My Boyhood and Youth 



scholars study at home instead of letting their 

 little brains rest were never heard of in those 

 days. We carried our school-books home in a 

 strap every night and committed to memory 

 our next day's lessons before we went to bed, 

 and to do that we had to bend our attention as 

 closely on our tasks as lawyers on great million- 

 dollar cases. I can't conceive of anything that 

 would now enable me to concentrate my atten- 

 tion more fully than when I was a mere strip- 

 ling boy, and it was all done by whipping, 

 thrashing in general. Old-fashioned Scotch 

 teachers spent no time in seeking short roads 

 to knowledge, or in trying any of the new- 

 fangled psychological methods so much in 

 vogue nowadays. There was nothing said about 

 making the seats easy or the lessons easy. We 

 were simply driven pointblank against our 

 books like soldiers against the enemy, and 

 sternly ordered, "Up and at 'em. Commit your 

 lessons to memory!" If we failed in any part, 

 however slight, we were whipped ; for the grand, 

 simple, all-sufficing Scotch discovery had been 

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