860 



(il.EANlNGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec 1. 



Our Homes. 



lam come that they mig-ht have life, and that 

 they might have it more abuadautly.— John 10:10. 



The words of the above text occurred to me 

 while I was thinking that Christianity was 

 really at the very fouudaiion of all civilization, 

 life, and light in this world of ours. A faith in 

 Christ Jesus gives humanity life in the best 

 sense in which the word can be used. It raises 

 up and ennobles humanity and human life. It 

 makes men after God and in his own image. 

 It is really the siepping-stone to education. 

 As a rule, the schools and colleges of the world 

 are founded on a faith in Christ. Truly did he 

 come into this world of ours that we might 

 have life, and have it more abundantly. 



This thought was brought to my mind with 

 more emphasis than perhaps it ever was before 

 as I listened to a talk last Sunday evening from 

 a woman whose lifework has been teaching in 

 the far West. For many years she was in the 

 employ of the New West Educational Society. 

 She gave us a sort of word picture of her labors 

 in one little town in Idaho. She was sent there 

 about fourteen years ago. At that time there 

 were no schools within many miles in any 

 direction. The children were growing up en- 

 tirely destitute of school privileges, and they 

 were really hungering for a school. The town 

 as she found it was composed of cowboys, In- 

 dians, and a class of people who are often found 

 in the vicinity of the mininsr regions of the 

 far West. I hope that no reader of Gleanings 

 will feel hurt when I mention that the Mor- 

 mons were pretty well intrenched there at the 

 time. One of the leading men of the town had 

 fifteen wives all together. As a rule these Mor- 

 mon friends were opposed to the Yankee school- 

 ma'am, on general principles: for, as a matter 

 of course, if she taught Christ Jesus she would, 

 at least in the end, be a rebuke to polygamy. 

 Our good friend Miss Virginia Dox was, how- 

 ever, agreeably surpri^pd to find a warm wel- 

 come awaiting her. The fact is. the fathers 

 and mothers, and chil ren too, had been long- 

 ing for a school, and they were so eager to see a 

 school started in their town that they forgot all 

 differences, and warmly welcomed the little 

 schoolma'am. There was no schoolhouse in 

 the town: but in order to begin work at once, 

 a vacant dwelling was secured. Nobody knew 

 how many pupils would come; but they thought 

 that, if the largest room should not prove suffi- 

 cient, she could occupy two rooms, the door 

 being open between them. If I remember cor- 

 rectly, there was more than a roomful the very 

 first morning. The juveniles took their places 

 on cheap wooden benches that had been hastily 

 provided, and waited anxiously to see what the 

 schoolma'am was going to say to commence 

 with. Her remarks were something as follows: 

 " Children, we expect to have a real good 

 time here together; but in order to do so we 

 must have law and order. Now, I am not going 

 to read a lot of rules, but I am going to give 

 you just one rule to take the place of all others. 

 This one rule must be that we love each other. 

 Unless I love you, I can not really do you any 

 good; and unless you love me, you can not 

 really do me any good; therefore the one rule 

 of our little school is to be that we love each 

 other." 



Under the influence of this same love between 

 pupil and teacher, this school began to thrive. 

 The children soon had such glowing accounts 

 to give of the wonderful things that they had 

 learned at the school that the older ones caught 

 the enthusiasm and wanted to go too; and the 

 little teacher gave each a very warm welcome. 



The older ones used tobacco, both boys and 

 girls. She said that, if she had ruled out 

 tobacco to start with, she would have ruled out 

 the greater part of her pupils. Blasphemy 

 among the older boys— aye, and some of the 

 girls too— was also a common thing in that 

 Idaho town. She did not stop the swearing all 

 at once, but she made up her mind that it 

 would have to go eventually. 



Pretty soon the parents" caught the fever. 

 Before the school opened, beer-drinking was so 

 common that almost the whole of the inhabi- 

 tants patronized the saloon more or less. This 

 she passed by for a while; but her triumph 

 came later on. When some of the parents 

 talked abotit going to school she told them 

 smilingly that she would do the best she could 

 for all who wanted to come; and it was no un- 

 common thing to see fathers and mothers 

 studying in the same class with their children. 

 She mentioned seeing a man of forty-seven in 

 the same class, and studying the same book, 

 with his little girl seven years old; and the girl 

 was the brighter and better of the two in their 

 recitations. 



At first everybody who owned a dog — and 

 almost everyone did own one there in those 

 days— had to bring that dog to school. Per- 

 haps the dogs were curious in regard to the 

 new points of interest; but by degrees the 

 teacher managed to draw the line, excluding 

 the dogs during school hours. Had she under- 

 taken to banish the dogs at the outset it would 

 probably have banished pupils, or a great part 

 of them, as it was so common to see the dogs 

 everywhere. 



By the way. dear friends, have you never 

 noticed how common a thing it is to see a town 

 of two or three hundred people all becoming 

 enthusiastic over some particular new thing 

 that comes up ? This new thing may be pitch- 

 ing horse-shoes or playing marbles or flying 

 kites: it may be skating in the winter time; it 

 may be having spelling schools; yes, and some- 

 times beer-drinking and smoking tobacco seems 

 to take the energies of all classes of one of 

 these little towns. Under the guiding hand of 

 some good and wise leader a community of this 

 kind may all get a fever for getting an educa- 

 tion: and what a glorious thing it is when this 

 is the case! Well, this one town and the 

 country roundabout seem to have been stiongly 

 taken with a wonderful craze to go to school 

 and learn to read. The cowboys caught the 

 fever, the Indians abandoned their usual habits, 

 and they came too, and made their flat noses 

 still flatter against the window-panes of the 

 three-room schoolhouse. The teacher, it seems, 

 had a wonderful gift for the work, and, be- 

 sides, her heart was full of the grace of God 

 and the love of Christ Jesus. She went out and 

 took the Indians by the hand and won their 

 confidence so as to bring them in also. When 

 the mothers also began to come, bringing their 

 babies with them to such an extent that it was 

 a serious interruption to the lessons, she plan- 

 ned an evening school for the benefit of the 

 mothers. The children could stay at home and 

 take care of the babies while the parents went 

 to the evening school. 



Perhaps some of you may laugh at the idea 

 of such a school as Miss Dox kept. Instead of 

 saying "yes " to a question from their teacher, 

 she would be more likely to get "you bet, 

 schoolma'am." She says she remembers one 

 great stalwart specimen of manhood who was 

 so slow in answering the questions she gave 

 him that she was about to pass on to the next. 

 Said he, " Just hold your horses, schoolma'am. 

 I have got it all in my head, and I will get it 

 all out on the square if you will only give me a 

 little time." And, true to his promise, he did. 



