“It is very beneficial to travel,” continued Mr. Slocum. “It enlarges the mind, and stores it with useful information. We cannot all travel, for travel is expensive; but I think teachers ought to travel, as it enables them to illustrate lessons in geography by their own observations in distant cities and remote lands.”
Here Frank Bent raised his hand.
“Will you tell us some more about New York, sir?”
Mr. Slocum was flattered; and with a preliminary flourish proceeded: “I am glad you desire to acquire information; it is a very laudable ambition. I stopped at one of the finest hotels in New York, located on Chatham Avenue, a broad and fashionable thoroughfare, lined with stately stores.”
Here Julius and Teddy found it difficult to repress their laughter, but by an effort succeeded.
“Did you go to the Grand Duke’s Oprea House?” Julius asked, raising his hand.
“To be sure,” said Mr. Slocum, supposing it to be a fashionable place of amusement. “It is an elegant structure, worthy of the great city in which it is erected. I never visited Europe, but I am told that none of the{137} capital cities of the Old World can surpass it in grandeur.”
This was intensely amusing to Julius, who remembered the humble basement in Baxter Street, described in our early chapters, as the “Grand Duke’s Oprea House.” He concluded that Mr. Slocum’s knowledge of New York was about on a par with his knowledge of complex fractions.{138}
CHAPTER XIX.
MR. SLOCUM AS AN ORATOR.
“Next Wednesday afternoon the boys will all speak pieces,” Mr. Slocum announced. “You may select any pieces you please. At the celebrated institution in Maine, from which I graduated, we used to speak pieces every week. You may be interested to know that your teacher gained a great reputation by his speaking. ‘Theophilus,’ said the principal to me one day, I never had a student under my instruction who could equal you in speaking. There is no one who can do such justice to Daniel Webster, and other great orators of antiquity. You are a natural orator, and eloquence comes natural to you.’ This was a high compliment, as you will agree; but it was deserved. The principal put it to vote whether a prize should be offered for speaking, but the students voted against it; ‘for,’ they said, ‘Slocum will be sure to get it, and it will do us no good.’ I hope, boys, you will do your best, so that I may be able to compliment you.”