Part 7 (1/2)

”Oh, no! no! Do not sendelse I will subyou! 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 overned by other considerations than fear, and especially fear of the rod If they have not, I want nothing to do with the ged me to thrash him

He, Charlie Graham, whose veins ran fire, who, six hours before, would have leaped at er at hiive hi! 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 caain made his appearance

”Do you still wish y 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 Grahas, he could hardly contain his aed 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

XXIII

PHRENOLOGY

In the previous chapter I gave a leaf fro-school I propose now to give another leaf from the same book

The incident about to be narrated, however, is not given as an illustration of boarding-school life, but ht have happened elsewhere, though the circuiving to it a curious point

While I was at the head of the Edgehill school, at Princeton, N J, a stranger called one day and announced himself as Prof ---- The naical science as that of Prof Coive a lecture in Princeton on the subject of Phrenology, and as he was an entire stranger to myself and to all the pupils and teachers in the school, he thought it would be a good opportunity forand critical experiment He proposed, therefore, with my consent, to spend an hour, in presence of the school, in exaht call up for that purpose Fro-school, the characters of the boys would be well known to me and to their companions and teachers, and ould have therefore thehow far he succeeded in his experi that an hour spent in this ould not be ive some variety to the monotonous routine of study and lessons, and, letnot entirely without curiosity as to the result, I consented to his proposition, and called the school together in the large asseether with the teachers and the ladies of the household, I stated briefly the object of their asse and the method in which it was proposed to proceed with the experiive no indication, by word or look, so far as they could help it, to shohether the Professor was hitting the mark or not, as he read off to them the characters of their companions The boys took to the idea at once, and the excite a chair upon the platforside of it, I called up

_Boy No 1_--This happened to be a lad about fourteen, from the interior of Alaba he was of brawn and eke of bones,” as Chaucer says, in his picture of the Miller He could beat any boy in school in wrestling, and no doubt could flog any of theh on this point I speak only from conjecture, as this part of boys' amusements is not always as well known to their teachers as it is to the boys themselves The Professor, after some little manipulation of the cranium, read off the boy's character with tolerable accuracy Any one, however, with a grain of observation, who had seen the boy stalking up to the platform, with bold, almost defiant air, or had noticed his bull-neck, hard fist, and swaggering gait, could not have hadwhat kind of a boy he ithout resort to his bumps for information It ritten in unmistakable characters all over his physical conformation, from his head to his heels

I noticed, however, that while the Professor's fingers were busy with the boy's cranium, his eyes were not less busy with the faces of his youthful auditors Whenever his interpretation of any bump was a palpable hit, his success could be all too plainly read in the upturned faces before histers were entirely unable to restrain their expressions of surprise and admiration It was very evident, frouided by these expressions, quite asof the buhtly some trait of character If it attracted no particular attention, he would quietly fall on to so else But if the announce that he had made a hit, he would then dwell upon the point, and intensify his expressions, until, in some instances, the school was in quite an uproar of satisfaction

Possibly there was a spice of malice in what followed At all events, it seeame at which two could play, and if, under the circuained by the fingers, what he was really getting by reat cri hi boys, I selected some ere notorious in school for certain ave no indication of their ard to each boy, after a method suited to the case

_Boy No 2_ was a youth of s, save one, just like other boys But, in one matter, he had a peculiarity about which there could be no mistake That was in thethe Professor about various indifferent points, moral and intellectual, such as reverence, coe, ideality, etc, I asked incidentally soht be safely given in regard to ninety-nine out of every hundred persons--soue, indefinite epithet that would apply to al a little sparkle in the eyes before hiain, and then expressed hily As his expressions increased in strength, the excitement of the audience increased, until he was quite lost in hyperbole, as they were in uproar He even went into particulars ”Now,” said he, ”though I never saw this boy before, yet I venture to say that his ear for music is so quick that he can pick up al it played or whistled in the street [A general rustle through the school, boys winking and giving knowing looks one to another] I dare say he could now sing or whistle a hundred tunes fro looks] Possibly he may never make a very accurate performer, on account of the very ease hich he picks up a tune He learns a tune so easily by the ear, that he will not sub it scientifically”

”You think, then, Professor, that the boy has decided indications of musical talent?”

”Undoubtedly He has h order [suppressed shouts] aenius!”

The fact was, poor Charlie was the butt of the whole school, on account of his utter inability to learn the first elements of either the art or the science of , whistle, nor play He could hardly tell ”Old Hundred” fro h the eight notes, to save his neck His atteoo, like that of an infant; and the excite the boys, which the Professor had rew out of their astonish at hiularly and symmetrically for in histo indicate any marked peculiarity Yet he had a peculiarity as ularly deficient in the capacity for raphy, and Latin, and got along in these branches about as well as the majority of his class But when it came to the science of numbers, he seemed to stick fast Neither I nor any ofDivision It was as clear a case as I have ever known of natural deficiency in that department of the mental constitution Yet this boy was declared by the manipulator to have a decided talent for mathematics

_Boy No 4_ was my crack mathematician He was really in mathematics what our manipulator had made out No 2 to be in music His quickness in the perception of mathematical truth onderful Besides this natural readiness in everything pertaining to the science of quantity and the relations of nu, and he was in this department far in advance of his years Whenever we had a public exhibition, George was our show-card The rapidity hich he would fill the blackboard, in solving difficult proble It was not every teacher even that could follow hiebraical formulae In Greek and Latin he hardly attained toalways behind his class, while in mathematics he was superior, not only to every boy in school, but to any boy of the sae that I have ever had in any school But this boy received from the Professor only a second or third-rate rank for uistics, in which he was decidedly inferior