'Che Conservative.
The teachers of
THE TEACHERS , the schools in
southeastern Ne
braska convene at Nebraska City , April
4th , 1901 , and their association will re
main in session three days. The officers
are : W. A. Olark , president ; Ruth
Davis , secretary ; A. R. Staller , treas
urer ; and the executive committee is
composed of Allen O. Fling and O. O.
Danforth. To the members of this im
portant and useful association THE CON
SERVATIVE extends a sincere and respect
ful welcome. The teachers of Nebras
ka's youth are potential in forming the
ethical and intellectual character of the
state. The government of the common
wealth for 1945 , A. D. , will be almost
wholly managed by the school pupils
ana university students of this day.
The best citizens of Nebraska City
ought to cheerfully extend their hospi
tality to the good
Hospitality. men and women
who are intrusted
with the mental and moral development
of young human beings. And THE CON
SERVATIVE asks that every possible at
tention be given to these teachers during
their sojourn in this town. Illustrative
of the fact that this regard for teachers
on the part of THE CONSERVATIVE is not
new and not ephemeral , the ensuing
excerpts from remarks made by its
editor in September , 1871 thirty years
ago upon the opening and dedication
of the State University at Lincoln , are
placed in evidence :
"The office to which attaches , in a re
publican form of government , the great
est responsibilities
The First Office , is that of the par
ent. The greatest
influence upon the republic is wielded
from that position and wielded , too , by
woman , enjoying alone the God-given
right of the highest , gravest , and most
holy office MOTHER.
"The queens of England form not
one-tenth so much the laws of that
country direct , not one-tenth so much
its industries and prosperities , mental
and material , as do the mothers our
American queens in molding the mental
and moral character of their sons and
daughters of the United States.
Next after this office in influence of
enduring and self-perpetuating charac
ter , in dignity and
The Second Office , grave responsibili
ty , comes the office
of the American teacher. His it is to
labor during life in the diffusion of
knowledge , the spread of intelligence
among the people , who are the govern
ment. He who could for a generation
stop the schools of this republic , close
up the avenues to learning , and drive
the teachers into banishment , would
have effectually subverted the govern
ment of the people.
N
"The education universal education
of Americans is the blood and breath
and the bone and sinew and soul of the
republic. The office of those men and
women whose duty it is to breathe the
Life of knowledge , the vitality of educa
tion , into a self-governing people of
forty millions of souls is worthy of the
exaltation and should command the
highest consideration of every thinker
ha all this broad and beautiful land.
The teacher makes his mental mark
upon an individual pupil today : to
morrow that pupil , himself a teacher ,
re-writes on a hundred human minds
the influence and character of that first
instructor.
"In two generations , the ideas , the
mental habits and characteristics of a
single teacher in
Far Reaching. a primary school ,
will have seized
upon and permeated a million of sentient
beings. This result is inevitable. It is
as certain that the intellectual and moral
character of the teacher shall make its
impress upon the mind of the pupil as
that the sunlight shall write your cor
rect image in the camera and make it
your photograph. The office of teacher
reaches forward into the remotest future ,
and , handling the viewless machinery
of mind , forms governments and molds
civilizations yet unborn.
"The architect plans and constructs
temples and palaces in solid masonry
and with iron and
Time. with wood rears
aloft our public
edifices monuments to his own skill ,
and a reflex of the intellectuality of the
age in which he lives. This beautiful
and symmetrical building is his work.
Long may it stand , usefully may it
flourish for generations. We call his
office one of gravity and responsibility
yet it is only the grouping , mapping to
gether , in form and true proportion , of
such rough and perishable things as
brick and mortar.
"But the teacher who within these
walls plans the mental strength of the
people , who maps
Eternity. here the young and
vigorous intellect
of this young and vigorous state , is the
architect who corves out of individual
minds , skilled in knowledge and adapted
each to its place , the temples of good
government and of civil and religious
liberty. These edifices will crumble and
their very dust be carried away by the
winds. But the architecture of the
mentality of the commonwealth , which
here shall have been given solidity and
symmetry , shall endure forever and
ever. It will influence and ornament
the ages to come , and finally become a
part of the imperishable structures of
the 'house not made with hands , which
fadeth not away , eternal in the heavens. '
The profession of the teacher is fraught
with responsibilities and interwoven
with duties of such dignity that it spans
the valley and shadow of death as with
a bridge which crosses up to the judg
ment seat of God himself. Those who
adopt it should be pure men and women ,
realizing the magnitude of the eternal
responsibilities which it entails. Far-
reaching as to the lost mortal that
shall be born upon the earth , high-
aspiring as the pearly gates beyond the
stars , the influence of the teacher is co
existent with mind itself.
"Two hundred and forty years before
the Christian era Cato discoursed upon
the exalted posi
The Dignity of tion of the teacher ,
Teaching. and amid his mani
fold duties as cen-
ser of Rome 'took upon himself the
office of schoolmaster to his own son ,
though he had a slave named Ohilo who
was a good grammarian and taught
several other children. ' But the noble
Roman tells us that he did not choose
that his son should be reprimanded by a
slave or that he should be indebted to
so mean a person for his education. He
was therefore ( says Plutarch ) himself
his preceptor in grammar and in law
and wrote histories for him with his own
hands , in large characters , that without
stirring out of his father's house , he
might gain a knowledge of the great
actions of the ancient Romans and of
the customs of his country.
"Surely we in the nineteenth century
should be able to see , in our light , clear
ly the dignity of that office which Cato
so revered and honored , by accepting ,
even in the dim light of the misty morn
ing time of human knowledge , before
yet the letters of the alphabet had begun
their tireless labors of sowing thoughts
broadcast up and down the mental
fallow-fields of all the world. The
sculptor who wakes from formless sleep
in the solid marble the statue or exact
image of the poet , the philosopher , or
the statesman , attains fame , and such
as Powers and Mills and Randolph
Rogers among Americans we cherish
with national pride. Their works stand
pre-eminent among the adornments of
the national capital , and there Colum
bus the discoverer , "Washington the
founder , Jackson the defender , Lincoln
the protector breathe again in their
marble counterfeits.
"The work of the statuary approxi
mates what men cell immortality more
nearly than any
Sculpture. other materialistic
labor. Phidias ,
the Athenian sculptor , whose sublime
conceptions were wrought in the orna
ments of the Parthenon , and many of
which are at this day preserved among
the marbles of the British museum ,
achieved perhaps the most lasting fame
of any of the ancient statuaries. Ho
lived and executed its works more than
two thousand years ago , and this is
longevity even for marble men. But the
American teacher , even in our common
schools , is a sculptor whose works in
