Scrapbook and diary: Mary Magruder,1886-1887

THE TEACHER AS THE GUARDIAN OF ENGLISH.— The meeting of the Maryland Teachers' Association, at the Blue Mountain House, has no doubt been full of profit to members by reason of the interchange of views on educational topics for which it gave opportunity. Nothing so much contributes to intellectual progress as contact with other minds. Sound thinking cannot but be advantaged by discussions in which ideas are presented in all possible aspects. Correct principles of teaching can be arrived at only by discarding the half-truths that invade the science of pedagogy from time to time, and practical success must be sought in the ready adoption of the improvements in the art of instruction that are now constantly being made. The list of papers read before the association at Blue Mountain House indicates that our Maryland teachers are keeping pace with the progress made elsewhere in both the theoretical and practical parts of their profession. The titles of some of them will inspire many of our readers with regret that they were not present to hear them read. "Manners and Morals in School" is an attractive theme, and a great deal that is interesting can be said upon it. "Teachers and Patrons," "School Libraries," "School Decorations," "Modern Languages," "Popular Education" and "The Good Teacher" are all subjects which, in the cool shade and bracing atmosphere of the mountains, would bear lengthy discussion. Among the most suggestive titles was that of "The Teacher as the Guardian of English." The author took the high, and we think; the very defensible, ground that "to teach and maintain the purity of our language" is for the teacher a duty hardly less sacred than that of the patriot to preserve his country's liberties. "English," he holds, "is the most perfect vehicle for the expression of thought that man has ever known, Greek alone excepted. It is more widely spoken than any other language, and is most likely to become the world language, if there ever be such a language." The future that awaits a tongue spoken by over 100,000,000 of a race the wealthiest, the most active and the most enterprising on the globe, it would be difficult, perhaps, to overstate. But if the English is to become the "world language," it is of increased interest to know what English. Is it to be the English of educated society in London, the pronunciation of which was set forth by Richard Cull in the "Comprehensive English Dictionary" edited by him in 1864, the New England English of Webster's dictionary, as revised in 1864, or of the somewhat less revolutionary English of Worcester's dictionary, also a New England production, put forth in 1830 and revised in 1860? The question is one of some interest to our people. Our pronunciation is more nearly that of London than that of New England, and we are not disposed, without a struggle, to shape our pronunciation on the inferior model, even though that model is presented in dictionaries having the vogue that Webster's and Worcester's enjoy. Eminent as our New England cousins are acknowledged to be in letters, they are famous for a peculiarly faulty pronunciation. Excellent judges declare the Maryland and Virginia pronunciation better in most respects than that of New Englanders generally, by reason of its being more nearly in accordance with the best English usage. The author of "The Teacher as the Guardian of English" was not perhaps aware that the noun "rise" is now in our Baltimore public schools being pronounced as if spelt rice, an innovation that cannot but shock those who believe the good old English pronunciation of the word, current among our people, is the better. Why go outside of our State for strange sounds, when our usage is sustained by Cull's dictionary as the least provincial and the best? Maryland and Virginia usage make the noun "rise" precisely like the verb "rise," and the dictionary published in the metropolis of the mother country says it is right. Perry in 1805 and Knowles in 1835 give the same pronunciation, though Walker, Smart and Cooley, the last of whom wrote in 1863, give the "rice" pronunciation. These latter English authorities had probably nothing to do with the introduction of "rice" in our Baltimore schools, Webster and Worcester being deemed by our teachers—wrongly we think—ample authority for substituting for a good pronunciation of our own a provincial, disagreeable and misleading sound.

THE LATE PAUL H. HAYNE.—Paul Hamilton Hayne's death will be felt throughout the South, and even in the North, where his genius, his refinement and his kindly nature were less recognized by the general public, his loss will be regretted deeply in every home of culture. His name is perhaps the last in the long list of gifted Southern men of the old regime who, having devoted themselves with their whole heart to the muses, were praised but neglected by their own section, and had to reply much upon Northern readers for such measure of pecuniary success as they enjoyed. Born in Charleston in 1830, he inherited the prestige of a distinguished name, high position and wealth. Being free to choose his path, he devoted himself to poetry, finding in the cultivated society of the Charleston of the decade before the war the stimulus of sympathy and appreciation. His first volume of poems, published by Ticknor & Co., of Boston, in 1855, when he was some twenty-five years old, attained some success, and was followed by a second in 1857 and a third in 1860. The favorable reception given to this work led Mr. Hayne to adopt fully a literary life as his vacation. Then came the disasters of the civil war. A shell from the enemy's fleet set fire to his residence in Charleston, and such valuables as he rescued from the conflagration were lost at the sacking of Columbia. At Copse Hill, among the pine barrens of Georgia, the poet spent the remainder of his days, living in a "shanty," and keeping a brave heart for the arduous literary labor he was compelled to perform. In 1872 the Lippincotts published his "Legends and Lyrics," and in the following year appeared his edition of Henry Timrod's poems, accompanied by a biographical memorial, which Mrs. Margaret J. Preston describes as "the most pathetic of which literature gives an example." In 1875 was published "The Mountain of the Lovers." Other fruits of his pen were memorial sketches of Gilmore Simms, William Cullen Bryant, Longfellow, Sidney Lanier, Gov. Hayne and Mr. Legare. During the past nine years he has been a frequent contributor to current literature. His work may be classified under these heads: Youthful Poems; Sonnets; Dramatic Sketches; Poems of the War; Legends and Lyrics; Later Poems. Under the last-mentioned head would fall his sonnets to Longfellow, to George H. Boker, to the poet Swinburne, to Edgar Fawcett, to Carlyle, to Jean Ingelow; also his memorial poems to a number of distinguished American and English poets, novelists and statesmen, and poems to Whittier, O. W. Holmes and Emerson. Not the least charming of his writings are his Poems for Children and Humorous Poems.

MR. TILDEN DEAD.

Passing Quietly Away, Almost Without Warning.

A Fatal Cold, Caught on the Portico at Graystone.

Only His Physicians and Faithful Niece Present at the Last.

Universal Mourning of His Countrymen With out Respect to Party.

The Day for the Funeral Not to be Decided Until This Morning.

Four Democratic Candidates for the Presidency Now Dead Within Eight Months.

No Alarms Felt Until the Evening Before His Death—His Last Days Spent with His Books, from Which Miss Gould, His Faithful Attendant, Read to Him—Retaining His Critical Faculties to the Last, But Suddenly Exclaiming That He Was Sick—Prostrated by an Attack of Diarrhoea and Nausea—What Was Done to Assuage His Pain, Which the Doctors Said Was Due to Eating Improper Food— Carried Upstairs and Passing a Troublous Night—Sleeping a Little Before Morning and Passing Away Without Pain—Grief of the Attendants and Servants —Spread of the News.

When the sky was red with the dawn yesterday Samuel J. Tilden sat dying before an open window in the south wing of stately Graystone. When the blue river in the distance sparkled with sunlight there was no face at the window to see it, and the great statesman lay upon his couch with folded hands and peaceful, upturned face. Thus passed away, after seventy-two years of life, the purest patriot and most powerful political captain that the American Republic has known since Jefferson and Jackson. He died without the slightest feeling of bitterness that the colossal wrong done to the people in his person was not righted. The only thing that weighed upon his serene and far-seeing mind was a fear that the sea coasts of the United States might not be fortified against foreign invasion in time. Mr. Tilden wanted to live to see his country prepared to defend itself against its enemies. This was the single thought of his last days. It is his legacy to his fellow-countrymen.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, 1886.

Mr. Tilden's death removes the last of the unsuccessful Democratic nominees for the Presidency. With the exception of Mr. Greeley, all the Democratic party bearers in the successive contests since 1864 passed away within the last eight months. The list comprises Cen. McClellan, who died on Oct. 29, 1885; Gen. Hancock, whose funeral four days after his death occurred on the day that the papers announced the death of Horatio Seymour, Feb. 13, 1886. All these men died suddenly except Mr. Seymour. Mr. Seymour was born in 1810 and was fifty-eight years of age when his party nominated him for the highest position in the land. McClellan was only thirty-eight when he was selected and Hancock was fifty-six. Mr. Tilden was fifty-two when the Republicans counted him out. They were all great men, good men and pure men.

MRS. ANN S. STEPHENS DEAD.

A Fortune Made by Her Novels, Yet at Seventy She Had Not Dropped the Pen.

NEW YORK, August 21.—Mrs. Ann Sophia Stephens, the novelist, died yesterday at Newport, in her seventy-fourth year. Her son and daughter were at her deathbed. Mrs. Stephens was born in Derby, Ct., and engaged in literary work at an early age. Many of her early sketches she never published, but after she married Edward Stephens, a Plymouth printer, her writings began to attract popular attention. She was then nineteen years old. Three years later she became editor of the Portland Magazine, and later still of the Portland Sketch Book.

She came to New York in 1837, and Frank Leslie engaged her to edit the first of the magazines that his publishing house ever issued. Her novels appeared in this magazine, and won so much popularity that Peterson Brothers, of Philadelphia, engaged her to write exclusively for them. For over half a century she continued to write novels, nearly every one of which obtained a creditable sale. She made a fortune long ago, but still continued, even when she had reached three score years and ten, to add a novel yearly to the long list of her works. The Petersons have issued half a hundred works from her pen, the best known of which was "Fashion and Famine," published in 1854. So great was its popularity that three different versions were done in French.

Mrs. Stephens also wrote a very considerable quantity of verse, but refrained from putting much of it in print. Her poems, "The Polish Boy" and the "Old Apple Tree," appears in school readers years ago, and were very popular with school children then. It is said that Mrs. Stephens' daughter intends to collect all the unpublished poems and publish them in an illustrated volume. The greater part of Mrs. Stephens' fiction writing of late years was done in her city home, at 38 East Sixty-third street, which she had filled with books and costly bits of bric-a-brac and historical paintings. She was one of the women who took an active part some years ago in pushing the project to erect a memorial to Washington Irving at Tarrytown.

"The Unfruitful Montgomery County."

I was recently requested to notice the following paragraph: “The unfruitful Montgomery County,” an extract from a railroad guide.

As I have not read or seen the original from which the above extract is taken, I cannot authenticate it personally, but will present some authentic facts and data from which a correct opinion may be formed.

Montgomery county, Md., contains 500 square miles, or 320,000 acres. At the close of the war about one-fourth of the county was well cultivated. According to the census of 1880 there was 192,642 acres of improved land in the county; value of farms, including land, fences and buildings, $7,596,575, value of live stock, $972,817. Value of farming implements and machinery, $342,924. Cost of buildings and repairing fences in 1879, $54,764. Cost of fertilizers purchased in 1879, $335,175. Estimated value of all farm productions (sold, consumed, or on hand) for 1879, $1,788,127. Value of real estate, $6,293,074. Personal estate, $1,972,964, or a total of real and personal estate of $8,266,038.

Cereal fruit and vegetable production, according to census: wheat, 615,702 bushels. Rye, 17,109 bushels. Oats, 59,537 bushels. Corn, 1,020,573 bushels. Buckwheat, 3,057 bushels. Value of orchard production, $65,991. Hay, 20,327 tons. Irish potatoes, 155,083 bushels. Sweet potatoes, 1,319 bushels. Tobacco, 806,036 pounds.

Only Baltimore, Frederick and Washington, those old banner counties in cereal productions, exceed Montgomery county in corn production. Also only Frederick and Washington counties lead Montgomery in wheat production. Comparisons and contrasts might be made indefinitely from official data in favor of Montgomery county.

I thank my friend for calling my attention to the paragraph “The Unfruitful Montgomery County,” which has been for more than a year, but the reaction of the remark brought me to my feet again. While I am willing to admit that the remark would have been applicable to the county fifty years ago, yet to apply the remark to a county that is now in the van of the counties of the State is simply ridiculous, and I am willing to test the preceding facts and data against any theories to the contrary. I also cheerfully refer the decision to our intelligent citizens.

The natural advantages of Montgomery county, Maryland, are unsurpassed in soil, climate, pure water and health; while the topography is remarkable— magnificent elevation and unsurpassed water power.

So much for what nature has done. Also I will show what the intelligence, industry, and enterprise of our citizens have accomplished since the late civil war. And as all know that during the war a large part of the county was made a wreck for four years, by use, and occupation of federal and confederate armies.

Now look at the contrast and recuperative energies of our citizens and the result under difficulties. The credit and financial standing of her merchants, farmers, mechanics, and citizens are second to no county in the State.

The expansion of her agriculture by yearly increasing acres brought under cultivation justifies the belief that inside the next twenty years all the land in the county will be well cultivated, taking all the circumstances into consideration, nobly has our county advanced. I will briefly recapitulate the improvements.

The ridge dividing the waters of the Patuxent from the waters of the Potomac is a spur from the Parr’s Ridge at Damascus, running from this point about 700 feet elevation, to Laytonsville 615 feet above the tide, thence to Mechanicsville about 543 feet elevation, and with varying elevations the ridge continues through Sandy Spring, Ashton, Spencerville and Burtonsville into Montgomery county. Also through Prince George. Charles and St. Mary’s counties.

The Parr’s Ridge is a strong abrupt elevation—the last in the Allegany series of parallel mountain ranges, and nearest the ocean.

Since the war five new Methodist churches have been built in the vicinity of Damascus—those stony hills are now made fertile, and education elevating the citizens to the true dignity of labor, and agricultural development.

Following the ridge referred to from Damascus to Laytonsville the farms present fertility, cultivation and general improvement. The highly cultivated farms in the vicinity of Laytonsville are a striking proof of individual enterprise. Those standard farmers—the Griffiths, Riggs, Allnuts, Mobley and numerous others are an example of industry, thrift, and cultivators of the soil, while the ancestral farm of the Hon. A. B. Davis, (the pioneer in developing the agriculture of our county,and State,) is located in the valley of Hawling’s river.

Following the ridge with finely cultivated farms to Mechanicsville, we reach those far famed cultivators of the soil. The Friends such as Hallowell, Millers Farquhars, Stablers, Ex-Senator Moore with a long list of the best farmers of the county. Their developments and improvement of one of the former poor ridges of the county is too well-known to give details. And this improvement

has extended not only through Sandy Spring, Ashton, and Spencerville. But nearly to Prince George's line. Only a railroad is wanting to make this locality the garden spot of Montgomery county.

I will now refer to the improvements of the territory near the Potomac. As is well-known during the war this portion of the county was occupied by soldiers, federal and confederate, fences, crops, stock, were destroyed and left a wreck.

Medley's District from the Monocacy to Seneca, passed through the terrible ordeal of the war. Yet look to-day at her recuperation and development. Those old families the Whites, Pooles, Brewers and Dawsons—with a host of others, have again made their farms to surpass former fertility, and productions.

The long extent of territory from Seneca to the District of Columbia largely partook of the war disasters also, but space forbids details.

Darnestown, Offutt's Cross Roads and vicinities bear witness to an improvement worthy of all praise.

I will now return to the central portions of the county or the line of the Metropolitan Branch Railroad. As is generally known this road was located over difficult grades, and the poor ridges of the county, ascending a grade from the Monocacy to the Parr's Ridge near Barnesville, of about 240 feet. Thence to the ridge at the Washington Grove Camp Ground, a distance of about twelve miles across the valley of Seneca and tributaries. Thence by way of Rockville, and crossing Rock creek enters the District of Columbia.

The completion of this road commenced a new era in the trade, and agricultural development of Montgomery county.

The transportation of lime, and its remarkable action on the clay loam soil, thus producing vegetable matter to return to the soil, has fully realized the most sanguine expectations. And while the railroad facilities of transportation are paramount, the increased productions along the line of road largely contributes to the revenue of the road. One depot alone now receives as much wheat annually—as was raiseu in the whole county fifty years ago.

From the Monocacy to Barnesville lime had been previously used, but the era of railroad transportation, has supplemented all other modes of conveyance.

And I will now briefly recapitulate the advance in price of land, agricultural productions, and general development along the line of railroad, through the central parts of the county. Around the Barnesville depot the farms of the late W. Poole and W. O. Sellman, also the numerous improved farms in the vicinity are a striking commentary on the enterprise of the agricultural population.

Crossing the Parr's Ridge we come to Boyd's Station, and here I may remark that no one individual along the railroad line has equalled Capt. Boyd. Last summer I visited his hospitable mansion, reviewed his farm and wrote an essay on my observations. But to those that had not seen his location before the railroad era, I will say, previously I always felt melancholly when I crossed Little Seneca and over the spur or ridge to Buck Lodge and thence over Parr's Ridge. If there was any more forbidding territory in Montgomery county I cannot locate it. But this only makes the counterpart or contrast at this time more striking. The farm is considered the banner farm of the county. While the mansions and improved farms in the vicinity show the benefit of Captain Boyd's example.

Passing along the line we come to the deep cut in the ridge between the two Senecas, and arrive at the Germantown depot. Here again the trade, enterprise and farm improvements in the vicinity are remarkable. The farms of Dr. W. A. Waters, Best, Henderson, Gassaway and a very large numbers of others, are all a proof of the effects of lime, and intelligence of the community, in utilizing it.

Crossing Large Seneca we come to the farm of the late Francis C. Clopper. To whom Montgomery county is more in debted than to any any other individual for his efforts, sacrifices, and crowning success int he construction of the Metropolitan railroad through the county.

Thence the railroad reaches the ancient Frederick road crossing it at Gaithersburg near where the depot is located. The Topographical features of the central part of the county at this point of the Summit are grand in natural scenery, the elevation in the vicinity being from 500 to 550 feet above tide. From the latter point the mountains in Virginia appear in bold relief. While a magnificient view is obtained of the Peerless Shaft erected on the banks of the Potomac—

Standing sublime and lone, yet pointing to one Whose ashes repose in the shades of Vernon, Sublime in memory to the pilgrim's sons As the land of the great Immortal Washington.

Mr. J. S. Poole is the owner of the depot where more wheat is delivered annually, than was fifty years ago in the whole county. The Washington Grove Camp Ground, 525 feet above tide—with more than 100 new buildings, and the utilizing of the mineral spring, are the result of a few years improvement.

The Summit Hall farm was bought for $1200. And after being left a wreck by federal and confederate armies, the

owned has realized $17,000 from the different sales. The late Nathan Cook paid $2.50 per acre for 500 acres, or $1250. His heirs sold the same farm without improvements for $30 per acre or $15000.

Space forbids my describing the numerous magnificient mansions, hotels and general development. But the highly improved farms of the Cooks, Snouffer, Codwise, Cavin, Dr. W. A. Waters, J. B. Diamond, Briggs, Walkers and an indefinite number of others forbids their names being omitted.

But we must hasten to the county seat, Rockville, while passing finely cultivated farms. The Rockville depot has more daily arrivals and departures of passengers, than any depot on the line, while the village is advancing rapidly in building extension. The street on the west side of the village has magnificent building lots adjoining, which are being rapidly utilized. Also the extension on the southeast side to the Fair Grounds and depot, reflecting great credit on the enterprise of her citizens.

Her churches, schools, town hall and Montogomery county bank rank foremost in the county.

The Fair Grounds, the creation of the public spirited citizens of the county and Rockville, has now attained a position surpassing any former period in its history, largely due to railroad facilities.

Also the county and village have learned a necessary lesson—that the general interests of each can only be promoted by the mutual co-operation of both.

A little patience on the part of Rockville will with the rapidly increasing population and wealth of the county build a court house corresponding with the demands of the village and county, which for prudential reasons has not been undertaken heretofore.

Leaving Rockville the railroad passes improved farms and numerous newly erected cottages that adorn the entrance of the railroad into the Capitol of the Union. JOHN T. DeSELLUM.

"The Unfruitful Montgomery County," Continued.

In my last communication, I gave a compendium of data and facts relative to the remarkable development of our county in agricultural products since the war.

I now give the advance of our county, Physically, intellectually and morally, during the same period.

Physically, the improvement of the soil has called into existence improved machinery, superior breeds of horses, cattle, sheep and hogs, etc. And the farmers of to-day well know that in all the relations of animated nature a full physical development of animals is indispensible.

The wagon and plough requiring heavy draught horses; the plough to turn down the vegetable or organic matter; to restore the vegetable and mineral loss of the soil, by former shallow plowing and washing of the land into gullies.

Also a pair of Percheron or other improved breeds can now convey or transport as great a load as formerly required four ordinary horses.

In the foregoing remarks I have spoken of the importance of development in the brute creation. I will now refer to the physical condition of man. And say compare the savage to civilized man, or draw the contrast between the digger Indian of the Rocky Mountains feeding upon reptiles, or whatever chance may throw in his way to the well fed farmers and their families in the United States, the latter physically having no superiors and to-day they form the stamina, and bulwark of defence against anarchy and crime. Also in their convervative habits, and physical labour, we realize the future safety of our land.

I now come to intellectual man, and for his mental development he is largely dependent on a healthy condition of the body. The brute creation exceeds man in physical or muscular strength. Yet here the analogy stops. Though admitting the truth of the poet—when he says

"Reasoning at every step he takes, Man yet mistakes his way; While meaner things whom instinct leads Are rarely known to stray."

This is however the exception not the rule, and proudly may the citizens of our county realize the fact that physically and intellectually the native talent only lacks training. While the advance, since labor has been made honorable— is most gratifying. No county in Maryland has surpassed Montgomery.

In my recent essay I gave the assessable value of property in Montgomery connty, according to the census of 1880, at $8,266,038; while the statement of 1886 of the clerk of the Montogomery County Commissioners states the amount of taxable property at $8,847,013 or $580,975 more in 1886 than in 1880. And according to the accelerated ratio of increase in the previous five years, the census of 1890 will show considerably over nine millions of taxable property.

I have given statistics, not theories as proof of my data, and recapitulation, while a knowledge of our vast natural advantages is now being better understood, appreciated and utilized than at any former period in the history our county.

It is said, "what the intelligent minds of their generation are elaborating the succeeding generation will utilize.