That hour came and passed without a signal The fuse had failed Two brave men volun teered to enter the dark Iiole and see what was wrong The defect wag rem edied and at 5 oclock the earth trem bled Every eye was on the Confed erate fort in a second A rumble quick ly went to a deep unearthly roar and the fort began to raise Up up up it went and then dividing fell over a wide tract creating a black cloud Men tents cannon wheels and all sorts of debris could be seen in the ris ing mass It was an awful surprise to the poor fellows over there The enemy on the right and left wildly ran expecting other explosions Why didnt the Ninth Corps rush over and capture the line They could have taken almost peaceful possession If they had moved at once but they didnt By the time they did charge the scared enemy was ready to meet them and a most bloody fight ensued Great numbers of Burnsides men after fight ing heroically were driven into the hole made by the explosion which wrl twenty feet deep wide and 100 feei long Many of these were killed or wounded and the balance made pris oners The field over which the Union men retreated to the entrenched line from which they had charged was cov ered with dead and wounded It was a blunder that cost the army 4000 brave men A Fearfully Obstinate Man At the time Gen Grant assumed su preme command of the Federal armies there were stationed in and about Washington some carpet regiments These troops were kept near the capital and out of danger by Influences that need not be described Grant at once ordered them to the field and the or der promptly created a stir The next morning he called to see the Secretaary ot War We will keep these regiments at Washington said the Secretary lolti iy I have already ordered them to re port for duty in the field We will keep these regiments at Washington said the Secretary lofti iy I have already ordered them to re port for duty in the field We will keep these regiments for duty- at Washington repeated the Secretary more peremptorily than be fore I have already ordered them to re port for duty in the field again re plied Grant quietly Who is in command you or the Sec retary of War was the angry re sponse I think the President is in com mand coolly answered Grant Oh you appeal to the President do you Well well see They had it out with the President in short order The Secretary opened fire General Grant wants to appeal to you Mr President Not at all I have no appeal to make Well he wants to tell you some thing I have nothing to tell All right if you dont tell it I will Then the Secretary proceeded to telL Up to the time he had concluded the President had said not a word When the excited Secretary came to an end Lincoln tilted back in his chair a lit tie I tell you Stanton he remarked Mrs Grant tells Mrs Lincoln that her husband is a fearfully obstinate man and I guess hes so obstinate that well have to give him his own way The Only One Left In a small village called North East near Erie Pa full of years and hon ors Old Ned the only living representa tive of the equine race who wenl through the civil war awaits the bugla call The veteran is now 38 years old and is the property of B F Crawford who came into possession of him during the war Old Ned was originally a rebel H was captured by the Yanks when Gen Jubal Early made his raid on Washington in 1864 and given to Craw ford who was then a sergeant of ord nance and who had lost his mount At the close of the war Mr Crawford left Washington on the horses back and rode him to Harrisburg There he bought a sulky and putting the animal between the thillsrejoicing in the dawi of peace made their easier way to a home that Old Ned has distinguished by his presence where he is regarded as public property and where he is pointed out every day as the most prominent resident This contraband when captured was a bright black but now with advancing years has grown grizzled indeed most of the hair on his head has become white His saddle marks are strikingly noticeable and he like many another contraband shows the scars of his burden bearing No Roentgen rays are required to dis cover the more prominent portions of his anatomy In his early life he scorned delights and lived laborious days but he is now treated like a pen sioner His life is a reminiscence Hav ing fought in the greatest army that ever marched to martial music and for the best Government that ever enlisted equine valor he is thought to have earned four quarts of carrots three times each day and two quarts of bran Old Ned has been present at several Grand Army encampments and has never failed to attract considerable at tention At Louisville last year out of respect to his age and Infirmities he was carried on a float and was given a grand ovation When a squad of saw him they cheered him to the echo and rushed up to touch the gallant steed If his life is spared he will participate La the G A R encamp ment at St Paul in September He will be under the care of Mr Crawford who always accompanies him on his journeys The man who prays right will see to it that his example is right Mrfa our Afera EEALKUEALEEADIIG WILL BE FOUND IN THIS DE PARTMENT ECo w to Care for the Bean Crop Barn Cisterns Better than Wella Wonder ful Work of Bees Bemoving Un fruitful Trees Farm Notes Bean Harvesting Beans are planted any time in June after the ground has become thorough ly warmed and corn planting is out of the way The soil should be rich well drained well plowed thoroughly pul verized and kept free from weeds un til the crop has matured Caring for the crop after it Is done growing re quires much skill and painstaking at tention Formerly and even to day where beans are raised on a small Vft FIG 1 A BEAK PUXLEB scale the bunches were pulled by hand and placed in piles until thoroughly dried out To day large growers use machines for catting off the plants A puller is shown in Fig 1 Two rows are pulled at the same time The hori zontal knives run just beneath the sur face of the ground and cut off the stems The tops are brought close to gether by the rods above the knives They can then be easily gathered up with a fork and placed in the shock Allow the shocks to remain in the field until thoroughly dried The shocks after thorough drying can be placed in a stack or a hay mow Care must al ways be exercised to prevent much packing while being stored otherwise molding will ensue Avoid tramping by placing a board for the operator to stand upon When ready thresh using a bean thresher Small lots are beaten out with a flail and cleaned by means of a hand fanning mill After threshing it pays to pick out the broken beans also the discolored ones Especially is this true where the crop is raised for seed This may be accomplished by spreading out upon a white covered table and removing the trash and defective beans A number of machines have been invented for ex pediting this work one of which is shown in Fig 2 The beans to be picked are placed in the hopper A force feed passes them regularly through the hopper into the perforated cylinder where they are freed from dust and trash They then fall upon a white canvas belt which is moving slowly toward the operator While on this canvas the discolored and broken specimens are easily seen and removed tflG 2 MACHINE FOB SOBTING BEANS m T - i - The perfect beans remain until they fall into the spout provided to convey them to a sack or other receptacle For large quantities there are machines upon the market run by steam or horse power Wonderful Work of Bees Bees must in order to collect a pound of clover honey deprive 62000 clover blossoms of their nectar To do this the 02000 flowers must be visited by an aggregate of 3750000 bees Or in other words to collect its pound of honey one bee must make 3750000 trips from and to the hive The enor mous amount of work here involved precludes the idea of any one bee ever living long enough to gather more than a fraction of a pound of nectarine sweets As bees are known to fly for miles in quest of suitable fields of op eration it is clear that a single ounce of honey represents millions of miles of travel It is no wonder that these In dustrious little insects have earned the reputation of being busy bees Barn Cisterns It is bad for stock to depend on water drawn from wells near barnyards as it is sure after a term of years to be come contaminated In all such cases a barn cistern with a filter at the out let through which the water is drawn offers better security of pure water than can be had from water taken from a well Some care must be taken to prevent dust and dirt being washed in to the cistern from roofs After thresh ing especially and in the fall when leaves are flying the eave trough should be frequently cleaned so that as little dirt as possible be washed into a well An average barn roof will in a year catch water enough ib winter the stock that will usually be fed in the barn Removing Unfruitful Trees In every orchard there will be found some trees which are an injury to the farmer every year they remain in their present position producing nothing themselves and lessening the product need more fertility and also more room for each tree to ripen and perfect Its fruit Removing trees that have for years cumbered the ground taking room that might be worth something if it were out is often the best way to restore orchards to productiveness Curing Corn Fodder in Cock When corn fodder is cut while tbv weather is still dry it will cure in bet- ter shape and with less loss if put up Im small cocks rather than in stooks The reason is that as days shorten and nights rapidly lengthen there is notj sunlight and warmth enough in thei daytime to cure the stalks as rapidly as they should be In the cock the stalks will heat bringing the temperature up to 100 or more night as well as day Ifj a little dry straw is thrown on the cock so as to absorb the moisture at nlghti when the outside cold air condenses itj the stalks below it will come out green looking yet slightly softened from thej heat to which they have been subjected Stalks thus cured will be eaten much more readily than stalks that havei dried up by being exposed in stooks to drying winds All farmers have no ticed that in winter it is the corn stalks that have been heated and even molded in the mow that will be preferred by cows to stalks that have been dried inl the wind and without the heat needed to soften the outer shell of the stalk The moist stalks are also more nutri tious as in drying out the carbon in them turns into woody fibre nearly in i digestible In putting up the cocks they should be small so as not to heat too much and blacken the stalks For the same reason they should not be left long before being drawn to the barn oc mow Awnings for Country Homes Awnings let in the light but keep out the suns heat affording just the con i ditions needed in summer Blinds keep out heat but make a room dark andt - FBAME FOB AN AWNING gloomy Awnings may easily be made at home this plan being easily carried out a tnree eigntns men iron rod is bent by a blacksmith into the form shown and this is supported by screw eyes in the window case and wires ex- tending from the outer corners to thej top of the window case hooks beingj placed there These hooks also sup- port the top of the awnings eyelet holes being made in the cloth Coming of Autumn Autumn wandered through the woodland Touching with his -wand each tree Summer stood reluctant crying Bring my beauties back to me But the maple leaves grew crimson Ripened fruit hung everywhere And the harvester spoke smiling Autumns charms are full as fair Summer weeping wrung her fingers Then gleamed forth the golden rod Asters by the laughing brooklet Give new beauty to the sod Mother Nature viewed the picture Smiled as fell the first white frost Sweetly said The summers beauty Will return for naught is lost The Pis Pen Crowd the young porkers that you wish to turn off in December Keep hog cholera out It is not safr to depend upon knocking it out It costs more to raise scrub swine than thoroughbreds and they do not fatten so easily nor bring so much It is possible by cleaning out the pen once or twice a week and disinfect- ing it with lime to keep the place in a sweet presentable condition Away with the idea that winter made pork does not pay Men that are pre pared for such work often claim the greatest profit from winter feeding Never allow the permiums won by the sire and dam to dazzle your eyes when looking at the pig Size up the pig first then his pedigree and the reputation of the ancestry last Prof Henry of the Wisconsin Ex- periment Station finds that cabbages have a good deal of valuemore than potatoes and turnips as a- swine feed of neighboring trees All old orchards ltening period Winter and Summer Prices of Eggs Always in the fall the price of eggs goes up partly because the supply de creases then and also because with cool weather those who prepare eggs for keeping in winter have more confidence and begin to buy extensively We have often wished that no method had everj been discovered for preserving eggs Then the winter price would be always what it costs to produce eggs in win- ter Both the egg producer and the consumer would then be better satis j fied It really discourages the use ofj eggs to buy some and have them a trifle stale not changed enough as the dealer will tell you to hurt themi The truth is that an egg not perfectly fresh is an abomination If only such were sold in market there would be bet ter prices all the year round But in such weather as we had in August an egg will spoil from the natural heat ofl the atmosphere in two days so that lt will not be fit to use The refrigerator must be used more in keeping eggs not to chill them but to cool the tempera ture around them - N Mi i V to w n f V M VI