Sydenstricker withdrew his children from Shearer’s school in response to the entertainment

 

 

 In a letter published in January 1889, O. M. Shearer, the principal of the Hillsboro Training School, lamented that “much has been said about” a school entertainment that he organized, and that “some say” that a sin had been committed. Shearer states that he had organized the same entertainment twice before “in different sections of countries and before intelligent people” without incident. However, in Pocahontas County, Rev. Mr. Sydenstricker withdrew his children from Shearer’s school in response to the entertainment.

It is possible that some of the negative reactions to the entertainment that Shearer organized were related to the subject matter of the performance. Shearer writes that the entertainment included both “pith and humor” to “illustrate the frivolous side of life and the joyousness of the approaching season,” as well as “more solid and serious parts” meant to “characterize the thoughts which should sometimes enter the deepest recess of every heart”