T.L. Trawick, Sr.
T. L. Trawick,
CRYSTAL SPRINGS, Miss.
The subject of this sketch was born in Hazlehurst, Miss.
(August 12, 1865). His father was a Presbyterian minister of great
note, being- favorably known in life to nearly every inhabitant of
Southern Mississippi. and being honored in death by heroically
standing at his post of duty in the direful scourge of yellow fever
that swept away so many in 1878. Being left to his own resources
at such an early age and possessing a versatile turn of mind he
succeeded by the aid of his guardian to complete the A. B. Course
at Hampden Sidney College. Virginia, where he stood at the head
of his classes.
From this College he accepted a position with a rich sugar
planter of Louisiana as tutor for his and his neighbors' children.
in which capacity he served for two years until he had prepared
all the children for the University of Virginia. Ambitious to
make himself master of his profession he spent two years of hard
study at the University of Virginia, where he completed the course,
after which he accepted work in Hinds county, Miss. for one
year. Then, with highest recommendations from the County
Superintendent, he was elected to the High School of Hazlehurst.
the place of his nativity, when he made for himself such a name
as teacher that the following session he was put in charge of the
school he now presides over. When he took charge of this work
it had grown somewhat, by mismanagement into disfavor with the
patrons, but by his untiring energy and persistent push, overruling
all obstacles, he now has it on as high a plan as any similar institution
in the State, while, with individual effort, he has equipped
it with apparatus, maps, a library of volumes, etc., a cabinet of
five hundred geological specimens of the county, a complete system
of electric bells, and a beautful piano. Prof. Trawick was one of
two public school teachers that taught in the Peabody Summer
Normal School at Oxford, being selected by the State Superintendent
to teach geography and history of Mississippi: while there
he won the highest encomiums of praise from the faculty of that
institution. Besides this he was appointed one of the State Institute
conductors for the past summer, being assigned to his own
district, an honor which few received. He is in the profession because
he loves it, and doubtless will in time become one of the
foremost teachers of his time.
An aptness for mathematical studies and scientific work, and at
the same time a thorough linguist and a hard student, makes him
pre-eminently fitted for higher work than that in which he is now
engaged.
Letter Written by T.L. Trawick to the Students of
Warren Easton High School, New Orleana, La. (He was a professor there) It was published in the Old Gold and Purple.
MR. TRAWICK WRITES AGAIN
Japan is smaller in area (172,852 sq. mi.) larger in population (86,000,000), and poorer in natural resources than other nations on earth. It has 1/22 of the population of the globe 3/4 that of the United States, having an area about the size of California. Her people are small statued due to not having a mild diet. No lands for pasture, hence no cattle. Butter is imported from Australia, cotton and oil from New Orleans. Wheat from U. S. Rice is the principal article of food, and they rake it in with a chop stick. Silk is the principal commodity. Her people consume 38 billion cigarettes a year. Sake, distilled from rice, is the principal intoxieant. They do not play cards, nor gamble at slot machines. They do not sleep in beds, hence no bed-bugs.
The women have beautiful hands and ugly feet. There is no Sunday here, but frequent holidays. The stores close every tenth day, the 8th., 18th., and 28th., day of the month. Bamboo grows wild, and measures 5 in. through the culms when grown. Houses are built with single walls with the. studding on the outside.
No beggars, no unemployment. The houses are all unpainted but have expensive tiled roofs. The streets are very narrow. Wide enough for one automobile to travel. All farm work is done by human power no body plows here. School teachers travel on railroads at half price. Trains are never late, and all over the empire on 10 minute to one hour schedules. The entire empire is filled with Buddest and Sunto temples. Everybody belongs to the church. They creamate their dead and worship their ashes. They offer loud smelling food to the spirit of their ancestors. All bathe in very hot water three times a day. Women wear neither hats nor rings nor other jewelry. The men and women wear wooden shoes attached to their feet by passing a thong which is joined to both sides of the sole between the big toe and its neighbor. Men wear long kimonos same as women. Most Japanese men and women go to sleep while riding the street cars or buses. Men sit in the street cars and women stand. Many sit on their feet on the seat in the car. I have seen roosters here with tails twenty feet long. The temples have flocks of tame pigeons. Deer roam through the streets and in the parks unmolested. To kill one of these tame deer constitutes a capital offense. Once a year the natives dehorn the male deer, and manufacture souvenirs out of the horns. 0-hi-o means "good morning" in Japanese. I heard one say In-di-ana, thinking that was it. Japanese people, neither shake hands nor kiss, and they have tabooed American kissing pictures. Phonographs, outlawed in America, are here by the millions. Japanese typewriters have One hundred and sixty eight keys on them. A Japanese clerk can not add eight and six without his abacus.
Tokyo, Nagaya, Kyoto, nor Kobe has any sewerage system yet. Electricity costs two cents a kilowate, hair cuts cost eights cents, cigarettes four cents for a package of twenty. Street cars charge two cents a ride with universal transfers. A seven course dinner including chicken costs fifteen cents. Shirts of finest material made to order cost less than a dollar.
The largest bell in the world is suspended in a temple in Osaka. Its height is twenty-two feet and largest diameter fourteen feet. It has no clapper, but is rung from the outside by a huge suspended beam like the old Roman battering rams. I paid one and a half cents to ring this bell, and the main sound and the overtones mingled together made the most awe inspiring music I have ever heard. There are two bronze statues of Bud-da in Japan, each fifty feet high, and all parts in proportion. In one there is over a ton of gold, more than a ton of silver while the whole statue weighs five hundred tons. They are over one thousand years old. Budda was bald headed, so the snails out of pits climbed up by the thousands and roosted on his head to forefend his cranium from the sun rays.
Men do not see their wives before they marry them. The only woman in Japan that wears a hat is a bride, and then only when the ceremony is being performed. The bride's face, neck, ears and all other visible parts of her body are painted snow white. The bride does not lift her eyes off the floor, before, during or until after the ceremony is over. She goes to the temple unaccompanied, and leaves the temple after the ceremony is over without her husband. Worshipers always throw a coin in a huge, slatted, coffer in front of the temple before offering their prayers. They always clap their hands just before praying to awaken Budda and the manes of their ancestors. Temples have no seats in them. Candles are always burning on the altars. Prayer beads are used and worshipers bow when facing the shrine. Images of saints are on the walls and statues are in every niche. Boys here read their lessons up and down the column and from right to the left, and their heads move up and down as if to say "yes" to every thing they study, while you boys read from left to right and shake your head as if saying "no" to everything you read.
Our time in Japan is just nine hours earlier than yours in New Orleans, and when the 8: 45 bell rings at Warren Easton for you to go to your first period, we here have 11: 45 the night before. In crossing the Pacific Ocean we had no Wednesday in our week, we lost a whole day in our lives. Can you figure that out? I am going to give you boys a "Ripley" problem to figure out for me, and will send a handsome prize to the first boy of Warren Easton who will send me the correct solution. The prize will be a fountain pen, the equal of a Parker in writing quality-this goes to everyone.
Tom Hood, the famous English poet. had a beautiful daughter yclept "Ophelia" who had as many suitors as Penelope. There were three very choice ones who won her affection, while the others were spurned. She loved these three with the same degree of affection, but like Portia could not decide as to which one to marry.
Her father was called in as an umpire, but did not want any of the three, but not to discourage them decided to give her to the suitor that would prove to him that there are three Wednesdays in every week. They all departed sad-hearted, disconsolate and dejected, but one suitor returned and proved to Hood's satisfaction that there are three Wednesdays in every week. He married Ophelia. Send in your solutions. Address your answers to: T. L. Trawick c./o The American Consul General Canton, China. Be sure to use a five cent postage stamp on your letter.
Picture of Warren Easton Faculty
