5

4.

visited the school, and I know he was a man of extraordinary ability
zealous and of a loveable character. I had in 1864 and 5 attended
Mary Sharp College, one term,under the personal charge of Dr. Graves
a great teacher on the Socratic order, and one term at Georgetown
Kentucky, where I studied very little but Latin and Greek, so that
when the University Course was established at Winchester I was able
to enter.

I remember Dr. Knight giving me the subject "Grass" on which
to write a composition. Grass? What could one say about grass beyond
the fact that grass was grass. I had never studied Botany, I had never
seen any hay. The only roughness for stock that I knew of was corn-
fodder or oats. I did not then know of any other use for grass except
to let stock eat it, and I am sure I would not be proud of that composition
now.

Of course, we had a debating society, where we met to shed
off our country bashfulness and modesty, and pluck up courage to speak
before a public assembly. Under instructions, I suppose, it was called
the Bishop Otey Chapter, and why, I never knew. And we decided or were
instructed to have a periodical under the name of the Sibyl. We met
every week, I believe, and I was elected or appointed the first Editor,
and the only Editor, so far as I can remember, and the paper did not run
much longer than half the term. It was quite a job for me to keep up
my studies and prepare the paper, as I do not remember that any other
student handed in anything more than a few of the stories, that appeared,
and probably the paper expired for want of an Editor. But about the
middle of the term or possibly later, a dispute arose in the school,
which divided it into two hostile parties. Dr. Hay with most of the
foreign students on one side, and Dr. Knight with the majority on the

4.

visited the school, and I know he was a man of extraordinary ability
zealous and of a loveable character. I had in 1864 and 5 attended
Mary Sharp College, one term,under the personal charge of Dr. Graves
a great teacher on the Socratic order, and one term at Georgetown
Kentucky, where I studied very little but Latin and Greek, so that
when the University Course was established at Winchester I was able
to enter.

I remember Dr. Knight giving me the subject "Grass" on which
to write a conposition. Grass? What could one say about grass beyond
the fact that grass was grass. I had never studied Botany, I had never
seen any hay. The only roughness for stock that I knew of was corn-
fodder or oats. I did not then know of any other use for grass except
to let stock eat it, and I am sure I would not be proud of that composition
now.

Of course, we had a debating society, where we met to shed
off our country bashfulness and modesty, and pluck up courage to speak
before a public assembly. Under instructions, I suppose, it was called
the Bishop Otey Chapter, and why, I never knew. And we decided or were
instructed to have a periodical under the name of the Sibyl. We met
every week, I believe, and I was elected or appointed the first Editor,
and the only Editor, so far as I can remember, and the paper did not run
much longer than half the term. It was quite a job for me to keep up
my studies and prepare the paper, as I do not remember that any other
student handed in anything more than a few of the stories, that appeared,
and probably the paper expired for want of an Editor. But about the
middle of the term or possibly later, a dispute arose in the school,
which divided it into two hostile parties. Dr. Hay with most of the
foreign students on once side, and Dr. Knight with the majority on th