The Working Christian

Original.
General Lee's College Discipline.

I heard the other day a little account
of the way the General managed college
affairs, which seemed to me worth repeating.

At morning prayers in college, the
old General was invariably present.
All the professors were by no means
regular, though all agreed that it was
very important they should be kept up,
and regularly attended. One of the offi-
cers, who was not himself remarkable
for punctuality, brought up the subject
at a Faculty Meeting, and proposed some
plan other than for requiring and ensuring the in-
variable attendance of the students, en-
suring it by some penalty. General Lee
heard him through, and duly remarked,
with a sideway glance at the mover of the
proposition. "It seems to me that one
way to secure the attendance of the
students would be to attend ourselves."

It is well known that he heard no class,
as a regular thing, and gave no instruc-
tion, in any branch of study. It must not
therefore be concluded that his influence
at the Institution was small. His im-
press was felt in all the arrangements.
The vibration of his tread resounded, so
to speak, in every room. By a system
of minute and regular reports, he had
exact knowledge of every man's standing.
He not merely had the means of knowl-
edge, in reports which were rendered, and
filed away as a matter of form, unread,
and unconsidered. He made it his busi-
ness to know how much each man was ac-
complishing; and as soon as any one began
to fail in attendance, scholarship, or de-
portment, he discovered it. Nor would
the process of falling off go far, before
General Lee would send for him, to give
a fatherly talk. He would not wait
over overt acts of disorder, he would not
wait till fixed habits of neglect or mis-
conduct were formed, but take the evil
in its early stages, in its formation, and
prevent rather than to punish col-
lege disorders.

"Did he scold you?" the boys would
sometimes say to a student, after return-
ing from the General's office. "No, I
wish he had;" would be the reply; "I
could have borne that." There was some-
thing in that dignified, affectionate, firm
gentle remonstrance which he would
that sent the young man to his room
thoroughly ashamed of himself, that
made him feel that he was doing injus-
tice to himself, to the college, to the
father who was toiling to send and keep
there, to the friends who are hoping
great things from them.

B. M., Jr.