A TEACHER'S EXAMINATION - In the early teens of the century there came to Braceville, Trumbull County, from the East, a young man by the name of Stearns, and engaged to teach a school in a neighborhood called "Egypt," on the confines of Newton and Milton Townships, and, as the name implies, widely known on account of the then unenviable character of inhabitants. The examiner, one Doctor Bronson, resided at Price's Mills. Before him Mr. Stearns presented himself for examination. "Well, Mr. Stearns, you wish a certificate do you?"queried the public functionary. "Yes, sir." "Well, Mr. Stearns, where are you going teach?" "In Egypt." "Mr. Stearns, can you spell bird?" "I think I can." "Let's hear you try." "B - i - r - d," stammered the applicant. "That's all right, Mr. Stearns: you will do to teach school in Egypt." A certificate was made out, a quarter paid, and the school in "Egypt" was a "howling" success. Those were the days of "rate bills", that is, the State paid a small per cent of the salary and the other had to be collected, if possible, from the patrons of the school, pro rata. This was frequently slow in being paid. The writer has a claim of 62 1/2 cents against the district at the center of Paris, Portage County, dating back to 1843.