LETTERS FROM ALABAMA. 
43 
LETTER III. 
Dallas, June 1, 18 — . 
You are aware that my intention in coming south 
was to open a school. Schools here generally are 
not private enterprises, as in the old country, hut 
the ordinary mode of procedure is as follows. _ Some 
half-dozen planters of influence meet and agree to 
have their children educated together, each stipu- 
lating the number of pupils to be sent, and the pro- 
portion of expense to be borne, by himself. These 
form a board of trustees, who employ a master at a 
fixed salary, and, though they allow others to send 
their children at a certain rate, are yet personally 
responsible for the whole amount in the respective 
proportions of their stipulated subscriptions. I 
found no difficulty in obtaining an engagement of 
this kind, and have undertaken, at a liberal remu- 
neration, the charge of about a dozen young 
ideas.” My schoolroom is a funny little place, 
built wholly of round, unhewn logs, notched at the 
ends to receive each other, and the interstices filled 
with clay ; there is not a window, but, as the clay 
has become dry, it has dropped or been punched 
out of many of these crevices, so that there is no 
want of light and air, and the door, hung on 
wooden hinges, and furnished with a wooden latch, 
scarce needs the latter, for it remains open by night 
as well as day. The desks are merely boards, 
splits not sawn, out of pine logs, unhewn and un- 
