I have often wished I had the descriptive power of the man who wrote
"The Diary of a Physician." My experiences in another profession have
not been wanting in incident, often of a curious and romantic kind, and
sometimes almost startling. But the "Diary of a Schoolmaster," to be
read with interest, requires something more than a good basis of facts.
He who writes it must have, also, graphic and narrative powers--a
special gift, of which nature has been sparing to me. I had one
experience, however, many years ago, so remarkable in some of its
features, that perhaps the bare facts, stated in the simplest form,
without artifice or embellishment, will be found worthy of perusal. The
youth who was the principal actor in the scene which I am about to
describe, has been dead these many years, and I believe the family have
nearly all died out. The only survivor that I knew anything of ten years
ago was then blind, and ill of an incurable disease. There would,
therefore, perhaps be no harm in giving the youth's real name; but as
the name is one widely known, and as it is always best to avoid
unnecessary intrusion upon private affairs, I have concluded to use a
fictitious name, both for the person referred to and for the place from
which he came. In other particulars the following incident is a simple
narration of facts.
At the time of which I am writing, I had a large boarding-school for
boys, at Princeton, New Jersey. Particular circumstances gave me, for
several years, quite a run of patronage from a town in one of the
Western States, which for convenience I shall call Tompkinsville. Among
those who applied for admission from this town were two brothers, Bob
and Charlie Graham. Bob was only ten years old. Charlie was fourteen,
and as mature as most boys at nineteen. Mature, I mean, not so much in
his intellectual development, for in that respect he was rather
behindhand, but in his passions, and in his habits of independent
thought and action.
I had many misgivings about the propriety of receiving these boys into
the school. Most of those that I had already from Tompkinsville were of
the fire-eating class, whom it had taken all my skill as a
disciplinarian to bring into subjection, and I did not know what might
be the effect of adding to their number two such combustible youths as
these Grahams were reputed to be. Tompkinsville, indeed, had long been
notorious for the fiery and lawless character of its inhabitants. While
containing many most estimable families, where a generous and
warm-hearted hospitality reigned supreme, yet no town, probably, in all
the Western States witnessed annually a greater number of street-fights
and other deeds of violence of the most desperate character. No family
in Tompkinsville were more noted than the Grahams, on the one hand for
the passionate warmth of their attachments, and on the other for the
fierceness and violence of their resentments. Nothing was too much for
them to do for you when their affections were touched. On the other
hand, no law, human or divine, seemed to restrain them when their blood
was up. When roused by what they regarded as an insult, they were human
tigers, no less in the quickness than in the desperate ferocity of their
anger. The father once, in open court, in a sudden rage, actually strode
over the tables and heads of the lawyers, and seizing the presiding
judge by the collar, dragged him from the bench and horsewhipped him in
the presence of all his officials. Charlie himself, of whom I am
writing, gave, about two years after leaving school, a similar
demonstration of violence. Hearing that a young man, who was a
fellow-student of his in a law office, had done something insulting,
Charlie drew up a formal written apology and presented it to the young
man to sign, intending afterwards to post it. On the young man's
refusing to sign the paper, Charlie drew a weapon of some kind and
sprang upon him. The young man being several years older, and very large
and powerful, had no difficulty in disarming his assailant, throwing him
upon the floor and holding him there. While thus down upon his back,
bound hand and foot, and completely at the mercy of his antagonist,
Charlie still demanded, as fiercely as ever, the signing of the
"apology," giving the young man, as the only alternative, either to kill
him or to be killed. "If you let me up alive, I will shoot you at sight,
as sure as my name is Charles Graham." Knowing the desperate character
of the family, and feeling too well assured of his own social position
to care for any effect the signing of such a paper might have, the young
man courageously let the ruffian up and signed the apology. Two days
after, Charlie came back to the office, thoroughly mortified and
penitent for his outrage, voluntarily gave up the paper, and apologized
in the amplest manner for his folly.
I might enumerate other instances by the score, were it necessary, to
show the character of the boy with whom I had to deal. But these are
probably sufficient. His passions were as quick as gunpowder, and as
indiscriminate. Had I known all that I afterwards knew in regard to his
disposition and his antecedents, I certainly would not have undertaken
the charge of his education.
The Grahams had been with me nearly a year without the occurrence of
anything to attract attention or call for discipline. The school had
considerable reputation among the people of Tompkinsville for the
strictness of its discipline. Though the relations between the pupils
and myself were for the most part thoroughly kind and friendly, yet it
was well understood by every boy who entered school that the will of the
Principal was supreme. Mr. Graham had probably brought his boys to the
school for that very reason. The routine of obedience had been so
thoroughly established, that his boys, he thought, would submit through
mere force of example. Bob was too young to give any uneasiness. He
fell, of course, into many of the peccadilloes of boys of his age, and
received, without demur, the treatment of a little boy. Charlie, for a
long time, was almost a model of propriety. He was diligent in his
studies, and observed the rules of the school with scrupulous care. He
was fair, almost girlish, in appearance, and gentle in his speech. No
one, merely observing the quiet, modest boy, going about his usual
routine of duty, without noise or turbulence, would have dreamed of the
sleeping volcano that lay beneath this placid exterior.
About the middle of the second term I began to notice in Charlie
symptoms that I did not like. The harness evidently chafed him
somewhere, and there was no telling when he might kick out of the
traces. The crisis at length came. One morning, when the boys were in
the washroom, under the charge of the senior teacher, Charlie, with what
precise provocation I could never ascertain, drew back his basin of
water and threw it full into the teacher's face.
Here was a case. We were about to have an explosion. Evidently the young
fire-eater's blood was up. He was bent on having "a scene;" and, while
his hand was in, he would quite likely make up for all the long months
of peaceful inaction. All the tiger within him stood revealed.
The matter was reported to me of course. After some little thought, my
plan was chosen. Not a word was said on the subject for several hours.
Meals, play-time, study-hours, lessons, everything went on as usual. At
length, about eleven o'clock, Charlie was summoned, not to the
principal's desk, in the public school-room, but to my private office,
in a remote part of the premises. As he entered the quiet apartment, it
was evident that the intervening hours of reflection had not been lost
upon him. He was pretty sure, of course, that I had sent for him in
consequence of the occurrence of the morning. Still he was not certain.
Not a word had been uttered in school on the subject--no allusion to it
even. Altogether there was something about the affair that mystified
him.
The following brief dialogue ensued.
"Where are your skates, Charlie?"
"In my box in the play-room, sir."
"Where is your sled?"
"That is hanging up in the outer shed."
"Where is your fishing-line and your ball?"
"They are in the play-room."
"I wish you would get these and all your other playthings together
before dinner. Peter (this was the head waiter) has collected your boots
and shoes, and Sarah (the seamstress) has got your clothes together and
packed your trunks. I have made out your accounts, and will be ready to
send you home to your father by the afternoon train. You may help Bob
also to collect his playthings; he has not done anything wrong, but he
is so young I think your father would not like to have him here alone so
far from home."
All this was said in a tone as utterly emotionless as I would have used
if asking him whether he would be helped to beef or lamb at table.
Charlie was taken aback. If I had attempted to chastise him, if I had
even used towards him the language of invective or reproach, he could
have met the case. But here was an issue which he had never
contemplated. After a moment of blank amazement, he said:
"Mr. H., I don't want to go home thus. It will grieve my father, and it
will be a lasting stigma to me in Tompkinsville, where it is counted an
honor to belong to this school. I know I have done wrong, but can't you
inflict some other punishment? I will submit to anything rather than be
sent home in this way. Put me in 'exile' and at the 'side-table,' for
three days, or any time you please!"
This was an extreme penalty, sometimes used in school for very grave
offences. The boy who was subject to it was obliged to stand at a table
by himself in the dining-room and eat bread and water, while the other
boys and their teachers were at their meals. Besides this, during the
continuance of the penalty the culprit was not allowed to go upon the
play-ground, or to speak to any one, nor was any one allowed to speak to
him, under the penalty of being himself similarly punished. The
punishment was, of course, a severe one in itself, and was very
mortifying to a boy of high spirit. It was only resorted to in extreme
cases, and was limited to one day. Charlie begged that I would "exile"
and "side-table" him for a week, if I pleased; only not send him home
thus.
"No, Charlie; I am not sure that your father would approve of your being
thus publicly disgraced before the school and the family, nor am I
myself sure that it would be right in the case of a boy so far advanced
towards manhood as you are. In assuming the charge of you, I never
contemplated anything in our intercourse but such as occurs between
gentlemen. Since I have been mistaken in my estimate of you, let our
intercourse cease. It would not alter your character to subject you to a
humiliating punishment before the assembled school. If it were your
brother Bob, the case would be different. But you are almost a man. You
have been treated here, as at home, with the consideration due to a
young gentleman. I would myself revolt at seeing one of your years and
standing treated as you request me to treat you. I cannot do it. You
must go home."
"Oh, no! no! Do not send me home! Do anything else. I will submit to any
punishment you please. Flog me; _please_, flog me!"
"Flog you! Never! I have no scruples, as you know, on the subject of
corporal punishment, for I often chastise the smaller boys; but boys as
old and mature as you are have sense enough to be governed by other
considerations than fear, and especially fear of the rod. If they have
not, I want nothing to do with them."
"Oh! Mr. H., won't you _please_ to flog me?"
And the boy actually went down on his knees and begged me to thrash him.
He, Charlie Graham, whose veins ran fire, who, six hours before, would
have leaped at my throat had I so much as raised my finger at him, was
now begging me, as a special boon, to give him a whipping! I could
hardly believe my senses. Yet there was no doubt of the boy's sincerity,
or of his earnestness. So, to give me time to reflect as to what should
be done, I finally said, "Charlie, I will think of what you have asked,
and let you know at three o'clock."
Three o'clock came, and Charlie again made his appearance.
"Do you still wish me to whip you?"
"I do. I will make any apology you think proper to the teacher whom I
insulted, and I will be most thankful to you to chastise me for the
offence."
"Please to take off your coat."
* * * * *
When the painful affair was over, I gave him my hand cordially and
frankly, and said, "Charlie, you have honorably and courageously atoned
for a grievous fault, and I assure you, I restore you not only to your
position in school, but to my respect and confidence."
I never had any further difficulty with Charlie Graham. Years
afterwards, when I met his father at the Springs, he could hardly
contain his amazement when I told him that I had once flogged his oldest
son Charlie, at his own particular request. It was, I suppose, the first
and last time the hand of correction was ever laid on him.