ng the duties of his
professorship in the university was to make a tour of the state
advocating the introduction of a public school system in Virginia.
To this first appeal for common schools, open alike to rich and poor,
there was then but a feeble response; but, twenty-five years later, Dr.
McGuffey had the satisfaction of seeing the public schools organized
with one of his own friends and a former pupil at its head,--Hon. W.H.
Ruffner.

Dr. McGuffey was a man of medium stature and compact figure. His
forehead was broad and full; his eyes clear and expressive. His features
were of the strongly marked rugged Scotch type. He was a ready speaker,
a popular lecturer on educational topics, and an able preacher. He was
admirable in conversation. His observation of men was accurate, and his
study of character close.

[Trip Through the South]

After the Civil War and while the reconstruction was in progress it
was extremely difficult in the North to obtain a correct view of the
situation in the South. State governments had been established in which
"carpet-baggers" had more or less control. Nearly all the whites in the
South had taken part in the war. They were largely disfranchised and
their former servants often became the legal rulers. The Klu Klux Klan
had begun their unlawful work, of which the papers gave contradictory
reports.

As business men, the publishers of McGuffey's Readers desired to learn
the truth about the situation of the South and its probable future.
They asked Dr. McGuffey to take a trip through the Carolinas, Georgia,
Alabama, and Mississippi and make report to them at Cincinnati. This he
did, visiting all the larger towns where he was usually the honored
guest of some graduate of the university. He saw the legislatures in
session, met the governors, and studied the whole situation. He then
came to Cincinnati and told his story. He had made no notes, but he
never hesitated for a name. He repeated conversations with unquestioned
accuracy and described with humor the gross ignorance and brutality of
some of the southern legislators, the looting of the capitol at the end
of the session, the indirect robbery that was under way, the reversal of
all the conditions of life, and the growing unrest of the men who had
heretofore been the rulers.

It was such a picture as at that time no Northern paper would have dared
to print--it was the truth. For days he held his listeners captive with
the story--the wr