Life in Canada Fifty Years Ago | Page 7

parents--and no child
ever had better ones--could not be blamed very much if they did send
me to school for no other reason than to be rid of me. The school house
was close at hand, and its aspect is deeply graven in my memory. My
first schoolmaster was an Englishman who had seen better days. He
was a good scholar, I believe, but a poor teacher. The school house was
a small square structure, with low ceiling. In the centre of the room was
a box stove, around which the long wooden benches without backs
were ranged. Next the walls were the desks, raised a little from the
floor. In the summer time the pupils were all of tender years, the elder
ones being kept at home to help with the work. At the commencement
of my educational course I was one of a little lot of urchins ranged
daily on hard wooden seats, with our feet dangling in the air, for seven
or eight hours a day. In such a plight we were expected to be very good

children, to make no noise, and to learn our lessons. It is a marvel that
so many years had to elapse before parents and teachers could be
brought to see that keeping children in such a position for so many
hours was an act of great cruelty. The terror of the rod was the only
thing that could keep us still, and that often failed. Sometimes, tired
and weary, we fell asleep and tumbled off the bench, to be roused by
the fall and the rod. In the winter time the small school room was filled
to overflowing with the larger boys and girls. This did not improve our
condition, for we were mere closely packed together, and were either
shivering with the cold or being cooked with the red-hot stove. In a
short time after, the old school house, where my father, I believe, had
got his schooling, was hoisted on runners, and, with the aid of several
yoke of oxen, was taken up the road about a mile and enlarged a little.
This event brought my course of study to an end for a while. I next sat
under the rod of an Irish pedagogue--an old man who evidently
believed that the only way to get anything into a boy's head was to
pound it in with a stick through his back. There was no discipline, and
the noise we made seemed to rival a Bedlam. We used to play all sorts
of tricks on the old man, and I was not behind in contriving or carrying
them into execution. One day, however, I was caught and severely
thrashed. This so mortified me, that I jumped out of the window and
went home. An investigation followed, and I was whipped by my father
and sent back. Poor old Dominic, he has long since put by his stick, and
passed beyond the reach of unruly boys. Thus I passed on from teacher
to teacher, staying at home in the summer, and resuming my books
again in the winter. Sometimes I went to the old school house up the
road, sometimes to the one in an opposite direction. The latter was
larger, and there was generally a better teacher, but it was much farther,
and I had to set off early in the cold frosty mornings with my books and
dinner basket, often through deep snow and drifts. At night I had to get
home in time to help to feed the cattle and get in the wood for the fires.
The school houses then were generally small and uncomfortable, and
the teachers were often of a very inferior order. The school system of
Canada, which has since been moulded by the skilful hand of Dr.
Ryerson into one of the best in the world, and which will give to his
industry and genius a more enduring record than stone or brass, was in
my day very imperfect indeed. It was, perhaps, up with the times. But

when the advantages which the youth of this country now possess are
compared with the small facilities we had of picking up a little
knowledge, it seems almost a marvel that we learned anything. Spelling
matches came at this time into vogue, and were continued for several
years. They occasioned a friendly rivalry between schools, and were
productive of good. The meetings took place during the long winter
nights, either weekly or fortnightly. Every school had one or more prize
spellers, and these were selected to lead the match; or if the school was
large, a contest between the girls and boys came off first. Sometimes
two of the best spellers were selected by the scholars as leaders, and
these would proceed to 'choose sides;'