To the Editors of the Lebanon Gazette:
Union Village, January 18.-1 hope you are enjoying excellent health and prosperity in all your undertakings, and I send greeting with many good wishes for your uninterrupted enjoyment of the coming year. We are in the possession of usual health and about ordinary prosperity. Have done about all we can to repair the buildings, fences and so forth, since the solemn Visitation on the night of the 13th of last May. As to the beautiful forests destroyed, not less than about three hundred years will be required to restore them to their former perfection and beauty.
I was lately sojourning at Pleasant Hill a society of Shakers in Mercer County, Ky. They are over two hundred strong as nearly as I could judge, and have a great many nice stone and brick buildings. But they are sadly in debt and have been selling some land (five hundred acres, more or less) to extricate themselves from their unfortunate condition, They are running two schools, one for boys and one for girls, not as yet having been convinced of the philosophy and propriety of the co-education of the sexes. But your humble correspondent has been convinced of the truth and propriety of this theory for twenty odd years and practiced it with great success. The good people of Pleasant Hill have yet remaining about three thousand acres of land and I guess they wont starve.
I am at my old advocation of "teaching the young idea how to shoot" and succeeding as well as usual, save that I should be glad to have more pupils. Enumerate thirty, teach about twenty-six. We have had a review in geography in which a few only of the pupils took part. One hundred questions, including technical, local and physical geography. The result was: Addie Macy 100 per cent. answered correctly; Missouri M. Masters, 94 per cent. answered correctly; Mollie McCullough, 97 per cent. answered correctly; Nellie McCullough, 99 per cent. answered correctly; Eunice E. Masters, 95 per cent. answered correctly.
I put in this item for the encouragement of the pupils. The questions were taken from every part of the earth and made as promiscuous as possible; so I consider it a laudable effort. I expect they will be so proud of it they will be like the man who, when he saw his name in the paper for the first time, called his friends together and put them through on woodcock and champagne. We are making some or the very finest brooms you ever saw and running two machines and having more orders than we can fill. If this article is too long cut it down all you please, but don't fail to put in about the geography review.
O. C. HAMPTON.