27 OCTOBER 1894, Page 14

THE STANDING OF SCHOOLMASTERS.

[TO THE EDITOR 01 THE SPECTATOR."]

venture to send two anecdotes culled from my own experience, which go towards proving that we schoolmasters are (I hope) an honourable but not an honoured profession. A lady came over here some years ago to talk over her son's prospects, and on coming into my sitting-room, she looked all round and said with undisguised astonishment ; " Why ! you have quite a nice room." So evident was her surprise at this unfitness of things, that I felt that some apology was due from me. A friend of mine, also a schoolmaster, fresh from Cambridge, was introduced at a ball to a young lady, and got a promise of a dance. But when the time for it came, she insisted upon sitting it out, and explained to a friend, "I wasn't going to dance with a schoolmaster." How often have we heard people say of such and such a place, "Oh ! I shan't go there again, it's full of schoolmasters."—I am, Sir, &c., E. B.