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diff --git a/17857.txt b/17857.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..385be4f --- /dev/null +++ b/17857.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8148 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Forgotten Books of the American Nursery, by +Rosalie V. Halsey + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Forgotten Books of the American Nursery + A History of the Development of the American Story-Book + + +Author: Rosalie V. Halsey + + + +Release Date: February 25, 2006 [eBook #17857] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FORGOTTEN BOOKS OF THE AMERICAN +NURSERY*** + + +E-text prepared by Jason Isbell, Julia Miller, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 17857-h.htm or 17857-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/8/5/17857/17857-h/17857-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/8/5/17857/17857-h.zip) + + +Transcriber's note: + + A number of typographical errors have been maintained in the + current version of this book. A complete list is found at the + end of the text. + + + + + +FORGOTTEN BOOKS OF THE AMERICAN NURSERY + +A History of the Development of the American Story-Book + +by + +ROSALIE V. HALSEY + + + + + + + +[Illustration: _The Devil and the Disobedient Child_] + + + + +Boston +Charles E. Goodspeed & Co. +1911 +Copyright, 1911, by C.E. Goodspeed & Co. +Of this book seven hundred copies were printed in November +1911, by D.B. Updike, at The Merrymount Press, Boston + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + +CHAPTER PAGE + + I. Introductory 3 + + II. The Play-Book in England 33 + +III. Newbery's Books in America 59 + + IV. Patriotic Printers and the American Newbery 89 + + V. The Child and his Book at the End of the Eighteenth Century 121 + + VI. Toy-Books in the early Nineteenth Century 147 + +VII. American Writers and English Critics 191 + + Index 233 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +_The Devil and the Disobedient Child_ Frontispiece + From "The Prodigal Daughter." Sold at the Printing Office, No. 5, + Cornhill, Boston. [J. and J. Fleet, 1789?] + + Facing + Page +_The Devil appears as a French Gentleman_ 26 + From "The Prodigal Daughter." Sold at the Printing Office, No. 5, + Cornhill, Boston. [J. and J. Fleet, 1789?] + +_Title-page from "The Child's New Play-thing"_ 44 + Printed by J. Draper; J. Edwards in Boston [1750]. Now in the + New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations + +_Title-page from "A Little Pretty Pocket-Book"_ 47 + Printed by Isaiah Thomas, Worcester, MDCCLXXXVII. Now in the New + York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations + +_A page from "A Little Pretty Pocket-Book"_ 49 + Printed by Isaiah Thomas, Worcester, MDCCLXXXVII. Now in the New + York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations + +_John Newbery's Advertisement of Children's Books_ 60 + From the "Pennsylvania Gazette" of November 15, 1750 + +_Title-page of "The New Gift for Children"_ 70 + Printed by Zechariah Fowle, Boston, 1762. Now in the Library of + the Historical Society of Pennsylvania + +_Miss Fanny's Maid_ 74 + Illustration from "The New Gift for Children," printed by Zechariah + Fowle, Boston, 1762. Now in the Library of the Historical Society + of Pennsylvania + +_A page from a Catalogue of Children's Books printed by Isaiah +Thomas_ 106 + From "The Picture Exhibition," Worcester, MDCCLXXXVIII + +_Illustration of Riddle XIV_ 110 + From "The Puzzling-Cap," printed by John Adams, Philadelphia, 1805 + +_Frontispiece from "The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes"_ 117 + From one of _The First Worcester Edition_, printed by Isaiah + Thomas in MDCCLXXXVII. Now in the Library of the Historical + Society of Pennsylvania + +_Sir Walter Raleigh and his Man_ 125 + Copper-plate illustration from "Little Truths," printed in + Philadelphia by J. and J. Crukshank in 1800 + +_Foot Ball_ 126 + Copper-plate illustration from "Youthful Recreations," printed in + Philadelphia by Jacob Johnson about 1802 + +_Jacob Johnson's Book-Store in Philadelphia about 1800_ 155 + +_A Wall-paper Book-Cover_ 165 + From "Lessons for Children from Four to Five Years Old," printed + in Wilmington (Delaware) by Peter Brynberg in 1804 + +_Tom the Piper's Son_ 170 + Illustration and text engraved on copper by William Charles, of + Philadelphia, in 1808 + +_A Kind and Good Father_ 172 + Woodcut by Alexander Anderson for "The Prize for Youthful + Obedience," printed in Philadelphia by Jacob Johnson in 1807 + +_A Virginian_ 174 + Illustration from "People of all Nations," printed in Philadelphia + by Jacob Johnson in 1807 + +_A Baboon_ 174 + Illustration from "A Familiar Description of Beasts and Birds," + printed in Boston by Lincoln and Edmands in 1813 + +_Drest or Undrest_ 176 + Illustration from "The Daisy," published by Jacob Johnson in 1808 + +_Little Nancy_ 182 + Probably engraved by William Charles for "Little Nancy, or, the + Punishment of Greediness," published in Philadelphia by Morgan & + Yeager about 1830 + +_Children of the Cottage_ 196 + Engraved by Joseph I. Pease for "The Youth's Sketch Book," + published in Boston by Lilly, Wait and Company in 1834 + +_Henrietta_ 200 + Engraved by Thomas Illman for "The American Juvenile Keepsake," + published in Brockville, U.C., by Horace Billings & Co. in 1835 + +_A Child and her Doll_ 206 + Illustration from "Little Mary," Part II, published in Boston by + Cottons and Barnard in 1831 + +_The Little Runaway_ 227 + Drawn and engraved by J.W. Steel for "Affection's Gift," published + in New York by J.C. Riker in 1832 + + + + +CHAPTER I + +_Introductory_ + + + + + Thy life to mend + This _book_ attend. + _The New England Tutor_ + London (1702-14) + + To be brought up in fear + And learn A B C. + FOXE, _Book of Martyrs_ + + + + +_Forgotten Books of the American Nursery_ + + + + +CHAPTER I + +_Introductory_ + + +A shelf full of books belonging to the American children of colonial +times and of the early days of the Republic presents a strangely +unfamiliar and curious appearance. If chronologically placed, the +earliest coverless chap-books are hardly noticeable next to their +immediate successors with wooden sides; and these, in turn, are +dominated by the gilt, silver, and many colored bindings of diminutive +dimensions which hold the stories dear to the childish heart from +Revolutionary days to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Then +bright blue, salmon, yellow, and marbled paper covers make a vivid +display which, as the century grows older, fades into the sad-colored +cloth bindings thought adapted to many children's books of its second +quarter. + +An examination of their contents shows them to be equally foreign to +present day ideas as to the desirable characteristics for children's +literature. Yet the crooked black type and crude illustrations of the +wholly religious episodes related in the oldest volumes on the shelf, the +didactic and moral stories with their tiny type-metal, wood, and +copper-plate pictures of the next groups; and the "improving" American +tales adorned with blurred colored engravings, or stiff steel and wood +illustrations, that were produced for juvenile amusement in the early +part of the nineteenth century,--all are as interesting to the lover of +children as they are unattractive to the modern children themselves. The +little ones very naturally find the stilted language of these old stories +unintelligible and the artificial plots bewildering; but to one +interested in the adult literature of the same periods of history an +acquaintance with these amusement books of past generations has a +peculiar charm and value of its own. They then become not merely +curiosities, but the means of tracing the evolution of an American +literature for children. + +To the student desiring an intimate acquaintance with any civilized +people, its lighter literature is always a great aid to personal +research; the more trivial, the more detailed, the greater the worth to +the investigator are these pen-pictures as records of the nation he +wishes to know. Something of this value have the story-books of +old-fashioned childhood. Trivial as they undoubtedly are, they +nevertheless often contain our best sketches of child-life in the +eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries,--a life as different from that +of a twentieth century child as was the adult society of those old days +from that of the present time. They also enable us to mark as is possible +in no other way, the gradual development of a body of writing which, +though lagging much behind the adult literature, was yet also affected by +the local and social conditions in America. + +Without attempting to give the history of the evolution of the A B C +book in England--the legitimate ancestor of all juvenile books--two main +topics must be briefly discussed before entering upon the proper matter +of this volume. The first relates to the family life in the early days +of the Massachusetts Commonwealth, the province that produced the first +juvenile book. The second topic has to do with the literature thought +suitable for children in those early Puritan days. These two subjects +are closely related, the second being dependent upon the first. Both are +necessary to the history of these quaint toy volumes, whose stories lack +much meaning unless the conditions of life and literature preceding them +are understood. + +When the Pilgrim Fathers, seeking freedom of faith, founded their first +settlements in the new country, one of their earliest efforts was +directed toward firmly establishing their own religion. This, though +nominally free, was eventually, under the Mathers, to become a theocracy +as intolerant as that faith from which they had fled. The rocks upon +which this religion was builded were the Bible and the Catechism. In +this history of toy-books the catechism is, however, perhaps almost the +more important to consider, for it was a product of the times, and +regarded as indispensable to the proper training of a family. + +The Puritan conception of life, as an error to be rectified by suffering +rather than as a joy to be accepted with thanksgiving, made the +preparation for death and the dreadful Day of Judgment the chief end of +existence. The catechism, therefore, with its fear-inspiring description +of Hell and the consequences of sin, became inevitably the chief means of +instructing children in the knowledge of their sinful inheritance. In +order to insure a supply of catechisms, it was voted by the members of +the company in sixteen hundred and twenty-nine, when preparing to +emigrate, to expend "3 shillings for 2 dussen and ten catechismes."[6-A] +A contract was also made in the same year with "sundry intended ministers +for catechising, as also in teaching, or causing to be taught the +Companyes servants & their children, as also the salvages and their +children."[6-B] Parents, especially the mothers, were continually +exhorted in sermons preached for a century after the founding of the +colony, to catechize the children every day, "that," said Cotton Mather, +"you may be continually dropping something of the _Catechism_ upon them: +Some Honey out of the Rock"! Indeed, the learned divine seems to have +regarded it as a soothing and toothsome morsel, for he even imagined that +the children cried for it continuously, saying: _"O our dear Parents, +Acquaint us with the Great God.... Let us not go from your Tender Knees, +down to the Place of Dragons. Oh! not Parents, but Ostriches: Not +Parents, but Prodigies."_[6-C] + +Much dissension soon arose among the ministers of the settlements as to +which catechism should be taught. As the result of the discussion the +"General Corte," which met in sixteen hundred and forty-one, "desired +that the elders would make a catechism for _the instruction of youth in +the grounds of religion_."[6-D] + +To meet this request, several clergymen immediately responded. Among +them was John Cotton, who presumably prepared a small volume which was +entitled "_Milk for Babes_. Drawn out of the Breast of Both Testaments. +Chiefly for the spiritual nourishment of _Boston_ Babes in either +England: But may be of like use for any children." For the present +purpose the importance of this little book lies in the supposition that +it was printed at Cambridge, by Daye, between sixteen hundred and +forty-one and sixteen hundred and forty-five, and therefore was the +first book of any kind written and printed in America for children;--an +importance altogether different from that attached to it by the author's +grandson, Cotton Mather, when he asserted that "Milk for Babes" would be +"valued and studied and improved till New England cease to be New +England."[7-A] + +To the little colonials this "Catechism of New England" was a great +improvement upon any predecessor, even upon the Westminster Shorter +Catechism, for it reduced the one hundred and seven questions of that +famous body of doctrine to sixty-seven, and the longest answer in "Milk +for Babes" contained only eighty-four words.[7-B] + +As the century grew older other catechisms were printed. The number +produced before the eighteenth century bears witness to the diverse +views in a community in which they were considered an essential for +every member, adult or child. Among the six hundred titles roughly +computed as the output of the press by seventeen hundred in the new +country, eleven different catechisms may be counted, with twenty +editions in all; of these the titles of four indicate that they were +designed for very little children. In each community the pastor +appointed the catechism to be taught in the school, and joined the +teacher in drilling the children in its questions and answers. Indeed, +the answers were regarded as irrefutable in those uncritical days, and +hence a strong shield and buckler against manifold temptations provided +by "yt ould deluder Satan." To offset the task of learning these +doctrines of the church, it is probable that the mothers regaled the +little ones with old folk-lore tales when the family gathered together +around the great living-room fire in the winter evening, or asked +eagerly for a bedtime story in the long summer twilight. Tales such as +"Jack the Giant Killer," "Tom Thumb," the "Children in the Wood," and +"Guy of Warwick," were orally current even among the plain people of +England, though frowned upon by many of the Puritan element. Therefore +it is at least presumable that these were all familiar to the colonists. +In fact, it is known that John Dunton, in sixteen hundred and +eighty-six, sold in his Boston warehouse "The History of Tom Thumb," +which he facetiously offered to an ignorant customer "in folio with +Marginal notes." Besides these orally related tales of enchantment, the +children had a few simple pastimes, but at first the few toys were +necessarily of home manufacture. On the whole, amusements were not +encouraged, although "In the year sixteen hundred and ninety-five Mr. +Higginson," writes Mrs. Earle, "wrote from Massachusetts to his brother +in England, that if toys were imported in small quantity to America, +they would sell." And a venture of this character was certainly made by +seventeen hundred and twelve in Boston. Still, these were the exception +in a commonwealth where amusements were considered as wiles of the +Devil, against whom the ministers constantly warned the congregations +committed to their charge. + +Home in the seventeenth century--and indeed in the eighteenth +century--was a place where for children the rule "to be seen, not +heard," was strictly enforced. To read Judge Sewall's diary is to be +convinced that for children to obtain any importance in life, death was +necessary. Funerals of little ones were of frequent occurrence, and were +conducted with great ceremony, in which pomp and meagre preparation were +strangely mingled. Baby Henry Sewall's funeral procession, for instance, +included eight ministers, the governor and magistrates of the county, +and two nurses who bore the little body to the grave, into which, half +full of water from the raging storm, the rude coffin was lowered. Death +was kept before the eyes of every member of the colony; even +two-year-old babies learned such mournful verse as this: + + "I, in the Burying Place may See + Graves Shorter than I; + From Death's Arrest no age is free + Young Children too may die; + My God, may such an awful Sight + Awakening be to me! + Oh! that by Grace I might + For Death prepared be." + +When the younger members of the family are otherwise mentioned in the +Judge's diary, it is perhaps to note the parents' pride in the +eighteen-months-old infant's knowledge of the catechism, an acquirement +rewarded by the gift of a red apple, but which suggests the reason for +many funerals. Or, again, difficulties with the alphabet are sorrowfully +put down; and also deliquencies at the age of four in attending family +prayer, with a full account of punishments meted out to the culprit. +Such details are, indeed, but natural, for under the stern conditions +imposed by Cotton and the Mathers, religion looms large in the +foreground of any sketch of family life handed down from the first +century of the Massachusetts colony. Perhaps the very earliest picture +in which a colonial child with a book occupies the centre of the canvas +is that given in a letter of Samuel Sewall's. In sixteen hundred and +seventy-one he wrote with pride to a friend of "little Betty, who though +Reading passing well, took Three Moneths to Read the first Volume of the +Book of Martyrs" as she sat by the fire-light at night after her daily +task of spinning was done. Foxe's "Martyrs" seems gruesome reading for a +little girl at bedtime, but it was so popular in England that, with the +Bible and Catechism, it was included in the library of all households +that could afford it. + +Just ten years later, in sixteen hundred and eighty-one, Bunyan's +"Pilgrim's Progress" was printed in Boston by Samuel Green, and, being +easily obtainable, superseded in a measure the "Book of Martyrs" as a +household treasure. Bunyan's dream, according to Macaulay, was the daily +conversation of thousands, and was received in New England with far +greater eagerness than in the author's own country. The children +undoubtedly listened to the talk of their elders and gazed with +wide-open eyes at the execrable plates in the imported editions +illustrating Christian's journey. After the deaths by fire and sword of +the Martyrs, the Pilgrim's difficulties in the Slough of Despond, or +with the Giant Despair, afforded pleasurable reading; while Mr. Great +Heart's courageous cheerfulness brought practically a new characteristic +into Puritan literature. + +To Bunyan the children in both old and New England were indebted for +another book, entitled "A Book for Boys and Girls: or, Country Rhimes +for Children. By J.B. Licensed and Entered according to Order."[11-A] +Printed in London, it probably soon made its way to this country, where +Bunyan was already so well known. "This little octavo volume," writes +Mrs. Field in "The Child and his Book," "was considered a perfect +child's book, but was in fact only the literary milk of the unfortunate +babes of the period." In the light of modern views upon juvenile reading +and entertainment, the Puritan ideal of mental pabulum for little ones +is worth recording in an extract from the preface. The following lines +set forth this author's three-fold purpose: + + "To show them how each Fingle-fangle, + On which they doting are, their souls entangle, + As with a Web, a Trap, a Gin, or Snare. + While by their Play-things, I would them entice, + To mount their Thoughts from what are childish Toys + To Heaven for that's prepar'd for Girls and Boys. + Nor do I so confine myself to these + As to shun graver things, I seek to please, + Those more compos'd with better things than Toys: + Tho thus I would be catching Girls and Boys." + +In the seventy-four Meditations composing this curious medley--"tho but +in Homely Rhimes"--upon subjects familiar to any little girl or boy, +none leaves the moral to the imagination. Nevertheless, it could well +have been a relaxation, after the daily drill in "A B abs" and +catechism, to turn the leaves and to spell out this: + + UPON THE FROG + + The Frog by nature is both damp and cold, + Her mouth is large, her belly much will hold, + She sits somewhat ascending, loves to be + Croaking in gardens tho' unpleasantly. + + _Comparison_ + + The hypocrite is like unto this frog; + As like as is the Puppy to the Dog. + He is of nature cold, his mouth is wide + To prate, and at true Goodness to deride. + +Doubtless, too, many little Puritans quite envied the child in "The Boy +and the Watchmaker," a jingle wherein the former said, among other +things: + + "This Watch my Father did on me bestow + A Golden one it is, but 'twill not go, + Unless it be at an Uncertainty; + I think there is no watch as bad as mine. + Sometimes 'tis sullen, 'twill not go at all, + And yet 'twas never broke, nor had a fall." + +The same small boys may even have enjoyed the tedious explanation of the +mechanism of the time-piece given by the _Watchmaker_, and after +skipping the "Comparison" (which made the boy represent a convert and +the watch in his pocket illustrative of "Grace within his Heart"), they +probably turned eagerly to the next Meditation _Upon the Boy and his +Paper of Plumbs_. Weather-cocks, Hobby-horses, Horses, and Drums, all +served Bunyan in his effort "to point a moral" while adorning his tales. + +In a later edition of these grotesque and quaint conceptions, some +alterations were made and a primer was included. It then appeared as "A +Book for Boys and Girls; or Temporal Things Spiritualized;" and by the +time the ninth edition was reached, in seventeen hundred and twenty-four, +the book was hardly recognizable as "Divine Emblems; or Temporal Things +Spiritualized." + +At present there is no evidence that these rhymes were printed in the +colonies until long after this ninth edition was issued. It is possible +that the success attending a book printed in Boston shortly after the +original "Country Rhimes" was written, made the colonial printers feel +that their profit would be greater by devoting spare type and paper to +the now famous "New England Primer." Moreover, it seems peculiarly in +keeping with the cast of the New England mind of the eighteenth century +that although Bunyan had attempted to combine play-things with religious +teaching for the English children, for the little colonials the first +combination was the elementary teaching and religious exercises found in +the great "Puritan Primer." Each child was practically, if not verbally, +told that + + "This little Catechism learned by heart (for so it ought) + The Primer next commanded is for Children to be taught." + +The Primer, however, was not a product wholly of New England. In sixteen +hundred and eighty-five there had been printed in Boston by Green, "The +Protestant Tutor for Children," a primer, a mutilated copy of which is +now owned by the American Antiquarian Society. "This," again to quote +Mr. Ford, "was probably an abridged edition of a book bearing the same +title, printed in London, with the expressed design of bringing up +children in an aversion to Popery." In Protestant New England the +author's purpose naturally called forth profound approbation, and in +"Green's edition of the Tutor lay the germ of the great picture alphabet +of our fore-fathers."[14-A] The author, Benjamin Harris, had immigrated +to Boston for personal reasons, and coming in contact with the +residents, saw the latent possibilities in "The Protestant Tutor." "To +make it more salable," writes Mr. Ford in "The New England Primer," "the +school-book character was increased, while to give it an even better +chance of success by an appeal to local pride it was rechristened and +came forth under the now famous title of 'The New England +Primer.'"[14-B] + +A careful examination of the titles contained in the first volume of +Evans's "American Bibliography" shows how exactly this infant's primer +represented the spirit of the times. This chronological list of American +imprints of the first one hundred years of the colonial press is largely +a record in type of the religious activity of the country, and is +impressive as a witness to the obedience of the press to the law of +supply and demand. With the Puritan appetite for a grim religion served +in sermons upon every subject, ornamented and seasoned with supposedly +apt Scriptural quotations, a demand was created for printed discourses +to be read and inwardly digested at home. This demand the printers +supplied. Amid such literary conditions the primer came as light food +for infants' minds, and as such was accepted by parents to impress +religious ideas when teaching the alphabet. + +It is not by any means certain that the first edition of this great +primer of our ancestors contained illustrations, as engravers were few +in America before the eighteenth century. Yet it seems altogether +probable that they were introduced early in the next century, as by +seventeen hundred and seventeen Benjamin Harris, Jr., had printed in +Boston "The Holy Bible in Verse," containing cuts identical with those +in "The New England Primer" of a somewhat later date, and these pictures +could well have served as illustrations for both these books for +children's use, profit, and pleasure. At all events, the thorough +approval by parents and clergy of this small school-book soon brought to +many a household the novelty of a real picture-book. + +Hitherto little children had been perforce content with the few +illustrations the adult books offered. Now the printing of this tiny +volume, with its curious black pictures accompanying the text of +religious instruction, catechism, and alphabets, marked the milestone on +the long lane that eventually led to the well-drawn pictures in the +modern books for children. + +It is difficult at so late a day to estimate correctly the pleasure this +famous picture alphabet brought to the various colonial households. What +the original illustrations were like can only be inferred from those in +"The Holy Bible in Verse," and in the later editions of the primer +itself. In the Bible Adam (or is it Eve?) stands pointing to a tree +around which a serpent is coiled. By seventeen hundred and thirty-seven +the engraver was sufficiently skilled to represent two figures, who +stand as colossal statues on either side of the tree whose fruit had +such disastrous effects. However, at a time when art criticism had no +terrors for the engraver, it could well have been a delight to many a +family of little ones to gaze upon + + "The Lion bold + The Lamb doth hold" + +and to speculate upon the exact place where the lion ended and the lamb +began. The wholly religious character of the book was no drawback to its +popularity, for the two great diaries of the time show how absolutely +religion permeated the atmosphere surrounding both old and young. + +Cotton Mather's diary gives various glimpses of his dealing with his own +and other people's children. His son Increase, or "Cressy," as he was +affectionately called, seems to have been particularly unresponsive to +religious coercion. Mather's method, however, appears to have been more +efficacious with the younger members of his family, and of Elizabeth and +Samuel (seven years of age) he wrote: "My two younger children shall +before the Psalm and prayer answer a Quaestion in the catechism; and have +their Leaves ready turned unto the proofs of the Answer in the Bible; +which they shall distinctly read unto us, and show what they prove. This +also shall supply a fresh matter for prayer." Again he tells of his +table talk: "Tho' I will have my table talk facetious as well as +instructive ... yett I will have the Exercise continually intermixed. I +will set before them some sentence of the Bible, and make some useful +Remarks upon it." Other people's children he taught as occasion offered; +even when "on the Road in the Woods," he wrote on another day, "I, being +desirous to do some Good, called some little children ... and bestowed +some Instruction with a little Book upon them." To children accustomed +to instruction at all hours, the amusement found in the pages of the +primer was far greater than in any other book printed in the colonies +for years. + +Certain titles indicate the nature of the meagre juvenile literary fare +in the beginning of the new eighteenth century. In seventeen hundred +Nicholas Boone, in his "Shop over against the old Meeting-house" in +Boston, reprinted Janeway's "Token for Children." To this was added by +the Boston printer a "Token for the children of New England, or some +examples of children in whom the fear of God was remarkably budding when +they dyed; in several parts of New England." Of course its author, the +Reverend Mr. Mather, found colonial "examples" as deeply religious as +any that the mother country could produce; but there is for us a grim +humor in these various incidents concerning pious and precocious infants +"of thin habit and pale countenance," whose pallor became that of death +at so early an age. If it was by the repetition of such tales that the +Puritan divine strove to convert Cressy, it may well be that the son +considered it better policy, since Death claimed the little saints, to +remain a sinner. + +By seventeen hundred and six two juvenile books appeared from the press +of Timothy Green in Boston. The first, "A LITTLE BOOK for +children wherein are set down several directions for little children: +and several remarkable stories both ancient and modern of little +children, divers whereof are lately deceased," was a reprint from an +English book of the same title, and therefore has not in this chronicle +the interest of the second book. The purpose of its publication is given +in Mather's diary: + + [1706] 22d. Im. Friday. + + About this Time sending my little son to School, Where ye Child was + Learning to Read, I did use every morning for diverse months, to + Write in a plain Hand for the Child, and send thither by him, _a + Lesson in Verse_, to be not only _read_, but also _Gott_ by Heart. + My proposal was to have the Child improve in goodness, at the same + time that he improved in _Reading_. Upon further Thoughts I + apprehended that a Collection of some of them would be serviceable + to ye Good Education of other children. So I lett ye printer take + them & print them, in some hope of some Help to thereby contributed + unto that great Intention of a _Good Education_. The book is + entituled _Good Lessons for Children_; or Instruction provided for a + little Son to learn at School, when learning to Read. + +Although this small book lives only by record, it is safe to assume from +the extracts of the author's diary already quoted, that it lacked every +quality of amusement, and was adapted only to those whom he described, +in a sermon preached before the Governor and Council, as "verie Sharpe +and early Ripe in their capacities." "Good Lessons" has the distinction +of being the first American book to be composed, like many a modern +publication, for a particular young child; and, with its purpose "to +improve in goodness," struck clearly the keynote of the greater part of +all writing for children during the succeeding one hundred and +seventy-five years. + +The first glimpse of the amusement book proper appears in that unique +"History of Printing in America," by Isaiah Thomas. This describes, +among other old printers, one Thomas Fleet, who established himself in +Boston about 1713. "At first," wrote Mr. Thomas, "he printed pamphlets +for booksellers, small books for children and ballads" in Pudding +Lane.[19-A] "He owned several negroes, one of which ... was an ingenious +man and cut on wooden blocks all the pictures which decorated the +ballads and small books for his master."[19-B] As corroborative of these +statements Thomas also mentions Thomas Fleet, Sr., as "the putative +compiler of Mother Goose Melodies, which he first published in 1719, +bearing the title of 'Songs for the Nursery.'" + +Much discussion has arisen as to the earliest edition of Mother Goose. +Thomas's suggestion as to the origin of the first American edition has +been of late years relegated to the region of myth. Nevertheless, there +is something to be said in favor of the existence of some book of +nonsense at that time. The Boston "News Letter" for April 12-19, 1739, +contained a criticism of Tate and Brady's version of the Psalms, in +which the reviewer wrote that in Psalm VI the translators used the +phrase, "a wretch forlorn." He added: "(1) There is nothing of this in +the original or the English Psalter. (2) 'Tis a low expression and to +add a low one is the less allowable. But (3) what I am most concerned +for is, that it will be apt to make our Children think of the line in +their vulgar Play song; much like it, 'This is the maiden all forlorn.'" +We recognize at once a reference to our nursery friend of the "House +that Jack Built;" and if this and "Tom Thumb" were sold in Boston, why +should not other ditties have been among the chap-books which Thomas +remembered to have set up when a 'prentice lad in the printing-house of +Zechariah Fowle, who in turn had copied some issued previously by Thomas +Fleet? In further confirmation of Thomas's statement is a paragraph in +the preface to an edition of Mother Goose, published in Boston in 1833, +by Monroe & Francis. The editor traces the origin of these rhymes to a +London book entitled, "Rhymes for the Nursery or Lullabies for +Children," "that," he writes, "contained many of the identical pieces +handed down to us." He continues: "The first book of the kind known to +be printed in this country _bears_ [_the italics are mine_] the title, +'_Songs for the Nursery: or Mother Goose's Melodies for Children_.' +Something probably intended to represent a goose, with a very long neck +and mouth wide open, covered a large part of the title-page; at the +bottom of which was: 'Printed by T. Fleet, at his printing house, +Pudding Lane (Boston) 1719.' Several pages were missing, so that the +whole number could not be ascertained." The editor clearly writes as if +he had either seen, or heard accurately described, this piece of +_Americana_, which the bibliophile to-day would consider a treasure +trove. Later writers doubt whether any such book existed, for it is +hardly credible that the Puritan element which so largely composed the +population of Boston in the first quarter of the eighteenth century +would have encouraged the printing of any nonsensical jingles. + +Boston, however, was not at this time the only place in the colonies +where primers and religious books were written and printed. In +Philadelphia, Andrew Bradford, famous as the founder of the "American +Weekly Mercury," had in 1714 put through his press, probably upon +subscription, the "Last Words and Dyeing Expressions of Hannah Hill, +aged 11 years and near three Months." This morbid account of the death +of a little Quakeress furnished the Philadelphia children with a book +very similar to Mather's "Token." Not to be outdone by any precocious +example in Pennsylvania, the Reverend Mr. Mather soon found an instance +of "Early Piety in Elizabeth Butcher of Boston, being just 8 years and +11 months old," when she died in 1718. In two years two editions of her +life had been issued "to instruct and to invite little children to the +exercise of early piety." + +Such mortuary effusions were so common at the time that Benjamin +Franklin's witty skit upon them is apropos in this connection. In 1719, +at the age of sixteen, under the pseudonym of Mrs. Dogood, he wrote a +series of letters for his brother's paper, "The New England Courant." +From the following extract, taken from these letters, it is evident that +these children's "Last Words" followed the prevailing fashion: + + _A Receipt_ to make a _New England_ + Funeral _Elegy_. + + _For the title of your Elegy_. Of these you may have enough ready + made at your Hands: But if you should chuse to make it yourself you + must be sure not to omit the Words _Aetatis Suae_, which will + beautify it exceedingly. + + _For the subject of your Elegy_. Take one of your neighbors who has + lately departed this life; it is no great matter at what age the + Party Dy'd, but it will be best if he went away suddenly, being + _Kill'd_, _Drown'd_ or _Froze to Death_. + + Having chosen the Person, take all his Virtues, Excellencies, &c. + and if he have not enough, you may borrow some to make up a + sufficient Quantity: To these add his last Words, dying Expressions, + &c. if they are to be had: mix all these together, and be sure you + strain them well. Then season all with a Handful or two of + Melancholy Expressions, such as _Dreadful, Dreadly, cruel, cold, + Death, unhappy, Fate, weeping Eyes_, &c. Having mixed all these + Ingredients well, put them in an empty Scull of some _young + Harvard_; (but in case you have ne'er a One at Hand, you may use + your _own_,) then let them Ferment for the Space of a Fortnight, and + by that Time they will be incorporated into a Body, which take out + and having prepared a sufficient Quantity of double Rhimes, such as + _Power, Flower; Quiver, Shiver; Grieve us, Leave us; tell you, excel + you; Expeditions, Physicians; Fatigue him, Intrigue him_; &c. you + must spread all upon Paper, and if you can procure a Scrap of Latin + to put at the _End_, it will garnish it mightily: then having + affixed your Name at the bottom with a _Maestus Composuit_, you will + have an Excellent Elegy. + + N.B. This Receipt will serve when a Female is the subject of your + Elegy, provided you borrow a greater Quantity of Virtues, + Excellencies &c. + +Of other original books for children of colonial parents in the first +quarter of that century, "A Looking-glass" did but mirror more religious +episodes concerning infants, while Mather in his zeal had also published +"An Earnest Exhortation" to New England children, and "The A, B, C, of +religion. Fitted unto the youngest and lowest capacities." To this, +taking advantage of the use of rhymes, he appended further instruction, +including "The Body of Divinity versified." With our knowledge of the +clergyman's methods with his congregation it is not difficult to imagine +that he insisted upon the purchase of these godly aids for every +household. + +In attempting to reproduce the conditions of family life in the early +settlements and towns of colonial days, we turn quite naturally to the +newspapers, whose appearance in the first quarter of the eighteenth +century was gladly welcomed by the people of their time, and whose files +are now eagerly searched for items of great or small importance. Indeed, +much information can be gathered from their advertisements, which often +filled the major part of these periodicals. Apparently shop-keepers were +keen to take advantage of such space as was reserved for them, as +sometimes a marginal note informed the public that other advertisements +must wait for the next issue to appear. + +Booksellers' announcements, however, are not too frequent in Boston +papers, and are noticeably lacking in the early issues of the +Philadelphia "Weekly Mercury." This dearth of book-news accounts for the +difficulty experienced by book-lovers of that town in procuring +literature--a lack noticed at once by the wide-awake young Franklin upon +his arrival in the city, and recorded in his biography as follows: + +"At the time I established myself in Pennsylvania [1728] there was not a +bookseller's shop in any of the colonies to the southward of Boston. In +New York and Phil'a the printers were indeed stationers; they sold only +paper, etc., ballads, and a few books. Those who lov'd reading were +obliged to send for their books from London." + +Franklin undertook to better this condition by opening a shop for the +sale of foreign books. Both he and his rival in journalism, Andrew +Bradford, had stationer's shops, in which were to be had besides "Good +Writing Paper; Cyphering Slates; Ink Powders, etc., Chapmens Books and +Ballads." Bradford also advertised in seventeen hundred and thirty that +all persons could be supplied with "Primers and small Histories of many +sorts." "Small histories" were probably chap-books, which, hawked about +the country by peddlers or chapmen, contained tales of "Fair Rosamond," +"Jane Grey," "Tom Thumb" or "Tom Hick-a-Thrift," and though read by old +and young, were hardly more suitable for juvenile reading than the +religious elegies then so popular. These chap-books were sold in +considerable quantities on account of their cheapness, and included +religious subjects as well as tales of adventure. + +One of the earliest examples of this chap-book literature, thought +suitable for children, was printed in the colonies by the press of +Thomas Fleet, already mentioned as a printer of small books. This book +of 1736, being intended for ready sale, was such as every Puritan would +buy for the family library. Entitled "The Prodigal Daughter," it told in +Psalm-book metre of a "proud, vain girl, who, because her parents would +not indulge her in all her extravagances, bargained with the devil to +poisen them." The parents, however, were warned by an angel of her +intentions: + + "One night her parents sleeping were in bed + Nothing but troubled dreams run in their head, + At length an angel did to them appear + Saying awake, and unto me give ear. + A messenger I'm sent by Heaven kind + To let you know your lives are both design'd; + Your graceless child, whom you love so dear, + She for your precious lives hath laid a snare. + To poison you the devil tempts her so, + She hath no power from the snare to go: + But God such care doth of his servants take, + Those that believe on Him He'll not forsake. + + "You must not use her cruel or severe, + For though these things to you I do declare, + It is to show you what the Lord can do, + He soon can turn her heart, you'll find it so." + +The daughter, discovered in her attempt to poison their food, was +reproached by the mother for her evil intention and swooned. Every +effort failed to "bring her spirits to revive:" + + "Four days they kept her, when they did prepare + To lay her body in the dust we hear, + At her funeral a sermon then was preach'd, + All other wicked children for to teach.... + But suddenly they bitter groans did hear + Which much surprized all that then were there. + At length they did observe the dismal sound + Came from the body just laid in the ground." + +The Puritan pride in funeral display is naively exhibited in the +portrayal of the girl when she "in her coffin sat, and did admire her +winding sheet," before she related her experiences "among lonesome wild +deserts and briary woods, which dismal were and dark." But immediately +after her description of the lake of burning misery and of the fierce +grim Tempter, the Puritan matter-of-fact acceptance of it all is +suggested by the concluding lines: + + "When thus her story she to them had told, + She said, put me to bed for I am cold." + +The illustrations of a later edition entered thoroughly into the spirit +of the author's intent. The contemporary opinion of the French character +is quaintly shown in the portrait of the Devil dressed as a French +gentleman, his cloven foot discovering his identity. Whatever +deficiencies are revealed in these early attempts to illustrate, they +invariably expressed the artist's purpose, and in this case the Devil, +after the girl's conversion, is drawn in lines very acceptable to +Puritan children's idea of his personality. + +Almanacs also were in demand, and furnished parents and children, in +many cases, with their entire library for week-day reading. "Successive +numbers hung from a string by the chimney or ranked by years and +generations on cupboard shelves."[26-A] But when Franklin made "Poor +Richard" an international success, he, by giving short extracts from +Swift, Steele, Defoe, and Bacon, accustomed the provincial population, +old and young, to something better than the meagre religious fare +provided by the colonial press. + +Such, then, were the literary conditions for children when an +advertisement inserted in the "Weekly Mercury" gave promise of better +days for the little Philadelphians.[26-B] Strangely enough, this attempt +to make learning seem attractive to children did not appear in the +booksellers' lists; but crowded in between Tandums, Holland Tapes, +London Steel, and good Muscavado Sugar,--"Guilt horn books" were +advertised by Joseph Sims in 1740 as "for sale on reasonable Terms for +Cash." + +[Illustration: _The Devil appears as a French Gentleman_] + +Horn-books in themselves were only too common, and not in the least +delightful. Made of thin wood, whereon was placed a printed sheet of +paper containing the alphabet and Lord's Prayer, a horn-book was hardly, +properly speaking, a book at all. But when the printed page was covered +with yellowish transparent horn, secured to the wooden back by strips of +brass, it furnished an economical and practically indestructible +elementary text-book for thousands of English-speaking children on both +sides of the Atlantic. Sometimes an effort was also made to guard +against the inconvenient faculty of children for losing school-books, by +attaching a cord, which, passing through a hole in the handle of the +board, was hung around the scholar's neck. But since nothing is proof +against the ingenuity of a schoolboy, many were successfully disposed +of. Although printed by thousands, few in England or in America have +survived the century that has elapsed since they were used. +Occasionally, in tearing down an old building, one of these horn-books +has been found; dropped in a convenient hole, it has remained secure +from parents' sight, until brought to light by workmen and prized as a +curiosity by grown people of the present generation. This notice of +little gilt horn-books was inserted in the "Weekly Mercury" but once. +Whether the supply was quickly exhausted, or whether they did not prove +a successful novelty, can never be known; but at least they herald the +approach of the little gilt story-books which ten years later were to +make the name of John Newbery well known in English households, and +hardly less familiar in the American colonies. + +So far the only attractions to induce children to read have been through +the pictures in the Primer of New England, and by the gilding of the +horn-book. From further south comes the first note of amusement in +reading, as well as the first expression of pleasure from the children +themselves in regard to a book. In 1741, in Virginia, two letters were +written and received by R.H. Lee and George Washington. These letters, +which afford the first in any way authentic account of tales of real +entertainment, are given by Mr. Lossing in "The Home of Washington," and +tell their own tale: + + + [_Richard Henry Lee to George Washington_] + + PA brought me two pretty books full of pictures he got them + in Alexandria they have pictures of dogs and cats and tigers and + elefants and ever so many pretty things cousin bids me send you one + of them it has a picture of an elefant and a little indian boy on + his back like uncle jo's Sam pa says if I learn my tasks good he + will let uncle jo bring me to see you will you ask your ma to let + you come to see me. + + RICHARD HENRY LEE. + + + [_G. Washington to R.H. Lee_] + + DEAR DICKEY--I thank you very much for the pretty picture + book you gave me. Sam asked me to show him the pictures and I showed + him all the pictures in it; and I read to him how the tame Elephant + took care of the Master's little boy, and put him on his back and + would not let anybody touch his master's little son. I can read + three or four pages sometimes without missing a word.... I have a + little piece of poetry about the picture book you gave me but I + mustn't tell you who wrote the poetry. + + G.W.'s compliments to R.H.L. + And likes his book full well, + Henceforth will count him his friend + And hopes many happy days he may spend. + + Your good friend + GEORGE WASHINGTON. + +In a note Mr. Lossing states that he had copies of these two letters, +sent him by a Mr. Lee, who wrote: "The letter of Richard Henry Lee was +written by himself, and uncorrected sent by him to his boy friend George +Washington. The poetical effusion was, I have heard, written by a Mr. +Howard, a gentleman who used to visit at the house of Mr. Washington." + +It would be gratifying to know the titles of these two books, so +evidently English chap-book tales. It is probable that they were +imported by a shop-keeper in Alexandria, as in seventeen hundred and +forty-one there was only one press in Virginia, owned by William Sharps, +who had moved from Annapolis in seventeen hundred and thirty-six. +Luxuries were so much more common among the Virginia planters, and life +was so much more roseate in hue than was the case in the northern +colonies, that it seems most natural that two southern boys should have +left the earliest account of any real story-books. Though unfortunately +nameless, they at least form an interesting coincidence. Bought in +seventeen hundred and forty-one, they follow just one hundred years +later than the meeting of the General Court, which was responsible for +the preparation of Cotton's "Milk for Babes," and precede by a century +the date when an American story-book literature was recognized as very +different from that written for English children. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[6-A] _Records of Mass. Bay_, vol. i, p. 37 h. + +[6-B] _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 37 e. + +[6-C] Ford, _The New England Primer_, p. 83. + +[6-D] _Records of Mass. Bay_, vol. i, p. 328. + +[7-A] Ford, _The New England Primer_, p. 92. + +[7-B] _Ibid._ + +[11-A] In the possession of the British Museum. + +[14-A] Ford, _The New England Primer_, p. 38. + +[14-B] _Ibid._ + +[19-A] Thomas, _History of Printing in America_, vol. iii, p. 145. + +[19-B] _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 294. + +[26-A] Sears, _American Literature_, p. 86. + +[26-B] Although this appears to be the first advertisement of gilt +horn-books in Philadelphia papers, an inventory of the estate of Michael +Perry, a Boston bookseller, made in seventeen hundred, includes sixteen +dozen gilt horn-books. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +1747-1767 + + + + + He who learns his letters fair, + Shall have a coach and take the air. + _Royal Primer_, Newbery, 1762 + + Our king the good + No man of blood. + _The New England Primer_, 1762 + + + + +CHAPTER II + +1747-1767 + +_The Play-Book in England_ + + +The vast horde of story-books so constantly poured into modern nurseries +makes it difficult to realize that the library of the early colonial +child consisted of such books as have been already described. The +juvenile books to-day are multiform. The quantities displayed upon +shop-counters or ranged upon play-room shelves include a variety of +subjects bewildering to all but those whose business necessitates a +knowledge of this kind of literature. For the little child there is no +lack of gayly colored pictures and short tales in large print; for the +older boys and girls there lies a generous choice, ranging from Bunny +stories to Jungle Books, or they + + "May see how all things are, + Seas and cities near and far. + And the flying fairies' looks + In the picture story-books." + +The contrast is indeed extreme between that scanty fare of dull sermons +and "The New England Primer" given to the little people of the early +eighteenth century, and this superabundance prepared with lavish care +for the nation of American children. + +The beginning of this complex juvenile literature is, therefore, to be +regarded as a comparatively modern invention of about seventeen hundred +and forty-five. From that date can be traced the slow growth of a +literature written with an avowed intention of furnishing amusement as +well as instruction; and in the toy-books published one hundred and +fifty years ago are found the prototypes of the present modes of +bringing fun and knowledge to the American fireside. + +The question at once arises as to the reason why this literature came +into existence; why was it that children after seventeen hundred and +fifty should have been favored in a way unknown to their parents? + +To even the casual reader of English literature the answer is plain, if +this subject of toy-books be regarded as of near kin to the larger body +of writing. It has been somewhat the custom to consider children's +literature as a thing wholly apart from that of adults, probably because +the majority of the authors of these little tales have so generally +lacked the qualities indispensable for any true literary work. In +reality the connection between the two is somewhat like that of parent +and child; the smaller body, though lacking in power, has closely +imitated the larger mass of writing in form and kind, and has reflected, +sometimes clearly, sometimes dimly, the good or bad fashions that have +shared the successive periods of literary history, like a child who +unconsciously reproduces a parent's foibles or excellences. + +It is to England, then, that we must look to find the conditions out of +which grew the necessity for this modern invention--the story-book. + +The love of stories has been the splendid birthright of every child in +all ages and in all lands. "Stories," wrote Thackeray,--"stories exist +everywhere; there is no calculating the distance through which the +stories have come to us, the number of languages through which they have +been filtered, or the centuries during which they have been told. Many +of them have been narrated almost in their present shape for thousands +of years to the little copper-coloured Sanscrit children, listening to +their mothers under the palm-trees by the banks of the yellow +Jumna--their Brahmin mother, who softly narrated them through the ring +in her nose. The very same tale has been heard by the Northern Vikings +as they lay on their shields on deck; and the Arabs couched under the +stars on the Syrian plains when their flocks were gathered in, and their +mares were picketed by the tents." This picturesque description leads +exactly to the point to be emphasized: that children shared in the +simple tales of their people as long as those tales retained their +freshness and simplicity; but when, as in England in the eighteenth +century, the literature lost these qualities and became artificial, +critical, and even skeptical, it lost its charm for the little ones and +they no longer cared to listen to it. + +Fashion and taste were then alike absorbed in the works of Dryden, Pope, +Addison, Steele, and Swift, and the novels from the pens of Richardson, +Fielding, and Smollett had begun to claim and to hold the attention of +the English reading public. The children, however, could neither +comprehend nor enjoy the witty criticism and subtle treatment of the +topics discussed by the older men, although, as will be seen in another +chapter, the novels became, in both the original and in the abridged +forms, the delight of many a "young master and miss." Meanwhile, in the +American colonies the people who could afford to buy books inherited +their taste for literature as well as for tea from the Puritans and +fashionables in the mother country; although it is a fact familiar to +all, that the works of the comparatively few native authors lagged, in +spirit and in style, far behind the writings of Englishmen of the time. + +The reading of one who was a boy in the older era of the urbane Addison +and the witty Pope, and a man in the newer period of the novelists, is +well described in Benjamin Franklin's autobiography. "All the little +money," wrote that book-lover, "that came into my hands was laid out in +books. Pleased with the Pilgrim's Progress, my collection was of John +Bunyan's works in separate volumes. I afterwards sold them to buy R. +Burton's Historical Collections; they were Chapmen's books, and cheap, +40 or 50 in all." + +Burton's "Historical Collections" contained history, travels, +adventures, fiction, natural history, and biography. So great was the +favor in which they were held in the eighteenth century that the +compiler, Nathaniel Crouch, almost lost his identity in his pseudonym, +and like the late Mr. Clemens, was better known by his nom-de-plume than +by his family name. According to Dunton, he "melted down the best of the +English histories into twelve-penny books, which are filled with +wonders, rarities and curiosities." Although characterized by Dr. +Johnson as "very proper to allure backward readers," the contents of +many of the various books afforded the knowledge and entertainment +eagerly grasped by Franklin and other future makers of the American +nation. The scarcity of historical works concerning the colonies made +Burton's account of the "English Empire in America" at once a mine of +interest to wide-awake boys of the day. Number VIII, entitled "Winter +Evenings' Entertainment," was long a source of amusement with its +stories and riddles, and its title was handed down to other books of a +similar nature. To children, however, the best-known volume of the +series was Burton's illustrated versification of Bible stories called +"The Youth's Divine Pastime." But the subjects chosen by Burton were +such as belonged to a very plain-spoken age; and as the versifier was no +euphuist in his relation of facts, the result was a remarkable "Pastime +for Youth." The literature read by English children was, of course, the +same; the little ones of both countries ate of the same tree of +knowledge of facts, often either silly or revolting. + +To deliver the younger and future generations from such unpalatable and +indigestible mental food, there was soon to appear in London a man, John +Newbery by name, who, already a printer, publisher, and vendor of patent +medicines, seized the opportunity to issue stories written especially +for the amusement of little children. + +While Newbery was making his plans to provide pleasure for young folks +in England, in the colonies the idea of a child's need of recreation +through books was slowly gaining ground. It is well to note the manner +in which the little colonists were prepared to receive Newbery's books +as recreative features crept gradually into the very few publications of +which there is record. + +In seventeen hundred and forty-five native talent was still entirely +confined to writing for little people lugubrious sermons or discourses +delivered on Sunday and "Catechize days," and afterwards printed for +larger circulation. The reprints from English publications were such +exotics as, "A Poesie out of Mr. Dod's Garden," an alluring title, which +did not in the least deceive the small colonials as to the religious +nature of its contents. + +In New York the Dutch element, until the advent of Garrat Noel, paid so +little attention to the subject of juvenile literature that the +popularity of Watts's "Divine Songs" (issued by an Englishman) is well +attested by the fact that at present it is one of the very few child's +books of any kind recorded as printed in that city before 1760. But in +Boston, old Thomas Fleet, in 1741, saw the value of the element of some +entertainment in connection with reading, and, when he published "The +Parents' Gift, containing a choice collection of God's judgments and +Mercies," lives of the Evangelists, and other religious matter, he added +a "variety of pleasant Pictures proper for the Entertainment of +Children." This is, perhaps, the first printed acknowledgment in America +that pictures were commendable to parents _because_ entertaining to +their offspring. Such an idea put into words upon paper and advertised +in so well-read a sheet as the "Boston Evening Post," must surely have +impressed fathers and mothers really solicitous for the family welfare +and anxious to provide harmless pleasure. This pictorial element was +further encouraged by Franklin, when, in 1747, he reprinted, probably +for the first time in this country, "Dilworth's New Guide to the English +Tongue." In this school-book, after the alphabets and spelling lessons, +a special feature was introduced, that is, illustrated "Select Fables." +The cuts at the top of each fable possess an added interest from the +supposition that they were engraved by the printer himself; and the +constant use of the "Guide" by colonial school-masters and mistresses +made their pupils unconsciously quite ready for more illustrated and +fewer homiletic volumes. + +Indeed, before the middle of the century pictures had become an accepted +feature of the few juvenile books, and "The History of the Holy Jesus" +versified for little ones was issued by at least two old Boston printers +in 1747 and 1748 with more than a dozen cuts. Among the rare extant +copies of this small chap-book is one that, although torn and disfigured +by tiny fingers and the century and a half since it pleased its first +owner, bears the personal touch of this inscription "Ebenezer ... Bought +June ... 1749 ... price 0=2=d." Was the price marked upon its page as a +reminder that two shillings was a large price to pay for a boy's book? +Perhaps for this reason it received the careful handling that has +enabled us to examine it, when so many of its contemporaries and +successors have vanished. + +The versified story, notwithstanding its quaintness of diction, begins +with a dignified directness: + + "The glorious blessed Time had come, + The Father had decreed, + Jesus of _Mary_ there was born, + And in a Manger laid." + + +At the end are two _Hymns_, entitled "Delight in the Lord Jesus," and +"Absence from Christ intolerable." The final stanza is typical of one +Puritan doctrine: + + "The Devil throws his fiery Darts, + And wicked Ones do act their parts, + To ruin me when Christ is gone, + And leaves me all alone." + +The woodcuts are not the least interesting feature of this old-time +duodecimo, from the picture showing the mother reading to her children +to the illustration of the quaking of the earth on the day of the +crucifixion. Crude and badly drawn as they now seem, they were surely +sufficient to attract the child of their generation. + +About the same time old Zechariah Fowle, who apprenticed Isaiah Thomas, +and both printed and vended chap-books in Back Street, Boston, +advertised among his list of books "Lately Publish'd" this same small +book, together with "A Token for Youth," the "Life and Death of +Elizabeth Butcher," "A Preservative from the Sins and Follies of +Childhood and Youth," "The Prodigal Daughter," "The Happy Child," and +"The New Gift for Children with Cuts." Of these "The New Gift" was +certainly a real story-book, as one of a later edition still extant +readily proves. + +Thus the children in both countries were prepared to enjoy Newbery's +miniature story-books, although for somewhat different reasons: in +England the literature had reached a point too artificial to be +interesting to little ones; in America the product of the press and the +character of the majority of the juvenile importations, the reprints, or +home-made chap-books, has been shown to be such as would hardly attract +those who were to be the future arbiters of the colonies' destiny. + +The reasons for the coming to light of this new form of infant +literature have been dwelt upon in order to show the necessity for some +change in the kind of reading-matter to be put in the hands of the +younger members of the family. The natural order of consideration is +next to point out the phase it assumed upon its appearance in +England,--a phase largely due to the influence of one man,--and once +there, the modifications effected by the fashions in adult fiction. + +Although there was already much interest in the education and welfare of +children still in the nursery, the character of the first play-books was +probably due to the esteem in which the opinions of the philosopher, +John Locke, were held. He it was who gradually moved the vane of public +opinion around to serious consideration of recreation as a factor in the +well-being of these nursery inmates. Although it took time for Locke's +ideas upon the subject to sink into the public mind, it is impossible to +compare one of the first attempts to produce a play-book, "The Child's +New Play-thing," with the advice written to his friend, Edward Clarke, +without feeling that the progress from the religious books to primers +and readers (such as "Dilworth's Guide"), and then onward to +story-books, was largely the result of the publication of his letters +under the title of "Thoughts on Education." + +In these letters Locke took an extraordinary course: he first made a +quaint plea for the _general welfare_ of Mr. Clarke's little son. "I +imagine," he wrote, "the minds of children are as easily turned this or +that way as Water itself, and though this be the principal Part, and our +main Care should be about the inside, yet the Clay Cottage is not to be +neglected. I shall therefore begin with the case, and consider first the +_Health_ of the body." Under Health he discussed clothing, including +thin shoes, "that they may leak and let in Water." A pause was then +made to show the benefits of wet feet as against the apparent +disadvantages of filthy stockings and muddy boots; for mothers even in +that time were inclined to consider their floors and steps. Bathing next +received attention. Bathing every day in cold water, Locke regarded as +exceedingly desirable; no exceptions were to be made, even in the case +of a "puleing and tender" child. The beneficial effects of air, +sunlight, the establishment of good conduct, diet, sleep, and "physick" +were all discussed by the doctor and philosopher, before the development +of the mind was touched upon. "Education," he wrote, "concerns itself +with the forming of Children's Minds, giving them that seasoning early, +which shall influence their Lives later." This seasoning referred to the +training of children in matters pertaining to their general government +and to the reverence of parents. For the Puritan population it was +undoubtedly a shock to find Locke interesting himself in, and moreover +advocating, dancing as a part of a child's education; and worst of all, +that he should mention it before their hobby, LEARNING. In this +connection it is worth while to make mention of a favorite primer, +which, published about the middle of the eighteenth century, was +entitled "The Hobby Horse." Locke was quite aware that his method would +be criticised, and therefore took the bull by the horns in the following +manner. He admitted that to put the subject of learning last was a cause +for wonder, "especially if I tell you I think it the least part. This +may seem strange in the mouth of a bookish man, and this making usually +the chief, if not only bustle and stir about children; this being almost +that alone, which is thought on, when People talk about Education, make +it the greater Paradox." An unusual piece of advice it most surely was +to parents to whose children came the task of learning to read as soon +as they were given spoon-food. + +Even more revolutionary to the custom of an eighteenth century mother +was the admonition that reading "be never made a Task." Locke, however, +was not the man to urge a cure for a bad habit without prescribing a +remedy, so he went on to say that it was always his "Fancy that Learning +be made a Play and Recreation to Children"--a "Fancy" at present much in +vogue. To accomplish this desirable result, "Dice and Play-things with +the Letters on them" were recommended to teach children the alphabet; +"and," he added, "twenty other ways may be found ... to make this kind +of Learning a Sport to them." Letter-blocks were in this way made +popular, and formed the approved and advanced method until in these +latter days pedagogy has swept aside the letter-blocks and syllabariums +and carried the sport to word-pictures. + +This theory had a practical result in the introduction to many households +of "The Child's New Play-thing." This book, already mentioned, was +printed in England in seventeen hundred and forty-three, and dedicated to +Prince George. In seventeen hundred and forty-four we find through the +"Boston Evening Post" of January 23 that the third edition was sold by +Joseph Edwards, in Cornhill, and it was probably from this edition that +the first American edition was printed in seventeen hundred and fifty. +From the following description of this American reprint (one of which is +happily in the Lenox Collection), it will be seen that the "Play-thing" +was an attempt to follow Locke's advice, as well as a connecting link +between the primer of the past and the story-book of the near future. + +The title, which the illustration shows, reads, "The Child's New +Play-thing being a spelling-book intended to make Learning to read a +diversion instead of a task. Consisting of Scripture-histories, fables, +stories, moral and religious precepts, proverbs, songs, riddles, +dialogues, &c. The whole adapted to the capacities of children, and +divided into lessons of one, two, three and four syllables. The fourth +edition. To which is added three dialogues; 1. Shewing how a little boy +shall make every body love him. 2. How a little boy shall grow wiser than +the rest of his school-fellows. 3. How a little boy shall become a great +man. Designed for the use of schools, or for children before they go to +school." + +[Illustration: _Title-page from "The Child's new Play-Thing"_] + +Coverless and faded, hard usage is written in unmistakable characters +upon this play-thing of a whole family. Upon a fly-leaf are the +autographs of "Ebenezer Ware and Sarah Ware, Their Book," and upon +another page these two names with the addition of the signatures of +"Ichabod Ware and Cyrus Ware 1787." One parent may have used it when it +was fresh from the press of Draper & Edwards in Boston; then, through +enforced economy, handed it down to the next generation, who doubtless +scorned the dedication so eminently proper in seventeen hundred and +fifty, so thoroughly out of place thirty-seven years later. There it +stands in large black type: + + To his ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCE GEORGE This Little + Play-thing is most humbly dedicated + By + His ROYAL HIGHNESS'S + Devoted Servant + +Of especial interest are the alphabets in "Roman, Italian, and English +Names" on the third page, while page four contains the dear old alphabet +in rhyme, fortunately not altogether forgotten in this prosaic age. We +recognize it as soon as we see it. + + "A Apple-Pye + B bit it + C cut it," + +and involuntarily add, D divided it. After the spelling lessons came +fables, proverbs, and the splendid "Stories proper to raise the +Attention and excite the Curiosity of Children" of any age; namely, "St. +George and the Dragon," "Fortunatus," "Guy of Warwick," "Brother and +Sister," "Reynard the Fox," "The Wolf and the Kid." "The Good Dr. +Watts," writes Mrs. Field, "is supposed to have had a hand in the +composition of this toy book especially in the stories, one of which is +quite in the style of the old hymn writer." Here it is: + + "Once on a time two dogs went out to walk. Tray was a good dog, and + would not hurt the least thing in the world, but Snap was cross, and + would snarl and bite at all that came in his way. At last they came + to a town. All the dogs came round them. Tray hurt none of them, but + Snap would grin at one, snarl at the next, and bite a third, till at + last they fell on him and tore him limb from limb, and as poor Tray + was with him, he met with his death at the same time. + + _Moral_ + + "By this fable you see how dangerous it is to be in company with bad + boys. Tray was a quiet harmless dog, and hurt nobody, but, + &c."[45-A] + +Thus we find that Locke sowed the seed, Watts watered the soil in which +the seed fell, and that Newbery, after mixing in ideas from his very +fertile brain, soon reaped a golden harvest from the crop of readers, +picture-books, and little histories which he, with the aid of certain +well-known authors, produced. + +According to his biographer, Mr. Charles Welsh, John Newbery was born in +a quaint parish of England in seventeen hundred and thirteen. Although +his father was only a small farmer, Newbury inherited his bookish tastes +from an ancestor, Ralph or Rafe Newbery, who had been a great publisher +of the sixteenth century. Showing no inclination toward the life of a +farmer, the boy, at sixteen, had already entered the shop of a merchant +in Reading. The name of this merchant is not known, but inference points +to Mr. Carnan, printer, proprietor, and editor of one of the earliest +provincial newspapers. In seventeen hundred and thirty-seven, at the +death of Carnan, John Newbery, then about twenty-four years of age, +found himself one of the proprietor's heirs and an executor of the +estate. Carnan left a widow, to whom, to quote her son, Newbery's "love +of books and acquirements as a printer rendered him very acceptable." +The amiable and well-to-do widow and Newbery were soon married, and +their youngest son, Francis Newbery, eventually succeeded his father in +the business of publishing. + +[Illustration: _Title-page from "A Little Pretty Pocket-Book"_] + +Shortly after Newbery's marriage his ambition and enterprise resulted in +the establishment of his family in London, where, in seventeen hundred +and forty-four, he opened a warehouse at _The Bible and Crown_, near +Devereux Court, without Temple Bar. Meanwhile he had associated +himself with Benjamin Collins, a printer in Salisbury. Collins both +planned and printed some of Newbery's toy volumes, and his name likewise +was well-known to shop-keepers in the colonies. Newbery soon found that +his business warranted another move nearer to the centre of trade. He +therefore combined two establishments into one at the now celebrated +corner of St. Paul's Churchyard, and at the same time decided to confine +his attention exclusively to book publishing and medicine vending. + +Before his departure from Devereux Court, Newbery had published at least +one book for juvenile readers. The title reads: "Little Pretty +Pocket-Book, intended for the instruction and Amusement of Little Master +Tommy and Pretty Miss Polly, with an agreeable Letter to read from Jack +the Giant Killer, as also a Ball and Pincushion, the use of which will +infallibly make Tommy a good Boy, and Polly a good Girl. To the whole is +prefixed a letter on education humbly addressed to all Parents, +Guardians, Governesses, &c., wherein rules are laid down for making +their children strong, healthy, virtuous, wise and happy." To this +extraordinarily long title were added couplets from Dryden and Pope, +probably because extracts from these poets were usually placed upon the +title-page of books for grown people; possibly also in order to give a +finish to miniature volumes that would be like the larger publications. +A wholly simple method of writing title-pages never came into even +Newbery's original mind; he did for the juvenile customer exactly what +he was accustomed to do for his father and mother. And yet the habit of +spreading out over the page the entire contents of the book was not +without value: it gave the purchaser no excuse for not knowing what was +to be found within its covers; and in the days when books were a luxury +and literary reviews non-existent, the country trade was enabled to make +a better choice. + +[Illustration: _A page from "A Little Pretty Pocket-Book"_] + +The manner in which the "Little Pretty Pocket-Book" is written is so +characteristic of those who were the first to attempt to write for the +younger generation in an amusing way, that it is worth while to examine +briefly the topics treated. An American reprint of a later date, now in +the Lenox Collection, will serve to show the method chosen to combine +instruction with amusement. The book itself is miniature in size, about +two by four inches, with embossed gilt paper covers--Newbery's own +specialty as a binding. The sixty-five little illustrations at the top +of its pages were numerous enough to afford pleasure to any eighteenth +century child, although they were crude in execution and especially +lacked true perspective. The first chapter after the "Address to +Parents" and to the other people mentioned on the title-page gives +letters to Master Tommy and Miss Polly. First, Tommy is congratulated +upon the good character that his Nurse has given him, and instructed as +to the use of the "Pocket-Book," "which will teach you to play at all +those innocent games that good Boys and Girls divert themselves with." +The boy reader is next advised to mark his good and bad actions with +pins upon a red and black ball. Little Polly is then given similar +congratulations and instructions, except that in her case a pincushion +is to be substituted for a ball. Then follow thirty pages devoted to +"alphabetically digested" games, from "The _great A Play_" and "The +_Little_ _a Play_" to "The _great and little Rs_," when plays, or the +author's imagination, give out and rhymes begin the alphabet anew. +Modern picture alphabets have not improved much upon this jingle: + + "Great A, B and C + And tumble down D, + The Cat's a blind buff, + And she cannot see." + +Next in order are four fables with morals (written in the guise of +letters), for in Newbery's books and in those of a much later period, we +feel, as Mr. Welsh writes, a "strong determination on the part of the +authors to place the moral plainly in sight and to point steadily to +it." Pictures also take a leading part in this effort to inculcate good +behaviour; thus _Good Children_ are portrayed in cuts, which accompany +the directions for attaining perfection. Proverbs, having been hitherto +introduced into school-books, appear again quite naturally in this +source of diversion, which closes--at least in the American +edition--with sixty-three "Rules for Behaviour." These rules include +those suitable for various occasions, such as "At the Meeting-House," +"Home," "The Table," "In Company," and "When abroad with other +Children." To-day, when many such rules are as obsolete as the tiny +pages themselves, this chapter affords many glimpses of the customs and +etiquette of the old-fashioned child's life. Such a direction as "Be not +hasty to run out of Meeting-House when Worship is ended, as if thou +weary of being there" (probably an American adaptation of the English +original), recalls the well-filled colonial meeting-house, where weary +children sat for hours on high seats, with dangling legs, or screwed +their small bodies in vain efforts to touch the floor. Again we can see +the anxious mothers, when, after the long sermon was brought to a close, +they put restraining hands upon the little ones, lest they, in haste to +be gone, should forget this admonition. The formalism of the time is +suggested in this request, "Make a Bow always when come Home, and be +instantly uncovered," for the ceremony of polite manners in these +bustling days has so much relaxed that the modern boy does all that is +required if he remembers to be "instantly uncovered when come Home." +Among the numerous other requirements only one more may be cited--a rule +which reveals the table manners of polite society in its requisite for +genteel conduct: "Throw not anything under the Table. Pick not thy teeth +at the Table, unless holding thy Napkin before thy mouth with thine +other Hand." With such an array of intellectual and moral contents, the +little "Pocket-Book" may appear to-day to be almost anything except an +amusement book. Yet this was the phase that the English play-book first +assumed, and it must not be forgotten that English prose fiction was +only then coming into existence, except such germs as are found in the +character sketches in the "Spectator" and in the cleverly told incidents +by Defoe. + +In 1744, when Newbery published this duodecimo, Dr. Samuel Johnson was +the presiding genius of English letters; four years earlier, fiction had +come prominently into the foreground with the publication of "Pamela" by +Samuel Richardson; and between seventeen hundred and forty and seventeen +hundred and fifty-two, Richardson's "Clarissa Harlowe," Smollett's +"Roderick Random" and "Peregrine Pickle," and Fielding's "Tom Jones" were +published. This fact may seem irrelevant to the present subject; +nevertheless, the idea of a veritable story-book, that is a book relating +a tale, does not seem to have entered Newbery's mind until after these +novels had met with a deserved and popular success. + +The result of Newbery's first efforts to follow Locke's advice was so +satisfactory that his wares were sought most eagerly. "Very soon," said +his son, Francis Newbery, "he was in the full employment of his talents +in writing and publishing books of amusement and instruction for +Children. The call for them was immense, an edition of many thousands +being sometimes exhausted during the Christmas holidays. His friend, Dr. +Samuel Johnson, who, like other grave characters, could now and then be +jocose, had used to say of him, 'Newbery is an extraordinary man, for I +know not whether he has read or written most Books.'"[51-A] + +The bookseller was no less clever in his use of other people's wits. No +one knows how many of the tiny gilt bindings covered stories told by +impecunious writers, to whom the proceeds in times of starvation were +bread if not butter. Newbery, though called by Goldsmith "the +philanthropic publisher of St. Paul's Churchyard," knew very well the +worth to his own pocket of these authors' skill in story-writing. Between +the years seventeen hundred and fifty-seven and seventeen hundred and +sixty-seven, the English publisher was at the height of his prosperity; +his name became a household word in England, and was hardly less well +known to the little colonials of America. + +Newbery's literary associations, too, were both numerous and important. +Before Oliver Goldsmith began to write for children, he is thought to +have contributed articles for Newbery's "Literary Magazine" about +seventeen hundred and fifty-eight, while Johnson's celebrated "Idler" +was first printed in a weekly journal started by the publisher about the +same time. For the "British Magazine" Newbery engaged Smollett as +editor. In this periodical appeared Goldsmith's "History of Miss +Stanton." When later this was published as "The Vicar of Wakefield," it +contained a characterization of the bookseller as a good-natured man +with red, pimpled face, "who was no sooner alighted than he was in haste +to be gone, for he was ever on business of the utmost importance, and he +was at that time actually compiling materials for the history of Mr. +Thomas Trip."[52-A] With such an acquaintance it is probable that +Newbery often turned to Goldsmith, Giles Jones, and Tobias Smollett for +assistance in writing or abridging the various children's tales; even +the pompous Dr. Johnson is said to have had a hand in their +production--since he expressed a wish to do so. Newbery himself, +however, assumed the responsibility as well as the credit of so many +little "Histories," that it is exceedingly difficult to fix upon the +real authors of some of the best-known volumes in the publisher's +juvenile library. + +The histories of "Goody Two-Shoes" and "Tommy Trip" (once such nursery +favorites, and now almost, if not quite, forgotten) have been attributed +to various men; but according to Mr. Pearson in "Banbury Chap-Books," +Goldsmith confessed to writing both. Certainly, his sly wit and quizzical +vein of humor seem to pervade "Goody Two-Shoes"--often ascribed to Giles +Jones--and the notes affixed to the rhymes of Mother Goose before she +became Americanized. Again his skill is seen in the adaptation of +"Wonders of Nature and Art" for juvenile admirers; and for "Fables in +Verse" he is generally considered responsible. As all these tales were +printed in the colonies or in the young Republic, their peculiarities and +particularities may be better described when dealing with the issues of +the American press. + +John Newbery, the most illustrious of publishers in the eyes of the +old-fashioned child, died in 1767, at the comparatively early age of +fifty-four. Yet before his death he had proved his talent for producing +at least fifty original little books, to be worth considerably more than +the Biblical ten talents. + +No sketch of Newbery's life should fail to mention another large factor +in his successful experiment--the insertion in the "London Chronicle" +and other newspapers of striking and novel advertisements of his gilt +volumes, which were to be had for "six-pence the price of binding." An +instance of his skill appeared in the "London Chronicle" for December +19, 1764-January 1, 1765: + +"The Philosophers, Politicians, Necromancers, and the learned in every +faculty are desired to observe that on the 1st of January, being New +Year's Day (oh, that we may all lead new lives!) Mr. Newbery intends to +publish the following important volumes, bound and gilt, and hereby +invites all his little friends who are good to call for them at the +Bible and Sun in St. Paul's Churchyard, but those who are naughty to +have none."[54-A] + +Christopher Smart, his brother-in-law, who was an adept in the art of +puffing, possibly wrote many of the advertisements of new books--notices +so cleverly phrased that they could not fail to attract the attention of +many a country shop-keeper. In this way thousands were sold to the +country districts; and book-dealers in the American commonwealths, +reading the English papers and alert to improve their trade, imported +them in considerable quantities. + +After Newbery's death, his son, Francis, and Carnan, his stepson, +carried on the business until seventeen hundred and eighty-eight; from +that year until eighteen hundred and two Edward Newbery (a nephew of the +senior Newbery), who in seventeen hundred and sixty-seven had set up a +rival establishment, continued to publish new editions of the same +little works. Yet the credit of this experiment of printing juvenile +stories belongs entirely to the older publisher. Through them he made a +strong protest against the reading by children of the lax chap-book +literature, so excellently described by Mr. John Ashton in "Chap-Books +of the Eighteenth Century;" and although his stories occasionally +alluded to disagreeable subjects or situations, these were unfortunately +familiar to his small patrons. + +The gay little covers of gilt or parti-colored paper in which this +English publisher dressed his books expressed an evident purpose to +afford pleasure, which was increased by the many illustrations that +adorned the pages and added interest to the contents. + +To the modern child, these books give no pleasure; but to those who love +the history of children of the past, they are interesting for two +reasons. In them is portrayed something of the life of eighteenth +century children; and by them the century's difference in point of view +as to the constituents of a story-book can be gauged. Moreover, all +Newbery's publications are to be credited with a careful preparation +that later stories sadly lacked. They were always written with a certain +art; if the language was pompous, we remember Dr. Johnson; if the style +was formal, its composition was correct; if the tales lacked ease in +telling, it was only the starched etiquette of the day reduced to a +printed page; and if they preached, they at least were seldom vulgar. + +The preaching, moreover, was of different character from that of former +times. Hitherto, the fear of the Lord had wholly occupied the author's +attention when he composed a book "proper for a child as soon as he can +read;" now, material welfare was dwelt upon, and a good boy's reward +came to him when he was chosen the Lord Mayor of London. Good girls were +not forgotten, and were assured that, like Goody Two-Shoes, they should +attain a state of prosperity wherein + + "Their Fortune and their Fame would fix + And gallop in their Coach and Six." + +Goody Two-Shoes, with her particular method of instilling the alphabet, +and such books as "King Pippin" (a prodigy of learning) may be +considered as tiny commentaries upon the years when Johnson reigned +supreme in the realm of learning. These and many others emphasized not +the effects of piety,--Cotton Mather's forte,--but the benefits of +learning; and hence the good boy was also one who at the age of five +spelt "apple-pye" correctly and therefore eventually became a great man. + +At the time of Newbery's death it was more than evident that his +experiment had succeeded, and children's stories were a printed fact. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[45-A] Field, _The Child and his Book_, p. 223. + +[51-A] Welsh, _Bookseller of the Last Century_, pp. 22, 23. + +[52-A] Foster, _Life of Goldsmith_, vol. i, p. 244. + +[54-A] Welsh, _Bookseller of the Last Century_, p. 109. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +1750-1776 + + + + + Kings should be good + Not men of blood. + _The New England Primer_, 1791 + + If Faith itself has different dresses worn + What wonder modes in wit should take their turn. + POPE: _Essay on Man_ + + + + +CHAPTER III + +1750-1776 + +_Newbery's Books in America_ + + +In the middle of the eighteenth century Thursdays were red-letter days +for the residents of the Quaker town of Philadelphia. On that day Thomas +Bradford sent forth from the "Sign of the Bible" in Second Street the +weekly number of the "Pennsylvania Journal," and upon the same day his +rival journalists, Franklin and Hall, issued the "Pennsylvania Gazette." + +On Thursday, the fifteenth of November, seventeen hundred and fifty, Old +Style, the good people of the town took up their newspapers with +doubtless a feeling of comfortable anticipation, as they drew their +chairs to the fireside and began to look over the local occurrences of +the past week, the "freshest foreign advices," and the various bits of +information that had filtered slowly from the northern and more southern +provinces. + +On this particular evening the subscribers to both newspapers found a +trifle more news in the "Journal," but in each paper the same domestic +items of interest, somewhat differently worded. The latest news from +Boston was that of November fifth, from New York, November eighth, the +Annapolis item was dated October tenth, and the few lines from London +had been written in August. + +The "Gazette" (a larger sheet than the "Journal") occasionally had upon +its first page some timely article of political or local interest. But +more frequently there appeared in its first column an effusion of no +local color, but full of sentimental or moral reflections. In this day's +issue there was a long letter, dated New York, from one who claimed to +be "Beauty's Votary." This expressed the writer's disappointment that an +interesting "Piece" inserted in the "Gazette" a fortnight earlier had +presented in its conclusion "an unexpected shocking Image." The shock to +the writer it appears was the greater, because the beginning of the +article had, he thought, promised a strong contrast between "Furious +Rage in our rough Sex, and Gentle mildness adorn'd with Beauty's charms +in the other." The rest of the letter was an apostrophe to the fair sex +in the sentimental and florid language of the period. + +To the women, we imagine, this letter was more acceptable than to the +men, who found the shipping news more to their taste, and noted with +pleasure the arrival of the ship Carolina and the Snow Strong, which +brought cargoes valuable for their various industries. + +Advertisements filled a number of columns. Among them was one so novel +in its character that it must have caught the eye of all readers. The +middle column on the second page was devoted almost entirely to an +announcement that John Newbery had for "Sale to Schoolmasters, +Shopkeepers, &c, who buy in quantities to sell again," "The Museum," "A +new French Primer," "The Royal Battledore," and "The Pretty Book for +Children." This notice--a reduced fac-simile of which is given--made +Newbery's debut in Philadelphia; and it must not be forgotten that but a +short period had elapsed since his first book had been printed in +England. + +[Illustration: _John Newbery's Advertisement of Children's Books_] + +Franklin had doubtless heard of the publisher in St. Paul's +Churchyard through Mr. Strahan, his correspondent, who filled orders for +him from London booksellers; but the omission of the customary +announcement of special books as "to be had of the Printer hereof" +points to Newbery's enterprise in seeking a wider market for his wares, +and Franklin's business ability in securing the advertisement, as it is +not repeated in the "Journal." + +This "Museum" was probably a newer book than the "Royal Primer," +"Battledore," and "Pretty Book," and consequently was more fully +described; and oddly enough, all of these books are of earlier editions +than Mr. Welsh, Newbery's biographer, was able to trace in England. + +"The Museum" still clings to the same idea which pervaded "The +Play-thing." Its second title reads: "A private TUTOR for little MASTERS +and MISSES." The contents show that this purpose was carried out. It +tutored them by giving directions for reading with eloquence and +propriety; by presenting "the antient and present State of _Great +Britain_ with a compendious History of _England_;" by instructing them +in "the Solar System, geography, Arts and Sciences" and the inevitable +"Rules for Behaviour, Religion and Morality;" and it admonished them by +giving the "Dying Words of Great Men when just quitting the Stage of +Life." As a museum it included descriptions of the Seven Wonders of the +World, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Churchyard, and the Tower of +London, with an ethnological section in the geographical department! All +of this amusement was to be had for the price of "One Shilling," neatly +bound, with, thrown in as good measure, "Letters, Tales and Fables +illustrated with Cuts." Such a library, complete in itself, was a fine +and most welcome reward for scholarship, when prizes were awarded at the +end of the school session. + +Importations of "Parcels of entertaining books for children" had earlier +in the year been announced through the columns of the "Gazette;" but +these importations, though they show familiarity with Newbery's quaint +phraseology in advertising, probably also included an assortment of such +little chap-books as "Tom Thumb," "Cinderella" (from the French of +Monsieur Perrault), and some few other old stories which the children +had long since appropriated as their own property. + +In 1751 we find New York waking up to the appreciation of children's +books. There J. Waddell and James Parker were apparently the pioneers in +bringing to public notice the fact that they had for sale little +novel-books in addition to horn-books and primers; and moreover the +"Weekly Post-Boy" advertised that these booksellers had "Pretty Books +for little Masters and Misses" (clearly a Newbery imitation), "with +Blank Flourished Christmas pieces for Scholars." + +But as yet even Franklin had hardly been convinced that the old way of +imparting knowledge was not superior to the then modern combination of +amusement and instruction; therefore, although with his partner, David +Hall, he without doubt sold such children's books as were available, for +his daughter Sally, aged seven, he had other views. At his request his +wife, in December, 1751, wrote the following letter to William Strahan: + + MADAM,--I am ordered by my Master to write for him Books + for Sally Franklin. I am in Hopes She will be abel to write for + herself by the Spring. + + 8 Sets of the Perceptor best Edit. + 8 Doz. of Croxall's Fables. + 3 Doz. of Bishop Kenns Manual for Winchester School. + 1 Doz. Familiar Forms, Latin and Eng. + Ainsworth's Dictionaries, 4 best Edit. + 2 Doz. Select Tales and Fables. + 2 Doz. Costalio's Test. + Cole's Dictionarys Latin and Eng. 6 a half doz. + 3 Doz. of Clarke's Cordery. 1 Boyle's Pliny 2 vols. 8vo. + 6 Sets of Nature displayed in 7 vols. 12mo. + One good Quarto Bibel with Cudes bound in calfe. + 1 Penrilla. 1 Art of making Common Salt. By Browning. + + My Dafter gives her duty to Mr. Stroyhan and his Lady, and her + compliments to Master Billy and all his brothers and Sisters.... + + Your humbel Servant + DEBORAH FRANKLIN + +Little Sally Franklin could not have needed eight dozen copies of +Aesop's Fables, nor four Ainsworth's Dictionaries, so it is probable +that Deborah Franklin's far from ready pen put down the book order for +the spring, and that Sally herself was only to be supplied with the +"Perceptor," the "Fables," and the "one good Quarto Bibel." + +As far as it is now possible to judge, the people of the towns soon +learned the value of Newbery's little nursery tales, and after seventeen +hundred and fifty-five, when most of his books were written and +published, they rapidly gained a place on the family book-shelves in +America. + +By seventeen hundred and sixty Hugh Gaine, printer, publisher, patent +medicine seller, and employment agent for New York, was importing +practically all the Englishman's juvenile publications then for sale. At +the "Bible and Crown," where Gaine printed the "Weekly Mercury," could +be bought, wholesale and retail, such books as, "Poems for Children +Three Feet High," "Tommy Trapwit," "Trip's Book of Pictures," "The New +Year's Gift," "The Christmas Box," etc. + +Gaine himself was a prominent printer in New York in the latter half of +the eighteenth century. Until the Revolution his shop was a favorite one +and well patronized. But when the hostilities began, the condition of +his pocket seems to have regulated his sympathies, and he was by turn +Whig and Tory according to the possession of New York by so-called +Rebels, or King's Servants. When the British army evacuated New York, +Gaine, wishing to keep up his trade, dropped the "Crown" from his sign. +Among the enthusiastic patriots this ruse had scant success. In +Freneau's political satire of the bookseller, the first verse gives a +strong suggestion of the ridicule to follow: + + "And first, he was, in his own representation, + A printer, once of good reputation. + He dwelt in the street called Hanover-Square, + (You'll know where it is if you ever was there + Next door to the dwelling of Mr. Brownjohn, + Who now to the drug-shop of Pluto is gone) + But what do I say--who e'er came to town, + And knew not Hugh Gaine at the _Bible_ and _Crown_." + +A contemporary of, and rival bookseller to, Gaine in seventeen hundred +and sixty was James Rivington. Mr. Hildeburn has given Rivington a +rather unenviable reputation; still, as he occasionally printed (?) a +child's book, Mr. Hildeburn's remarks are quoted: + +"Until the advent of Rivington it was generally possible to tell from an +American Bookseller's advertisement in the current newspapers whether +the work offered for sale was printed in America or England. But the +books he received in every fresh invoice from London were 'just +published by James Rivington' and this form was speedily adopted by +other booksellers, so that after 1761 the advertisement of books is no +longer a guide to the issues of the colonial press." + +Although Rivington did not set up a press until about seventeen hundred +and seventy-three,--according to Mr. Hildeburn,--he had a book-shop much +earlier. Here he probably reprinted the title-page and then put an +elaborate notice in the "Weekly Mercury" for November 17, 1760, as +follows: + + JAMES RIVINGTON + + _Bookseller and Stationer from London over against the Golden Key in + Hanover Square._ + + This day is published, Price, seven Shillings, and sold by the said + JAMES RIVINGTON, adorned with two hundred Pictures + + THE + FABLES OF AESOP + + with a moral to each Fable in Verse, and an Application in Prose, + intended for the Use of the youngest of readers, and proper to be + put into the hands of Children, immediately after they have done + with the Spelling-Book, it being adapted to their tender Capacities, + the Fables are related in a short and lively Manner, and they are + recommended to all those who are concerned in the education of + Children. This is an entire new Work, elegantly printed and + ornamented with much better Cuts than any other Edition of Aesop's + Fables. Be pleased to ask for DRAPER'S AESOP. + +From such records of parents' care as are given in Mrs. Charles +Pinckney's letters to her husband's agent in London, and Josiah Quincy's +reminiscences of his early training, it seems very evident that John +Locke's advice in "Thoughts on Education" was read and followed at this +time in the American colonies. Therefore, in accordance with the +bachelor philosopher's theory as to reading-matter for little children, +the bookseller recommended the "Fables" to "those concerned in the +education of children." It is at least a happy coincidence that one of +the earliest books (as far as is known to the writer), aside from school +and religious books, issued as published in America for children, should +have been the one Locke had so heartily recommended. This is what he had +said many years previously: "When by these gentle ways he begins to +_read_, some easy pleasant Book, suited to his capacities, should be put +into his Hands, wherein the Entertainment that he finds might draw him +on, and reward his Pains in Reading, and yet not such as will fill his +head with perfectly useless Trumpery, or lay the Principles of Vice and +Folly. To this Purpose, I think Aesop's Fables the best which being +Stories apt to delight and entertain a child, may yet afford useful +Reflections to a grown Man.... If his Aesop has pictures in it, it will +entertain him much better and encourage him to read." The two hundred +pictures in Rivington's edition made it, of course, high priced in +comparison with Newbery's books: but New York then contained many +families well able to afford this outlay to secure such an acquisition +to the family library. + +Hugh Gaine at this time, as a rule, received each year two shipments of +books, among which were usually some for children, yet about 1762 he +began to try his own hand at reprinting Newbery's now famous little +duodecimos. + +In that year we find an announcement through the "New York Mercury" that +he had himself printed "Divers diverting books for infants." The +following list gives some idea of their character: + + _Just published by Hugh Gaine_ + + A pretty Book for Children; Or an Easy Guide to the English Tongue. + + The private Tutor for little Masters and Misses. + + Food for the Mind; or a new Riddle Book compiled for the use of + little Good Boys and Girls in America. By Jack the Giant-Killer, + Esq. + + A Collection of Pretty Poems, by Tommy Tag, Esq. + + Aesop's Fables in Verse, with the Conversation of Beasts and Birds, + at their several Meetings. By Woglog the great Giant. + + A Little pretty Book, intended for the Amusement of Little Master + Tommy and pretty Miss Polly, with two Letters from Jack the + Giant-Killer. + + Be Merry and Wise: Or the Cream of the Jests. By Tommy Trapwit, Esq. + +The title of "Food for the Mind" is of special importance, since in it +Gaine made a clever alteration by inserting the words "Good Boys and +Girls in _America_." The colonials were already beginning to feel a +pride in the fact of belonging to the new country, America, and +therefore Gaine shrewdly changed the English title to one more likely to +induce people to purchase. + +Gaine and Rivington alone have left records of printing children's +story-books in the town of New York before the Revolution; but before +they began to print, other booksellers advertised their invoices of +books. In 1759 Garrat Noel, a Dutchman, had announced that he had "the +very prettiest gilt Books for little Masters and Misses that ever were +invented, full of wit and wisdom, at the surprising low Price of only +one Shilling each finely bound and adorned with a number of curious +Cuts." By 1762 Noel had increased his stock and placed a somewhat larger +advertisement in the "Mercury" of December 27. The late arrival of his +goods may have been responsible for the bargains he offered at this +holiday sale. + + GARRAT NOEL _Begs Leave to Inform the Public, that according to + his Annual Custom, he has provided a very large Assortment of Books + for Entertainment and Improvement of Youth, in Reading, Writing, + Cyphering, and Drawing, as Proper Presents at _CHRISTMAS_ + and _New-Year_._ + + The following Small, but improving Histories, are sold at _Two + Shillings_, each, neatly bound in red, and adorn'd with Cuts. + + [Symbol: hand]Those who buy _Six_, shall have a _Seventh Gratis_, + and buying only _Three_, they shall have a present of a fine large + Copper-Plate Christmas Piece: [_List of histories follows._] + + The following neat Gilt Books, very instructive and Amusing being + full of Pictures, are sold at _Eighteen Pence_ each. + + Fables in Verse and Prose, with the Conversation of Birds & + Beasts at their several meetings, Routs and Assemblies for the + Improvement of Old and Young, etc. + +To-day none of these gay little volumes sold in New York are to be seen. +The inherent faculty of children for losing and destroying books, +coupled with the perishable nature of these toy volumes, has rendered +the children's treasures of seventeen hundred and sixty-two a great +rarity. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is the fortunate +possessor of one much prized story-book printed in that year; but though +it is at present in the Quaker City, a printer of Boston was responsible +for its production. + +In Isaiah Thomas's recollections of the early Boston printers, he +described Zechariah Fowle, with whom he served his apprenticeship, and +Samuel Draper, Fowle's partner. These men, about seventeen hundred and +fifty-seven, took a house in Marlborough Street. Here, according to +Thomas, "they printed and opened a shop. They kept a great supply of +ballads, and small pamphlets for book pedlars, of whom there were many +at that time. Fowle was bred to the business, but he was an indifferent +hand at the press, and much worse at the case." + +This description of the printer's ability is borne out by the "New-Gift +for Children," printed by this firm. It is probably the oldest +story-book bearing an American imprint now in existence, and for this +reason merits description, although its contents can be seen in the +picture of the title-page. Brown with age and like all chap-books +without a cover--for it was Newbery who introduced this more durable and +attractive feature--all sizes in type were used to print its fifteen +stories. The stories in themselves were not new, as it is called the +"Fourth edition." It is possible that they were taken from the Banbury +chap-books, which also often copied Newbery's juvenile library, as the +list of his publications compiled by Mr. Charles Welsh does not contain +this title. + +The loyalty of the Boston printers found expression on the third page by +a very black cut of King George the Third, who appears rather puzzled +and not a little unhappy; but it found favor with customers, for as yet +the colonials thought their king "no man of blood." On turning the page +Queen Charlotte looks out with goggle-eyes, curls, and a row of beads +about the size of pebbles around her thick neck. The picture seems to be +a copy from some miniature of the queen, as an oval frame with a crown +surmounting it encircles the portrait. The stories are so much better +than some that were written even after the nineteenth century, that +extracts from them are worth reading. The third tale, called "The +Generosity of Confessing a Fault," begins as follows: + +"Miss _Fanny Goodwill_ was one of the prettiest children that ever was +seen; her temper was as sweet as her looks, and her behavior so genteel +and obliging that everybody admir'd her; for nobody can help loving good +children, any more than they can help being angry with those that are +naughty. It is no wonder then that her papa and mama lov'd her +dearly, they took a great deal of pains to improve her mind so that +before she was seven years old, she could read, and talk, and work like +a little woman. One day as her papa was sitting by the fire, he set her +upon his knees, kiss'd her, and told her how very much he lov'd her; and +then smiling, and taking hold of her hand, My dear Fanny, said he, take +care never to tell a lye, and then I shall always love you as well as I +do now. You or I may be guilty of a fault; but there is something noble +and generous in owning our errors, and striving to mend them; but a lye +more than doubles the fault, and when it is found out, makes the lyar +appear mean and contemptible.... Thus, my dear, the lyar is a wretch, +whom nobody trusts, nobody regards, nobody pities. Indeed papa, said +Miss _Fanny_, I would not be such a creature for all the world. You are +very good, my little _charmer_, said her papa and kiss'd her again." + +[Illustration: _Title-page from "The New Gift for Children"_] + +The inevitable temptation came when Miss Fanny went on "a visit to a +Miss in the neighborhood; her mama ordered her to be home at eight +o'clock; but she was engag'd at play, and did not mind how the time +pass'd, so that she stay'd till near ten; and then her mama sent for +her." The child of course was frightened by the lateness of the hour, +and the maid--who appears in the illustration with cocked hat and +musket!--tried to calm her fears with the advice to "tell her mama that +the Miss she went to see had taken her out." "_No Mary_, said Miss +_Fanny_, wiping her pretty eyes, I am above a lye;" and she rehearsed +for the benefit of the maid her father's admonition. + +Story IX tells of the _Good Girl and Pretty Girl_. In this the pretty +child had bright eyes and pretty plump cheeks and was much admired. She, +however, was a meanly proud girl, and so naughty as not to want to grow +wiser, but applied to those good people who happened to be less favored +in looks such terms as "bandy-legs, crump, and all such naughty names." +The good sister "could read before the pretty miss could tell a letter; +and though her shape was not so genteel her behavior was a great deal +more so. But alas! the pretty creature fell sick of the small-pox, and +all her beauty vanished." Thus in the eighteenth century was the adage +"Beauty is but skin deep" brought to bear upon conduct. + +On the last page is a cut of "Louisburg demolished," which had served +its time already upon almanacs, but the eight cuts were undoubtedly made +especially for children. Moreover, since they do not altogether +illustrate the various stories, they are good proof that similar +chap-book tales were printed by Fowle and Draper for little ones before +the War of Independence. + +In the southern provinces the sea afforded better transportation +facilities for household necessities and luxuries than the few +post-lines from the north could offer. Bills of exchange could be drawn +against London, to be paid by the profits of the tobacco crops, a safer +method of payment than any that then existed between the northern and +southern towns. In the regular orders sent by George Washington to +Robert Carey in London, twice we find mention of the children's needs +and wishes. In the very first invoice of goods to be shipped to +Washington after his marriage with Mrs. Custis in seventeen hundred and +fifty-nine, he ordered "10 Shillings worth of Toys, 6 little books for +children beginning to read and a fashionable dressed baby to cost 10 +Shillings;" and again later in ordering clothes, "Toys, Sugar, Images +and Comfits" for his step-children he added: "Books according to the +enclosed list to be charged equally to John Parke Custis and Martha +Parke Custis." + +But in Boston the people bought directly from the booksellers, of whom +there were already many. One of these was John Mein, who played a part +in the historic Non-Importation Agreement. In seventeen hundred and +fifty this Englishman had opened in King Street a shop which he called +the "London Book-Store." Here he sold many imported books, and in +seventeen hundred and sixty-five, when the population of Boston numbered +some twenty thousand, he started the "earliest circulating library, +advertised to contain ten thousand volumes."[73-A] This shop was both +famous and notorious: famous because of its "Very Grand Assortment of +the most modern Books;" notorious because of the accusations made +against its owner when the colonials, aroused by the action of +Parliament, passed the Non-Importation Agreement. + +Before the excitement had culminated in this "Agreement," John Mein's +lists of importations show that the children's pleasure had not been +forgotten, and after it their books singularly enough were connected +with this historic action. + +In 1766, in the "Boston Evening Post," we find Mein's announcement that +"Little Books with Pictures for Children" could be purchased at the +London Book-Store; in December, 1767, he advertised through the columns +of the "Boston Chronicle," among other books, "in every branch of polite +literature," a "Great Variety of entertaining Books for CHILDREN, proper +for presents at Christmas or New-year's day--Prices from Two Coppers to +Two Shillings." In August of the following year Mein gave the names of +seven of Newbery's famous gilt volumes, as "to be sold" at his shop. +These "pretty little entertaining and instructive Books" were "Giles +Gingerbread," the "Adventures of little TOMMY TRIP with his dog JOULER," +"Tommy Trip's Select Fables," and "an excellent Pastoral Hymn," "The +Famous Tommy Thumb's Little Story-Book," "Leo, the Great Giant," and +"URAX, or the Fair Wanderer--price eight pence lawful money. _A very +interesting tale in which the protection of the Almighty_ is proved to +be the first and chief support of the FEMALE SEX." Number seven in the +list was the story of the "Cruel Giant Barbarico," and it is one of this +edition that is now among the rare Americana of the Boston Public +Library. The imprint upon its title-page coincides with Isaiah Thomas's +statement that though "Fleming was not concerned with Mein in +book-selling, several books were printed at their house for Mein." Its +date, 1768, would indicate that Mein had reproduced one of his +importations to which allusion has already been made. The book in +marbled covers, time-worn and faded now, was sold for only "six-pence +lawful" when new, possibly because it lacked illustrations. + +[Illustration: _Miss Fanny's Maid_] + +One year later, when the Non-Importation Agreement had passed and was +rigorously enforced in the port of Boston, these same little books were +advertised again in the "Chronicle" of December 4-7 under the large +caption, PRINTED IN AMERICA AND TO BE SOLD BY JOHN MEIN. Times +had so changed within one year's space that even a child's six-penny +book was unpopular, if known to have been imported. + +Mein was among those accused of violating the "Agreement;" he was +charged with the importation of materials for book-making. In a November +number of the "Chronicle" of seventeen hundred and sixty-nine, Mein +published an article entitled "A State of the Importation from Great +Britain into the Port of BOSTON with the advertisement of a set +of Men, who assume to themselves THE TITLE of _ALL the Well +Disposed Merchants_." In this letter the London Book-Store proprietor +vigorously defended himself, and protested that the quantity of his work +necessitated some importations not procurable in Boston. He also made +sarcastic references to other men whom he thought the cap fitted better +with less excuse. It was in the following December that he tried to keep +this trade in children's books by his apparently patriotic announcement +regarding them. His protests were useless. Already in disfavor with some +because he was supposed to print books in America but used a London +imprint, his popularity waned; he was marked as a loyalist, and there +was little of the spirit of tolerance for such in that hot-bed of +patriotism. The air was so full of the growing differences between the +colonials and the king's government, that in seventeen hundred and +seventy Mein closed out his stock and returned to England. + +On the other hand, the patriotic booksellers did not fail to take note +of the crystallization of public opinion. Robert Bell in Philadelphia +appended a note to his catalogue of books, stating that "The Lovers and +Practisers of Patriotism are requested to note that all the Books in +this Catalogue are either of American manufacture, or imported before +the Non-Importation Agreement." + +The supply of home-made paper was of course limited. So much was needed +to circulate among the colonies pamphlets dealing with the injustice of +the king's government toward his American subjects, that it seems +remarkable that any juvenile books should have been printed in those +stirring days before the war began. It is rather to be expected that, +with the serious turn that events had taken and the consequent questions +that had arisen, the publications of the American press should have +received the shadow of the forthcoming trouble--a shadow sufficient to +discourage any attempt at humor for adult or child. Evidence, however, +points to the fact that humor and amusement were not totally lacking in +the issues of the press of at least one printer in Boston, John Boyle. +The humorous satire produced by his press in seventeen hundred and +seventy-five, called "The First Book of the American Chronicles of the +Times," purported to set forth the state of political affairs during the +troubles "wherein all our calamities are seen to flow from the fact that +the king had set up for our worship the god of the heathen--The Tea +Chest." This pamphlet has been one to keep the name of John Boyle among +the prominent printers of pre-Revolutionary days. Additional interest +accrues for this reason to a play-book printed by Boyle--the only one +extant of this decade known to the writer. + +This quaint little chap-book, three by four inches in size, was issued +in seventeen hundred and seventy-one, soon after Boyle had set up his +printing establishment and four years before the publication of the +famous pamphlet. It represents fully the standard for children's +literature in the days when Newbery's tiny classics were making their +way to America, and was indeed advertised by Mein in seventeen hundred +and sixty-eight among the list of books "Printed in America." Its title, +"The Famous Tommy Thumb's Little Story-Book: Containing his Life and +Adventures," has rather a familiar sound, but its contents would not now +be allowed upon any nursery table. Since the days of the Anglo-Saxons, +Tom Thumb's adventures have been told and retold; each generation has +given to the rising generation the version thought proper for the ears +of children. In Boyle's edition this method resulted in realism pushed +to the extreme; but it is not to be denied that the yellowed pages +contain the wondrous adventures and hairbreadth escapes so dear to the +small boy of all time. The thrilling incidents were further enlivened, +moreover, by cuts called by the printer "_curious_" in the sense of very +fine: and _curious_ they are to-day because of the crudeness of their +execution and the coarseness of their design. Nevertheless, the +grotesque character of the illustrations was altogether effective in +impressing upon the reader the doughty deeds of his old friend, Tom +Thumb. The book itself shows marks of its popularity, and of the hard +usage to which it was subjected by its happy owner, who was not critical +of the editor's freedom of speech. + +The coarseness permitted in a nursery favorite makes it sufficiently +clear that the standard for the ideal toy-book of the eighteenth century +is no gauge for that of the twentieth. Child-life differed in many +particulars, as Mr. Julian Hawthorne pointed out some years ago, when he +wrote that the children of the eighteenth century "were urged to grow up +almost before they were short-coated." We must bear this in mind in +turning to another class of books popular with adult and child alike in +both England and America before and for some years after the Revolution. + +This was the period when the novel in the hands of Richardson, Fielding, +and Smollett was assuming hitherto unsuspected possibilities. Allusion +must be made to some of the characteristics of their work, since their +style undoubtedly affected juvenile reading and the tales written for +children. + +Taking for the sake of convenience the novels of the earliest of this +group of men, Samuel Richardson, as a starting-point, we find in Pamela +and Mr. Lovelace types of character that merge from the Puritanical +concrete examples of virtue and vice into a psychological attempt to +depict the emotion and feeling preceding every act of heroine and +villain. Through every stage of the story the author still clings to the +long-established precedent of giving moral and religious instruction. +Afterwards, when Fielding attempted to parody "Pamela," he developed the +novel of adventure in high and low life, and produced "Joseph Andrews." +He then followed this with the character-study represented by "Tom +Jones, Foundling." Richardson in "Pamela" had aimed to emphasize virtue +as in the end prospering; Fielding's characters rather embody the +principle of virtue being its own reward and of vice bringing its own +punishment. Smollett in "Humphrey Clinker's Adventures" brought forth +fun from English surroundings instead of seeking for the hero thrilling +and daring deeds in foreign countries. He also added to the list of +character-studies "Roderick Random," a tale of the sea, the mystery of +which has never palled since "Robinson Crusoe" saw light. + +There was also the novel of letters. In the age of the first great +novelists letter-writing was among the polite arts. It was therefore +counted a great but natural achievement when the epistolary method of +revealing the plot was introduced. "Clarissa Harlowe" and "Sir Charles +Grandison" were the results of this style of writing; they comprehended +the "most Important Concerns of private life"--"concerns" which moved +with lingering and emotional persistency towards the inevitable +catastrophe in "Clarissa," and the happy issue out of the +misunderstandings and misadventures which resulted in Miss Byron's +alliance with Sir Charles. + +Until after the next (nineteenth) century had passed its first decade +these tales were read in full or abridged forms by many children among +the fashionable and literary sets in England and America. Indeed, the +art of writing for children was so unknown that often attempts to +produce child-like "histories" for them resulted in little other than +novels upon an abridged scale. + +But before even abridged novels found their way into juvenile favor, it +was "customary in Richardson's time to read his novels aloud in the +family circle. When some pathetic passage was reached the members of the +family would retire to separate apartments to weep; and after composing +themselves, they would return to the fireside to have the reading +proceed. It was reported to Richardson, that, on one of these occasions, +'an amiable little boy sobbed as if his sides would burst and resolved +to mind his books that he might be able to read Pamela through without +stopping.' That there might be something in the family novel expressly +for children, Richardson sometimes stepped aside from the main narrative +to tell them a moral tale."[80-A] + +Mr. Cross gives an example of this which, shorn of its decoration, was +the tale of two little boys and two little girls, who never told fibs, +who were never rude and noisy, mischievous or quarrelsome; who always +said their prayers when going to bed, and therefore became fine ladies +and gentlemen. + +To make the tales less difficult for amiable children to read, an +abridgment of their contents was undertaken; and Goldsmith is said to +have done much of the "cutting" in "Pamela," "Clarissa Harlowe," "Sir +Charles Grandison," and others. These books were included in the lists +of those sent to America for juvenile reading. In Boston, Cox and Berry +inserted in the "Boston Gazette and Country Journal" a notice that they +had the "following little Books for all good Boys and Girls: + +The Brother's Gift, or the Naughty Girl Reformed. +The Sister's Gift, or the Naughty Boy Reformed. +The Hobby Horse, or Christmas Companion. +The Cries of London as Exhibited in the Streets. +The Puzzling Cap. +The History of Tom Jones. +The History of Joseph Andrews. Abridg'd from the works of H. Fielding +The History of Pamela. abridg'd from the works of Samuel + Richardson, Esq. +The History of Grandison. +The History of Clarissa." + +Up to this time the story has been rather of the books read by the +Puritan and Quaker population of the colonies. There had arisen during +the first half of the eighteenth century, however, a merchant class +which owed its prosperity to its own ability. Such men sought for their +families the material results of wealth which only a place like Boston +could bestow. Many children, therefore, were sent to this town to +acquire suitable education in books, accomplishments, and deportment. A +highly interesting record of a child of well-to-do parents has been left +by Anna Green Winslow, who came to Boston to stay with an aunt for the +winters of 1771 and 1772. Her diary gives delightful glimpses of +children's tea-parties, fashions, and schools, all put down with a +childish disregard of importance or connection. It is in these jottings +of daily occurrences that proof is found that so young a girl read, +quite as a matter of course, the abridged works of Fielding and +Richardson. + +On January 1, 1772, she wrote in her diary, "a Happy New Year, I have +bestowed no new year's gifts, as yet. But have received one very +handsome one, Viz, the History of Joseph Andrews abreviated. In nice +Guilt and Flowers covers." Again, she put down an account of a day's +work, which she called "a piecemeal for in the first place I sew'd on +the bosom of unkle's shirt, and mended two pairs of gloves, mended for +the wash two handkerch'fs, (one cambrick) sewed on half a border of a +lawn apron of aunt's, read part of the xxist chapter of Exodous, & a +story in the Mother's Gift." Later she jotted in her book the loan of "3 +of Cousin Charles' books to read, viz.--The puzzling Cap, the female +Orators & the history of Gaffer Two Shoes." Little Miss Winslow, though +only eleven years of age, was a typical child of the educated class in +Boston, and, according to her journal, also followed the English custom +of reading aloud "with Miss Winslow, the Generous Inconstant and Sir +Charles Grandison." It is to be regretted that her diary gives no +information as to how she liked such tales. We must anticipate some +years to find a comment in the Commonplace Book of a Connecticut girl. +Lucy Sheldon lived in Litchfield, a thriving town in eighteen hundred, +and did much reading for a child in those days. Upon "Sir Charles +Grandison" she confided to her book this offhand note: "Read in little +Grandison, which shows that, virtue always meets its reward and vice is +punished." The item is very suggestive of Goldsmith's success in +producing an abridgment that left the moral where it could not be +overlooked. + +To discuss in detail this class of writings is not necessary, but a +glance at the story of "Clarissa" gives an instructive impression of +what old-fashioned children found zestful. + +"Clarissa Harlowe" in its abridged form was first published by Newbery, +Senior. The book that lies before the writer was printed in seventeen +hundred and seventy-two by his son, Francis Newbery. In size five by +three and one-half inches, it is decked in once gay parti-colored heavy +Dutch paper, with a delicate gold tracery over all. This paper binding, +called by Anna Winslow "Flowery Guilt," can no longer be found in +Holland, the place of its manufacture; with sarsinet and other +fascinating materials it has vanished so completely that it exists only +on the faded bindings of such small books as "Clarissa." + +The narrative itself is compressed from the original seven volumes into +one volume of one hundred and seventy-six closely printed pages, with +several full-page copper-plate illustrations. The plot, however, gains +rather than loses in this condensed form. The principal distressing +situations follow so fast one upon the other that the intensity of the +various episodes in the _affecting_ history is increased by the total +absence of all the "moving" letters found in the original work. The +"lordly husband and father," "the imperious son," "the proud ambitious +sister, Arabella," all combined to force the universally beloved and +unassuming Clarissa to marry the wealthy Mr. Somers, who was to be the +means of "the aggrandisement of the family." Clarissa, in this +perplexing situation, yielded in a desperate mood to "the earnest +entreaties of the artful Lovelace to accept the protection of the Ladies +of his family." Who these ladies were, to whom the designing Lovelace +conducted the agitated heroine, is set forth in unmistakable language; +and thereafter follow the treacherous behaviour exhibited by Lovelace, +the various attempts to escape by the unhappy beauty, and her final +exhaustion and death. An example of the style may be given in this +description of the death-scene: + +"Clarissa had before remarked that all would be most conveniently over +in bed: The solemn, the most important moment approached, but her soul +ardently aspiring after immorality [immortality was of course the +author's intention], she imagined the time moved slowly; and with great +presence of mind, she gave orders in relation to her body, directing her +nurse and the maid of the house, as soon as she was cold, to put her +into her coffin. The Colonel [her cousin], after paying her another +visit, wrote to her uncle, Mr. John Harlowe, that they might save +themselves the trouble of having any further debates about +reconciliation; for before they could resolve, his dear cousin would +probably be no more.... + +"A day or two after, Mr. Belford [a friend] was sent for, and +immediately came; at his entrance he saw the Colonel kneeling by her +bed-side with the ladies right hand in both his, which his face covered +bathing it with tears, though she had just been endeavoring to comfort +him, in noble and elevated strains. On the opposite side of the bed was +seated Mrs. Lovick, who leaning against the bed's-head in a most +disconsolate manner, turned to him as soon as she saw him, crying, O Mr. +Belford, the dear lady! a heavy sigh not permitting her to say more. +Mrs. Smith [the landlady] was kneeling at the bed's feet with clasped +fingers and uplifted eyes, with tears trickling in large drops from her +cheeks, as if imploring help from the source of all comfort. + +"The excellent lady had been silent a few minutes, and was thought +speechless, she moving her lips without uttering a word; but when Mrs. +Lovick, on Mr. Belford's approach, pronounced his name, O Mr. Belford! +cried she, in a faint inward voice, Now!--now!--I bless God, all will +soon be over--a few minutes will end this strife--and I shall be happy," +etc. Her speech was long, although broken by dashes, and again she +resumed, "in a more faint and broken accent," the blessing and +directions. "She then sunk her head upon the pillow; and fainting away, +drew from them her hands." Once more she returned to consciousness, +"when waving her hand to him [Mr. Belford] and to her cousin, and bowing +her head to every one present, not omitting the nurse and maid servant, +with a faltering and inward voice, she added Bless--Bless--you all!--" + +The illustrations, in comparison with others of the time, are very well +engraved, although the choice of subjects is somewhat singular. The last +one represents Clarissa's friend, "Miss Howe" (the loyal friend to whom +all the absent letters were addressed), "lamenting over the corpse of +Clarissa," who lies in the coffin ordered by the heroine "to be covered +with fine black cloth, and lined with white satin." + +As one lays aside this faded duodecimo, the conviction is strong that +the texture of the life of an old-fashioned child was of coarser weave +than is pleasant to contemplate. How else could elders and guardians +have placed without scruple such books in the hands of children? The one +explanation is to be found in such diaries as that of Anna Winslow, who +quaintly put down in her book facts and occurrences denoting the +maturity already reached by a little miss of eleven. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[73-A] Winsor, _Memorial History of Boston_, vol. ii, p. xix. + +[80-A] Cross, _Development of the English Novel_, pp. 38, 39. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +1776-1790 + + + + + The British King + Lost States thirteen. + _The New England Primer_, + Philadelphia, 1797 + + The good little boy + That will not tell a lie, + Shall have a plum-pudding + Or hot apple-pye. + _Jacky Dandy's Delight_, + Worcester, 1786 + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +1776-1790 + +_Patriotic Printers and the American Newbery_ + + +When John Mein was forced to close his London Book-Store in Boston and +to return to England in 1770, the children of that vicinity had need to +cherish their six-penny books with increased care. The shadow of +impending conflict was already deep upon the country when Mein departed; +and the events of the decade following seventeen hundred and +seventy-three--the year of the Boston Tea-Party--were too absorbing and +distressing for such trifling publications as toy-books to be more than +occasionally printed. Indeed, the history of the American Revolution is +so interwoven with tales of privation of the necessities of life that it +is astonishing that any printer was able to find ink or paper to produce +even the nursery classic "Goody Two-Shoes," printed by Robert Bell of +Philadelphia in seventeen hundred and seventy-six. + +In New York the conditions were different. The Loyalists, as long as the +town was held by the British, continued to receive importations of goods +of all descriptions. Among the booksellers, Valentine Nutter from time +to time advertised children's as well as adults' books. Hugh Gaine +apparently continued to reprint Newbery's duodecimos; and, in a rather +newer shop, Roger and Berry's, in Hanover Square, near Gaine's, could be +had "Gilt Books, together with Stationary, Jewelry, a Collection of the +most books, bibles, prayer-books and patent medicines warranted +genuine." + +Elsewhere in the colonies, as in Boston, the children went without new +books, although very occasionally such notices as the following were +inserted in the newspapers: + + _Just imported and to be Sold by Thomas Bradford_ + + At his Book-Store in Market-Street, adjoining the Coffee-house + + _The following Books_ ... + + Little Histories for Children, + + Among which are, Book of Knowledge, Joe Miller's Jests, Jenny + Twitchells' ditto, the Linnet, The Lark (being collections of best + Songs), Robin Redbreast, Choice Spirits, Argalus & Parthenia, + Valentine and Orson, Seven Wise Masters, Seven Wise Mistresses, + Russell's seven Sermons, Death of Abel, French Convert, Art's + Treasury, Complete Letter-Writer, Winter Evening Entertainment, + Stories and Tales, Triumphs of Love, being a Collection of Short + Stories, Joseph Andrews, Aesop's Fables, Scotch Rogue, Moll + Flanders, Lives of Highwaymen, Lives of Pirates, Buccaneers of + America, Robinson Crusoe, Twelve Caesars. + +Such was the assortment of penny-dreadfuls and religious tracts offered +in seventeen hundred and eighty-one to the Philadelphia public for +juvenile reading. It is typical of the chapmen's library peddled about +the colonies long after they had become states. "Valentine and Orson," +"The Seven Wise Masters," "The Seven Wise Mistresses," and "Winter +Evening Entertainment" are found in publishers' lists for many years, +and, in spite of frequent vulgarities, there was often no discrimination +between them and Newbery's far superior stories; but by eighteen hundred +and thirty almost all of these undesirable reprints had disappeared, +being buried under the quantities of Sunday-school tales held in high +favor at that date. + +Meanwhile, the six years of struggle for liberty had rendered the +necessaries of life in many cases luxuries. As early as seventeen +hundred and seventy-five, during the siege of Boston, provisions and +articles of dress had reached such prices that we find thrifty Mrs. John +Adams, in Braintree, Massachusetts, foreseeing a worse condition, +writing her husband, who was one of the Council assembled in +Philadelphia, to send her, if possible, six thousand pins, even if they +should cost five pounds. Prices continued to rise and currency to +depreciate. In seventeen hundred and seventy-nine Mrs. Adams reported in +her letters to her husband that potatoes were ten dollars a bushel, and +writing-paper brought the same price per pound. + +Yet family life went on in spite of these increasing difficulties. The +diaries and letters of such remarkable women as the patriotic Abigail +Adams, the Quakeress, Mrs. Eliza Drinker, the letters of the Loyalist +and exile, James Murray, the correspondence of Eliza Pinckney of +Charleston, and the reminiscences of a Whig family who were obliged to +leave New York upon the occupation of the town by British forces, abound +in those details of domestic life that give a many sided picture. Joys +derived from good news of dear ones, and family reunions; anxieties +occasioned by illness, or the armies' depredations; courageous efforts +on the part of mothers not to allow their children's education and +occupations to suffer unnecessarily; tragedies of death and ruined +homes--all are recorded with a "particularity" for which we are now +grateful to the writers. + +It is through these writings, also, that we are allowed glimpses of the +enthusiasm for the cause of Liberty, or King, which was imbibed from the +parents by the smallest children. On the Whig side, patriotic mothers in +New England filled their sons with zeal for the cause of freedom and +with hatred of the tyranny of the Crown; while in the more southern +colonies the partisanship of the little ones was no less intense. "From +the constant topic of the present conversation," wrote the Rev. John J. +Zubly (a Swiss clergyman settled in South Carolina and Georgia), in an +address to the Earl of Dartmouth in seventeen hundred and +seventy-five,--"from the constant topic of the present conversation, +every child unborn will be impressed with the notion--it is slavery to +be bound at the will of another 'in all things whatsoever.' Every +mother's milk will convey a detestation of this maxim. Were your +lordship in America, you might see little ones acquainted with the word +of command before they can distinctly speak, and shouldering of a gun +before they are well able to walk."[92-A] + +The children of the Tories had also their part in the struggle. To some +the property of parents was made over, to save it from confiscation in +the event of the success of the American cause. To others came the +bitterness of separation from parents, when they were sent across the +sea to unknown relatives; while again some faint manuscript record tells +of a motherless child brought from a comfortable home, no longer +tenable, to whatever quarters could be found within the British lines. +Fortunately, children usually adapt themselves easily to changed +conditions, and in the novelty and excitement of the life around them, +it is probable they soon forgot the luxuries of dolls and hobby-horses, +toy-books and drums, of former days. + +In the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania the sentiment of the period was +expressed in two or three editions of "The New England Primer." Already +in 1770 one had appeared containing as frontispiece a poor wood-cut of +John Hancock. In 1775 the enthusiasm over the appointment of George +Washington as commander-in-chief brought out another edition of the A B +C book with the same picture labelled "General Washington." The custom +of making one cut do duty in several representations was so well +understood that this method of introducing George Washington to the +infant reader naturally escaped remark. + +Another primer appeared four years later, which was advertised by +Walters and Norman in the "Pennsylvania Evening Post" as "adorned with a +beautiful head of George Washington and other copper-plates." According +to Mr. Hildeburn, this small book had the honor of containing the first +portrait of Washington engraved in America. While such facts are of +trifling importance, they are, nevertheless, indications of the state of +intense feeling that existed at the time, and point the way by which the +children's books became nationalized. + +In New England the very games of children centred in the events which +thrilled the country. Josiah Quincy remembered very well in after life, +how "at the age of five or six, astride my grandfather's cane and with +my little whip, I performed prodigies of valor, and more than once came +to my mother's knees declaring that I had driven the British out of +Boston." Afterwards at Phillips Academy, in Andover, between seventeen +hundred and seventy-eight and seventeen hundred and eighty-six, Josiah +and his schoolfellows "established it as a principle that every hoop, +sled, etc., should in some way bear _Thirteen_ marks as evidence of the +political character of the owner,--if which were wanting the articles +became fair prize and were condemned and forfeited without judge, jury, +or decree of admiralty."[94-A] + +Other boys, such as John Quincy Adams, had tutors at home as a less +expensive means of education than the wartime price of forty dollars a +week for each child that good boarding-schools demanded. But at their +homes the children had plenty of opportunity to show their intense +enthusiasm for the cause of liberty. Years later, Mr. Adams wrote to a +Quaker friend: + +"For the space of twelve months my mother with her infant children dwelt, +liable every hour of the day and of the night to be butchered in cold +blood, or taken and carried to Boston as hostages. My mother lived in +uninterrupted danger of being consumed with them all in a conflagration +kindled by a torch in the same hands which on the Seventeenth of June +[1775] lighted the fires of Charlestown."[94-B] + +He was, of course, only one of many boys who saw from some height near +their homes the signs of battle, the fires of the enemy's camps, the +smoke rising from some farm fired by the British, or burned by its owner +to prevent their occupation of it. With hearts made to beat quickly by +the news that filtered through the lines, and heads made old by the +responsibility thrust upon them,--in the absence of fathers and older +brothers,--such boys as John Quincy Adams saw active service in the +capacity of post-riders bearing in their several districts the anxiously +awaited tidings from Congress or battlefield. + +Fortunate indeed were the families whose homes were not disturbed by the +military operations. From Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, families +were sent hastily to the country until the progress of the war made it +possible to return to such comforts as had not been destroyed by the +British soldiers. The "Memoirs of Eliza Morton," afterward Mrs. Josiah +Quincy, but a child eight years of age in seventeen hundred and +seventy-six, gives a realistic account of the life of such Whig +refugees. Upon the occupation of New York by the British, her father, a +merchant of wealth, as riches were then reckoned, was obliged to burn +his warehouse to save it from English hands. Mr. Morton then gathered +together in the little country village of Basking Ridge, seven miles +from Morristown, New Jersey, such of his possessions as could be hastily +transported from the city. Among the books saved in this way were the +works of Thurston, Thomson, Lyttleton, and Goldsmith, and for the +children's benefit, "Dodsley's Collection of Poems," and "Pilgrim's +Progress." "This," wrote Mrs. Quincy, "was a great favorite; Mr. +Greatheart was in my opinion a hero, well able to help us all on our +way." During the exile from New York, as Eliza Morton grew up, she read +all these books, and years afterward told her grandchildren that while +she admired the works of Thurston, Thomson, and Lyttleton, "those of +Goldsmith were my chief delight. When my reading became afterward more +extensive I instinctively disliked the extravagant fiction which often +injures the youthful mind." + +The war, however, was not allowed to interfere with the children's +education in this family. In company with other little exiles, they were +taught by a venerable old man until the evacuation of Philadelphia made +it possible to send the older children to Germantown, where a Mr. Leslie +had what was considered a fine school. The schoolroom walls were hung +with lists of texts of Scripture beginning with the same letter, and for +globes were substituted the schoolmaster's snuffbox and balls of yarn. +If these failed to impress a child with the correct notions concerning +the solar system, the children themselves were made to whirl around the +teacher. + +In Basking Ridge the children had much excitement with the passing of +soldiers to Washington's headquarters in Morristown, and with watching +for "The Post" who carried the news between Philadelphia, Princeton, and +Morristown. "'The Post,' Mr. Martin," wrote Mrs. Quincy, "was an old man +who carried the mail, ... he was our constant medium of communication; +and always stopped at our house to refresh himself and horse, tell the +news, and bring packets. He used to wear a blue coat with yellow +buttons, a scarlet waistcoat, leathern small-clothes, blue yarn +stockings, and a red wig and cocked hat, which gave him a sort of +military appearance. He usually traveled in a sulky, but sometimes in a +chaise, or on horseback.... Mr. Martin also contrived to employ himself +in knitting coarse yarn stockings while driving or rather jogging along +the road, or when seated on his saddle-bags on horseback. He certainly +did not ride _post_, according to the present [1821] meaning of that +term." + +Deprived like many other children of Newbery's peaceful biographies and +stories, the little Mortons' lives were too full of an intense daily +interest to feel the lack of new literature of this sort. Tales of the +campaigns told in letters to friends and neighbors were reechoed in the +ballads and songs that formed part of the literary warfare waged by Whig +or Loyal partisans. Children of to-day sing so zestfully the popular +tunes of the moment, that it requires very little imagination to picture +the schoolboy of Revolutionary days shouting lustily verses from "The +Battle of the Kegs," and other rhymed stories of military incidents. +Such a ballad was "A Song for the Red Coats," written after the +successful campaign against Burgoyne, and beginning: + + "Come unto me, ye heroes, + Whose hearts are true and bold, + Who value more your honor, + Than others do their gold! + Give ear unto my story, + And I the truth will tell, + Concerning many a soldier, + Who for his country fell." + +Children, it has been said, are good haters. To the patriot boy and +girl, the opportunity to execrate Benedict Arnold was found in these +lines of a patriotic "ditty" concerning the fate of Major Andre: + + "When he was executed + He looked both meek and mild; + He looked upon the people, + And pleasantly he smiled. + It moved each eye to pity, + Caused every heart to bleed; + And every one wished him released-- + And _Arnold_ in his stead."[98-A] + +Loyalist children had an almost equal supply of satirical verse to fling +back at neighbors' families, where in country districts some farms were +still occupied by sympathizers with Great Britain. A vigorous example of +this style of warfare is quoted by Mr. Tyler in his "Literature of the +American Revolution," and which, written in seventeen hundred and +seventy-six, is entitled "The Congress." It begins: + + "These hardy knaves and stupid fools, + Some apish and pragmatic mules, + Some servile acquiescing tools,-- + These, these compose the Congress!"[98-B] + +Or, again, such taunts over the general poverty of the land and +character of the army as were made in a ballad called "The Rebels" by a +Loyalist officer: + + "With loud peals of laughter, your sides, + Sirs, would crack, + To see General Convict and Colonel Shoe-black, + With their hunting-shirts and rifle-guns, + See Cobblers and quacks, rebel priests and the like, + Pettifoggers and barbers, with sword and with pike." + +Those Loyalists who lived through this exciting period in America's +history bore their full share in the heavy personal misfortunes of their +political party. The hatred felt toward such colonials as were true to +the king has until recently hardly subsided sufficiently to permit any +sympathy with the hardships they suffered. Driven from their homes, +crowded together in those places occupied by the English, or exiled to +England or Halifax, these faithful subjects had also to undergo +separation of families perhaps never again united. + +Such a Loyalist was James Murray. Forced to leave his daughter and +grandchildren in Boston with a sister, he took ship for Halifax to seek +a living. There, amid the pressing anxieties occasioned by this +separation, he strove to reestablish himself, and sent from time to time +such articles as he felt were necessary for their welfare. Thus he +writes a memorandum of articles sent in seventeen hundred and eighty by +"Mr. Bean's Cartel to Miss Betsy Murray:--viz: Everlasting 4 yards; +binding 1 piece, Nankeen 4-7/8 yards. Of Gingham 2 gown patterns; 2 +pairs red shoes from A.E.C. for boys, Jack and Ralph, a parcel--to Mrs. +Brigden, 1 pair silk shoes and some flowers--Arthur's Geographical +Grammar,--Locke on Education,--5 children's books," etc. And in return +he is informed that "Charlotte goes to dancing and writing school, +improves apace and grows tall. Betsy and Charles are much better but not +well. The rest of the children are in good health, desiring their duty +to their Uncle and Aunt Inman, and thanks for their cake and gloves." + +To such families the end of the war meant either the necessity for +making permanent their residence in the British dominion, or of bearing +both outspoken and silent scorn in the new Republic. + +For the Americans the peace of Yorktown brought joy, but new beginnings +had also to be made. Farms had been laid waste, or had suffered from +lack of men to cultivate them; industries were almost at a standstill +from want of material and laborers. Still the people had the splendid +compensation of freedom with victory, and men went sturdily back to +their homes to take up as far as possible their various occupations. + +An example of the way in which business undertaken before the war was +rapidly resumed, or increased, is afforded by the revival of prosperity +for the booksellers in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. Renewals of +orders to London agents were speedily made, for the Americans still looked +to England for their intellectual needs. In Philadelphia--a town of forty +thousand inhabitants in seventeen hundred and eighty-three--among the +principal booksellers and printers were Thomas Bradford, Mr. Woodhouse, +Mr. Oswald, Mr. Pritchard,--who had established a circulating +library,--Robert Aitkin, Mr. Liddon, Mr. Dunlap, Mr. Rice, William and +David Hall, Benjamin Bache, J. Crukshank, and Robert Bell. Bell had +undoubtedly the largest bookstore, but seems not to have been altogether +popular, if an allusion in "The Philadelphiad" is to be credited. This +"New Picture of the City" was anonymously published in seventeen hundred +and eighty-four, and described, among other well-known places, Robert +Bell's book-shop: + + BELL'S BOOK STORE + + Just by St. Paul's where dry divines rehearse, + Bell keeps his store for vending prose and verse, + And books that's neither ... for no age nor clime, + Lame languid prose begot on hobb'ling rhyme. + Here authors meet who ne'er a spring have got, + The poet, player, doctor, wit and sot, + Smart politicians wrangling here are seen, + Condemning Jeffries or indulging spleen. + +In 1776 Bell's facilities for printing had enabled him to produce an +edition of "Little Goody Two-Shoes," which seems likely to have been the +only story-book printed during the troubled years of the Revolution. +Besides this, Bell printed in 1777 "Aesop's Fables," as did also Robert +Aitkin; and J. Crukshank had issued during the war an A B C book, +written by the old schoolmaster, A. Benezet, who had drilled many a +Philadelphian in his letters. After the Revolution Benjamin Bache +apparently printed children's books in considerable quantities, and +orders were sent by other firms to England for juvenile reading-matter. + +New England also has records of the sale of these small books in several +towns soon after peace was established. John Carter, "at Shakespeare's +Head," in Providence, announced by a broadside issued in November, +seventeen hundred and eighty-three, that he had a large assortment of +stationers' wares, and included in his list "Gilt Books for _Children_," +among which were most of Newbery's publications. In Hartford, +Connecticut, where there had been a good press since seventeen hundred +and sixty-four, "The Children's Magazine" was reprinted in seventeen +hundred and eighty-nine. Its preposterous titles are noteworthy, since +it is probable that this was the first attempt at periodical literature +made for young people in America. One number contains: + + An easy Introduction to Geography. + The Schoolboy addressed to the Editors. + Moral Tales continued. + Tale VIII. The Jealous Wife. + The Affectionate Sisters. + Familiar Letters on Various Subjects,--Continued.... + Letter V from _Phillis Flowerdale_ to _Miss Truelove_. + Letter VI from _Miss Truelove_ to _Phillis Flowerdale_. + Poetry.--The Sweets of May. + The Cottage Retirement. + Advice to the Fair. + The Contented Cottager. + The Tear. + The Honest Heart. + +The autograph of Eben Holt makes the contents of the magazine ludicrous +as subjects of interest to a boy But having nothing better, Eben most +surely read it from cover to cover. + +In Charleston, South Carolina, Robert Wells imported the books read by +the members of the various branches of the Ravenel, Pinckney, Prioleau, +Drayton, and other families. Boston supplied the juvenile public largely +through E. Battelle and Thomas Andrews, who were the agents for Isaiah +Thomas, the American Newbery. + +An account of the work of this remarkable printer of Worcester, +Massachusetts, has been given in Dr. Charles L. Nichols's "Bibliography +of Worcester." Thomas's publications ranked as among the very best of +the last quarter of the eighteenth century, and were sought by +book-dealers in the various states. At one time he had sixteen presses, +seven of which were in Worcester. He had also four bookstores in various +towns of Massachusetts, one in Concord, New Hampshire, one in Baltimore, +and one in Albany. + +In 1761, at the age of ten, Thomas had set up as his "'Prentice's +Token," a primer issued by A. Barclay in Cornhill, Boston, entitled "Tom +Thumb's Play-Book, To Teach Children their letters as soon as they can +speak." Although this primer was issued by Barclay, Thomas had already +served four years in a printer's office, for according to his own +statement he had been sent at the age of six to learn his trade of +Zechariah Fowle. Here, as 'prentice, he may have helped to set up the +stories of the "Holy Jesus" and the "New Gift," and upon the cutting of +their rude illustrations perhaps took his first lessons in engraving. +For we know that by seventeen hundred and sixty-four he did fairly good +work upon the "Book of Knowledge" from the press of the old printer. +Upon the fly-leaf of a copy of this owned by the American Antiquarian +Society, founded by Thomas, is the statement in the Worcester printer's +handwriting, "Printed and cuts engraved by I. Thomas then 13 years of +age for Z. Fowle when I.T. was his Apprentice: bad as the cuts are +executed, there was not at that time an artist in Boston who could have +done them much better. Some time before, and soon after there were +better engravers in Boston." These cuts, especially the frontispiece +representing a boy with a spy-glass and globe, and with a sextant at his +feet, are far from poor work for a lad of thirteen. "The battered +dictionary," says Dr. Nichols, "and the ink-stained Bible which he found +in Fowle's office started him in his career, and the printing-press, +together with an invincible determination to excel in his calling, +carried him onward, until he stands to-day with Franklin and +Baskerville, a type of the man who with few educational advantages +succeeds because he loves his art for his art's sake." + +In supplying to American children a home-made library, Thomas, although +he did no really original work for children, such as his English +prototype, Newbery, had accomplished, yet had a motive which was not +altogether selfish and pecuniary. The prejudice against anything of +British manufacture was especially strong in the vicinity of Boston; and +it was an altogether natural expression of this spirit that impelled the +Worcester printer, as soon as his business was well established, to +begin to reprint the various little histories. These reprints were all +pirated from Newbery and his successors, Newbery and Carnan; but they +compare most favorably with them, and so far surpassed the work of any +other American printer of children's books (except possibly those of +Bache in Philadelphia) that his work demands more than a passing +mention. + +Beginning, like most printers, with the production of a primer in +seventeen hundred and eighty-four, by seventeen hundred and eighty-six +Thomas was well under way in his work for children. In that year at +least eleven little books bore his imprint and were sent to his Boston +agents to be sold. In the "Worcester Magazine" for June, 1786, Thomas +addressed an "Advertisement to Booksellers," as follows: "A large +assortment of all the various sizes of CHILDREN'S Books, known +by the name of Newbery's Little Books for Children, are now republished +by I. Thomas in Worcester, Massachusetts. They are all done excellently +in his English Method, and it is supposed the paper, printing, cuts, and +binding are in every way equal to those imported from England. As the +Subscriber has been at great expense to carry on this particular branch +of Printing extensively, he hopes to meet with encouragement from the +Booksellers in the United States." + +Evidently he did meet with great encouragement from parents as well as +booksellers; and it is suspected that the best printed books bearing +imprints of other booksellers were often printed in Worcester and bound +according to the taste and facilities of the dealer. That this practice +of reprinting the title-page and rebinding was customary, a letter from +Franklin to his nephew in Boston gives indisputable evidence: + + Philada. Nov. 26, 1788. + + LOVING COUSIN: + + I have lately set up one of my grand-children, Benja. F. Bache, as a + Printer here, and he has printed some very pretty little Books for + Children. By the Sloop Friendship, Capt. Stutson, I have sent a Box + address'd to you, containing 150 of each volume, in Sheets, which I + request you would, according to your wonted Goodness, put in a way + of being dispos'd of for the Benefit of my dear Sister. They are + sold here, bound in marbled Paper at 1 S. a Volume; but I should + suppose it best, if it may be done, to sell the whole to some + Stationer, at once, unbound as they are; in which case I imagine + that half a Dollar a Quire may be thought a reasonable Price, + allowing usual Credit if necessary. + + My Love to your Family, & believe me ever, + + Your affectionate Uncle + B. FRANKLIN. + + JONA. WILLIAMS, ESQ. + +Franklin's reference to the Philadelphia manner of binding toy-books in +marbled paper indicates that this home-made product was already +displacing the attractive imported gilt embossed and parti-colored +covers used by Thomas, who seems never to have adopted this ugly dress +for his juvenile publications. As the demand for his wares increased, +Thomas set up other volumes from Newbery's stock, until by seventeen +hundred and eighty-seven he had reproduced practically every item for +his increasing trade. It was his custom to include in many of these +books a Catalogue of the various tales for sale, and in "The Picture +Exhibition" we find a list of fifty-two stories to be sold for prices +varying from six pence to a shilling and a half. + +These books may be divided into several classes, all imitations of the +English adult literature then in vogue. The alphabets and primers, such +as the "Little Lottery Book," "Christmas Box," and "Tom Thumb's +Play-thing," are outside the limits of the present subject, since they +were written primarily to instruct; and while it is often difficult to +draw the line where amusement begins and instruction sinks to the +background, the title-pages can usually be taken as evidence at least of +the author's intention. These other books, however, fall naturally under +the heads of jest and puzzle books, nature stories, fables, rhymes, +novels, and stories--all prototypes of the nursery literature of to-day. + +The jest and joke books published by Thomas numbered, as far as is known +to the writer, only five. Their titles seem to offer a feast of fun +unfulfilled by the contents. "Be Merry & Wise, or the Cream of the Jests +and the Marrow of Maxims," by Tommy Trapwit, contained concentrated +extracts of wisdom, and jokes such as were current among adults. The +children for whom they were meant were accustomed to nothing more +facetious than the following jest: "An arch wag said, _Taylors_ were +like _Woodcocks_ for they got their substance by their long bills." +Perhaps they understood also the point in this: "A certain lord had a +termagant wife, and at the same time a chaplain that was a tolerable +poet, whom his lordship desired to write a copy of verses upon a shrew. +I can't imagine, said the chaplain, why your lordship should want a +copy, who has so good an original." Other witticisms are not quotable. + +[Illustration: _A page from a Catalogue of Children's Books printed by +Isaiah Thomas_] + +Conundrums played their part in the eighteenth century juvenile life, +much as they do to-day. These were to be found in "A Bag of Nuts ready +Cracked," and "The Big and Little Puzzling Caps." "Food for the Mind" +was the solemn title of another riddle-book, whose conundrums are very +serious matters. Riddle XIV of the "Puzzling Cap" is typical of its +rather dreary contents: + + "There was a man bespoke a thing, + Which when the maker home did bring, + This same maker did refuse it; + He who bespoke it did not use it + And he who had it did not know + Whether he had it, yea or no." + +This was a nut also "ready cracked" by the answer reproduced in the +illustration. + +Nature stories were attempted under the titles of "The Natural History +of Four Footed Beasts," "Jacky Dandy's Delight; or the History of Birds +and Beasts in Verse and Prose," "Mr. Telltruth's Natural History of +Birds," and "Tommy Trip's History of Beasts and Birds." All these were +written after Oliver Goldsmith's "Animated Nature" had won its way into +great popularity. As a consequence of the favorable impression this book +had made, Goldsmith is supposed to have been asked by Newbery to try his +hand upon a juvenile natural history. + +Possibly it was as a result of Newbery's request that we have the +anonymous "Jacky Dandy's Delight" and "Tommy Trip's History of Beasts +and Birds." The former appears to be a good example of Goldsmith's +facility for amusing himself when doing hack-work for Newbery. How like +Goldsmith's manner is this description of a monkey: + + "The monkey mischievous + Like a naughty boy looks; + Who plagues all his friends, + And regards not his books. + + "He is an active, pert, busy animal, who mimicks human actions so + well that some think him rational. The Indians say, he can speak if + he pleases, but will not lest he should be set to work. Herein he + resembles those naughty little boys who will not learn A, lest they + should be obliged to learn B, too. He is a native of warm countries, + and a useless beast in this part of the world; so I shall leave him + to speak of another that is more bulky, and comes from cold + countries: I mean the Bear." + +To poke fun in an offhand manner at little boys and girls seemed to have +been the only conception of humor to be found in the children's books of +the period, if we except the "Jests" and the attempts made in a +ponderous manner on the title-pages. The title of "The Picture +Exhibition; containing the Original Drawings of Eighteen Disciples.... +Published under the Inspection of Mr. Peter Paul Rubens,..." is +evidently one of Newbery's efforts to be facetious. To the author, the +pretence that the pictures were by "Disciples of Peter Paul Rubens" +evidently conveyed the same idea of wit that "Punch" has at times +represented to others of a later century. + +Fables have always been a mine of interest to young folks, and were +interspersed liberally with all moral tales, but "Entertaining Fables" +bears upon its title-page a suggestion that the children's old friend, +"Aesop," appeared in a new dress. + +Another series of books contained the much abridged novels written for +the older people. "Peregrine Pickle" and "Roderick Random" were both +reprinted by Isaiah Thomas as early as seventeen hundred and +eighty-eight. These tales of adventure seem to have had their small +reflections in such stories as "The Adventures of a Pincushion," and +"The Adventures of a Peg-top," by Dorothy Kilner, an Englishwoman. +Mention has already been made of "Pamela" and "Clarissa" in condensed +form. These were books of over two hundred pages; but most of the +toy-books were limited to less than one hundred. A remarkable instance +of the pith of a long plot put into small compass was "The History of +Tom Jones." A dog-eared copy of such an edition of "Tom Jones" is still +in existence. Its flowery Dutch binding covers only thirty-one pages, +four inches long, with a frontispiece and five wood-cut illustrations. +In so small a space no detailed account of the life of the hero is to be +expected; nevertheless, the first paragraph introduces Tom as no +ordinary foundling. Mr. Allworthy finds the infant in his bed one +evening and rings up his housekeeper Mrs. Deborah Wilkins. "She being a +strict observer of decency was exceedingly alarmed, on entering her +master's room, to find him undressed, but more so on his presenting her +with the child, which he ordered immediately to be taken care of." The +story proceeds--with little punctuation to enable the reader to take +breath--to tell how the infant is named, and how Mr. Allworthy's nephew, +Master Bilfil, is also brought under that generous and respectable +gentleman's protection. Tommy turned out "good," as Mr. Allworthy had +hoped when he assumed charge of him; and therefore eventually inherited +riches and gained the hand of Miss Sophia Western, with whom he rode +about the country in their "Coach and Six." + +Of the stories in this juvenile library, the names, at least, of "Giles +Gingerbread," "Little King Pippin," and "Goody Two-Shoes" have been +handed down through various generations. One hundred years ago every +child knew that "Little King Pippin" attained his glorious end by +attention to his books in the beginning of his career; that "Giles +Gingerbread" first learned his alphabet from gingerbread letters, and +later obtained the patronage of a fine gentleman by spelling "apple-pye" +correctly. Thus did his digestion prove of material assistance in mental +gymnastics. + +[Illustration: _Illustration of Riddle XIV in "The Puzzling-Cap"_] + +But the nursery favorite was undoubtedly "Margery, or Little Goody +Two-Shoes." She was introduced to the reader in her "state of rags and +care," from which she gradually emerged in the chapters entitled, "How +and about Little Margery and her Brother;" "How Little Margery +obtained the name of Goody Two-Shoes;" "How she became a Tutoress" to +the farmers' families in which she taught spelling by a game; and how +they all sang the "Cuz's Chorus" in the intervals between the spelling +lesson and the composition of sentences like this: "I pray God to bless +the whole country, and all our friends and all our enemies." Like the +usual heroine of eighteenth century fiction, she married a title, and as +Lady Jones was the Lady Bountiful of the district. From these tales it +is clear that piety as the chief end of the story-book child has been +succeeded by learning as the desideratum; yet morality is still pushed +into evidence, and the American mother undoubtedly translated the +ethical sign-boards along the progress of the tale into Biblical +admonitions. + +All the books were didactic in the extreme. A series of four, called +"The Mother's," "Father's," "Sister's," and "Brother's Gifts," is a good +example of this didactic method of story-telling. "The Father's Gift" +has lessons in spelling preceded by these lines: + + "Let me not join with those in Play, + Who fibs and stories tell, + I with my Book will spend the Day, + And not with such Boys dwell. + For one rude Boy will spoil a score + As I have oft been told; + And one bad sheep, in Time, is sure + To injure all the Fold." + +"The Mother's Gift" was confined largely to the same instructive field, +but had one or two stories which conformed to the sentiment of the +author of "The Adventures of a Pincushion," who stated her motive to be +"That of providing the young reader with a few pages which should be +innocent of corrupting if they did not amuse." + +"The Brother's" and "Sister's Gifts," however, adopt a different plan of +instruction. In "The Brother's Gift" we find a brother solicitous +concerning his sister's education: "Miss Kitty Bland was apt, forward and +headstrong; and had it not been for the care of her brother, Billy, would +have probably witnessed all the disadvantages of a modern education"! +Upon Kitty's return from boarding-school, "she could neither read, nor +sew, nor write grammatically, dancing stiff and awkward, her musick +inelegant, and everything she did bordered strongly on affectation." Here +was a large field for reformation for Billy to effect. He had no doubts +as to what method to pursue. She was desired to make him twelve shirts, +and when the first one was presented to him, "he was astonished to find +her lacking in so useful a female accomplishment." Exemplary conversation +produced such results that the rest of the garments were satisfactory to +the critical Billy, who, "as a mark of approbation made her a present of +a fine pair of stays." + +"The Sister's Gift" presents an opposite picture. In this case it is +Master Courtley who, a "youth of Folly and Idleness," received large +doses of advice from his sister. This counsel was so efficient with +Billy's sensitive nature that before the story ends, "he wept bitterly, +and declared to his sister that she had painted the enormity of his +vices in such striking colors, that they shocked him in the greatest +degree; and promised ever after to be as remarkable for generosity, +compassion and every other virtue as he had hitherto been for cruelty, +forwardness and ill-nature." Virtue in this instance was its own reward, +as Billy received no gift in recognition of his changed habits. + +To the modern lover of children such tales seem strangely ill-suited to +the childish mind, losing, as they do, all tenderness in the effort of +the authors (so often confided to parents in the preface) "to express +their sentiments with propriety." Such criticism of the style and matter +of these early attempts to write for little people was probably not made +by either infant or adult readers of that old-time public. The children +read what was placed before them as intellectual food, plain and +sweetened, as unconcernedly as they ate the food upon their plates at +meal-time. That their own language was the formal one of the period is +shown by such letters as the following one from Mary Wilder, who had +just read "The Mother's Gift:" + + Lancaster, October 9th, 1789. + + HOND. MADM: + + Your goodness to me I cannot express. My mind is continually crowded + with your kindness. If your goodness could be rewarded, I hope God + will repay you. If you remember, some time ago I read a story in + "The Mother's Gift," but I hope I shall never resemble Miss Gonson. + O Dear! What a thing it is to disobey one's parents. I have one of + the best Masters. He gave me a sheet of paper this morning. I hope + Uncle Flagg will come up. I am quite tired of looking for Betsy, but + I hope she will come. When school is done keeping, I shall come to + Sudbury. What a fine book Mrs. Chapone's Letters is: My time grows + short and I must make my letter short. + + Your dutiful daughter, + P.W. + +Nursery rhymes and jingles of these present days have all descended from +song-books of the eighteenth century, entitled "Little Robin Red +Breast," "A Poetical Description of Song Birds," "Tommy Thumb's +Song-Book," and the famous "Melodies of Mother Goose," whose name is +happily not yet relegated to the days of long ago. Two extracts from the +"Poetical Description of Song Birds" will be sufficient to show how +foreign to the birds familiar to American children were the +descriptions: + + THE BULLFINCH + + This lovely bird is charming to the sight: + The back is glossy blue, the belly white, + A jetty black shines on his neck and head; + His breast is flaming with a beauteous red. + + THE TWITE + + Green like the Linnet it appears to sight, + And like the Linnet sings from morn till night. + A reddish spot upon his rump is seen, + Short is his bill, his feathers always clean: + When other singing birds are dull or nice, + To sing again the merry Twites entice. + +Reflections of the prevailing taste of grown people for biography are +suggested in three little books, of two of which the author was Mrs. +Pilkington, who had already written several successful stories for young +ladies. Her "Biography for Girls" contains various novelettes, in each +of which the heroine lives the conventional life and dies the +conventional death of the period, and receives a laudatory epitaph. They +are remarkable only as being devoid of any interest. Her "Biography for +Boys" does not appear to have attained the same popularity as that for +girls. A third book, "The Juvenile Biographers," containing the "Lives +of Little Masters and Misses," is representative of the changes made in +many books by the printer to cater to that pride in the young Republic +so manifest in all local literary productions. In one biography we note +a Representative to the Massachusetts Assembly: + +"As Master Sammy had always been a very sober and careful child, and +very attentive to his Books, it is no wonder that he proved, in the End, +to be an excellent Scholar. + +"Accordingly, when he had reached the age of fourteen, Mr. William +Goodall, a wealthy merchant in the city of Boston, took him into his +counting house, in order to bring him up in the merchantile Way, and +thereby make his Fortune. + +"This was a sad Stroke to his poor Sister Nancy, who having lost both +her Papa and Mama, was now likely to lose her Brother likewise; but +Sammy did all he could to appease her, and assured her, that he would +spend all his leisure Time with her. This he most punctually performed, +and never were Brother and Sister as happy in each other's company as +they were. + +"Mr. William Goodall was highly satisfied with Sammy's Behaviour, and +dying much about the Time that Miss Nancy was married to the Gentleman, +he left all his business to Sammy, together with a large Capital to +carry it on. So much is Mr. Careful esteemed (for we must now no longer +call him Master Sammy) that he was chosen in the late General Election, +Representative in the General Court, for one of the first Towns in New +England, without the least expense to himself. We here see what are the +Effects of Good Behaviour." + +This adaptation of the English tale to the surroundings of the American +child is often found in Thomas's reprints, and naturally, owing to his +enthusiasm over the recent change in the form of government, is made +wholly by political references. Therefore while the lark and the linnet +still sang in songs and the cowslips were scattered throughout the +nature descriptions, Master Friendly no longer rode in the Lord Mayor's +coach, but was seated as a Congressman in a sedan chair, "and he +looked--he looked--I do not know what he looked like, but everybody was +in love with him." The engraver as well as the biographer of the +recently made Representative was evidently at a loss as to his +appearance, as the four dots indicating the young gentleman's features +give but a blank look perhaps intended to denote amazement at his +election. + +The illustrations of Thomas's toy reprints should not be overlooked. The +Worcester printer seems to have rewritten the "Introduction" to "Goody +Two-Shoes," and at the end he affixed a "Letter from the Printer which +he desires may be inserted. + + SIR: I have come with your copy, and so you may return it + to the Vatican, if you please; and pray tell Mr. Angelo to brush up + his cuts; that in the next edition they may give us a good + impression." + +This apology for the character of the illustrations serves as an +introduction to a most interesting subject of conjecture as to the +making of the cuts, and particularly as to the engraving of the +frontispiece in "Goody Two-Shoes." + +[Illustration: _Goody Twoshoes._] + +It will be remembered that Isaiah Thomas in his advertisement to +booksellers had expressly mentioned the great expense he had incurred in +bringing out the juvenile books in "the English method." But Mr. Edwin +Pearson, in his delightful discussion of "Banbury Chap-Books," has also +stated that the wood-cut frontispiece in the first American edition of +"Goody Two-Shoes," printed by Thomas, was engraved by Bewick, the famous +English illustrator. A comparison of the reproduction of the Bewick +engraving in Mr. Pearson's book with the frontispiece in Thomas's +edition shows so much difference that it is a matter of regret that Mr. +Pearson withheld his authority for attributing to Bewick the +representation of Margery Two-Shoes. Besides the inference from Thomas's +letter that the poor cuts would be improved before another edition +should be printed, there are several points to be observed in comparing +the cuts. In the first place, the execution in the Thomas cut suggests a +different hand in the use of the tools; again, the reversed position of +the figure of "Goody" indicates a copy of the English original. Also the +expression of Thomas's heroine, although slightly mincing, is less +distressed than the British dame's, to say nothing of the variation in +the fashion of the gowns. And such details as the replacing of the +English landscape by the spire of a meeting-house in the distance seem +to confirm the impression that the drawing was made after, but not by +Bewick. In the cuts scattered throughout the text the same difference in +execution and portrayal of the little schoolmistress is noticeable. +Margery, upon her rounds to teach the farmers' children to spell such +words as "plumb-pudding" "(and who can suppose a better?)," presents her +full face in the Newbery edition, and but a three-quarter view to her +American admirers. + +These facts, together with the knowledge that Isaiah Thomas was a fair +engraver himself, make it possible that his apology for the first +impression of the tiny classic was for his own engraving, which he +thought to better. + +Thomas not only copied and pirated Newbery's juvenile histories, but he +adopted his method of advertising by insertions in the text of these +tales. For example, in "The Travels of Robinson Crusoe, Written by +Himself," the little reader was told, "If you learn this Book well and +are good, you can buy a larger and more complete History of Mr. Crusoe +at your friend the Bookseller's in Worcester near the Court House." In +"The Mother's Gift," there is described well-brought-up Miss Nugent +displaying to ill-bred Miss Jones, "a pretty large collection of books +neatly bound and nicely kept," all to be had of Mr. Thomas; and again +Mr. Careful, in "Virtue and Vice," "presented at Christmas time to the +sons and daughters of his friends, little Gilt Books to read, such as +are sold at Mr. Thomas' near the Court House in Worcester." + +Thomas and his son continued to send out these toy-books until their gay +bindings faded away before the novelty of the printed paper covers of +the nineteenth century. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[92-A] Tyler, _Literary History of the American Revolution_, vol. i, p. +485. + +[94-A] _Life of Josiah Quincy_, p. 27. Boston, 1866. + +[94-B] Earle, _Child Life in Colonial Days_, p. 171. + +[98-A] Tyler, _Literature of the American Revolution_, vol. ii, p. 182. + +[98-B] _Ibid._, p. 156. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +1790-1800 + + + + + By Washington + Great deeds were done. + _The New England Primer_, + New York, 1794 + + Line after line their wisdom flows + Page after page repeating. + T.G. HAKE + + + + +CHAPTER V + +1790-1800 + +_The Child and his Book at the End of the Century_ + + +Any attempt to trace the slow development of the American child's story +of the nineteenth century must inevitably be made through the +school-books written during the previous one. Before this, English books +had been adapted to the American trade. But now the continued interest +in education produced text-books pervaded with the American spirit. They +cannot, therefore, be ignored as sporadically in the springtime of the +young Republic, they, like crocuses, thrust forward in the different +states their blue and yellow covers. + +Next to clergymen, schoolmasters received the veneration of the people, +for learning and godliness went hand in hand. It was the schoolmaster +who reinforced the efforts of the parents to make good Americans of the +young folks, by compiling text-books which outsold the English ones +hitherto used. In the new editions of the old "New England Primer," +laudatory verse about General Washington replaced the alphabet rhyme: + + "Whales in the Sea + God's Voice obey." + +Proud parents thereafter heard their infants lisp: + + "By Washington + Great deeds were done." + +For older pupils Noah Webster's speller almost superseded Dilworth's, +and his "Little Readers' Assistant" became the First Reader of many +children. Webster as schoolmaster in a country district prepared this +book for his own scholars. It was printed in Hartford in seventeen +hundred and ninety, and contained a list of subjects suitable for +farmers' children: + + I. A number of Stories mostly taken from the history of + America, and adorned with Cuts. + + II. Rudiments of English Grammar. + +III. The Federal Catechism, being a short and easy explanation + of the Constitution of the United States. + + IV. General principles of Government and Commerce. + + V. Farmers' Catechism containing plain rules of husbandry. + +Bennington, Vermont, contributed in "The Little Scholar's Pretty Pocket +Companion in Rhyme and Verse," this indirect allusion to political +affairs: + + "'Twas a toy of royalty, of late almost forgot, + 'Tis said she represented France + On English Monarchies arms, + But lately broke his chains by chance + And widely spread alarms." + +But the most naive attempt to inculcate patriotism together with a +lesson in obedience is found in "The Child's Instructor," published +about seventeen hundred and ninety-one, and written by a Philadelphian. +Philadelphia had become the residence of the President--a fact that may +account for one of the stories in this book about an infant prodigy +called Billy. "The child at five years of age was always good and +obedient, and prone to make such a remark as, 'If you would be wise you +must always attend to your vowels and consonants.' When General +Washington came to town Billy's mama asked him to say a speech to the +ladies, and he began, 'Americans! place constantly before your eyes, the +deplorable scenes of your servitude, and the enchanting picture of your +deliverance. Begin with the infant in his cradle; let the first word he +lisps be _Washington_.' The ladies were all delighted to hear Billy +speak so well. One said he should be a lawyer, and another said he +should be President of the United States. But Billy said he could not be +either unless his mama gave him leave."[123-A] + +Another Philadelphian attempted to embody political sentiment in "A +Tale--The Political Balance; or, The Fate of Britain and America +Compared." This juvenile has long since disappeared, but it was +advertised by its printer, Francis Bailey, in seventeen hundred and +ninety-two, together with "The History of the Little Boy found under a +Haycock," and several other books for children. One year later a +"History of the American Revolution" for children was also printed in +Philadelphia for the generation who had been born since the war had +ended. This was written in the Biblical phraseology introduced and made +popular by Franklin in his famous "Parable against Persecution." + +This enthusiasm over the results of the late war and scorn for the +defeated English sometimes indeed cropped out in the Newbery reprints. +An edition (1796) of "Goody Two-Shoes" contains this footnote in +reference to the tyranny of the English landlord over Goody's father: + +_"Such is the state of things in Britain. AMERICANS prize your liberty, +guard your rights and be happy._"[123-B] + +In this last decade of the century that had made a nation of the +colonial commonwealths, the prosperity of the country enabled more +printers to pirate the generally approved Newbery library. Samuel Hall +in Boston, with a shop near the court-house, printed them all, using at +times the dainty covers of flowery Dutch or gilt paper, and again +another style of binding occasionally used in England. "The Death and +Burial of Cock Robin," for instance, has a quaint red and gilt cover, +which according to Mr. Charles Welsh was made by stamping paper with +dies originally used for printing old German playing-cards. He says: "To +find such a cover can only be accounted for by the innocence of the +purchasers as to the appearance of his Satanic Majesty's picture cards +and hence [they] did not recognize them." In one corner of the book +cover is impressed the single word "Muench," which stamps this paper as +"made in Germany." Hall himself was probably as ignorant of the original +purpose of the picture as the unsuspecting purchaser, who would +cheerfully have burned it rather than see such an instrument of the +Devil in the hands of its owner, little Sally Barnes. + +[Illustration: Frontispiece. +Sr. Walter Raleigh and his man.] + +Of Samuel Hall's reprints from the popular English publications, "Little +Truths" was in all probability one of the most salable. So few books +contained any information about America that one of these two volumes +may be regarded as of particular interest to the young generation of his +time. The author of "Little Truths," William Darton, a Quaker publisher +in London, does not divulge from what source he gleaned his knowledge. +His information concerning Americans is of that misty description +that confuses Indians ("native Americans") with people of Spanish and +English descent. The usual "Introduction" states that "The author has +chose a method after the manner of conversations between children and +their instructor," and the dialogue is indicated by printing the +children's observations in italics. These volumes were issued for twenty +years after they were introduced by Hall, and those of an eighteen +hundred Philadelphia edition are bound separately. Number one is in blue +paper with copper-plate pictures on both covers. This volume gives +information regarding farm produce, live-stock, and about birds quite +unfamiliar to American children. But the second volume, in white covers, +introduces the story of Sir Walter Raleigh and his pipe-smoking +incident, made very realistic in the copper-plate frontispiece. The +children's question, "_Did Sir Walter Raleigh find out the virtues of +tobacco?_" affords an excellent opportunity for a discourse upon smoking +and snuff-taking. These remarks conclude with this prosaic statement: +"Hundreds of sensible people have fell into these customs from example; +and, when they would have left them off, found it a very great +difficulty." Next comes a lesson upon the growth of tobacco leading up +to a short account of the slave-trade, already a subject of differing +opinion in the United States, as well as in England. Of further interest +to small Americans was a short tale of the discovery of this country. +Perhaps to most children their first book-knowledge of this event came +from the pages of "Little Truths." + +Hall's books were not all so proper for the amusement of young folks. A +perusal of "Capt. Gulliver's Adventures" leaves one in no doubt as to +the reason that so many of the old-fashioned mothers preferred to keep +such tales out of children's hands, and to read over and over again the +adventures of the Pilgrim, Christian. Mrs. Eliza Drinker of Philadelphia +in seventeen hundred and ninety-six was re-reading for the third time +"Pilgrim's Progress," which she considered a "generally approved book," +although then "ridiculed by many." The "Legacy to Children" Mrs. Drinker +also read aloud to her grandchildren, having herself "wept over it +between fifty and sixty years ago, as did my grandchildren when it was +read to them. She, Hannah Hill, died in 1714, and ye book was printed in +1714 by Andrew Bradford." + +But Mrs. Drinker's grandchildren had another book very different from +the pious sayings of the dying Hannah. This contained "64 little stories +and as many pictures drawn and written by Nancy Skyrin," the mother of +some of the children. P. Widdows had bound the stories in gilt paper, +and it was so prized by the family that the grandmother thought the fact +of the recovery of the book, after it was supposed to have been +irretrievably lost, worthy of an entry in her journal. Careful inquiry +among the descendants of Mrs. Drinker has led to the belief that these +stories were read out of existence many years ago. What they were about +can only be imagined. Perhaps they were incidents in the lives of the +same children who cried over the pathetic morbidity of Hannah's dying +words; or possibly rhymes and verses about school and play hours of +little Philadelphians; with pictures showing bait-the-bear, trap-ball, +and other sports of days long since passed away, as well as "I Spie +Hi" and marbles, familiar still to boys and girls. + +[Illustration: _Foot Ball_] + +From the fact that these stories were written for the author's own +children, another book, composed less than a century before, is brought +to mind. Comparison of even the meagre description of Mrs. Skyrin's book +with Cotton Mather's professed purpose in "Good Lessons" shows the +stride made in children's literature to be a long one. Yet a quarter of +a century was still to run before any other original writing was done in +America for children's benefit. + +Nobody else in America, indeed, seems to have considered the question of +writing for nursery inmates. Mrs. Barbauld's "Easy Lessons for Children +from Two to Five Years old," written for English children, were +considered perfectly adapted to gaining knowledge and perhaps amusement. +It is true that when Benjamin Bache of Philadelphia issued "Easy +Lessons," he added this note: "Some alterations were thought necessary to +be made in this ... American edition, to make it agree with the original +design of rendering instruction easy and useful.... The climate and the +familiar objects of this country suggested these alterations." Except for +the substitution of such words as "Wheat" for "Corn," the intentions of +the editor seem hardly to have had result, except by way of +advertisement; and are of interest merely because they represent one step +further in the direction of Americanizing the story-book literature. + +All Mrs. Barbauld's books were considered excellent for young children. +As a "Dissenter," she gained in the esteem of the people of the northern +states, and her books were imported as well as reprinted here. Perhaps +she was best known to our grandparents as the joint author, with Dr. +Aikin, of "Evenings at Home," and of "Hymns in Prose and Verse." Both +were read extensively for fifty years. The "Hymns" had an enormous +circulation, and were often full of fine rhythm and undeserving of the +entire neglect into which they have fallen. Of course, as the fashion +changed in the "approved" type of story, Mrs. Barbauld suffered +criticism. "Mrs. and Miss Edgeworth in their 'Practical Education' +insisted that evil lurked behind the phrase in 'Easy Lessons,' 'Charles +wants his dinner' because of the implication 'that Charles must have +whatever he desires,' and to say 'the sun has gone to bed,' is to incur +the odium of telling the child a falsehood."[128-A] + +But the manner in which these critics of Mrs. Barbauld thought they had +improved upon her method of story-telling is a tale belonging to another +chapter. When Miss Edgeworth's wave of popularity reached this country +Mrs. Barbauld's ideas still flourished as very acceptable to parents. + +A contemporary and rival writer for the English nursery was Mrs. Sarah +Trimmer. Her works for little children were also credited with much +information they did not give. After the publication of Mrs. Barbauld's +"Easy Lessons" (which was the result of her own teaching of an adopted +child), Mrs. Trimmer's friends urged her to make a like use of the +lessons given to her family of six, and accordingly she published in +seventeen hundred and seventy-eight an "Easy Introduction into the +Knowledge of Nature," and followed it some years after its initial +success by "Fabulous Histories," afterwards known as the "History of +the Robins." Although Mrs. Trimmer represents more nearly than Mrs. +Barbauld the religious emotionalism pervading Sunday-school +libraries,--in which she was deeply interested,--the work of both these +ladies exemplifies the transitional stage to that Labor-in-Play school +of writing which was to invade the American nursery in the next century +when Parley and Abbott throve upon the proceeds of the educational +narrative. + +Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" and Thomas Day's "Sanford and Merton" occupied +the place in the estimation of boys that the doings of Mrs. Barbauld's +and Mrs. Trimmer's works held in the opinion of the younger members of +the nursery. Edition followed upon edition of the adventures of the +famous island hero. In Philadelphia, in seventeen hundred and +ninety-three, William Young issued what purported to be the sixth +edition. In New York many thousands of copies were sold, and in eighteen +hundred and twenty-four we find a Spanish translation attesting its +widespread favor. In seventeen hundred and ninety-four, Isaiah Thomas +placed the surprising adventures of the mariner as on the "Coast of +America, lying near the mouth of the great river Oroonoque." + +Parents also thought very highly of Thomas Day's "Children's Miscellany" +and "Sanford and Merton." To read this last book is to believe it to be +possibly in the style that Dr. Samuel Johnson had in mind when he +remarked to Mrs. Piozzi that "the parents buy the books but the children +never read them." Yet the testimony of publishers of the past is that +"Sanford and Merton" had a large and continuous sale for many years. +"'Sanford and Merton,'" writes Mr. Julian Hawthorne, "ran 'Robinson +Crusoe' harder than any other work of the eighteenth century +particularly written for children." "The work," he adds, "is quaint and +interesting rather to the historian than to the general, especially the +child, reader. Children would hardly appreciate so amazingly ancient a +form of conversation as that which resulted from Tommy [the bad boy of +the story] losing a ball and ordering a ragged boy to pick it up: + +"'Bring my ball directly!' + +"'I don't choose it,' said the boy. + +"'Sirrah,' cried Tommy, 'if I come to you I will make you choose it.' + +"'Perhaps not, my pretty master,' said the boy. + +"'You little rascal,' said Tommy, who now began to be very angry, 'if I +come over the hedge I will thrash you within an inch of your life.'" + +The gist of Tommy's threat has often been couched in modern language by +grandsons of the boys from whom the Socratic Mr. Day wrote to expose the +evils of too luxurious an education. His method of compilation of facts +to be taught may best be given in the words of his Preface: "All who +have been conversant in the education of very young children, have +complained of the total want of proper books to be put in their hands, +while they are taught the elements of reading.... The least exceptional +passages of books that I could find for the purpose were 'Plutarch's +Lives' and Xenophon's 'History of the Institution of Cyrus,' in English +translation; with some part of 'Robinson Crusoe,' and a few passages +from Mr. Brooke's 'Fool of Quality.' ... I therefore resolved ... not +only to collect all such stories as I thought adapted to the faculties +of children, but to connect these by continued narration.... As to the +histories themselves, I have used the most unbounded licence.... As to +the language, I have endeavored to throw into it a greater degree of +elegance and ornament than is usually to be met with in such +compositions; preserving at the same time a sufficient degree of +simplicity to make it intelligible to very young children, and rather +choosing to be diffuse than obscure." With these objects in mind, we can +understand small Tommy's embellishment of his demand for the return of +his ball by addressing the ragged urchin as "Sirrah." + +Mr. Day's "Children's Miscellany" contained a number of stories, of +which one, "The History of Little Jack," about a lost child who was +adopted by a goat, was popular enough to be afterwards published +separately. It is a debatable question as to whether the parents or the +children figuring in this "Miscellany" were the more artificial. "Proud +and unfeeling girl," says one tender mother to her little daughter who +had bestowed half her pin money upon a poor family,--"proud and +unfeeling girl, to prefer vain and trifling ornaments to the delight of +relieving the sick and miserable! Retire from my presence! Take away +with you trinket and nosegay, and receive from them all the comforts +they are able to bestow!" Why Mr. Day's stories met with such +unqualified praise at the time they were published, this example of +canting rubbish does not reveal. In real life parents certainly did +retain some of their substance for their own pleasure; why, therefore, +discipline a child for following the same inclination? + +In contrast to Mr. Day's method, Mrs. Barbauld's plan of simple +conversation in words of one, two, and three syllables seems modern. +Both aimed to afford pleasure to children "learning the elements of +reading." Where Mrs. Barbauld probably judged truly the capacity of +young children in the dialogues with the little Charles of "Easy +Lessons," Mr. Day loaded his gun with flowers of rhetoric and overshot +infant comprehension. + +Nevertheless, in spite of the criticism that has waylaid and torn to +tatters Thomas Day's efforts to provide a suitable and edifying variety +of stories, his method still stands for the distinct secularization of +children's literature of amusement. Moreover, as Mr. Montrose J. Moses +writes in his delightful study of "Children's Books and Reading," "he +foreshadowed the method of retelling incidents from the classics and +from standard history and travel,--a form which is practised to a great +extent by our present writers, who thread diverse materials on a slender +wire of subsidiary story, and who, like Butterworth and Knox, invent +untiring families of travellers who go to foreign parts, who see things, +and then talk out loud about them." + +Besides tales by English authors, there was a French woman, Madame de +Genlis, whose books many educated people regarded as particularly +suitable for their daughters, both in the original text and in the +English translations. In Aaron Burr's letters we find references to his +interest in the progress made by his little daughter, Theodosia, in her +studies. His zeal in searching for helpful books was typical of the care +many others took to place the best literature within their children's +reach. From Theodosia's own letters to her father we learn that she was +a studious child, who wrote and ciphered from five to eight every +morning and during the same hours every evening. To improve her French, +Mr. Burr took pains to find reading-matter when his law practice +necessitated frequent absence from home. Thus from West Chester, in +seventeen hundred and ninety-six, when Theodosia was nine years old, he +wrote: + + I rose up suddenly from the sofa and rubbing my head--"What book + shall I buy for her?" said I to myself. "She reads so much and so + rapidly that it is not easy to find proper and amusing French books + for her; and yet I am so flattered with her progress in that + language, that I am resolved that she shall, at all events, be + gratified." So ... I took my hat and sallied out. It was not my + first attempt. I went into one bookseller's after another. I found + plenty of fairy tales and such nonsense, for the generality of + children of nine or ten years old. "These," said I, "will never do. + Her understanding begins to be above such things." ... I began to be + discouraged. "But I will search a little longer." I persevered. At + last I found it. I found the very thing I sought. It is contained in + two volumes, octavo, handsomely bound, and with prints and reprints. + It is a work of fancy but replete with instruction and amusement. I + must present it with my own hand. + + Yr. affectionate + A. BURR. + +What speculation there must have been in the Burr family as to the name +of the gift, and what joy when Mr. Burr presented the two volumes upon +his return! From a letter written later by Mr. Burr to his wife, it +appears that he afterward found reason to regret his purchase, which +seems to have been Madame de Genlis's famous "Annales." "Your account," +he wrote, "of Madame Genlis surprises me, and is new evidence of the +necessity of reading books before we put them in the hands of children." +Opinion differed, of course, concerning the French lady's books. In New +York, in Miss Dodsworth's most genteel and fashionable school, a play +written from "The Dove" by Madame de Genlis was acted with the same zest +by little girls of ten and twelve years of age as they showed in another +play taken from "The Search after Happiness," a drama by the Quakeress +and religious writer, Hannah More. These plays were given at the end of +school terms by fond parents with that appreciation of the histrionic +ability of their daughters still to be seen on such occasions. + +No such objection as Mrs. Burr made to this lady's "Annales" was +possible in regard to another French book, by Berquin. Entitled "Ami des +Enfans," it received under the Rev. Mr. Cooper's translation the name +"The Looking Glass for the Mind." This collection of tales supposedly +mirrored the frailties and virtues of rich and poor children. It was +often bound in full calf, and an edition of seventeen hundred and +ninety-four contains a better engraved frontispiece than it was +customary to place in juvenile publications. For half a century it was +to be found in the shop of all booksellers, and had its place in the +library of every family of means. There are still those among us who +have not forgotten the impression produced upon their infant minds by +certain of the tales. Some remember the cruel child and the canary. +Others recollect their admiration of the little maid who, when all +others deserted her young patroness, lying ill with the smallpox, won +the undying gratitude of the mother by her tender nursing. The author, +blind himself to the possibilities of detriment to the sick child by +unskilled care, held up to the view of all, this example of devotion of +one girl in contrast to the hard-heartedness of many others. This book +seems also to have been called by the literal translation of its +original title, "Ami des Enfans;" for in an account of the occupations +of one summer Sunday in seventeen hundred and ninety-seven, Julia +Cowles, living in Litchfield, Connecticut, wrote: "Attended meeting all +day long, but do not recollect the text. Read in 'The Children's +Friend.'" Many children would not have been permitted to read so nearly +secular a book; but evidently Julia Cowles's parents were liberal in +their view of Sunday reading after the family had attended "meeting all +day long." + +In addition to the interest of the context of these toy-books of a past +generation, one who handles such relics of a century ago sees much of +the fashions for children of that day. In "The Looking Glass," for +instance, the illustrations copied from engravings by the famous English +artist, Bewick, show that at the end of the eighteenth century children +were still clothed like their elders; the coats and waistcoats, knee +breeches and hats, of boys were patterned after gentlemen's garments, +and the caps and aprons, kerchiefs and gowns, for girls were +reproductions of the mothers' wardrobes. + +Again, the fly-leaf of "The History of Master Jacky and Miss Harriot" +arrests the eye by its quaint inscription: "Rozella Ford's Book. For +being the second speller in the second class." At once the imagination +calls up the exercises in a village school at the end of a year's +session: a row of prim little maids and sturdy boys, standing before the +school dame and by turn spelling in shrill tones words of three to five +syllables, until only two, Rozella and a better speller, remain +unconfused by Dilworth's and Webster's word mysteries. Then the two +children step forward with bow and curtsey to receive their tiny gilt +prizes from a pile of duodecimos upon the teacher's desk. Indeed, the +giving of rewards was carried to such an extent as to become a great +drain upon the meagre stipend of the teacher. Thus when in copper-plate +handwriting we find in another six-penny volume the inscription: +"Benjamin H. Bailey, from one he esteems and loves, Mr. Hapgood," we +read between its lines the self-denial practised by Mr. Hapgood, who +possibly received, like many other teachers, but seventy-five cents a +week besides his board and lodging. + +Other books afford a glimpse of children's life: the formal every-day +routine, the plays they enjoyed, and their demonstration of a +sensibility as keen as was then in fashion for adults. The "History of a +Doll," lying upon the writer's table, is among the best in this respect. +It was evidently much read by its owner and fairly "loved to pieces." +When it reached this disintegrated stage, a careful mother, or aunt, +sewed it with coarse flax thread inside a home-made cover of bright blue +wall-paper. Although the "History of the Pedigree and Rise of the Pretty +Doll" bears no date, its companion story in the wall-paper wrapper has +the imprint seventeen hundred and ninety-one, and this, together with +the press-work, places it as belonging to the eighteenth century. It +offers to the reader a charming insight into the formality of many an +old-fashioned family: the deportment stiff with the starched customs of +that day, the seriousness of their fun, and the sensibility among little +maidens akin to that exhibited in the heroines of fiction created by +Richardson and Fielding. + +The chapter concerning "The Pedigree of the Doll" treats of finding a +branch of a tree by a carver, who was desired by Sir John Amiable to +make one of the best dolls in his power for his "pretty little daughter +who was as good as she was pretty." The carver accordingly took the +branch and began carving out the head, shoulders, body, and legs, which +he soon brought to their proper shape. "He then covered it with a fine, +flesh-colored enamel and painted its cheeks in the most lively manner. +It had the finest black and sparkling eyes that were ever beheld; its +cheeks resembled the blushing rose, its neck the lilly, and its lips the +coral." The doll is presented, and the next chapter tells of "an +assembly of little female gossips in full debate on the clothing of the +doll." "Miss Polly having made her papa a vast number of courtesies for +it, prevailed on her brother to go round to all the little gossips in +the neighborhood, begging their company to tea in the afternoon, in +order to consult in what mode the doll should be dressed." The company +assembled. "Miss Micklin undertook to make it a fine ruffled laced +shift, Miss Mantua to make it a silk sacque and petticoat; and in short, +every one contributed, in some measure, to dress out this beautiful +creature." + +"Everything went on with great harmony till they came to the head-dress +of the doll; and here they differed so much in opinion, that all their +little clappers were going at once.... Luckily, at this instant Mrs. +Amiable happened to come in, and soon brought the little gossips to +order. The matter in dispute was, whether it should have a high +head-dress or whether the hair should come down on the forehead, and the +curls flow in natural ringlets on the shoulders. However, after some +pretty warm debate, this last mode was adopted, as most proper for a +little miss." In chapter third "The doll is named:--Accidents attend the +Ceremony." Here we have a picture of a children's party. "The young +ladies and gentlemen were entertained with tea and coffee; and when that +was over, each was presented with a glass of raisin wine." During the +christening ceremony an accident happened to the doll, because Master +Tommy, the parson, "in endeavouring to get rid of it before the little +gossips were ready to receive it, made a sad blunder.... Miss Polly, +with tears in her eyes, snatched up the doll and clasped it to her +bosom; while the rest of the little gossips turned all the little +masters out of the room, that they might be left to themselves to +inquire more privately into what injuries the dear doll had received.... +Amidst these alarming considerations Tommy Amiable sent the ladies word, +that, if they would permit him and the rest of the young gentlemen to +pass the evening among them in the parlour, he would engage to replace +the nose of the doll in such a manner that not the appearance of the +late accident should be seen." Permission was accordingly granted for a +surgical operation upon the nose, but "as to the fracture in one of the +doll's legs, it was never certainly known how that was remedied, as the +young ladies thought it very indelicate to mention anything about the +matter." The misadventures of the doll include its theft by a monkey in +the West Indies, and at this interesting point the only available copy +of the tale is cut short by the loss of the last four pages. The charm +of this book lies largely in the fact that the owner of the doll does +not grow up and marry as in almost every other novelette. This +difference, of course, prevents the story from being a typical one of +its period, but it is, nevertheless, a worthy forerunner of those tales +of the nineteenth century in which an effort was made to write about +incidents in a child's life, and to avoid the biographical tendency. + +Before leaving the books of the eighteenth century, one tale must be +mentioned because it contains the germ of the idea which has developed +into Mr. George's "Junior Republic." It was called "Juvenile Trials for +Robbing Orchards, Telling Tales and other Heinous Offenses." "This," +said Dr. Aikin--Mrs. Barbauld's brother and collaborator in "Evenings at +Home"--"is a very pleasing and ingenious little Work, in which a Court +of Justice is supposed to be instituted in a school, composed of the +Scholars themselves, for the purpose of trying offenses committed at +School." In "Trial the First" Master Tommy Tell-Truth charges Billy +Prattle with robbing an orchard. The jury, after hearing Billy express +his contrition for his act, brings in a verdict of guilty; but the judge +pardons the culprit because of his repentant frame of mind. Miss Delia, +the offender in case _Number Two_, does not escape so lightly. Miss +Stirling charges her with raising contention and strife among her +school-fellows over a piece of angelica, "whereby," say her prosecutors, +"one had her favorite cap torn to pieces, and her hair which had been +that day nicely dressed, pulled all about her shoulders; another had her +sack torn down the middle; a third had a fine flowered apron of her own +working, reduced to rags; a fourth was wounded by a pelick, or scratch +of her antagonist, and in short, there was hardly one among them who had +not some mark to shew of having been concerned in this unfortunate +affair." That the good Dr. Aikin approved of the punishment decreed, we +are sure. The little prisoner was condemned to pass three days in her +room, as just penalty for such "indelicate" behaviour. + +By the close of the century Miss Edgeworth was beginning to supersede +Mrs. Barbauld in England; but in America the taste in juvenile reading +was still satisfied with the older writer's little Charles, as the +correct model for children's deportment, and with Giles Gingerbread as +the exemplary student. The child's lessons had passed from "Be good or +you will go to Hell" to "Be good and you will be rich;" or, with the +Puritan element still so largely predominant, "Be good and you will go +to Heaven." Virtue as an ethical quality had been shown in "Goody +Two-Shoes" to bring its reward as surely as vice brought punishment. It +is to be doubted if this was altogether wholesome; and it may well be +that it was with this idea in mind that Dr. Johnson made his celebrated +criticism of the nursery literature in vogue, when he said to Mrs. +Piozzi, "Babies do not want to be told about babies; they like to be +told of giants and castles, and of somewhat which can stretch and +stimulate their little minds."[141-A] + +The learned Doctor, having himself been brought up on "Jack the Giant +Killer" and "The History of Blue Beard," was inclined to scorn Newbery's +tales as lacking in imaginative quality. That Dr. Johnson was really +interested in stories for the young people of his time is attested by a +note written in seventeen hundred and sixty-three on the fly-leaf of a +collection of chap-books: "I shall certainly, sometime or other, write a +little Story-Book in the style of these. I shall be happy to succeed, +for he who pleases children will be remembered by them."[141-B] + +In America, however, it is doubtful whether any true critical spirit +regarding children's books had been reached. Fortunately in England, at +the beginning of the next century, there was a man who dared speak his +opinion. Mrs. Barbauld and Mrs. Trimmer (who had contributed "Fabulous +Histories" to the juvenile library, and for them had shared the approval +which greeted Mrs. Barbauld's efforts) were the objects of Charles +Lamb's particular detestation. In a letter to Coleridge, written in +1802, he said: + +"Goody Two Shoes is almost out of print. Mrs. Barbauld's stuff has +banished all the old classics of the nursery, and the shopman at +Newbery's hardly deigned to reach them off an old exploded corner of a +shelf, when Mary asked for them. Mrs. Barbauld's and Mrs. Trimmer's +nonsense lay in piles about. Knowledge insignificant and vapid as Mrs. +Barbauld's books convey, it seems, must come to a child in the shape of +knowledge; and his empty noddle must be turned with conceit of his own +powers when he has learned that a horse is an animal and Billy is better +than a horse, and such like, instead of that beautiful interest in wild +tales, which made the child a man, while all the time he suspected +himself to be no bigger than a child. Science has succeeded to poetry no +less in the little walks of children than of men. Is there no +possibility of arresting this force of evil? Think what you would have +been now, if instead of being fed with tales and old wives' fables in +childhood, you had been crammed with geography and natural history. Hang +them! I mean the cursed Barbauld crew, those blights and blasts of all +that is human in man and child."[142-A] + +To Lamb's extremely sensitive nature, the vanished hand of the literary +man of Grub Street could not be replaced by Mrs. Barbauld's wish to +instruct by using simple language. It is possible that he did her some +injustice. Yet a retrospective glance over the story-book literature +evolved since Newbery's juvenile library was produced, shows little that +was not poor in quality and untrue to life. Therefore, it is no wonder +that Lamb should have cried out against the sore evil which had "beset a +child's mind." All the poetry of life, all the imaginative powers of a +child, Mrs. Barbauld, Mrs. Trimmer, and Mr. Day ignored; and Newbery in +his way, and the old ballads in their way, had appealed to both. + +In both countries the passion for knowledge resulted in this curious +literature of amusement. In England books were written; in America they +were reprinted, until a religious revival left in its wake the series +of morbid and educational tales which the desire to write original +stories for American children produced. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[123-A] Miss Hewins, _Atlantic Monthly_, vol. lxi, p. 112. + +[123-B] Brynberg. Wilmington, 1796. + +[128-A] Miss Repplier, _Atlantic Monthly_, vol. lvii, p. 509. + +[141-A] Hill, _Johnsonian Miscellany_, vol. i, p. 157. + +[141-B] _Ibid._ + +[142-A] Welsh, _Introduction to Goody Two Shoes_, p. x. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +1800-1825 + + + + + Her morals then the Matron read, + Studious to teach her Children dear, + And they by love or Duty led, + With Pleasure read. + _A Mother's Remarks_, + Philadelphia, 1810 + + Mama! see what a pretty book + At Day's papa has bought, + That I may at its pictures look, + And by its words be taught. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +1800-1825 + +_Toy-Books in the Early Nineteenth Century_ + + +On the 23d of December, 1823, there appeared anonymously in the "Troy +(New York) Sentinel," a Christmas ballad entitled "A Visit from St. +Nicholas." This rhymed story of Santa Claus and his reindeer, written +one year before its publication by Clement Clarke Moore for his own +family, marks the appearance of a truly original story in the literature +of the American nursery. + +We have seen the somewhat lugubrious influence of Puritan and Quaker +upon the occasional writings for American children; and now comes a +story bearing upon its face the features of a Dutchman, as the jolly old +gentleman enters nursery lore with his happy errand. + +Up to this time children of wholly English extraction had probably +little association with the Feast of St. Nicholas. The Christmas season +had hitherto been regarded as pagan in its origin by people of Puritan +or Scotch descent, and was celebrated only as a religious festival by +the descendants of the more liberal adherents to the Church of England. +The Dutch element in New York, however, still clung to some of their +traditions; and the custom of exchanging simple gifts upon Christmas Day +had come down to them as a result of a combination of the church legend +of the good St. Nicholas, patron of children, and the Scandinavian myth +of the fairy gnome, who from his bower in the woods showered good +children with gifts.[148-A] But to celebrate the day quietly was +altogether a different thing from introducing to the American public the +character of Santa Claus, who has become in his mythical entity as well +known to every American as that other Dutch legendary personage, Rip Van +Winkle. + +In the "Visit from St. Nicholas" Mr. Moore not only introduced Santa +Claus to the young folk of the various states, but gave to them their +first story of any lasting merit whatsoever. It is worthy of remark that +as every impulse to write for juvenile readers has lagged behind the +desire to write for adults, so the composition of these familiar verses +telling of the arrival in America of the mysterious and welcome visitor +on + + "The night before Christmas, when all through the house + Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse," + +fell at the end of that quarter of the nineteenth century to which we +are accustomed to refer as the beginning of the national period of +American literature. + +It is, of course, true that the older children of that period had +already begun to enjoy some of the writings of Irving and Cooper, and to +learn the fortunately still familiar verses by Hopkinson, Key, Drake, +and Halleck. School-readers have served to familiarize generation after +generation with "Hail Columbia," "The Star Spangled Banner," and +sometimes with "The American Flag." It is, doubtless, their authors' +jubilant enthusiasm over the freedom of the young Republic that has +caused the children of the more mature nation to delight in the +repetition of the patriotic verses. The youthful extravagance of +expression pervading every line is reechoed in the heart of the +schoolboy, who likes to imagine himself, before anything else, a +patriot. But until "Donder and Blitzen" pranced into the foreground as +Santa Claus' steeds, there was nothing in American nursery literature of +any lasting fame. Thereafter, as the custom of observing Christmas Day +gradually became popular, the perennial small child felt--until +automobiles sent reindeer to the limbo of bygone things--the thrill of +delight and fear over the annual visit of Santa Claus that the bigger +child experiences in exploding fire-crackers on the Fourth of July. +There are possibilities in both excitements which appeal to one of the +child's dearest possessions--his imagination. + +It is this direct appeal to the imagination that surprises and delights +us in Mr. Moore's ballad. To re-read it is to be amazed that anything so +full of merriment, so modern, so free from pompousness or condescension, +from pedantry or didacticism, could have been written before the latter +half of the nineteenth century. Not only its style is simple in contrast +with the labored efforts at simplicity of its contemporaneous verse, but +its story runs fifty years ahead of its time in its freedom from the +restraining hand of the moralist and from the warning finger of the +religious teacher, if we except Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Wonder Book." + +In our examination of the toy-books of twenty years preceding its +publication, we shall find nothing so attractive in manner, nor so +imaginative in conception. Indeed, we shall see, upon the one hand, that +fun was held in with such a tight curb that it hardly ever escaped into +print; and upon the other hand that the imagination had little chance +to develop because of the prodigal indulgence in realities and in +religious experience from which all authors suffered. We shall also see +that these realities were made very uncompromising and uncomfortable to +run counter to. Duty spelled in capital letters was a stumbling-block +with which only the well-trained story-book child could successfully +cope; recreation followed in small portions large shares of instruction, +whether disguised or bare faced. The Religion-in-Play, the +Ethics-in-Play, and the Labor-in-Play schools of writing for children +had arrived in America from the land of their origin. + +The stories in vogue in England during this first quarter of the +nineteenth century explain every vagary in America. There fashionable +and educational authorities had hitched their wagon to the literary +star, Miss Edgeworth, and the followers of her system; while the +religiously inclined pinned their faith also upon tracts written by Miss +Hannah More. In this still imitative land the booksellers simply +reprinted the more successful of these juvenile publications. The +changes, therefore, in the character of the juvenile literature of +amusement of the early nineteenth century in America were due to the +adoption of the works of these two Englishwomen, and to the increased +facilities for reproducing toy-books, both in press-work and in +illustrations. + +Hannah More's allegories and religious dramas, written to cooeperate with +the teachings of the first Sabbath Day schools, are, of course, outside +the literature of amusement. Yet they affected its type in America as +they undoubtedly gave direction to the efforts of the early writers for +children. + +Miss More, born in seventeen hundred and fifty-four, was a woman of +already established literary reputation when her attention was attracted +by Robert Raikes's successful experiment of opening a Sunday-school, in +seventeen hundred and eighty-one. During the religious revival that +attended the preaching of George Whitefield, Raikes, already interested +in the hardships and social condition of the working-classes, was +further aroused by his intimate knowledge of the manner of life of some +children in a pin factory. To provide instruction for these child +laborers, who, without work or restrictions on Sundays, sought +occupation far from elevating, Raikes founded the first "Sabbath Day +school." + +The movement spread rapidly in England, and ten years later, in seventeen +hundred and ninety-one, under the inspiration of Bishop White, the +pioneer First Day school in America was opened in Philadelphia. The good +Bishop was disturbed mentally by the religious and moral degeneracy of +the poor children in his diocese, and annoyed during church services by +their clamor outside the churches--a noise often sufficient to drown the +prayers of his flock and the sermons of his clergy. To occupy these +restless children for a part of the day, two sessions of the school were +held each Sunday: one before the morning service, from eight until +half-past ten o'clock, and the other in the afternoon for an hour and a +half. The Bible was used as a reader, and the teaching was done regularly +by paid instructors. + +The first Sunday-school library owed its origin to a wish to further the +instruction given in the school, and hence contained books thought +admirably adapted to Sunday reading. Among the somewhat meagre stock +provided for this purpose were Doddridge's "Power of Religion," Miss +More's tracts and the writings of her imitators, together with "The +Fairchild Family," by Mrs. Sherwood, "The Two Lambs," by Mrs. Cameron, +"The Economy of Human Life," and a little volume made up of selections +from Mrs. Barbauld's works for children. "The Economy of Human Life," +said Miss Sedgwick (who herself afterwards wrote several good books for +girls), "was quite above my comprehension, and I thought it unmeaning +and tedious." Testimony of this kind about a book which for years +appeared regularly upon booksellers' lists enables us to realize that +the average intelligent child of the year eighteen hundred was beginning +to be as bored by some of the literature placed in his hands as a child +would be one hundred years later. + +To increase this special class of books, Hannah More devoted her +attention. Her forty tracts comprising "The Cheap Repository" included +"The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain" and "The Two Shoemakers," which, often +appearing in American booksellers' advertisements, were for many years a +staple article in Sunday-school libraries, and even now, although pushed +to the rear, are discoverable in some such collections of books. Their +objective point is best given by their author's own words in the preface +to an edition of "The Search after Happiness; A Pastoral Drama," issued +by Jacob Johnson of Philadelphia in eighteen hundred and eleven. + +Miss More began in the self-depreciatory manner then thought modest and +becoming in women writers: "The author is sensible it may have many +imperfections, but if it may be happily instrumental in producing a +regard to Religion and Virtue in the minds of Young Persons, and afford +them an innocent, and perhaps not altogether unuseful amusement in the +exercise of recitation, the end for which it was originally composed ... +will be fully answered." A drama may seem to us above the comprehension +of the poor and illiterate class of people whose attention Miss More +wished to hold, but when we feel inclined to criticise, let us not +forget that the author was one who had written little eight-year-old +Thomas Macaulay: "I think we have nearly exhausted the epics. What say +you to a little good prose? Johnson's 'Hebrides,' or Walton's 'Lives,' +unless you would like a neat edition of Cowper's poems or 'Paradise +Lost.'" + +Miss More's influence upon the character of Sunday-school books in +England undoubtedly did much to incline many unknown American women of +the nineteenth century to take up this class of books as their own field +for religious effort and pecuniary profit. + +Contemporary with Hannah More's writings in the interest of religious +life of Sunday-school scholars were some of the literary products of the +painstaking pen of Maria Edgeworth. + +Mention of Miss Edgeworth has already been made. About her stories for +children criticism has played seriously, admiringly, and contemptuously. +It is not the present purpose, however, to do other than to make clear +her own aim, and to try to show the effect of her extremely moral tales +upon her own generation of writers for American children. It is possible +that she affected these authors more than the child audience for whom +she wrote. Little ones have a wonderful faculty for seizing upon what +suits them and leaving the remainder for their elders to discuss. + +Maria Edgeworth's life was a long one. Born in seventeen hundred and +sixty-seven, when John Newbery's books were at the height of their fame, +she lived until eighteen hundred and forty-nine, when they were scarcely +remembered; and now her own once popular tales have met a similar fate. + +She was educated by a father filled with enthusiasm by the teachings of +Rousseau and with advice from the platitudinous family friend, Thomas +Day, author of "Sanford and Merton." Only the truly genial nature and +strong character of Miss Edgeworth prevented her genius from being +altogether swamped by this incongruous combination. Fortunately, also, +her busy practical home life allowed her sympathies full sway and +counteracted many of the theories introduced by Mr. Edgeworth into his +family circle. Successive stepmothers filled the Edgeworth nursery with +children, for whom the devoted older sister planned and wrote the +stories afterward published. + +In seventeen hundred and ninety-one Maria Edgeworth, at her father's +suggestion, began to note down anecdotes of the children of the family, +and later these were often used as copy to be criticised by the little +ones themselves before they were turned over to the printer. Her +father's educational conversations with his family were often committed +to paper, and these also furnished material from which Miss Edgeworth +made it her object in life to interweave knowledge, amusement, and +ethics. Indeed, it has been most aptly said that between the narrow +banks of Richard Edgeworth's theories "his daughter's genius flowed +through many volumes of amusement." + +[Illustration: _Jacob Johnson's Book-Store._] + +Her first collection of tales was published under the title of "The +Parent's Assistant," although Miss Edgeworth's own choice of a name had +been the less formidable one of "The Parent's Friend." Based upon her +experience as eldest sister in a large and constantly increasing family, +these tales necessarily struck many true notes and gave valuable hints +to perplexed parents. In "The Parent's Assistant" realities stalked full +grown into the nursery as + + "Every object in creation + Furnished hints for contemplation." + +The characters were invariably true to their creator's original drawing. +A good girl was good from morning to night; a naughty child began and +ended the day in disobedience, and by it bottles were smashed, +strawberries spilled, and lessons disregarded in unbroken sequence. In +later life Miss Edgeworth confessed to having occasionally introduced in +"Harry and Lucy" some nonsense as an "alloy to make the sense work +well;" but as all her earlier children's tales were subjected to the +pruning scissors of Mr. Edgeworth, this amalgam is to-day hardly +noticeable in "Popular Tales," "Early Lessons," and "Frank," which +preceded the six volumes of "Harry and Lucy." + +Although a contemporary of Mrs. Barbauld, who had written for little +children "Easy Lessons," Miss Edgeworth does not seem to have been well +known in America until about eighteen hundred and five. Then "Harry and +Lucy" was brought out by Jacob Johnson, a Philadelphia book-dealer. +This was issued in six small red and blue marbled paper volumes, +although other parts were not completed until eighteen hundred and +twenty-three. Between the first and second parts of volume one the +educational hand of Mr. Edgeworth is visible in the insertion of a +"Glossary," "to give a popular meaning of the words." "This Glossary," +the editor, Mr. Edgeworth, thought, "should be read to children a little +at a time, and should be made the subject of conversation. Afterwards +they will read it with more pleasure." The popular meaning of words may +be succinctly given by one definition: "Dry, what is not wet." Could +anything be more lucid? + +Among the stories by Miss Edgeworth are three rarely mentioned by +critics, and yet among the most natural and entertaining of her short +tales. They were also printed by Jacob Johnson in Philadelphia, in +eighteen hundred and five, under the simple title, "Three Stories for +Children." "Little Dog Trusty" is a dog any small child would like to +read about; "The Orangeman" was a character familiar to English +children; and "The Cherry Orchard" is a tale of a day's pleasure whose +spirit American children could readily seize. In each Miss Edgeworth had +a story to tell, and she told it well, even though "she walked," as has +been often said, "as mentor beside her characters." + +Of Miss Edgeworth's many tales, "Waste Not, Want Not" was long +considered a model. In it what Mr. Edgeworth styled the "shafts of +ridicule" were aimed at the rich nephew of Mr. Gresham. Mr. Gresham +(whose prototype we strongly suspect was Mr. Edgeworth himself) "lived +neither in idleness nor extravagance," and was desirous of adopting an +heir to his considerable property. Therefore, he invited two nephews to +visit him, with the object of choosing the more suitable for his +purpose; apparently he had only to signify his wish and no parental +objection to his plan would be interposed. The boys arrive: Hal, whose +mama spends her days at Bath over cards with Lady Diana Sweepstake, is +an ill-bred child, neither deferential to his uncle, nor with appetite +for buns when queen-cakes may be had. His cousin Ben, on the contrary, +has been taught those virtuous habits that make for a respectful +attitude toward rich uncles and assure a dissertation upon the +beneficial effect of buns _versus_ queen-cakes. The boys, having had +their characters thus definitely shown, proceed to live up to them in +every particular. From start to finish it is the virtuous Ben--his +generosity, thrift, and foresight are never allowed to lapse for an +instant--who triumphs in every episode. He saves his string, "good +whipcord," when requested by Mr. Gresham to untie a parcel, and it +thereafter serves to spin a fine new top, to help Hal out of a +difficulty with his toy, and in the final incident of the story, an +archery contest, our provident hero, finding his bowstring "cracked," +calmly draws from his pocket the still excellent piece of cord, and +affixing it to his bow, wins the match. Hal betrays his great lack of +self-control by exclaiming, "The everlasting whipcord, I declare," and +thereupon Patty, Mr. Gresham's only child, who has suffered from Hal's +defects of character, openly rejoices when the prize is given to Ben. As +is usual with Miss Edgeworth's badly behaved children, the reader now +sees the error of Hal's ways, and perceives also that in the lad's +acknowledgment of the truth of the formerly scorned motto, "Waste not, +want not," the era of his reformation has begun. + +Perpetual action was the key to the success of Miss Edgeworth's +writings. If to us her fictitious children seem like puppets whose +strings are too obviously jerked, the monotonous moral cloaked in the +variety of incident was liked by her own generation, + +Miss Edgeworth not only pleased the children, but received the applause +of their parents and friends. Sir Walter Scott, the prince of +story-tellers, found much to admire in her tales, and wrote of "Simple +Susan:" "When the boy brings back the lamb to the little girl, there is +nothing for it but to put down the book and cry." Susan was the pattern +child in the tale, "clean as well as industrious," while Barbara--a +violent contrast--was conceited and lazy, and a _lady_ who "could +descend without shame from the height of insolent pride to the lowest +measure of fawning familiarity." Therefore it is small wonder that Sir +Walter passed her by without mention. + +However much we may value an English author's admiration for Miss +Edgeworth's story-telling gifts, it is to America that we naturally turn +to seek contemporary opinion. In educational circles there is no doubt +that Miss Edgeworth won high praise. That her books were not always easy +to procure, however, we know from a letter written from Washington by +Mrs. Josiah Quincy, whose life as a child during the Revolution has +already been described. When Mrs. Quincy was living in the capital city +in eighteen hundred and ten, during her husband's term as Congressman, +she found it difficult to provide her family with books. She therefore +wrote to Boston to a friend, requesting to have sent her Miss +Edgeworth's "Moral Tales," "if the work can be obtained in one of the +bookstores. If not," she continued, "borrow one ... and I will replace +it with a new copy. Cut the book out of its binding and enclose the +pages in packets.... Be careful to send the entire text and title page." +The scarcity in Washington of books for young people Mrs. Quincy thought +justified the hope that reprinting these tales would be profitable to a +bookseller in whose efforts to introduce a better taste among the +inhabitants she took a keen interest. But Mrs. Quincy need not have sent +to Boston for them. Jacob Johnson in Philadelphia had issued most of the +English author's books by eighteen hundred and five, and New York +publishers probably made good profit by printing them. + +Reading aloud was both a pastime and an education to families in those +early days of the Republic. Although Mrs. Quincy made every effort to +procure Miss Edgeworth's stories for her family because, in her opinion, +"they obtained a decided preference to the works of Hannah More, Mrs. +Trimmer and Mrs. Chapone," for reading aloud she chose extracts from +Shakespeare, Milton, Addison, and Goldsmith. Indeed, if it were possible +to ask our great-grandparents what books they remembered reading in +their childhood, I think we should find that beyond somewhat hazy +recollections of Miss Edgeworth's books and Berquin's "The Looking Glass +for the Mind," they would either mention "Robinson Crusoe," Newbery's +tales of "Giles Gingerbread," "Little King Pippin," and "Goody +Two-Shoes" (written fifty years before their own childhood), or +remember only the classic tales and sketches read to them by their +parents. + +Certainly this is the case if we may take as trustworthy the +recollections of literary people whose childhood was passed in the first +part of the nineteenth century. Catharine Sedgwick, for instance, has +left a charming picture of American family life in a country town in +eighteen hundred--a life doubtless paralleled by many households in +comfortable circumstances. Among the host of little prigs and prudes in +story-books of the day, it is delightful to find in Catharine Sedgwick +herself an example of a bookish child who was natural. Her reminiscences +include an account of the way the task of sweeping out the schoolhouse +after hours was made bearable by feasts of Malaga wine and raisins. +These she procured from the store where her father kept an open account, +until the bill having been rendered dotted over with such charges "per +daughter Catharine," these treats to favorite schoolmates ceased. Also a +host of intimate details of this large family's life in the country +brings us in touch with the times: fifteen pairs of calfskin shoes +ordered from the village shoemaker, because town-bought morocco slippers +were few and far between; the excitement of a silk gown; the distress of +a brother, whose trousers for fete occasions were remodelled from an +older brother's "blue broadcloth worn to fragility--so that Robert [the +younger brother] said he could not look at them without making a rent;" +and again the anticipation of the father's return from Philadelphia with +gifts of necessaries and books. + +After seventeen hundred and ninety-five Mr. Sedgwick was compelled as a +member of Congress to be away the greater part of each year, leaving +household and farm to the care of an invalid wife. Memories of Mr. +Sedgwick's infrequent visits home were mingled in his daughter's mind +with the recollections of being kept up until nine o'clock to listen to +his reading from Shakespeare, Don Quixote, or Hudibras. "Certainly," +wrote Miss Sedgwick, "I did not understand them, but some glances of +celestial light reached my soul, and I caught from his magnetic sympathy +some elevation of feeling, and that love of reading which has been to me +an 'education.'" "I was not more than twelve years old," she continues, +"I think but ten--when one winter I read Rollin's Ancient History. The +walking to our schoolhouse was often bad, and I took my lunch (how well +I remember the bread and butter, and 'nut cake' and cold sausage, and +nuts and apples that made the miscellaneous contents of that enchanting +lunch-basket!), and in the interim between morning and afternoon school +I crept under my desk (the desks were so made as to afford little close +recesses under them) and read and munched and forgot myself in Cyrus' +greatness." + +It is beyond question that the keen relish induced by the scarcity of +juvenile reading, together with the sound digestion it promoted, +overbalanced in mental gain the novelties of a later day. + +The Sedgwick library was probably typical of the average choice in +reading-matter of the contemporary American child. Half a dozen little +story-books, Berquin's "Children's Friend" (the very form and shade of +color of its binding with its green edges were never forgotten by any +member of the Sedgwick family), and the "Looking Glass for the Mind" +were shelved side by side with a large volume entitled "Elegant +Extracts," full of ballads, fables, and tales delightful to children +whose imagination was already excited by the solemn mystery of Rowe's +"Letters from the Dead to the Living." Since none of these books except +those containing an infusion of religion were allowed to be read on +Sunday, the Sedgwick children extended the bounds by turning over the +pages of a book, and if the word "God" or "Lord" appeared, it was pounced +upon as sanctified and therefore permissible. + +Where families were too poor to buy story-books, the children found what +amusement they could in the parents' small library. In ministers' +families sermons were more plentiful than books. Mrs. H.B. Stowe, when a +girl, found barrels of sermons in the garret of her father, the Rev. Dr. +Beecher, in Litchfield, Connecticut. Through these sermons his daughter +searched hungrily for mental food. It seemed as if there were thousands +of the most unintelligible things. "An appeal on the unlawfulness of a +man's marrying his wife's sister" turned up in every barrel by the +dozens, until she despaired of finding an end of it. At last an ancient +volume of "Arabian Nights" was unearthed. Here was the one inexhaustible +source of delight to a child so eager for books that at ten years of age +she had pored over the two volumes of the "Magnalia." + +The library advantages of a more fortunately placed old-fashioned child +we know from Dr. Holmes's frequent reference to incidents of his +boyhood. He frankly confessed that he read in and not through many of +the two thousand books in his father's library; but he found much to +interest him in the volumes of periodicals, especially in the "Annual +Register" and Rees's "Encyclopedia." Although apparently allowed to +choose from the book-shelves, there were frequent evidences of a +parent's careful supervision. "I remember," he once wrote to a friend, +"many leaves were torn out of a copy of Dryden's Poems, with the comment +'Hiatus haud diflendus,' but I had like all children a kind of Indian +sagacity in the discovery of contraband reading, such as a boy carries +to a corner for perusal. Sermons I had enough from the pulpit. I don't +know that I ever read one sermon of my own accord during my childhood. +The 'Life of David,' by Samuel Chandler, had adventures enough, to say +nothing of gallantry, in it to stimulate and gratify curiosity." +"Biographies of Pious Children," wrote Dr. Holmes at another time, "were +not to my taste. Those young persons were generally sickly, melancholy, +and buzzed around by ghostly comforters or discomforters in a way that +made me sick to contemplate." Again, Dr. Holmes, writing of the revolt +from the commonly accepted religious doctrines he experienced upon +reading the Rev. Thomas Scott's Family Bible, contrasted the gruesome +doctrines it set forth with the story of Christian told in "Pilgrim's +Progress," a book which captivated his imagination. + +As to story-books, Dr. Holmes once referred to Mrs. Barbauld and Dr. +Aikin's joint production, "Evenings at Home," with an accuracy bearing +testimony to his early love for natural science. He also paid a graceful +tribute to Lady Bountiful of "Little King Pippin" in comparing her in a +conversation "At the Breakfast Table" with the appearance of three +maiden ladies "rustling through the aisles of the old meeting-house, in +silk and satin, not gay but more than decent." + +Although Dr. Holmes was not sufficiently impressed with the contents of +Miss Edgeworth's tales to mention them, at least one of her books +contained much of the sort of information he found attractive in +"Evenings at Home." "Harry and Lucy," besides pointing a moral on every +page, foreshadowed that taste for natural science which turned every +writer's thought toward printing geographical walks, botanical +observations, natural history conversations, and geological +dissertations in the guise of toy-books of amusement. A batch of books +issued in America during the first two decades of the nineteenth century +is illustrative of this new fashion. These books, belonging to the +Labor-in-Play school, may best be described in their American editions. + +One hundred years ago the American publishers of toy works were devoting +their attention to the make-up rather than to the contents of their +wares. The steady progress of the industrial arts enabled a greater +number of printers to issue juvenile books, whose attractiveness was +increased by better illustrations; and also with the improved facilities +for printing and publishing, the issues of the various firms became more +individual. At the beginning of the century the cheaper books entirely +lost their charming gilt, flowery Dutch, and silver wrappers, as home +products came into use. Size and illustrations also underwent a change. + +[Illustration: _A Wall-paper Book-Cover_] + +In Philadelphia, Benjamin and Jacob Johnson, and later Johnson and +Warner, issued both tiny books two inches square, and somewhat larger +volumes containing illustrations as well as text. These firms used +for binding gray and blue marbled paper, gold-powdered yellow cardboard, +or salmon pink, blue, and olive-green papers, usually without +ornamentation. In eighteen hundred J. and J. Crukshank, of the same +town, began to decorate with copper-plate cuts the outside of the white +or blue paper covers of their imprints for children. Other printers +followed their example, especially after wood-engraving became more +generally used. + +In Wilmington, Delaware, John Adams printed and sold "The New History of +Blue Beard" in both peacock-blue and olive-green paper covers; but Peter +Brynberg, also of that town, was still in eighteen hundred and four +using quaint wall-paper to dress his toy imprints. Matthew Carey, the +well-known printer of school-books for the children of Philadelphia, +made a "Child's Guide to Spelling and Reading" more acceptable by a +charming cover of yellow and red striped paper dotted over with little +black hearts suggestive of the old Primer rhyme for the letter B: + + "My Book and Heart + Shall never part." + +In New York the dealers in juvenile books seem either to have bound in +calf such classics as "The Blossoms of Morality," published by David +Longworth at the Shakespeare Gallery in eighteen hundred and two, or in +decorated but unattractive brown paper. This was the cover almost +invariably used for years by Samuel Wood, the founder of the present +publishing-house of medical works. He began in eighteen hundred and six +to print the first of his many thousands of children's religious, +instructive, and nursery books. As was the custom in order to insure a +good sale, Wood first brought out a primer, "The Young Child's A B C." +He decorated its Quaker gray cover with a woodcut of a flock of birds, +and its title-page with a picture, presumably by Alexander Anderson, of +a girl holding up a dove in her left hand and holding down a lamb with +her right. + +In New England, Nathaniel Coverly of Salem sometimes used a watered pink +paper to cover his sixteen page toy-books, and in Boston his son, as +late as eighteen hundred and thirteen, still used pieces of large +patterned wall-paper for six-penny books, such as "Tom Thumb," "Old +Mother Hubbard," and "Cock Robin." + +The change in the appearance of most toy-books, however, was due largely +to the increased use of illustrations. The work of the famous English +engraver, Thomas Bewick, had at last been successfully copied by a +physician of New York, Dr. Alexander Anderson. + +Dr. Anderson was born in New York in seventeen hundred and seventy-five, +and by seventeen hundred and ninety-three was employed by printers and +publishers in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, and even Charleston to +illustrate their books. Like other engravers, he began by cutting in +type-metal, or engraving upon copper. In seventeen hundred and +ninety-four, for Durell of New York, he undertook to make illustrations, +probably for "The Looking Glass for the Mind." Beginning by copying +Bewick's pictures upon type-metal, when "about one-third done, Dr. +Anderson felt satisfied he could do better on wood."[166-A] In his diary +we find noted an instance of his perseverance in the midst of +discouragement: "Sept. 24. This morning I was quite discouraged on +seeing a crack in the wood. Employed as usual at the Doctor's, came home +to dinner, glued the wood and began again with fresh hopes of producing +a good wood engraving." September 26 found him "pretty well satisfied +with the impression and so was Durell." In eighteen hundred he engraved +all the pictures on wood for a new edition of the same book, and from +this time he seems to have discontinued the use of type-metal, which he +had employed in his earlier work as illustrator of the "Pilgrim's +Progress" issued by Hugh Gaine, and of "Tom Thumb's Folio" printed by +Brewer. After eighteen hundred and twelve Anderson almost gave up +engraving on copper also, and devoted himself to satisfying the great +demand for his work on wood. For Durell of New York, an extensive +reprinter of English books, from toy-books to a folio edition of +Josephus, he reproduced the English engravings, never making, according +to Mr. Lossing, more than a frontispiece for the larger volumes. + +Although Samuel Wood and Sons of New York also gave Dr. Anderson many +orders for cuts for their various juvenile publications, he still found +time to engrave for publishers of other cities. We find his +illustrations in the toy-books printed in Boston and Philadelphia; and +for Sidney Babcock, a New Haven publisher of juvenile literature, he +supplied many of the numerous woodcuts required. The best of Anderson's +work as an engraver coincided with the years of Babcock's very extensive +business of issuing children's books, between 1805 and 1840. His cuts +adorned the juvenile duodecimos that this printer's widely extended +trade demanded; and even as far south as Charleston, South Carolina, +Babcock, like Isaiah Thomas, found it profitable to open a branch shop. + +Anderson's illustrations are the main features of most of Babcock's +little blue, pink, and yellow paper-covered books; especially of those +printed in the early years of the nineteenth century. We notice in them +the changes in the dress of children, who no longer were clothed exactly +in the semblance of their elders, but began to assume garments more +appropriate to their ages, sports, and occupations. Anderson also +sometimes introduced into his pictures a negro coachman or nurse in the +place of the footman or maid of the English tale he illustrated. + +While the demand for the engraver's work was constant, his remuneration +was small, if we are to judge by Babcock's payment of only fifty +shillings for fifteen cuts. + +For these toy-books Anderson made many reproductions from Bewick's cuts, +and although he did not equal the Englishman's work, he so far surpassed +his pupils and imitators of the early part of the century that his +engravings are generally to be recognized even when not signed. In +eighteen hundred and two Dr. Anderson began to reproduce for David +Longworth Bewick's "Quadrupeds," and these "cuts were afterwards made +use of, with the Bewick letter-press also, for a series of children's +books."[168-A] + +In eighteen hundred and twelve, for Munroe & Francis of Boston, Dr. +Anderson made after J. Thompson a set of cuts, mainly remarkable "as +the chief of his few departures from the style of his favorite, +Bewick."[169-A] + +The custom of not signing either text or engravings in the children's +books has made it difficult to identify writers and illustrators of +juvenile literature. But some of the best engravers undoubtedly +practised their art on these toy-books. Nathaniel Dearborn, who was a +stationer, printer, and engraver in Boston about eighteen hundred and +eleven, sometimes signed the full-page illustrations on both wood and +copper, and Abel Bowen, a copper-engraver, and possibly the first +wood-engraver in Boston, signed a very curious publication entitled "A +Metamorphosis"--a manifold paper which in its various possible +combinations transformed one figure into another in keeping with the +progress of the story. + +C. Gilbert, a pupil of Mason, who had introduced the art of +wood-engraving in Philadelphia from Boston, engraved on wood certainly +the two full-page illustrations for "A Present for a Little Girl," +printed in eighteen hundred and sixteen for a Baltimore firm, Warner & +Hanna. + +Adams and his pupils, Lansing and Morgan, also did work on children's +books. Adams seems to have worked under Anderson's instruction, and +after eighteen hundred and twenty-five did cuts for some books in the +juvenile libraries of S. Wood and Mahlon Day of New York. + +Of the engravers on copper, many tried their hands on these toy-books. +Among them may be mentioned Amos Doolittle of New Haven, James Poupard, +John Neagle, and W. Ralph of Philadelphia, and Rollinson of New York, +who is credited with having engraved the silver buttons on the coat +worn by Washington on his inauguration as President. + +But of the copper-plate engravers, perhaps none did more work for +children's books than William Charles of Philadelphia. Charles, who is +best known by his series of caricatures of the events of the War of 1812 +and of local politics, worked upon toy-books as early as eighteen +hundred and eight, when in Philadelphia he published in two parts "Tom +the Piper's Son; illustrated with whimsical engravings." In these books +both text and pictures were engraved, as will be seen in the +illustration. Charles's plates for a series of moral tales in verse were +used by his successors, Mary Charles, Morgan & Yeager, and Morgan & +Sons, for certainly fifteen years after the originals were made. To +William Charles the children in the vicinity of Philadelphia were also +probably indebted for the introduction of colored pictures. It is +possible that the young folks of Boston had the novelty of colored +picture-books somewhat before Charles introduced them in Philadelphia, +as we find that "The History and Adventures of Little Henry exemplified +in a series of figures" was printed by J. Belcher of the Massachusetts +town in 1812. These "figures" exhibited little Henry suitably attired +for the various incidents of his career, with a movable head to be +attached at will to any of the figures, which were not engraved with the +text, but each was laid in loose on a blank page. William Charles's +method of coloring the pictures engraved with the text was a slight +advance, perhaps, upon the illustrations inserted separately; but it is +doubtful whether these immovable plates afforded as much entertainment +to little readers as the separate figures similar to paper dolls +which Belcher, and somewhat later Charles also, used in a few of their +publications. + +[Illustration: _Tom the Piper's Son_] + +The "Peacock at Home," engraved by Charles and then colored in +aqua-tint, is one of the rare early colored picture-books still extant, +having been first issued in eighteen hundred and fourteen. The coloring +of the illustrations at first doubled the price, and seems to have been +used principally for a series of stories belonging to what may be styled +the Ethics-in-Play type of juvenile literature, and entitled the +"History and Adventures of Little William," "Little Nancy," etc. These +tales, written after the objective manner of Miss Edgeworth, glossed +over by rhyme, contained usually eight colored plates, and sold for +twenty-five cents each instead of twelve cents, the price of the +picture-book without colored plates. Sometimes, as in the case of +"Cinderella," we find the text illustrated with a number of "Elegant +Figures, to dress and undress." The paper doll could be placed behind +the costumes appropriate to the various adventures, and, to prevent the +loss of the heroine, the book was tied up with pink or blue ribbon after +the manner of a portfolio. + +With engravers on wood and copper able to make more attractive the +passion for instruction which marked the first quarter of the nineteenth +century, the variety of toy-book literature naturally became greater. +Indeed, without pictures to render somewhat entertaining the +Labor-in-Play school, it is doubtful whether it could have attained its +widespread popularity. + +It is, of course, possible to name but a few titles typical of the +various kinds of instruction offered as amusement. "To present to the +young Reader a Little Miscellany of Natural History, Moral Precept, +Sentiment, and Narrative," Dr. Kendall wrote "Keeper's Travels in Search +of his Master," "The Canary Bird," and "The Sparrow." "The Prize for +Youthful Obedience" endeavored to instill a love for animals, and to +promote obedient habits. Its story runs in this way: + +"A kind and good father had a little lively son, named Francis; but, +although that little boy was six years old, he had not yet learned to +read. + +"His mama said to him, one day, 'if Francis will learn to read well, he +shall have a pretty little chaise.' + +"The little boy was vastly pleased with this; he presently spelt five or +six words and then kissed his mama. + +"'Mama,' said Francis, 'I am delighted with the thoughts of this chaise, +but I should like to have a horse to draw it.' + +"'Francis shall have a little dog, which will do instead of a horse,' +replied his mama, 'but he must take care to give him some victuals, and +not do him any harm.'" + +The dog was purchased, and named Chloe. "She was as brisk as a bee, +prettily spotted, and as gentle as a lamb." We are now prepared for +trouble, for the lesson of the story is surely not hidden. Chloe was +fastened to the chaise, a cat secured to serve as a passenger, and +"Francis drove his little chaise along the walk." But "when he had been +long enough among the gooseberry trees, his mama took him in the garden +and told him the names of the flowers." We are thus led to suppose that +Francis had never been in the garden before! The mother is called away. +We feel sure that the trouble anticipated is at hand. "As soon as she +was gone Francis began whipping the dog," and of course when the dog +dashed forward the cat tumbled out, and "poor Chloe was terrified by the +chaise which banged on all sides. Francis now heartily repented of his +cruel behaviour and went into the house crying, and looking like a very +simple boy." + +[Illustration: _A Kind and Good Father_] + +"I see very plainly the cause of this misfortune," said the father, who, +however, soon forgave his repentant son. Thereafter every day Francis +learned his lesson, and was rewarded by facts and pictures about +animals, by table-talks, or by walks about the country. + +Knowledge offered within small compass seems to have been a novelty +introduced in Philadelphia by Jacob Johnson, who had a juvenile library +in High Street. + +In eighteen hundred and three he printed two tiny volumes entitled "A +Description of Various Objects." Bound in green paper covers, the +two-inch square pages were printed in bold type. The first volume +contained the illustrations of the objects described in the other. The +characterizations were exceedingly short, as, for example, this of the +"Puppet Show:" "Here are several little boys and girls looking at a +puppet show, I suppose you would like to make one of them." + +Four years later Johnson improved upon this, when he printed in better +type "People of all Nations; an useful toy for Girl or Boy." Of +approximately the same size as the other volumes, it was bound with +stiff sides and calf back. The plates, engraved on copper, represent men +of various nationalities in the favorite alphabetical order. A is an +American. V is a Virginian,--an Indian in scant costume of feathers +with a long pipe,--who, the printed description says, "is generally +dressed after the manner of the English; but this is a poor African, and +made a slave of." An orang-outang represents the letter O, and according +to the author, is "a wild man of the woods, in the East Indies. He +sleeps under trees, and builds himself a hut. He cannot speak, but when +the natives make a fire in the woods he will come and warm himself." Ten +years later there was still some difficulty in getting exact +descriptions of unfamiliar animals. Thus in "A Familiar Description of +Beasts and Birds" the baboon is drawn with a dog's body and an uncanny +head with a snout. The reader is informed that "the baboon has a long +face resembling a dog's; his eyes are red and very bright, his teeth are +large and strong, but his swiftness renders him hard to be taken. He +delights in fishing, and will stay for a considerable time under water. +He imitates several of our actions, and will drink wine, and eat human +food." + +Another series of three books, written by William Darton, the English +publisher and maker of toy-books, was called "Chapters of Accidents, +containing Caution and Instruction." Thrilling accounts of "Escapes from +Danger" when robbing birds'-nests and hunting lions and tigers were +intermingled with wise counsel and lessons to be gained from an "Upset +Cart," or a "Balloon Excursion." With one incident the Philadelphia +printer took the liberty of changing the title to "Cautions to Walkers +on the Streets of Philadelphia." High Street, now Market Street, is +represented in a picture of the young woman who, unmindful of the +warning, "Never to turn hastily around the corner of a street," "ran +against the porter's load and nearly lost one of her eyes." The +change, of course, is worthy of notice only because of the slight effort +to locate the story in America. + +[Illustration: _a Virginian_] + +[Illustration: _A Baboon_] + +An attempt to familiarize children with flowers resulted in two tales, +called "The Rose's Breakfast" and "Flora's Gala," in which flowers were +personified as they took part in fetes. "Garden Amusements, for +Improving the Minds of Little Children," was issued by Samuel Wood of +New York with this advertisement: "This little treatise, (written and +first published in the great emporium of the British nation) containing +so many pleasing remarks for the juvenile mind, was thought worthy of an +American edition.... Being so very natural, ... and its tendency so +moral and amusing, it is to be hoped an advantage will be obtained from +its re-publication in Freedonia." + +Dialogue was the usual method of instruction employed by Miss Edgeworth +and her followers. In "Garden Amusements" the conversation was +interrupted by a note criticising a quotation from Milton as savoring +too much of poetic license. Cowper also gained the anonymous critic's +disapproval, although it was his point of view and not his style that +came under censure. + +In still another series of stories often reprinted from London editions +were those moral tales with the sub-title "Cautionary Stories in Verse." +Mr. William James used these "Cautionary Verses for Children" as an +example of the manner in which "the muse of evangelical protestantism in +England, with the mind fixed on the ideas of danger, had at last drifted +away from the original gospel of freedom." "Chronic anxiety," Mr. James +continued, "marked the earlier part of this [nineteenth] century in +evangelical circles." A little salmon-colored volume, "The Daisy," is a +good example of this series. Each rhyme is a warning or an admonition; a +chronic fear that a child might be naughty. "Drest or Undrest" is +typical of the sixteen hints for the proper conduct of every-day life +contained in the innocent "Daisy:" + + "When children are naughty and will not be drest, + Pray what do you think is the way? + Why, often I really believe it is best + To keep them in night-clothes all day! + + "But then they can have no good breakfast to eat, + Nor walk with their mother and aunt; + At dinner they'll have neither pudding nor meat, + Nor anything else that they want. + + "Then who would be naughty and sit all the day + In night-clothes unfit to be seen! + And pray who would lose all their pudding and play + For not being drest neat and clean." + +Two other sets of books with a like purpose were brought out by Charles +about eighteen hundred and sixteen. One began with those familiar +nursery verses entitled "My Mother," by Ann Taylor, which were soon +followed by "My Father," all the family, "My Governess," and even "My +Pony." The other set of books was "calculated to promote Benevolence and +Virtue in Children." "Little Fanny," "Little Nancy," and "Little Sophie" +were all held up as warnings of the results of pride, greed, and +disobedience. + +[Illustration: _Drest or Undrest_] + +The difference between these heroines of fiction and the characters +drawn by Maria Edgeworth lies mainly in the fact that they spoke in +rhyme instead of in prose, and that they were almost invariably naughty; +or else the parents were cruel and the children suffered. Rarely do we +find a cheerful tale such as "The Cherry Orchard" in this cautionary +style of toy-book. Still more rarely do we find any suspicion of that +alloy of nonsense supposed by Miss Edgeworth to make the sense work +well. It is all quite serious. "Little Nancy, or, the Punishment of +Greediness," is representative of this sort of moral and cautionary +tale. The frontispiece, "embellishing" the first scene, shows Nancy in +receipt of an invitation to a garden party: + + "Now the day soon appear'd + But she very much fear'd + She should not be permitted to go. + Her best frock she had torn, + The last time it was worn; + Which was very vexatious, you know." + +However, the mother consents with the _caution_: + + "Not to greedily eat + The nice things at the treat; + As she much wished to break her of this." + +Arrived at the party, Nancy shared the games, and + + "At length was seated, + With her friends to be treated; + So determin'd on having her share, + That she drank and she eat + Ev'ry thing she could get, + Yet still she was loth to forbear." + +The disastrous consequences attending Nancy's disregard of her mother's +admonition are displayed in a full-page illustration, which is followed +by another depicting the sorrowful end in bed of the day's pleasure. +Then the moral: + + "My young readers beware, + And avoid with great care + Such _excesses_ as these you've just read; + For be sure you will find + It your interest to mind + What your friends and relations have said." + +Perhaps of all the toy imprints of the early century none are more +curious in modern eyes than the three or four German translations +printed by Philadelphia firms. In eighteen hundred and nine Johnson and +Warner issued "Kleine Erzaehlungen ueber ein Buch mit Kupfern." This seems +to be a translation of "A Mother's Remarks over a Set of Cuts," and +contains a reference to another book entitled "Anecdoten von Hunden." +Still another book is extant, printed in eighteen hundred and five by +Zentler, "Unterhaltungen fuer Deutsche Kinder." This, according to its +preface, was one of a series for which Jacob and Benjamin Johnson had +consented to lend the plates for illustrations. + +Patriotism, rather than diversion, still characterized the very little +original work of the first quarter of the century for American children. +A book with the imposing title of "Geographical, Statistical and +Political Amusement" was published in Philadelphia in eighteen hundred +and six. "This work," says its advertisement, "is designed as an easy +means of uniting Instruction with Pleasure ... to entice the youthful +mind to an acquaintance with a species of information [about the United +States] highly useful." + +"The Juvenile Magazine, or Miscellaneous Repository of Useful +Information," issued in eighteen hundred and three, contained as its +only original contribution an article upon General Washington's will, +"an affecting and most original composition," wrote the editor. This was +followed seven years later by the well-known "Life of George +Washington," by M.L. Weems, in which was printed the now famous and +disputed cherry-tree incident. Its abridged form known to present day +nursery lore differs from the long drawn out account by Weems, who, like +Thomas Day, risked being diffuse in his desire to show plainly his +moral. The last part of the story sufficiently gives his manner of +writing: + +"Presently George and his hatchet made their appearance. 'George,' said +his father, 'do you know who killed that beautiful little cherry tree +yonder in the garden?' That was a tough question; and George staggered +under it for a moment; but quickly recovered himself, and looking at his +father, with the sweet face of youth brightened with the inexpressible +charm of all conquering truth, he bravely cried out, 'I can't tell a +lie, Pa; you know I can't tell a lie. I did cut it with my hatchet!' +'Run to my arms, you dearest boy,' cried his father in transports, 'run +to my arms; glad am I, George, that you killed my tree; for you have +paid me for it a thousand fold. Such an act of heroism is worth more +than a thousand trees, though blossomed with silver, and their fruits of +purest gold.'" + +Franklin's "Way to Wealth" was considered to be perfectly adapted to all +children's comprehension, and was issued by various publishers of +juvenile books. By eighteen hundred and eight it was illustrated and +sold "with fine engravings for twenty-five cents." + +Of patriotic poetry there was much for grown folks, but the "Patriotic +and Amatory Songster," advertised by S. Avery of Boston about the time +Weems's biography was published, seems a title ill-suited to the +juvenile public for whom Avery professed to issue it. + +Among the books which may be cited as furnishing instructive amusement +with less of the admixture of moral purpose was the "London Cries for +Children," with pictures of street peddlers. This was imitated in +America by the publication of the "Cries of New York" and "Cries of +Philadelphia." + +In the Lenox Collection there is now one of the various editions of the +"Cries of New York" (published in 1808), which is valuable both as a +record of the street life of the old-fashioned town of ninety-six +thousand inhabitants, and as perhaps the first child's book of purely +local interest, with original woodcuts very possibly designed and +engraved by Alexander Anderson. + +The "Cries of New York" is of course modelled after the "London Cries," +but the account it gives of various incidents in the daily life of old +New York makes us grateful for the existence of this child's toy. A +picture of a chimney-sweep, for instance, is copied, with his cry of +"Sweep, O, O, O, O," from the London book, but the text accompanying it +is altered to accord with the custom in New York of firing a gun at +dawn: + +"About break of day, after the morning gun is heard from Governor's +Island, and so through the forenoon, the ears of the citizens are +greeted with this uncouth sound from figures as unpleasant to the sight, +clothed in rags and covered with soot--a necessary and suffering class +of human beings indeed--spending their childhood thus. And in regard to +the unnecessary bawling of those sooty boys; it is _admirable_ in such a +noisy place as this, where every needless sound should be hushed, that +such disagreeable ones should be allowed. The prices for sweeping +chimneys are--one story houses twelve cents; two stories, eighteen +cents; three stories, twenty-five cents, and so on." + +"Hot Corn" was also cried by children, whose business it was to "gather +cents, by distributing corn to those who are disposed to regale +themselves with an ear." Baked pears are pictured as sold "by a little +black girl, with the pears in an earthen dish under her arm." At the +same season of the year, "Here's your fine ripe water-melons" also made +itself heard above the street noises as a street cry of entirely +American origin. Again there were pictured "Oyster Stands," served by +negroes, and these were followed by cries of + + "Fine Clams: choice Clams, + Here's your Rock-a-way beach + Clams: here's your fine + Young, sand Clams," + +from Flushing Cove Bay, which the text explains, "turn out as good, or +perhaps better," than oysters. The introduction of negroes and negro +children into the illustrations is altogether a novelty, and together +with the scenes drawn from the street life of the town gave to the +old-fashioned child its first distinctly American picture-book. Indeed, +with the exception of this and an occasional illustration in some +otherwise English reproduction, all the American publishers at this time +seem to have modelled their wares for small children after those of two +large London firms, J. Harris, successor to Newbery, and William Darton. + +To Darton, the author of "Little Truths," the children were indebted for +a serious attempt to improve the character of toy-books. A copper-plate +engraver by profession, Darton's attention was drawn to the scarcity of +books for children by the discovery that there was not much written for +them that was worth illustrating. Like Newbery, he set about to make +books himself, and with John Harvey, also an engraver, he set up in +Grace Church Street an establishment for printing and publishing, from +which he supplied, to a great extent, the juvenile books closely +imitated by American printers. Besides his own compositions, he was very +alert to encourage promising authors, and through him the famous verses +of Jane and Ann Taylor were brought into notice. "Original Poems," and +"Rhymes for the Nursery," by these sisters, were to the old-time child +what Stevenson's "Child's Garden of Verses" is to the modern nursery. +Darton and Harvey paid ten pounds for the first series of "Original +Poems," and fifteen pounds for the second; while "Rhymes for the +Nursery" brought to its authors the unusual sum of twenty pounds. The +Taylors were the originators of that long series of verses for infants +which "My Sister" and "My Governess" strove to surpass but never in any +way equalled, although they apparently met with a fair sale in America. + +[Illustration: _Little Nancy_] + +Enterprising American booksellers also copied the new ways of +advertising juvenile books. An instance of this is afforded by Johnson +and Warner of Philadelphia, who apparently succeeded Jacob and Benjamin +Johnson, and had, by eighteen hundred and ten, branch shops in Richmond, +Virginia, and Lexington, Kentucky. They advertised their "neatly +executed books of amusement" in book notes in the "Young Gentlemen and +Ladies' Magazine," by means of digressions from the thread of their +stories, and sometimes by inserting as frontispiece a rhyme taken from +one used by John Harris of St. Paul's Churchyard: + + "At JO---- store in Market Street + A sure reward good children meet. + In coming home the other day + I heard a little master say + For ev'ry three-pence there he took + He had received a little book. + With covers neat and cuts so pretty + There's not its like in all the city; + And that for three-pence he could buy + A story book would make one cry; + For little more a book of Riddles: + Then let us not buy drums and fiddles + Nor yet be stopped at pastry cooks', + But spend our money all in books; + For when we've learnt each bit by heart + Mamma will treat us with a tart." + +Later, when engraving had become more general in use, William Charles +cut for an advertisement, as frontispiece to some of his imprints, an +interior scene containing a shelf of books labelled "W. Charles' Library +for Little Folks." About the same time another form of advertisement +came into use. This was the publisher's _Recommendation_, which +frequently accompanied the narrative in place of a preface. The "Story +of Little Henry and his Bearer," by Mrs. Sherwood, a writer of many +English Sunday-school tales, contained the announcement that it was +"fraught with much useful instruction. It is recommended as an excellent +thing to be put in the hands of children; and grown persons will find +themselves well paid for the trouble of reading it." + +Little Henry belonged to the Sunday-school type of hero, one whose +biography Dr. Holmes doubtless avoided when possible. Yet no history of +toy-books printed presumably for children's amusement as well as +instruction should omit this favorite story, which represents all others +of its class of Religion-in-Play books. The following incidents are +taken from an edition printed by Lincoln and Edmunds of Boston. This +firm made a special feature of "Books suitable for Presents in +Sunday-School." They sold wholesale for eight dollars a hundred, such +tales as Taylor's "Hymns for Infant Minds," "Friendly Instruction," +Fenelon's "Reflections," Doddridge's "Principles of the Christian +Religion," "Pleasures of Piety in Youth," "Walks of Usefulness," +"Practical Piety," etc. + +The objective point of little Henry's melancholy history was to prove +the "Usefulness of Female Missionaries," said its editor, Mrs. Cameron, +a sister of the author, who at the time was herself living in India. +Mrs. Sherwood based the thread of her story upon the life of a household +in India, but it winds itself mainly around the conversion of the +faithful Indian bearer who served five-year-old Henry. This small +orphan was one of those morbidly religious children who "never said a +bad word and was vexed when he heard any other person do it." He also, +although himself "saved by grace," as the phrase then ran in evangelical +circles, was chronically anxious lest he should offend the Lord. To +quote verbatim from this relic of the former religious life would savor +too much of ridiculing those things that were sacred and serious to the +people of that day. Yet the main incidents of the story were these: +Henry's conversion took place after a year and a half of hard work on +the part of a missionary, who finally had the satisfaction of bringing +little Henry "from the state of grossest heathen darkness and ignorance +to a competent knowledge of those doctrines necessary to salvation." +This was followed immediately by the offer of Henry to give all his toys +for a Bible with a purple morocco cover. Then came the preparations for +the teacher's departure, when she called him to her room and catechized +him in a manner worthy of Cotton Mather a century before. After his +teacher's departure the boy, mindful of the lady's final admonition, +sought to make a Christian of his bearer, Boosy. Like so many story-book +parents, Henry's mother was altogether neglectful of her child; and +consequently he was left much to the care of Boosy--time which he +improved with "arguments with Boosy concerning the great Creator of +things." But it is not necessary to follow Henry through his ardent +missionary efforts to the admission of the black boy of his sinful +state, nor to the time when the hero was delivered from this evil world. +Enough has been said to show that the religious child of fiction was not +very different from little Elizabeth Butcher or Hannah Hill of colonial +days, whose pious sayings were still read when "Little Henry" was +introduced to the American child. + +Indeed, when Mrs. Sherwood's fictitious children were not sufficiently +religious to come up to the standard of five-year-old Henry, their +parents were invariably as pious as the father of the "Fairchild +Family." This was imported and reprinted for more than one generation as +a "best seller." It was almost a modernized version of Janeway's "Token +for Children," with Mather's supplement of "A Token for the Children of +New England," in its frequent production of death-bed scenes, together +with painful object lessons upon the sinfulness of every heart. To +impress such lessons Mr. Fairchild spared his family no sight of horror +or distress. He even took them to see a man on the gallows, "that," said +the ingenuous gentleman, "they may love each other with a perfect and +heavenly love." As the children gazed upon the dreadful object the +tender father described in detail its every phase, and ended by kneeling +in prayer. The story of Evelyn in the third chapter was written as the +result of a present of books from an American _Universalist_, whose +doctrines Mrs. Sherwood thought likely to be pernicious to children and +should be controverted as soon as possible. Later, other things +emanating from America were considered injurious to children, but this +seems to be the first indication that American ideas were noticed in +English juvenile literature. + +But all this lady's tales were not so lugubrious, and many were immense +favorites. Children were even named for the hero of the "Little +Millenium Boy." Publishers frequently sent her orders for books to be +"written to cuts," and the "Busy Bee," the "Errand Boy," and the "Rose" +were some of the results of this method of supplying the demand for her +work. Naturally, Mrs. Sherwood, like Miss Edgeworth, had many imitators, +but if we could believe the incidents related as true to life, parents +would seem to have been either very indifferent to their children or +forever suspicious of them. In Newbery's time it had been thought no sin +to wear fine buckled shoes, to be genteelly dressed with a wide +"ribband;" but now the vain child was one who wore a white frock with +pink sash, towards whom the finger of scorn was pointed, and from whom +the moral was unfailingly drawn. Vanity was, apparently, an unpardonable +sin, as when in a "Moral Tale," + + "Mamma observed the rising lass + By stealth retiring to the glass + To practise little arts unseen + In the true genius of thirteen." + +The constant effort to draw a lesson from every action sometimes led to +overstepping the bounds of truth by the parents themselves, as for +example in a similar instance of love for a mirror. "What is this I see, +Harriet?" asked a mother in "Emulation." "Is that the way you employ +your precious time? I am no longer surprised at the alteration in your +looks of late, that you have appeared so sickly, have lost your +complexion; in short I have twenty times been on the point of asking you +if you are ill. You look shockingly, child." + +"I am very well, Mamma, indeed," cried Harriet, quite alarmed. + +"Impossible, my dear, you can never look well, while you follow such an +unwholesome practice. Looking-glasses were never intended for little +girls, and very few sensible people use them as there is something +really poisonous in their composition. To use them is not only +prejudicial to the health but to the disposition." + +Although this conception of the use of looking-glasses as prejudicial to +right living seems to hark back to the views expressed in the old story +of the "Prodigal Daughter," who sat before a mirror when the Devil made +his second appearance, yet the world of story-book literature, even +though its creators were sometimes either careless or ignorant of facts, +now also emphasized the value of general knowledge, which it endeavored +to pour in increasing quantity into the nursery. Miss More had started +the stream of goody-goody books, while Miss Edgeworth, Mrs. Barbauld, +and Thomas Day were the originators of the deluge of conversational +bores, babies, boys, and teachers that threatened to flood the family +book-shelves of America when the American writers for children came upon +the scene. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[148-A] As long ago as seventeen hundred and sixty-two, Garrat Noel, a +Dutch bookseller in New York, advertised that, "according to his Annual +Custom, he ... provided a very large Assortment of Books ... as proper +Presents at Christmas." See page 68. + +[166-A] Linton, _Wood Engraving in America_. Boston, 1882. + +[168-A] Linton, _Wood Engraving in America_. Boston, 1882. + +[169-A] Linton, _Wood Engraving in America_. Boston, 1882. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +1825-1840 + + + + + Old story-books! old story-books! we owe you much, old friends, + Bright-coloured threads in Memory's warp, of which Death holds the + ends. + Who can forget? Who can spurn the ministers of joy + That waited on the lisping girl and petticoated boy? + Talk of your vellum, gold embossed, morocco, roan, and calf; + The blue and yellow wraps of old were prettier by half. + ELIZA COOKE + + Their works of amusement, when not laden with more religion than the + tale can hold in solution, are often admirable. + _Quarterly Review_, 1843 + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +1825-1840 + +_American Writers and English Critics_ + + +It is customary to refer to the early writings of Washington Irving as +works that marked the time when literature pure and simple developed in +America. Such writing as had hitherto attracted attention concerned +itself, not with matters of the imagination, but with facts and theories +of current and momentous interest. Religion and the affairs of the +separate commonwealths were uppermost in people's minds in colonial +days; political warfare and the defence of the policy of Congress +absorbed attention in Revolutionary times; and later the necessity of +expounding principles of government and of fostering a national feeling +produced a literature of fact rather than of fancy. + +Gradually all this had changed. A new generation had grown up with more +leisure for writing and more time to devote to the general culture of +the public. The English periodical with its purpose of "improving the +taste, awakening the attention, and amending the heart," had once met +these requirements. Later on these periodicals had been keenly enjoyed, +but at the same time there appeared American magazines, modelled after +them, but largely filled by contributions from literary Americans. Early +in the nineteenth century such publications were current in most large +towns. From the short essays and papers in these periodicals to the +tales of Cooper and Irving the step, after all, was not a long one. + +The children's literature of amusement developed, after the end of the +eighteenth century, in a somewhat similar way, although as usual tagging +along after that of their parents. + +With the constantly increasing population the production of children's +books grew more profitable, and in eighteen hundred and two Benjamin +Johnson made an attempt to publish a "Juvenile Magazine" in +Philadelphia. Its purpose was to be a "Miscellaneous Repository of +Useful Information;" but the contents were so largely drawn from English +sources that it was probably, like the toy-books, pirated from an +English publisher. Indeed, one of the few extant volumes contains only +one article of distinctly American composition among essays on +_Education_, the _Choice of a Wife_, _Love_, papers on natural history, +selections from poems by Coleridge and Cowper; and by anonymous makers +of verse about _Consumption_ and _Friendship_. The American +contribution, a discussion of President Washington's will, has already +been mentioned. + +In the same year, 1802, the "Juvenile Olio" was started, edited by +"Amyntor," but like Johnson's "Juvenile Magazine," was only issued at +irregular intervals and was short-lived. + +Other ventures in children's periodicals continued to be made, however. +The "Juvenile Magazine," with "Religious, Moral, and Entertaining Pieces +in Prose and Verse," was compiled by Arthur Donaldson, and sold in +eighteen hundred and eleven as a monthly in Philadelphia--then the +literary centre--for twelve and a half cents a number. In eighteen +hundred and thirteen, in the same city, the "Juvenile Portfolio" made +its appearance, possibly in imitation of Joseph Dennie's "Port Folio;" +but it too failed from lack of support and interest. + +Boston proved more successful in arousing attention to the possibilities +in a well-conducted children's periodical, although it was not until +thirteen years later that Lydia Maria Child established the "Juvenile +Miscellany for the Instruction and Amusement of Youth." Three numbers +were issued in 1826, and thereafter it appeared every other month until +August, 1834, when it was succeeded by a magazine of the same name +conducted by Sarah J. Hale. + +This periodical is a landmark in the history of story-writing for the +American child. Here at last was an opportunity for the editors to give +to their subscribers descriptions of cities in their own land in place +of accounts of palaces in Persia; biographies of national heroes instead +of incidents in the life of Mahomet; and tales of Indians rather than +histories of Arabians and Turks. For its pages Mrs. Sigourney, Miss +Eliza Leslie, Mrs. Wells, Miss Sedgwick, and numerous anonymous +contributors gladly sent stories of American scenes and incidents which +were welcomed by parents as well as by children. + +In the year following the first appearance of Mrs. Hale's "Juvenile +Miscellany," the March number is typical of the amusement and +instruction the editor endeavored to provide. This contained a life of +Benjamin Franklin (perhaps the earliest child's life of the philosopher +and statesman), a tale of an Indian massacre of an entire settlement in +Maine, an essay on memory, a religious episode, and extracts from a +traveller's journal. The traveller, quite evidently a Bostonian, +criticised New York in a way not unfamiliar in later days, as a city +where "the love of literature was less strong than in some other parts +of the United States;" and then in trying to soften the statement, she +fell into a comparison with Philadelphia, also made many times since the +gentle critic observed the difference. "New York," she wrote, "has +energy, spirit, and bold, lofty enterprise, totally wanting in +Philadelphia, ... a place of neat, well regulated plans." Also, like the +English story-book of the previous century, this American "Miscellany" +introduced _Maxims for a Student_, found, it cheerfully explained, +"among the manuscripts of a deceased friend." Puzzles and conundrums +made an entertaining feature, and as the literary _chef d'oeuvre_ was +inserted a poem supposed to be composed by a babe in South Carolina, but +of which the author was undoubtedly Mrs. Gilman, whose ideas of a baby's +ability were certainly not drawn from her own nursery. + +A rival to the "Juvenile Miscellany" was the "Youth's Companion," +established at this time in Boston by Nathaniel P. Willis and the +Reverend Asa Rand. The various religious societies also began to issue +children's magazines for Sunday perusal: the Massachusetts Sunday School +Union beginning in 1828 the "Sabbath School Times," and other societies +soon following its example. + +"Parley's Magazine," planned by Samuel G. Goodrich and published by +Lilly, Wait and Company of Boston, ran a successful course of nine years +from eighteen hundred and thirty-three. The prospectus declared the +intention of its conductors "to give descriptions of manners, customs, +and countries, Travels, Voyages, and Adventures in Various parts of the +world, interesting historical notes, Biography, particularly of young +persons, original tales, cheerful and pleasing Rhymes, and to issue the +magazine every fortnight." The popularity of the name of Peter Parley +insured a goodly number of subscriptions from the beginning, and the +life of "Parley's Magazine" was somewhat longer than any of its +predecessors. + +In the south the idea of issuing a juvenile magazine was taken up by a +firm in Charleston, and the "Rose Bud" was started in eighteen hundred +and thirty. The "Rose Bud," a weekly, was largely the result of the +success of the "Juvenile Miscellany," as the editor of the southern +paper, Mrs. Gilman, was a valued contributor to the "Miscellany," and +had been encouraged in her plan of a paper for children of the south by +the Boston conductors of the northern periodical. + +Mrs. Gilman was born in Boston, and at sixteen years of age had +published a poem most favorably criticised at the time. Marrying a +clergyman who settled in Charleston, she continued her literary work, +but was best known to our grandmothers as the author of "Recollections +of a New England Housekeeper." The "Rose Bud" soon blossomed into the +"Southern Rose," a family paper, but faded away in 1839. + +Among other juvenile weeklies of the time may be mentioned the "Juvenile +Rambler" and the "Hive," which are chiefly interesting by reason of the +opportunity their columns offered to youthful contributors. + +Another series of "miscellaneous repositories" for the instructive +enjoyment of little people was furnished by the Annuals of the period. +These, of course, were modelled after the adult Annuals revolving in +social circles and adorning the marble-topped tables of drawing-rooms in +both England and America. + +Issued at the Christmas and New Year seasons, these children's Annuals +formed the conventional gift-book for many years, and publishers spared +no effort to make them attractive. Indeed, their red morocco, silk, or +embossed scarlet cloth bindings form a cheerful contrast to the dreary +array of black and drab cloth covering the fiction of both old and +young. Better illustrations were also introduced than the ugly cuts +"adorning" the other books for juvenile readers. Oliver Pelton, Joseph +Andrews (who ranked well as an engraver), Elisha Gallaudet, Joseph G. +Kellogg, Joseph I. Pease, and Thomas Illman were among the workers in +line-engraving whose early work served to illustrate, often +delightfully, these popular collections of children's stories. + +Among the "Annualettes," "Keepsakes," "Evening Hours," and "Infant's +Hours" published at intervals after eighteen hundred and twenty-five the +"Token" stands preeminent. Edited by Samuel G. Goodrich (Peter Parley) +between the years eighteen hundred and twenty-eight and eighteen hundred +and forty-two, its contents and illustrations were almost entirely +American. Edward Everett, Bishop Doane, A.H. Everett, John Quincy Adams, +Longfellow, Hawthorne, Miss Sedgwick, Eliza Leslie, Dr. Holmes, Horace +Greeley, James T. Fields, and Gulian Verplanck--all were called upon to +make the "Token" an annual treat to children. Of the many stories +written for it, only Hawthorne's "Twice Told Tales" survive; but the +long list of contributors of mark in American literature cannot be +surpassed to-day by any child's book by contemporary authors. The +contents, although written in the style of eighty years ago, are +undoubtedly good from a literary standpoint, however out of date their +story-telling qualities may be. And, moreover, the "Token" assuredly +gave pleasure to the public for which its yearly publication was made. + +[Illustration: _Children of the Cottage_] + +By eighteen hundred and thirty-five the "Annual" was in full swing as a +popular publication. Then an international book was issued, "The +American Juvenile Keepsake," edited by Mrs. Hofland, the well-known +writer of English stories for children. Mrs. Hofland cried up her wares +in a manner quite different from that of the earlier literary ladies. +"My table of contents," she wrote in her introduction, "exhibits a list +of names not exceeded in reputation by any preceding Juvenile Annual; +for, although got up with a celerity almost distressing in the hurry it +imposed, such has been the kindness of my literary friends, that they +have left me little more to wish for." Among the English contributors +were Miss Mitford, Miss Jean Roberts, Miss Browne, and Mrs. Hall, the +ablest writers for English children, and already familiar to American +households. + +Mrs. Hofland, herself, wrote one of its stories, noteworthy as an early +attempt of an English author to write for an American juvenile public. +She found her theme in the movement of emigration strong in England just +then among the laboring people. No amount of discouragement and bitter +criticism of the United States by the British press was sufficient to +stem appreciably the tide of laborers that flowed towards the country +whence came information of better wages and more work. Mrs. Hofland, +although writing for little Americans, could not wholly resist the +customary fling at American life and society. She acknowledged, however, +that long residence altered first impressions and brought out the kernel +of American character, whose husk only was visible to sojourners. She +deplored the fact that "gay English girls used only to the polished +society of London were likely to return with the impression that the men +were rude and women frivolous." This impression the author was inclined +to believe unjust, yet deemed it wise, because of the incredulous +(perhaps even in America!), to back her own opinion by a note saying +that this view was also shared by a valued friend who had lived fourteen +years in Raleigh, South Carolina. + +Having thus done justice, in her own eyes, to conditions in the new +country, Mrs. Hofland, launched the laborer's family upon the sea, and +followed their travels from New York to Lexington, Kentucky, at that +time a land unknown to the average American child beyond some hazy +association with the name of Daniel Boone. It was thus comparatively +safe ground on which to place the struggles of the immigrants, who +prospered because of their English thrift and were an example to the +former residents. Of course the son grew up to prove a blessing to the +community, and eventually, like the heroes in old Isaiah Thomas's +adaptations of Newbery's good boys, was chosen Congressman. + +There is another point of interest in connection with this English +author's tale. Whether consciously or not, it is a very good imitation +of Peter Parley's method of travelling with his characters in various +lands or over new country. It is, perhaps, the first instance in the +history of children's literature of an American story-writer influencing +the English writer of juvenile fiction. And it was not the only time. So +popular and profitable did Goodrich's style of story become that +somewhat later the frequent attempts to exploit anonymously and +profitably his pseudonymn in England as well as in America were loudly +lamented by the originator of the "Tales of Peter Parley." It is, +moreover, suggestive of the gradual change in the relations between the +two countries that anything written in America was thought worth +imitating. America, indeed, was beginning to supply incidents around +which to weave stories for British children and tales altogether made at +home for her own little readers. + +In the same volume Mrs. S.C. Hall also boldly attempted to place her +heroine in American surroundings. Philadelphia was the scene chosen for +her tale; but, having flattered her readers by this concession to their +sympathies and interest, the author was still sufficiently insular to +doubt the existence of a competent local physician in this the earliest +medical centre in the United States. An English family had come to make +their home in the city, where the mother's illness necessitated the +attendance of a French doctor to make a correct diagnosis of her case. +An operation was advised, which the mother, Mrs. Allen, hesitated to +undergo in an unknown land. Emily, the fourteen-year-old daughter, urged +her not to delay, as she felt quite competent to be in attendance, +having had "five teeth drawn without screaming; nursed a brother through +the whooping-cough and a sister through the measles." + +"Ma foi, Mademoiselle," said the French doctor, "you are very heroic; +why, let me see, you talk of being present at an operation, which I +would not hardly suffer my junior pupils to attend." + +"Put," said the heroic damsel, "my resolution, sir, to any test you +please; draw one, two, three teeth, I will not flinch." And this courage +the writer thought could not be surpassed in a London child. It is +needless to say that Emily's fortitude was sufficient to endure the +sight of her mother's suffering, and to nurse her to complete recovery. +Evidently residence in America had not yet sapped the young girl's moral +strength, or reduced her to the frivolous creature an American woman was +reputed in England to be. + +Among the home contributors to "The American Juvenile Keepsake" were +William L. Stone, who wrote a prosy article about animals; and Mrs. +Embury, called the Mitford of America (because of her stories of village +life), who furnished a religious tale to controvert the infidel +doctrines considered at the time subtly undermining to childish faith, +with probable reference to the Unitarian movement then gaining many +adherents. Mrs. Embury's stories were so generally gloomy, being +strongly tinged with the melancholy religious views of certain church +denominations, that one would suppose them to have been eminently +successful in turning children away from the faith she sought to +encourage. For this "Keepsake" the same lady let her poetical fancy take +flight in "The Remembrance of Youth is a Sigh," a somewhat lugubrious +and pessimistic subject for a child's Christmas Annual. Occasionally a +more cheerful mood possessed "Ianthe," as she chose to call herself, and +then we have some of the earliest descriptions of country life in +literature for American children. There is one especially charming +picture of a walk in New England woods upon a crisp October day, when +the children merrily hunt for chestnuts among the dry brown leaves, +and the squirrels play above their heads in the many colored boughs. + +[Illustration: _Henrietta_] + +Dr. Holmes has somewhere remarked upon the total lack of American nature +descriptions in the literature of his boyhood. No birds familiar to him +were ever mentioned; nor were the flowers such as a New England child +could ever gather. Only English larks and linnets, cowslips and +hawthorn, were to be found in the toy-books and little histories read to +him. "Everything was British: even the robin, a domestic bird," wrote +the doctor, "instead of a great fidgety, jerky, whooping thrush." But +when Peter Parley, Jacob Abbott, Lydia Maria Child, Mrs. Embury, and +Eliza Leslie began to write short stories, the Annuals and periodicals +abounded in American scenes and local color. + +There was also another great incentive for writers to work for children. +This was the demand made for stories from the American Sunday School +Union, whose influence upon the character of juvenile literature was a +force bearing upon the various writers, and whose growth was coincident +with the development of the children's periodical literature. + +The American Sunday School Union, an outgrowth of the several religious +publication societies, in eighteen hundred and twenty-four began to do +more extensive work, and therefore formed a committee to judge and +pronounce upon all manuscripts, which American writers were asked to +submit. + +The sessions of the Sunday-schools were no longer held for illiterate +children only. The younger members of each parish or church were found +upon its benches each Sunday morning or afternoon. To promote and to +impress the religious teaching in these schools, rewards were offered +for well-prepared lessons and regular attendance. Also the scholars were +encouraged to use the Sunday-school library. For these different +purposes many books were needed, but naturally only those stamped with +the approval of the clergyman in charge were circulated. + +The board of publication appointed by the American Sunday School +Union--composed chiefly of clergymen of certain denominations--passed +upon the merits of the many manuscripts sent in by piously inclined +persons, and edited such of them as proved acceptable. The marginal +notes on the pages of the first edition of an old Sunday-school favorite +bear witness to the painstaking care of the editors that the leaflets, +tracts, and stories poured in from all parts of the country should +"shine by reason of the truth contained," and "avoid the least +appearance, the most indirect insinuations, of anything which can +militate against the strictest ideas of propriety." The tales had also +to keep absolutely within the bounds of religion. Many were the stories +found lacking in direct religious teaching, or returned because religion +was not vitally connected with the plot, to be rewritten or sent +elsewhere for publication. + +The hundreds of stories turned out in what soon became a mechanical +fashion were of two patterns: the one of the good child, a constant +attendant upon Sabbath School and Divine Worship, but who died young +after converting parent or worldly friend during a painful illness; the +other of the unregenerate youth, who turned away from the godly +admonition of mother and clergyman, refused to attend Sunday-school, +and consequently fell into evil ways leading to the thief's or +drunkard's grave. Often a sick mother was introduced to claim emotional +attention, or to use as a lay figure upon which to drape Scripture texts +as fearful warnings to the black sheep of the family. Indeed, the little +reader no sooner began to enjoy the tale of some sweet and gentle girl, +or to delight in the mischievous boy, than he was called upon to reflect +that early piety portended an early death, and youthful pranks led to a +miserable old age. Neither prospect offered much encouragement to hope +for a happy life, and from conversations with those brought up on this +form of religious culture, it is certain that if a child escaped without +becoming morbid and neurotic, there were dark and secret resolves to +risk the unpleasant future in favor of a happy present. + +The stories, too, presented a somewhat paradoxical familiarity with the +ways of a mysterious Providence. This was exceedingly perplexing to the +thoughtful child, whose queries as to justice were too often hushed by +parent or teacher. In real life, every child expected, even if he did +not receive, a tangible reward for doing the right thing; but +Providence, according to these authors, immediately caused a good child +to become ill unto death. It is not a matter for surprise that the +healthy-minded, vigorous child often turned in disgust from the +Sunday-school library to search for Cooper's tales of adventure on his +father's book-shelves. + +The correct and approved child's story, even if not issued under +religious auspices, was thoroughly saturated with religion. Whatever may +have been the practice of parents in regard to their own reading, they +wished that of the nursery to show not only an educational and moral, +but a religious tendency. The books for American children therefore +divided themselves into three classes: the denominational story, to set +forth the doctrines of one church; the educational tale; and the moral +narrative of American life. + +The denominational stories produced by the several Sunday-school +societies were, as has been said, only a kind of scaffolding upon which +to build the teachings of the various churches. But their sale was +enormous, and a factor to be reckoned with because of their influence +upon the educational and moral tales of their period. By eighteen +hundred and twenty-seven, fifty-thousand books and tracts had been sent +out by one Sunday-school society alone.[204-A] There are few things more +remarkable in the history of juvenile literature than the growth of the +business of the American Sunday School Union. By eighteen hundred and +twenty-eight it had issued over seven hundred of these religious +trifles, varying from a sixteen-page duodecimo to a small octavo volume; +and most of these appear to have been written by Americans trying their +inexperienced pens upon a form of literature not then recognized as +difficult. The influence of such a flood of tiny books could hardly have +been other than morbid, although occasionally there floated down the +stream duodecimos which were grasped by little readers with eagerness. +Such volumes, one reader of bygone Sunday-school books tells us, +glimmered from the dark depths of death and prison scenes, and were +passed along with whispered recommendation until their well-worn covers +attracted the eye of the teacher, and were quickly found to be missing +from library shelves. Others were commended in their stead, such as +described the city boy showing the country cousin the town sights, with +most edifying conversation as to their history; or, again, amusement of +a light and alluring character was presumably to be found in the story +of a little maid who sat upon a footstool at her mother's knee, and +while she hemmed the four sides of a handkerchief, listened to the +account of missionary enterprises in the dark corners of the earth. + +To us of to-day the small illustrations are perhaps the most interesting +feature, preserving as they do children's occupations and costumes. In +one book we see quaintly frocked and pantaletted girls and much buttoned +boys in Sunday-school. In another, entitled "Election Day," are pictured +two little lads watching, from the square in front of Independence Hall, +the handing in of votes for the President through a window of the famous +building--a picture that emphasizes the change in methods of casting the +ballot since eighteen hundred and twenty-eight. + +That engravers were not always successful when called upon to embellish +the pages of the Sunday-school books, many of them easily prove. That +the designers of woodcuts were sometimes lacking in imagination when +obliged to depict Bible verses can have no better example than the +favorite vignette on title-pages portraying "My soul doth magnify the +Lord" as a man with a magnifying glass held over a blank space. Perhaps +equal in lack of imagination was the often repeated frontispiece of +"Mercy streaming from the Cross," illustrated by a large cross with an +effulgent rain beating upon the luxuriant tresses of a languishing lady. +There were many pictures but little art in the old-fashioned +Sunday-school library books. + +It was in Philadelphia that one of the first, if not the first +children's library was incorporated in 1827 as the Apprentices' Library. +Eleven years later this library contained more than two thousand books, +and had seven hundred children as patrons. The catalogue of that year is +indicative of the prevalence of the Sunday-school book. "Adventures of +Lot" precedes the "Affectionate Daughter-in-Law," which is followed by +"Anecdotes of Christian Missions" and "An Alarm to Unconverted Sinners." +Turning the yellowed pages, we find "Hannah Swanton, the Casco Captive," +histories of Bible worthies, the "Infidel Class," "Little Deceiver +Reclaimed," "Letters to Little Children," "Juvenile Piety," and +"Julianna Oakley." The bookish child of this decade could not escape +from the "Reformed Family" and the consumptive little Christian, except +by taking refuge in the parents' novels, collections of the British +poets and essayists, and the constantly increasing American writings for +adults. Perhaps in this way the Sunday-school books may be counted among +that long list of such things as are commonly called blessings in +disguise. + +[Illustration: _A Child and her Doll_] + +Aside from the strictly religious tale, the contents of the now +considerable output of Harper and Brothers, Mahlon Day, Samuel Wood and +Sons of New York; Cottons and Barnard, Lincoln and Edmunds, Lilly, Wait +and Company, Munroe and Francis of Boston; Matthew Carey, Conrad and +Parsons, Morgan and Sons, and Thomas T. Ashe of Philadelphia--to +mention but a few of the publishers of juvenile novelties--are +convincing proof that booksellers catered to the demand for stories with +a strong religious bias. The "New York Weekly," indeed, called attention +to Day's books as "maintaining an unbroken tendency to virtue and +piety." + +When not impossibly pious, these children of anonymous fiction were +either insufferable prigs with a steel moral code, or so ill-bred as to +be equally impossible and unnatural. The favorite plan of their creators +was to follow Miss Edgeworth's device of contrasting the good and +naughty infant. The children, too, were often cousins: one, for example, +was the son of a gentleman who in his choice of a wife was influenced by +strict religious principles; the other boy inherited his disposition +from his mother, a lady of bland manners and fine external appearance, +but who failed to establish in her offspring "correct principles of +virtue, religion, and morality." The author paused at this point in the +narrative to discuss the frailties of the lady, before resuming its +slender thread. Who to-day could wade through with children the +good-goody books of that generation? + +Happily, many of the writers for little ones chose to be unknown, for it +would be ungenerous to disparage by name these ladies who considered +their productions edifying, and in their ingenuousness never dreamed +that their stories were devoid of every quality that makes a child's +book of value to the child. They were literally unconscious that their +tales lacked that simplicity and directness in style, and they +themselves that knowledge of human nature, absolutely necessary to +construct a pleasing and profitable story. The watchwords of these +painstaking ladies were "religion, virtue, and morality," and heedless +of everything else, they found oblivion in most cases before they gained +recognition from the public they longed to influence. + +The decade following eighteen hundred and thirty brought prominently to +the foreground six American authors among the many who occasioned brief +notice. Of these writers two were men and four were women. Jacob Abbott +and Samuel G. Goodrich wrote the educational tales, Abbott largely for +the nursery, while Goodrich devoted his attention mainly to books for +the little lads at school. The four women, Mrs. Sarah J. Hale, Miss +Eliza Leslie, Miss Catharine Sedgwick, and Mrs. Lydia H. Sigourney, +wrote mainly for girls, and took American life as their subject. Mrs. +Hale wrote much for adults, but when editor of the "Juvenile +Miscellany," she made various contributions to it. Yet to-day we know +her only by one of her "Poems for Children," published in Boston in +eighteen hundred and thirty--"Mary had a Little Lamb." + +Mary's lamb has travelled much farther than to school, and has even +reached that point when its authorship has been disputed. Quite recently +in the "Century Magazine" Mrs. Hale's claim to its composition has been +set forth at some length by Mr. Richard W. Hale, who shows clearly her +desire when more than ninety years of age to be recognized as the +originator of these verses, In fact, "shortly before her death," wrote +Mr. Hale, "she directed her son to write emphatically that every poem in +her book of eighteen hundred and thirty was of her own composition." +Although rarely seen in print, "Mary had a Little Lamb" has outlived +all other nursery rhymes of its day; perhaps because it had most truly +the quality, unusual at the time, of being told directly and simply--a +quality, indeed, that appeals to every generation. + +Miss Leslie, like Mrs. Hale, did much editing, beginning on adult +gift-books and collections of housewife's receipts, and then giving most +of her attention to juvenile literature. As editor Miss Leslie did good +work on the "Violet" and the "Pearl," both gift-books for children. She +also abridged, edited, and rewrote "The Wonderful Traveller," and the +adventures of Munchausen, Gulliver, and Sindbad, heroes often +disregarded by this period of lack of imagination and over-supply of +educational theories. Also, as a writer of stories for little girls and +school-maidens, Eliza Leslie met with warm approval on both sides of the +Atlantic. + +Undoubtedly the success of Eliza Leslie's "American Girls' Book," +modelled after the English "Boy's Own Book," and published in 1831, +added to the popularity attained by her earlier work, although of this +she was but the compiler. + +The "American Girls' Book" was intended for little girls, and by +dialogue, the prevailing mode of conveying instruction or amusement, +numerous games and plays were described. Already many of the pastimes +have gone out of fashion. "Lady Queen Anne" and "Robin's Alive," "a +dangerous game with a lighted stick," are altogether unknown; "Track the +Rabbit" has changed its name to "Fox and Geese;" "Hot Buttered Beans" +has found a substitute in "Hunt the Thimble;" and "Stir the Mush" has +given place to "Going to Jerusalem." + +But Miss Leslie did more than preserve for us these old-fashioned +games. She has left sketches of children's ways and nature in her +various stories for little people. She shared, of course, in the habit +of moralizing characteristic of her day, but her children are childish, +and her heroines are full of the whims, and have truly the pleasures and +natural emotions, of real children. + +Miss Leslie began her work for children in eighteen hundred and +twenty-seven, when "Atlantic Stories" were published, and as her +sketches of child-life appeared one after another, her pen grew more +sure in its delineation of characters and her talent was speedily +recognized. Even now "Birthday Stories" are worth reading and treasuring +because of the pictures of family life eighty years ago. The "Souvenir," +for example, is a Christmas tale of old Philadelphia; the "Cadet's +Sister" sketches life at West Point, where the author's brother had been +a student; while the "Launch of the Frigate" and "Anthony and Clara" +tell of customs and amusements quite passed away. The charming +description of children shopping for their simple Christmas gifts, the +narrative of the boys who paid a poor lad in a bookstore to ornament +their "writing-pieces" for more "respectable presents" to parents, the +quiet celebration of the day itself, can ill be spared from the history +of child life and diversions in America. It is well to be reminded, in +these days of complex and expensive amusements, of some of the saner and +simpler pleasures enjoyed by children in Miss Leslie's lifetime. + +All of this writer's books, moreover, have some real interest, whether +it be "Althea Vernon," with the description of summer life and fashions +at Far Rockaway (New York's Manhattan Beach of 1830), or "Henrietta +Harrison," with its sarcastic reference to the fashionable school where +the pupils could sing French songs and Italian operas, but could not be +sure of the notes of "Hail Columbia." Or again, the account is worth +reading of the heroine's trip to New York from Philadelphia. "Simply +habited in a plaid silk frock and Thibet shawl," little Henrietta +starts, under her uncle's protection, at five o'clock in the morning to +take the boat for Bordentown, New Jersey. There she has her first +experience of a railway train, and looks out of the window "at all the +velocity of the train will allow her to see." At Heightstown small +children meet the train with fruit and cakes to sell to hungry +travellers. And finally comes the wonderful voyage from Amboy to the +Battery in New York, which is not reached until night has fallen. + +This is the simple explanation as to why Eliza Leslie's books met with +so generous a reception: they were full of the incidents which children +love, and unusually free from the affectations of the pious fictitious +heroine. + +The stories of Miss Catharine Sedgwick also received most favorable +criticism, and in point of style were certainly better than Miss +Leslie's. Her reputation as a literary woman was more than national, and +"Redwood," one of her best novels, was attributed in France to Fenimore +Cooper, when it appeared anonymously in eighteen hundred and +twenty-four. Miss Sedgwick's novels, however, pass out of nursery +comprehension in the first chapters, although these were full of a +healthy New England atmosphere, with coasting parties and picnics, +Indians and gypsies, nowhere else better described. The same tone +pervades her contributions to the "Juvenile Miscellany," the "Token," +and the "Youth's Keepsake," together with her best-known children's +books, "Stories for Children," "A Well Spent Hour," and "A Love Token +for Children." + +In contrast to Mrs. Sherwood's still popular "Fairchild Family," +Catharine Sedgwick's stories breathe a sunny, invigorating atmosphere, +abounding in local incidents, and vigorous in delineation of types then +plentiful in New England. "She has fallen," wrote one admirer, most +truthfully, in the "North American Review" of 1827,--"she has fallen +upon the view, from which the treasures of our future literature are to +be wrought. A literature to have real freshness must be moulded by the +influences of the society where it had its origin. Letters thrive, when +they are at home in the soil. Miss Sedgwick's imaginations have such +vigor and bloom because they are not exotics." Another reviewer, aroused +by English criticism of the social life in America, and full of the much +vaunted theory that "all men are equal," rejoiced in the author's +attitude towards the so-called "help" in New England families in +contrast to Miss More's portrayal of the English child's condescension +towards inferiors, which he thought unsuitable to set before the +children in America. + +All Miss Sedgwick's stories were the product of her own keen +intelligence and observation, and not written in imitation of Miss More, +Miss Edgeworth, or Mrs. Sherwood, as were the anonymous tales of "Little +Lucy; or, the Pleasant Day," or "Little Helen; a Day in the Life of a +Naughty Girl." They preached, indeed, at length, but the preaching +could be skipped by interested readers, and unlike the work of many +contemporaries, there was always a thread to take up. + +Mrs. Lydia H. Sigourney, another favorite contributor to magazines, +collected her "Poetry for Children" into a volume bearing this title, in +eighteen hundred and thirty-four, and published "Tales and Essays" in +the same year. These were followed two years later by "Olive Buds," and +thereafter at intervals she brought out several other books, none of +which have now any interest except as examples of juvenile literature +that had once a decided vogue and could safely be bought for the +Sunday-school library. + +The names of Mrs. Anna M. Wells, Mrs. Frances S. Osgood, Mrs. Farrar, +Mrs. Eliza L. Follen, and Mrs. Seba Smith were all well beloved by +children eighty years ago, and their writings, if long since lost sight +of, at least added their quota to the children's publications which were +distinctly American. + +If the quantity of books sold is any indication of the popularity of an +author's work, nothing produced by any of these ladies is to be compared +with the "Tales of Peter Parley" and the "Rollo Books" of Jacob Abbott. + +The tendency to instruct while endeavoring to entertain was remodelled +by these men, who in after years had a host of imitators. Great visions +of good to children had overtaken dreams of making children good, with +the result that William Darton's conversational method of instruction +was compounded with Miss Edgeworth's educational theories and elaborated +after the manner of Hannah More. Samuel Goodrich, at least, confessed +that his many tales were the direct result of a conversation with Miss +More, whom, because of his admiration for her books, he made an effort +to meet when in England in eighteen hundred and twenty-three. While +talking with the old lady about her "Shepherd of Salisbury Plain," the +idea came to Mr. Goodrich that he, himself, might write for American +children and make good use of her method of introducing much detail in +description. As a child he had not found the few toy-books within his +reach either amusing or interesting, with the exception of this +Englishwoman's writings. He resolved that the growing generation should +be better served, but little dreamed of the unprecedented success, as +far as popularity was concerned, that the result of his determination +would prove. + +After his return to America, the immediate favorable reception of the +"Token," under Goodrich's direction, led to the publication in the same +year (1828) of "Peter Parley's Tales about America," followed by "Tales +about Europe." At this date of retrospection the first volume seems in +many ways the best of any of the numerous books by the same author. The +boy hero, taken as a child companion upon a journey through several +states, met with adventures among Indians upon the frontiers, and saw +places of historical significance. Every incident is told in imitation +of Miss More, with that detailed description which Goodrich had found so +fascinating. If a little overdone in this respect, the narrative has +certainly a freshness sadly deficient in many later volumes. Even the +second tale seems to lack the engaging spontaneity of the first, and +already to grow didactic and recitative rather than personal. But both +met with an equally generous and appreciative reception. Parley's +educational tales were undoubtedly the American pioneers in what may be +readily styled the "travelogue" manner used in later years by Elbridge +Brooks and many other writers for little people. These early attempts of +Parley's to educate the young reader were followed by one hundred +others, which sold like hot cakes. Of some tales the sales reached a +total of fifty thousand in one year, while it is estimated that seven +million of Peter Parley's "Histories" and "Tales" were sold before the +admiration of their style and qualities waned. + +Peter Parley took his heroes far afield. Jacob Abbott adopted another +plan of instruction in the majority of his books. Beginning in eighteen +hundred and thirty-four with the "Young Christian Series," the Reverend +Mr. Abbott soon had readers in England, Scotland, Germany, France, +Holland, and India, where many of his volumes were translated and +republished. In the "Rollo Books" and "Franconia" an attempt was made to +answer many of the questions that children of each century pour out to +astonish and confound their elders. The child reader saw nothing +incongruous in the remarkable wisdom and maturity of Mary Bell and +Beechnut, who could give advice and information with equal glibness. The +advice, moreover, was often worth following, and the knowledge +occasionally worth having; and the little one swallowed chunks of morals +and morsels of learning without realizing that he was doing so. Most of +both was speedily forgotten, but many adults in after years were +unconsciously indebted to Goodrich and Abbott for some familiarity with +foreign countries, some interest in natural science. + +Notwithstanding the immense demand for American stories, there was +fortunately still some doubt as to whether this remodelled form of +instructive amusement and moral story-book literature did not lack +certain wholesome features characteristic of the days when fairies and +folklore, and Newbery's gilt volumes, had plenty of room on the nursery +table. "I cannot very well tell," wrote the editor of the "Fairy +Book"[216-A] in 1836,--"I cannot very well tell why it is that the good +old histories and tales, which used to be given to young people for +their amusement and instruction, as soon as they could read, have of +late years gone quite out of fashion in this country. In former days +there was a worthy English bookseller, one Mr. Newbery, who used to +print thousands of nice little volumes of such stories, which, as he +solemnly declared in print in the books themselves, he gave away to all +little boys and girls, charging them only a sixpenny for the gold +covers. These of course no one could be so unreasonable as to wish him +to furnish at his own expense.... Yet in the last generation, American +boys and girls (the fathers and mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers +of the present generation) were not wholly dependent upon Mr. Newbery of +St. Paul's church-yard, though they knew him well and loved him much. +The great Benjamin Franklin, when a printer in Philadelphia, did not +disdain to print divers of Newbery's books adorned with cuts in the +likeness of his, though it must be confessed somewhat inferior.[216-B] +Yet rude as they were, they were probably the first things in the way of +pictures that West and Copley ever beheld, and so instilled into those +future painters, the rudiments of that art by which they afterwards +became so eminent themselves, and conferred such honour upon their +native country. In somewhat later time there were the worthy Hugh Gaine, +at the Sign of the Bible and Crown in Pearl street, and the patriotic +Samuel Loudon, and the genuine and unadulterated New Yorker, Evert +Duyckinck, besides others in Boston and Philadelphia, who trod in the +steps of Newbery, and supplied the infant mind with its first and +sweetest literary food. The munificent Newbery, and the pious and loyal +Hugh Gaine, and the patriotic Samuel Loudon are departed. Banks now +abound and brokers swarm where Loudon erst printed, and many millions +worth of silk and woolen goods are every year sold where Gaine vended +his big Bibles and his little story-books. They are all gone; the +glittering covers and their more brilliant contents, the tales of wonder +and enchantment, the father's best reward for merit, the good +grandmother's most prized presents. They are gone--the cheap delight of +childhood, the unbought grace of boyhood, the dearest, freshest, and +most unfading recollections of maturer life. They are gone--and in their +stead has succeeded a swarm of geological catechisms, entomological +primers, and tales of political economy--dismal trash, all of them; +something half-way between stupid story-books and bad school-books; +being so ingeniously written as to be unfit for any useful purpose in +school and too dull for any entertainment out of it." + +This is practically Charles Lamb's lament of some thirty years before. +Lamb had despised the learned Charles, Mrs. Barbauld's peg upon which +to hang instruction, and now an American Shakespeare lover found the use +of toy-books as mechanical guides to knowledge for nursery inmates +equally deplorable. + +Yet an age so in love with the acquirement of solid facts as to produce +a Parley and an Abbott was the period when the most famous of all +nursery books was brought out from the dark corner into which it had +been swept by the theories of two generations, and presented once again +as "The Only True Mother Goose Melodies." + +The origin of Mother Goose as the protecting genius of the various +familiar jingles has been an interesting field of speculation and +research. The claim for Boston as the birthplace of their sponsor has +long ago been proved a poor one, and now seems likely to have been an +ingenious form of advertisement. But Boston undoubtedly did once again +make popular, at least in America, the lullabies and rhymes repeated for +centuries around French or English firesides. + +The history of Mother Goose and her brood is a long one. "Mother Goose," +writes Mr. Walter T. Field, "began her existence as the raconteuse of +fairy tales, not as the nursery poetess. As La Mere Oye she told stories +to French children more than two hundred and fifty years ago." According +to the researches made by Mr. Field in the literature of Mother Goose, +"the earliest date at which Mother Goose appears as the author of +children's stories is 1667, when Charles Perrault, a distinguished +French litterateur, published in Paris a little book of tales which he +had during that and the preceding year contributed to a magazine known +as 'Moejen's Recueil,' printed at The Hague. This book is entitled +'Histoires ou Contes du Tems Passe, avec des Moralitez,' and has a +frontispiece in which an old woman is pictured, telling stories to a +family group by the fireside while in the background are the words in +large characters, 'Contes de ma Mere l'Oye.'" + +It seems, however, to have been John Newbery's publishing-house that +made Mother Goose sponsor for the ditties in much the form in which we +now have them. In Newbery's collection of "Melodies" there were numerous +footnotes burlesquing Dr. Johnson and his dictionary, together with +jests upon the moralizing habit prevalent among authors. There is +evidence that Goldsmith wrote many of these notes when doing hack-work +for the famous publisher in St. Paul's Churchyard. It is known, for +instance, that in January, 1760, Goldsmith celebrated the production of +his "Good Natur'd Man" by dining his friends at an inn. During the feast +he sang his favorite song, said to be + + "There was an old woman tos't up in a blanket, + Seventy times as high as the moon." + +This was introduced quite irrelevantly in the preface to "Mother Goose's +Melodies," but with the apology that it was a favorite with the editor. +There is also the often quoted remark of Miss Hawkins as confirming +Goldsmith's editorship: "I little thought what I should have to boast, +when Goldsmith taught me to play Jack and Jill, by two bits of paper on +his fingers." But neither of these statements seems to have more weight +in solving the mystery of the editor's name than the evidence of the +whimsically satirical notes themselves. How like the author of the +"Vicar of Wakefield" and the children's "Fables in Verse" is this +remark underneath: + + "'There was an old Woman who liv'd under a hill, + And if she's not gone, she lives there still.' + + "This is a self evident Proposition, which is the very essence of + Truth. She lived under the hill, and if she's not gone, she lives + there still. Nobody will presume to contradict this. _Croesa._" + +And is not this also a good-natured imitation of that kind of seriously +intended information which Mr. Edgeworth inserted some thirty years +later in "Harry and Lucy:" "Dry, what is not wet"? Again this note is +appended to + + "See Saw Margery Daw + Jacky shall have a new master:" + +"It is a mean and scandalous Practise in Authors to put Notes to Things +that deserve no Notice." Who except Goldsmith was capable of this vein +of humor? + +When Munroe and Francis in Boston undertook about eighteen hundred and +twenty-four to republish these old-fashioned rhymes, in the practice of +the current theory that everything must be simplified, they omitted all +these notes and changed many of the "Melodies." Sir Walter Scott's +"Donnel Dhu" was included, and the beautiful Shakespeare selections, +"When Daffodils begin to 'pear," "When the Bee sucks," etc., were +omitted. Doubtless the American editors thought that they had vastly +improved upon the Newbery publication in every word changed and every +line omitted. In reality, they deprived the nursery of much that might +well have remained as it was, although certain expressions were very +properly altered. In a negative manner they did one surprising and +fortunate thing: in leaving out the amusing notes they did not attempt +to replace them, and consequently the nursery had one book free from +that advice and precept, which in other verse for children resulted in +persistent nagging. The illustrations were entirely redrawn, and Abel +Bowen and Nathaniel Dearborn were asked to do the engraving for this +Americanized edition. + +Of the poetry written in America for children before eighteen hundred +and forty there is little that need be said. Much of it was entirely +religious in character and most of it was colorless and dreary stuff. +The "Child's Gem" of eighteen hundred and thirty-eight, considered a +treasury of precious verse by one reviewer, and issued in embossed +morocco binding, was characteristic of many contemporary _poems_, in +which nature was forced to exude precepts of virtue and industry. The +following stanzas are no exception to the general tone of the contents +of practically every book entitled "Poetry for Children:" + + "'Be good, little Edmund,' your mother will say, + She will whisper it soft in your ear, + And often repeat it, by night and by day + That you may not forget it, my dear. + + "And the ant at its work, and the flower-loving bee + And the sweet little bird in the wood + As it warbles its song, from its nest in the tree, + Seems to say, 'little Eddy be good.'" + +The change in the character of the children's books written by Americans +had begun to be seriously noticed in England. Although there were still +many importations (such as the series written by Mrs. Sherwood), there +was some inclination to resent the stocking of American booksellers' +shelves by the work of local talent, much to the detriment of English +publishers' pockets. The literary critics took up the subject, and +thought themselves justified in disparaging many of the American books +which found also ready sale on English book-counters. The religious +books underwent scathing criticism, possibly not undeserved, except that +the English productions of the same order and time make it now appear +that it was but the pot calling the kettle black. Almost as much fault +was found with the story-books. It apparently mattered little that the +tables were now turned and British publishers were pirating American +tales as freely and successfully as Thomas and Philadelphia printers had +in former years made use of Newbery's, and Darton and Harvey's, juvenile +novelties in book ware. + +In the "Quarterly Review" of 1843, in an article entitled "Books for +Children," the writer found much cause for complaint in regard to +stories then all too conspicuous in bookshops in England. "The same +egregious mistakes," said the critic, "as to the nature of a child's +understanding--the same explanations, which are all but indelicate, and +always profane--seem to pervade all these American mentors; and of a +number by Peter Parley, Abbott, Todd, &c., it matters little which we +take up." "Under the name of Peter Parley," continued the disgruntled +gentleman, after finding only malicious evil in poor Mr. Todd's efforts +to explain religious doctrines, "such a number of juvenile school-books +are current--some greatly altered from the originals and many more by +_adopters_ of _Mr. Goodrich's_ pseudonym--that it becomes difficult to +measure the merits or demerits of the said _magnus parens_, Goodrich." +Liberal quotations followed from "Peter Parley's Farewell," which was +censured as palling to the mind of those familiar with the English +sources from which the facts had been irreverently culled. + +The reviewer then passed on to another section of "American +abominations" which "seem to have some claim to popularity since they +are easily sold." "These," continued the anonymous critic, "are works +not of amusement--those we shall touch upon later--but of that +half-and-half description where instruction blows with a side wind.... +Accordingly after impatient investigation of an immense number of little +tomes, we are come to the conclusion that they may be briefly +classified--firstly, as containing such information as any child in +average life who can speak plainly is likely to be possessed of; and +secondly, such as when acquired is not worth having." + +To this second class of book the Reverend Mr. Abbott's "Rollo Books" +were unhesitatingly consigned. They were regarded as curiosities for +"mere occupation of the eye, and utter stagnation of the thoughts, full +of empty minutiae with all the rules of common sense set aside." + +Next the writer considered the style of those Americans who persuaded +shillings from English pockets by "ingeniously contrived series which +rendered the purchase of a single volume by no means so recommendable as +that of all." The "uncouth phraseology, crack-jack words, and puritan +derived words are nationalized and therefore do not permit cavilling," +continued the reviewer, dismayed and disgusted that it was necessary to +warn his public, "but their children never did, or perhaps never will, +hear any other language; and it is to be hoped they _understand_ it. At +all events, we have nothing to do but keep ours from it, believing +firmly that early familiarity with refined and beautiful forms ... is +one of the greatest safeguards against evil, if not necessary to good." + +However, the critic did not close his article without a good word for +those ladies in whose books we ourselves have found merit. "Their works +of amusement" he considered admirable, "when not laden with more +religion than the tale can hold in solution. Miss Sedgwick takes a high +place for powers of description and traits of nature, though her +language is so studded with Americanisms as much to mar the pleasure and +perplex the mind of an English reader. Besides this lady, Mrs. Sigourney +and Mrs. Seba Smith may be mentioned. The former, especially, to all +other gifts adds a refinement, and nationality of subject, with a +knowledge of life, which some of her poetical pieces led us to expect. +Indeed the little Americans have little occasion to go begging to the +history or tradition of other nations for topics of interest." + +The "Westminster Review" of eighteen hundred and forty was also in doubt +"whether all this Americanism [such as Parley's 'Tales' contained] is +desirable for English children, were it," writes the critic, "only for +them we keep the 'pure well of English undefiled,' and cannot at all +admire the improvements which it pleases that go-ahead nation to claim +the right of making in our common tongue: unwisely enough as regards +themselves, we think, for one of the elements in the power of a nation +is the wide spread of its language." + +This same criticism was made again and again about the style of American +writers for adults, so that it is little wonder the children's books +received no unqualified praise. But Americanisms were not the worst +feature of the "inundation of American children's books," which because +of their novelty threatened to swamp the "higher class" English. They +were feared because of the "multitude of false notions likely to be +derived from them, the more so as the similarity of name and language +prevents children from being on their guard, and from remembering that +the representations that they read are by foreigners." It was the +American view of English institutions (presented in story-book form) +which rankled in the British breast as a "condescending tenderness of +the free nation towards the monarchical regime" from which at any cost +the English child must be guarded. In this respect Peter Parley was the +worst offender, and was regarded as "a sad purveyor of slip-slop, and no +matter how amusing, ignorant of his subject." That gentleman, meanwhile, +read the criticisms and went on making "bread and butter," while he +scowled at the English across the water, who criticised, but pirated as +fast as he published in America. + +Gentle Miss Eliza Leslie received altogether different treatment in this +review of American juvenile literature. She was considered "good +everywhere, and particularly so for the meridian in which her tales were +placed;" and we quite agree with the reviewer who considered it well +worth while to quote long paragraphs from her "Tell Tale" to show its +character and "truly useful lesson." "To America," continued this +writer, "we also owe a host of little books, that bring together the +literature of childhood and the people; as 'Home,' 'Live and Let Live' +[by Miss Sedgwick], &c., but excellent in intention as they are, we have +our doubts, as to the general reception they will meet in this country +while so much of more exciting and elegant food is at hand." Even if the +food of amusement in England appeared to the British mind more spiced +and more _elegant_, neither Miss Leslie's nor Miss Sedgwick's fictitious +children were ever anaemic puppets without wills of their own,--a type +made familiar by Miss Edgeworth and persisted in by her admirers and +successors,--but vitalized little creatures, who acted to some degree, +at least, like the average child who loved their histories and named her +dolls after favorite characters. + +To-day these English criticisms are only of value as showing that the +American story-book was no longer imitating the English tale, but was +developing, by reason of the impress of differing social forces, a new +type. Its faults do not prevent us from seeing that the spirit expressed +in this juvenile literature is that of a new nation feeling its own way, +and making known its purpose in its own manner. While we smile at +sedulous endeavors of the serious-minded writers to present their +convictions, educational, religious, or moral, in palatable form, and to +consider children always as a race apart, whose natural actions were +invariably sinful, we still read between the lines that these writers +were really interested in the welfare of the American child; and that +they were working according to the accepted theories of the third decade +of the nineteenth century as to the constituents of a juvenile +library which, while "judicious and attractive, should also blend +instruction with innocent amusement." + +[Illustration: _The Little Runaway_] + +And now as we have reached the point in the history of the American +story-book when it is popular at least in both English-speaking +countries, if not altogether satisfactory to either, what can be said of +the value of this juvenile literature of amusement which has developed +on the tiny pages of well-worn volumes? If, of all the books written for +children by Americans seventy-five years and more ago, only Nathaniel +Hawthorne's "Wonder Book" has survived to the present generation; of all +the verse produced, only the simple rhyme, "Mary had a Little Lamb," and +Clement Moore's "The Night before Christmas" are still quoted, has their +history any value to-day? + +If we consider that there is nothing more rare in the fiction of any +nation than the popular child's story that endures; nothing more unusual +than the successful well-written juvenile tale, we can perhaps find a +value not to be reckoned by the survival or literary character of these +old-fashioned books, but in their silent testimony to the influence of +the progress of social forces at work even upon so small a thing as a +child's toy-book. The successful well-written child's book has been +rare, because it has been too often the object rather than the manner of +writing that has been considered of importance; because it has been the +aim of all writers either to "improve in goodness" the young reader, as +when, two hundred years ago, Cotton Mather penned "Good Lessons" for his +infant son to learn at school, or, to quote the editor of "Affection's +Gift" (published a century and a quarter later), it has been for the +purpose of "imparting moral precepts and elevated sentiments, of uniting +instruction and amusement, through the fascinating mediums of +interesting narrative and harmony of numbers." + +The result of both intentions has been a collection of dingy or faded +duodecimos containing a series of impressions of what each generation +thought good, religiously, morally, and educationally, for little folk. +If few of them shed any light upon child nature in those long-ago days, +many throw shafts of illumination upon the change and progress in +American ideals and thought concerning the welfare of children. As has +already been said, the press supplied what the public taste demanded, +and if the writers produced for earlier generations of children what may +now be considered lumber, the press of more modern date has not +progressed so far in this field of literature as to make it in any +degree certain that our children's treasures may not be consigned to an +equal oblivion. For these too are but composites made by superimposing +the latest fads or theories as to instructive amusement of children upon +those of previous generations of toy-books. Most of what was once +considered the "perfume of youth and freshness" in a literary way has +been discarded as dry and unprofitable, mistaken or deceptive; and yet, +after all has been said by way of criticism of methods and subjects, +these chap-books, magazines, gift and story books form our best if +blurred pictures of the amusements and daily life of the old-time +American child. + +We are learning also to prize these small "Histories" as part of the +progress of the arts of book-making and illustration, and of the growth +of the business of publishing in America; and already we are aware of +the fulfilment of what was called by one old bookseller, "Tom Thumb's +Maxim in Trade and Politics:" "He who buys this book for Two-pence, and +lays it up till it is worth Three-pence, may get an hundred per cent by +the bargain." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[204-A] _Election Day_, p. 71. American Sunday School Union, 1828. + +[216-A] Mr. G.C. Verplanck was probably the editor of this book, +published by Harper & Bros. + +[216-B] This statement the writer has been unable to verify. + + + + +_Index_ + + + + +INDEX + + +ABBOTT, Jacob, 201, 208, 213, 215, 218, 222, 223. + +Abbott, John S.C., 129. + +A, B, C Book, 101. + +A, B, C of religion, 22. + +Absence from Christ intolerable, 39. + +Adams, John, 165. + +Adams, Mrs. John, 91. + +Adams, J.A., 169. + +Adams, John Quincy, 196. + +Addison, Joseph, 159. + +Adventures of a Peg-top, 109. + +Adventures of a Pincushion, 109, 111, 112. + +Adventures of Lot, 206. + +Aesop, 63, 66, 67, 69, 90, 101, 109. + +Affectionate Daughter-in-Law, 206. + +Affection's Gift, 227. + +Aikin, Dr. John, 139, 140, 163. + +Ainsworth, Robert, 63. + +Aitkin, Robert, 100, 101. + +Alarm to Unconverted Sinners, An, 206. + +Althea Vernon, 210. + +American Antiquarian Society, 103. + +American Flag, 148. + +American Girls' Book, 209. + +American Juvenile Keepsake, 197, 200. + +American Sunday School Union, 201, 202, 204. + +American Weekly Mercury, 20. + +Ami des Enfans, 134, 135. + +Amyntor, 192. + +Anderson, Dr. Alexander, 166-169, 180. + +Andre, Major John, 97. + +Andrews, Joseph, 196. + +Andrews, Thomas, 102. + +Anecdoten von Hunden, 178. + +Anecdotes of Christian Missions, 206. + +Animated Nature, 108. + +Annales of Madame de Genlis, 134. + +Annual Register, 163. + +Anthony and Clara, 210. + +Arabian Nights, 162. + +Argalus & Parthenia, 90. + +Arnold, Benedict, 97, 98. + +Arthur's Geographical Grammar, 99. + +Art's Treasury, 90. + +Ashe, Thomas T., 207. + +Ashton, John, 54. + +Atlantic Stories, 210. + +Avery, S., 180. + + +BABCOCK, Sidney, 167, 168. + +Bache, Benjamin, 100, 101, 104, 105, 127. + +Bag of Nuts ready Cracked, 107. + +Bailey, Francis, 123. + +Banbury Chap-Books, 53, 70, 117. + +Barbauld, Anna Letitia, 127-129, 132, 140-142, 152, 155, 163, 188, 218. + +Barclay, Andrew, 102, 103. + +Baskerville, John, 103. + +Battelle, E., 102. + +Battle of the Kegs, 97. + +Be Merry and Wise, 67, 106. + +Beecher, Rev. Dr. Lyman, 162. + +Belcher, J., 170, 171. + +Bell, Robert, 75, 76, 89, 100, 101. + +Benezet, Anthony, 101. + +Berquin, Arnaud, 134, 159, 161. + +Bewick, Thomas, 117, 118, 135, 166, 168, 169. + +Bewick's Quadrupeds, 168. + +Bibliography of Worcester, 102. + +Big and Little Puzzling Caps, 107. + +Biography for Boys, 115. + +Biography for Girls, 114, 115. + +Birthday Stories, 210. + +Blossoms of Morality, 165. + +Blue Beard, The History of, 141, 165. + +Body of Divinity versified, 22. + +Book for Boys and Girls; or, Country Rhimes for Children, 11. + +Book for Boys and Girls; or, Temporal Things Spiritualized, 13. + +Book of Knowledge, 90, 103. + +Book of Martyrs, 10. + +Books for Children, 222. + +Bookseller of the last century, The, 51, 54. + +Boone, Daniel, 198. + +Boone, Nicholas, 17. + +Boston Chronicle, 74, 75. + +Boston Evening Post, 38, 43, 73. + +Boston Gazette and Country Journal, 80. + +Boston News Letter, 19. + +Boston Public Library, 74. + +Bowen, Abel, 169, 221. + +Boy and his Paper of Plumbs, 12. + +Boy and the Watchmaker, 12. + +Boy's Own Book, 209. + +Boyle, John, 76, 77. + +Bradford, Andrew, 20, 21, 126. + +Bradford, Thomas, 59, 90, 100. + +Brewer, printer, 167. + +Brooke, Henry, 130. + +Brooks, Elbridge, 215. + +Brother's Gift, 80, 111, 112. + +Browne, Miss, 197. + +Brynberg, Peter, 165. + +Buccaneers of America, 90. + +Bunyan, John, 10-13. + +Burr, Aaron, 132-134. + +Burr, Theodosia, 132, 133. + +Burton, R., 36, 37. + +Burton's Historical Collections, 36. + +Busy Bee, 187. + +Butcher, Elizabeth, 21, 40, 186. + +Butterworth, Hezekiah, 132. + + +CADET'S Sister, 210. + +Cameron, Lucy Lyttleton, 152, 184. + +Canary Bird, The, 172. + +Carey, Matthew, 165, 206. + +Carey, Robert, 72. + +Carnan, Mr., 46, 104. + +Carter, John, 101. + +Catechism, 5, 6, 10, 15. + +Catechism of New England, 7. + +Cautionary Stories in Verse, 175. + +Century Magazine, 208. + +Chandler, Samuel, 163. + +Chap-Books of the Eighteenth Century, 54. + +Chapone, Hester, 113, 114, 159. + +Chapters of Accidents, 174. + +Charles, Mary, 170. + +Charles, William, 170, 171, 176, 183. + +Cheap Repository, 152. + +Cherry Orchard, The, 156, 177. + +Child, Lydia Maria, 193, 201. + +Child and his Book, 11, 45. + +Children in the Wood, 8. + +Children's Books and Reading, 132. + +Children's Friend, 135, 161. + +Children's Magazine, The, 101. + +Children's Miscellany, 129, 131. + +Child's Garden of Verses, Stevenson's, 182. + +Child's Gem, 221. + +Child's Guide to Spelling and Reading, 165. + +Child's Instructor, 122, 123. + +Child's New Play-thing, 41, 43-45. + +Choice Spirits, 90. + +Christmas Box, 64, 106. + +Cinderella, 62, 171. + +Clarissa Harlowe, 50, 79-85, 109. + +Clarke, Edward, 41. + +Cock Robin, 166. + +Collection of Pretty Poems, 67. + +Collins, Benjamin, 47. + +Complete Letter-Writer, 90. + +Congress, The, 98. + +Conrad and Parsons, 206, 207. + +Contes de ma Mere l'Oye, 219. + +Cooper, James Fenimore, 148, 191, 203, 211. + +Cooper, Rev. Mr., 134. + +Copley, John Stuart, 217. + +Cotton, John, 6, 9, 30. + +Cottons and Barnard, 206. + +Country Rhimes for Children, 11, 13. + +Coverly, Nathaniel, 166. + +Cowper, William, 153, 175. + +Cox and Berry, 80. + +Cries of London, 80, 180. + +Cries of New York, 180-182. + +Cries of Philadelphia, 180. + +Cross, Wilbur L., 80. + +Crouch, Nathaniel, 36. + +Cruel Giant Barbarico, 74. + +Crukshank, Joseph, 100, 101, 165. + +Custis, John Parke, 73. + +Custis, Martha Parke, 73. + +Cuz's Chorus, 111. + + +DAISY, The, 176. + +Darton, William, 124, 174, 182, 213. + +Darton and Harvey, 222. + +Day, Mahlon, 169, 206, 207. + +Day, Thomas, 129-132, 142, 145, 154, 179, 188. + +Daye, John, 7. + +Dearborn, Nathaniel, 169, 221. + +Death and Burial of Cock Robin, 124. + +Death of Abel, 90. + +Defoe, Daniel, 129. + +Delight in the Lord Jesus, 39. + +Description of Various Objects, A, 173. + +Development of the English novel, 80. + +Dennie, Joseph, 192. + +Dilworth, Thomas, 38, 41, 121, 136. + +Divine emblems, 13. + +Divine Songs, 38. + +Doane, Bishop G.W., 196. + +Doddridge, Philip, 152, 184. + +Dodsley, Robert, 95. + +Don Quixote, 161. + +Donaldson, Arthur, 192. + +Donnel Dhu, 220. + +Doolittle, Amos, 169. + +Dove, The, 134. + +Drake, Joseph Rodman, 148. + +Draper, Samuel, 69. + +Draper and Edwards, 44. + +Drinker, Eliza, 91, 126. + +Dryden's Poems, 163. + +Dunlap, John, 100. + +Dunton, John, 8, 36. + +Durell, publisher, 166, 167. + +Duyckinck, Evert, 217. + + +EARLY Lessons, 155. + +Earnest Exhortation, 22. + +Easy Introduction into the knowledge of Nature, 128. + +Easy Lessons for Children, 127, 128, 132, 155. + +Economy of Human Life, 152. + +Edgeworth, Maria, 128, 140, 150, 153-159, 164, 171, 175-177, 187, 188, +207, 212, 213, 226. + +Edgeworth, Richard Lovell, 154-156, 220. + +Edwards, Joseph, 43. + +Elegant Extracts, 162. + +Embury, Emma C., 200, 201. + +Emulation, 187. + +English Empire in America, 36. + +Entertaining Fables, 109. + +Errand Boy, 187. + +Evenings at Home, 128, 139, 163, 164. + +Everett, Alexander H., 196. + +Everett, Edward, 196. + + +FABLES in verse, 53, 220. + +Fabulous Histories, 128, 141. + +Fair Rosamond, 24. + +Fairchild Family, The, 152, 186, 212. + +Fairy Book, 216. + +Familiar Description of Beasts and Birds, 174. + +Farrar, Eliza Ware, 213. + +Father's Gift, The, 111. + +Female Orators, 82. + +Fenelon's Reflections, 184. + +Field, E.M., 11, 45. + +Field, Walter T., 218. + +Fielding, Henry, 51, 78, 80, 81, 137. + +Fields, James T., 196. + +First Book of the American Chronicles of the Times, 76. + +Fleet, Thomas, 19, 20, 24, 38. + +Fleming, John, 74. + +Flora's Gala, 175. + +Follen, Eliza L., 213. + +Food for the Mind, 67, 68, 107. + +Fool of Quality, 130. + +Ford, Paul Leicester, 14. + +Fowle, Zechariah, 20, 40, 69, 103. + +Fowle and Draper, 72. + +Fox and Geese, 209. + +Foxe, John, 10. + +Franconia, 215. + +Frank, 155. + +Franklin, Benjamin, 21-24, 26, 36, 38, 59-62, 103, 105, 123, 179, 193, 216. + +Franklin, Sally, 62, 63. + +Franklin and Hall, 59. + +French Convert, 90. + +Friendly Instruction, 184. + + +GAFFER Two Shoes, 82. + +Gaine, Hugh, 64, 65, 67, 68, 89, 167, 217. + +Gallaudet, Elisha, 196. + +Garden Amusements, 175. + +Generous Inconstant, The, 82. + +Genlis, Madame Stephanie-Felicite de, 132, 134. + +Geographical, Statistical and Political Amusement, 178. + +George's Junior Republic, 139. + +Gilbert, C., 169. + +Giles Gingerbread, 74, 110, 140, 159. + +Gilman, Caroline, 194, 195. + +Going to Jerusalem, 209. + +Goldsmith, Oliver, 51, 52, 80, 82, 95, 108, 159, 219, 220. + +Good Lessons for Children, 18, 127, 227. + +Good Natur'd Man, 219. + +Goodrich, Samuel G., 129, 194-196, 198, 199, 201, 208, 213-215, 218, +222-225. + +Goody Two-Shoes, 52, 53, 55, 89, 101, 110, 116-118, 123, 140-142, 159. + +Greeley, Horace, 196. + +Green, Samuel, 10, 13, 14. + +Green, Timothy, 17. + +Gulliver's Adventures, 125. + +Guy of Warwick, 8. + + +HAIL Columbia, 148, 211. + +Hale, Richard W., 208. + +Hale, Sarah J., 193, 208, 209. + +Hall, Anna Maria, 197, 199. + +Hall, David, 59, 62, 100. + +Hall, Samuel, 124, 125. + +Hall, William, 100. + +Halleck, Fitz-Greene, 148. + +Hannah Swanton, the Casco Captive, 206. + +Happy Child, 40. + +Harper and Brothers, 206, 216. + +Harris, Benjamin, 14. + +Harris, John, 182, 183. + +Harry and Lucy, 155, 156, 164, 220. + +Harvey, John, 182. + +Hawkins, Laetitia Matilda, 219. + +Hawthorne, Julian, 78, 129, 130. + +Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 149, 196, 227. + +Hebrides, 153. + +Henrietta Harrison, 211. + +Hildeburn, Charles R., 65, 93. + +Hill, George Birbeck, 141. + +Hill, Hannah, 21, 186. + +Histoires ou Contes du Tems Passe, 219. + +Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 69. + +History of a Doll, 136. + +History of printing in America, 18, 19. + +History of the American Revolution, 123. + +History of the Holy Jesus, 39, 40, 103. + +History of the Institution of Cyrus, 130. + +History of the Robins, 129. + +Hive, The, 195. + +Hobby Horse, The, 42, 80. + +Hofland, Barbara, 197, 198. + +Holmes, Dr. Oliver Wendell, 162-164, 184, 196, 201. + +Holy Bible in Verse, 15. + +Home, 226. + +Home of Washington, 28. + +Hopkinson, Joseph, 148. + +Hot Buttered Beans, 209. + +House that Jack Built, 19. + +Howard, Mr., 29. + +Hudibras, 161. + +Hunt the Thimble, 209. + +Hymns for Infant Minds, 184. + +Hymns in Prose and Verse, 128. + + +"IANTHE." _See_ Embury. + +Illman, Thomas, 196. + +Infidel Class, 206. + +Irving, Washington, 148, 191. + + +JACK and Jill, 219. + +Jack the Giant Killer, 8, 141. + +Jacky Dandy's Delight, 107, 108. + +James, William, 175, 176. + +Jane Grey, 24. + +Janeway, James, 17, 186. + +Jenny Twitchell's Jests, 90. + +Joe Miller's Jests, 90. + +Johnson, Benjamin, 164, 178, 183, 192. + +Johnson, Jacob, 152, 155, 156, 159, 164, 173, 178, 183. + +Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 36, 50-52, 129, 140, 141, 153, 219. + +Johnson and Warner, 164, 178, 183. + +Johnsonian Miscellany, 141. + +Jones, Giles, 52, 53. + +Joseph Andrews, 78, 81, 90. + +Josephus, 167. + +Julianna Oakley, 206. + +Juvenile Biographers, 115, 116. + +Juvenile Magazine, 179, 192. + +Juvenile Miscellany, 193-195, 208, 212. + +Juvenile Olio, 192. + +Juvenile Piety, 206. + +Juvenile Portfolio, 192. + +Juvenile Rambler, 195. + +Juvenile Trials for Robbing Orchards, etc., 139, 140. + + +KEEPER'S Travels in Search of his Master, 172. + +Kellogg, Joseph G., 196. + +Kendall, Dr., 172. + +Key, Francis Scott, 148. + +Kilner, Dorothy, 109. + +King Pippin, 55, 110, 159, 163. + +Kleine Erzaehlungen ueber ein Buch mit Kupfern, 178. + +Knox, Thomas W., 132. + + +LADY Queen Anne, 209. + +Lamb, Charles, 141, 142, 217. + +Lansing, G., 169. + +Lark, The, 90. + +Launch of the Frigate, 210. + +Lee, Richard Henry, 28, 29. + +Legacy to Children, 126. + +Lenox Collection, 180. + +Leo, the Great Giant, 74. + +Leslie, Eliza, 193, 196, 201, 208-211, 225, 226. + +Letters from the Dead to the Living, 162. + +Letters to Little Children, 206. + +Liddon, Mr., 100. + +Life of David, 163. + +Lilly, Wait and Company, 194, 206. + +Lincoln and Edmunds, 184, 206. + +Linnet, The, 90. + +Linton, William James, 166, 168, 169. + +Literary Magazine, 52. + +Literature of the American Revolution, 98. + +Little Book for Children, 17. + +Little Boy found under a Haycock, 123. + +Little Deceiver Reclaimed, 206. + +Little Dog Trusty, 156. + +Little Fanny, 176. + +Little Helen, 212. + +Little Henry, 170. + +Little Henry and his Bearer, 184, 185. + +Little Jack, 131. + +Little Lottery Book, 106. + +Little Lucy, 212. + +Little Millenium Boy, 186. + +Little Nancy, 171, 176-178. + +Little Pretty Pocket-Book, A, 47-50, 67. + +Little Readers' Assistant, 121, 122. + +Little Robin Red Breast, 114. + +Little Scholar's Pretty Pocket Companion, 122. + +Little Sophie, 176. + +Little Truths, 124, 125, 182. + +Little William, 171. + +Live and Let Live, 226. + +Lives of Highwaymen, 90. + +Lives of Pirates, 90. + +Locke, John, 41-43, 46, 51, 66, 99. + +London Chronicle, 53. + +Longfellow, Henry W., 196. + +Longworth, David, 165, 168. + +Looking-glass, A, 22. + +Looking Glass for the Mind, 134, 135, 159, 162, 166. + +Lossing, Benson J., 28, 29, 167. + +Loudon, Samuel, 217. + +Love Token for Children, 212. + + +MACAULAY, T.B., 153. + +Magnalia, 162. + +Mary had a Little Lamb, 208, 209, 227. + +Mason, A.J., 169. + +Massachusetts Sunday School Union, 194. + +Master Jacky and Miss Harriot, 135. + +Mather, Cotton, 6, 7, 9, 16-18, 21, 22, 56, 127, 185, 186, 227. + +Mather, Elizabeth, 16. + +Mather, Increase, 16-18. + +Mather, Samuel, 16. + +Mein, John, 73-75, 77, 89. + +Metamorphosis, A, 169. + +Milk for Babes, 6, 7, 30. + +Milton, John, 159, 175. + +Mr. Telltruth's Natural History of Birds, 107. + +Mitford, Mary Russell, 197. + +Moejen's Recueil, 218. + +Moll Flanders, 90. + +Moore, Clement Clarke, 147-149, 227. + +Moral Tale, 187. + +Moral Tales, 159. + +More, Hannah, 134, 150-153, 159, 188, 212-214. + +Morgan, engraver, 169. + +Morgan and Sons, 170, 207. + +Morgan and Yeager, 170. + +Morton, Eliza, 95. + +Moses, Montrose J., 132. + +Mother Goose Melodies, 19, 20, 53, 114, 218-220. + +Mother's Gift, 82, 111, 113, 118. + +Mother's Remarks over a Set of Cuts, A, 178. + +Munroe and Francis, 20, 168, 206, 220. + +Murray, James, 91. + +Museum, The, 60, 61. + +My Father, 176. + +My Governess, 176, 182. + +My Mother, 176. + +My Pony, 176. + +My Sister, 182. + + +NATURAL History of Four Footed Beasts, 107. + +Neagle, John, 169. + +New England Courant, 21, 22. + +New England Primer, 6, 7, 13-15, 28, 33, 93, 121. + +New French Primer, 60. + +New Gift for Children with Cuts, 40, 69-72, 103. + +New Guide to the English Tongue, 38. + +New Picture of the City, 100. + +New Year's Gift, 64. + +New York Mercury, 67. + +New York Weekly, 207. + +Newbery, Carnan, 54. + +Newbery, Edward, 54. + +Newbery, Francis, 46, 51, 54, 82. + +Newbery, John, 28, 37, 40, 46-56, 60-62, 64, 67, 70, 74, 77, 82, 89, 90, +97, 101, 104, 108, 118, 123, 124, 141, 142, 154, 159, 182, 187, 198, +216, 217, 219, 220, 222. + +Newbery, Ralph, 46. + +Nichols, Dr. Charles L., 102, 103. + +Night before Christmas, The, 147, 148, 227. + +Noel, Garrat, 68, 148. + +North American Review, 212. + +Nutter, Valentine, 89. + + +OLD Mother Hubbard, 166. + +Olive Buds, 213. + +Orangeman, The, 156. + +Original Poems, 182. + +Osgood, Frances S., 213. + +Oswald, Ebenezer, 100. + + +PAMELA, 50, 78, 80, 81, 109. + +Parable against Persecution, 123. + +Paradise Lost, 153. + +Parent's Assistant, 155. + +Parents' Gift, 38. + +Parker, James, 62. + +Parley, Peter. _See_ Goodrich, S.G. + +Pastoral Hymn, 74. + +Patriotic and Amatory Songster, 180. + +Peacock at Home, 171. + +Pearl, The, 209. + +Pearson, Edwin, 53, 117. + +Pease, Joseph I., 196. + +Pedigree and Rise of the Pretty Doll, 136-139. + +Pelton, Oliver, 196. + +Pennsylvania Evening Post, 93. + +Pennsylvania Gazette, 59, 62. + +Pennsylvania Journal, 59. + +People of all Nations, 173, 174. + +Peregrine Pickle, 51, 109. + +Perrault, Charles, 62, 218. + +Perry, Michael, 26. + +Philadelphiad, The, 100. + +Picture Exhibition, The, 106, 109. + +Pilgrim's Progress, 10, 36, 95, 126, 163, 167. + +Pilkington, Mary, 114. + +Pinckney, Eliza, 91. + +Play-thing, The, 61. + +Pleasures of Piety in Youth, 184. + +Plutarch's Lives, 130. + +Poems for Children, 208. + +Poems for Children Three Feet High, 64. + +Poesie out of Mr. Dod's Garden, 38. + +Poetical Description of Song Birds, 114. + +Poetry for Children, 213, 221. + +Popular Tales, 155. + +Poupard, James, 169. + +Power of Religion, 152. + +Practical Education, 128. + +Practical Piety, 184. + +Present for a Little Girl, 169. + +Preservative from the Sins and Follies of Childhood, 40. + +Pretty Book for Children, 60, 61, 67. + +Principles of the Christian Religion, 184. + +Pritchard, Mr., 100. + +Private Tutor for little Masters and Misses, 67. + +Prize for Youthful Obedience, 172, 173. + +Prodigal Daughter, The, 24-26, 40, 188. + +Protestant Tutor for Children, 13, 14. + +Puritan Primer, 13. + +Puzzling Cap, 80, 82. + + +QUARTERLY Review, 222. + +Quincy, Mrs. Josiah, 158, 159. + + +RAIKES, Robert, 151. + +Ralph, W., 169. + +Rand, Rev. Asa, 194. + +Rebels, The, 98. + +Recollections of a New England Housekeeper, 195. + +Redwood, 211. + +Rees's Encyclopedia, 163. + +Reformed Family, 206. + +Remembrance of Youth is a Sigh, 200. + +Rhymes for the Nursery, 20, 182. + +Rice, Mr., 100. + +Richardson, Samuel, 50, 78-81, 137. + +Rivington, James, 65, 67, 68. + +Roberts, Jean, 197. + +Robin Red Breast, 90. + +Robin's Alive, 209. + +Robinson Crusoe, 79, 90, 118, 129, 130, 159. + +Roderick Random, 51, 109. + +Roger and Berry, 89. + +Rollin's Ancient History, 161. + +Rollinson, William, 169. + +Rollo Books, 213, 215, 223. + +Rose, The, 187. + +Rose Bud, 195. + +Rose's Breakfast, The, 175. + +Rowe, Elizabeth, 162. + +Royal Battledore, 60, 61. + +Royal Primer, 61. + +Russell's Seven Sermons, 90. + + +SABBATH School Times, 194. + +Sanford and Merton, 129, 154. + +Scotch Rogue, 90. + +Scott, Sir Walter, 158, 220. + +Scott's (Rev. Thomas) Family Bible, 163. + +Search after Happiness, 134, 152. + +Sedgwick, Catharine Maria, 152, 160, 161, 193, 196, 208, 211, 212, 224, +226. + +Seven Wise Masters, 90. + +Seven Wise Mistresses, 90. + +Sewall, Henry, 9. + +Sewall, Samuel, 9, 10. + +Shakespeare, William, 159, 161. + +Sharps, William, 29. + +Sheldon, Lucy, 82. + +Shepherd of Salisbury Plain, 152, 214. + +Sherwood, Mary Martha, 152, 184, 186, 187, 212, 221. + +Sigourney, Lydia H., 193, 208, 213, 224. + +Simple Susan, 158. + +Sims, Joseph, 27. + +Sir Charles Grandison, 79-82. + +Sister's Gift, 80, 111-113. + +Skyrin, Nancy, 126, 127. + +Smart, Christopher, 54. + +Smith, Elizabeth Oakes, 213, 224. + +Smollett, Tobias, 51, 52, 78, 79. + +Song for the Red Coats, 97. + +Songs for the Nursery, 19, 20. + +Southern Rose, 195. + +Souvenir, 210. + +Sparrow, The, 172. + +Star Spangled Banner, 148. + +Stevenson, Robert Louis, 182. + +Stir the Mush, 209. + +Stone, William L., 200. + +Stories and Tales, 90. + +Stories for Children, 212. + +Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 162. + +Strahan, William, 61-63. + + +TALE, A: The Political Balance, 123. + +Tales and Essays, 213. + +Taylor, Ann, 176, 182. + +Taylor, Jane, 182, 184. + +Tell Tale, 225. + +Thackerary, W.M., 34. + +Thomas, Isaiah, 18-20, 40, 69, 74, 102-104, 106, 109, 116-118, 129, 168, +198, 222. + +Thompson, John, 168. + +Thoughts on Education, 41, 66, 99. + +Three Stories for Children, 156. + +Todd, John, D.D., 222. + +Token, The, 196, 197, 212, 214. + +Token for Children, 17, 186. + +Token for the Children of New England, 17, 21, 186. + +Token for Youth, 40. + +Tom Hick-a-Thrift, 24. + +Tom Jones, 51, 78, 80, 109, 110. + +Tom the Piper's Son, 170. + +Tom Thumb, 8, 19, 24, 62, 74, 77, 102, 106, 114, 166, 167. + +Tommy Trapwit, 64. + +Tommy Trip, 52, 74, 107, 108. + +Track the Rabbit, 209. + +Trimmer, Sarah, 128, 129, 141, 142, 159. + +Trip's Book of Pictures, 64. + +Triumphs of Love, 90. + +Troy (N.Y.) Sentinel, 147. + +Twelve Caesars, 90. + +Twice Told Tales, 196. + +Two Lambs, 152. + +Two Shoemakers, 152. + +Tyler, Moses Coit, 98. + + +UNTERHALTUNGEN fuer Deutsche Kinder, 178. + +Urax, or the Fair Wanderer, 74. + + +VALENTINE and Orson, 90. + +Verplanck, Gulian C., 196, 216. + +Vicar of Wakefield, 52, 219. + +Violet, The, 209. + + +WADDELL, J., 62. + +Walks of Usefulness, 184. + +Walters and Norman, 93. + +Walton's Lives, 153. + +Warner and Hanna, 169. + +Washington, George, 28, 29, 72, 73, 93, 122, 123, 170, 179. + +Waste Not, Want Not, 156-158. + +Watts, Isaac, 38, 45, 46. + +Way to Wealth, 179. + +Webster, Noah, 121, 122, 136. + +Weekly Mercury, 23, 26, 27, 64, 65, 68. + +Weekly Post-Boy, 62. + +Weems's Life of George Washington, 179, 180. + +Well Spent Hour, 212. + +Wells, Anna M., 193, 213. + +Wells, Robert, 102. + +Welsh, Charles, 46, 49, 51, 54, 61, 70, 124, 142. + +West, Benjamin, 216. + +Westminster Review, 224. + +Westminster Shorter Catechism, 7. + +White, William, D.D., 151. + +Whitefield, George, 151. + +Widdows, P., 126. + +Wilder, Mary, 113. + +Willis, Nathaniel P., 194. + +Winslow, Anna Green, 81-83, 85. + +Winter Evenings' Entertainment, 37, 90. + +Wonder Book, 149, 227. + +Wonderful Traveller, 209. + +Wonders of Nature and Art, 53. + +Wood, Samuel, 165, 166, 169, 175. + +Wood, Samuel, and Sons, 167, 206. + +Wood-engraving in America, 166-169. + +Woodhouse, William, 100. + +Worcester Magazine, 104. + + +XENOPHON, 130. + + +YOUNG, William, 129. + +Young Child's A B C, 166. + +Young Christian Series, 215. + +Young Gentlemen and Ladies' Magazine, 183. + +Youth's Companion, 194. + +Youth's Divine Pastime, 37. + +Youth's Keepsake, 212. + + +ZENTLER, publisher, 178. + + + + * * * * * * + + + +Transcriber's note: + + The following errors and inconsistencies have been maintained. + + Misspelled words and typographical errors: + + p. ix Edmands for Edmunds + p. 46 Newbury for Newbery + p. 102 Period missing at end of the sentence "to a boy But" + p. 158 Paragraph ends with , "her own generation," + p. 208 Sentence ends with a comma: "the originator of these + verses," + p. 243 Thackerary for Thackeray + + Inconsistent hyphenation: + + folk-lore / folklore + school-fellows / schoolfellows + school-masters / schoolmasters + small-pox / smallpox + wood-cut / woodcut + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FORGOTTEN BOOKS OF THE AMERICAN +NURSERY*** + + +******* This file should be named 17857.txt or 17857.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/8/5/17857 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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