USA > Georgia > Georgia's landmarks, memorials and legends, Volume II > Part 20
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100
"Shut your eyes and think of it. It will grow upon you until the glow and glory of the idea will keep you awake at night-as it did with Forrest Adair and General Andrew West, to whom I first confided it.
"There will be no monument in all the world like this, our monument to
251
STONE MOUNTAIN
the Confederate dead. None so majestic, none so magnificently framed, and none that will more powerfully attract the interest and the admiration of those who have a soul.
"The Lion of Lucerne, carved upon the mountain roek, commemorating the courage of the Swiss Guards and attracting the attention of visitors all over the world, lies couchant five hundred feet lower than our Confederate soldier's feet. Every traveler to Egypt from Herodotus through the Roman Caesar, the French Napoleon and the English Gladstone to the American Roosevelt has stood in awe beside the silent Sphinx-massive and solemn- cut from the stone, and now remaining as a monument to a departed civili- zation. In far away India, a thousand miles northeastward from Bombay and as far westward from Calcutta, thousands go yearly to the little eity of Agra to gaze upon the Taj Mahal, the world's masterpiece of architecture. Rome is famous for the Coliseum, Milan for its great Cathedral, Versailles for the Palace, Cairo for the Pyramids, Delhi for its Kutab-Minar, Rangoon for its Pagoda, and Kamakura for the bronze statue of the Buddha.
"And so, with this heroic statue to Robert Lee, the flower and incar- nation of the Southern soldier, and all for which he stood, chiseled by an American architect into the towering erest of the most remarkable mountain of solid granite in the world, the little town of Stone Mountain, nestling modestly upon the outer garments of the Capital of Georgia, will hold henceforth an object of artistic, romantic and sentimental interest unique among the wonders of the age."*
*Hon. Wm. H. Terrell, a well-known member of the Atlanta Bar, has recently drafted a charter for the Stone Mountain Memorial Association. Mr. Terrell is quite generally credited with the authorship of this unique suggestion. At any rate he was one of the earliest champions of the project.
CHAPTER XXXII
The Old Field School
(Reproduced by special permission from an unpublished manuscript of. the late Rev. James S. Lamar, D. D., LL. D., of Augusta, father of Justice Joseph R. Lamar, of the Supreme Court of the United States.)
Very few people in this decade of the Nineteenth Century know anything of the Old Field School in the Georgia of the long ago. I will try here to give a faint conception of the one which I attended, and which was a fair specimen of its class. It was kept by a man named Tomson, who had come into the neighborhood from some- where, to hunt for a school. Nobody, I suppose, examined him, or knew anything about his qualifications, character or antecedents. He was about forty years old, clean shaved, rather good looking and a little better dressed than the ordinary farmers. He went through the neigh- borhood with "Articles of Agreement," to be signed by the patrons, and without difficulty got up a large school, which was soon opened and running in the usual way. Geography and English Grammar were not in the cur- riculum. Smiley's Arithmetic was taught with consid- erable success so far as "The Rule of Three." Beyond that it became a weariness to the flesh of both teacher and pupil; and when the Cube Root was attacked, it was found to be invincibly intrenched, and, as they "didn't see no use in it no how," it was deemed expedient to go back to the beginning of the book, and review.
In the building of the school house, which was of long pine poles with the bark left on, two of the poles
253
THE OLD FIELD SCHOOL
had been half cut away from end to end, and by bringing the cuts opposite each other, the long opening served as a happy provision for illuminating purposes. In front of this was a broad shelf reaching all the way and resting on stout pegs inserted with a slant into the log beneath. It was there that I began my career as a writer, by laboriously making pot-hooks and other chirograph- ical elements. At the opposite end of the house was a chimney, built also of logs wholly on the outside. It was very broad and deep. The opening into the house was about eight feet wide. The hearth was made of clay mortar, resting on common dirt or sand, firmly packed. The back and jams were secured against burning by a very thick lining of the same mortar. This chimney was doubly useful. In winter it held a large fire; and in summer it subserved important mathematical purposes. The cipherers were permitted to take their slates out of the school house, and sit around the outside, and in the angles of that vast projecting chimney. In the after- noons it was shady and very pleasant out there. And when I reached the point of being sent out for the first time, I felt that I had attained a higher grade in life, as well as in school. Like the other boys, I would work a sum or two, maybe in addition or subtraction, and then carry my slate inside to show it to the teacher. Ah, it was a grand thing-marching in there before all those boys and girls as a cipherer! Sometimes, after working my sums on one side of the slate, I would turn it over and indulge my taste for art. The horses that I drew were something wonderful. The men were fairly good, though it must be admitted that their legs were very spindling, and their shoes much too large. My ladies were all in short frocks, and I regret to have to say that, though they were intended to be perfect beauties, their ankles were preternaturally small, and their feet altogether too big. But sometimes the creations of ge- nius must be sacrified upon the altar of duty. Art must yield to Science. And so hastily rubbing my pictures, I would rush in to show my sums.
254
GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS
But I have not yet shown how the young idea was taught to shoot. To do this it will be necessary to go in and observe the processes of the school. The scholars leave home before sunrise and get to the school house a little after. They engage in plays of various sorts while waiting for the teacher, who, by the way, is cordially liated. Before a great while he is seen approaching, when immediately the girls, who have been carrying on at a high rate indoors, subside, and become as quiet as mice. The teacher, with a fresh and stout switch or two inghis hand, which he has had the forethought to cut from the wayside as he came, marches with a firm and steady step to the door, and calls out: "Books! Books! Come to books!"
All that are outside hurry to get in, and presently the entire school is seated, some on the bench against the wall, where they can lean against the logs, the rest on long benches reaching from side to side across the room. Books are opened, places found, and in a moment comes the command, "Get your lessons." Now be it known, that in the brave boys of old, reading meant reading out, nor was spelling to be done in a whisper. Consequently, in order to get the lesson, whether it was spelling or reading, the process must go on aloud. This early morning study, however, was not in full voice, nor was it much subdued. It was the ordinary conver- sational tone. Imagine thirty scholars, and often there were many more, having perhaps, five or six different lessons, and even those having the same lesson would never all be conning the same parts at once-all spelling different words or reading all manner of different sen- tences at one and the same time! Listen. Here is a girl that goes racing through a familiar lesson-"b-a ba k-e-r ker, baker;" "s-h-a sha d-y dy, shady;" a young reader over there is slowly and with difficulty making known that "She-fed-the-old-hen;" back yonder we hear, "i-m im m-a ma imma t-e te immate r-i ri immateri a-l al immaterial i immateriali t-y ty immateri-
255
THE OLD FIELD SCHOOL
ality ;" and this boy reads: "I-like-to-play-in-the -shady-gro-g-ro-v-e-groove-I like to play in the shady groove"-and as much as he likes it, he will proba- bly get a thrashing for it this time. Representing the com- ing thus as if the parts came in succession one after another, laughable as it is, can, of course, give no ade- quate conception of their concurrence and commingling -every man for himself, but all together. Meanwhile the teacher sits at his desk near the fire-place, possibly mending pens or working over a hard sum in vulgar Fractions that became troublesome the evening before, but does not fail to cast a watchful eye now and again upon the tricky crowd in front of him. And alertness is soon justified, for presently he hears: "Mr. Tomson- boo-hoo-I wish you'd make Jim Braynor-boo-hoo- stop stickin' p-p-pins in me!"
"Mr. Tomson, I haint done no sich a thing-he was serouging me off'n the bench and I jes-"
"Come up here, both of you."
And then he flogs them. But while this is going on it is deemed all the more important to keep on getting the lesson :
"C-o-m com p-r-e-double-s press compress i compressi b-i-l bil compressibil i compressibili t-y ty compressibil- ity ; I-a-d lad d-e-r der, ladder ; f-o-d fod d-e-r der, fodder ; I-love-to-read-the-Holy-Bible; the-hen-was- fed-by-her; s-l-i sli m-y my, slimy."
"Mr. Tomson, Mary Bivins has got my thumb paper."
"I-n in c-o-m com incom p-r-e pre incompre h-e-n .hen incomprehen s-i si incomprehensi b-i-l bil incompre- hensibil i incomprehensibili t-y ty incomprehensibility."
And now the lessons are called and recitations, with whipping for failures, are in order for an hour or two. The boys in Arithmetic have tables to recite, the Pot-hook and other Chirographers have a showing with their quill pens, for steel pens were not yet-and cedar pencils were unknown, and soon thereafter comes "recess," always pronounced with the accent on re.
256
GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS
During this respite from labor, the girls would per- haps play "Many, many stars," or "William my-Trim- ble-toe," and the boys would run races, or play "catch- the-ball," or sometimes "Antony,-over." This last was played by separating into two parties, but without choos- ing men or having an equal and regular division. They would take their position on each side of the house-one party having the ball. The other party would call out, "Antony, Over!" And the ball side would call back: "Here she comes!" and would throw it over. The strife was who should catch it. But as it could never be known over what part of the house the ball would come, nor yet whether it would be thrown far, or so as to fall near the house, the players would scatter out and watch for it, and when it came in sight there was rushing and pushing down and crowding for place, so as to catch it. Then, of course, the action would be reversed, and the other side would catch. This was not a game, but simply a pastime, and was only resorted to, to fill in brief inter- vals of leisure, such as recess.
Presently the school is called in, and the studies, reci- tations and whippings go on about as before, till half an hour or so before dinner, when all class lessons cease, the cipherers are summoned in, and the entire school, excepting the little tots, are told to "Get the spelling lesson." This feature of the Old Field Schools must have been devised as a sort of lung gymnastic. If so, it was a success-an amazing success. Every boy and girl, large and small young men and young women, the bass voices, and the treble voices, and the squealing voices, and all the voices, at full strength and without the least restraint, simply made that spelling lesson roar, and jingle and jangle and clatter and sputter and hellow like ten thousand bullfrogs in a South Georgia swamp! Edgar Poe's Bells were not a circumstance to it.
When the lesson happened to be in columns of easy and familiar words of two syllables, like baker, or ladder, or compel, the sound was more of a clatter, for the move-
257
THE OLD FIELD SCHOOL
ment was then very rapid. But when the column began with immateriality, or compressibility, and every word was hastily gone over in the way that was then required, pronouncing every syllable and every successive combi- nation of syllables till the word was finally completed, as I have already indicated, and when thirty or forty people were rattling them off, some faster, some slower, but each on his own word, and all doing their very best, both in speed and loudness, the total effect was ridiculous beyond expression and beyond conception. I remember that the only whipping I ever got in school was on one of those spelling lesson occasions. I was intensely amused and I thought I would make an experiment, more, I fear, from curiosity than in the interest of science.
But the noise and clatter were so great that I natur- ally wanted to ascertain whether a little keen whistle would be heard above it! It was not much of a whistle, merely about what one might make on suddenly pricking his fingers. The experiment, however, was successful. I found out that it was heard, and forthwith I took my punishment. Then the teacher, book in hand, gave out the lesson to the school standing in a long crooked line, like a company of Georgia militia, and we were dismissed for dinner, and playtime, which lasted two hours. The dinner, taken from little tin buckets, was soon over, when all hastened to engage in the main business of the day, which was commonly Townball, but why so named I never knew.
If some future antiquarian, puzzling his brains over the evolution of baseball, should happen to find in some heap of musty old papers even a brief account of its remote progenitor, the author of said account would probably secure an immortality of renown that might else never fall to his lot. It is only in view of this remote possibility that I bring myself to tell how townball was played. It will be dry reading, but perhaps for the end contemplated, the dryer the better. My education in baseball has been sadly neglected, and hence I may often
258
GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS
fail in detecting points of comparison and contrast in the two games, the old and the new-but I will do the best I can.
The townball ground was not a diamond, but a large circle. Its diameter varied with the size of unobstructed ground available for it, and also according to the number of players. I suppose an average circle would have been about fifty yards in diameter. On this there were several equidistant marked spots called bases, each indicated by a circle about three feet in diameter. These might be more or fewer in number, according as the main circle was larger or smaller. Nothing depended upon the number, as they were simply for rest and refuge while a runner was making the grand round.
The players were not limited to nine, or any definite number on a side. If there were forty or more boys in the school they all would be chosen in, one by one, by the two captains, choosing turn about, in making up the sides. The first choice was settled by lot-"Heads or Tails"- or, if lacking a suitable coin, by "Wet or Dry." The first inning was decided in the same way. The ins would go by turns to the bat, and one of their number would deliver the ball to them from a fixed station, located a predetermined distance from the little circle in which the batter must stand. It will be seen that the pitcher's object was not to make the batter miss the ball, but to enable him to hit it. Hence, there were no "scientific curves" nor similar devices needed, as in baseball. The pitcher simply delivered the ball as the batter called for it, fast or slow, high or low. The outs had a catcher behind the striker, to catch him out if possible when he missed, but three misses put him out anyhow-that is, out of the game for that inning.
There was no right and left fielders nor center stops, such as I have read of in the modern game. The captain of the outs distributed his men over the field, sending them where he thought best, some near and some far.
The ball was usually made of strips of elastic rubber,
259
THE OLD FIELD SCHOOL
stretched tightly while winding it on a solid substance, frequently a leaden bullet. It was wound with great care to keep it perfectly round, and when it had reached a size of some two inches in diameter, it was neatly and securely covered with buckskin. Such a ball was ex- ceedingly elastic; it would bounce very high, and could be knocked by a good striker to a great distance. There were three or four kinds of bats, some round and some flat, i. e., simply a paddle, some heavier, and some lighter. and every one might select the bat that he preferred --- thus players of all sizes and degrees of strength could be suited. When the batter hit the ball, he might have another strike, or even two more, if he was not satisfied with the force of the blow delivered. But if he missed the ball at both these subsequent strokes he was out. He had discarded one, which was therefore equal to a miss, and had missed two more, which made his three. But usually when he got in a fairly good blow, he would drop his paddle and run for the first base and on to as many more as he could make. If, however, any of the fielders caught the ball, either before it struck the ground or on its first bounce, the striker was out. Otherwise, it would be thrown as quickly as possible, either at the runner or to some of the fielders in front of him, so as to shut him off from making the round. The only way to put him out was to hit him with the ball. A runner on a base must stay at it till the next striker hits the ball. There was no stealing of bases, and if he started before the ball was struck, it was a violation of the rules and put him out. Often a good batter could knock the ball so far that all on the bases could get home, and he himself make a complete round. Such times always marked the high tides of excitement, with all the noisy, screaming, shouting and hurrahing accompaniments, naturally en- gendered by such brilliant achievements.
In due course of time, what with being caught out by the catcher, with failing three times to hit the ball, with being caught out by the fielders, or put out on the run,
-
260
GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS
the whole side would be out, and then the others would have their innings.
This, I believe, gives a sufficiently clear and full de- scription of this excellent play.
There was another game often played by us, which, though not equal to Townball, was frequently preferred as a change. This, which was called Bullpen, has gone, I believe, entirely out, not even leaving a substitute. Prop- erly it was played with a lighter ball, made up mainly of yarn, as the game involved a great deal of hitting, which, with the rubber ball would have been too painful. The "pen" was about thirty or forty feet square, made by the deep scratches of a stick drawn along the ground, and having each of the four corners marked with a circle like an ordinary "base." The players were divided by choos- ing in the usual way, and the two sides were alternately "bulls" and "bull-killer." The bull side all went into the pen, and each of the four corners were occupied by a killer, the rest of that side being out of the play until brought in. The ball was in the hand of one of the four killers, and was passed from one to another of them, while the bulls were kept running to get as far away from it as possible. But while they were scampering away from it towards another corner, the ball could be thrown to the killer in that corner, and if he caught it, he could almost certainly hit a bull with it-and that bull was "dead." If the thrower missed, he was "out." As soon as he had thrown, he ran away as fast as he could, and as quickly as possible the ball would be thrown at him by a bull ; and if he was hit he was out, and his place taken by another of his side who had not yet been playing. The "dead bulls' left the pen. As their number diminished it became more and more difficult to hit those that were left, and so the killers were rapidly thinned out till their number was reduced to two. These two would take the ball and go off a few steps, and there, standing close up together, with their backs to the pen, they would juggle-that is, they would decide which of
261
THE OLD FIELD SCHOOL
them should take the ball. When they turned around, each had his right hand concealed in the bosom of his shirt, and as these two were no longer confined to the corners, but might throw from any part of enclosing lines, they would march up and down on opposite sides of the pen; and, as nobody knew which of them had the ball, it was a right ticklish time for the bulls. They were afraid to go too near to either, and could not get far from both at once, nor was it easy to watch both at once. At length, after much jeering and daring from the bulls, the ball would be thrown, and if, without hit- ting, both killers were put out, and the innings changed.
For a rollicking, scampering, noisy game, it was not bad. Indeed, when played with life and spirit, it was very good.
We also played a rough and tumble game which we called "Steel Goods." The captains of the two sides would toe a mark facing each other, would clasp each other's hand, and attempt to pull each other across the the mark, while their man would cling to them and to each other behind, and try to prevent it. There was a pile of goods-hats, coats, shoes, and what not-in the rear of each party, and while some were pulling and hauling, scuffling, falling down, shouting and hur- rahing, others were trying to sneak around and "steal" the enemies' goods. Here fleetness was sometimes of great advantage, for if the stealer was caught, i. e., touched by an "enemy," he had to stay in prison till one of his own side could deliver him, which was done by touching him.
This game was not as rough, nor yet as brutal as the present football is said to be (for I never saw it played), but for us boys it was rough enough, resulting in many a bruise and strain, and scratch, and tear-for we meant business, and defeat is never pleasant.
Our teacher, who, by the way, was never called teacher, but always "The schoolmaster," took part in most of these pastimes, and' I think the big boys took a
262
GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS
special delight in hitting him hard with the heavy ball and otherwise bringing him to grief. Of course, they "turned him out" whenever they wanted a holiday. He would want it to, but if he gave it, the loss in tuition would be his, whereas if it was forced from him he would get pay for the day, as usual. He would, therefore, posi- tively decline, with a great show of determination and bluster.
But next morning he would find the doors securely barred and watchfully guarded. He would command and splutter, and threaten dire consequences, and we little boys would be sorely frightened, but as he remained obstinate, he would be seized by both legs, thrown over and securely held, and, not yet yielding, strong arms would lift him from the ground, and, holding his hands and feet as in a vise, would bear him, vainly struggling, down to the spring, and if he still held out, would duck him head and ears in the water. Commonly, however, the sight of the water would suffice, and with much apparent reluctance he would yield, but was not released until he had promised to inflict no punishment for this high- handed act.
I suppose I went to this teacher the better part of two sessions, when, happily, the neighborhood got rid of him. He probably had good traits, but I remember him only as a poor teacher and a cold-blooded, cruel tyrant. True, he never whipped me but once, but he seemed to have an unappeasable spite against my older brother, Philip, whom he flogged unmercifully, as he did many others. Philip would neither cry nor beg, but look him steadily in the eye, and take the fearful punishment like a Stoic. My next older brother, William, was too large for an attempted whipping to be safe. I was in such mortal fear and dread that I took care to give no occasion ; and so poor Philip was whipped for the whole family. I think Philip must have hated him with perfect hatred, and as I recall it all, I almost hope he did.
CHAPTER XXXIII
Georgia's Early Masonic History: An Important Volume Discovered.
T O find the beginning's of Masonry in Georgia, we must go back over a stretch of nearly two centuries to the fountain-head of the State's history. There is an old tradition which credits the existence of the first Masonic Lodge in Georgia to the humane Oglethorpe; and for years an old oak tree at Sunbury was venerated as the birth-place of the Society. This ancient land- mark has long since disappeared. Even the town itself upon whose commons the old tree once cast its ample shade can no longer be found upon the map. Every vestige of the town has been obliterated. But while these accounts are legendary with respect to details, the substantial fact to which they point, viz., that the Ma- sonic order in Georgia sprang from the cradle in which the Colony was rocked, can be established at the present time, upon the basis of documentary evidence, beyond any question. Within recent months, a mutilated book, throwing a calcium light upon this topic of discussion, has been discovered among the Georgia manuscripts in the Library of Congress, in Washington, D. C. This volume-some of the pages of which are missing-con- tains what was evidently a portion of the minutes of a Lodge held in Savannah during the year 1756. There are entries in this volume which indicate unmistakably the existence of a Lodge in Savannah, prior to the year 1734, and one in Augusta, prior to the year 1757. As
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.