Explanatory Notes
Apparatus Notes
MTPDocEd
[begin page 229]
48. Examination of Teachers
March–April 1863

“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.

[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. Geigerexplanatory note, Mr. J. W. Whicherexplanatory note and John A. Collinsexplanatory note. We observed that Messrs. Feusierexplanatory note, Adkisonexplanatory note and Robinsonexplanatory 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 theoryexplanatory note? Have you seen the Ophir horseexplanatory note? Have you conscientious scruples as to black dykeexplanatory note? Are you committed to the sage-brush processexplanatory 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).