“Examination of Teachers” is extant only in an undated clipping from the Virginia
City Territorial Enterprise, preserved in a scrapbook in the Morse Collection at Yale. The piece probably appeared
in that newspaper's local column sometime in March or April 1863, but a more precise
date cannot now be determined, and even this conjecture must remain very tentative.
The examination in question probably took place sometime in 1863: the names mentioned
in Clemens' text are found, for the most part, in the Nevada Territory directories
of that year. Moreover, it was not until December 1862 that the second Territorial
Legislature acted to “provide for a Board of Education in Storey county.”1 That board was first elected on 5 January 1863, and probably held its first meeting
one week later. It was empowered, as Clemens wrote at the time, to “issue bonds for
a sum sufficient to defray the expenses of the respective schools of the county, from
the beginning of the present month [January] until the first of November” and to “establish
schools of all grades, engage and examine teachers, etc.”2
The first sign of activity based upon this mandate was reported by Clemens in the
Enterprise on February 25:
School-House.—An addition is being built to the public school-house, and will be completed and
put in order for occupation as soon as possible. Mr. Mellvile's school has increased
to such an extent that the old premises were found insufficient to accommodate all
the pupils. As soon as the new building is completed, the school will be divided into
three departments—advanced, intermediate and infant—and one of these will occupy it.3
[begin page 230]
It is not known when the new building was completed, but it was probably not before
the end of the month. The earliest possible date for “Examination of Teachers” seems,
therefore, to be March, for Clemens clearly refers to the new building when he reports
that the “grand examination” was held “in one of the rooms of the Public School of
this city.” Moreover, it seems plausible that the board of education would take steps
to staff the new school building at about the same time it undertook construction.
We know that by October 1863 the number of school-age children had, in fact, grown
to 420, at least 400 more than the year before:4 this in itself would suggest the urgent need for an additional twelve teachers, who,
as Clemens says here, were to be chosen by examination. The most likely time for such
an examination, therefore, seems to be in March or possibly April 1863. It could not
have taken place in May or June, because Clemens was in San Francisco for the whole
of both months and so could not have reported it. On the other hand, it is conceivable
that teacher recruitment was delayed until July or August, or even later. No record
of such an examination has, however, been found in the file of the Virginia City Evening Bulletin (6 July 1863–December 1864).
Clemens' sketch bears a resemblance to “Silver Bars—How Assayed” (no. 43), for it,
too, humanizes an inherently dry subject by comically injecting the author's own feelings
of inadequacy and anxiety. His account throws light on the surprisingly rigorous standards
for teacher selection in Storey County: the newly elected board of education seems
to have established a formidable range of subjects on which to examine candidates.
But Clemens' admiration for such standards is balanced by his set of mock questions
especially designed for teachers of “little Washoeites”: a small tour de force aimed
at needling “the Board” for its overweening thoroughness.
Editorial Notes
1 Andrew J. Marsh, Letters from Nevada Territory: 1861–1862, ed. William C. Miller, Russell W. McDonald, and Ann Rollins (Nevada: Legislative
Counsel Bureau, 1972), p. 631.
2 “Election,” Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, 4 January 1863, Scrapbook 1, p. 66, MTP.
3 Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, 25 February 1863, p. 3.
4 “School Children,” Gold Hill News, 27 October 1863, p. 3.
Textual Commentary
The first printing appeared in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, probably sometime in March or April 1863. The only known copy of this printing,
in a clipping in a scrapbook at Yale (Za/C591/ + 1/v.7), is copy-text. There are no
textual notes or emendations.
X
[begin page 231]
Examination of Teachers
A grand examination of candidates for positions as teachers in our public schools was had yesterday in
one of the rooms of the Public School in this city. Some twenty-eight candidates were
present —twenty-three of whom were ladies and five gentlemen. We do the candidates
but simple justice when we say that we have never seen more intelligent faces in a
crowd of the size. The following gentlemen constituted the Board of Examiners: Dr. GeigerⒺexplanatory note, Mr. J. W. WhicherⒺexplanatory note and John A. CollinsⒺexplanatory note. We observed that Messrs. FeusierⒺexplanatory note, AdkisonⒺexplanatory note and RobinsonⒺexplanatory note of the Board of Trustees were also present yesterday. Printed questions are given
to each of the candidates, the answers to which are written out and handed in with
the signature of the applicant appended. These are all examined in private by the
Board, and those who have best acquitted themselves are selected as teachers. In all,
we believe, about twelve teachers are to be chosen. Upon each of the following subjects
a great number of questions are to be answered: General questions, methods of teaching,
object teaching; spelling, reading, writing, defining, arithmetic, grammar, geography,
natural philosophy, history of the United States, physiology and hygiene, chemistry,
algebra, geometry, natural history, astronomy—in all, eighteen subjects, with about
as many questions upon each. Yesterday they had got as far as the ninth subject, grammar,
at the time of our visit, and we presume have got but little further. To-day the examination
will be resumed. If there is anything that terrifies us it is an examination. We don't
even like an examination in a Police Court.
[begin page 232]
In vain we looked from face to face yesterday through the whole list of candidates
for signs of fright or trepidation. All appeared perfectly at ease, though quite in
earnest. We took a look at some of the questions and were made very miserable by barely
glancing them over. We became much afraid that some member of the Board would suddenly
turn upon us and require us on pain of death or a long imprisonment, to answer some
of the questions. Under the head of “Object Teaching,” we found some ten questions—some
of them, like a wheel within a wheel, containing ten questions in one. We barely glanced
at the list, reading here and there a question, when we felt great beads of perspiration
starting out upon our brow—our massive intellect oozing out. Happening to read a question
like this, “Name four of the faculties of children that are earliest developed,” we
at once became anxious to get out of the room. We expected each moment that one of
the Board would seize us by the collar and ask, “Why is it?” or something of the kind,
and we wanted to leave—thought we would feel better in the open air. When the answers
of all the candidates are opened and read we will try to be on hand; we are anxious
for information on those “four faculties.” We think the above a good deal like the
conundrum about the young man who “went to the Sandwich Islands; learned the language
of the Kanakas, came home, got married, got drunk, went crazy, was sent to Stockton
—Why is it?” Then under the same head we noticed ten questions about mining for silver
ores and ten more about the reduction of silver ores. Why these twenty-three “school
marms” are expected to be posted on amalgamating processes, is more than we can guess.
As this is a mining country, we presume it is necessary for a lady to give satisfactory
answers to such questions as the following, before being entrusted with the education
of our little Washoeites: “What is your opinion of the one-ledge theoryⒺexplanatory note? Have you seen the Ophir horseⒺexplanatory note? Have you conscientious scruples as to black dykeⒺexplanatory note? Are you committed to the sage-brush processⒺexplanatory note? Give your opinion on vein matter, and state your reasons for thinking so; and tell
wherein you differ with those who do not agree with you.”
Explanatory Notes Examination of Teachers
Ⓔ Dr. Geiger] Dr. D. M. Geiger of Virginia City was the proprietor of the Geiger toll
road and lived at the head of Cedar Ravine (Kelly, Second Directory, p. 214).
Ⓔ Mr. J. W. Whicher] Not listed in the Nevada Territory directories from 1862 to 1864.
Whicher was, however, eventually appointed superintendent of Storey County schools
on 22 July 1867, succeeding John A. Collins, who resigned. Whicher was elected to
that post on 3 November 1868, and again on 8 November 1870 (Angel, History, p. 607).
Ⓔ John A. Collins] A Vermont native with a strong interest in numerous social causes,
Collins had moved to San Francisco in 1849. In 1863 he was a lumber dealer in Virginia
City, known for his active promotion of the public schools. He became superintendent
of the first public school in Virginia City in 1862 (when only seventeen pupils were
enrolled), and he was elected to the board of school trustees of Storey County in
1863, serving as president of the board and superintendent of schools. On 29 May 1865
he was appointed county superintendent of schools and was elected to that office in
November 1866, resigning in favor of J. W. Whicher in July 1867. Collins eventually
returned to San Francisco, where he practiced law (Kelly, Second Directory, p. 167; Angel, History, pp. 571, 607; “School Children,” Gold Hill News, 27 October 1863, p. 3; Marsh, Clemens, and Bowman, Reports, p. 464 n. 11). In November 1863 Clemens wrote: “Mr. Collins stands at the head of
the educational interests of the Territory, and in fact at the head of every other
department of progress of a purely public nature” (“ ‘Mark Twain's’ Letter,” San Francisco
Morning Call, 19 November 1863, p. 1). See the headnote to “Unfortunate Blunder” (no. 60).
Ⓔ Feusier] Louis Feusier, an original trustee of Virginia City upon its incorporation
in 1861, owned a grocery and provision store at South C and Taylor streets (Kelly,
Second Directory, p. 210).
Ⓔ Adkison] D. O. Adkison of Virginia City is listed in Collins' 1864–1865 Mercantile Guide (p. 49) as superintendent of the Fairview Mining Company.
Ⓔ Robinson] S. H. Robinson of Gold Hill was treasurer of the Storey County board of
education in 1863. Later he became the police judge and a city trustee of Gold Hill
(Kelly, Second Directory, p. 347; Collins, Mercantile Guide, p. 291).
Ⓔ one-ledge theory] See the explanatory note for “Letter from Mark Twain” (no. 53).
Ophir horse] The expression was proverbial. It reflects the relatively low prices
or low-value property which the original locators of the Ophir and other valuable
Comstock claims accepted in trade for their interests. Clemens wrote of the Ophir
horse in his “Around the World. Letter Number 6” (no. 268), first published in the
Buffalo Express on 8 January 1870 (p. 2) and reprinted (with revisions) in chapter 46 of Roughing It:
An individual who owned 20 feet in the Ophir mine before its great riches were revealed
to men, traded it for a horse, and a very sorry looking brute he was too. A year or
so afterward, when Ophir stock went up to $3000 a foot, this man, who hadn't a cent,
used to say he was the most startling example of magnificence and misery the world
had ever seen—because he was able to ride a 60,000-dollar horse and yet had to ride
him bareback because he couldn't scare up cash enough to buy a saddle. He said if
fortune were to give him another 60,000-dollar horse it would ruin him.
The individual in Clemens' anecdote has not been identified, but other “Ophir horse”
stories abound in histories of the Comstock Lode. John D. Winters and Joseph A. Osborn,
for example, acquired a two-sixths interest in the Ophir from Peter O'Riley and Patrick
McLaughlin for two arrastras and two horses or mules, and both O'Riley and McLaughlin
eventually lost everything. Another commonly told story was that Alva Gould sold his
claim to a California buyer for $450 and drunkenly rode his horse down Gold Canyon
shouting “Oh, I've fooled the Californian” (Lord, Comstock Mining, pp. 54, 60).
Ⓔ black dyke] A dyke, or dike, is an intrusive rock forced into a fissure or fault in
a stratum of other mineral substance. By “black dyke” Clemens may have meant the famous
vein of black silver sulphurets that Peter O'Riley and Patrick McLaughlin are said
to have uncovered in June 1859 while looking for gold on top of the as yet undiscovered
Ophir bonanza. The black mineral was at first discarded as a curiosity of no value.
When an assay made in Grass Valley in July revealed its richness, the word quickly
spread, and the silver rush to Washoe began (Francis Church Lincoln, Mining Districts and Mineral Resources of Nevada [Reno: Nevada Newsletter Publishing Company, 1923], p. 223).
Ⓔ sage-brush process] According to Dan De Quille, before the reduction of silver ore
was well understood, almost any and every substance was tried out in the amalgamating
pans to “physic” the silver out of the ore. Men known as “process-peddlers” went from
mill to mill, selling their secret concoctions out of closely guarded vials. “The
native sagebrush,” he recalled in 1874, “which everywhere covered the hills, being
the bitterest, most unsavory, and nauseating shrub to be found in any part of the
world, it was not long before a genius in charge of a mill conceived the idea of making
a tea of this and putting it into his pans. Soon the wonders performed by the ‘sagebrush
process,’ as it was called, were being heralded through the land” (Dan De Quille,
The History of the Big Bonanza [New York: ], pp. 92–93).
The first printing appeared in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, probably sometime in March or April 1863. The only known copy of this printing, in a clipping in a scrapbook at Yale (Za/C591/ + 1/v.7), is copy-text. There are no textual notes or emendations.