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A "OLD TOLL'D SCHOOL"
SCHOOL of grown men, an elementary
school that grey bearded fathers and
stripling sons attend together, a school
that educates for the every day business
affairs, teaching branches from reading
and writing up to the ordinary drawing
of commercial and legal papers; a
school without house, equipment, en
dowment, or salaried faculty, a free
A
school, free as the labor of those with a noble de
sire to uplift their fellow man, this is the school that
is now to,be found in the thriving little city of Syl
vester. **
In a section rich in those resources yielded only
to the heart throb of plant life, the kiss of sun
shine, and the tender attention of the plowman,
Sylvester is found to be rich in the resources of
sturdy humanity. There, a neighborhood or rather
a section, predominantly white as to population,
but recently known as the backwoods, is now tra
versed by divers railroads, thick with rural mail
routes, and shows on every hand the newly painted
cottage with its newly swept yard, its fruit trees
and foliage, and where the cultivated rose tree
mingles its fragrance with the refreshing odors of
the primeval pine. Instead of simply desolation
in the wake of the saw-mills, there is a mellow field
of pebble-land now burdened with a rich and prom
ising crop.
The advent of commerce and culture, instead of
relegating the native to the rear of the proces
sion, but sharpened his scimitar for a place in the
van of the solid phalanx. The new comer, with
cravat and creased trousers, could gain his respect
by outplaying him in the game of money making,
and somehow or somehow else this was rather diffi
cult to do. Unable to write, or perhaps to read,
the countryman could out-trade a gypsy in a horse
swap, and in a land deal would hire the Justice of
the Peace to get the papers in shape to hold the
other fellow. If it held, good and well; if not,
there was litigation of a sturdy and substantial
kind, conducted with the soaring independence of
an eagle and the tenacity of a bull dog.
A school for these grown men, these sturdy citi
zens cradled in the poverty of re-construction days,
and now perhaps among the substantial tax-payers
of Worth county, a school for their sons above
school age, the man with the plow, the brother to
a king, a king himself in strength and independ
ence, this is the splendidly executed conception of
Judge Frank Park.
Judge Park —A Practical Benediction.
Judge Park moved to Worth county some doz
en years ago, and with a great heart, sympathizing
with every true impulse of manhood and every
struggle for a higher and better life, has been a
notable factor in the inspiration of this community,
and its moral and material betterment. His re
forms have been constructive rather than destruct
ive, and with his friendly hand grasp, his eyes shin
ing with interest in his neighbor’s welfare, his
mind ever planning for practical achievement of
nobler ideas, he is a man worthy the esteem and
affection accorded him by this community. Part of
this first institution has been a steam laundry, as
sisting the people in making a better appearance.
Another plan, the fruition of which is confidently
expected at an early date, is a comfortable and
commodious bath house, with divers plunges and
shower apparatus; and in close proximity to the
steam laundry mentioned above, so that the towels
can easily be kept fresh and immaculate for any
rush of visitors at the baths.
A New “Old Field School.’’
This “Old Field School,” as it has been denomi
nated by its founder, was opened on the 26th day
of June in the county court house of Sylvester.
Tho term lasts for sixty days ai. the time of com
parative rest for the farmer, between the “laying
by” of the cotton crop and the beginning of cot
ton picking time. This gives the busiest man from
the farms and fields an opportunity long desired,
an educative course of decided benefit, without in-
The Golden Age for August 15, 100?.
terfering with his annual increase or material wel
fare in any way, while scores and hundreds in
indolence and ease are recuperating from their la
bors at the watering places and seaside resorts of
this country, and numbers of young men are loafing
around ths cigarette counters in cities.
These stalwart Anglo-Saxons of Southwest Geor
gia are applying their time with earnestness and
ardor to practical education and training for the
better performance of their daily duties. The en
rollment at this first session contains over fifty
names; ninety-five per cent of the attendants are
farmers and their sons, and nearly every pupil has
made a full crop this year. It is surprising to see
the learning of these men who have had an uphill
time in life. The obstacles encountered in their
daily life have so sharpened their appetite for learn
ing that they grasp principles, it seems, almost in
tuitively. Father and son in the same class, ruled
by the same object and desire, one having attend
ed school for perhaps a few weeks before, another
probably never having attended school at all, who,
on June 25 could hardly tell you what a fraction
was, and who added or multiplied so slowly as to
be painful to any sympathetic onlooker, can now
work in numbers with lightning like rapidity, can
write a promisory note with seal and waiver, and
parse with fluency and analyze with accuracy the
complicated sentences of our language.
The first lesson of the morning is the practice of
penmanship. Especial stress is here laid upon
making the gracefully curved capital stem of the
■Hu
Spencerian system, it being the idea that the ca
pacity to make this perfectly means mastery of
the pen sufficiently for making all the letters well.
After this, a class is seen lining up, each member
holding an open newspaper before himself. It is
the Worth County Local, and Professor Grubbs is
teaching the grammar lesson. The current news
items have their sentences ruthlessly cut to pieces,
and the parts of speech and the relation of each
word to the rest of the sentence thoroughly gone
into and understood. If a participle or an ad
jective is mis-called, the question is passed on down,
and there is the unusual sight of a man in his over
alls and hickory shirt, open newspaper in hand,
walking up to take his place nearer the head of
the class.
Os decided interest was the class in mathematics.
To the class in mental arithmetic would be rattled
off at double quick speed some such example as
this:
“Take 20 per cent of 60, take 2-3 of that, 25
per cent of that, cube that, and square that, add 6,
double that, add 4 and take the square root of that,
and 3-4 of that, what have you?”
And almost before the last word had left the
mouth of the speaker would come the answer,
“9.”
The examples for working with pencil and paper
generally were substantial problems of farm life,
and added to the store of practical knowledge while
increasing the interest in applied mathematics.
One was as to the number of cords in a pile of
wood in a given area. Another as to how much
shelled corn in a ©rib wher<* there were fifteen
wagon loads of ear corn, with the wagon body of
By R. J. Bacon, fr.
CLASSMATES.
a given size. Still another was as to the number
of gallons of syrup in a certain tank.
There was interest and application when the
study of commercial papers came. A mule was
described on the blackboard and the class required
to draw’ a purchase-money mortgage on the anima],
from John Doe to Richard Roe, calculating the
interest on the purchase price of $175. The first
inquiry of a student was, “Didn’t he pay any cash
on the mule?” And the reply in the negative
seemed to forever lower the character of the cele
brated John Doe in that man’s estimation.
With the principles well lodged in their minds,
the pupils are instructed to use their own language
in the papers, driving at the substance primarily,
and are not induced into a parrot memory of forms.
Their own ideas of care in business matters fre
quently, therefore, find an out-cropping in these
papers. One of the boys, having considered the un
desirability of the note being enforced against the
homestead, preluded his homestead waiver wibh
the words, “And if this mortgage doesn’t cover this
note,” thereby making intended provision for the
sale of the mortgaged property before his home
stead should be in jeopardy.
On Friday afternoons comes the debating. The
capacity of the men to tell what they know and
to use argument and to w’ield the weapons of
thought, is decidedly marked. This is perhaps the
broadest field for originality, and striking and cu
rious indeed are the ideas and impressions there
launched forth with a nascent energy that carries
both enthusiasm and conviction.
Games and sports are the order of the day at
times of recess and the fellow who has just learned
to write his name may be able to throw the most
learned man in the school in a wrestling match.
The principles of democracy find full expression
in the general good humor that pervades the crowd.
Judge Park is indeed to be congratulated on his
happy plan* of giving height and breadth to his
sturdy body of citizen-scholars.
Besides Prof. Grubbs, who has most efficiently
taught the grammar class in this school, Prof. Free
man, of the faculty at the Second Congressional
District school at Tifton, Prof. Passmore, now
County School Commissioner of Worth county, Col.
J. G. Polhill and Col. W. E. Grubbs have all given
assistance to this work, and instructed the school
in its divers branches.
The Nestor of the school is Mr. J. T. Denby, who
is one of the five confederate veterans enrolled. He
is over sixty and yet improves and learns in a man
ner that would command the admiration of the
youth. While his Business career is in its evening,
there is no doubt but that being able to read with
ease and write a letter that is neat and legible will
be a decided comfort to his closing years. It has
been about fifty years since his few months of
schooling at an old school of antiquated methods.
“In those days,’’said Mr. Denby, “the child had to
do one thing as well as the teacher could before al
lowed to take the next step. I learned my letters
tolerably well that way down to Z, and there 1 stop
ped. I never could make a good Z.” And the old
gentleman resumed his labors over an arithmetic.
Many of the scholars are from a distance in the
country, some coming and going for miles each
day, some finding lodging places in town. Even
the neighboring counties of Turner and Mitchell are
here represented.
Judge Park has demonstrated that there are ricli
nuggets of living gold to be mined from among
the fields abandoned by the public schools and left
to waste by inattention because of being above the
school age.
M *
A Wise Precaution.— Little Ethel—“Mamma,
don’t people ever get punished for telling the
truth?”
Mamma—“No, dear; why do you ask?”
Little Ethel—“’Cause I just tooked the last
three tarts in the pantry, and I thought I’d better
tell you.”—Cleveland Plain Dealer.