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-} - - -/* Footnotes */ -.footnotes {border: 1px dashed; margin-top: 2em; } - -.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} - -.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} - -.fnanchor { - vertical-align: super; - font-size: .8em; - text-decoration: - none; -} - - -/* Poetry */ -.poetry-container {text-align: center;} -.poetry {text-align: left; margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%;} -/* uncomment the next line for centered poetry in browsers */ -.poetry {display: inline-block;} - - - -@media handheld, print { .poetry {display: block;} } - -@media handheld { - -.poetry-container { - text-align: center; - margin-left: auto; - margin-right: auto; - } - - .pw15 {width: 15em;} - .pw25 {width: 25em;} - .pw20 {width: 20em;} - .pw30 {width: 30em;} - .pw35 {width: 35em;} - - .poetry {display: block; text-align: left;} - } - - -/* Transcriber's notes */ - .tnote {border: dashed 1px; margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%;padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; - padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 4em; } - -/* Illustration classes */ -.illowp100 {width: 100%;} -.illowp43 {width: 43%;} -.x-ebookmaker .illowp43 {width: 100%;} -.illowp46 {width: 46%;} -.x-ebookmaker .illowp46 {width: 100%;} -.illowp48 {width: 48%;} -.x-ebookmaker .illowp48 {width: 100%;} -.illowp49 {width: 49%;} -.x-ebookmaker .illowp49 {width: 100%;} -.illowp50 {width: 50%;} -.x-ebookmaker .illowp50 {width: 100%;} -.illowp51 {width: 51%;} -.x-ebookmaker .illowp51 {width: 100%;} -.illowp53 {width: 53%;} -.x-ebookmaker .illowp53 {width: 100%;} -.illowp54 {width: 54%;} -.x-ebookmaker .illowp54 {width: 100%;} -.illowp67 {width: 67%;} -.x-ebookmaker .illowp67 {width: 100%;} -.illowp70 {width: 70%;} -.x-ebookmaker .illowp70 {width: 100%;} -.illowp71 {width: 71%;} -.x-ebookmaker .illowp71 {width: 100%;} - - - </style> - </head> -<body> - -<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Modern Essays and Stories, by Frederick Houk Law</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world 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 <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Modern Essays and Stories</p> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Frederick Houk Law</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: November 27, 2021 [eBook #66831]</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Andrés V. Galia and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)</div> - -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MODERN ESSAYS AND STORIES ***</div> - -<div class="figcenter illowp48" id="cover" style="max-width: 60.625em;"> - <img class="w100" src="images/cover.jpg" alt="cover" /> -</div> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="tnote"> - - <p class="p2 center big2">TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES</p> - - -<p>In the plain text version words in Italics are denoted by _underscores_ and bold text like =this=.</p> - -<p>The book cover was modified by the Transcriber and has been added to -the public domain.</p> - -<p>A number of words in this book have both hyphenated and non-hyphenated -variants. For the words with both variants present the one more used -has been kept.</p> - -<p>Obvious punctuation and other printing errors have been corrected.</p> - -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="r40" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_ii">[Pg ii]</span></p> -<div class="figcenter illowp53" id="front_ilo" style="max-width: 31.125em;"> - <img class="w100" src="images/front_ilo.jpg" alt="frontilo" /> - <p class="caption p1 center">“<i>Havelok had all he wanted to eat.</i>”</p> -</div> -</div> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</span></p> -</div> - - -<h1>MODERN ESSAYS<br /> -AND STORIES</h1> - - - -<p class="center p2 big2">A BOOK TO AWAKEN APPRECIATION OF<br /> -MODERN PROSE, AND TO DEVELOP<br /> -ABILITY AND ORIGINALITY IN WRITING</p> - - -<p class="center p2">EDITED, WITH INTRODUCTION, NOTES, SUGGESTIVE<br /> -QUESTIONS, SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION, DIRECTIONS<br /> -FOR WRITING, AND ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATIONS</p> - -<p class="center">BY</p> - -<p class="center p2 big3">FREDERICK HOUK LAW, <span class="smcap">Ph.D.</span></p> - -<p class="center p2">Head of the Department of English in the Stuyvesant High School,<br /> -New York City, Editor of Modern Short Stories, etc.</p> - -<div class="figcenter illowp71" id="title_page_ilo" style="max-width: 5.9375em;"> - <img class="w100 p2" src="images/title_page_ilo.jpg" alt="tpilo" /> -</div> - -<p class="center p4">NEW YORK<br /> -THE CENTURY CO.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</span></p> -</div> - -<p class="center p66"> COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY THE CENTURY CO.<br /> -ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THE<br /> -RIGHT TO REPRODUCE THIS BOOK, OR<br /> -PORTIONS THEREOF, IN ANY FORM. 3120</p> - -<hr class="tb x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak">PREFACE</h2> -</div> - - -<p class="p2">In all schools pupils are expected to write “essays” but, -curiously enough, essay-reading and essay-writing are taught -but little. In spite of that neglect, the essay is so altogether -natural and spontaneous in spirit, so intensely personal in -expression, and so demanding of excellence of prose style, that -it is <em>the</em> form, <em>par excellence</em>, for consideration in school if -teachers are to show pupils much concerning the art of writing -well. The essay is to prose what the lyric is to poetry—complete, -genuine and beautiful self-expression, or better still, -self-revelation.</p> - -<p>Most of the writing done in schools is straightforward narration -of events, without much, if any, attempt to show personal -reactions on those events—mere diary-like accounts, at -best; mechanical descriptions that aim to present exterior -appearance without attempting to reveal inner meanings or -to show awakened emotions; and stereotyped explanations and -arguments drawn, for the most part, from books of reference -or from slight observation.</p> - -<p>Beyond all this mechanical work lies a field of throbbing -personal life, of joyous reactions on all the myriads of -interests that lie close at hand, of meditations on the wonders -of plant and animal life, of humorous or philosophic comments -on human nature, and of all manner of vague dreams and -aspirations aroused by</p> - -<div class="poetry-container pw20"> -<div class="poetry"> -<p class="p1"> -“Such sights as youthful poets dream<br /> -On summer eves by haunted stream.”</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="p1">Without the slightest question, it is the duty of the school, -and of the teacher in particular, to lead pupils to appreciate -honesty and originality in unapplied, unpragmatic self-expression, -and to show pupils how they themselves may gain the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</span> -very real pleasure of putting down on paper permanent -records of their own intimate thinking.</p> - -<p>Joseph Addison's <em>The Sir Roger de Coverley Papers</em> and -Washington Irving's <em>Sketch Book</em> have for many years made -valiant but unsuccessful efforts to fill the places that should -be filled by more modern representatives of the essay. -Macaulay's <em>Essay on Johnson</em> is a biographical article for an -encyclopedia; his essays on Clive and on Hastings are polemics; -and Carlyle's <em>Essay on Burns</em> is a critical disquisition. -With the exception of <em>The Sir Roger de Coverley Papers</em>, all -these so-called essays are of considerable length and are unfitted -to serve as the best examples of the essay form;—for -the essay, like the lyric, demands brevity: it is, after all, only -a quick flash of self-revelation,—not a sustained effort.</p> - -<p>Then again, who would wish to learn to write like Addison, -like Washington Irving, like Macaulay, or like Carlyle! Those -great writers couched their thoughts in the language-fashions -of their days, just as they clothed their bodies in the garments -of their times. To imitate either their style of expression -or their costumes would be to make one's self ridiculous, -or to take part in a species of masquerade.</p> - -<p>The extremely Latinized vocabulary of 1711, or the resonant -periods and marked antitheses of 1850, are as old-fashioned -to-day as are the once highly respected periwigs, great-coats -and silver shoe buckles of the past.</p> - -<p>The thoughts of yesterday are not the thoughts of to-day. -There is, in serious reality, such a thing as “an old-fashioned -point of view.” With all due reverence for the past, the best -teachers of to-day believe that it is just as necessary for -students to use present-day methods of expression and to -cultivate present-day interests as it is to take advantage of -the railroad, the telegraph, the telephone, the automobile, and -the thousand other mechanical contrivances that aid life to-day, -but which were unknown in 1711 or in 1850.</p> - -<p>The type of essay that should be studied in school should -concern modern interests; represent the modern point of view; -discuss subjects in which young students are interested; be -expressed in present-day language and, in general, should set<span class="pagenum" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</span> -forward an example that pupils may directly and successfully -imitate.</p> - -<p>In order to do all this to the best advantage the essays -chosen for study should be exceedingly short. To a young -student essays of any considerable length, unless the subject -matter is of unusually intensive interest, present insuperable -difficulties. Short essays, on the other hand, appear to him -exactly what they are,—charmingly delightful expressions of -personal opinion.</p> - -<p>The essays in this book, instead of telling about coffee -houses or stage coaches, Scotch peasants or literary circles in -London or Edinburgh, tell about such subjects as Christmas -crowds, church bells, walking, dogs, the wind, children, the -streets of New York, school experiences, and various modern -ideals in work, in literature, and in life. Most of the essays -are exceedingly short, only one or two being more than a few -pages in length.</p> - -<p>The essays here given represent various types, including -not only the chatty, familiar essay but also informational -essays, critical essays, biographical essays, story essays, and -one or two examples of highly poetic prose.</p> - -<p>An informal introduction, paving the way to a sympathetic -understanding, precedes every essay. Notes below the pages -of text explain immediately all the literary or historical -allusions with which a young reader might not be familiar, -their close position to the text making it unnecessary for a -student to hunt for an explanation.</p> - -<p>Suggestive questions given immediately after every essay -make it possible for the teacher to assign lessons quickly; they -also enable the student to study by himself and to feel assured -that he will not miss any important point.</p> - -<p>Twenty subjects, suitable as subjects for essays to be -written by the student in direct imitation of the essay that -immediately precedes them, follow every selection. In addition -to this great number of appropriate modern subjects, -more than 500 in number, on which young students can express -their real selves, there are given, in connection with -every list of subjects, directions for writing,—such as a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</span> -teacher might give a class when assigning written work.</p> - -<p>The subject-lists and the directions for writing give the -teacher a remarkable opportunity to stimulate a class as -never before; to awaken a spirit of genuine self-expression; -and to teach English composition in a way that he can not -possibly do through the medium of any of our present-day -rhetorics.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>For the advantage of those teachers who wish to combine -the teaching of the essay and of the short story, and who -may not have at hand any suitable collection of short stories, -the book includes not only introductory material concerning -the nature of the short story and the development of the -short story form, but also a series of stories of unusual -interest for young readers, so chosen and so arranged that -they represent the development of the short story through -the legendary tale, the historical story, and the romantic -story of adventure, to the story of realism and of character. -In every case the story chosen is one that any student will -enjoy and will understand immediately, as well as one that he -can imitate both with pleasure and with success.</p> - -<p>Introductions, foot notes, suggestive questions, subjects for -written imitation, and directions for writing, follow every -story.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>If the book is used both as a means of awakening literary -appreciation and developing honesty, originality, and power -in written self-expression it will give pleasure to teachers and -students alike.</p> - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak">INTRODUCTION</h2> -</div> - - -<h3>I<br /> -THE WRITING OF ESSAYS</h3> - -<div class="poetry-container pw20"> -<div class="poetry small1"> -<p class="p1"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">“The plowman, near at hand,</span><br /> -Whistles o'er the furrowed land,<br /> -And the milkmaid singeth blithe....”</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="p1">Why? Simply because they are happy; because they are -healthy and vigorous, and at work; because they are doing -something that interests them; because their hearty enjoyment -in life must express itself in some other way than in work -alone: in fact, they whistle and sing just for the doing of it,—not -that they wish any other person to hear them, and not -that they wish to teach anything to anyone. Their whistling -and singing are spontaneous, and for the sake of expression -alone.</p> - -<p>Many of the best English essays were written just for the -joy of self-expression. Serious workers in life, in their leisure -moments, have let their pens move, as it were, automatically, -in a sort of frank and full expression somewhat akin to the -plowman's whistling and the milkmaid's singing.</p> - -<p>Certainly in that joyous spirit Michel de Montaigne, in -the sixteenth century, wrote the delightfully familiar essays -that have charmed readers for over three hundred years, and -that established the essay as a literary type. In a like vein, -frankly and personally, Charles Lamb, who died in the first -half of the nineteenth century, wrote intimate confessions -of his thoughts,—his memories of schooldays and of early -companionships and familiar places,—writing with all the -warmth and color of affectionate regard. Happily, and because -he was glad to be alive, Robert Louis Stevenson, almost -in our own days, wrote of his love of the good outdoor world -with its brooks and trees and stars, of his love of books and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</span> -high thought, and his admiration of a manly attitude toward -life.</p> - -<p>For such people writing for the sake of expression was just -as pure joy as the plowman's whistling and the milkmaid's -singing.</p> - -<p>Ordinary people write at least the beginnings of essays -when they write letters,—not business letters in which they -order yards of cloth, or complain that goods have not been -delivered,—not letters that convey any of the business of life,—but -rambling, gossipy, self-revealing letters, so illuminated -with personality that they carry the very spirit of the writers.</p> - -<p>Everyone, at times, talks or writes in a gossipy way of the -things that interest him. He likes to escape from the world of -daily tasks, of orders, directions, explanations and arguments, -and to talk or write almost without purpose and just for the -sake of saying something. In that sense everyone is a natural -essayist.</p> - -<p>The true essayist, like the pleasant conversationalist, expresses -himself because it gives him pleasure. Out of his -rich experience and wide observation he speaks wisely and -kindly. He has no one story to tell and no one picture -to present. He follows no rules and he aims at no very -serious purpose. He does not desire to instruct nor to convince. -Like the conversationalist, he is ready to leave some -things half-said and to emphasize some subjects, not because -it is logical to do so but because he happens to like them. He -is ready at any moment to tell an anecdote, to introduce humor -or pathos, or to describe a scene or a person—if so doing fits -his mood. In general, the true essayist is like the musician -who improvises: he</p> - -<div class="poetry-container pw20"> -<div class="poetry small1"> -<p class="p1"> -“Lets his fingers wander as they list,<br /> -And builds a bridge from dreamland.”</p> -</div> -</div> - - -<p>Of all possible kinds of prose writing, the essay, therefore, -gives the greatest freedom. The essayist may reveal himself -completely and in any manner that he pleases. He may tell -of his delight in wandering by mountain streams, or in mingling -with the crowds in city streets; he may tell of his -thoughts as he meditated by ancient buildings or in the solemn -half-darkness of age-old churches; he may dream of a long-gone -childhood or look ahead into a roseate future; he may -talk of people whom he has known, of books that he has read, -or of the ideals of life. Any subject is his, and any method of -treatment is his,—just so long as his first thought is the frank -and full expression of himself.</p> - -<p>To write an essay,—even though it be only a paragraph,—is -to gain the pleasure of putting at least a little of one's real -self down on paper—just because to do so is pleasure.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</span></p> - -<h3>II<br /> -THE NATURE OF THE ESSAY</h3> - -<p>The essay, then, instead of being a formal composition, is -characterized by a lack of formality. It is a species of very -friendly and familiar writing. Like good conversation, it -turns in any direction, and drops now and then into interesting -anecdotes or pleasant descriptions, but never makes any -attempt to go to the heart of a subject. However serious an -essay may be it never becomes extremely formal or all-inclusive.</p> - -<p>A chapter in a textbook includes all that the subject -demands and all that the scope of treatment permits. It -presents well-organized information in clear, logical form. -It aims definitely to explain or to instruct. It may reveal -nothing whatever concerning its writer. An essay, on the -other hand, includes only those parts of the subject that interest -the writer; it avoids logical form, and is just as chatty, -wandering, anecdotal and aimless as is familiar talk. It -focuses attention, not on subject-matter but on the personality -of the writer.</p> - -<p>The essay does not reveal a subject: it reveals personal -interests in a subject. It touches instead of analyzing. It -comments instead of classifying.</p> - -<p>Truth may sparkle in an essay as gold sparkles in the -sand of an Alaskan river, but the presentation of the truth in -a scientific sense is no more the purpose of the essay than -is the presentation of the gold the purpose of the river. In -the eighteenth century, essayists like Joseph Addison, -Richard Steele, Oliver Goldsmith and Samuel Johnson, commented -freely upon eighteenth century manners and customs, -but they made no attempt to present a careful survey of the -subject. Every writer wrote of what happened to interest him. -To-day it is possible to draw from the great body of eighteenth -century essays material for an almost complete survey of -manners and customs in that period—but that result is only -an accident. The writers did not intend it.</p> - -<p>The essayist is not concerned with giving accurate and -logically-arranged information. He thinks only of telling how -his subject appeals to him, of telling whether or not he likes -it, and why. The more personally he writes, the better we like -his work. In his revelation of himself we find a sort of -revelation of ourselves as well,—and we like his work in proportion -to that revelation.</p> - -<p>Naturally, a good essay is short; for self-revelation is given -in flashes, as it were,—in sparkles of thought that gleam only -for a moment. Many so-called essays of great length are -either only partly essays, or else are made up of a number -of essays put together. Stevenson's <em>An Inland Voyage</em> is -partly a straightforward story of a canoe trip, and partly -a series of essays on subjects suggested by the trip. It is -possible to draw from a self-revealing book of considerable -length a great number of essays on a wide variety of subjects. -The essays gleam in the pages of ordinary material as diamonds -gleam in their settings of gold.</p> - -<p>The essay, as a literary type, is written comment upon any -subject, highly informal in nature, extremely personal in -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</span> -character, and brief in expression. It is also usually marked -by a notable beauty of style.</p> - - -<h3>III<br /> -TYPES OF THE ESSAY</h3> - -<p>Just as there are many kinds of houses and many kinds of -boats so there are many kinds of essays. Some essays tend<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</span> -to emphasize the giving of information, lean very strongly -toward formality, and place comparatively little weight on -personality,—and yet even such essays, as compared with -other and more serious writings, are discursive and personal. -They are like some people who seem to favor extreme formality -without ever quite attaining it.</p> - -<p>Other essays are critical. They point out the good and the -bad, and they set forward ideals that should be reached. -The criticism they give is not measured and accurate like -the criticism a cabinet-maker might make concerning the construction -of a desk. It is more or less personal and haphazard -like the remarks of one who knows what he likes and what he -does not like but who does not wish to bother himself by -going into minute details.</p> - -<p>Many essays tell stories, but never for the sake of the -stories alone. They use the stories as frameworks on which -to hang thought, or as illustrations to emphasize thought. The -essays hold beyond and above everything the personality of -the one who writes.</p> - -<p>Almost all essays are in some sense biographical, but they -reveal stories of lives, instead of telling the stories in organized -form. The little of biography that essays tell is -just enough to permit the writers to recall the memories of -childhood, and the varied affections and interests of life. -For real biography one must go elsewhere than to essays.</p> - -<p>Some essays lift one into a fine and close communion with -their writers, and give intimate companionship with a human -soul. They are the best of all essays. Such essays are always -extremely familiar, and deeply personal, like the essays of -Michel de Montaigne and Charles Lamb. About such essays -is an aroma, a fascination, a delight, that makes them a -joy forever. As one reads such essays he feels that he is walking -and talking with the writers, and that he hears them -express noble and uplifting thoughts.</p> - -<p>The terse style of Francis Bacon; the magical phrases of -Sir Thomas Browne; the well-rounded sentences of Joseph -Addison, Sir Richard Steele and Oliver Goldsmith; the -poetic prose of Thomas de Quincey; the charm of the -pages of Charles Lamb and Robert Louis Stevenson,—all -this is in no sense accidental. The intimate revelation -of self, such as is always made by the best essayists, -creates the most pleasing style. Genuine self-expression, -whether it be the fervor of an impassioned orator, the ardor -of a lyric poet, or the meditative mood of the essayist, always -tends to embody itself in an appropriate style. For that -reason much of the best prose of the language is to be found -in the works of the great essayists.</p> - -<p>Some writers, like Thomas de Quincey, have so felt the -significance of beauty of style, and have so appreciated its -relationship to the revelation of mood and personality, that -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xiv">[Pg xiv]</span> -they seem, in some cases, to have written for style alone. -Their essays are unsurpassed tissues of prose and poetry.</p> - - -<h3>IV<br /> -THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ESSAY</h3> - -<p>Through the medium of spoken or written meditations -men have always expressed their personalities, and thereby -have approached the writing of essays. Many sections of -the Bible are practically essays, especially those passages in -Ecclesiastes that speak concerning friendship, wisdom, pride, -gossip, vengeance, punishment and topics of similar type. In -the ancient Greek and Roman orations are essay-like sections -in which the speakers paused for a moment to express their -innermost thoughts about life, patriotism, duty, or the great -fact of death. Cicero, one of the most remarkable Romans, -wrote admirably and with a spirit of familiarity and frankness, -on friendship, old age, and immortality. In all ages, in -speeches, in letters, and in longer works, essay-like productions -appeared.</p> - -<p>The invention of the modern essay,—that is, of the extremely -informal, intimate and personal meditation,—came -in 1571, in France. The inventor of the new type of literature -was Michel de Montaigne, a retired scholar, counsellor -and courtier, who found a studious refuge in the old tower -of Montaigne, where he meditated and wrote for nine years. -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xv">[Pg xv]</span> -His essays, which were first published in 1580, are so delightfully -informal, so frankly personal, so clever and well-aimed -in humor, and so wise, that they are almost without parallel. -In 1601 an Italian, Giovanni Florio, translated Montaigne's -essays into English. Immediately the essays became popular -and they have deeply influenced the writing of essays in English. -In 1597 Francis Bacon published the first of his essays, -but he did not write with the familiarity that characterized -Montaigne. Nevertheless, his work, together with that of -Montaigne, is to be regarded as representing the beginning -of the modern essay.</p> - -<p>It was not until the development of the newspaper in the -eighteenth century that the essay found its real period of -growth as a literary type. In the first half of the eighteenth -century <em>The Tatler</em> and <em>The Spectator</em>, and similar periodicals, -gave an opportunity for the publication of short prose compositions -of a popular nature. Joseph Addison and Richard -Steele, writing with kindly humor on the foibles of the day, -did much to establish the popularity of the essay. Samuel -Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith and other writers, in other periodicals, -continued the writing of essays, and made the power of -the essay known.</p> - -<p>Until the time of Charles Lamb, in the first half of the -nineteenth century, no English writer had even approached -the familiar charm of Montaigne. Bacon had written in a -formal manner; his followers had held before them the -thought of teaching rather than the thought of self-revelation; -the eighteenth century writers had delighted in character -studies and in observations on social life and customs. Lamb, -on the other hand, wrote not to instruct but to communicate; -not about the world but about himself. He restored the -essay to its position as a means of self-revelation. The most -notable fact about Lamb's essays is that they reveal him to -us as one of the persons whom we know best. At the same -time humor, pathos and beauty of expression are so remarkable -in Lamb's essays that they alone give them permanent -value.</p> - -<p>Other writers of the essay, like Leigh Hunt, Sydney Smith, -William Hazlitt, and Francis Jeffrey, wrote powerfully but -none of them with a charm equal to that of Lamb. Thomas -de Quincey, writing in a highly poetic style, did much to stimulate -poetic prose. Lord Macaulay, in a number of critical -and biographical essays, wrote forcefully, logically, and with -a high degree of mastery of style but he paid slight attention -to self-revelation.</p> - -<p>It is evident, then, that there are two marked types of -the essay,—one, the formal, purposive composition; and the -other informal and intensely personal in nature. Ralph Waldo -Emerson, Matthew Arnold, John Ruskin, and James Russell -Lowell represent the first type. Many excellent articles in -periodicals, and many of the best of editorial articles in -newspapers are in reality essays of the formal kind. Washington -Irving, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Henry D. Thoreau, -George William Curtis and many others represent the second -type.</p> - -<p>In modern times the world has been blessed by the writing -of a number of essays of the charming, familiar type. John -Burroughs has revealed his love for the world of nature; -Henry Van Dyke has taken us among the mountains and -along the rivers; and Gilbert K. Chesterton, Arnold Bennett, -Samuel M. Crothers, Charles Dudley Warner, Hamilton -Wright Mabie, Brander Matthews, Agnes Repplier and a -host of others have written on many and varied subjects.</p> - -<p>Great essayists, like great novelists or great poets or great -dramatists, are rare. It is only now and then that a Montaigne, -a Charles Lamb, or a Robert Louis Stevenson appears. -It is to the glory of literature, however, that there are so -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xvi">[Pg xvi]</span> -many who write in the field of the essay, and who approach -true greatness, even if they do not attain it.</p> - - -<h3>V<br /> -ESSAYS WELL WORTH READING</h3> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xvii">[Pg xvii]</span></p> - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="essays"> -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Joseph Addison<br /> -Sir Richard Steele</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">The Spectator</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Apochrypha, The</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Ecclesiasticus</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Arnold, Matthew</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Culture and Anarchy</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Bacon, Francis</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Essays</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Bennett, Arnold</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">How to Live on 24 Hours a Day</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Browne, Sir Thomas</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Religio Medici</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Bible, The Holy</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Ecclesiastes</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Burroughs, John</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Birds and Bees</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span> <span style="padding-left: 3em; ">”</span></td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Locusts and Wild Honey</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span> <span style="padding-left: 3em; ">”</span></td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Wake Robin</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span> <span style="padding-left: 3em; ">”</span></td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Winter Sunshine</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span> <span style="padding-left: 3em; ">”</span></td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Accepting the Universe</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Carlyle, Thomas</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Heroes and Hero Worship</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Curtis, George William</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Prue and I</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Chesterfield, Lord</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Letters to His Son</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Crothers, Samuel M.</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">The Gentle Reader</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Emerson, Ralph Waldo</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Essays</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Goldsmith, Oliver</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">The Citizen of the World</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Grayson, David</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Adventures in Contentment</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Harrison, Frederic</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">The Choice of Books</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Hearn, Lafcadio</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Out of the East</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Holmes, Oliver Wendell</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span> <span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span><span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span></td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">The Professor at the BreakfastTable</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span> <span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span><span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span></td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">The Poet at the Breakfast Table</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span> <span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span><span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span></td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Over the Teacups</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Irving, Washington</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">The Sketch Book</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Johnson, Samuel</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">The Idler</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span> <span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span></td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">The Rambler</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Lamb, Charles</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Essays</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Lowell, James Russell</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Among My Books</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Matthews, Brander</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Aspects of Fiction</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Mabie, Hamilton Wright</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Essays on Nature and Culture</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Macaulay, Thomas Babington</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Milton</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Maeterlinck, Maurice</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Field Flowers</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span> <span style="padding-left: 4em; ">”</span></td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">News of the Spring</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span> <span style="padding-left: 4em; ">”</span></td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Old Fashioned Flowers</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Mitchell, Donald G.</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Reveries of a Bachelor</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span> <span style="padding-left: 2.5em; ">”</span> <span style="padding-left: 1.2em; ">”</span></td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Dream Life</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Montaigne, Michel de</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Essays</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Pater, Walter</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Appreciations</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">De Quincey, Thomas</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Vision of Sudden Death</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span> <span style="padding-left: 4em; ">”</span></td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Dream Fugue</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Repplier, Agnes</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">In Our Convent Days</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Ruskin, John</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Sesame and Lilies</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Roosevelt, Theodore</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">The Strenuous Life</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Ross, E. A.</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Sin and Society</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Shairp, John Campbell</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Studies in Poetry and Philosophy</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Stevenson, Robert Louis</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Inland Voyage</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span> <span style="padding-left: 3.1em; ">”</span> <span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span></td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Travels with a Donkey</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span> <span style="padding-left: 3.1em; ">”</span> <span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span></td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Virginibus Puerisque</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span> <span style="padding-left: 3.1em; ">”</span> <span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span></td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Memories and Portraits</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span> <span style="padding-left: 3.1em; ">”</span> <span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span></td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Later Essays</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Thoreau, Henry David</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">A Week on the Concord and Merrimac Rivers</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span> <span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span> <span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span></td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Walden</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span> <span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span> <span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span></td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">The Maine Woods</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span> <span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span> <span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span></td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Cape Cod</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Van Dyke, Henry</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Little Rivers</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span style="padding-left: 0.5em; ">”</span> <span style="padding-left: 1.5em; ">”</span> <span style="padding-left: 2em; ">”</span></td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Fisherman's Luck</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Wagner, Charles</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">The Simple Life</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">White, Gilbert</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xviii">[Pg xviii]</span></p> - -<h3>VI<br /> -THE WRITING OF SHORT STORIES</h3> - -<p>You cross a street and narrowly escape being run over by -an automobile; or you go on a picnic and have delightful -experiences; or you return from travel, with the memory of -happy adventures—at once an uncontrollable impulse besets -you to tell some one what you experienced. That desire to -interest some one else in the series of actions that interested -you, is the basis of all story-telling.</p> - -<p>In one of its simplest forms story-telling is personal and -concerns events that actually occurred to the story-teller. -Such narration uses the words “I,” “me” and “mine,” seeks -no development, aims at no climax, and strikes at interest only -through telling of the unusual.</p> - -<p>When you stand before an abandoned farm-house and see -its half-fallen chimney, its decayed boards, its gaping windows, -and the wild vines that clamber into what was once a -home your imagination takes fire, and you think of happier -days that the house has seen. You imagine the man and -woman who built it; the children who played in its doorways; -and the happy gatherings or sad scenes that marked its story. -That quick imagination of the <em>might-be</em> and the <em>might-have-been</em> -is the beginning both of realism and of romance. The -story you would tell would use the third person, in all probability; -would seek an orderly development, and would aim -at climax.</p> - -<p>When you stand in your window on a winter day and -watch thousands of snow-flakes float down from the sky, -circling in fantastic whirls, you see them as so many white -fairies led by a master spirit in revel and dance. You are -ready to tell, with whatever degree of fancy and skill you -can command, the story of the-world-as-it-is-not and as-it-never-will-be. -A story of that kind is pure romance.</p> - -<p>Whenever you tell what happened to you or to some one -else; or what might have been or might be; or of what could -not possibly be, your object is to interest some one else in -what interests you. You use many expedients to capture -and to hold interest: you make a quick beginning, or careful -preparation for the climax; you make your story as real or -as striking as you can make it; you cut it short or you tell it -at length; or you hold the reader's attention on some point -of interest that you do not reveal in full until the last. Whatever -you do to capture and to hold interest makes for art in -story-telling.</p> - -<p>When an airplane descends unexpectedly in a country -town every one in the place wishes, as soon as possible, to learn -whence the aviator came and what experiences he had. -Human curiosity is insatiable, and for that reason people love -to hear stories as well as to tell them.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xix">[Pg xix]</span></p> - -<p>In fact, people gain distinct advantages by reading stories. -They become acquainted with many types of character; they -see all sorts of interesting events that they could never see -in reality; they see what happens under certain circumstances, -and thereby they gain practical lessons. Through -their reading they gain such vivid experiences that they are -likely to have a larger outlook upon life.</p> - - -<h3>VII<br /> -NATURE OF THE SHORT STORY</h3> - -<p>Brevity is the first essential of a short story, and yet -under the term, “brief,” may be included a story that -is told in one or two paragraphs, and a story that is told in -many pages. A story that is so long that it cannot be read -easily at a single sitting is not a short story.</p> - -<p>To make one strong impression on the mind of the reader, -and to make that impression so powerfully that it will leave -the reader pleased, convinced and emotionally moved is the -principal aim of a good short story. To the production of -that one effect everything in the story,—characters, action, -description, and exposition,—points with the definiteness of -an established purpose. All else is omitted, and thus all the -parts of the story are both necessary and harmonious.</p> - -<p>Centralizing everything on the production of one effect -makes every short story complete in itself. The purpose -having been accomplished there is nothing more to be said. -The end is the end.</p> - -<p>A convincing sense of reality characterizes every excellent -short story. The author himself appears only as one who -narrates truth, not at all as one who has moved the puppets -of imagination. The story seems a transcript from real -experience. The characters,—not the author,—make the plot. -Their personalities reveal themselves in action. The entire -story is founded substantially upon life and appears as a -photographic glimpse of reality.</p> - -<p>As in all other writing, the greater the art of the writer in -adapting style to thought, in using language effectively, the -better production. Word-choice, power of phrasing, and skill -in artistic construction count for as much in the short story as -in any other type of literature.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xx">[Pg xx]</span></p> - -<h3>VIII<br /> -TYPES OF THE SHORT STORY</h3> - -<p>Since the short story represents life, it has as many types -as there are interests in life. It may confine itself to the -ordinary events of life in city or country, at home or abroad; -it may concern past events in various regions; or it may -look with a prophetic glance into the distant future. It may -concern nothing but verifiable truth or be highly imaginative, -delicately fanciful, or notably grotesque. It may draw -interest from quaint places and odd characters, or it may<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxi">[Pg xxi]</span> -appeal through vividness of action. It may aim to do nothing -more than to arouse interest and to give pleasure for a -moment, or it may endeavor to teach a truth.</p> - -<p>Among the many types of the short story, a few are especially -worthy of note.</p> - -<p>Folk-lore stories are stories that have been told by common -people for ages. They come direct from the experience and -the common sense of ordinary people. They represent the -interests, the faith and the ideals of the race from which they -come.</p> - -<p>Fables are very short stories that point out virtues and -defects in human character presented in the guise of animal -life.</p> - -<p>Legends are stories that have come down to us from a time -beyond our own. They are less simple and direct than the -ordinary folk-lore story. Undoubtedly founded on actual -occurrences they have tinged fact with a poetic beauty that -ennobles them and often gives them highly ethical values.</p> - -<p>Stories of adventure emphasize startling events rather than -character.</p> - -<p>Love stories emphasize courtship and the episodes of -romantic love.</p> - -<p>Local color stories reveal marked characteristics of custom -and language, and the oddities of life notable in a particular -locality.</p> - -<p>Dialect stories make use of the language peculiarities found -in common use by a particular type of people.</p> - -<p>Stories of the supernatural deal with ghostly characters -and uncanny forces.</p> - -<p>Stories of mystery present puzzling problems, and slowly, -step by step, lead the readers to satisfactory solutions.</p> - -<p>Animal stories, whether realistic or romantic, concern the -lives of animals.</p> - -<p>Stories of allegory, through symbolic characters and events, -reveal moral truths.</p> - -<p>Stories of satire, by ridiculing types of character, social -customs, or methods of action, tend to awaken a spirit of -reform.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxii">[Pg xxii]</span></p> - -<p>Stories of science present narratives based upon the exposition -and the actual use of scientific facts.</p> - -<p>Stories of character emphasize notable personalities, place -stress upon motive and the inner nature rather than upon -outer action, and clarify the reader's understanding of human -character.</p> - - -<h3>IX<br /> -THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SHORT STORY</h3> - -<p>Although the beginnings of the short story existed in the -past, and although tales were told in all ages, the short story, -in its present form, is a comparatively new type of literature. -The short, complete, realistic narrative designed to produce a -single strong impression, came into being in the first half of -the nineteenth century. The first writer to point out and to -exemplify the principles of the modern short story was Edgar -Allan Poe, 1809-1849.</p> - -<p>As early as 4000 B.C. the Egyptians composed the <em>Tales -of the Magicians</em>, and in the pre-Christian eras the Greeks -and other peoples wrote short prose narratives. Folk-lore -tales go back to very early times. The celebrated <em>Gesta -Romanorum</em> is a collection of anecdotes and tales drawn from -many ages and peoples, including the Greeks, the Egyptians -and the peoples of Asia. In the early periods of the history -of Europe and of England many narratives centered around -the supposed exploits of romantic characters like the ancient -Greeks and Trojans, Alexander the Great, Charlemagne and -King Arthur.</p> - -<p>In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the Italians -became skilful in the telling of tales called <em>novelle</em>. Giovanni -Boccaccio, 1313-1375, brought together from wide and varied -sources a collection of one hundred such tales in a volume -called <em>Il Decamerone</em>. He united the tales by imagining that -seven ladies and three gentlemen who had fled from Florence -to avoid the plague, pass their time in story-telling. His work -had the deepest influence on many later writers, including particularly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxiii">[Pg xxiii]</span> -the English poet, Geoffrey Chaucer, 1340-1400, whose -<em>Canterbury Tales</em> re-tell some of Boccaccio's stories. Chaucer -imagines that a number of people, representing all the types -of English life, tell stories as they journey slowly to the shrine -of Thomas à Becket at Canterbury. His stories intimately -reveal the actual England of his day. He is the first great -realist.</p> - -<p>In the sixteenth century many writers, particularly in Italy, -France and Spain, told ingenious stories that developed new -interest in story-telling and story-reading.</p> - -<p>The writing of character studies and the development of -periodicals led, in the eighteenth century, to such essays as -<em>The Sir Roger de Coverley Papers</em>, written for <em>The Spectator</em> -by Joseph Addison, 1672-1719, and Sir Richard Steele, 1672-1729. -The doings of Sir Roger de Coverley are told so -realistically and so entertainingly that it was evident that -such material could be used not only to illustrate the thought -of an essayist but also for its own sake in stories founded on -character.</p> - -<p>About the beginning of the nineteenth century stories of -an uncanny nature,—of ghosts and strange events,—the so-called -“Gothic” stories,—became widely popular. Two German -writers, E. T. A. Hoffmann, 1776-1822, and Ludwig Tieck, -1773-1853, wrote with such peculiar power that they led other -writers to imitate them. Among the followers of Tieck and -Hoffmann the most notable name is that of Edgar Allan Poe.</p> - -<p>Poe's contemporaries, Washington Irving, 1783-1859, and -Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1804-1864, likewise showed the influence -of the “Gothic” school of writing. Irving turned the -ghostly into humor, as in <em>The Legend of Sleepy Hollow</em>; -Hawthorne wrote of the mysterious in terms of fancy and -allegory, as in <em>Ethan Brand</em>, <em>The Birth Mark</em>, and <em>Rappaccini's -Daughter</em>; Poe directed all his energy to the production -of single effect,—frequently the effect of horror, as in -<em>The Cask of Amontillado</em>, <em>The Black Cat</em> and <em>The Pit and the -Pendulum</em>. Poe's natural ability as a constructive artist, and -his genuine interest in story-telling, led him to formulate the -five principles of the short story:—brevity, single effect, -verisimilitude, the omission of the non-essential, and finality.</p> - -<p>From the time when Poe pointed the way the short story -has had an unparalleled development. French writers like -Guy de Maupassant; British writers like Rudyard Kipling; -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxiv">[Pg xxiv]</span> -Russian writers like Count Leo Tolstoi, and American -writers like O. Henry, Richard Harding Davis, Frank R. -Stockton, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, -F. Hopkinson Smith, Jack London, and a thousand others, -have carried on the great tradition.</p> - - -<h3>X<br /> -AUTHORS OF SHORT STORIES WELL WORTH -READING</h3> - -<p>Volumes containing short stories by the following writers -will be found in any public library. Any one who wishes -to gain an understanding of the principles of the short story -should read a number of stories by every writer named in -the list.</p> - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="authors"> -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Thomas Bailey Aldrich</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Washington Irving</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Hans Christian Andersen</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Myra Kelly</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">James Matthew Barrie</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Rudyard Kipling</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Alice Brown</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Jack London</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Henry Cuyler Bunner</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Brander Matthews</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Richard Harding Davis</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Ian Maclaren</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Margaret Deland</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Fiona McLeod</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Sir Arthur Conan Doyle</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Edgar Allan Poe</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Eugene Field</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Thomas Nelson Page</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Mary E. Wilkins Freeman</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Ernest Thompson Seton</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Hamlin Garland</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">F. Hopkinson Smith</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Nathaniel Hawthorne</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Frank R. Stockton</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Joel Chandler Harris</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Robert Louis Stevenson</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">O. Henry</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Ruth McEnery Stuart</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Bret Harte</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em; ">Henry Van Dyke</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxv">[Pg xxv]</span></p> -<p class="p4 center big1">CONTENTS</p> -</div> - - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="content"> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdr"><span style="padding-right: 1em;">PAGE</span></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">PREFACE</td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_v">v</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">INTRODUCTION</td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_ix">ix</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 13em;">I</td> -<td class="tdl indent112"><span class="smcap">The Writing of Essays</span></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_ix">ix</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 13em;">II</td> -<td class="tdl indent112"><span class="smcap">Nature of the Essay</span></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_xi">xi</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 13em;">III</td> -<td class="tdl indent112"><span class="smcap">Types of the Essay</span></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_xii">xii</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 13em;">IV</td> -<td class="tdl indent112"><span class="smcap">The Development of the Essay</span></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_xiv">xiv</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 13em;">V</td> -<td class="tdl indent112"><span class="smcap">Essays Well Worth Reading</span></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_xvi">xvi</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 13em;">VI</td> -<td class="tdl indent112"><span class="smcap">The Writing of Short Stories</span></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_xviii">xviii</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 13em;">VII</td> -<td class="tdl indent112"><span class="smcap">Nature of the Short Story</span></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_xix">xix</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 13em;">VIII</td> -<td class="tdl indent112"><span class="smcap">Types of the Short Story</span></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_xx">xx</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 13em;">IX</td> -<td class="tdl indent112"><span class="smcap">The Development of the Short Story</span></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_xxii">xxii</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 13em;">X</td> -<td class="tdl indent112"><span class="smcap">Authors of Short Stories Well Worth Reading</span></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_xxiv">xxiv</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">THE FAMILIAR ESSAY</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Pup-Dog</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><em>Robert Palfrey Utter</em></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Chewing Gum</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><em>Charles Dudley Warner</em></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_11">11</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Mystery of Ah Sing</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><em>Robert L. Duffus</em></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_16">16</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Old Doc</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><em>Opie Read</em></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_19">19</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Christmas Shopping</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><em>Helen Davenport</em></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_26">26</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Sunday Bells</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><em>Gertrude Henderson</em></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_28">28</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Discovery</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><em>Georges Duhamel</em></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_31">31</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Furrows</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><em>Gilbert K. Chesterton</em></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_36">36</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Meditation and Imagination</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><em>Hamilton Wright Mabie</em></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_40">40</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Who Owns the Mountains?</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><em>Henry Van Dyke</em></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_49">49</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">THE LEGENDARY STORY</td> -<td class="tdr"></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Running Wolf</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><em>Algernon Blackwood</em></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_55">55</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">THE BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY</td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">How I Found America</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><em>Anzia Yezierska</em></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_77">77</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Memories of Childhood</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><em>William Henry Shelton</em></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_94">94</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">A Visit to John Burroughs</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><em>Sadakichi Hartmann</em></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_100">100</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Washington on Horseback</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><em>H. A. Ogden</em></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_108">108</a> <span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxvi">[Pg xxvi]</span></td> -</tr> - - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">THE HISTORICAL STORY</td> -<td class="tdr"></td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Havelok the Dane</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><em>George Philip Krapp</em></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_118">118</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">THE STORY ESSAY</td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Politics Up to Date</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><em>Frederick Lewis Allen</em></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_136">136</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Free!</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><em>Charles Hanson Towne</em></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_143">143</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">THE STORY OF ADVENTURE</td> -<td class="tdr"></td> -<td class="tdr"></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Prunier Tells a Story</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><em>T. Morris Longstreth</em></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_148">148</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">THE DIDACTIC ESSAY</td> -<td class="tdr"></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The American Boy</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><em>Theodore Roosevelt</em></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_168">168</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Spirit of Adventure</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><em>Hildegarde Hawthorne</em></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_176">176</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Vanishing New York</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><em>Robert and Elizabeth Shackleton</em></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_184">184</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Songs of the Civil War</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><em>Brander Matthews</em></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_203">203</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Locomotion in the Twentieth Century</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><em>H. G. Wells</em></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_210">210</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Writing of Essays</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><em>Charles S. Brooks</em></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_219">219</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Rhythm of Prose</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><em>Abram Lipsky</em></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_225">225</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">THE REALISTIC STORY</td> -<td class="tdr"></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Chinaman's Head</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><em>William Rose Benét</em></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_230">230</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Getting Up to Date</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><em>Roberta Wayne</em></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_239">239</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Lion and the Mouse</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><em>Joseph B. Ames</em></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_253">253</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">THE CRITICAL ESSAY</td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Coddling in Education</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><em>Henry Seidel Canby</em></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_267">267</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">A Successful Failure</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><em>Glenn Frank</em></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_271">271</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Drolleries of Clothes</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><em>Agnes Repplier</em></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_278">278</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">POETIC PROSE</td> -<td class="tdr"></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Children</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><em>Yukio Ozaki</em></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_284">284</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Ships That Lift Tall Spires of Canvas</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><em>Ralph D. Paine</em></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_287">287</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">PERSONALITY IN CORRESPONDENCE</td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Statue of General Sherman</span></td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_291">291</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Roosevelt Saint-Gaudens</span><br /> -<span class="smcap" style="padding-left: 1em; ">Correspondence Concerning Coinage</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><em>Theodore Roosevelt and<br /> -Augustus Saint-Gaudens</em></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "> <br /> -<a href="#Page_292">292</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">THE SYMBOLIC STORY</td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Hi-Brasil</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><em>Ralph Durand</em></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; "><a href="#Page_300">300</a> </td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxvii">[Pg xxvii]</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak">LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="ilos"> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl"> <br /> - </td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em;"><small>FACING<br /> -<span style="padding-right: 0.5em;">PAGE</span></small></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">“Havelok had all he wanted to eat.”</td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_ii"><em>Frontispiece</em></a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">The feeling stole over him without the slightest warning.<br /> -He was not alone</td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1.5em;"><br /> -<a href="#Page_60">60</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">My great-grandmother</td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1.5em;"><a href="#Page_96">96</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Colonel Humphreys landed in the ditch</td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1.5em;"><a href="#Page_116">116</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">“You made a fine signal”</td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1.5em;"><a href="#Page_164">164</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">It has been called the oldest building in New York</td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1.5em;"><a href="#Page_188">188</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">“A-ah, mystery!” said Mrs. Revis, clasping her beautiful hands<br /> -and gazing upward. “I adore mystery!”</td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1.5em;"><br /> -<a href="#Page_236">236</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">“Isn't this great! They're here, every one of them!<br /> -You're awfully good to let us use the phonograph”</td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1.5em;"><br /> -<a href="#Page_248">248</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">At the very take-off, a gasp of horror was jolted from his lips</td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1.5em;"><a href="#Page_264">264</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">The fluctuations of fashion are alternately a grievance and a solace</td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1.5em;"><a href="#Page_280">280</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Its humming shrouds were vibrant with the eternal call of the sea</td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1.5em;"><a href="#Page_288">288</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">Designing the ten- and twenty-dollar gold pieces</td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1.5em;"><a href="#Page_292">292</a> </td> -</tr> - -</table> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="half-title">MODERN ESSAYS AND STORIES</p> -</div> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</span></p> -</div> - -<p class="p4 center big3">THE FAMILIAR ESSAY</p> - - -<h2 class="nobreak">THE PUP-DOG</h2> - - -<p class="center big1">By ROBERT PALFREY UTTER</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p2"><em>(1875—). Associate Professor of English in the University -of California. He taught for a time at Harvard and also at -Amherst. He is a delightful essayist, and contributes frequently -to various magazines.</em></p> -</div> - -<div class="small1 indent1 bold"> -<p class="p2">The writer of a familiar essay selects any subject in which he is -interested. Sometimes the more trifling the subject seems to be, the -more delightful is the essay. Trifles, in fact, make up life, and around -them center many of our deepest interests. The very charm of the -familiar essay lies in its ability to call attention to the value of trifles,—to -the little things in life, to little events, and to all the odds and -ends of human interests.</p> - -<p>The familiar essay is nothing more than happy talk that gives us, -as it were, a walk or a chat with one who has a keen mind, a ready wit, -and a pleasant spirit.</p> - -<p><em>The Pup-Dog</em> is an unusually excellent illustration of the familiar -essay. We all love him,—the pup-dog,—the good friend about whom -Mr. Utter has written so amusingly, so understandingly, and so sympathetically. -As we read we can see the dog jumping and hear him barking; -we laugh at his antics; we are, in fact, taking a walk with Mr. -Utter while he talks to us about his dog,—or our dog.</p> -</div> - -<p class="p2">Any dog is a pup-dog so long as he prefers a rat, dead or -alive, to chocolate fudge, a moldy bone to sponge cake, a fight -with a woodchuck to hanging round the tea-table for sweet -biscuit. Of course he will show traits of age as years advance, -but usually they are physical traits, not emotional. For the -most part dogs’ affections burn warmly, and their love of life -and experience brightly, while life lasts. They remain young, -as poets do. Every dog is a pup-dog, but some are more so -than others.</p> - -<p>Most so of all is the Irish terrier. To me he stands as the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</span> -archetype of the dog, and the doggier a dog is, the better I -like him. I love the collie; none better. I have lived with -him, and ranged the hills with him in every kind of weather, -and you can hardly tell me a story of his loyalty and intelligence -that I cannot go you one better. But the collie is a -gentleman. He has risen from the ranks, to be sure, but he is -every inch the gentleman, and just now I am speaking of dogs. -The terrier is every inch a dog, and the Irish is the terrier -<em>par excellence</em>.</p> - -<p>The man who mistakes him for an Airedale, as many do, is -one who does not know an Irishman from a Scot. The Airedale -has a touch of the national dourness; I believe that he -is a Calvinist at heart, with a severe sense of personal responsibility. -The Irish terrier can atone vicariously or not at all -for his light-hearted sins. The Airedale takes his romance -and his fighting as seriously as an <em>Alan Breck</em>. The Irish -terrier has all the imagination and humor of his race; he -has a rollicking air; he is whimsical, warm-hearted, jaunty, -and has the gift of blarney. He loves a scrimmage better than -his dinner, but he bears no malice.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container pw20"> -<div class="poetry small1"> -<p class="p1"><span style="margin-left: 4em;">His fellest earthly foes,</span><br /> -Cats, he does but affect to hate.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="p1">The terrier family is primarily a jolly, good-natured crowd -whose business it is to dig into the lairs of burrowing creatures -and fight them at narrow quarters. The signal for the fight -is the attack on the intrusive nose. You can read this family -history in the pup-dog's treatment of the cat. The cat of -his own household with whom he is brought up he rallies with -good-humored banter, but he is less likely to hurt her than -she him. He will take her with him on his morning round -of neighborhood garbage-pails, and even warm her kittens on -his back as he lies in the square of sunshine on the kitchen -floor, till they begin to knead their tiny claws into him in a -futile search for nourishment; then he shakes them patiently -off and seeks rest elsewhere. He will chase any cat as long -as she will run; if she refuses to run, he will dance round her -and bark, trying to get up a game. “Be a sport!” he taunts<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</span> -her. “Take a chance!” But if she claws his nose, she treads -on the tail of his coat, and no Irish gentleman will stand -for that.</p> - -<p>Similar are his tactics with human creatures. First he -tries a small bluff to see if he can start anything. If his -victim shows signs of fear, he redoubles his effort, his tail the -while signaling huge delight at his success. If the victim -shows fight, he may develop the attack in earnest. The victim -who shows either fear or fight betrays complete ignorance of -dog nature, for the initial bluff is always naïvely transparent; -the pup-dog may have a poker face, but his tail is a rank -traitor. A nest of yellow-jackets in a hole in the ground -challenges his every instinct. He cocks his ear at the subterranean -buzzing, tries a little tentative excavation with cautious -paw. Soon one of the inmates scores on the tip of his -nose, and war is declared in earnest. There are leaping -attacks with clashing of teeth, and wildly gyrating rear-guard -actions. Custom cannot stale the charm of the spot; all summer, -so long as there is a wing stirring, hornets shall be hot i' -the mouth.</p> - -<p>The degree of youth which the pup-dog attains and holds -is that of the human male of eleven or twelve years. He -nurses an inextinguishable quarrel with the hair-brush. His -hatred of the formal bath is chronic, but he will paddle -delightedly in any casual water out of doors, regardless of -temperatures and seasons. At home he will sometimes scoff at -plain, wholesome food, but to the public he gives the impression -that his family systematically starve him, and his dietetic -experiments often have weird and disastrous results. You -can never count on his behavior except on formal occasions, -when you know to a certainty that he will disgrace you. His -curiosity is equaled only by his adroitness in getting out of -awkward situations into which it plunges him. His love of -play is unquenchable by weariness or hunger; there is no -time when the sight of a ball will not rouse him to clamorous -activity.</p> - -<p>For fine clothes he has a satiric contempt, and will almost -invariably manage to land a dirty footprint on white waist-coat<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</span> -or “ice-cream pants” in the first five minutes of their -immaculacy. He is one hundred per cent. motor-minded; -when he is “stung with the splendor of a sudden thought,” he -springs to immediate action. In the absence of any ideas he -relaxes and sleeps with the abandon of a jute door-mat.</p> - -<p>Dog meets dog as boy meets boy, with assertions of superiority, -challenge, perhaps fight, followed by friendship and -play. No wonder that with pup-boys the pup-dog is so completely -at one; his code is their code, and whither they go -he goes—except to school. With September come the dull -days for him. No more the hordes of pirates and bandits -with bandanas and peaked hats, belts stuck full of dirks and -“ottermaticks,” sweep up and down the sidewalk on bicycles -in open defiance of the law, raiding lawns and gardens, scattering -shrieking tea-parties of little girls and dolls, haling -them aboard the lugger in the next lot and holding them -for fabulous ransom. There is always some one who will -pay it with an imposing check signed “Theodore Wilson -Roosevelt Woodrow Rockefeller.” He prances with flopping -ears beside the flying wheels, crouches in ambush, gives -tongue in the raid, flies at the victims and tears their -frocks, mounts guard in the cave, and shares the bandits' last -cookie.</p> - -<p>But when the pirates become orderly citizens, his day -begins after school and ends with supper. With his paws -on the window-sill, his nose making misty spots on the glass, -he watches them as they march away in the morning, then -he makes a perfunctory round of the neighborhood, inspecting -garbage-pails and unwary cats. After that there is nothing -to do but relax in the September sunshine and exist in a -coma till the pirates return and resume their normal functions, -except for his routine attempt to intimidate the postman and -the iceman. Perhaps he might succeed some happy day; -who knows?</p> - -<p>The pup-dog in the open is the best of companions; his -exuberant vitality and unquenchable zest for things in general -give him endless variety. There are times, perhaps, when you<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</span> -see little of him; he uses you as a mobile base of operations, -and runs an epicycloidal course with you as moving center, -showing only a flash of his tail on one horizon or the flop of -his ears on the other. You hear his wild cries of excitement -when he starts a squirrel or a rabbit. By rare luck you may -be called in time to referee a fight with a woodchuck, or once -in a happy dog's age you may see him, a khaki streak through -the underbrush, in pursuit of a fox.</p> - -<p>At last you hear the drumming of his feet on the road -behind you; he shoots past before he can shift gears, wheels, -and lands a running jump on your diaphragm by way of -reporting present for duty. Thereafter he sticks a little closer, -popping out into the road or showing his tousled face through -the leaves at intervals of two or three hundred yards to make -sure that you are still on the planet. Then you may enjoy -his indefatigable industry in counting with his nose, his tail -quivering with delight, the chinks of old stone walls. You -may light your pipe and sit by for an hour as he energetically -follows his family tradition in digging under an old stump, -shooting the sand out behind with kangaroo strokes, tugging -at the roots with his teeth, and pausing from time to time -to grin at you with a yard of pink tongue completely surrounded -by leaf mold. You may admire his zeal as inspector -of chipmunks, mice, frogs, grasshoppers, crickets, and -such small deer. Anything that lives and tries to get away -from him is fair game except chickens. If round the turn -of the road he plumps into a hen convention, memories of -bitter humiliations surge up within him, and he blushes, and -turns his face aside. Other dogs he meets with tentative -growling, bristling, and tail-wagging, by way of asserting -that he will take them on any terms they like; fight or frolic, -it is all one to him.</p> - -<p>You cannot win his allegiance by feeding him, though he -always has his bit of blarney ready for the cook. He loves -all members of the family with nice discrimination for their -weaknesses: the pup-boy who cannot resist an invitation -to romp; the pup-girl who cannot withstand begging blandishments<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</span> -of nose and paw, but will subvert discipline and -share food with him whenever and wherever she has it. He -will welcome with leapings and gyrations any one of them -after a day's absence or an hour's, but his whole-souled allegiance -is to the head of the house; his is the one voice that -speaks with authority; his the first welcome always when -the family returns in a group. That loyalty, burning bright -and true to the last spark of life, that unfailing welcome on -which a man can count more surely than on any human love—indeed, -there is no secret in a man's love for a dog, however -we may wonder at the dog's love for the man. Let -Argos and Ulysses<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> stand as the type of it, though to me it -lacks something of the ideal, not in the image of the dog, but -in the conduct of the man. Were I disguised for peril of -my life, and my dog, after the wanderings and dangers of -many years, lifted his head and knew me and then died, I -think no craft could withhold my feelings from betraying -me.</p> - -<p>“Dogs know their friends,” we say, as if there were mystery -in the knowledge. The password of the fraternity is not -hidden; you may hear it anywhere. It was spoken at my own -hearth when the pup-dog, wet with autumn rain, thrust himself -between my guest and the andirons and began to steam. -My guest checked my remonstrance. “Don't disturb him -on my account, you know. I rather like the smell of a wet -dog,” he added apologetically. The word revealed a background -that made the speaker at once and forever my guest-friend. -In it I saw boy and dog in rain and snow on wet -trails, their camp in narrow shelter, where they snuggle together -with all in common that they have of food and warmth. -He who shared his boyhood with a pup-dog will always share -whatever is his with members of the fraternity. He will value -the wagging of a stubby tail above all dog-show points and -parlor tricks. He will not be rash to chide affectionate importunity, -nor to set for his dog higher standards than he -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</span>upholds for himself. Do you never nurse a grouch and -express it in appropriate language? Do you never take direct -action when your feelings get away with you? When the -like befalls the pup-dog, have ready for him such sympathy -as he has always ready for you in your moods. Treat him -as an equal, and you will get from him human and imperfect -results.</p> - -<p>You will never know exactly what your pup-dog gets from -you; he tries wistfully to tell you, but leaves you still wondering. -But you may have from him a share of his perennial -puphood, and you do well to accept it gratefully whenever he -offers it. Take it when it comes, though the moment seem -inopportune. You may be roused just as you settle for a -nap by a moist nose thrust into your hand, two rough brown -paws on the edge of your bunk, a pair of bright eyes peering -through a jute fringe. Up he comes, steps over you, and -settles down between you and the wall with a sigh. Then, if -you shut your eyes, you will find that you are not far from -that place up on the hill—the big rock and the two oaks—where -the pup-boy that used to be you used to snuggle down -with that first old pup-dog you ever had.</p> - - -<h4>SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS</h4> - - -<ol class="f"> -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">What is the effect of the title?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">How does Mr. Utter make us love the dog?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">What knowledge of dog life does the writer show?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">Point out words or expressions that are usually applied only to -human beings, that are here applied to dogs.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">Point out adjective effects.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">How does the writer make the dog seem amusing?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">How does the writer make the dog seem admirable?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">What human characteristics are attributed to the dog?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">Point out noteworthy examples of humor.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">Show how the writer employs detail as a means of emphasis.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">Point out examples of especially effective metaphor.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">What is said concerning the pup-boy and the pup-girl?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">How does the essay make us feel toward dogs?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">What is the effect of the closing sentences?</li> - </ol> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</span></p> - - -<h4>SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION</h4> - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="his1"> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">1. My Dog</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 3.5em;">11. Cats</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">2. Lap Dogs</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 3.5em;">12. Kittens</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">3. Police Dogs</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 3.5em;">13. Rabbits</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">4. Hounds</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 3.5em;">14. Mice</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">5. Shepherd Dogs</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 3.5em;">15. Squirrels</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">6. Boston Bulls</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 3.5em;">16. Horses</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">7. Great Danes</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 3.5em;">17. Robins</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">8. Newfoundland Dogs</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 3.5em;">18. Sea Gulls</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">9. Greyhounds</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 3.5em;">19. Cows</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">10. Stray Dogs</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 3.5em;">20. Fish</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - - -<h4>DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING</h4> - -<p class="p2">Select for your subject some animal with which you are intimately -familiar, and in which you are especially and sympathetically interested. -Write about that animal in such a way that you will bring -to the surface its most humorous qualities and its most admirable -qualities. Give a great number of details concerning the animal's -habits, but give those details in a gossipy manner. Use quotations, -if you can, or make allusions to books. Make all your work emphasize -goodness. Make your closing paragraph your most effective -paragraph,—one that will appeal to sentiment.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="footnotes"> - -<p class="p2 center big2">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> According to Homer's <em>Odyssey</em> when Ulysses returned after many -years of wandering, his old dog “Argos” recognized him, even in -disguise.</p> - -</div> -</div> -</div> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak">CHEWING GUM<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></h2> -</div> - -<p class="center big1">By CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p2"><em>(1829-1900). A celebrated American essayist and editor. -For many years he wrote brilliant papers for</em> Harper's Magazine -<em>in the departments called “The Editor's Drawer” and -“The Editor's Study.” He became the first President of the -National Institute of Arts and Letters. He was a great influence -for good. Among his books are</em> My Summer in a -Garden; Back-Log Studies; In the Wilderness; The Relation -of Literature to Life; As We Were Saying; Their Pilgrimage. -<em>He edited the valuable “American Men of Letters Series,” -and the remarkable work called</em> Library of the World's Best -Literature, <em>a collection of extracts from the world's literature, -with which every student should be acquainted.</em></p> -</div> - -<div class="small1 indent1 bold"> - -<p class="p2">The familiar essay takes for its subject anything that awakens the -interest of the essayist. Charles Dudley Warner wrote with freedom -and humor on a great number of subjects that in themselves suggest -light and humorous treatment rather than serious thinking. Among -his many informal essays is the one that follows, entitled <em>Chewing Gum</em>.</p> - -<p>What Mr. Warner says in the essay is by no means serious. It is -like the spoken reflections of an amused observer who has had his -attention attracted to the common American habit of chewing gum in -public. At the same time, under the kindly and facetious remarks, is -an undercurrent of satire—and satire means criticism.</p> -</div> - - -<p class="p2">In language that is unfortunately understood by the greater -portion of the people who speak English, thousands are -saying on the first of January, a far-off date that it is -wonderful any one has lived to see—“Let us have a new -deal!” It is a natural exclamation, and does not necessarily -mean any change of purpose. It always seems to a man that -if he could shuffle the cards he could increase his advantages -in the game of life, and, to continue the figure which needs -so little explanation, it usually appears to him that he could -play anybody else's hand better than his own. In all the good -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span> -resolutions of the new year, then, it happens that perhaps -the most sincere is the determination to get a better hand. -Many mistake this for repentance and an intention to reform, -when generally it is only the desire for a new shuffle of the -cards. Let us have a fresh pack and a new deal, and start -fair. It seems idle, therefore, for the moralist to indulge -in a homily about annual good intentions, and habits that -ought to be dropped or acquired, on the first of January. He -can do little more than comment on the passing show.</p> - -<p>It will be admitted that if the world at this date is not -socially reformed it is not the fault of the Drawer,<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> and for -the reason that it has been not so much a critic as an explainer -and encourager. It is in the latter character that it undertakes -to defend and justify a national industry that has -become very important within the past ten years. A great -deal of capital is invested in it, and millions of people are -actively employed in it. The varieties of chewing gum that -are manufactured would be a matter of surprise to those who -have paid no attention to the subject, and who may suppose -that the millions of mouths they see engaged in its mastication -have a common and vulgar taste. From the fact that it -can be obtained at the apothecary's, an impression has got -abroad that it is medicinal. This is not true. The medical -profession do not use it, and what distinguishes it from -drugs—that they also do not use—is the fact that they do not -prescribe it. It is neither a narcotic nor a stimulant. It -cannot strictly be said to soothe or to excite. The habit of -using it differs totally from that of the chewing of tobacco -or the dipping of snuff. It might, by a purely mechanical -operation, keep a person awake, but no one could go to sleep -chewing gum. It is in itself neither tonic nor sedative. It -is to be noticed also that the gum habit differs from the -tobacco habit in that the aromatic and elastic substance is -masticated, while the tobacco never is, and that the mastication -leads to nothing except more mastication. The task is -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span>one that can never be finished. The amount of energy expended -in this process if capitalized or conserved would -produce great results. Of course the individual does little, -but if the power evolved by the practice in a district school -could be utilized, it would suffice to run the kindergarten -department. The writer has seen a railway car—say in the -West—filled with young women, nearly every one of whose -jaws and pretty mouths was engaged in this pleasing occupation; -and so much power was generated that it would, if -applied, have kept the car in motion if the steam had been -shut off—at least it would have furnished the motive for -illuminating the car by electricity.</p> - -<p>This national industry is the subject of constant detraction, -satire, and ridicule by the newspaper press. This is -because it is not understood, and it may be because it is -mainly a female accomplishment: the few men who chew gum -may be supposed to do so by reason of gallantry. There -might be no more sympathy with it in the press if the real -reason for the practice were understood, but it would be -treated more respectfully. Some have said that the practice -arises from nervousness—the idle desire to be busy without -doing anything—and because it fills up the pauses of vacuity -in conversation. But this would not fully account for the -practice of it in solitude. Some have regarded it as in -obedience to the feminine instinct for the cultivation of -patience and self-denial—patience in a fruitless activity, and -self-denial in the eternal act of mastication without swallowing. -It is no more related to these virtues than it is to the -habit of the reflective cow in chewing her cud. The cow -would never chew gum. The explanation is a more philosophical -one, and relates to a great modern social movement. -It is to strengthen and develop and make more masculine -the lower jaw. The critic who says that this is needless, that -the inclination in women to talk would adequately develop -this, misses the point altogether. Even if it could be proved -that women are greater chatterers than men, the critic would -gain nothing. Women have talked freely since creation, but<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span> -it remains true that a heavy, strong lower jaw is a distinctively -masculine characteristic. It is remarked that if a -woman has a strong lower jaw she is like a man. Conversation -does not create this difference, nor remove it; for the -development of the lower jaw in women constant mechanical -exercise of the muscles is needed. Now, a spirit of emancipation, -of emulation, is abroad, as it ought to be, for the regeneration -of the world. It is sometimes called the coming to -the front of woman in every act and occupation that used to -belong almost exclusively to man. It is not necessary to say -a word to justify this. But it is often accompanied by a -misconception, namely, that it is necessary for woman to be -like man, not only in habits, but in certain physical characteristics. -No woman desires a beard, because a beard means -care and trouble, and would detract from feminine beauty, -but to have a strong and, in appearance, a resolute underjaw -may be considered a desirable note of masculinity, and of -masculine power and privilege, in the good time coming. -Hence the cultivation of it by the chewing of gum is a -recognizable and reasonable instinct, and the practice can -be defended as neither a whim nor a vain waste of energy -and nervous force. In a generation or two it may be laid -aside as no longer necessary, or men may be compelled to -resort to it to preserve their supremacy.</p> - - -<h4>SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS</h4> - -<ol class="f"> -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">Why does the writer make use of some very colloquial expressions?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">Why did he use a number of long and somewhat formal words?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">In what sense is the essay a New Year's essay?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">Show how the author produces humor.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">Show how the author avoids harshness of criticism.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">What makes the essay forceful?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">In what respects is the essay fantastic?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">What advantage does the writer gain by appearing to support -the habit of chewing gum?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">Point out examples of kindly satire.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">What is the author's purpose?</li> -</ol> - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span></p> - - -<h4>SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION</h4> - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="his2"> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">1. Whistling</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">11. Teasing</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">2. Lateness</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">12. Crowding</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">3. Whispering</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">13. Rudeness</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">4. Giggling</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">14. Inquisitiveness</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">5. Writing notes</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">15. Untidiness</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">6. Complaining</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">16. Forgetfulness</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">7. Hurrying</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">17. Conceit</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">8. Carelessness</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">18. Obstinacy</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">9. Making excuses</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">19. Vanity</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">10. Borrowing</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">20. Impatience</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - -<h4>DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING</h4> - -<p class="p2">You are to write of some habit that is common and that is more -or less annoying to well-bred people. Make your words, in mock -seriousness, appear to defend the habit that you ridicule. Make -your style of writing somewhat ponderous, as though you were -writing with the utmost gravity, but be sure to write in such a way -that your essay will convey your sense of the ridiculous. Let your -whole essay so ridicule the annoying habit that you will tend to -destroy it.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="footnotes"> - -<p class="p2 center big2">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[2]</a> From <em>As We Were Saying</em>, by Charles Dudley Warner. Copyright -by Harper and Brothers.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">[3]</a> Drawer. The <em>Editor's Drawer</em> of <em>Harper's Magazine</em> for which Mr. -Warner wrote many of his best essays.</p> - -</div> -</div> -</div> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak">THE MYSTERY OF AH SING</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center big1">By ROBERT L. DUFFUS</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p2"><em>An editorial writer for the New York Globe, to which, on -October 5, 1921, he contributed the following humorous editorial -article.</em></p> -</div> - -<div class="small1 indent1 bold"> - -<p class="p2">As we go about in daily life various people attract our attention; -their peculiarities amuse us, and we make semi-humorous but kindly -remarks concerning them. Such remarks are the germs of essays like -the following.</p> - -<p>In the essay, <em>The Mystery of Ah Sing</em>, there is humor but not a single -unkind word. The essay makes us smile, but with sympathy and understanding. -Such essays, trivial as they may be, are restful and pleasing.</p> -</div> - - -<p class="p2">Ah Sing comes on Tuesdays to get the washing and on -Saturdays to bring it back. He is an urbane, smiling person, -who appears to view life impersonally and dispassionately. -One would say that he realized that the career of Ah Sing -was not of prime importance in a population so numerous -and a universe so extensive. He loves to ask questions. How -old is the mistress of the house? Where did she come from? -How much does the master of the house earn? What does he -do? Why haven't they any children? Where did they get -all the books and pictures?</p> - -<p>Ah Sing always wants to know about the vacations, both -before and after taking, and looks intelligent when places like -Nantucket and the Thousand Islands are mentioned. He -follows the family fortunes like an old retainer, and seems -to possess a kind of feudal loyalty. It would be morally -impossible, not to say physically, to give the washing to any -one but Ah Sing. He would come for it, and the mistress of -the house would sink through the floor with contrition and -embarrassment. He may die out of his job, or go back to -China out of it, there to live like a mandarin, but he will -not be fired out of it. Never will he join the army of unemployed;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span> -never will he stand humbly asking work. He is a -monopoly, an institution, a friend.</p> - -<p>So far one gets with Ah Sing. To lose him would be like -losing a beloved pipe or a comfortable pair of slippers. He -belongs amid the furniture of living, and is as simple, homely, -and admirable as grandpa's picture on the wall. But what is -Ah Sing thinking about? What is going on across that gulf -which separates him from us? How many transmigrations -must we all go through before we could know Ah Sing as -well as we know the family from Indiana which moved in -next door last week? How shall we penetrate to the soul of -Ah Sing?</p> - -<p>If we could answer these questions we could present ourselves -forthwith at Washington with the solution of the -world's most vexatious problem. But the answers are dark, -Ah Sing is remote, and the East and the West have not yet -met.</p> - - -<h4>SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS</h4> - -<ol class="f"> -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">In what respects is Ah Sing a mystery?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">Why did the author write about Ah Sing?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">What are Ah Sing's amusing characteristics?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">What are Ah Sing's best characteristics?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">Show that the author's language is original.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">Show that the essay increases in effect toward the end.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">How does the author avoid unkindness or satire?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">How does the essay affect the reader?</li> -</ol> - -<h4>SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION</h4> - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="his3"> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">1. The Janitor</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">11. Grandmother</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">2. The Peanut Man</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">12. The Milk Man</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">3. The Auctioneer</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">13. The Small Boy</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">4. The Blind Man</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">14. The Newspaper Man</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">5. The Tramp</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">15. The Usher</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">6. The Old Soldier</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">16. The Policeman</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">7. The Violin Player</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">17. The Street Sweeper</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">8. The Dancing Teacher</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">18. Mother</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">9. The Scrub Woman</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">19. The Neighbors</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">10. The Baby</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">20. Relatives</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h4>DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING</h4> -</div> - -<p class="p2">Write, with all kindness, about some one who amuses you. Do -not include in your essay anything that will be in the nature of -fault-finding or complaint. Point out, in a humorous way, the -admirable and praiseworthy characteristics of the person about -whom you write. Instead of writing a list of characteristics use -original expressions that will indicate the real spirit of the character.</p> - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak">OLD DOC</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center big1">By OPIE READ</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p2"><em>(1852—). An American journalist, noted for his work as -Editor of</em> The Arkansas Traveller. <em>Among his books, most of -which concern life in Arkansas, are</em>: Len Gansett; My Young -Master; An Arkansas Planter; Up Terrapin River; A Kentucky -Colonel; On the Suwanee River; Miss Polly Lop; The Captain's -Romance; The Jucklins.</p> -</div> - -<div class="indent1 bold small1"> - -<p class="p2">The character sketch is interesting for the same reason that gossip is -interesting: we notice our neighbors and are curious to learn more -about them. We are all sharp observers of our fellows. We see their -oddities, their cranks, and their amusing habits just as clearly as we -see their virtues. We laugh and we admire—in much the same spirit -that a mother laughs at her baby, however much she loves it.</p> - -<p>Character sketches have been popular for many centuries. Chaucer's -<em>Prologue</em> to <em>The Canterbury Tales</em> is really a series of shrewdly-true -character sketches keenly tipped with humor, and full of genuine respect -for goodness. Sir Thomas Overbury (1581-1613) wrote a number of -strongly pointed sketches of character. A hundred years later Joseph -Addison and Sir Richard Steele conceived the whimsical, good-hearted -Sir Roger de Coverley and his company of associates.</p> - -<p>Out of such work grew not only the character sketch of to-day but -also material for the short story and the novel.</p> - -<p>Mr. Read's presentation of the country doctor of the Old South is -a striking example of the character sketch. Following the example -set by Addison in 1711 Mr. Read first describes the character and then -tells an anecdote that reveals personality. The entire sketch is redolent -with good-humor.</p> -</div> - - -<p class="p2">His house was old, with cedar-trees about it, a big yard, -and in the corner a small office. In this professional hut -there was only one window, the glass of which was dim with -dust blown from the road. In the gentle breeze the lilacs and -the roses swopped their perfume, while the guinea-hen arose -from her cool nest, dug beneath the dahlias, to chase a katydid -along the fence, and then with raucous cry to shatter the -silence. The furnishings of the office were less than modest. -In one corner a swayed bed threatened to fall, in another a -wash-stand stood epileptic on three legs. Nailed against the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</span> -wall was a protruding cabinet, giving off sick-room memories. -The village druggist, compounder of the essences of strange -and peculiar “yarbs,” might have bitter and pungent medicines, -but Old Doc, himself an extractor of wild juices, had -discovered the secret of the swamp. To go into his office -and to come forth with no sign was a confession of the loss -of smell. Sheep-shearing fills the nostrils with woolly dullness, -but sheep-shearers could scent Old Doc as he drove along -the road.</p> - -<p>In every country the rural doctor is a natural sprout from -the soil. His profession is almost as old as the daybreak of -time. He bled the ancient Egyptian, blistered the knight of -the Middle Ages, and poisoned the arrow of the Iroquois. -He has been preserved in fiction, pickled in the drama, spiced -in romance, and peppered in satire; but nowhere was he so -pronounced a character as in America, in the South. He -knew politics, but was not a politician. He looked upon man -as a machinist viewing an engine, but was not an atheist. -He cautioned health and flattered sickness. He listened with -more patience to an old woman harping on her trouble than -to a man in his prime relating his experience. His books -were few, and the only medical journal found in his office was -a sample copy. When his gathered lore failed him, he was -wise in silence. To confess to any sort of ignorance would -have crippled his trade. It was an art to keep loose things -from rattling in his head when he shook it, and of this art -he was a perfect master. In raiment he was not over-adorned, -but near him you felt that you were in the presence of clothes. -Philosophy's trousers might bag at the knees, theology's -black vestment might be shy a button, art might wear a burr -entangled in its tresses, and even the majesty of the law -might go forth in slippers gnawed by a playful puppy; but -old doc's “duds,” strong as they were in nostril penetration, -must hug the image of neatness. He was usually four years -behind the city's fashion, but this was shrewdly studied, for -to dress too much after the manner of the flowing present -would have branded him a foppish follower. The men might -carp at his clean shirt every day, but it won favor with the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</span> -women; and while robust medicine may steal secret delight -from seeing two maul-fisted men punch each other in a ring, -it must openly profess a preference for the scandals that -shock society.</p> - -<p>At no place along the numerous roads traversed by old -doc was there a sign-post with a finger pointing toward the -attainment of an ultimate ambition. No senate house, no -woolsack of greatness, waited for him. The chill of foul -weather was his most natural atmosphere; and should the -dark night turn from rain to sleet, it was then that he heard -a knock and a “Hello!” at his door. Down through the miry -bottom-land and up the flint hillside flashed the light of his -gig-lamp, striking responsive shine from the eye of the fascinated -wolf. The farther he had to travel, the less likely was -he to collect his bill. Usury might sell the widow's cow, for -no one expected business to have a daintiness of touch; but -if Doc sued for his fee, he was met even by the court with a -sour look.</p> - -<p>A summons to court as an expert witness in a murder trial -gold-starred the banner of his career. It was then that he -turned back to his heavy book, used mainly to prop the door -open. Out of this lexicon he dug up words to confound the -wise lawyer. It was in vain that the judge commanded him -to talk not like the man in the moon, but like a man of this -earth; he was not to be shaken from a pedestal that had cost -him sweat to mount. The jury sat amazed at his learning. -Asked to explain the meaning of a term, he would proceed -to heap upon it a pile of incomprehensible jargon. It was -like cracking the bones of the skeleton that stood behind his -door, and giving to each splinter a sesquipedalian name. -When told that he might “stand down,” he walked off to -enjoy his victory. At the tavern, in the evening, he might be -invited to sit in the game, done with the hesitating timidity of -awed respect; but at cards it was discovered that he was an -easy dabbler in common talk, not to say the profanity of the -flat-boatmen.</p> - -<p>Out of this atmosphere there arises the vision of old Doctor -Rickney of Mississippi. He had appeared in court as an<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</span> -expert witness, and the county newspaper had given him a -column of monstrous words, written by the doctor himself. -He had examined the judge for life insurance, and it was -hinted that he had been invited to attend a meeting of the -medical convention, away off in Philadelphia. His professional -cup was now about to foam over, when there fell an -evil time.</p> - -<p>Bill Saunders, down with a sort of swamp fever, was told -by Dr. Rickney that his recovery was impossible. Bill was -stubborn, and declined to accept Doc's verdict.</p> - -<p>“Why, you poor old sot,” said Doc, “you must be nearer -the end than I thought, since you have so little mind as to -doubt my word. Here's your fever so high that it has almost -melted my thermometer, and yet you question my professional -forecast. And, besides, don't you know that you have ruined -your constitution with liquor?”</p> - -<p>Bill blew a hot breath.</p> - -<p>“I don't know nothin' about constitutions nur the statuary -of limitations, but I'm snickered if I'm goin' to die to -please you nur nobody. All I need right now is possum baked -along with about a peck of yams.”</p> - -<p>“Possum! Why, by eleven-thirty to-night you'll be as -dead as any possum.”</p> - -<p>Bill drew another hot breath, and the leaves on a branch -of honeysuckle peeping in at the open window were seen to -wither with heat.</p> - -<p>“I've got a hoss out thar in the stable, Doc, an' he's jes -as good as any hoss you ever rid. An' I tell you whut I'll -do: I'll bet him ag'in yo' hoss that I'll be up an' around -in five weeks.”</p> - -<p>Doc gave him a pitying look.</p> - -<p>“All right; I'll just take that bet.”</p> - -<p>Doc told it about the neighborhood, and along toward midnight, -sitting in the rear room of a drug-store, he took out -his watch, looked at it, and remarked:</p> - -<p>“Well, by this time Bill Saunders is dead, and his horse -belongs to me.”</p> - -<p>The druggist spoke.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</span></p> - -<p>“I know the horse, and would like to have him. What'll -you take for him, Doc?”</p> - -<p>“Take for him! That horse is worth a hundred and fifty -of as bright gold dollars as was ever dug out of the earth. -Take for him!” says he. “Ain't he worth it, Nick?”</p> - -<p>Nick, a yellowish lout, was sitting on the floor, with his -back against the wall. For the most part his requirement of -society was a mouthful of tobacco and a place to spit, and of -the latter he was not over-careful. He added no more to -civilization than worm-blight adds to a grape-vine, but without -him no native drama could have been written. He was -as native to the neighborhood as a wrinkle is to a ram's horn. -In the absence of all other wit, he knew where his interest lay. -Therefore he haggled not to respond to Doc's appeal. Doc had -steadied his wife down from the high shakes of ague, had -time and again reminded Nick of that fact, but had not yet -received the five bushels of corn and the four pumpkins of -average size, the physician's legitimate levy. Here was a -chance on Nick's part to throw off at least two bushels. He -arose, and dusted the seat of his brown jeans.</p> - -<p>“Doc,” said he, “nobody don't know no mo' about nobody's -hoss nur I do. An' I'm sayin' it without the fear of bein' -kotch in a lie that Bill's hoss is wuth two hundred an' -seventy-fi' dollars of as good money as ever built a church.”</p> - -<p>“You've heard him,” was Doc's triumphant turn to the -druggist. “But let me tell you. About a half-hour from -now I've got to catch the <em>Lady Blanche</em> for Memphis, on my -way to attend the medical convention in Philadelphia. I've -got to read a paper on snake-bite.”</p> - -<p>Nick broke in upon him.</p> - -<p>“I'll bet it's the Guv'ment that is a axin' you to do it.”</p> - -<p>“Well, we won't discuss that,” was Doc's dismissal of the -subject. Then he turned again to the druggist. “Got to get -to that convention; and as I'll have a good deal of entertaining -to do, I'll need a hundred extra. So you just give me a -hundred dollars and take the horse. But you'll have to be -quick about it, for I just heard the <em>Lady Blanche</em> blowing -around the bend.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</span></p> - -<p>The druggist snatched at the knob or his safe, swung the -door open, and seized a hundred dollars.</p> - -<p>One afternoon, five weeks later, when the <em>Lady Blanche</em> -touched the shore on her way down, Old Doc stepped off. -There on a bale of cotton, smoking a cob pipe, sat Bill -Saunders.</p> - -<p>“W'y, hello, Doc!”</p> - -<p>Doc dropped his carpet-bag, caught up the tail of his coat, -and with it blotted the sweat on his brow.</p> - -<p>“Fine day,” said Bill. “'Lowed we'd have a little rain, -but the cloud looked like it had business summers else. An' -by the way, Doc, up whar you been what's that liquor as -distroys the constitution wuth by the gallon?”</p> - -<p>Doc reached down and took up his carpet-bag.</p> - -<p>“Bill Saunders, sir, I don't want anything to do with you. -I gave you my confidence, but you have deceived me. And -now, sir, your lack of integrity——”</p> - -<p>“Gives me a hoss,” Bill interrupted. “An' say, Doc, I -seed the druggist man jest now, an' he said suthin' about a -hundred dollars you owed him.”</p> - -<p>Doc walked up to the cotton-bale and placed his carpet-bag -on it, close beside Bill.</p> - -<p>“Saunders,” said he, “in this thing is a pistol nearly a foot -and a half long. Now I'll give you my horse all right, even -if you are the most unreliable man I ever saw, and I'll pay the -druggist his hundred; but if you go around the neighborhood -boasting that you got well after I gave you up, something is -going to flash, and it won't be out of a black bottle, either, -but right out of Old Miss Betsy, here in this carpet-bag. I -don't blame you for getting well, as a sort of a lark, you -understand; but when you make a serious affair of it, you -hurt my professional pride. Old Miss Betsy is right in here. -Do you gather me?”</p> - -<p>“I pick up yo' threads putty well, Doc, I think.”</p> - -<p>“All right; and see that with them threads you sew up your -mouth. You may be proof against the pizen of the swamp, -but you ain't proof against the jolt of a lead-mine. That's -all.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</span></p> - - -<h4>SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS</h4> - -<ol class="f"> -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">How does the description of the doctor's home emphasize -character?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">What was the doctor's ability?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">How does the writer make the doctor a universal character as -well as a local character?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">How does the writer produce humor?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">How does the writer arouse our respect for the doctor?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">How does the writer arouse our sympathy?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">What character trait does the anecdote reveal?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">Why does the writer use so much conversation in telling the -anecdote?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">What advantage does the writer gain by ending the sketch so -abruptly?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">How does the sketch affect the reader?</li> -</ol> - - -<h4>SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION</h4> - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="his4"> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">1. The Druggist</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">11. The Teacher</td> - </tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">2. A Borrowing Neighbor</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">12. The Minister</td> - </tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">3. The Natural Leader</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">13. The Policeman</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">4. The Peanut Man</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">14. The Expressman</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">5. The Milkman</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">15. The Freshman</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">6. The Iceman</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">16. The Senior</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">7. The Conductor</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">17. The College Student</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">8. The Clerk</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">18. The Elevator Boy</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">9. The Postman</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">19. The Farmer</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">10. The Lawyer</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">20. The Grocer</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h4>DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING</h4> -</div> - -<p class="p2">Select for your subject a person in whom you see many laughable -traits, but whom you really admire. Sum up his characteristics -briefly and suggestively. Make your humor the kind that will -awaken smiles but not ridicule. Use exaggeration in moderation. -Be particularly careful to select words that will convey the half-humorous, -half-serious thought that you wish to communicate. End -your sketch by telling an anecdote that will emphasize one or more -of the characteristics that you have mentioned. Tell the anecdote -in a “snappy” way, with crisp dialogue.</p> - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak">CHRISTMAS SHOPPING</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center big1">By HELEN DAVENPORT</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p2"><em>(1882—). Mrs. Helen Davenport Gibbons is a graduate of -Bryn Mawr. Her literary work appears in various publications. -Among her books are</em> The Red Rugs of Tarsus; Les Turcs ont -Passe Là!; A Little Gray Home in France; Paris Vistas.</p> -</div> - -<div class="indent1 bold small1"> - -<p class="p2">A good essay is much like part of a conversation,—the part spoken -by an interesting speaker. It is breezy, unconventional, and free in its -use of familiar terms. How well all this is brought out in the following -extract from an essay on Christmas.</p> -</div> - - -<p class="p2">My husband and I would not miss that day-before-Christmas -last-minute rush for anything. And even if I risk seeming -to talk against the sane and humane “shop-early-for-Christmas” -propaganda, I am going to say that the fun and -joy of Christmas shopping is doing it on the twenty-fourth. -Avoid the crowds? I don't want to! I want to get right in -the middle of them. I want to shove my way up to counters. -I want to buy things that catch my eye and that I never -thought of buying and wouldn't buy on any day in the year -but December twenty-fourth. I want to spend more money -than I can afford. I want to experience that panicky feeling -that I really haven't enough things, and to worry over -whether my purchases can be divided fairly among my -quartet. I want to go home after dark, reveling in the flare -of lamps lighting up mistletoe, holly wreaths, and Christmas-trees -on hawkers' carts, stopping here and there to buy -another pound of candy or a box of dates or a foolish bauble -for the tree. I want to shove bundle after bundle into the -arms of my protesting husband and remind him that Christmas -comes but once a year until he becomes profane. And, -once home, on what other winter evening would you find -pleasure in dumping the whole lot on your bed, adding to the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</span> -jumble of toys and books already purchased or sent by -friends, and, all other thoughts banished, calmly making the -children's piles despite aching back and legs, impatient -husband, cross servants, and a dozen dinner-guests waiting -in the drawing-room?</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h4>SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS</h4> -</div> - -<ol> -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> By what rhetorical means does the writer communicate her -emotion?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Show how the writer makes detail contribute to effect.</li> -</ol> - - -<h4>SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION</h4> - - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="his5"> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">1. Christmas Gifts</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">11. Making Gifts for Friends</td> - </tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">2. Giving a Party</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">12. Collecting</td> - </tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">3. New Year's Day</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">13. Going to Games</td> - </tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">4. Fourth of July</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">14. Buying a Hat</td> - </tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">5. Memorial Day</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">15. Crowds</td> - </tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">6. Family Reunions</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">16. Spending Money</td> - </tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">7. Answering Letters</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">17. Hurrying</td> - </tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">8. Holidays</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">18. Christmas Trees</td> - </tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">9. Vacation Days</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">19. School Celebrations</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">10. Callers</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">20. Just Foolishness!</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - - -<h4>DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING</h4> - -<p class="p2">Write on a subject in which you think you are, perhaps, excusably -foolish. Be frankly honest and genuinely enthusiastic. Write in -such a way that you will make your readers sympathize with you -in your “foolishness.”</p> - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak">SUNDAY BELLS</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center big1">By GERTRUDE HENDERSON</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p2"><em>At different times Miss Henderson has lived in Indiana, -California and New York. During the World War she gave -active patriotic service. She contributes to various publications.</em></p> -</div> - -<div class="indent1 bold small1"> - -<p class="p2">The bells of Sunday have given subjects to many poets and to many -essayists. Their sound is full of suggestions of peace, calm and the -solemnity of worship.</p> - -<p>The writer of the following essay expresses, as she says, the emotions -of many people. It is that seizing upon what is, at the same time, -intensely personal and yet universal that gives the essay its power.</p> - -<p>Although the essay is written in a gossipy style it has a quiet spirit -entirely in harmony with its subject.</p> -</div> - - -<p class="p2">Are all of us potentially devotees, I wonder. When the -bells ring and I look up to the aspiring steeples against the -sky in the middle of a Sunday morning, or when I hear them -sounding upon the quiet of the Sunday evening dusk or -sending their clear-toned invitation out through the secular -bustle of the mid-week streets and in at doors and windows, -summoning, summoning, there is that in me that hears them -and starts up and would obey. It must be something my -grandmothers left there—my long line of untraceable grandmothers -back, back through the hundreds of years. I wonder -if in all the other people of this questioning generation whose -thoughts have separated them from the firm, sustaining certainties -of the past the same ghostly allegiance rises, the same -vague emotions stir and quiver at the evoking of the Sunday -bells. I should think it altogether likely, for I have never -found that in anything very real in me I am at all different -from everybody else I meet.</p> - -<p>The Sunday bells! I sit in the morning quiet and I hear -them ringing near. They are not so golden-voiced, those first -bells, as if they had been more lately made; but I think it<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</span> -may be they go the deeper into my feelings for that. Some -people pass, leisurely at first, starting early and strolling at -ease through the peaceful Sunday morning on the way to -church, talking together as they go: ladies, middle-aged and -elderly, the black-dressed Sunday ladies whose serene wontedness -suggests that they have passed this very way to that -very goal one morning in seven since their lives began; a -father with his boy and girl; three frolicsome youngsters -together in their Sunday clothes loitering through the sunny -square with many divagations, and chattering happily as -they go,—I am not so sure their blithe steps will end at the -church door,—but yet they may; a young girl, fluttering pink -ruffles and hurrying. I think she is going to sing in the -choir and must be there early. She has the manner of one -who fears she is already the least moment late for flawless -earliness. Other young girls with their young men are walking -consciously together in tempered Sunday sweethearting. -And so on and on till the bell has rung a last summons, and -the music has risen, and given way to silence, and the last -belated comers have hurried by, looking at accusing watches, -and gone within, to lose their consciousness of guilt in that -cool interior whose concern is with eternity, not time. -Along all the other streets of the diverse town I fancy -them streaming, gathering in at the various doors on one -business bent, obeying one impulse in their many ways, -one common, deep-planted instinct that not one of them -can philosophize back to its ultimate, sure source, though it -masters them all—the source that is deeper than lifelong -habit or childhood teaching or the tradition of the race; the -source out of which all these came in their dim beginnings.</p> - - -<h4>SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS</h4> - -<ol class="f"> -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> How does the writer show that her subject has universal appeal?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Why does she describe people on their way to church?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What types of people does she mention?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em">How does the writer give the essay a quiet spirit?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em">Point out examples of repetition.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em">What is the effect of the last sentence?</li> -</ol> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h4>SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION</h4> -</div> - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="his6"> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">1. Organ Music</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">11. Church Interiors</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">2. The Violin</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">12. Store Windows</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">3. An Orchestra</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">13. Sympathy with Sorrow</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">4. A Brass Band</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">14. Weddings</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">5. Patriotic Songs</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">15. Receptions</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">6. Singing in Chorus</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">16. The Dance</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">7. A Procession</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">17. Evening</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">8. Going to Church</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">18. A Stormy Night</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">9. Marching</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">19. Solitude</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">10. Team Work</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">20. Whistling</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - - -<h4>DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING</h4> - - -<p class="p2">Show that your subject is one that appeals to almost every person, -and that it appeals to you in particular. Show the connection -between your subject and various types of people. Give your essay -a serious note, especially at the close.</p> - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak">DISCOVERY</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center big1">By GEORGES DUHAMEL</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p2"><em>(1884—). A surgeon in the service of the French army -during the World War. He turned to authorship as a means -of distraction from the horrors of war. His work entitled</em> -Civilization <em>won the Goncourt Prize for Fiction. Among his -other works are</em> The New Book of Martyrs; Combat; Heart's -Domain.</p> -</div> - -<div class="indent1 bold small1"> - -<p class="p2">An open eye and an attentive ear do much to make life enjoyable,—that -is the thought of Georges Duhamel's essay on <em>Discovery</em>. It is -evident that the writer deeply appreciates the pleasure of exploration, -even though the exploration be among the humblest and least-noticed -objects. Perhaps some recent experience turned his attention to the -thought, “Discovery is delightful.” At any rate, he has seized upon -the idea,—as though it were one of the things that he has discovered,—and -writes his meditation on it with the easy interest with which he -observes the gravel in a bubbling brook or a lily floating on the surface -of the water.</p> -</div> - - -<p class="p2">Discovery! It seems as if this word were one of a cluster -of magic keys—one of those keys that make all doors open -before our feet. We know that to possess is to understand, to -comprehend. That, in a supreme sense, is what discovery -means.</p> - -<p>To understand the world can well be compared to the peaceful, -enduring wealth of the great landowner; to make discoveries -is, in addition to this, to come into sudden, overflowing -riches, to have one of these sudden strokes of fortune -which double a man's capital by a windfall that seems like -an inspiration.</p> - -<p>The life of a child who grows up unconstrainedly is a chain -of discoveries, an enriching of each moment, a succession of -dazzling surprises.</p> - -<p>I cannot go on without thinking of the beautiful letter I -received to-day about my little boy. It said:</p> - -<div class="indent1 small1"> - -<p class="p2">Your son knows how to find extraordinary riches, inexhaustible -treasures, even in the barrenest fields, and when I set him on the grass, -I cannot guess the things he is going to bring out of it. He has an<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</span> -admirable appreciation of the different kinds of soil; if he finds sand, -he rolls in it, buries himself in it, grabs up handfuls, and flings them -delightedly over his hair. Yesterday he discovered a mole-hole, and -you cannot imagine all the pleasure he took in it. He also knows the -joys of a slope which one can descend on one's feet or head over heels, -or by rolling, and which is also splendid for somersaults. Every rise -of ground interests him, and I wish you could see him pushing his cart -up them. There is a little ditch where on the edge he likes to lie with -his feet at the bottom and his body pressed tight against the slope. He -played interminably the other day on top of a big stone. He kept -stroking it; he had truly found a new pleasure there. And as for me, -I find my wealth in watching him discover all these things.</p> -</div> - -<p class="p2">It is thus a child of fifteen months gives man lessons in -appreciation.</p> - -<p>Unfortunately, most systems of education do their best to -substitute hackneyed phrases for the sense of discovery. A -series of conventions are imposed on the child; he ceases to -discover and experience the objects in the world in pinning -them down with dry, formal labels by the help of which -he can recognize them. He reduces his moral life little by -little to the dull routine of classifying pins and pegs and in -this fashion begins the journey to maturity.</p> - -<p>Discover! You must discover in order to be rich. You -must not be satisfied to accept the night good humoredly, to -go to sleep after a day empty of all discovery. There are no -small victories, no negligible discoveries; if you bring back -from your day's journey the memory of the white cloud of -pollen the ripe plantain lets fall in May at the stroke of your -switch, it may be little, but your day is not lost. If you -have only encountered on the road the tiny urn of jade which -the moss delightedly balances at the end of its frail stem, it -may seem little, but be patient. To-morrow will perhaps be -more fruitful. If for the first time you have seen a swarm -of bees go by in search of a hive, or heard the snapping pods -of the broom scattering its seeds in the heat, you have nothing -to complain of, and life ought to seem beautiful to you. If, -on that same day, you have also enriched your collection of -humanity with a beautiful or an interesting face, confess that -you will go to sleep upon a treasure.</p> - -<p>There will be days when you will be like a peaceful sovereign -seated under a tree: the whole world will come to render<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</span> -homage to you and bring you tribute. Those will be your -days of contemplation.</p> - -<p>There will be days when you will have to take your staff -and wallet and go and seek your living along the highways. -On these days you must be contented with what you gain -from observing, from hunting. Have no fear: it will be -beautiful.</p> - -<p>It is sweet to receive; it is thrilling to take. You must by -turns charm and compel the universe. When you have gazed -long at the tawny rock, with its lichens, its velvety mosses, it -is most amusing to lift it up. Then you will discover its -weight and the little nest of orange-bellied salamanders that -live there in the cool.</p> - -<p>You have only to lie among the hairy mints and the horse-tails -to admire the religious dance of the dragon-fly going to -lay its eggs in the brook, or to hear in early June the clamorous -orgy of the tree-toads, drunk with love; and it is very -pleasant, too, to dip one's hands in the water, to stir the -gravel at the bottom, whence bubble up a thousand tiny, agile -existences or to pick the fleshy stalk of the water-lily that -lifts its tall head out of the depths.</p> - -<p>There are people who have passed a plant a thousand -times without ever thinking of picking one of its leaves and -rubbing it between their fingers. Do this always, and you -will discover hundreds of new perfumes. Each of these perfumes -may seem quite insignificant, and yet when you have -breathed it once, you wish to breathe it again; you think of -it often, and something has been added to you.</p> - -<p>It is an unending game, and it resembles love, this possession -of a world that now yields itself, now conceals itself. It -is a serious, divine game.</p> - -<p>Marcus Aurelius,<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> whose philosophy cannot be called futile, -does not hesitate, amid many austere counsels, to urge his -friends to the contemplation of those natural spectacles that -are always rich in meaning and suggestion. He writes:</p> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</span></p> - -<div class="indent1 small1"> - -<p class="p1">Everything that comes forth from the works of nature has its grace -and beauty. The face wrinkles in middle age, the very ripe olive is -almost decomposed, but the fruit has, for all that, a unique beauty. -The bending of the corn toward the earth, the bushy brows of the lion, -the foam that drips from the mouth of the wild boar and many other -things, considered by themselves, are far from being beautiful; nevertheless, -since they are accessory to the works of nature, they embellish -them and add a certain charm. Thus a man who has a sensitive soul, -and who is capable of deep reflection, will see in whatever exists in the -world hardly anything that is not pleasant in his eyes, since it is related -in some way to the totality of things.</p> -</div> - -<p class="p2">This philosopher is right, as the poets are right. As our days -permit us, let us reflect and observe; let us never cease to see -in each fragment of the great whole a pure source of happiness. -Like children drawn into a marvelous dance, let us not -relax our hold upon the hand that sustains us and directs us.</p> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<h4>SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS</h4> -</div> - -<ol class="f"> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Point out examples of figurative language.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">Define what the writer means by “discovery.”</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What is the value of discovery?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What joy does a child possess that many grown people do not -have?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What criticism of modern education does the writer make?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What is the writer's ideal of education?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What sort of discoveries does the writer wish people to make?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What powers does the writer wish people to cultivate?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What sort of life does the writer admire?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What is the advantage of quoting from Marcus Aurelius?</li> -</ol> - - -<h4>SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION</h4> - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="his7"> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">1. Experimenting</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">11. Study</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">2. Travel</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">12. Collecting</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">3. Work</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">13. Science</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">4. Play</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">14. Astronomy</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">5. Recreation</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">15. The Weather</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">6. Exercise</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">16. The Stars</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">7. Walking</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">17. Clouds</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">8. Contests</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">18. Bees</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">9. Religion</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">19. Cats</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">10. Sympathy</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">20. Houses</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</span></p> - - -<h4>DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING</h4> - -<p class="p2">Think of something you do that gives you real pleasure: that -is your subject. Your object is to lead other people to share in -what pleases you.</p> - -<p>Intimate, as the author does, what various thrills may be experienced. -Write enthusiastically, and, if possible, with charm. Do -not command your reader, but entice him into the joys that you -possess. Give a supporting quotation from some one whose words -will be respected.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="footnotes"> -<p class="p2 center big2">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="label">[4]</a> Marcus Aurelius (121-180). A Roman emperor and soldier, author -of <em>The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius</em>, a book of such wise and kindly -philosophy that it is still widely popular.</p> - -</div> -</div> -</div> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak">THE FURROWS<a id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></h2> -</div> - -<p class="center big1">By GILBERT K. CHESTERTON</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p><em>(1874). One of the greatest of living English essayists. He -is notable for originality of thought and expression. His habit -of turning ideas, as it were, “upside-down,” makes his work -peculiarly challenging. He has written under many types of -literature. Among his books are</em> Robert Browning; Charles -Dickens; Heretics; Tremendous Trifles; Alarms and Discursions; -The Victorian Age in Literature.</p> -</div> - -<div class="indent1 bold small1"> - -<p class="p2">Many essays are like poems: from some subject that lies well within -common experience they spring to a height of emotion. Such is the -case with the essay that follows. Mr. Chesterton looked upon an -ordinary plowed field. At once his imagination took fire and he saw -in the field a significance, a beauty, that the everyday observer might -not note. It is the interpretation of what Carlyle calls “the ideal in -the actual” that makes Mr. Chesterton's essay so appealing.</p> -</div> - - -<p class="p2">As I see the corn grow green all about my neighborhood, -there rushes on me for no reason in particular a memory of -the winter. I say “rushes,” for that is the very word for -the old sweeping lines of the plowed fields. From some accidental -turn of a train-journey or a walking tour, I saw suddenly -the fierce rush of the furrows. The furrows are like -arrows; they fly along an arc of sky. They are like leaping -animals; they vault an inviolable hill and roll down the other -side. They are like battering battalions; they rush over a -hill with flying squadrons and carry it with a cavalry charge. -They have all the air of Arabs sweeping a desert, of rockets -sweeping the sky, of torrents sweeping a watercourse. Nothing -ever seemed so living as those brown lines as they shot -sheer from the height of a ridge down to their still whirl of -the valley. They were swifter than arrows, fiercer than -Arabs, more riotous and rejoicing than rockets. And yet they -were only thin straight lines drawn with difficulty, like a -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</span>diagram, by painful and patient men. The men that plowed -tried to plow straight; they had no notion of giving great -sweeps and swirls to the eye. Those cataracts of cloven -earth; they were done by the grace of God. I had always -rejoiced in them; but I had never found any reason for my -joy. There are some very clever people who cannot enjoy -the joy unless they understand it. There are other and even -cleverer people who say that they lose the joy the moment -they do understand it. Thank God I was never clever, and -could always enjoy things when I understood them and when -I didn't. I can enjoy the orthodox Tory, though I could -never understand him. I can also enjoy the orthodox Liberal, -though I understand him only too well.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>But the splendor of furrowed fields is this: that like all -brave things they are made straight, and therefore they bend. -In everything that bows gracefully there must be an effort -at stiffness. Bows are beautiful when they bend only because -they try to remain rigid; and sword-blades can curl -like silver ribbons only because they are certain to spring -straight again. But the same is true of every tough curve -of the tree-trunk, of every strong-backed bend of the bough; -there is hardly any such thing in Nature as a mere droop -of weakness. Rigidity yielding a little, like justice swayed -by mercy, is the whole beauty of the earth. The cosmos is a -diagram just bent beautifully out of shape. Everything tries -to be straight; and everything just fortunately fails.</p> - -<p>The foil may curve in the lunge; but there is nothing -beautiful about beginning the battle with a crooked foil. So -the strict aim, the strong doctrine, may give a little in the -actual fight with facts; but that is no reason for beginning -with a weak doctrine or a twisted aim. Do not be an opportunist; -try to be theoretic at all the opportunities; fate -can be trusted to do all the opportunist part of it. Do not -try to bend, any more than the trees try to bend. Try to -grow straight, and life will bend you.</p> - -<p>Alas! I am giving the moral before the fable; and yet I -hardly think that otherwise you could see all that I mean in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</span> -that enormous vision of the plowed hills. These great furrowed -slopes are the oldest architecture of man; the oldest -astronomy was his guide, the oldest botany his object. And -for geometry, the mere word proves my case.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>But when I looked at those torrents of plowed parallels, -that great rush of rigid lines, I seemed to see the whole huge -achievement of democracy. Here was more equality; but -equality seen in bulk is more superb than any supremacy. -Equality free and flying, equality rushing over hill and dale, -equality charging the world—that was the meaning of those -military furrows, military in their identity, military in their -energy. They sculptured hill and dale with strong curves -merely because they did not mean to curve at all. They made -the strong lines of landscape with their stiffly driven swords -of the soil. It is not only nonsense, but blasphemy, to say -that man has spoilt the country. Man has created the country; -it was his business, as the image of God. No hill, covered -with common scrub or patches of purple heath, could -have been so sublimely hilly as that ridge up to which the -ranked furrows rose like aspiring angels. No valley, confused -with needless cottages and towns, can have been so utterly -valleyish as that abyss into which the down-rushing furrows -raged like demons into the swirling pit.</p> - -<p>It is the hard lines of discipline and equality that mark out -a landscape and give it all its mold and meaning. It is just -because the lines of the furrow are ugly and even that the -landscape is living and superb. As I think I have remarked -before, the Republic is founded on the plow.</p> - - -<h4>SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS</h4> - -<ol class="f"> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">Explain the figures of speech that occur in the essay.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">Why did Mr. Chesterton use so many figures of speech?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">How can you account for his poetic language?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">What leads him to think the furrows beautiful?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">What meaning does the writer find in the plowed field?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">Explain in full the last paragraph of the essay.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">In what respect is the Republic, “founded on the plow”?</li> - - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">What does the essay show concerning Mr. Chesterton's personality?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">In what respects is his style original?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">By what means does he gain emphasis?</li> -</ol> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</span></p> - -<h4>SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION</h4> - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="his8"> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">1. A River</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">11. A House</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">2. A Road</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">12. A Book</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">3. A Cloud</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">13. A Bridge</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">4. The Sunshine</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">14. A Railroad Track</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">5. A Stone Wall</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">15. An Airplane</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">6. A Horse</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">16. A Flag</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">7. A Tree</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">17. A Pen</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">8. A Garden</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">18. A Valley</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">9. A Mountain</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">19. A High Building</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">10. The Wind</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">20. A Telescope</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h4>DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING</h4> -</div> - -<p class="p2">Take for your subject anything that is extremely familiar. Show -your reader both the physical beauty that any one may observe and -also the inner beauty that the average person is not so likely to -note. Write in such a way that you will show your real emotions -towards your subject. Make your essay rise steadily in power -and let your last paragraph present the thought that you wish to -leave with your reader.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="footnotes"> -<p class="p2 center big2">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5" class="label">[5]</a> From “Alarms and Discursions,” by Gilbert K. Chesterton. Copyright, -1911, by Dodd, Mead and Company.</p> - -</div> -</div> -</div> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak">MEDITATION AND IMAGINATION<a id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></h2> -</div> - -<p class="center big1">By HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE</p> - - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p2"><em>(1846-1916). An American essayist and journalist, for many -years editor of The Outlook. His literary work was so important -that he was made a member of the American Academy of -Arts and Letters. Among his books are</em> Nature in New -England; My Study Fire; Short Studies in Literature; Essays -on Books and Culture; The Life of the Spirit; Japan To-day -and To-morrow.</p> -</div> - -<div class="indent1 small1 bold"> - -<p class="p2">Essayists are natural lovers of books. In the records of human -experience they find subjects that stimulate the imagination, arouse the -sentiments, and lead to meditation.</p> - -<p>Almost every essayist draws largely, for the better illustration of -his thought, from the field of literature. To him the characters of -history or of fiction are almost as real as those of to-day. In the realm -of books the essayist sees an expansion of the world in which he lives. -In addition, he makes the acquaintance of others who have meditated -on the many interests of life. He looks upon authors, living or dead, -as upon a company of friends. In their companionship he gains -unceasing delight.</p> - -<p>Mr. Hamilton Wright Mabie sets forward very pleasingly the way -in which a reader may gain the most from books.</p> -</div> - -<p class="p2">There is a book in the British Museum which would have, -for many people, a greater value than any other single volume -in the world; it is a copy of Florio's translation of Montaigne,<a id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> -and it bears Shakespeare's autograph on a flyleaf. There -are other books which must have had the same ownership; -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</span>among them were Holinshed's “Chronicles,”<a id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> and North 's -translation of Plutarch.<a id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> Shakespeare would have laid posterity -under still greater obligations, if that were possible, if -in some autobiographic mood he had told us how he read -these books; for never, surely, were books read with greater -insight and with more complete absorption. Indeed, the -fruits of this reading were so rich and ripe that the books -from which their juices came seem but dry husks and shells -in comparison. The reader drained the writer dry of every -particle of suggestiveness, and then recreated the material -in new and imperishable forms. The process of reproduction -was individual, and is not to be shared by others; it was the -expression of that rare and inexplicable personal energy -which we call genius; but the process of absorption may be -shared by all who care to submit to the discipline which it -involves. It is clear that Shakespeare read in such a way as -to possess what he read; he not only remembered it, but he -incorporated it into himself. No other kind of reading could -have brought the East out of its grave, with its rich and -languorous atmosphere steeping the senses in the charm of -Cleopatra, or recalled the massive and powerfully organized -life of Rome about the person of the great Cæsar. Shakespeare -read his books with such insight and imagination -that they became part of himself; and so far as this process -is concerned, the reader of to-day can follow in his -steps.</p> - -<p>The majority of people have not learned this secret; they -read for information or for refreshment; they do not read for -enrichment. Feeding one's nature at all the sources of life, -browsing at will on all the uplands of knowledge and -thought, do not bear the fruit of acquirement only; they put -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</span>us into personal possession of the vitality, the truth, and the -beauty about us. A man may know the plays of Shakespeare -accurately as regards their order, form, construction, and -language, and yet remain almost without knowledge of what -Shakespeare was at heart, and of his significance in the history -of the human soul. It is this deeper knowledge, however, -which is essential for culture; for culture is such an appropriation -of knowledge that it becomes a part of ourselves. It -is no longer something added by the memory; it is something -possessed by the soul. A pedant is formed by his memory; -a man of culture is formed by the habit of meditation, and -by the constant use of the imagination. An alert and curious -man goes through the world taking note of all that passes -under his eyes, and collects a great mass of information, which -is in no sense incorporated into his own mind, but remains -a definite territory outside his own nature, which he has -annexed. A man of receptive mind and heart, on the other -hand, meditating on what he sees, and getting at its meaning -by the divining-rod of the imagination, discovers the law -behind the phenomena, the truth behind the fact, the vital -force which flows through all things, and gives them their -significance. The first man gains information; the second -gains culture. The pedant pours out an endless succession -of facts with a monotonous uniformity of emphasis, and -exhausts while he instructs; the man of culture gives us a -few facts, luminous in their relation to one another, and -freshens and stimulates by bringing us into contact with ideas -and with life.</p> - -<p>To get at the heart of books we must live with and in them; -we must make them our constant companions; we must turn -them over and over in thought, slowly penetrating their innermost -meaning; and when we possess their thought we must -work it into our own thought. The reading of a real book -ought to be an event in one's history; it ought to enlarge the -vision, deepen the base of conviction, and add to the reader -whatever knowledge, insight, beauty, and power it contains. -It is possible to spend years of study on what may be called -the externals of the “Divine Comedy,” and remain unaffected<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</span> -in nature by this contact with one of the masterpieces of the -spirit of man as well as of the art of literature. It is also -possible to so absorb Dante's<a id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> thought and so saturate one's -self with the life of the poem as to add to one's individual -capital of thought and experience all that the poet discerned -in that deep heart of his and wrought out of that intense and -tragic experience. But this permanent and personal possession -can be acquired by those alone who brood over the -poem and recreate it within themselves by the play of the -imagination upon it. A visitor was shown into Mr. Lowell's<a id="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> -room one evening not many years ago, and found him barricaded -behind rows of open books; they covered the table -and were spread out on the floor in an irregular but magic -circle. “Still studying Dante?” said the intruder into the -workshop of as true a man of culture as we have known on -this continent. “Yes,” was the prompt reply; “always -studying Dante.”</p> - -<p>A man's intellectual character is determined by what he -habitually thinks about. The mind cannot always be consciously -directed to definite ends; it has hours of relaxation. -There are many hours in the life of the most strenuous -and arduous man when the mind goes its own way and -thinks its own thoughts. These times of relaxation, when -the mind follows its own bent, are perhaps the most fruitful -and significant periods in a rich and noble intellectual -life. The real nature, the deeper instincts of the man, come -out in these moments, as essential refinement and genuine -breeding are revealed when the man is off guard and acts and -speaks instinctively. It is possible to be mentally active -and intellectually poor and sterile; to drive the mind along -certain courses of work, but to have no deep life of thought -behind these calculated activities. The life of the mind -is rich and fruitful only when thought, released from specific -tasks, flies at once to great themes as its natural objects -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</span>of interest and love, its natural sources of refreshment and -strength. Under all our definite activities there runs a -stream of meditation; and the character of that meditation -determines our wealth or our poverty, our productiveness -or our sterility.</p> - -<p>This instinctive action of the mind, although largely unconscious, -is by no means irresponsible; it may be directed -and controlled; it may be turned, by such control, into a -Pactolian stream,<a id="FNanchor_12" href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> enriching us while we rest and ennobling -us while we play. For the mind may be trained to meditate -on great themes instead of giving itself up to idle reverie; -when it is released from work it may concern itself with the -highest things as readily as with those which are insignificant -and paltry. Whoever can command his meditations in the -streets, along the country roads, on the train, in the hours of -relaxation, can enrich himself for all time without effort or -fatigue; for it is as easy and restful to think about great -things as about small ones. A certain lover of books made -this discovery years ago, and has turned it to account with -great profit to himself. He thought he discovered in the faces -of certain great writers a meditative quality full of repose -and suggestive of a constant companionship with the highest -themes. It seemed to him that these thinkers, who had done -so much to liberate his own thought, must have dwelt habitually -with noble ideas; that in every leisure hour they must -have turned instinctively to those deep things which concern -most closely the life of men. The vast majority of men are -so absorbed in dealing with material that they appear to be -untouched by the general questions of life; but these general -questions are the habitual concern of the men who think. In -such men the mind, released from specific tasks, turns at once -and by preference to these great themes, and by quiet meditation -feeds and enriches the very soul of the thinker. And -the quality of this meditation determines whether the nature -shall be productive or sterile; whether a man shall be merely -a logician, or a creative force in the world. Following this -hint, this lover of books persistently trained himself, in his -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</span>leisure hours, to think over the books he was reading; to -meditate on particular passages, and, in the case of dramas -and novels, to look at characters from different sides. It was -not easy at first, and it was distinctively work; but it became -instinctive at last, and consequently it became play. The -stream of thought, once set in a given direction, flows now of -its own gravitation; and reverie, instead of being idle and -meaningless, has become rich and fruitful. If one subjects -“The Tempest,”<a id="FNanchor_13" href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> for instance, to this process, he soon learns -it by heart; first he feels its beauty; then he gets whatever -definite information there is in it; as he reflects, its constructive -unity grows clear to him, and he sees its quality as a piece -of art; and finally its rich and noble disclosure of the poet's -conception of life grows upon him until the play belongs to -him almost as much as it belonged to Shakespeare. This -process of meditation habitually brought to bear on one's -reading lays bare the very heart of the book in hand, and -puts one in complete possession of it.</p> - -<p>This process of meditation, if it is to bear its richest fruit, -must be accompanied by a constant play of the imagination, -than which there is no faculty more readily cultivated or -more constantly neglected. Some readers see only a flat surface -as they read; others find the book a door into a real -world, and forget that they are dealing with a book. The -real readers get beyond the book, into the life which it describes. -They see the island in “The Tempest”; they hear -the tumult of the storm; they mingle with the little company -who, on that magical stage, reflect all the passions of men -and are brought under the spell of the highest powers of -man's spirit. It is a significant fact that in the lives of men -of genius the reading of two or three books has often provoked -an immediate and striking expansion of thought and power. -Samuel Johnson,<a id="FNanchor_14" href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> a clumsy boy in his father's book-shop, -searching for apples, came upon Petrarch,<a id="FNanchor_15" href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> and was destined -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</span>henceforth to be a man of letters. John Keats,<a id="FNanchor_16" href="#Footnote_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> apprenticed -to an apothecary, read Spenser's “Epithalamium”<a id="FNanchor_17" href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> one -golden afternoon in company with his friend, Cowden -Clarke,<a id="FNanchor_18" href="#Footnote_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> and from that hour was a poet by the grace of God. -In both cases the readers read with the imagination, or their -own natures would not have kindled with so sudden a flash. -The torch is passed on to those only whose hands are outstretched -to receive it. To read with the imagination, one -must take time to let the figures reform in his own mind; he -must see them with great distinctness and realize them with -great definiteness. Benjamin Franklin<a id="FNanchor_19" href="#Footnote_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> tells us, in that -“Autobiography” which was one of our earliest and remains -one of our most genuine pieces of writing, that when he discovered -his need of a larger vocabulary he took some of the -tales which he found in an odd volume of the “Spectator”<a id="FNanchor_20" href="#Footnote_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> -and turned them into verse; “and after a time, when I had -pretty well forgotten the prose, turned them back again. I -also sometimes jumbled my collections of hints into confusion, -and after some weeks endeavoured to reduce them into the -best order before I began to form the full sentences and compleat -the paper.” Such a patient recasting of material for -the ends of verbal exactness and accuracy suggests ways in -which the imagination may deal with characters and scenes in -order to stimulate and foster its own activity. It is well to -recall at frequent intervals the story we read in some dramatist, -poet, or novelist, in order that the imagination may set -it before us again in all its rich vitality. It is well also as -we read to insist on seeing the picture as well as the words.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</span></p> - -<p>It is as easy to see the bloodless duke before the portrait of -“My Last Duchess,” in Browning's<a id="FNanchor_21" href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> little masterpiece, to -take in all the accessories and carry away with us a vivid and -lasting impression, as it is to follow with the eye the succession -of words. In this way we possess the poem, and make it -serve the ends of culture.</p> - - -<h4>SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS</h4> - -<ol class="f"> -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em">What did Shakespeare gain from the reading of books?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What wrong ways of reading does Mr. Mabie point out?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What is the difference between a pedant and a man of culture?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What does Mr. Mabie mean by the expression, “To get at the -heart of books”?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What should a book do for a reader?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Why does Mr. Mabie tell the anecdote of Mr. Lowell?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Explain the difference between helpful meditation and idle -reverie.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What characteristics may be gained from great writers?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What does Mr. Mabie mean by saying that one should read -imaginatively?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What does the essay show concerning the personality of Mr. -Mabie?</li> -</ol> - -<h4>SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION</h4> - - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="his9"> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">1. Study and “Cramming”</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">11. Leisure and Hurry</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">2. Fair Play and Trickery</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">12. Thrift and Waste</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">3. Selfishness and Unselfishness</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">13. Courage and Cowardice</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">4. School Spirit and Lack of School Spirit</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">14. Persistence</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">5. Reasons for Success and for Failure</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">15. Ambition</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">6. The Gentleman and the Boor</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">16. Thoughtfulness</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">7. Kindness and Brutality</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">17. Loyalty</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">8. Care and Carelessness</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">18. Will Power</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">9. Promptness and Tardiness</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">19. Honor</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">10. Respect and Insolence</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">20. The Kindly Life</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</span></p> - -<h4>DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING</h4> - -<p class="p2">You have noticed that Mr. Mabie began his essay by telling about -Shakespeare's reading. He then set forward the ideal that Shakespeare's -method of reading represents. You must follow the same -plan. Begin your essay by telling of some one person who represents -in some way the ideal of which you write. That very specific -example will lead your reader into the thought that you wish to -emphasize,—that there is, in connection with your subject, an ideal -method of proceeding, and a method that is less ideal. After you -have made this specific introduction, set forward your own ideas. -Do as Mr. Mabie did, and give many specific examples that will -make your thought clear and emphatic.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="footnotes"> -<p class="p2 center big2">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6" class="label">[6]</a> From “Books and Culture” by Hamilton Wright Mabie. Copyright -by Dodd, Mead and Co.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7" class="label">[7]</a> Florio's Montaigne. John Florio (1553-1625). A teacher of French -and Italian in Oxford University, who in 1603 translated the essays of -Montaigne, one copy of which, autographed by Shakespeare, is in the -British Museum in London. From him Shakespeare perhaps learned -French and Italian. In all probability many of the passages of wit -and wisdom in plays like <em>Hamlet</em> and <em>The Tempest</em>, as well as in other -plays, were suggested by Florio's translation of Montaigne.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8" class="label">[8]</a> Holinshed's <em>Chronicles</em>. Ralph Holinshed (?-1580?). Author of -<em>Chronicles of Englande, Scotlande, and Irelande</em>, a book published in -1577, from which Shakespeare drew material for many of his historical -plays.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9" class="label">[9]</a> North's Plutarch. Sir Thomas North (1535?-1601?), translated -from the French Plutarch's <em>Lives</em>, originally written in Greek in the -first century A.D. From these remarkable biographies Shakespeare -learned the stories that he embodied in such plays as <em>Antony and Cleopatra</em> -and <em>Coriolanus</em>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10" class="label">[10]</a> Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), an Italian poet, author of <em>The Divine -Comedy</em>, a work of such surpassing merit that its author is regarded as -one of the five greatest writers of all time.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_11" href="#FNanchor_11" class="label">[11]</a> James Russell Lowell (1819-1891). An American poet and essayist, -noted for his love of books.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_12" href="#FNanchor_12" class="label">[12]</a> Pactolian Stream, a river in Asia Minor in which gold was found.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_13" href="#FNanchor_13" class="label">[13]</a> The Tempest, one of Shakespeare's most poetic comedies, written -about 1611.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_14" href="#FNanchor_14" class="label">[14]</a> Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), the great literary leader of the -eighteenth century, noted for his work as an essayist.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_15" href="#FNanchor_15" class="label">[15]</a> Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374), one of the most noted Italian poets.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_16" href="#FNanchor_16" class="label">[16]</a> John Keats (1795-1821), an English poet especially noted for the -rich beauty of his style.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_17" href="#FNanchor_17" class="label">[17]</a> Edmund Spenser (1552?-1599), the celebrated author of <em>The Faërie -Queen</em> and of other poems noted for rich imaginative power. His -<em>Epithalamium</em>, perhaps his best poem, was written in honor of his marriage -to Elizabeth Boyle.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_18" href="#FNanchor_18" class="label">[18]</a> Cowden Clarke (1787-1877), an English publisher and Shakespearian -scholar, a friend of John Keats.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_19" href="#FNanchor_19" class="label">[19]</a> Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), a great American philosopher and -patriot whose life story is told in his <em>Autobiography</em>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_20" href="#FNanchor_20" class="label">[20]</a> The Spectator, a daily paper published by Joseph Addison, Sir -Richard Steele and others from March 1, 1711, to December 6, 1712.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_21" href="#FNanchor_21" class="label">[21]</a> Robert Browning (1812-1889). One of the greatest of English -poets. <em>My Last Duchess</em> is one of his many powerful dramatic monologues.</p> - -</div> -</div> -</div> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak">WHO OWNS THE MOUNTAINS?<a id="FNanchor_22" href="#Footnote_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></h2> -</div> - -<p class="center big1">By HENRY VAN DYKE</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p2"><em>(1852—). One of the most popular American essayists. -After many years of service as a Presbyterian minister he became -Professor of English Literature in Princeton University. -During the early part of the World War he was U. S. Minister -to the Netherlands and Luxembourg, where his services were -notably patriotic. His poems, essays and short stories have -won wide and well-deserved popularity. Among them are</em> The -Poetry of Tennyson; The Other Wise Man; The First Christmas -Tree; Fisherman's Luck; The Blue Flower; Out of Doors -in the Holy Land; The Unknown Quantity; Collected Poems. -<em>Dr. Van Dyke was at one time President of the National Institute -of Arts and Letters.</em></p> -</div> - -<div class="indent1 small1 bold"> - -<p class="p2">Something of the spirit of sunset and of the quietness of the woods -and mountains has crept into Dr. Van Dyke's essay. We sit with him -and look off at the ridges and hollows of forest. We find our own -thoughts about the beauty of earth expressed as we can not express -them. We are lifted in meditation as Dr. Van Dyke was lifted when -he looked off at the great hills.</p> - -<p>Power to reveal inner meanings in the world of outdoors and of man, -and to ennoble the soul, is one of the reasons why the essay has such -a high place in the affections of those who love literature.</p> - -<p><em>Who Owns the Mountains?</em> shows both the felicity of Dr. Van Dyke's -style and the nobility of his thought.</p> -</div> - - -<p class="p2">It was the little lad that asked the question; and the answer -also, as you will see, was mainly his.</p> - -<p>We had been keeping Sunday afternoon together in our -favorite fashion, following out that pleasant text which tells -us to “behold the fowls of the air.” There is no injunction -of Holy Writ less burdensome in acceptance, or more profitable -in obedience, than this easy out-of-doors commandment. -For several hours we walked in the way of this precept, -through the untangled woods that lie behind the Forest Hills</p> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</span></p> -<p>Lodge,<a id="FNanchor_23" href="#Footnote_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> where a pair of pigeon-hawks had their nest; and -around the brambly shores of the small pond, where Maryland -yellow-throats and song-sparrows were settled; and -under the lofty hemlocks of the fragment of forest across the -road, where rare warblers flitted silently among the tree-tops. -The light beneath the evergreens was growing dim as we came -out from their shadow into the widespread glow of the sunset, -on the edge of a grassy hill, overlooking the long valley of -the Gale River, and uplooking to the Franconia Mountains.</p> - -<p>It was the benediction hour. The placid air of the day -shed a new tranquillity over the consoling landscape. The -heart of the earth seemed to taste a repose more perfect than -that of common days. A hermit-thrush, far up the vale, -sang his vesper hymn; while the swallows, seeking their -evening meal, circled above the riverfields without an effort, -twittering softly, now and then, as if they must give thanks. -Slight and indefinable touches in the scene, perhaps the mere -absence of the tiny human figures passing along the road or -laboring in the distant meadows, perhaps the blue curls of -smoke rising lazily from the farm-house chimneys, or the -family groups sitting under the maple-trees before the door, -diffused a sabbath atmosphere over the world.</p> - -<p>Then said the lad, lying on the grass beside me, “Father, -who owns the mountains?”</p> - -<p>I happened to have heard, the day before, of two or three -lumber companies that had bought some of the woodland -slopes; so I told him their names, adding that there were -probably a good many different owners, whose claims taken -all together would cover the whole Franconia range of hills.</p> - -<p>“Well,” answered the lad, after a moment of silence, “I -don't see what difference that makes. Everybody can look -at them.”</p> - -<p>They lay stretched out before us in the level sunlight, the -sharp peaks outlined against the sky, the vast ridges of forest -sinking smoothly towards the valleys, the deep hollows gathering<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</span> -purple shadows in their bosoms, and the little foothills -standing out in rounded promontories of brighter green from -the darker mass behind them.</p> - - -<p>Far to the east, the long comb of Twin Mountain extended -itself back into the untrodden wilderness. Mount Garfield -lifted a clear-cut pyramid through the translucent air. The -huge bulk of Lafayette ascended majestically in front of us, -crowned with a rosy diadem of rocks. Eagle Cliff and Bald -Mountain stretched their line of scalloped peaks across the -entrance to the Notch. Beyond that shadowy vale, the swelling -summits of Cannon Mountain rolled away to meet the -tumbling waves of Kinsman, dominated by one loftier crested -billow that seemed almost ready to curl and break out of -green silence into snowy foam. Far down the sleeping -Landaff valley the undulating dome of Moosilauke trembled -in the distant blue.</p> - -<p>They were all ours, from crested cliff to wooded base. The -solemn groves of firs and spruces, the plumed sierras of lofty -pines, the stately pillared forests of birch and beech, the wild -ravines, the tremulous thickets of silvery poplar, the bare -peaks with their wide outlooks, and the cool vales resounding -with the ceaseless song of little rivers,—we knew and loved -them all; they ministered peace and joy to us; they were -all ours, though we held no title deeds and our ownership -had never been recorded.</p> - -<p>What is property, after all? The law says there are two -kinds, real and personal. But it seems to me that the only -real property is that which is truly personal, that which we -take into our inner life and make our own forever by understanding -and admiration and sympathy and love. This is -the only kind of possession that is worth anything.</p> - -<p>A gallery of great paintings adorns the house of the -Honorable Midas Bond,<a id="FNanchor_24" href="#Footnote_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> and every year adds a new treasure -to his collection. He knows how much they cost him, and he -keeps the run of the quotations at the auction sales, congratulating<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</span> -himself as the price of the works of his well-chosen -artists rises in the scale, and the value of his art -treasures is enhanced. But why should he call them his? He -is only their custodian. He keeps them well varnished, and -framed in gilt. But he never passes through those gilded -frames into the world of beauty that lies behind the painted -canvas. He knows nothing of those lovely places from which -the artist's soul and hand have drawn their inspiration. -They are closed and barred to him. He has bought the pictures, -but he cannot buy the key. The poor art student who -wanders through his gallery, lingering with awe and love -before the masterpieces, owns them far more truly than -Midas does.</p> - - -<p>Pomposus Silverman<a id="FNanchor_25" href="#Footnote_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> purchased a rich library a few years -ago. The books were rare and costly. That was the reason -why Pomposus bought them. He was proud to feel that he -was the possessor of literary treasures which were not to be -found in the houses of his wealthiest acquaintances. But the -threadbare Bücherfreund,<a id="FNanchor_26" href="#Footnote_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> who was engaged at a slender -salary to catalogue the library and take care of it, became -the real proprietor. Pomposus paid for the books, but -Bücherfreund enjoyed them.</p> - -<p>I do not mean to say that the possession of much money is -always a barrier to real wealth of mind and heart. Nor -would I maintain that all the poor of this world are rich in -faith and heirs of the kingdom. But some of them are. And -if some of the rich of this world (through the grace of Him -with whom all things are possible) are also modest in their -tastes, and gentle in their hearts, and open in their minds, -and ready to be pleased with unbought pleasures, they simply -share in the best things which are provided for all.</p> - -<p>I speak not now of the strife that men wage over the definition -and the laws of property. Doubtless there is much -here that needs to be set right. There are men and women in -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</span>the world who are shut out from the right to earn a living, -so poor that they must perish for want of daily bread, so full -of misery that there is no room for the tiniest seed of joy in -their lives. This is the lingering shame of civilization. Some -day, perhaps, we shall find the way to banish it. Some day, -every man shall have his title to a share in the world's great -work and the world's large joy.</p> - -<p>But meantime it is certain that, where there are a hundred -poor bodies who suffer from physical privation, there are a -thousand poor souls who suffer from spiritual poverty. To -relieve this greater suffering there needs no change of laws, -only a change of heart.</p> - -<p>What does it profit a man to be the landed proprietor of -countless acres unless he can reap the harvest of delight that -blooms from every rood of God's earth for the seeing eye and -the loving spirit? And who can reap that harvest so closely -that there shall not be abundant gleaning left for all mankind? -The most that a wide principality can yield to its -legal owner is a living. But the real owner can gather from -a field of goldenrod, shining in the August sunlight, an unearned -increment of delight.</p> - -<p>We measure success by accumulation. The measure is false. -The true measure is appreciation. He who loves most has -most.</p> - -<p>How foolishly we train ourselves for the work of life! We -give our most arduous and eager efforts to the cultivation of -those faculties which will serve us in the competitions of the -forum and the market-place. But if we were wise, we should -care infinitely more for the unfolding of those inward, secret, -spiritual powers by which alone we can become the owners of -anything that is worth having. Surely God is the great -proprietor. Yet all His works He has given away. He holds -no title-deeds. The one thing that is His, is the perfect understanding, -the perfect joy, the perfect love, of all things that -He has made. To a share in this high ownership He welcomes -all who are poor in spirit. This is the earth which the meek -inherit. This is the patrimony of the saints in light.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</span></p> - -<p>“Come, laddie,” I said to my comrade, “let us go home. -You and I are very rich. We own the mountains. But we -can never sell them, and we don't want to.”</p> - - -<h4>SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS</h4> - -<ol class="f"> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> In what does real ownership consist?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Why is it wrong to “measure success by accumulation”?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What is “spiritual poverty”?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> How may you truly own a book?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> How may you truly own a beautiful scene?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> How may you become a really rich person?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> How may you truly own a beautiful picture?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> How does Dr. Van Dyke introduce his principal thought?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What is the spirit of the essay?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Make a list of the most beautiful sentences.</li> -</ol> - - -<h4>SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION</h4> - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="his9b"> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">1. The Fountain of Youth</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">11. Spendthrifts</td> - </tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">2. The Place of Happiness</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">12. Hidden Treasures</td> - </tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">3. A Wise Person</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">13. Angels in Reality</td> - </tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">4. Successful People</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">14. Real Strength</td> - </tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">5. A Truly Useful Life</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">15. My Own City</td> - </tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">6. A Wide Traveler</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">16. A Master of Men</td> - </tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">7. Comfort</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">17. Having One's Way</td> - </tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">8. The Best Medicine</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">18. A Wise Reader</td> - </tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">9. An Explorer in Daily Life</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">19. Heroism at Home</td> - </tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">10. Investing for the Future</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">20. Sunshine All the Time</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - -<h4>DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING</h4> - -<p class="p2">Show, in your essay, that all people have at their command some -wealth, or some wonderful power, that they little suspect. Show -how they may make use of the opportunity that lies before them. -In order to do this, lead into your thought as naturally as Dr. Van -Dyke leads into his. You will write more wisely and more sincerely -if you set your thoughts in motion from some real experience,—from -some time when you were genuinely impressed and uplifted in -spirit.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="footnotes"> -<p class="p2 center big2">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_22" href="#FNanchor_22" class="label">[22]</a> From “Fisherman's Luck,” by Henry Van Dyke. Copyright, 1905, -by Charles Scribner's Sons.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_23" href="#FNanchor_23" class="label">[23]</a> The scene mentioned in the essay is in the White Mountain region -in New Hampshire, one of the most beautiful regions in the United -States.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_24" href="#FNanchor_24" class="label">[24]</a> Midas Bond. Greek legend tells of Midas, king of Phrygia, who had -the power of turning into gold everything that he touched. “Bond” -is of course, a modern synonym for wealth.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_25" href="#FNanchor_25" class="label">[25]</a> Pomposus Silverman. Another combination of a classical and a -modern expression,—a haughty lord of silver.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_26" href="#FNanchor_26" class="label">[26]</a> Bücherfreund. Lover of books.</p> - -</div> -</div> -</div> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</span></p> -<p class="center p4 big2">THE LEGENDARY STORY</p> -</div> - -<h2 class="nobreak">RUNNING WOLF</h2> - -<p class="center big1">By ALGERNON BLACKWOOD</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p2"><em>(1869—). An English author and journalist. He is a -graduate of the University of Edinburgh. For a time he was -on the staff of the</em> New York Sun, <em>and of the</em> New York Times. -<em>He is the author of</em> The Lost Valley; Paris Garden; A Prisoner -in Fairyland; The Starlight Express. <em>He writes with -strongly suggestive power.</em></p> -</div> - -<div class="indent1 bold small1"> - -<p class="p2">The legend and its origin and development, are well illustrated in the -story of <em>Running Wolf</em>. Some hundred years before the story begins, -so the author says, certain tragic events had occurred in the Canadian -backwoods. From those events had grown beliefs held by all who lived -within the region. The author very cleverly makes his story a continuation -of the legend.</p> - -<p><em>Running Wolf</em> deals not only with the beliefs of a primitive people -but also with the supernatural. It suggests an unhappy, wandering -spirit unable to escape from the chains of earth. In its treatment of -the supernatural the story is surpassingly powerful. It gains every -effect through the power of suggestion. At no time does the story, in -so many words, say that the supernatural is present. Instead, it places -the reader in a position where it is natural to infer something beyond -the ordinary. In other words, the story does what life does: it presents -facts and leaves people to draw their own conclusions.</p> - -<p>Over the entire story hangs an atmosphere entirely in keeping with -the events narrated. The reader feels drawn into the solemn silence -of the vast forest; he knows the loneliness of little-visited lakes, and -the black terror that surrounds a wilderness camp-fire at night.</p> - -<p>The story is rich with foreshadowing, sentence after sentence pointing -toward the climax and emphasizing the single effect that is produced.</p> - -<p>Because of its hauntingly suggestive power <em>Running Wolf</em> is a remarkable -story of the supernatural.</p> - -<p>“Loneliness in a backwoods camp brings charm, pleasure, and a -happy sense of calm until, and unless, it comes too near. Once it has -crept within short distance, however, it may easily cross the narrow -line between comfort and discomfort.”</p> -</div> - -<p class="p2">The man who enjoys an adventure outside the general -experience of the race, and imparts it to others, must not be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</span> -surprised if he is taken for either a liar or a fool, as Malcolm -Hyde, hotel clerk on a holiday, discovered in due course. Nor -is “enjoy” the right word to use in describing his emotions; -the word he chose was probably “survive.”</p> - -<p>When he first set eyes on Medicine Lake he was struck by -its still, sparkling beauty, lying there in the vast Canadian -backwoods; next, by its extreme loneliness; and, lastly—a -good deal later, this—by its combination of beauty, loneliness, -and singular atmosphere, due to the fact that it was the -scene of his adventure.</p> - -<p>“It 's fairly stiff with big fish,” said Morton of the Montreal -Sporting Club. “Spend your holiday there—up Mattawa -way, some fifteen miles west of Stony Creek. You'll have it -all to yourself except for an old Indian who's got a shack -there. Camp on the east side—if you'll take a tip from me.” -He then talked for half an hour about the wonderful sport; -yet he was not otherwise very communicative, and did not -suffer questions gladly, Hyde noticed. Nor had he stayed -there very long himself. If it was such a paradise as Morton, -its discoverer and the most experienced rod in the province, -claimed, why had he himself spent only three days there?</p> - -<p>“Ran short of grub,” was the explanation offered; but to -another friend he had mentioned briefly, “flies,” and to a -third, so Hyde learned later, he gave the excuse that his half-breed -“took sick,” necessitating a quick return to civilization.</p> - -<p>Hyde, however, cared little for the explanations; his interest -in these came later. “Stiff with fish” was the phrase -he liked. He took the Canadian Pacific train to Mattawa, -laid in his outfit at Stony Creek, and set off thence for the fifteen-mile -canoe-trip without a care in the world.</p> - -<p>Traveling light, the portages did not trouble him; the -water was swift and easy, the rapids negotiable; everything -came his way, as the saying is. Occasionally he saw big fish -making for the deeper pools, and was sorely tempted to -stop; but he resisted. He pushed on between the immense -world of forests that stretched for hundreds of miles, known -to deer, bear, moose, and wolf, but strange to any echo<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</span> -of human tread, a deserted and primeval wilderness. The -autumn day was calm, the water sang and sparkled, the -blue sky hung cloudless over all, ablaze with light. Toward -evening he passed an old beaver-dam, rounded a little point, -and had his first sight of Medicine Lake. He lifted his dripping -paddle; the canoe shot with silent glide into calm water. -He gave an exclamation of delight, for the loveliness caught -his breath away.</p> - -<p>Though primarily a sportsman, he was not insensible to -beauty. The lake formed a crescent, perhaps four miles -long, its width between a mile and half a mile. The slanting -gold of sunset flooded it. No wind stirred its crystal -surface. Here it had lain since the red-skin's god first made -it; here it would lie until he dried it up again. Towering -spruce and hemlock trooped to its very edge, majestic cedars -leaned down as if to drink, crimson sumachs shone in fiery -patches, and maples gleamed orange and red beyond belief. -The air was like wine, with the silence of a dream.</p> - -<p>It was here the red men formerly “made medicine,” with -all the wild ritual and tribal ceremony of an ancient day. -But it was of Morton, rather than of Indians, that Hyde -thought. If this lonely, hidden paradise was really stiff -with big fish, he owed a lot to Morton for the information. -Peace invaded him, but the excitement of the hunter lay -below.</p> - -<p>He looked about him with quick, practised eye for a camping-place -before the sun sank below the forests and the half-lights -came. The Indian's shack, lying in full sunshine on -the eastern shore, he found at once; but the trees lay too -thick about it for comfort, nor did he wish to be so close -to its inhabitant. Upon the opposite side, however, an ideal -clearing offered. This lay already in shadow, the huge forest -darkening it toward evening; but the open space attracted. -He paddled over quickly and examined it. The ground was -hard and dry, he found, and a little brook ran tinkling down -one side of it into the lake. This outfall, too, would be a -good fishing spot. Also it was sheltered. A few low willows -marked the mouth.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</span></p> - -<p>An experienced camper soon makes up his mind. It was -a perfect site, and some charred logs, with traces of former -fires, proved that he was not the first to think so. Hyde -was delighted. Then, suddenly, disappointment came to tinge -his pleasure. His kit was landed, and preparations for putting -up the tent were begun, when he recalled a detail that -excitement had so far kept in the background of his mind—Morton's -advice. But not Morton's only, for the storekeeper -at Stony Creek had reinforced it. The big fellow with straggling -mustache and stooping shoulders, dressed in shirt and -trousers, had handed him out a final sentence with the bacon, -flour, condensed milk, and sugar. He had repeated Morton's -half-forgotten words:</p> - -<p>“Put yer tent on the east shore. I should,” he had said -at parting.</p> - -<p>He remembered Morton, too, apparently. “A shortish -fellow, brown as an Indian and fairly smelling of the woods. -Traveling with Jake, the half-breed.” That assuredly was -Morton. “Didn't stay long, now, did he?” he added in a reflective -tone.</p> - -<p>“Going Windy Lake way, are yer? Or Ten Mile Water, -maybe?” he had first inquired of Hyde.</p> - -<p>“Medicine Lake.”</p> - -<p>“Is that so?” the man said, as though he doubted it for -some obscure reason. He pulled at his ragged mustache -a moment. “Is that so, now?” he repeated. And the final -words followed him down-stream after a considerable pause—the -advice about the best shore on which to put his tent.</p> - -<p>All this now suddenly flashed back upon Hyde's mind -with a tinge of disappointment and annoyance, for when -two experienced men agreed, their opinion was not to be -lightly disregarded. He wished he had asked the storekeeper -for more details. He looked about him, he reflected, -he hesitated. His ideal camping-ground lay certainly on -the forbidden shore. What in the world, he wondered, could -be the objection to it?</p> - -<p>But the light was fading; he must decide quickly one way -or the other. After staring at his unpacked dunnage and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</span> -the tent, already half erected, he made up his mind with -a muttered expression that consigned both Morton and the -storekeeper to less pleasant places. “They must have some -reason,” he growled to himself; “fellows like that usually -know what they're talking about. I guess I'd better shift -over to the other side—for to-night, at any rate.”</p> - -<p>He glanced across the water before actually reloading. -No smoke rose from the Indian's shack. He had seen no -sign of a canoe. The man, he decided, was away. Reluctantly, -then, he left the good camping-ground and paddled -across the lake, and half an hour later his tent was up, firewood -collected, and two small trout were already caught -for supper. But the bigger fish, he knew, lay waiting for -him on the other side by the little outfall, and he fell asleep -at length on his bed of balsam boughs, annoyed and disappointed, -yet wondering how a mere sentence could have -persuaded him so easily against his own better judgment. -He slept like the dead; the sun was well up before he stirred.</p> - -<p>But his morning mood was a very different one. The -brilliant light, the peace, the intoxicating air, all this was -too exhilarating for the mind to harbor foolish fancies, and -he marveled that he could have been so weak the night before. -No hesitation lay in him anywhere. He struck camp -immediately after breakfast, paddled back across the strip -of shining water, and quickly settled in upon the forbidden -shore, as he now called it, with a contemptuous grin. And -the more he saw of the spot, the better he liked it. There -was plenty of wood, running water to drink, an open space -about the tent, and there were no flies. The fishing, moreover, -was magnificent; Morton's description was fully justified, -and “stiff with big fish” for once was not an exaggeration.</p> - -<p>The useless hours of the early afternoon he passed dozing -in the sun, or wandering through the underbrush beyond -the camp. He found no sign of anything unusual. He -bathed in a cool, deep pool; he reveled in the lonely little -paradise. Lonely it certainly was, but the loneliness was part -of its charm; the stillness, the peace, the isolation of this -beautiful backwoods lake delighted him. The silence was -divine. He was entirely satisfied.</p> - -<p>After a brew of tea, he strolled toward evening along the -shore, looking for the first sign of a rising fish. A faint -ripple on the water, with the lengthening shadows, made -good conditions. <em>Plop</em> followed <em>plop</em>, as the big fellows rose, -snatched at their food, and vanished into the depths. He -hurried back. Ten minutes later he had taken his rods and -was gliding cautiously in the canoe through the quiet water.</p> - -<p>So good was the sport, indeed, and so quickly did the -big trout pile up in the bottom of the canoe that, despite -the growing lateness, he found it hard to tear himself away. -“One more,” he said, “and then I really will go.” He -landed that “one more,” and was in the act of taking it -off the hook, when the deep silence of the evening was -curiously disturbed. He became abruptly aware that some -one watched him. A pair of eyes, it seemed, were fixed -upon him from some point in the surrounding shadows.</p> - -<p>Thus, at least, he interpreted the odd disturbance in his -happy mood; for thus he felt it. The feeling stole over him -without the slightest warning. He was not alone. The -slippery big trout dripped from his fingers. He sat motionless, -and stared about him.</p> - -<p>Nothing stirred; the ripple on the lake had died away; -there was no wind; the forest lay a single purple mass of -shadow; the yellow sky, fast fading, threw reflections that -troubled the eye and made distances uncertain. But there -was no sound, no movement; he saw no figure anywhere. -Yet he knew that some one watched him, and a wave of -quite unreasoning terror gripped him. The nose of the -canoe was against the bank. In a moment, and instinctively, -he shoved it off and paddled into deeper water. The watcher, -it came to him also instinctively, was quite close to him -upon that bank. But where? And who? Was it the Indian?</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</span></p> - - -<div class="figcenter illowp51 chapter" id="ilo_fp-60" style="max-width: 36.875em;"> - <img class="w100" src="images/ilo_fp-60.jpg" alt="" /> -<p class="right">(<em>page 60</em>)</p> - <p class="caption center p1">“The feeling stole over him without the slightest warning. He -was not alone.”</p> -</div> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="p1">Here, in deeper water, and some twenty yards from the -shore, he paused and strained both sight and hearing to -find some possible clue. He felt half ashamed, now that -the first strange feeling passed a little. But the certainty -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</span> -remained. Absurd as it was, he felt positive that some one -watched him with concentrated and intent regard. Every -fiber in his being told him so; and though he could discover -no figure, no new outline on the shore, he could even -have sworn in which clump of willow bushes the hidden person -crouched and stared. His attention seemed drawn to -that particular clump.</p> -</div> - -<p>The water dripped slowly from his paddle, now lying across -the thwarts. There was no other sound. The canvas of his -tent gleamed dimly. A star or two were out. He waited. -Nothing happened.</p> - -<p>Then, as suddenly as it had come, the feeling passed, and -he knew that the person who had been watching him intently -had gone. It was as if a current had been turned -off; the normal world flowed back; the landscape emptied -as if some one had left a room. The disagreeable feeling left -him at the same time, so that he instantly turned the canoe -in to the shore again, landed, and, paddle in hand, went over -to examine the clump of willows he had singled out as -the place of concealment. There was no one there, of -course, or any trace of recent human occupancy. No leaves, -no branches stirred, nor was a single twig displaced; his -keen and practised sight detected no sign of tracks upon the -ground. Yet, for all that, he felt positive that a little time -ago some one had crouched among these very leaves and -watched him. He remained absolutely convinced of it. The -watcher, whether Indian, hunter, stray lumberman, or wandering -half-breed, had now withdrawn, a search was useless, -and dusk was falling. He returned to his little camp, more -disturbed perhaps than he cared to acknowledge. He cooked -his supper, hung up his catch on a string, so that no prowling -animal could get at it during the night, and prepared to -make himself comfortable until bed-time. Unconsciously, -he built a bigger fire than usual, and found himself peering -over his pipe into the deep shadows beyond the firelight, -straining his ears to catch the slightest sound. He remained -generally on the alert in a way that was new to him.</p> - -<p>A man under such conditions and in such a place need<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</span> -not know discomfort until the sense of loneliness strikes -him as too vivid a reality. Loneliness in a backwoods camp -brings charm, pleasure, and a happy sense of calm until, -and unless, it comes too near. It should remain an ingredient -only among other conditions; it should not be directly, -vividly noticed. Once it has crept within short range, however, -it may easily cross the narrow line between comfort -and discomfort, and darkness is an undesirable time for -the transition. A curious dread may easily follow—the dread -lest the loneliness suddenly be disturbed, and the solitary -human feel himself open to attack.</p> - -<p>For Hyde, now, this transition had been already accomplished; -the too intimate sense of his loneliness had shifted -abruptly into the worse condition of no longer being quite -alone. It was an awkward moment, and the hotel clerk -realized his position exactly. He did not quite like it. He -sat there, with his back to the blazing logs, a very visible -object in the light, while all about him the darkness of -the forest lay like an impenetrable wall. He could not see -a foot beyond the small circle of his camp-fire; the silence -about him was like the silence of the dead. No leaf rustled, -no wave lapped; he himself sat motionless as a log.</p> - -<p>Then again he became suddenly aware that the person -who watched him had returned, and that same intent and -concentrated gaze as before was fixed upon him where he -lay. There was no warning; he heard no stealthy tread or -snapping of dry twigs, yet the owner of those steady eyes -was very close to him, probably not a dozen feet away. -This sense of proximity was overwhelming.</p> - -<p>It is unquestionable that a shiver ran down his spine. -This time, moreover, he felt positive that the man crouched -just beyond the firelight, the distance he himself could -see being nicely calculated, and straight in front of him. For -some minutes he sat without stirring a single muscle, yet -with each muscle ready and alert, straining his eyes in vain -to pierce the darkness, but only succeeding in dazzling his -sight with the reflected light. Then, as he shifted his position -slowly, cautiously, to obtain another angle of vision, his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</span> -heart gave two big thumps against his ribs and the hair -seemed to rise on his scalp with the sense of cold that shot -horribly up his spine. In the darkness facing him he saw -two small and greenish circles that were certainly a pair of -eyes, yet not the eyes of Indian, hunter, or of any human -being. It was a pair of animal eyes that stared so fixedly at -him out of the night. And this certainty had an immediate -and natural effect upon him.</p> - -<p>For, at the menace of those eyes, the fears of millions of -long dead hunters since the dawn of time woke in him. -Hotel clerk though he was, heredity surged through him in -an automatic wave of instinct. His hand groped for a -weapon. His fingers fell on the iron head of his small camp -ax, and at once he was himself again. Confidence returned; -the vague, superstitious dread was gone. This was a bear -or wolf that smelt his catch and came to steal it. With beings -of that sort he knew instinctively how to deal, yet admitting, -by this very instinct, that his original dread had -been of quite another kind.</p> - -<p>“I'll damned quick find out what it is,” he exclaimed -aloud, and snatching a burning brand from the fire, he -hurled it with good aim straight at the eyes of the beast -before him.</p> - -<p>The bit of pitch-pine fell in a shower of sparks that lit -the dry grass this side of the animal, flared up a moment, -then died quickly down again. But in that instant of bright -illumination he saw clearly what his unwelcome visitor was. -A big timber wolf sat on its hindquarters, staring steadily -at him through the firelight. He saw its legs and shoulders, -he saw its hair, he saw also the big hemlock trunks lit up -behind it, and the willow scrub on each side. It formed -a vivid, clear-cut picture shown in clear detail by the momentary -blaze. To his amazement, however, the wolf did not -turn and bolt away from the burning log, but withdrew a -few yards only, and sat there again on its haunches, staring, -staring as before. Heavens, how it stared! He “shoed” it, -but without effect; it did not budge. He did not waste another -good log on it, for his fear was dissipated now, and a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</span> -timber wolf was a timber wolf, and it might sit there as -long as it pleased, provided it did not try to steal his catch. -No alarm was in him any more. He knew that wolves were -harmless in the summer and autumn, and even when -“packed” in the winter, they would attack a man only when -suffering desperate hunger. So he lay and watched the beast, -threw bits of stick in its direction, even talked to it, wondering -only that it never moved. “You can stay there forever, if -you like,” he remarked to it aloud, “for you cannot get at -my fish, and the rest of the grub I shall take into the tent -with me.”</p> - -<p>The creature blinked its bright green eyes, but made no -move.</p> - -<p>Why, then, if his fear was gone, did he think of certain -things as he rolled himself in the Hudson Bay blankets -before going to sleep? The immobility of the animal was -strange, its refusal to turn and bolt was still stranger. Never -before had he known a wild creature that was not afraid -of fire. Why did it sit and watch him, as with purpose in -its dreadful eyes? How had he felt its presence earlier -and instantly? A timber wolf, especially a solitary timber -wolf, was a timid thing, yet this one feared neither man nor -fire. Now as he lay there wrapped in his blankets inside -the cozy tent, it sat outside beneath the stars, beside the -fading embers, the wind chilly in its fur, the ground cooling -beneath its planted paws, watching him, steadily watching -him, perhaps until the dawn.</p> - -<p>It was unusual, it was strange. Having neither imagination -nor tradition, he called upon no store of racial visions. -Matter of fact, a hotel clerk on a fishing holiday, he lay -there in his blankets, merely wondering and puzzled. A -timber wolf was a timber wolf and nothing more. Yet this -timber wolf—the idea haunted him—was different. In a -word, the deeper part of his original uneasiness remained. -He tossed about, he shivered sometimes in his broken sleep, -he did not go out to see, but he woke early and unrefreshed.</p> - -<p>Again, with the sunshine and the morning wind, however, -the incident of the night before was forgotten, almost unreal.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</span> -His hunting zeal was uppermost. The tea and fish -were delicious, his pipe had never tasted so good, the glory -of this lonely lake amid primeval forests went to his head -a little; he was a hunter before the Lord,<a id="FNanchor_27" href="#Footnote_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> and nothing else. -He tried the edge of the lake, and in the excitement of playing -a big fish, knew suddenly that <em>it</em>, the wolf, was there. -He paused with the rod, exactly as if struck. He looked about -him, he looked in a definite direction. The brilliant sunshine -made every smallest detail clear and sharp—boulders of -granite, burned stems, crimson sumach, pebbles along the -shore in neat, separate detail—without revealing where the -watcher hid. Then, his sight wandering farther inshore -among the tangled undergrowth, he suddenly picked up the -familiar, half-expected outline. The wolf was lying behind -a granite boulder, so that only the head, the muzzle, -and the eyes were visible. It merged in its background. -Had he not known it was a wolf, he could never have separated -it from the landscape. The eyes shone in the sunlight.</p> - -<p>There it lay. He looked straight at it. Their eyes, in fact, -actually met full and square. “Great Scot!” he exclaimed -aloud, “why, it's like looking at a human being!” And -from that moment, unwittingly, he established a singular -personal relation with the beast. And what followed confirmed -this undesirable impression, for the animal rose instantly -and came down in leisurely fashion to the shore, where -it stood looking back at him. It stood and stared into -his eyes like some great wild dog, so that he was aware of a -new and almost incredible sensation—that it courted recognition.</p> - -<p>“Well! well!” he exclaimed again, relieving his feelings -by addressing it aloud, “if this doesn't beat everything I -ever saw! What d' you want, anyway?”</p> - -<p>He examined it now more carefully. He had never seen -a wolf so big before; it was a tremendous beast, a nasty customer -to tackle, he reflected, if it ever came to that. It -stood there absolutely fearless and full of confidence. In -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</span>the clear sunlight he took in every detail of it—a huge, -shaggy, lean-flanked timber wolf, its wicked eyes staring -straight into his own, almost with a kind of purpose in -them. He saw its great jaws, its teeth, and its tongue, hung -out, dropping saliva a little. And yet the idea of its savagery, -its fierceness, was very little in him.</p> - -<p>He was amazed and puzzled beyond belief. He wished -the Indian would come back. He did not understand this -strange behavior in an animal. Its eyes, the odd expression -in them, gave him a queer, unusual, difficult feeling. -Had his nerves gone wrong? he almost wondered.</p> - -<p>The beast stood on the shore and looked at him. He -wished for the first time that he had brought a rifle. With -a resounding smack he brought his paddle down flat upon -the water, using all his strength, till the echoes rang as -from a pistol-shot that was audible from one end of the lake -to the other. The wolf never stirred. He shouted, but the -beast remained unmoved. He blinked his eyes, speaking as -to a dog, a domestic animal, a creature accustomed to human -ways. It blinked its eyes in return.</p> - -<p>At length, increasing his distance from the shore, he continued -fishing, and the excitement of the marvelous sport -held his attention—his surface attention, at any rate. At -times he almost forgot the attendant beast; yet whenever -he looked up, he saw it there. And worse; when he slowly -paddled home again, he observed it trotting along the shore -as though to keep him company. Crossing a little bay, he -spurted, hoping to reach the other point before his undesired -and undesirable attendant. Instantly the brute broke into -that rapid, tireless lope that, except on ice, can run down -anything on four legs in the woods. When he reached the -distant point, the wolf was waiting for him. He raised -his paddle from the water, pausing a moment for reflection; -for this very close attention—there were dusk and night -yet to come—he certainly did not relish. His camp was near; -he had to land; he felt uncomfortable even in the sunshine -of broad day, when, to his keen relief, about half a mile -from the tent, he saw the creature suddenly stop and sit<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</span> -down in the open. He waited a moment, then paddled on. -It did not follow. There was no attempt to move; it merely -sat and watched him. After a few hundred yards, he looked -back. It was still sitting where he left it. And the -absurd, yet significant, feeling came to him that the beast -divined his thought, his anxiety, his dread, and was now -showing him, as well as it could, that it entertained no -hostile feeling and did not meditate attack.</p> - -<p>He turned the canoe toward the shore; he landed; he -cooked his supper in the dusk; the animal made no sign. -Not far away it certainly lay and watched, but it did not -advance. And to Hyde, observant now in a new way, came -one sharp, vivid reminder of the strange atmosphere into -which his commonplace personality had strayed: he suddenly -recalled that his relations with the beast, already established, -had progressed distinctly a stage further. This startled him, -yet without the accompanying alarm he must certainly have -felt twenty-four hours before. He had an understanding -with the wolf. He was aware of friendly thoughts toward -it. He even went so far as to set out a few big fish on -the spot where he had first seen it sitting the previous night. -“If he comes,” he thought, “he is welcome to them. I've -got plenty, anyway.” He thought of it now as “he.”</p> - -<p>Yet the wolf made no appearance until he was in the -act of entering his tent a good deal later. It was close -on ten o'clock, whereas nine was his hour, and late at that, -for turning in. He had, therefore, unconsciously been waiting -for him. Then, as he was closing the flap, he saw the -eyes close to where he had placed the fish. He waited, hiding -himself, and expecting to hear sounds of munching jaws; -but all was silence. Only the eyes glowed steadily out of the -background of pitch darkness. He closed the flap. He -had no slightest fear. In ten minutes he was sound asleep.</p> - -<p>He could not have slept very long, for when he woke up -he could see the shine of a faint red light through the canvas, -and the fire had not died down completely. He rose and -cautiously peeped out. The air was very cold; he saw his -breath. But he also saw the wolf, for it had come in, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</span> -was sitting by the dying embers, not two yards away from -where he crouched behind the flap. And this time, at these -very close quarters, there was something in the attitude of -the big wild thing that caught his attention with a vivid -thrill of startled surprise and a sudden shock of cold that -held him spellbound. He stared, unable to believe his eyes; -for the wolf's attitude conveyed to him something familiar -that at first he was unable to explain. Its pose reached him -in the terms of another thing with which he was entirely at -home. What was it? Did his senses betray him? Was he -still asleep and dreaming?</p> - -<p>Then, suddenly, with a start of uncanny recognition, he -knew. Its attitude was that of a dog. Having found the -clue, his mind then made an awful leap. For it was, after -all, no dog its appearance aped, but something nearer to -himself, and more familiar still. Good heavens! It sat there -with the pose, the attitude, the gesture in repose of something -almost human. And then, with a second shock of -biting wonder, it came to him like a revelation. The wolf -sat beside that camp-fire as a man might sit.</p> - -<p>Before he could weigh his extraordinary discovery, before -he could examine it in detail or with care, the animal, sitting -in this ghastly fashion, seemed to feel his eyes fixed on it. It -slowly turned and looked him in the face, and for the first -time Hyde felt a full-blooded, superstitious fear flood through -his entire being. He seemed transfixed with that nameless -terror that is said to attack human beings who suddenly face -the dead, finding themselves bereft of speech and movement. -This moment of paralysis certainly occurred. Its -passing, however, was as singular as its advent. For almost -at once he was aware of something beyond and above this -mockery of human attitude and pose, something that ran -along unaccustomed nerves and reached his feeling, even -perhaps his heart. The revulsion was extraordinary, its result -still more extraordinary and unexpected. Yet the fact -remains. He was aware of another thing that had the effect -of stilling his terror as soon as it was born. He was aware -of appeal, silent, half-expressed, yet vastly pathetic. He saw<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</span> -in the savage eyes a beseeching, even a yearning, expression -that changed his mood as by magic from dread to natural -sympathy. The great gray brute, symbol of cruel ferocity, -sat there beside his dying fire and appealed for help.</p> - -<p>This gulf betwixt animal and human seemed in that instant -bridged. It was, of course, incredible. Hyde, sleep still -possibly clinging to his inner being with the shades and -half-shapes of dream yet about his soul, acknowledged, how -he knew not, the amazing fact. He found himself nodding to -the brute in half-consent, and instantly, without more ado, -the lean gray shape rose like a wraith and trotted off swiftly, -but with stealthy tread into the background of the night.</p> - -<p>When Hyde woke in the morning his first impression was -that he must have dreamed the entire incident. His practical -nature asserted itself. There was a bite in the fresh -autumn air; the bright sun allowed no half-lights anywhere; -he felt brisk in mind and body. Reviewing what had happened, -he came to the conclusion that it was utterly vain -to speculate; no possible explanation of the animal's behavior -occurred to him: he was dealing with something entirely -outside his experience. His fear, however, had completely -left him. The odd sense of friendliness remained. The beast -had a definite purpose, and he himself was included in that -purpose. His sympathy held good.</p> - -<p>But with the sympathy there was also an intense curiosity. -“If it shows itself again,” he told himself, “I'll go up -close and find out what it wants.” The fish laid out the -night before had not been touched.</p> - -<p>It must have been a full hour after breakfast when he -next saw the brute; it was standing on the edge of the -clearing, looking at him in the way now become familiar. -Hyde immediately picked up his ax and advanced toward -it boldly, keeping his eyes fixed straight upon its own. There -was nervousness in him, but kept well under; nothing betrayed -it; step by step he drew nearer until some ten yards -separated them. The wolf had not stirred a muscle as yet. -Its jaws hung open, its eyes observed him intently; it allowed -him to approach without a sign of what its mood might<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</span> -be. Then, with these ten yards between them, it turned -abruptly and moved slowly off, looking back first over one -shoulder and then over the other, exactly as a dog might -do, to see if he was following.</p> - -<p>A singular journey it was they then made together, animal -and man. The trees surrounded them at once, for they left -the lake behind them, entering the tangled bush beyond. -The beast, Hyde noticed, obviously picked the easiest track -for him to follow; for obstacles that meant nothing to the -four-legged expert, yet were difficult for a man, were carefully -avoided with an almost uncanny skill, while yet the -general direction was accurately kept. Occasionally there -were windfalls to be surmounted; but though the wolf -bounded over these with ease, it was always waiting for the -man on the other side after he had laboriously climbed over. -Deeper and deeper into the heart of the lonely forest they -penetrated in this singular fashion, cutting across the arc -of the lake's crescent, it seemed to Hyde; for after two miles -or so, he recognized the big rocky bluff that overhung the -water at its northern end. This outstanding bluff he had -seen from his camp, one side of it falling sheer into the water; -it was probably the spot, he imagined, where the Indians -held their medicine-making ceremonies, for it stood out in -isolated fashion, and its top formed a private plateau not -easy of access. And it was here, close to a big spruce at -the foot of the bluff upon the forest side, that the wolf -stopped suddenly and for the first time since its appearance -gave audible expression to its feelings. It sat down -on its haunches, lifted its muzzle with open jaws, and gave -vent to a subdued and long-drawn howl that was more like -the wail of a dog than the fierce barking cry associated with -a wolf.</p> - -<p>By this time Hyde had lost not only fear, but caution, too; -nor, oddly enough, did this warning howl revive a sign of -unwelcome emotion in him. In that curious sound he detected -the same message that the eyes conveyed—appeal for -help. He paused, nevertheless, a little startled, and while -the wolf sat waiting for him, he looked about him quickly.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</span> -There was young timber here; it had once been a small -clearing, evidently. Ax and fire had done their work, but -there was evidence to an experienced eye that it was Indians -and not white men who had once been busy here. Some -part of the medicine ritual, doubtless, took place in the little -clearing, thought the man, as he advanced again toward his -patient leader. The end of their queer journey, he felt, was -close at hand.</p> - -<p>He had not taken two steps before the animal got up and -moved very slowly in the direction of some low bushes that -formed a clump just beyond. It entered these, first looking -back to make sure that its companion watched. The bushes -hid it; a moment later it emerged again. Twice it performed -this pantomime, each time, as it reappeared, standing still and -staring at the man with as distinct an expression of appeal -in the eyes as an animal may compass, probably. Its excitement, -meanwhile, certainly increased, and this excitement -was, with equal certainty, communicated to the man. Hyde -made up his mind quickly. Gripping his ax tightly, and -ready to use it at the first hint of malice, he moved slowly -nearer to the bushes, wondering with something of a tremor -what would happen.</p> - -<p>If he expected to be startled, his expectation was at once -fulfilled; but it was the behavior of the beast that made him -jump. It positively frisked about him like a happy dog. -It frisked for joy. Its excitement was intense, yet from -its open mouth no sound was audible. With a sudden leap, -then, it bounded past him into the clump of bushes, against -whose very edge he stood and began scraping vigorously at -the ground. Hyde stood and stared, amazement and interest -now banishing all his nervousness, even when the -beast, in its violent scraping, actually touched his body -with its own. He had, perhaps, the feeling that he was -in a dream, one of those fantastic dreams in which things -may happen without involving an adequate surprise; for -otherwise the manner of scraping and scratching at the -ground must have seemed an impossible phenomenon. No -wolf, no dog certainly, used its paws in the way those paws<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</span> -were working. Hyde had the odd, distressing sensation -that it was hands, not paws, he watched. And yet, somehow, -the natural, adequate surprise he should have felt, was absent. -The strange action seemed not entirely unnatural. In his -heart some deep hidden spring of sympathy and pity stirred -instead. He was aware of pathos.</p> - -<p>The wolf stopped in its task and looked up into his face. -Hyde acted without hesitation then. Afterward he was -wholly at a loss to explain his own conduct. It seemed he -knew what to do, divined what was asked, expected of him. -Between his mind and the dumb desire yearning through -the savage animal there was intelligent and intelligible communication. -He cut a stake and sharpened it, for the stones -would blunt his ax-edge. He entered the clump of bushes -to complete the digging his four-legged companion had begun. -And while he worked, though he did not forget the -close proximity of the wolf, he paid no attention to it; often -his back was turned as he stooped over the laborious clearing -away of the hard earth; no uneasiness or sense of danger -was in him any more. The wolf sat outside the clump and -watched the operations. Its concentrated attention, its patience, -its intense eagerness, the gentleness and docility of -the gray, fierce, and probably hungry brute, its obvious -pleasure and satisfaction, too, at having won the human to -its mysterious purpose—these were colors in the strange picture -that Hyde thought of later when dealing with the human -herd in his hotel again. At the moment he was aware chiefly -of pathos and affection. The whole business was, of course, -not to be believed, but that discovery came later, too, when -telling it to others.</p> - -<p>The digging continued for fully half an hour before his -labor was rewarded by the discovery of a small whitish object. -He picked it up and examined it—the finger-bone of a man. -Other discoveries then followed quickly and in quantity. The -cache was laid bare. He collected nearly the complete skeleton. -The skull, however, he found last, and might not have -found at all but for the guidance of his strangely alert companion. -It lay some few yards away from the central hole<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</span> -now dug, and the wolf stood nuzzling the ground with its nose -before Hyde understood that he was meant to dig exactly -in that spot for it. Between the beast's very paws his -stake struck hard upon it. He scraped the earth from the -bone and examined it carefully. It was perfect, save for -the fact that some wild animal had gnawed it, the teeth-marks -being still plainly visible. Close beside it lay the rusty -iron head of a tomahawk. This and the smallness of the bones -confirmed him in his judgment that it was the skeleton not of -a white man, but of an Indian.</p> - -<p>During the excitement of the discovery of the bones one -by one, and finally of the skull, but, more especially, during -the period of intense interest while Hyde was examining -them, he had paid little, if any, attention to the wolf. He -was aware that it sat and watched him, never moving its -keen eyes for a single moment from the actual operations, but -of sign or movement it made none at all. He knew that it -was pleased and satisfied, he knew also that he had now -fulfilled its purpose in a great measure. The further intuition -that now came to him, derived, he felt positive, from -his companion's dumb desire, was perhaps the cream of -the entire experience to him. Gathering the bones together -in his coat, he carried them, together with the tomahawk, -to the foot of the big spruce where the animal had first -stopped. His leg actually touched the creature's muzzle as -he passed. It turned its head to watch, but did not follow, -nor did it move a muscle while he prepared the platform -of boughs upon which he then laid the poor worn bones -of an Indian who had been killed, doubtless, in sudden attack -or ambush, and to whose remains had been denied the -last grace of proper tribal burial. He wrapped the bones in -bark; he laid the tomahawk beside the skull; he lit the circular -fire round the pyre, and the blue smoke rose upward into -the clear bright sunshine of the Canadian autumn morning -till it was lost among the mighty trees far overhead.</p> - -<p>In the moment before actually lighting the little fire -he had turned to note what his companion did. It sat five -wards away, he saw, gazing intently, and one of its front<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</span> -paws was raised a little from the ground. It made no -sign of any kind. He finished the work, becoming so absorbed -in it that he had eyes for nothing but the tending and guarding -of his careful ceremonial fire. It was only when the -platform of boughs collapsed, laying their charred burden -gently on the fragrant earth among the soft wood ashes, -that he turned again, as though to show the wolf what -he had done, and seek, perhaps, some look of satisfaction -in its curiously expressive eyes. But the place he searched -was empty. The wolf had gone.</p> - -<p>He did not see it again; it gave no sign of its presence -anywhere; he was not watched. He fished as before, wandered -through the bush about his camp, sat smoking round -his fire after dark, and slept peacefully in his cozy little -tent. He was not disturbed. No howl was ever audible in -the distant forest, no twig snapped beneath a stealthy tread, -he saw no eyes. The wolf that behaved like a man had gone -forever.</p> - -<p>It was the day before he left that Hyde, noticing smoke -rising from the shack across the lake, paddled over to -exchange a word or two with the Indian, who had evidently -now returned. The redskin came down to meet him as he -landed, but it was soon plain that he spoke very little English. -He emitted the familiar grunts at first; then bit by bit Hyde -stirred his limited vocabulary into action. The net result, -however, was slight enough, though it was certainly direct:</p> - -<p>“You camp there?” the man asked, pointing to the other -side.</p> - -<p>“Yes.”</p> - -<p>“Wolf come?”</p> - -<p>“Yes.”</p> - -<p>“You see wolf?”</p> - -<p>“Yes.”</p> - -<p>The Indian stared at him fixedly a moment, a keen, wondering -look upon his coppery, creased face.</p> - -<p>“You 'fraid wolf?” he asked after a moment's pause.</p> - -<p>“No,” replied Hyde, truthfully. He knew it was useless -to ask questions of his own, though he was eager for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</span> -information. The other would have told him nothing. It -was sheer luck that the man had touched on the subject -at all, and Hyde realized that his own best rôle was merely -to answer, but to ask no questions. Then, suddenly, the -Indian became comparatively voluble. There was awe in -his voice and manner.</p> - -<p>“Him no wolf. Him big medicine wolf. Him spirit -wolf.”</p> - -<p>Whereupon he drank the tea the other had brewed for -him, closed his lips tightly, and said no more. His outline -was discernible on the shore, rigid and motionless, an -hour later, when Hyde's canoe turned the corner of the lake -three miles away, and landed to make the portages up the -first rapid of his homeward stream.</p> - -<p>It was Morton who, after some persuasion, supplied further -details of what he called the legend. Some hundred years -before, the tribe that lived in the territory beyond the -lake began their annual medicine-making ceremonies on the -big rocky bluff at the northern end; but no medicine could -be made. The spirits, declared the chief medicine man, would -not answer. They were offended. An investigation followed. -It was discovered that a young brave had recently killed a -wolf, a thing strictly forbidden, since the wolf was the totem -animal of the tribe. To make matters worse, the name of -the guilty man was Running Wolf. The offense being unpardonable, -the man was cursed and driven from the tribe:</p> - -<p>“Go out. Wander alone among the woods, and if we see -you, we slay you. Your bones shall be scattered in the forest, -and your spirit shall not enter the Happy Hunting -Grounds till one of another race shall find and bury them.”</p> - -<p>“Which meant,” explained Morton, laconically, his only -comment on the story, “probably forever.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</span></p> - -<h4>SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS</h4> - -<ol class="f"> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Show that the suggestions of the supernatural rise with cumulative -power.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> How does the author make the setting contribute to the effect -of the story?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What is the character of the hero?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Why did the author make the hero a solitary character?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Why is the author so slow in introducing the wolf?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What is the hero's attitude toward the supernatural?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> How does the hero's attitude toward the supernatural affect the -reader?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Point out the various means by which the author makes the -story seem true.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What is the character of the wolf?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Why does the author hold the story of the legend until the last?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Did Hyde believe the wolf was a “spirit-wolf”?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Divide the story into a series of important incidents.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Show how style contributes to effect.</li> -</ol> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h4>SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION</h4> -</div> - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="his10"> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">1. The Haunted House</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">11. The Dancing Squirrels</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">2. Mysterious Footprints</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">12. Footsteps at Night</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">3. A Strange Echo</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">13. The Lost Cemetery</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">4. Warned in Time</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">14. The Woman in Black</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">5. A Haunting Dream</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">15. The Dead Patriot</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">6. My Great-Grandfather</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">16. The Cat That Came Back</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">7. The Old Grave</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">17. The Church Bell</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">8. The Ruined Church</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">18. The Old Battlefield</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">9. Tap! Tap! Tap!</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">19. The Indians' Camp</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">10. Prophetic Birds</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">20. The Hessian's Grave</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - -<h4>DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING</h4> - -<p class="p2">If you are to imitate <em>Running Wolf</em> successfully you must first -think of a story of the supernatural, a simple, easily-understood -story that will have a foundation of fact, and that will appear to be -reasonable in its use of the supernatural. Then, without introducing -your story immediately, show how a person who knows nothing of -it takes part in a series of events that lead him to understand the -story.</p> - -<p>Make the setting of your story one that will contribute strongly -to the central effect. Do not give any definite explanation of the -events that you narrate. Give your reader such an abundance of -suggestion that he will be led to infer a supernatural explanation.</p> - -<p>Hold until the last the basic story on which you found your entire -narration.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="footnotes"> -<p class="p2 center big2">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_27" href="#FNanchor_27" class="label">[27]</a> A reference to Genesis 10:9, where Nimrod is called “a mighty -hunter before the Lord.”</p> - -</div> -</div> -</div> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</span></p> -<p class="p4 center big3">THE BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY</p> -</div> - - -<h2 class="nobreak">HOW I FOUND AMERICA</h2> - - -<p class="center big1">By ANZIA YEZIERSKA</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p2"><em>In 1896 Miss Yezierska came from Plotzk in Russian Poland, -where she was born. After hard experiences in a “sweat -shop” she became a teacher of cooking. She is the author of</em> -Hungry Hearts. <em>Her dialect stories, strongly realistic and -touching, appear in many magazines.</em></p> -</div> - -<div class="indent1 small1 bold"> - -<p class="p2">An autobiography is a straightforward story of the life of the writer. -An autobiographical essay is a meditation on the events in one's own -life.</p> - -<p><em>How I Found America</em> is an autobiographical essay. It does not tell -the story of the writer's life: it tells the writer's thoughts preceding -and after her arrival in America. As in all good essays, the subject is -much greater than the writer. The meditation is purely personal, but -it stirs a response in every thoughtful reader. It asks and answers the -questions: “What do oppressed foreigners think America to be?” -“What do immigrants find America to be?” “How can we make -immigrants into the most helpful Americans?”</p> - -<p>The anecdotes that make the parts of the essay are as graphic as so -many bold drawings. The principal sections of the essay are as distinct -as the chapters of a book. At all times this essay concerns the question, -“What is it to be an American?”</p> - -<p>In some respects this particular essay is like a musical composition; -for it begins with a sort of prelude, rises through a series of movements, -and culminates in a triumphant close, the whole composition being -marked by the presence of a strong motif—the exaltation of the true -spirit of America.</p> -</div> - -<p class="p2">Every breath I drew was a breath of fear, every shadow -a stifling shock, every footfall struck on my heart like the -heavy boot of the Cossack. On a low stool in the middle of -the only room in our mud hut sat my father, his red beard -falling over the Book of Isaiah, open before him. On the -tile stove, on the benches that were our beds, even on the -earthen floor, sat the neighbors' children, learning from him -the ancient poetry of the Hebrew race. As he chanted, the -children repeated:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</span></p> -<div class="poetry-container pw25"> -<div class="poetry small1"> -<p class="p1">The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness,<br /> -Prepare ye the way of the Lord.<br /> -Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.</p> - -<p class="p1">Every valley shall be exalted,<br /> -And every mountain and hill shall be made low,<br /> -And the crooked shall be made straight,<br /> -And the rough places plain,<br /> -And the glory of God shall be revealed,<br /> -And all flesh shall see it together.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="p1">Undisturbed by the swaying and chanting of teacher and -pupils, old Kakah, our speckled hen, with her brood of -chicks, strutted and pecked at the potato-peelings that fell -from my mother's lap as she prepared our noon meal.</p> - -<p>I stood at the window watching the road, lest the Cossack -come upon us unawares to enforce the ukase of the czar, -which would tear the last bread from our mouths: “No -<em>chadir</em> [Hebrew school] shall be held in a room used for -cooking and sleeping.”</p> - -<p>With one eye I watched ravenously my mother cutting -chunks of black bread. At last the potatoes were ready. She -poured them out of an iron pot into a wooden bowl and -placed them in the center of the table.</p> - -<p>Instantly the swaying and chanting ceased. The children -rushed forward. The fear of the Cossack was swept away -from my heart by the fear that the children would get my -potato, and deserting my post, with a shout of joy I seized -my portion and bit a huge mouthful of mealy delight.</p> - -<p>At that moment the door was driven open by the blow -of an iron heel. The Cossack's whip swished through the air. -Screaming, we scattered. The children ran out—our livelihood -with them.</p> - -<p>“<em>Oi weh!</em>” wailed my mother, clutching at her breast, -“is there a God over us and sees all this?”</p> - -<p>With grief-glazed eyes my father muttered a broken prayer -as the Cossack thundered the ukase: “A thousand-ruble fine, -or a year in prison, if you are ever found again teaching -children where you're eating and sleeping.”</p> - -<p>“<em>Gottunieu!</em>” then pleaded my mother, “would you tear -the last skin from our bones? Where else should we be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</span> -eating and sleeping? Or should we keep <em>chadir</em> in the middle -of the road? Have we houses with separate rooms like -the czar?”</p> - -<p>Ignoring my mother's protests, the Cossack strode out of -the hut. My father sank into a chair, his head bowed in -the silent grief of the helpless.</p> - -<p>My mother wrung her hands.</p> - -<p>“God from the world, is there no end to our troubles? -When will the earth cover me and my woes?”</p> - -<p>I watched the Cossack disappear down the road. All -at once I saw the whole village running toward us. I -dragged my mother to the window to see the approaching -crowd.</p> - -<p>“<em>Gevalt!</em> what more is falling over our heads?” she cried -in alarm.</p> - -<p>Masheh Mindel, the water-carrier's wife, headed a wild -procession. The baker, the butcher, the shoemaker, the tailor, -the goatherd, the workers in the fields, with their wives and -children pressed toward us through a cloud of dust.</p> - -<p>Masheh Mindel, almost fainting, fell in front of the doorway.</p> - -<p>“A letter from America!” she gasped.</p> - -<p>“A letter from America!” echoed the crowd as they -snatched the letter from her and thrust it into my father's -hands.</p> - -<p>“Read, read!” they shouted tumultuously.</p> - -<p>My father looked through the letter, his lips uttering no -sound. In breathless suspense the crowd gazed at him. Their -eyes shone with wonder and reverence for the only man in -the village who could read. Masheh Mindel crouched at his -feet, her neck stretched toward him to catch each precious -word of the letter.</p> - -<div class="indent1 small1"> - -<p class="p2">To my worthy wife, Masheh Mindel, and to my loving son, Sushkah -Feivel, and to my darling daughter, the apple of my eye, the pride of -my life, Tzipkeleh!</p> - -<p>Long years and good luck on you! May the blessings from heaven -fall over your beloved heads and save you from all harm!</p> - -<p>First I come to tell you that I am well and in good health. May I -hear the same from you!</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</span></p> - -<p>Secondly, I am telling you that my sun is beginning to shine in -America. I am becoming a person—a business man. I have for myself -a stand in the most crowded part of America, where people are as thick -as flies and every day is like market-day at a fair. My business is -from bananas and apples. The day begins with my push-cart full of -fruit, and the day never ends before I can count up at least two dollars' -profit. That means four rubles. Stand before your eyes, I, Gedalyah -Mindel, four rubles a day; twenty-four rubles a week!</p> -</div> - -<p class="p2">“Gedalyah Mindel, the water-carrier, twenty-four rubles -a week!” The words leaped like fire in the air.</p> - -<p>We gazed at his wife, Masheh Mindel, a dried-out bone of -a woman.</p> - -<p>“Masheh Mindel, with a husband in America, Masheh -Mindel the wife of a man earning twenty-four rubles a -week! The sky is falling to the earth!”</p> - -<p>We looked at her with new reverence. Already she was -a being from another world. The dead, sunken eyes became -alive with light. The worry for bread that had tightened -the skin of her cheek-bones was gone. The sudden surge -of happiness filled out her features, flushing her face as -with wine. The two starved children clinging to her skirts, -dazed with excitement, only dimly realized their good fortune -in the envious glances of the others. But the letter -went on:</p> - -<div class="indent1 small1"> - -<p class="p2">Thirdly, I come to tell you, white bread and meat I eat every day, -just like the millionaires. Fourthly, I have to tell you that I am no -more Gedalyah Mindel. <em>Mister</em> Mindel they call me in America. -Fifthly, Masheh Mindel and my dear children, in America there are no -mud huts where cows and chickens and people live all together. I have -for myself a separate room, with a closed door, and before any one can -come to me, he must knock, and I can say, “Come in,” or “Stay out,” -like a king in a palace. Lastly, my darling family and people of the -village of Sukovoly, there is no czar in America.</p> -</div> - -<p class="p2">My father paused. The hush was stifling. “No czar—no -czar in America!” Even the little babies repeated the -chant, “No czar in America!”</p> - -<div class="indent1 small1"> - -<p class="p2">In America they ask everybody who should be the President. And I, -Gedalyah Mindel, when I take out my citizen's papers, will have as -much to say who shall be our next President as Mr. Rockefeller, the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</span> -greatest millionaire. Fifty rubles I am sending you for your ship-ticket -to America. And may all Jews who suffer in Golluth from -ukases and pogroms live yet to lift up their heads like me, Gedalyah -Mindel, in America.</p> -</div> - -<p class="p2">Fifty rubles! A ship-ticket to America! That so much -good luck should fall on one head! A savage envy bit us. -Gloomy darts from narrowed eyes stabbed Masheh Mindel. -Why should not we, too, have a chance to get away from -this dark land! Has not every heart the same hunger for -America, the same longing to live and laugh and breathe -like a free human being? America is for all. Why should -only Masheh Mindel and her children have a chance to the -New World?</p> - -<p>Murmuring and gesticulating, the crowd dispersed. Every -one knew every one else's thought—how to get to America. -What could they pawn? From where could they borrow for -a ship-ticket?</p> - -<p>Silently, we followed my father back into the hut from -which the Cossack had driven us a while before. We children -looked from mother to father and from father to -mother.</p> - -<p>“<em>Gottunieu!</em> the czar himself is pushing us to America by -this last ukase.” My mother's face lighted up the hut like -a lamp.</p> - -<p>“<em>Meshugeneh Yideneh!</em>” admonished my father. “Always -your head in the air. What—where—America? With what -money? Can dead people lift themselves up to dance?”</p> - -<p>“Dance?” The samovar and the brass pots reëchoed my -mother's laughter. “I could dance myself over the waves -of the ocean to America.”</p> - -<p>In amazed delight at my mother's joy, we children rippled -and chuckled with her. My father paced the room, his -face dark with dread for the morrow.</p> - -<p>“Empty hands, empty pockets; yet it dreams itself in -you—America,” he said.</p> - -<p>“Who is poor who has hopes on America?” flaunted my -mother.</p> - -<p>“Sell my red-quilted petticoat that grandmother left for -my dowry,” I urged in excitement.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</span></p> - -<p>“Sell the feather-beds, sell the samovar,” chorused the -children.</p> - -<p>“Sure, we can sell everything—the goat and all the winter -things,” added my mother. “It must be always summer -in America.”</p> - -<p>I flung my arms around my brother, and he seized Bessie -by the curls, and we danced about the room, crazy with -joy.</p> - -<p>“Beggars!” said my laughing mother. “Why are you -so happy with yourselves? How will you go to America -without a shirt on your back, without shoes on your feet?”</p> - -<p>But we ran out into the road, shouting and singing:</p> - -<p>“We'll sell everything we got; we're going to America. -White bread and meat we'll eat every day in America, in -America!”</p> - -<p>That very evening we brought Berel Zalman, the usurer, -and showed him all our treasures, piled up in the middle of -the hut.</p> - -<p>“Look! All these fine feather-beds, Berel Zalman!” urged -my mother. “This grand fur coat came from Nijny<a id="FNanchor_28" href="#Footnote_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> itself. -My grandfather bought it at the fair.”</p> - -<p>I held up my red-quilted petticoat, the supreme sacrifice -of my ten-year-old life. Even my father shyly pushed forward -the samovar.</p> - -<p>“It can hold enough tea for the whole village,” he declared.</p> - -<p>“Only a hundred rubles for them all!” pleaded my mother, -“only enough to lift us to America! Only one hundred -little rubles!”</p> - -<p>“A hundred rubles! <em>Pfui!</em>” sniffed the pawnbroker. -“Forty is overpaid. Not even thirty is it worth.”</p> - -<p>But, coaxing and cajoling, my mother got a hundred -rubles out of him.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Steerage, dirty bundles, foul odors, seasick humanity; -but I saw and heard nothing of the foulness and ugliness -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</span>about me. I floated in showers of sunshine; visions upon -visions of the New World opened before me. From lip to -lip flowed the golden legend of the golden country:</p> - -<p>“In America you can say what you feel, you can voice -your thoughts in the open streets without fear of a Cossack.”</p> - -<p>“In America is a home for everybody. The land is your -land, not, as in Russia, where you feel yourself a stranger -in the village where you were born and reared, the village -in which your father and grandfather lie buried.”</p> - -<p>“Everybody is with everybody alike in America. Christians -and Jews are brothers together.”</p> - -<p>“An end to the worry for bread, an end to the fear of -the bosses over you. Everybody can do what he wants -with his life in America.”</p> - -<p>“There are no high or low in America. Even the President -holds hands with Gedalyah Mindel.”</p> - -<p>“Plenty for all. Learning flows free, like milk and -honey.”</p> - -<p>“Learning flows free.” The words painted pictures in -my mind. I saw before me free schools, free colleges, free -libraries, where I could learn and learn and keep on learning. -In our village was a school, but only for Christian -children. In the schools of America I'd lift up my head -and laugh and dance, a child with other children. Like a -bird in the air, from sky to sky, from star to star, I'd soar -and soar.</p> - -<p>“Land! land!” came the joyous shout. All crowded and -pushed on deck. They strained and stretched to get the -first glimpse of the “golden country,” lifting their children -on their shoulders that they might see beyond them. Men -fell on their knees to pray. Women hugged their babies -and wept. Children danced. Strangers embraced and kissed -like old friends. Old men and old women had in their eyes -a look of young people in love. Age-old visions sang themselves -in me, songs of freedom of an oppressed people. America! -America!</p> - -<p>Between buildings that loomed like mountains we struggled<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</span> -with our bundles, spreading around us the smell of -the steerage. Up Broadway, under the bridge, and through -the swarming streets of the Ghetto, we followed Gedalyah -Mindel.</p> - -<p>I looked about the narrow streets of squeezed-in stores -and houses, ragged clothes, dirty bedding oozing out of the -windows, ash-cans and garbage-cans cluttering the sidewalks. -A vague sadness pressed down my heart, the first doubt of -America.</p> - -<p>“Where are the green fields and open spaces in America?” -cried my heart. “Where is the golden country of my -dreams?” A loneliness for the fragrant silence of the -woods that lay beyond our mud hut welled up in my heart, -a longing for the soft, responsive earth of our village streets. -All about me was the hardness of brick and stone, the smells -of crowded poverty.</p> - -<p>“Here's your house, with separate rooms like a palace,” -said Gedalyah Mindel, and flung open the door of a dingy, -airless flat.</p> - -<p>“<em>Oi weh!</em>” cried my mother in dismay. “Where's the -sunshine in America?” She went to the window and looked -out at the blank wall of the next house. “<em>Gottunieu!</em> Like -in a grave so dark!”</p> - -<p>“It ain't so dark; it's only a little shady,” said Gedalyah -Mindel, and lighted the gas. “Look only!”—he pointed -with pride to the dim gas-light—“No candles, no kerosene -lamps, in America. You turn on a screw, and put to it a -match, and you got it light like with sunshine.”</p> - -<p>Again the shadow fell over me, again the doubt of America. -In America were rooms without sunlight; rooms to sleep -in, to eat in, to cook in, but without sunshine, and Gedalyah -Mindel was happy. Could I be satisfied with just a place to -sleep in and eat in, and a door to shut people out, to take -the place of sunlight? Or would I always need the sunlight -to be happy? And where was there a place in America for -me to play? I looked out into the alley below, and saw -pale-faced children scrambling in the gutter. “Where is -America?” cried my heart.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</span></p> - -<p>My eyes were shutting themselves with sleep. Blindly I -felt for the buttons on my dress; and buttoning, I sank back -in sleep again—the dead-weight sleep of utter exhaustion.</p> - -<p>“Heart of mine,” my mother's voice moaned above me, -“father is already gone an hour. You know how they'll -squeeze from you a nickel for every minute you're late. -Quick only!”</p> - -<p>I seized my bread and herring and tumbled down the -stairs and out into the street. I ate running, blindly pressing -through the hurrying throngs of workers, my haste -and fear choking every mouthful. I felt a strangling in -my throat as I neared the sweat-shop prison; all my nerves -screwed together into iron hardness to endure the day's -torture.</p> - -<p>For an instant I hesitated as I faced the grated windows -of the old building. Dirt and decay cried out from every -crumbling brick. In the maw of the shop raged around -me the roar and the clatter, the merciless grind, of the pounding -machines. Half-maddened, half-deadened, I struggled to -think, to feel, to remember. What am I? Who am I? Why -am I here? I struggled in vain, bewildered and lost in a -whirlpool of noise. “America—America, where was America?” -it cried in my heart.</p> - -<p>Then came the factory whistle, the slowing down of the -machines, the shout of release hailing the noon hour. I woke -as from a tense nightmare, a weary waking to pain. In -the dark chaos of my brain reason began to dawn. In my -stifled heart feelings began to pulse. The wound of my -wasted life began to throb and ache. With my childhood -choked with drudgery, must my youth, too, die unlived?</p> - -<p>Here were the odor of herring and garlic, the ravenous -munching of food, laughter and loud, vulgar jokes. Was it -only I who was so wretched? I looked at those around me. -Were they happy or only insensible to their slavery? How -could they laugh and joke? Why were they not torn with -rebellion against this galling grind, the crushing, deadening -movements of the body, where only hands live, and hearts -and brains must die?</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</span></p> - -<p>I felt a touch on my shoulder and looked up. It was -Yetta Solomon, from the machine next to mine.</p> - -<p>“Here's your tea.”</p> - -<p>I stared at her, half-hearing.</p> - -<p>“Ain't you going to eat nothing?”</p> - -<p>“<em>Oi weh</em>, Yetta! I can't stand it!” The cry broke from -me. “I didn't come to America to turn into a machine. I -came to America to make from myself a person. Does America -want only my hands, only the strength of my body, not -my heart, not my feelings, my thoughts?”</p> - -<p>“Our heads ain't smart enough,” said Yetta, practically. -“We ain't been to school, like the American-born.”</p> - -<p>“What for did I come to America but to go to school, -to learn, to think, to make something beautiful from my -life?”</p> - -<p>“'Sh! 'Sh! The boss! the boss!” came the warning whisper.</p> - -<p>A sudden hush fell over the shop as the boss entered. He -raised his hand. There was breathless silence. The hard, red -face with the pig's eyes held us under its sickening spell. -Again I saw the Cossack and heard him thunder the ukase. -Prepared for disaster, the girls paled as they cast at one -another sidelong, frightened glances.</p> - -<p>“Hands,” he addressed us, fingering the gold watch-chain -that spread across his fat stomach, “it's slack in the other -trades, and I can get plenty girls begging themselves to work -for half what you're getting; only I ain't a skinner. I always -give my hands a show to earn their bread. From now -on I'll give you fifty cents a dozen shirts instead of seventy-five, -but I'll give you night-work, so you needn't lose -nothing.” And he was gone.</p> - -<p>The stillness of death filled the shop. Every one felt the -heart of the other bleed with her own helplessness. A sudden -sound broke the silence. A woman sobbed chokingly. -It was Balah Rifkin, a widow with three children.</p> - -<p>“<em>Oi weh!</em>”—she tore at her scrawny neck,—“the bloodsucker! -the thief! How will I give them to eat, my babies, -my hungry little lambs!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</span></p> - -<p>“Why do we let him choke us?”</p> - -<p>“Twenty-five cents less on a dozen—how will we be able -to live?”</p> - -<p>“He tears the last skin from our bones.”</p> - -<p>“Why didn't nobody speak up to him?”</p> - -<p>Something in me forced me forward. I forgot for the -moment how my whole family depended on my job. I forgot -that my father was out of work and we had received a -notice to move for unpaid rent. The helplessness of the -girls around me drove me to strength.</p> - -<p>“I'll go to the boss,” I cried, my nerves quivering with -fierce excitement. “I'll tell him Balah Rifkin has three -hungry mouths to feed.”</p> - -<p>Pale, hungry faces thrust themselves toward me, thin, -knotted hands reached out, starved bodies pressed close about -me.</p> - -<p>“Long years on you!” cried Balah Rifkin, drying her eyes -with a corner of her shawl.</p> - -<p>“Tell him about my old father and me, his only bread-giver,” -came from Bessie Sopolsky, a gaunt-faced girl with -a hacking cough.</p> - -<p>“And I got no father or mother, and four of them younger -than me hanging on my neck.” Jennie Feist's beautiful -young face was already scarred with the gray worries of age.</p> - -<p>America, as the oppressed of all lands have dreamed America -to be, and America as it is, flashed before me, a banner -of fire. Behind me I felt masses pressing, thousands of -immigrants; thousands upon thousands crushed by injustice, -lifted me as on wings.</p> - -<p>I entered the boss's office without a shadow of fear. I -was not I; the wrongs of my people burned through me -till I felt the very flesh of my body a living flame of rebellion. -I faced the boss.</p> - -<p>“We can't stand it,” I cried. “Even as it is we're -hungry. Fifty cents a dozen would starve us. Can you, a -Jew, tear the bread from another Jew's mouth?”</p> - -<p>“You fresh mouth, you! Who are you to learn me my -business?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</span></p> - -<p>“Weren't you yourself once a machine slave, your life -in the hands of your boss?”</p> - -<p>“You loafer! Money for nothing you want! The minute -they begin to talk English they get flies in their nose. A -black year on you, trouble-maker! I'll have no smart heads -in my shop! Such freshness! Out you get! Out from -my shop!”</p> - -<p>Stunned and hopeless, the wings of my courage broken, -I groped my way back to them—back to the eager, waiting -faces, back to the crushed hearts aching with mine.</p> - -<p>As I opened the door, they read our defeat in my face.</p> - -<p>“Girls,”—I held out my hands—“he's fired me.” My -voice died in the silence. Not a girl stirred. Their heads -only bent closer over their machines.</p> - -<p>“Here, you, get yourself out of here!” the boss thundered -at me. “Bessie Sopolsky and you, Balah Rifkin, take out -her machine into the hall. I want no big-mounted <em>Americanerins</em> -in my shop.”</p> - -<p>Bessie Sopolsky and Balah Rifkin, their eyes black with -tragedy, carried out my machine. Not a hand was held out -to me, not a face met mine. I felt them shrink from me as -I passed them on my way out.</p> - -<p>In the street I found I was crying. The new hope that -had flowed in me so strongly bled out of my veins. A -moment before, our unity had made me believe us so strong, -and now I saw each alone, crushed, broken. What were they -all but crawling worms, servile grubbers for bread?</p> - -<p>And then in the very bitterness of my resentment the -hardness broke in me. I saw the girls through their own -eyes, as if I were inside of them. What else could they -have done? Was not an immediate crust of bread for Balah -Rifkin's children more urgent than truth, more vital than -honor? Could it be that they ever had dreamed of America -as I had dreamed? Had their faith in America wholly -died in them? Could my faith be killed as theirs had been?</p> - -<p>Gasping from running, Yetta Solomon flung her arms -around me.</p> - -<p>“You golden heart! I sneaked myself out from the shop<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</span> -only to tell you I'll come to see you to-night. I'd give -the blood from under my nails for you, only I got to run back. -I got to hold my job. My mother—”</p> - -<p>I hardly saw or heard her. My senses were stunned with -my defeat. I walked on in a blind daze, feeling that any -moment I would drop in the middle of the street from sheer -exhaustion. Every hope I had clung to, every human stay, -every reality, was torn from under me. Was it then only -a dream, a mirage of the hungry-hearted people in the -desert lands of oppression, this age-old faith in America?</p> - -<p>Again I saw the mob of dusty villagers crowding about -my father as he read the letter from America, their eager -faces thrust out, their eyes blazing with the same hope, the -same faith, that had driven me on. Had the starved villagers -of Sukovoly lifted above their sorrows a mere rainbow vision -that led them—where? Where? To the stifling submission -of the sweat-shop or the desperation of the streets!</p> - -<p>“God! God!” My eyes sought the sky, praying, “where—where -is America?”</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Times changed. The sweat-shop conditions that I had lived -through had become a relic of the past. Wages had doubled, -tripled; they went up higher and higher, and the working-day -became shorter and shorter. I began to earn enough to -move my family uptown into a sunny, airy flat with electricity -and telephone service. I even saved up enough to buy -a phonograph and a piano.</p> - -<p>My knotted nerves relaxed. At last I had become free -from the worry for bread and rent, but I was not happy. -A more restless discontent than ever before ate out my -heart. Freedom from stomach needs only intensified the -needs of my soul.</p> - -<p>I ached and clamored for America. Higher wages and -shorter hours of work, mere physical comfort, were not yet -America. I had dreamed that America was a place where -the heart could grow big with giving. Though outwardly -I had become prosperous, life still forced me into an existence -of mere getting and getting.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</span></p> - -<p><em>Ach!</em> how I longed for a friend, a real American friend, -some one to whom I could express the thoughts and feelings -that choked me! In the Bronx, the uptown Ghetto, I felt -myself farther away from the spirit of America than ever -before. In the East Side the people had yet alive in their -eyes the old, old dreams of America, the America that would -release the age-old hunger to give; but in the prosperous -Bronx good eating and good sleeping replaced the spiritual -need for giving. The chase for dollars and diamonds deadened -the dreams that had once brought them to America.</p> - -<p>More and more the all-consuming need for a friend possessed -me. In the street, in the cars, in the subways, I -was always seeking, ceaselessly seeking for eyes, a face, the -flash of a smile that would be light in my darkness.</p> - -<p>I felt sometimes that I was only burning out my heart -for a shadow, an echo, a wild dream, but I couldn't help it. -Nothing was real to me but my hope of finding a friend. -America was not America to me unless I could find an -American that would make America real.</p> - -<p>The hunger of my heart drove me to the night-school. -Again my dream flamed. Again America beckoned. In -the school there would be education, air, life for my cramped-in -spirit. I would learn to think, to form the thoughts that -surged formless in me. I would find the teacher that would -make me articulate.</p> - -<p>I joined the literature class. They were reading “The -De Coverley Papers.” Filled with insatiate thirst, I drank -in every line with the feeling that any moment I would -get to the fountain-heart of revelation. Night after night -I read with tireless devotion. But of what? The manners -and customs of the eighteenth century, of people two hundred -years dead.</p> - -<p>One evening, after a month's attendance, when the class -had dwindled from fifty to four, and the teacher began -scolding us who were present for those who were absent, -my bitterness broke.</p> - -<p>“Do you know why all the girls are dropping away from -the class? It's because they have too much sense than to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</span> -waste themselves on 'The De Coverley Papers.' Us four girls -are four fools. We could learn more in the streets. It's -dirty and wrong, but it's life. What are 'The De Coverley -Papers'? Dry dust fit for the ash-can.”</p> - -<p>“Perhaps you had better tell the principal your ideas -of the standard classics,” she scoffed, white with rage.</p> - -<p>“All right,” I snapped, and hurried down to the principal's -office.</p> - -<p>I swung open the door.</p> - -<p>“I just want to tell you why I'm leaving. I—”</p> - -<p>“Won't you come in?” The principal rose and placed a -chair for me near her desk. “Now tell me all.” She leaned -forward with an inviting interest.</p> - -<p>I looked up, and met the steady gaze of eyes shining with -light. In a moment all my anger fled. “The De Coverley -Papers” were forgotten. The warm friendliness of her -face held me like a familiar dream. I couldn't speak. It -was as if the sky suddenly opened in my heart.</p> - -<p>“Do go on,” she said, and gave me a quick nod. “I -want to hear.”</p> - -<p>The repression of centuries rushed out of my heart. I -told her everything—of the mud hut in Sukovoly where I -was born, of the czar's pogroms, of the constant fear of -the Cossack, of Gedalyah Mindel's letter, of our hopes in -coming to America, and my search for an American who -would make America real.</p> - -<p>“I am so glad you came to me,” she said. And after a -pause, “You can help me.”</p> - -<p>“Help you?” I cried. It was the first time that an American -suggested that I could help her.</p> - -<p>“Yes, indeed. I have always wanted to know more of -that mysterious, vibrant life—the immigrant. You can help -me know my girls. You have so much to give—”</p> - -<p>“Give—that's what I was hungering and thirsting all -these years—to give out what's in me. I was dying in the -unused riches of my soul.”</p> - -<p>“I know; I know just what you mean,” she said, putting -her hand on mine.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</span></p> - -<p>My whole being seemed to change in the warmth of her -comprehension. “I have a friend,” it sang itself in me. -“I have a friend!”</p> - -<p>“And you are a born American?” I asked. There was -none of that sure, all-right look of the Americans about her.</p> - -<p>“Yes, indeed. My mother, like so many mothers,”—and -her eyebrows lifted humorously whimsical,—“claims we're descendants -of the Pilgrim Fathers, and that one of our lineal -ancestors came over in the <em>Mayflower</em>.”</p> - -<p>“For all your mother's pride in the Pilgrim Fathers, you -yourself are as plain from the heart as an immigrant.”</p> - -<p>“Weren't the Pilgrim Fathers immigrants two hundred -years ago?”</p> - -<p>She took from her desk a book and read to me.</p> - -<p>Then she opened her arms to me, and breathlessly I felt -myself drawn to her. Bonds seemed to burst. A suffusion -of light filled my being. Great choirings lifted me in space. -I walked out unseeingly.</p> - -<p>All the way home the words she read flamed before me: -“We go forth all to seek America. And in the seeking we -create her. In the quality of our search shall be the nature -of the America that we create.”</p> - -<p>So all those lonely years of seeking and praying were not -in vain. How glad I was that I had not stopped at the husk, -a good job, a good living! Through my inarticulate groping -and reaching out I had found the soul, the spirit of -America.</p> - - -<h4>SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS</h4> - -<ol class="f"> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What is the effect of the abrupt beginning? Where else in the -essay is abruptness made a means of producing literary effect?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Point out excellent use of local color.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Divide the essay into its principal parts.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Show that the essay rises in power.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> How does the writer arouse the reader's sympathy for the -characters?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> How does the writer awaken the reader's patriotism?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What opinion of America do oppressed foreigners have? To<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</span> -what extent is their opinion well founded? To what extent -is their opinion not well founded?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What impressions does a sea-coast city make upon immigrants?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What sort of people oppress the immigrants after arrival in -America?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> To what false beliefs is such oppression due?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What opportunities does America present?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What spirit should meet the aspirations of immigrants?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What will do most to make immigrants into good Americans?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Explain how the <em>Sir Roger de Coverley Papers</em> may be taught so -that they will apply to the present as well as to the past.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> How may we help immigrants to do work that will make them -into good Americans?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Show that the conclusion of the essay emphasizes its entire -thought.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Show what rhetorical methods are employed in the essay.</li> -</ol> - - -<h4>SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION</h4> - - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="his11"> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">1. How I Became a Good American</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">11. Modernizing the De Coverley Papers</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">2. An Immigrant's Experience</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">12. The Value of Sympathy</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">3. The Meaning of Freedom</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">13. The Spirit of America</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">4. The Land of Opportunity</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">14. Showing the Way</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">5. Making Good Americans</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">15. First Experiences in America</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">6. The School and the Immigrant</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">16. Letters from People in Other Lands</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">7. My Coming to America</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">17. Being a Good American</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">8. Life in the Crowded Sections</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">18. Enemies of America</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">9. Sweat Shop Experiences</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">19. Uplifting the Foreign-Born</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">10. My Various Homes</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">20. The America I Love</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h4>DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING</h4> -</div> - -<p class="p2">Write down some worthy thought that you have concerning America. -Then write a series of extremely personal incidents that will -show graphically how you arrived at the thought you have in mind. -Make the incidents short, condensed, and highly emphatic. Employ -realistic characters, and give realistic quotations from their speech. -Use the incorrect grammar, the slang, and the foreign words that -the characters employ daily. Arrange the incidents so that they -will rise more and more to your principal thought. Make your last -incident reveal that thought.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="footnotes"> -<p class="p2 center big2">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_28" href="#FNanchor_28" class="label">[28]</a> Nijny-Novgorood. A Russian city on the Volga, the scene of a great -annual fair.</p> - -</div> -</div> -</div> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak">MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD</h2> -</div> - -<p class="big1 center">By WILLIAM HENRY SHELTON</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p2"><em>(1840-). An American patriot and author. He served in -many battles in the Civil War, and had thrilling experiences -as a prisoner of war, escaping no less than four times. He is -author of</em> A Man Without a Memory; The Last Three Soldiers; -The Three Prisoners.</p> -</div> - -<div class="indent1 small1 bold"> - -<p class="p2">Every one has happy memories of childhood. He loves to conjure up -the old familiar scenes, the kindly people, and the days that were days -of wonder.</p> - -<p>The two sketches by Mr. Shelton are extracts from a long essay called -<em>Our Village</em>, in which he recalls delightfully all his early surroundings -and all his old companionships.</p> - -<p>In these extracts, as in the entire essay, Mr. Shelton avoids formal -autobiography. He merely recalls the things that impressed him most. -As far as possible he lifts himself back into the spirit of the past, and -sees once again, but with added love, the things that have gone forever.</p> -</div> - - -<h3><span class="smcap">My First School</span></h3> - -<p>One day in the summer when I was four years old I was -taken to the village school at the foot of the hill below the -tavern. I have no recollection of how I got there, but my -return to my grandmother's was so dramatic that it has impressed -itself indelibly on my memory. Perhaps I was taken -to school by the sentimental schoolmistress herself, who was -a girl of sixteen and an intimate friend of my aunt, to -whom, in after years, when she became a famous novelist, -she used to send her books. Her maiden name was Mary Jane -Hawes, but there was a red-haired, freckle-faced boy in -one of the pretty houses facing the side of the church, who -went to Yale College and gave her another name.</p> - -<p>The school-house consisted of one room, with an entry -without any floor where the wood was cut and stored. The -school-room was square, with a box-stove in the center. A -form against the wall extended around three sides of the -room, affording seats for the larger pupils, and in front of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</span> -these a row of oak desks for slates and books was fantastically -carved by generations of jack-knives, and made against the -backs of a second row of desks was a low front form for the -A-B-C children. On the fourth side, flanking the door, were -a blackboard on one hand and on the other the schoolma'am's -desk, usually decorated with a bunch of wild flowers or a red -apple, either the gifts of a sincere admirer or the would-be -bribe of some trembling delinquent.</p> - -<p>On the occasion of my first visit to the school I wore a -blue-and-white dress of muslin-de-laine that was afterward -made into a cushion for a rocking-chair in my mother's -parlor. I was evidently dressed in my very best in honor -of the occasion, and all went well until recess came. There -was a rumble of thunder, and the sky had been growing -dark with portent of storm, and the leaves and dust were -flying on the wind when the children were released for play. -I wanted to do everything that the other boys did, and so, -when they scampered out with a rush, I followed without -fear. Just as we came into the open the thunder-storm -burst upon us. The wind blew off one boy's hat and whirled -it in the direction of the village, and all the other boys joined -in the chase. As I started to follow them a gust of wind -and rain beat me to the ground, and drenched my dress -with mud and water.</p> - -<p>I was promptly rescued by the schoolma'am and taken -into the entry, where she undressed me on the wood-pile and -wrapped me in her own woolen shawl, which was a black-and-red -pattern of very large squares. Thus bundled up and -rendered quite helpless except as to my lungs, I was laid on -the floor near the stove, where I remained for the amusement -of the children until the shower was over, when a -bushel-basket was sent for to the nearest house, which was -the house of shoemaker Talmadge. Into this basket, commonly -used for potatoes and corn, I was put, wrapped in -the black-and-red shawl and packed around with my soiled -clothes, and two of the big boys, John Pierpont and John -Talmadge, carried me up the hill and through the village -to my grandmother's house.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</span></p> - -<p>In the summer following I went to school again, and again -to the sentimental schoolma'am, who loved to teach, but -abhorred to punish. Her gentle punishments rarely frightened -the youngest children.</p> - -<p>She would say, “Henry, you have disobeyed me, and I shall -have to cut off your ear,” and with these ominous words -she would draw the back of her penknife across the threatened -ear. I must have been very small, for on one occasion -she threatened to shut me up in one of the school desks.</p> - -<p>Our mad recreation out of school was “playing horse.” -We drove each other singly and in pairs by means of wooden -bits and reins of sheep-twine, and some prancing horses were -led, chewing one end of a twine string, and neighing and -prancing almost beyond the control of the infant groom.</p> - -<p>In the congressman's woods, close by the school-house, we -built stalls and mangers against logs and in fence corners, -and gathered horse-sorrel and sheep-sorrel for hay. The -stalls were bedded with grass and protected from the sun by -a roof of green boughs, and the horses were watered and -curried and groomed in imitation of that service at the stage -stables, and the steeds themselves kicked and bit like the -vicious leaders.</p> - -<p>Other teachers followed the young and sentimental one, -and the surplus of the dinner-baskets, thrown out of the -window or cast upon the wood-pile, bred a colony of gray -rats that lived under the school-house and came out to take -the air in the quiet period after the door was padlocked -at night and even ventured to come up into the school-room -and look over the books and otherwise nibble at learning. -When I had advanced to the dignity of pictorial geography, -as set forth in a thin, square-built, dog-eared volume, which -not having been opened for a whole day by a certain prancing -horse, he was left to learn his lesson while the teacher went -to tea at the house below the tavern, and the wheat stubble -under the window was soon alive with gray rodents that -looked like the colony of seals in the geography.</p> - -<p>About this time the rats, having taken formal possession of -the old school-house, a new school-house was built in our -village just beyond my grandmother's house and facing her -orchard.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter illowp49 chapter" id="ilo_fp-97" style="max-width: 36.875em;"> - <img class="w100" src="images/ilo_fp-97.jpg" alt="ilop97" /> - <p class="right">(<em>page 97</em>)</p> - <p class="p1 center caption">“My great-grandmother.”</p> -</div> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<h3><span class="smcap">My Great-Grandmother</span></h3> -</div> - -<p class="p1">My great-grandmother was the widow of an Episcopal -clergyman, the Rev. Titus Welton, whose son was the first -rector of the village church. My only acquaintance with my -great-grandfather was connected with the white headstone -that bore his name in the graveyard. With the exception -of a quaint water-color portrait in profile of my grandmother -in a mob-cap bound with a black ribbon, which was equally -a portrait of the flowered back of the rocking-chair in which -she sat, she survives in my memory in a series of pictures. -I see her sitting before the open fire, knitting, with one steel -needle held in a knitting-sheath pinned to her left side, or -taking snuff from a flat, round box that contained a vanilla -bean to perfume the snuff. Her hands were twisted with -rheumatism, and she walked with a cane. On one occasion I -trotted by her side to church and carried her tin foot-stove, -warm with glowing coals.</p> - -<p>She slept in a high post bed in her particular room over -the sitting-room, which was warmed in winter by a sheet-iron -drum connected with the stove below, and in one corner was -a copper warming-pan with a long handle. When I sat at -table in my high-chair eating apple-pie in a bowl of milk, -she sat on the side nearest the fire eating dipped toast with -a two-tined fork. The fork may have had three tines, but -silver forks had not yet made their appearance.</p> - -<p>My great-grandmother lived just long enough to have -her picture taken on a plate of silvered copper by the wonderful -process of Daguerre,<a id="FNanchor_29" href="#Footnote_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> a process so like something -diabolical that she protected her soul from evil, as all sitters -in that part of the country did, by resting her hand on a -great Bible, the back turned to the front, so that the letters -“Holy Bible” could be read, proving that the great book -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</span>was not a profane dictionary. The operator who took her -daguerreotype traveled from town to town, hiring a room -in the village tavern furnished with a chair, a stand on tripod -legs, a brown linen table-cloth, and the aforesaid Bible, -and when such of the people as had the fee to spare, the -courage to submit to a new-fangled idea, and no fear that -the face on the magical plate would fade away like any other -spirit face when they opened the stamped-leather case with -the red plush lining after it had lain overnight in the darkened -parlor, he moved on like the cracker baker or any other -itinerant showman.</p> - -<p>My great-grandmother had never sent or received a message -by telegraph or ridden in a railway-carriage, and died -in peace just before those portentous inventions came to -destroy forever the small community life in which she had -lived.</p> - - -<h4>SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS</h4> - -<ol class="f"> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Why does the writer employ such simple language?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What sort of events does he narrate?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Why does he give so few details concerning his early schooldays?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> How does he look upon his early misfortunes?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Why does he do little more than present the picture of his great-grandmother?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Point out examples of gentle humor.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What do the sketches reveal concerning life in the past?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What spirit characterizes both sketches?</li> -</ol> - - -<h4>SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION</h4> - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="his12"> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">1. My First Schooldays</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">11. Punishments I Remember</td> - </tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">2. My Grandparents</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">12. Queer Old Customs</td> - </tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">3. An Early Misfortune</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">13. My First Superstitions</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">4. Some Vanished Friends</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">14. A Wonderful Day</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">5. My Old Home</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">15. Gifts</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">6. Playmates</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">16. My First School-books</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">7. Old Toys</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">17. Pictures of Childhood</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">8. My First Games</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">18. My Relatives</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">9. A First Visit</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">19. A Great Event</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">10. My First Costumes</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">20. Relics of the Past</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</span></p> - - -<h4>DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING</h4> - -<p class="p2">Throw yourself back into the past. Conjure up the people with -whom you used to associate. See once again the places where you -played and where you lived. Think how happy it all was, and how -good it is to look at it once more. Then put down on paper the -things that you remember with the greatest interest. Write in such -a way that you will give the reader the very spirit that you have. -Remember: you are not to communicate facts; you are to communicate -emotion.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="footnotes"> -<p class="p2 center big2">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_29" href="#FNanchor_29" class="label">[29]</a> Louis Daguerre (1789-1859). A French painter who perfected one -of the earliest methods of photography.</p> - -</div> -</div> -</div> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak">A VISIT TO JOHN BURROUGHS</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center big1">By SADAKICHI HARTMANN</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p2"><em>Author of the first</em> History of American Art, <em>and also of a</em> -History of Japanese Art. <em>His poems, short stories, and essays -appear in many magazines</em>.</p> -</div> - -<div class="indent1 small1 bold"> - -<p class="p2">John Burroughs was a delightful essayist and a delightful man. -Although he preferred to live the most simple of lives and to spend -his time in meditation on the beauties of natural scenery, and the -wonders of animal life, he attracted to himself the companionship of -some of the greatest in the land, and the love of all people. To visit -him would, indeed, have been a delight.</p> - -<p><em>A Visit to John Burroughs</em> is not a dull narrative of the events of a -visit, nor is it the report of an interview with the nature-lover. It is -an article that admits one into the charm of Burroughs' spirit. We are -with the man in his simple, book-filled home; we learn his love for -pasture and mountain-side, for birds and for gardening; and we gain -some of that spirit of contentment and peace that made him, in his gray -old age, appear like a prophet in the midst of an over-hurrying -generation.</p> -</div> - -<p class="p2">In some places time passes without making any change. -The little village on the Hudson where John Burroughs made -his home half a century ago has shown no ambition of expansion. -There is no building activity, and the number -of inhabitants has scarcely increased. The little church -stands drowsily on the hill, and the same old homesteads -grace the road. More freight-trains may rattle by, and -more automobiles pass on the main road, but the physiognomy -of the town has remained unchanged. It is as if time had -stood still. The mist shuts out the rest of the world, river -and hills disappear, the stems of the grape-vines look like -a host of goblins, and the wet trees make darker silhouettes -than usual.</p> - -<p>I knocked at a door and entered, and there sat John -Burroughs stretched at full length in a Morris chair before -some glowing beech-sticks in the open fireplace. There was -not much conversation. What is most interesting in an -author's life he expresses in his books, and so we indulged<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</span> -only in an exchange of phrases about his health, of the flight -of time, and a few favored authors. The questioning of the -interviewer can produce only forced results, and in particular -when the interviewed person has reached an age -when taciturnity becomes natural, and one prefers to gaze -at the dying embers and listen to the drip of the rain outside. -That his interest in literature did not lag was shown -by a set of Fabre,<a id="FNanchor_30" href="#Footnote_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> whom he pronounced the most wonderful -exponent in his special line.</p> - -<p>A quaint interior was this quiet little room. Conspicuous -were the portraits of Whitman,<a id="FNanchor_31" href="#Footnote_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> Carlyle,<a id="FNanchor_32" href="#Footnote_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> Tolstoy,<a id="FNanchor_33" href="#Footnote_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> Roosevelt,<a id="FNanchor_34" href="#Footnote_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> -and Father Brown of the Holy Order of the Cross, men -who in one way or another must have meant something to his -life. On the mantelpiece stood another portrait of Whitman -and a reproduction of “Mona Lisa.”<a id="FNanchor_35" href="#Footnote_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> There were windows -on every side, and the rest of the walls consisted of -shelves filled with nature books. One shelf displayed the -more scientific works, and one was devoted entirely to his -own writings. It was the same room in which several years -ago, on a summer day in the vagrom days of youth, I had -read for the first time “Wake Robin,”<a id="FNanchor_36" href="#Footnote_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> that classic of out-of-door -literature, and “The Flight of the Eagle,” an appreciation -of Walt Whitman.</p> - -<p>John Burroughs was fifty then, and had just settled down -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</span>seriously to his literary pursuits. He had risen brilliantly -from youthful penury to be the owner of a large estate. His -latest achievement was “Signs and Seasons”; “Riverby,” -a number of essays of out-of-door observations around his -stone house by the Hudson, was in the making.</p> - -<p>There is a wonderful fascination in these books. They reveal -a man who has lived widely and intimately, who has -made nature his real home. All day long he is mingled with -the heart of things; every walk along the river, into the -woods, or up the hills is an adventure. He exploits the -teachings of experience rather than of books. His essays are -always fused with actions of the open. One feels exhilaration -in making the acquaintance of a man with an unnarrowed -soul who has burst free from the shackles of intellectual -authority, who joyfully and buoyantly interprets the beauties -about him, shunning no such pleasures as jumping a fence, -wading a brook, or climbing a tree or mountain-side.</p> - -<p>American literature has always abounded with nature speculation -and research. Bryant<a id="FNanchor_37" href="#Footnote_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> was a true poet of nature; he -loved woods, mountain, and river, and his “To the Yellow -Wood Violet,” and “The Blue Gentian” are gems of pictorial -nature-writing. Whittier<a id="FNanchor_38" href="#Footnote_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> transfigured the beauty of -New England life in one poem “Snowbound,” and in his -“Autumn Walk” leisurely strolled to the portals of immortality. -Whitman stalked about on the open road like a -pantheist.<a id="FNanchor_39" href="#Footnote_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a></p> - -<p>Yet none had the faculties of discovery and interpretation -like John Burroughs, the intimate knowledge, the warm -vision, to which a wood-pile can become a matter of contemplation, -and a back yard or a garden patch become as interesting -as any scenery in the world. None of them could -have lectured on apple-trees or gray squirrels with such -intimacy as Burroughs. Burroughs has never any sympathy -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</span>with the “pathetic fallacy of endowing inanimate objects -with human attributes,” nor would he indorse Machin's -propaganda idea of the antagonism of animals against their -human masters.</p> - -<p>A trout leaping in a mountain stream, the lively whistle of -a bird high in the upper air, a bird's nest in an old fence -post—these are some of the topics nearest his heart. No -nature-writer has ever shown such diversity of interest. Even -<em>Rip Van Winkle</em> did not know the mountains as well as does -this camper and tramper for a lifetime on the same familiar -grounds; over and over again he makes the round from -Riverby to Slabsides, to Roxbury in the western Catskills, -and back again to the rustic studio near the river. He knows -every pasture, mountain-side, and valley of his chosen land. -He even named some of the hills. One of them, much frequented -by bees, he named “Mount Hymettus,”<a id="FNanchor_40" href="#Footnote_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> because -there “from out the garden hives, the humming cyclone of -humming bees” liked to congregate.</p> - -<p>But is his minute observation of weed seeds in the open -field or insect eggs on tree-trunks not disastrous to literary -expression? Can this style of writing soar above -straightforward nature-writing of men like Wilson,<a id="FNanchor_41" href="#Footnote_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> Muir,<a id="FNanchor_42" href="#Footnote_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> -White,<a id="FNanchor_43" href="#Footnote_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> and Chapman?<a id="FNanchor_44" href="#Footnote_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> Burroughs is capable of making a -long-winded analysis of the downward perch of the head of -the nut-hatch, but he is no Audubon.<a id="FNanchor_45" href="#Footnote_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> As a literary man he -is an essayist who etches little vignettes, one after the other, -with rare precision. How fine is his sentence about the -unmusical song of the blackbirds! “The air is filled with -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</span>crackling, splintering, spurting, semi-musical sounds which -are like salt and pepper to the ear.” Here the poetic -temperament finds an utterance far beyond the broad knowledge -of nature.</p> - -<p>And there is his fine appreciation of Walt Whitman, his -grasp of literary values despite working in a comparatively -smaller field of activity. John Burroughs has a good deal -of Whitman about him, whom he called “the one mountain in -our literary landscape.” The man of Riverby is not large -of stature, but has the same nonchalance of deportment, -the flowing beard, and the ruddy face, a few shades darker -than that of the good gray poet; for Whitman was, after -all, a city man, while Burroughs always lived his life out -of doors.</p> - -<p>We talked about the looks of Whitman, whom he had known -in Washington in the sixties.</p> - -<p>“Yes, he had a decided vitality, although he was already -gray and bent at that time. Yes, he would talk if one could -draw him out.”</p> - -<p>“I believe he talked only for Traubel,”<a id="FNanchor_46" href="#Footnote_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> I dryly remarked, -at which Burroughs was greatly amused.</p> - -<p>Emerson<a id="FNanchor_47" href="#Footnote_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> was the god of Burroughs's youth, but Whitman -undoubtedly exercised the more lasting influence. This, however, -never touched Burroughs's own peculiar nature-fresh-and-homespun -style. It lingered only as a vague inspiration -in the under rhythm of his work. Whitman had the macrocosmic -vision,<a id="FNanchor_48" href="#Footnote_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> while Burroughs is an adherent of microcosm. -Few can combine both qualities.</p> - -<p>Burroughs is an amateur farmer and gardener. He prunes -his cherrytrees, cures hay, and thinks of new methods of -mowing grain. He experimented with grape-vines, a rather -futile occupation at this period of social evolution. He has -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</span>been a great cherry-picker all his life, and I remember with -keen pleasure how delicious those wild raspberries tasted -that I shared with him one summer day. He has a celery -farm at Roxbury, his birthplace, and when I was last at -Slabsides, his bungalow in the hills near West Park, I saw -nothing but beets for cattle. I was astonished at this peculiar, -indeed, prosaic pastime. And still more so that he had -chosen for residence a site in a hollow of the mountain-side, -while only a few steps above one can enjoy a most gorgeous -view of the surrounding country. Did he make the selection -because the place is more sheltered? No, I believe -he chose the place intuitively, because it expresses his particular -point of view of life. The keen breeze and the wide -view serve only for occasional inspiration; but the undergrowth -vegetation, the crust of soil, the hum of insects, the -little flowers—these are the true stimulants of his eloquent -simplicity of style.</p> - -<p>Burroughs professed to have a great admiration for -Turguenieff's<a id="FNanchor_49" href="#Footnote_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> “Diary of a Sportsman.” These exquisite -prose poems represent nature at its best, but they are purely -poetic, pictorial, with a big cosmic swing to them. This is -out of the reach of Burroughs, and he never attempted it. -His poems contain, as he says himself, more science and -observation than poetry. A few beautiful lines everybody -can learn to write, and unless they are fragments of a torso -of the most intricate and beautiful construction, they will -drop like the slanting rain into the dark wastes of oblivion.</p> - -<p>His lessons of nature, accepted as text-books in the public -schools, have a true message to convey. They represent the -socialization of science. He loves the birds and learned their -ways; he could run his course aright, as he has placed his -goal rightly. He stirred the earth about the roots of his -knowledge deeply, and thereby entered a new field of thought. -He became interested in final causes, design in nature.</p> - -<p>The transcendentalist<a id="FNanchor_50" href="#Footnote_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> of the Emersonian period at last -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</span>came to his own. There is something of the bigness of -Thoreau<a id="FNanchor_51" href="#Footnote_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> in his recent writings, Thoreau who in his “Concord -and Merrimac River” had a mystical vision, a grip on religious -thought, and who, like a craftsman in cloisonné, -hammered his philosophic speculations upon the frugal shapes -of his observations. In “Ways of Nature” and “Leaf and -Tendril” Burroughs has reached out as far as it is possible -for a nature writer without becoming a philosopher. He -now no longer contemplates the outward appearance of -things, but their organic structure, the geological formation -of the earth's crust, and the evolution of life. And some ledge -of rock will now give him the prophetic gaze into the past -and into the future.</p> - -<p>And so John Burroughs at eighty-five, still chopping the -wood for his own fireside, writing, lecturing, giving advice -about phases of farm-work, strolling over the ground, still -interested in literature, can serenely fold his hands and wait.</p> - -<p>Indeed, this white-bearded man, in his bark-covered study -amidst veiled heights and blurred river scenes, furnishes a -wonderful intimate picture which will linger in American -literature and in the minds of all who yearn for a more intimate -knowledge of nature, unaffectedly told, like the song -of the robin of his first love, “a harbinger of spring thoughts -carrying with it the fragrance of the first flowers and the -improving verdure of the fields.”</p> - - -<h4>SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS</h4> - -<ol class="f"> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> How does the first paragraph indicate the key-note of the -article?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What do Burroughs' pictures and books show concerning his -character?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What sort of life did Burroughs lead?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What is meant by “exploiting the teaching of experience rather -than of books”?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> How did Burroughs find happiness?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What is said concerning Burroughs' faculties of discovery and -interpretation?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What diversity of interests did Burroughs show?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What is said concerning Burroughs' work as an essayist?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Why was Burroughs fond of Walt Whitman?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> How did Burroughs gain literary style?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What is meant by the “socialization of science”?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What makes Burroughs such a charming person?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Into what sections may the article be divided?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What does the article reveal concerning its author?</li> -</ol> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</span></p> - - -<h4>SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION</h4> - - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="his13"> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">1. A Visit with My Teacher</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">11. Our Unusual Caller</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">2. A Call on an Interesting Person</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">12. A Talk with a Tramp</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">3. In the Office of the Principal</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">13. The Beggar's Life</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">4. Visiting My Relatives</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">14. My Cousin</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">5. A Visit to Another School than My Own</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">15. A Talk with an Expert</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">6. A Talk with a Fireman</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">16. My Friend, the Carpenter</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">7. A Talk with a Policeman</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">17. Interviewing a Peddler</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">8. An Interview with a Stranger</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">18. Talking with a Missionary</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">9. The Man in the Office</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">19. In the Printer's Office</td> -</tr> - - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">10. The Busy Clerk</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">20. The Railroad Conductor</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - -<h4>DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING</h4> - -<p class="p2">Write about an actual visit or interview. In all your work pay -most attention to presenting the spirit of the person whom you -talk with. The events of your visit, and the remarks that are made, -are of less importance than the things that reveal spirit,—the surroundings, -the costume, the habits, the work done and the various -things that show character. The essay is in no sense to be the story -of a visit; it is to give an intimate picture of the person in whom -you are interested. Your object is to show character.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="footnotes"> -<p class="p2 center big2">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_30" href="#FNanchor_30" class="label">[30]</a> Jean Henri Fabre (1823-1915). A French entomologist who wrote -many volumes on insect life, among them being <em>The Life and Love of -the Insects</em>; <em>The Life of the Spider</em>; <em>The Life of the Fly</em>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_31" href="#FNanchor_31" class="label">[31]</a> Walt Whitman (1819-1892). An American poet, noted for highly -original poems marked by absence of rhyme and metre. Whitman -loved the outdoor world, and had great philosophic insight.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_32" href="#FNanchor_32" class="label">[32]</a> Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881). A brilliant English essayist and historian, -strikingly original and unconventional, and a firm upholder of -stalwart manhood.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_33" href="#FNanchor_33" class="label">[33]</a> Count Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910). A great Russian novelist, reformer -and philosopher,—a bold and original thinker.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_34" href="#FNanchor_34" class="label">[34]</a> Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919). Ranchman, author, soldier, explorer, -and President of the United States, a man of sterling manhood -and great personal fearlessness.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_35" href="#FNanchor_35" class="label">[35]</a> Mona Lisa. A picture of a lady of Florence, painted about 1504 -by Leonardo da Vinci, an Italian painter. The face has a peculiarly -tantalizing expression.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_36" href="#FNanchor_36" class="label">[36]</a> <em>Wake Robin.</em> One of John Burroughs' delightful outdoor books, -written in 1870.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_37" href="#FNanchor_37" class="label">[37]</a> William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878). The first great American poet; -author of <em>Thanatopsis</em>; noted for his love of nature.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_38" href="#FNanchor_38" class="label">[38]</a> John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892). An American poet who wrote -lovingly of New England life and scenery. He is noted for his poems -against slavery.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_39" href="#FNanchor_39" class="label">[39]</a> Pantheist. One who sees God in everything that exists.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_40" href="#FNanchor_40" class="label">[40]</a> Mount Hymettus. A mountain in Greece from which most excellent -honey was obtained in classic times.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_41" href="#FNanchor_41" class="label">[41]</a> Alexander Wilson (1766-1813). Born in Scotland and died in -Philadelphia; author of a remarkable study of American birds, published -in nine volumes.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_42" href="#FNanchor_42" class="label">[42]</a> John Muir (1838-1914). An American naturalist and explorer of -the west and of Alaska.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_43" href="#FNanchor_43" class="label">[43]</a> Gilbert White (1720-1793). An English naturalist, noted for his -<em>Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne</em>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_44" href="#FNanchor_44" class="label">[44]</a> Frank M. Chapman (1864—). An American writer on bird life. He -is especially noted for excellent work in photographing birds.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_45" href="#FNanchor_45" class="label">[45]</a> John James Audubon (1780-1851). A great American student of -birds; noted for his exact drawings of birds.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_46" href="#FNanchor_46" class="label">[46]</a> Horace Traubel (1858-1919). An American editor who was the -literary executor of Walt Whitman.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_47" href="#FNanchor_47" class="label">[47]</a> Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882). An American poet and philosopher; -a man of marked individuality and power.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_48" href="#FNanchor_48" class="label">[48]</a> Macrocosmic. The sentence means that Whitman looked upon the -world and upon the universe as a whole, while Burroughs studied little -or individual things in order to understand the whole.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_49" href="#FNanchor_49" class="label">[49]</a> Ivan Turguenieff (1818-1883). A Russian novelist whose <em>Diary of a -Sportsman</em> aided in bringing about the freeing of Russian serfs.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_50" href="#FNanchor_50" class="label">[50]</a> Transcendentalist. One who believes in principles that can not be -proved by experiment.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_51" href="#FNanchor_51" class="label">[51]</a> Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862). An American essayist, naturalist -and philosopher.</p> - -</div> -</div> -</div> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak">WASHINGTON ON HORSEBACK</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center big1">By H. A. OGDEN</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p2">(<em>1856</em>—). <em>An illustrator, particularly of American historical -subjects, on which he is an authority. His most noted work is 71 -color plates of uniforms of the U. S. Army, 1775-1906. He -made the original cartoons for the Washington memorial window -in the Valley Forge memorial. He is the author and -illustrator of</em> The Boys Book of Famous Regiments; Our Flag -and Our Songs; The Voyage of the Mayflower; Our Army for -Our Boys <em>(joint author); and numerous magazine articles of a -historical nature.</em></p> -</div> - -<div class="indent1 bold small1"> - -<p class="p2">The ordinary magazine article, lacking the personal note, is not an -essay. As a rule, such an article endeavors to present a subject in its -entirety, to follow a strictly logical order, and to avoid any expression -of personal reaction on the part of the writer.</p> - -<p>Some magazine articles, however, are written in such an easy, chatty -style, without any hint of attempt to cover a subject either completely -or logically, that they approach the essay form.</p> - -<p><em>Washington on Horseback</em> is an article that closely resembles an essay. -It is discursive, anecdotal, wandering and is much like a pleasant talk -about Washington and his love of horses. Although the writer keeps -himself entirely behind the scenes it is evident that he is a man who -admires horses as well as manliness and courage.</p> -</div> - - -<p class="p2">“The best horseman of his age, and the most graceful -figure that could be seen on horseback,” was Thomas Jefferson's -opinion of his great fellow-Virginian, George Washington. -From his early boyhood, a passionate fondness for the -horse was a strong and lasting trait of our foremost American.</p> - -<p>When a little boy of eight, he was given his first riding-lessons -on his pony Hero by Uncle Ben, an old servant (perhaps -a slave) of his father's.</p> - -<p>On one occasion, when under the paternal eye, he tried -over and over again to leap his pony. When he finally succeeded -in doing so, both rider and pony fell; but jumping -up, the boy was quickly in the saddle again, his father, a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</span> -masterful man who hated defeat, exclaiming, “That was -ill ridden; try it again!” This happening near their home, -his mother rushed out, greatly alarmed, and begged them to -stop. Finding her entreaties were unheeded, she returned to -the house protesting that her boy would “surely be murdered!” -And during all of her long life this dread of the -dangers her son incurred was one of her striking characteristics.</p> - -<p>This early training in riding, however, was greatly to the -boy's advantage; for his satisfaction in conquering horses -and training them made him a fine horseman and prepared -him for the coming years when he was to be so much in the -saddle.</p> - -<p>A notable instance of early intrepidity in the tall and athletic -boy, in his early teens, in mastering a wild, unmanageable -colt is related by G. W. P. Custis,<a id="FNanchor_52" href="#Footnote_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> Washington's adopted -son. The story goes that this colt, a thoroughbred sorrel, -was a favorite of Washington's mother, her husband having -been much attached to him. Of a vicious nature, no one had -thus far ventured to ride him; so before breakfast one morning, -George, aided by some of his companions, corraled the -animal and succeeded in getting bit and bridle in place.</p> - -<p>Leaping on his back, the venturesome youth was soon tearing -around the enclosure at breakneck speed, keeping his seat -firmly and managing his mount with a skill that surprised -and relieved the fears of the other boys. An unlooked-for end -to the struggle came, however, when, with a mighty effort, the -horse reared and plunged with such violence that he burst a -blood-vessel and in a moment was dead.</p> - -<p>Looking at the fallen steed, the boys asked “What's to be -done? Who will tell the tale?” The answer soon had to be -given; for when they went in to the morning meal, Mrs. -Washington asked if they had seen her favorite horse. -Noting their embarrassment, she repeated the question; when -George spoke up and told the whole story of the misadventure. -“George, I forgive you, because you have had the -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</span>courage to tell the truth at once,” was her characteristic -reply.</p> - -<p>Upon their father's death, his accomplished brother Lawrence -took an active interest in George's education and development. -The boy had taken a strong hold on Lawrence's -affection, which the younger brother returned by a devoted -attachment. Among other accomplishments, George was encouraged -to perfect his horsemanship by the promise of a -horse, together with some riding clothes from London—especially -a red coat and a pair of spurs, sure to appeal to the -spirit and daring of the youth.</p> - -<p>His first hunting venture, as told by Dr. Weir Mitchell<a id="FNanchor_53" href="#Footnote_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> in -“The Youth of Washington,” occurred on a Saturday morning,—a -school holiday even in those days,—when, there being -none to hinder, George having persuaded an old groom to -saddle a hunter, he galloped off to a fox-hunting “meet” four -miles away. Greatly amused, the assembled huntsmen asked -if he could stay on, and if the horse knew he had a rider? -To which George replied that the big sorrel he rode knew his -business; and he was in at the kill of two foxes. On the way -back the horse went lame, and on arriving at the stable the -rider saw an overseer about to punish Sampson, the groom, -for letting the boy take a horse that was about to be sold. He -quickly dismounted and snatched the whip from the overseer's -hand, exclaiming that he was to blame and should be whipped -first. The man answered that his mother would decide what -to do; but the boy never heard of the matter again. The -anger he showed on this occasion caused old Sampson to admonish -him never to “get angry with a horse.”</p> - -<p>When about sixteen, George lived a great part of the time -at Mount Vernon, Lawrence's home, where he made many -friends among the “Old Dominion” gentry, the most prominent -of them being Thomas, Lord Fairfax, an eccentric old -bachelor, residing with his kindred at Belvoir, an adjoining -estate on the Potomac. As this had been the home of Anne -Fairfax, Lawrence's wife, the brothers were ever welcome -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</span>guests. Attracted to each other by the fact that both were -bold and skilful riders and by their love of horses, a lifelong -friendship was formed between the tall Virginian, a stripling -in his teens, and the elderly English nobleman, and many a -hard ride they took together, with a pack of hounds, over the -rough country, chasing the gray foxes of that locality.</p> - -<p>Settled at Mount Vernon, in the years following his marriage -and up to the beginning of the War for Independence, -Washington found great pleasure in his active, out-of-door -life, his greatest amusement being the hunt, which gratified -to the full his fondness for horses and dogs.</p> - -<p>His stables were full, numbering at one time one hundred -and forty horses, among them some of the finest animals in -Virginia. Magnolia, an Arabian, was a favorite riding-horse; -while Chinkling, Valiant, Ajax, and Blue-skin were also -high-bred hunters. His pack of hounds was splendidly -trained, and “meets” were held three times a week in the -hunting season.</p> - -<p>After breakfasting by candle-light, a start was made at -daybreak. Splendidly mounted, and dressed in a blue coat, -scarlet vest, buckskin breeches, and velvet cap, and in the -lead,—for it was Washington's habit to stay close up with -the hounds,—the excitement of the chase possessed a strong -fascination for him.</p> - -<p>These hunting parties are mentioned in many brief entries -in his diaries. In 1768, he writes: “Mr. Bryan Fairfax, Mr. -Grayson, and Phil Alexander came home by sunrise. Hunted -and catched a fox with these: Lord Fairfax, his brother, and -Colonel Fairfax and his brother; all of whom with Mr. -Fairfax and Mr. Wilson of England dined here.” Again, on -November 26 and 29: “Hunted again with the same party.” -1768,—January 8: “Hunting again with the same company—started -a fox and run him four hours.” Thus we learn from -his own pen how frequently this manly sport, that kept him -young and strong, was followed by the boldest rider in all -Virginia.</p> - -<p>A seven-years absence during the war caused the hunting -establishment of Mount Vernon to run down considerably;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</span> -but on returning in 1783, after peace came, the sport was -renewed vigorously for a time.</p> - -<p>Blue-skin, an iron-gray horse of great endurance in a long -run, was the general's favorite mount during those days. -With Billy Lee, the huntsman, blowing the big French -horn, a present from Lafayette,—the fox was chased at full -speed over the rough fields and through such tangled woods -and thickets as would greatly astonish the huntsmen of to-day.</p> - -<p>What with private affairs, official visits, and the crowd of -guests at his home, Washington felt obliged to give up this -sport he so loved, for his last hunt with the hounds is said -to have been in 1785.</p> - -<p>To return to his youthful days. At sixteen he was commissioned -to survey Lord Fairfax's vast estates, and soon -after was appointed a public surveyor. The three years of -rough toil necessitated by his calling were spent continually -in the saddle. Those youthful surveys, being made with -George's characteristic thoroughness, stand unquestioned to -this day.</p> - -<p>The beginning of his active military career started with a -long, difficult journey of five hundred miles to the French -fort on the Ohio, most of which was made in the saddle. It -was hard traveling for the young adjutant general of twenty-one -accompanied by a small escort. On the return journey, -the horses were abandoned, and it was when traveling on -foot that his miraculous escapes from a shot fired by a -treacherous Indian guide and from drowning, occurred.</p> - -<p>When, in 1755, the British expedition against the French -fort on the Monongahela, commanded by General Braddock, -started out from Alexandria, Washington, acting as one of -the general's aides, was too ill to start with it; but when the -day of action came, the day that the French and Indians -ambushed the “red-coats,” the young Virginia colonel, although -still weak, rode everywhere on the field of slaughter, -striving to rally the panic-stricken regulars; and although -two horses had been shot under him, he was the only mounted -officer left at the end of the fight.</p> - -<p>On the occasion of Washington's first visit to Philadelphia,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</span> -New York, and Boston, in 1756, he rode the whole distance, -with two aides and servants, to confer with Governor Shirley -of Massachusetts and settle with him the question of his army -rank. He was appropriately equipped for his mission, and the -description of the little cavalcade is very striking. Washington, -in full uniform of a Virginia colonel, a white-and-scarlet -cloak, sword-knot of red and gold, his London-made holsters -and saddle-cloth trimmed with his livery “lace” and the -Washington arms, his aides also in uniform, with the servants -in their white-and-scarlet liveries, their cocked hats edged -with silver, bringing up the rear, attracted universal notice. -Everywhere he was received with enthusiasm, his fame having -gone before him. Dined and fêted in Philadelphia and New -York, he spent ten days with the hospitable royal governor of -Massachusetts. The whole journey was a success, bringing -him, as it did, in contact with new scenes and people.</p> - -<p>It seems noteworthy that in accounts of the campaigns and -battles of the Revolution such frequent mention is made of the -commander-in-chief on horseback. From the time he rode -from Philadelphia to take command of the army at Cambridge, -in 1775, down to the capitulation of Yorktown in -1783, his horses were an important factor in his campaigns. -Among many such incidents, a notable one is that which occurred -when, after the defeat of the Americans at Brooklyn -and their retreat across the river to New York, Washington -in his report to Congress wrote: “Our passage across the -East River was effected yesterday morning; and for forty-eight -hours preceding that I had hardly been off my horse -and never closed my eyes.” He was, in fact, the last to leave, -remaining until all his troops had been safely ferried across.</p> - -<p>An all-night ride to Princeton, in bitter cold, over frozen -roads, and, when day dawned, riding fearlessly over the field -to rally his men, reining in his charger within thirty yards -of the enemy, forms another well-known incident.</p> - -<p>At the battle of Brandywine an old farmer was pressed into -service to lead the way to where the battle was raging, and he -relates that as his horse took the fences Washington was -continually at his side, saying repeatedly: “Push along, old<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</span> -man; push along!” Shortly after the defeat at Brandywine, -General Howe's advance regiments were attacked at Germantown; -and here, as at Princeton, Washington, in spite of the -protests of his officers, rode recklessly to the front when things -were going wrong.</p> - -<p>After the hard winter at Valley Forge, and when in June -of 1778 the British abandoned Philadelphia he took up the -march to Sandy Hook, Washington resolved to attack them -on their route. On crossing the Delaware in pursuit of the -enemy, Governor William Livingston of New Jersey presented -to the commander-in-chief a splendid white horse, upon which -he hastened to the battle-field of Monmouth.</p> - -<p>Mr. Custis in his “Recollections of Washington,” states -that on the morning of the twenty-eighth of June, he rode, -and <em>for that time only</em> during the war, a white charger. -Galloping forward, he met General Charles Lee,<a id="FNanchor_54" href="#Footnote_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> with the -advanced guard, falling back in confusion. Indignant at the -disobedience of his orders, Washington expressed his wrath -in peremptory language, Lee being ordered to the rear. Riding -back and forth through the fire of the enemy, animating -his soldiers, and recalling them to their duty he reformed the -lines and turned the battle tide by his vigorous measures. -From the overpowering heat of the day, and the -deep and sandy soil, his spirited white horse sank under him -and expired. A chestnut mare, of Arabian stock, was quickly -mounted, this beautiful animal being ridden through the rest -of the battle. Lafayette, always an ardent admirer of Washington, -told in later years of Monmouth, where he had commanded -a division, and how his beloved chief, splendidly -mounted, cheered on his men. “I thought then as now,” said -the enthusiastic Frenchman, “that never had I beheld so -superb a man.”</p> - -<p>Of all his numerous war-horses, the greatest favorite was -Nelson—a large, light sorrel, with white face and legs, named -after the patriot governor of Virginia. In many battles,—often<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</span> -under fire,—Nelson had carried his great master and -was the favored steed at the crowning event of the war—the -capitulation of Yorktown.</p> - - -<p>Living to a good old age, and never ridden after Washington -ceased to mount him, the veteran charger was well taken -care of, grazing in a paddock through the summers. And -often, as the retired general and President made the rounds -of his fields, the old war-horse would run neighing to the -fence, to be caressed by the hand of his former master.</p> - -<p>During the eight years of his Presidency, Washington frequently -took exercise on horseback, his stables containing at -that time as many as ten coach- and saddle-horses.</p> - -<p>When in Philadelphia, then the seat of government, the -President owned two pure white saddle-horses, named Prescott -and Jackson, the former being a splendid animal, which, -while accustomed to cannon-fire, waving flags, or martial -music, had a bad habit of dancing about and shying when -a coach, especially one containing ladies, would stop to greet -the President. The other white horse, Jackson, was an Arab, -with flowing mane and tail, but, being an impetuous and -fretful animal, he was not a favorite.</p> - -<p>A celebrated riding-teacher used to say that he loved “to -see the general ride; his seat is so firm, his management of -his mount so easy and graceful, that I, who am a professor -of horsemanship, would go to him and <em>learn to ride</em>.”</p> - -<p>Since his early boyhood, the only recorded fall from a horse -that Washington had was once on his return to Mount Vernon -from Alexandria. His horse on this occasion, while an easy-gaited -one, was scary. When Washington was about to mount -and rise in the stirrup, the animal, alarmed by the glare of a -fire by the roadside, sprang from under his rider, who fell -heavily to the ground. Fearing that he was hurt, his companions -rushed to his assistance, but the vigorous old gentleman, -getting quickly on his feet, assured them that, though -his tumble was complete, he was unhurt. Having been only -poised in his stirrup and not yet in the saddle, he had a fall -no horseman could prevent when a scary animal sprang from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</span> -under him. Vicious propensities in horses never troubled -Washington; he only required them to go along.</p> - -<p>An amusing anecdote is told of one of Washington's secretaries, -Colonel David Humphreys. The colonel was a lively -companion and a great favorite, and on one of their rides -together he challenged his chief to jump a hedge. Always -ready to accept a challenge of this sort, Washington told him -to “go ahead,” whereupon Humphreys cleared the hedge, -but landed in the ditch on the other side up to his saddle-girth. -Riding up and smiling at his mud-bespattered friend, -Washington observed, “Ah, Colonel, you are too deep for -me!”</p> - -<p>On the Mount Vernon estates, during the years of retirement -from all public office, his rides of inspection were from -twelve to fourteen miles a day, usually at a moderate pace; -but being the most punctual of men, he would, if delayed, -display the horsemanship of earlier days by a hard gallop -so as to be in time for the first dinner-bell at a quarter of three.</p> - -<p>A last glimpse of this great man in the saddle, is as an old -gentleman, in plain drab clothes, a broad-brimmed white hat, -carrying a hickory switch, with a long-handled umbrella hung -at his saddle-bow—such was the description given of him by -Mr. Custis to an elderly inquirer who was in search of the -general on a matter of business.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h4>SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS</h4> -</div> - -<ol class="f"> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What is the effect of the opening quotation?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Point out all the ways in which the article resembles an essay.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Show that the article does not follow a strictly logical plan.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Show in what respects the article differs from ordinary magazine -articles.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What characterizes the style of the article?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> How does the writer make the article interesting?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What hints of the writer's personality does the article give?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What does the article say concerning the character of Washington?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Summarize what is said concerning Washington as a horseman.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> How much is said about the biography of Washington?</li> -</ol> - -<h4>SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION</h4> - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="his14"> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">1. U. S. Grant as a Horseman</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">11. William Morris as a Workman</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">2. Alexander the Great as a Horseman</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">12. Charles Dickens as a Humanitarian</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">3. Napoleon as a Horseman</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">13. Shakespeare as a Punster</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">4. Abraham Lincoln as a Story Teller</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">14. Milton as a Husband</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">5. Longfellow as a Lover of Children</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">15. Robert Louis Stevenson as a Traveler</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">6. Ralph Waldo Emerson as a Neighbor</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">16. Samuel Johnson as a Friend</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">7. Henry David Thoreau as an Explorer</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">17. Jack London as a Wanderer</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">8. Benjamin Franklin as an Originator</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">18. Theodore Roosevelt as a Fighter</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">9. Charles Lamb as a Brother</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">19. Mark Twain as a Humorist</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">10. Queen Elizabeth as a Woman</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">20. Edison as an Inventor</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</span></p> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter illowp46 chapter p1" id="ilo_fp-116" style="max-width: 36.875em;"> - <img class="w100" src="images/ilo_fp-116.jpg" alt="ilop117" /> -<p class="right"> (<em>page 116</em>)</p> - <p class="caption p1 center">Colonel Humphreys landed in the ditch.</p> -</div> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<h4>DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING</h4> -</div> - -<p class="p2">Select both a subject and a theme in which you are interested. -Take your note-book and consult encyclopedias, histories, and books -of biography, noting down everything that has relation to your particular -subject and theme. Hunt especially for interesting anecdotes; -if they are humorous,—so much the better.</p> - -<p>You will do well to introduce your article with an appropriate -quotation. Make your writing as conversational and as anecdotal -as possible. Don't be in the least bit encyclopedic. Be gossipy.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="footnotes"> -<p class="p2 center big2">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_52" href="#FNanchor_52" class="label">[52]</a> George Washington Parke Custis (1781-1857). The adopted son of -George Washington.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_53" href="#FNanchor_53" class="label">[53]</a> Dr. S. Weir Mitchell (1829-1914). An American physician and -novelist. His novel, <em>Hugh Wynne</em>, concerns the life of Washington.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_54" href="#FNanchor_54" class="label">[54]</a> General Charles Lee (1731-1782). An American Revolutionary General -court-martialed for disobedience at the battle of Monmouth, 1778.</p> - -</div> -</div> -</div> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</span></p> -<p class="p4 center big3">THE HISTORICAL STORY</p> -</div> - -<h2 class="nobreak">HAVELOK THE DANE</h2> - -<p class="center big1">By GEORGE PHILIP KRAPP</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p2"><em>(1872—). Professor of English in Columbia University. He -is a member of many scholarly societies, and has written much -on English. Among his books are</em> The Elements of English -Grammar; In Oldest England; The Rise of English Literary -Prose.</p> -</div> - -<div class="indent1 bold small1"> - -<p class="p2">The story of <em>Havelok the Dane</em> is one of the oldest of English stories; -for the story that is here told is only a re-telling of a narrative that -originated nearly a thousand years ago. The first story of Havelok -was probably written in Anglo-Saxon in the eleventh century or in the -first half of the twelfth century. It was told in French about 1150, -and re-told in English about 1300. Some critics find close relation -between the story of Havelok and the story of Hamlet.</p> - -<p>In all probability there was a real Havelok who may have lived in -the latter part of the tenth century, and who may have participated in -events like those told in the story. It is probable that as stories of -his romantic career were repeated they increased,—just as gossip -increases. The facts became lost in a body of romantic events. The -Havelok of the story is therefore a character of fiction.</p> - -<p>The story is interesting in many ways. First of all, it is a remarkably -good story, very human and capable of awakening sympathy, full of -quick event, centered around the fascinating subjects of youth, adventure -and love, and picturesque in its details and episodes. Then it is -an old story,—ten centuries old,—and is interesting as a relic of the -past. In addition, it shows remarkably well what sort of stories -preceded the short stories and the novels of to-day, and how the old -stories sometimes grew from a mingling of fact and imagination.</p> - -<p>In reading the story of <em>Havelok the Dane</em> we stand, as it were, in -the presence of one of the story tellers of the extreme past. Around -us we feel castle walls and the presence of rough fighting men. The -flames of the great fireplace flare on our faces, and we listen with -childlike interest.</p> -</div> - - -<p class="p2">Many years ago, in the days of the Angles and Saxons, -there was once a king of England whose name was Athelwold. -In that time a traveler might bear fifty pounds of good red -gold on his back throughout the length and breadth of England,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</span> -and no one would dare molest him. Robbers and thieves -were afraid to ply their calling, and all wrong-doers were -careful to keep out of the way of King Athelwold's officers. -That was a king worth while.</p> - -<p>Now this good King Athelwold had no heir to his throne -but one young daughter, and Goldborough was her name. -Unhappily, when she was just old enough to walk, a heavy -sickness fell upon King Athelwold, and he saw that his days -were numbered. He grieved greatly that his daughter was -not old enough to rule and to become queen of England after -him, and called all the lords and barons of England to come -to him at Winchester to consult concerning the welfare of his -kingdom and of his daughter.</p> - -<p>Finally it was decided that Godrich, Earl of Cornwall, who -was one of the bravest, and, everybody said, one of the truest, -men in all England, should take charge of the child Goldborough -and rule the kingdom for her until she was old -enough to be made queen. On the Holy Book, Earl Godrich -swore to be true to this trust which he had undertaken, and -he also swore, as the king commanded, that when Goldborough -reached the proper age, he would marry her to the highest, -the fairest, and the strongest man in the kingdom. When all -this was done, the king's mind was at rest, for he had the -greatest faith in the honor of Earl Godrich. It was not long -thereafter that the end came. There was great grief at the -death of the good king, but Godrich ruled in his stead and -was the richest and most powerful of all the earls in England. -We shall say no more about him while Goldborough is growing -older, and in the end we shall see whether Earl Godrich -was true to his trust and to the promises he had given to -Goldborough's father.</p> - -<p>Now it happened, at this same time, that there was a king -in Denmark whose name was Birkabeyn. Three children he -had, who were as dear to him as life itself. One of these was -a son of five years, and he was called Havelok. The other -two were daughters, and one was named Swanborough and -the other Elflad. Now when King Birkabeyn most wished -to live, the hand of death was suddenly laid upon him. As<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</span> -soon as he realized that his days in this life were over, he -looked about for some one to take care of his three young -children, and no one seemed so fit for this office as the Earl -Godard. To Godard, therefore, he intrusted the care of his -three children, and Godard faithfully promised to guard them -until the boy Havelok was old enough to become king of -Denmark.</p> - -<p>Scarcely, however, was the body of King Birkabeyn laid -away in the grave, before the faithless Godard began to plot -evil, and he determined to be himself king of Denmark. So -he took Havelok and his two sisters and cast them into prison -in a great stone castle.</p> - -<p>In this prison the poor little children almost perished from -cold and hunger, but they little knew that still worse misfortune -was in store for them. For one day Earl Godard -went to the castle where they were imprisoned, and Havelok -and his sisters fell on their knees before him and begged for -mercy. “What do you want?” said Godard. “Why all this -weeping and howling?” And the children said they were -very hungry. “No one comes to give us of food and drink the -half part that we need. We are so hungry that we are well -nigh dead.”</p> - -<p>When Godard heard this, his heart was not touched, but, -on the contrary, it grew harder within him. He led the two -little girls away with him, and took away the lives of these -innocent children; and he intended to do the same with -young Havelok. But the terrified boy again fell on his knees -before Godard and cried: “Have pity upon me, Earl Godard! -Here I offer homage to you. All Denmark I will give to you -if you will but let me live. I will be your man, and against -you never raise spear nor shield.”</p> - -<p>Now when Godard heard this and when he looked down at -young Havelok, the rightful heir to the throne of Denmark, -his arm grew weak, though his heart was as hard as ever. He -knew that if he was ever to become king, Havelok must die; -but he could not bring himself to the point of taking the life -of his lawful sovereign.</p> - -<p>So he cast about in his mind for some other way to get rid<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</span> -of him. He sent for a poor fisherman whose name was Grim. -Now Grim was Godard's thrall, or slave, and was bound to do -whatever Godard asked of him. When Grim had come to -him, Godard said: “Thou knowest, Grim, thou art my thrall, -and must do whatever I bid thee. To-morrow thou shalt be -free and a rich man if thou wilt take this boy that I give thee -and sink him to-night deep down in the sea. All the sin I will -take upon myself.”</p> - -<p>Grim was not a bad man, but the promise of his freedom -was a sore temptation, and besides, Godard, his master, had -said that he would be responsible for the deed. So Grim took -Havelok, not knowing, of course, who he was, and put him -in a sack and carried him off to his little cottage by the -seashore, intending that night to row out to deep water and -throw him overboard.</p> - -<p>Now when it came midnight, Grim got up from his bed, -and bade his wife, Dame Leve, bring a light for he must go -out and keep his promise to Earl Godard. But when Leve -went into the other room, where Havelok was lying bound -and gagged, what was her surprise to see that there was -already a light in the room. Right over Havelok's head it -seemed to stand; but where it came from, she could not guess.</p> - -<p>“Stir up, Grim,” she cried, “and see what this light is -here in our cot!”</p> - -<p>And Grim came running in, and he too saw the strange -light and was as surprised as Leve had been. Then he uncovered -Havelok, and there on his right shoulder he saw a -birthmark, bright and fair, and knew from this, right away, -that this boy was Havelok, the son of King Birkabeyn. When -Grim realized this, he fell on his knees before Havelok and -said, “Have mercy on me and on Leve, my wife, here by me! -For thou art our rightful king and therefore in everything -we should serve thee.” Then when Grim had unbound him -and had taken the gag out of his mouth, Havelok was a -happy boy again; and the first thing he asked for was something -to eat. And Dame Leve brought bread and cheese, and -butter and milk and cookies and cakes, and for the first time -in many a long day Havelok had all he wanted to eat. Then<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</span> -when Havelok had satisfied his hunger, Grim made a good -bed for him and told him to go to sleep and to fear nothing.</p> - -<p>Now the next morning, Grim went to the wicked traitor -Godard and claimed his reward. But little he knew the faithlessness -of Godard.</p> - -<p>“What!” cried Godard, “wilt thou now be an earl? Go -home, and be as thou wert before, a thrall and a churl. If I -ever hear of this again, I will have thee led to the gallows, -for thou hast done a wicked deed. Home with you, and keep -out of my way, if you know what is good for you!”</p> - -<p>When Grim saw this new proof of the wickedness of Earl -Godard, he ran home as fast as he could. He knew that his -life was not safe in Godard's hands, especially if the earl -should ever find out that Havelok was still alive. Grim had -hoped to get money from Earl Godard with which to escape -to some other country, but now he saw that he would have -to depend on his own means. Secretly he sold all that he had -and when he had got the ready money for it, he bought him -a ship and painted it with tar and pitch, and fitted it out -with cables and oars and a mast and sail. Not a nail was -lacking that a good ship should have. Last of all Grim put -in this ship his good wife Dame Leve, and his three sons and -two daughters and Havelok, and off they sailed to the open -ocean. They had not been sailing very long, however, before -a wind came out of the north and drove them toward England. -At the river Humber they finally reached land, and -there on the sand near Lindesey, Grim drew his ship up on -the shore. A little cot he straightway built for his family; -and since this was Grim's home, the town that gradually grew -up there in later days came to be named Grimsby, and if you -will look on the map, you will find that so it is called to this -very day.</p> - -<p>Now Grim was a very good fisherman, and he decided to -make his living here in England by fishing. Many a good -fish he took from the sea, with net and spear and hook. He -had four large baskets made, one for himself and one for -each of his three sons, and when they had caught their fish, -off they carried them to the people in the towns and country,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</span> -to sell them. Sometimes they went as far inland as the good -town of Lincoln.</p> - -<p>Thus they lived peacefully and happily for ten years or -more, and by this time Havelok was become a youth full -grown. But Grim never told Havelok who he was, nor did -he tell any of his three sons or two daughters. And Havelok -soon entirely forgot all about what had happened to him in -Denmark. And so he grew up, happy as the days were long, -and astonishingly healthy and strong. He was big of bone -and broad of shoulder and the equal of a man in strength.</p> - -<p>Now after a time, Havelok began to think to himself that -Grim was working very hard to make a living, while he was -amusing himself in ease and idleness. “Surely,” said he to -himself, “I am no longer a boy. I am big and strong, and -alone I eat more than Grim and his five children. It's high -time for me to bear baskets and work for my living. No -longer will I stay at home, but to-morrow I too shall go forth -and sell fish.” And so in the morning, as soon as it was -light of day, he put a basket on his back, as the others did, -piled high with fish, as much as a good strong man might -carry. But Havelok bore the burden well, and he sold the fish -well, and the money he brought back home to Grim, every -penny of it. Thus Havelok became a fisherman; he went forth -every day with his basket on his back and sold fish, and was -the tallest and strongest monger of them all.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Now it happened after a time that Grim fared not so well -With his fishing. The fish would not come to his nets, and -with no fish in the nets, there was none for the baskets and for -market. To make matters worse, at this same time there was a -great famine in the land, and poor people suffered greatly -from lack of food to eat. These were hard times for Grim -and his houseful of children. Yet less for his own did Grim -grieve than for the sturdy Havelok. Moreover, Grim had long -thought that this work of fishing and fish-selling, though -good enough for himself and his three sons, was hardly the -right life for Havelok, who, though he knew nothing about it, -was nevertheless a king's son.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</span></p> - -<p>“Havelok, my boy,” said he, at length, “it is not well for -thee to dwell here too long with us. Though it will grieve us -sorely to have thee go, out into the world thou must venture, -and perhaps there thou shalt make thy fortune. Here thou -seest we are but miserable fisher-folk; but at Lincoln, the -fine city, there thou mayst find some great man whom thou -canst serve. But, alas!” he added, “so poor are we that thou -hast not even a coat wherein to go.”</p> - -<p>Then Grim took down the shears from the nail and made -Havelok a coat out of the sail to his boat, and this was Grim's -last gift to Havelok. No hose and no shoes had Havelok to -wear, but barefoot and naked, except for his long coat of sail-cloth, -he left his good friends Grim and Dame Leve and their -five children and set out for the town of Lincoln.</p> - -<p>When Havelok reached Lincoln, he wandered about bewildered -in the streets of the city. But nobody seemed to -have any use for him; nobody wanted to exchange the -strength of his powerful arms for food to eat. As he wandered -from one street to another, Havelok grew hungrier and -hungrier. By great good chance, however, he passed by the -bridge where the market was, and there stood a great earl's -cook, who was buying fish and meat and other food for the -earl's table. Now he had just finished buying when Havelok -happened along, and the cook shouted, “Porter, porter!” for -somebody to come to carry his marketing home. Instantly -ten or a dozen jumped for the chance, for there were plenty -of men looking for work in Lincoln. But Havelok got ahead -of them all; he pushed them this way and that and sent them -sprawling head over heels, and seized hold of the cook's -baskets, without so much as a “By your leave.” Rough and -ready was the young Havelok, as strong as a bear and as -hungry as a savage. He made quick time of the journey to -the cook's kitchen, and there he was well fed as pay for his -labor.</p> - -<p>By the next day, however, Havelok's stomach was again -empty. But he knew the time at which the earl's cook came -to the market, and he waited there for him. Again when the -cook had finished buying, he called out “Porter, porter!”<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</span> -and again the husky Havelok shoved the rest right and left -and carried off the cook's baskets. He spared neither toes nor -heels until he came to the earl's castle and had put down his -burden in the kitchen.</p> - -<p>Then the cook, whose name was Bertram, stood there and -looked at Havelok and laughed. “This is certainly a stalwart -fellow enough,” he thought. “Will you stay with me?” he -said finally to Havelok. “I will feed you well, and well you -seem to be able to pay for your feeding.”</p> - -<p>And Havelok was glad enough to take the offer. “Give -me but enough to eat,” he answered, “and I will build your -fires and carry your water, and I can make split sticks to -skin eels with, and cut wood and wash dishes, and do anything -you want me to do.”</p> - -<p>The cook told Havelok to sit down and eat as much as he -wanted, and you can be sure Havelok was not slow in accepting -this invitation. When he had satisfied his hunger, -Havelok went out and filled a large tub of water for the -kitchen, and, to the cook's great astonishment, he carried it -in, without any help, in his own two hands. Such a cook's -knave had never been seen in that kitchen before!</p> - -<p>So Havelok became a kitchen-boy in a great earl's castle. -He was always gay and laughing, blithe of speech and -obliging, for he was young and thoughtless and healthy, and -happy so long as he had something to put into his stomach. -He played with the children and they all loved him, for, with -all his great strength and stature, he was as gentle as the -gentlest child among them. And Bertram, the cook, seeing -that Havelok had nothing to wear except his old sail-cloth -coat that Grim had made for him, bought Havelok a brand-new -coat and hose and shoes; and when Havelok was dressed -up in his new clothes, there was not a finer fellow in the whole -country. He stood head and shoulders above the rest when -the youths came together for their games at Lincoln, and no -one ever tried a round at wrestling with Havelok without -being thrown almost before he knew it. He was the tallest -and strongest man in all that region, and, what was better, -he was as good and gentle as he was strong.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</span></p> - -<p>Now, as it happened, the earl in whose kitchen Havelok -served as kitchen-boy to Bertram the cook was that very Earl -Godrich to whom old King Athelwold had entrusted his -daughter, Goldborough, for protection. Goldborough was -now a beautiful young princess, and Godrich realized that -something must soon be done for her. But Godrich had become -the strongest baron in all England; and though he had -not forgotten his promises to Athelwold, little did he think to -let the power, to which he had grown so accustomed, pass into -the hands of another. For though the beautiful Goldborough -was now old enough to be made queen, the traitorous Godrich -had decided in his heart that queen she should never be, but -that when he died, his son should be made king after him.</p> - -<p>Just about this time it happened that Earl Godrich summoned -a great parliament of all the nobles of England to -meet at Lincoln. When the parliament met, there was a great -throng of people there from all over England, and the bustling -city was very gay and lively. Many young men came -thither with their elders, bent on having a good time, strong -lads fond of wrestling and other such games. Now these -young men were amusing themselves one day in one way and -another, and finally they began to “put the stone.” The -stone was big and heavy, and it was not every man who could -lift it even as high as his knees. But these strong fellows -who had come to Lincoln in the train of the mighty barons -could lift it up and put it a dozen or more feet in front of -them; and the one who put it the farthest, if it was only an -inch ahead of the rest, he was counted the champion at -putting the stone.</p> - -<p>Now these stout lads were standing around and boasting -about the best throws, and Havelok stood by listening. He -knew nothing about putting the stone, for he had never done -it or seen it done before. But his master, Bertram the cook, -was also there, and he insisted that Havelok should have a -try at it. So Havelok took up the great stone, and at the first -throw, he put it a foot and more beyond the best throw of the -others.</p> - -<p>The news of Havelok's record throw in some way spread<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</span> -abroad, how he had beaten all these strong lads, and how tall -and powerful he was. And finally the knights in the great -hall of the castle began speaking of it, and Earl Godrich -listened, for he had suddenly thought of a way to keep his -promise. In a word, it was this: King Athelwold had made -him swear on the Holy Book that he would give his daughter -in marriage to the highest and strongest in the realm of -England. Now where could he find a higher and stronger -than this Havelok? He would marry the king's daughter to -this kitchen-boy, and thus, though in a way that the old king -never dreamed of, he would keep his promise and still leave -the road free for himself and his son after him.</p> - -<p>Godrich straightway sent for Goldborough, and told her -that he had found a husband for her, the tallest and fairest -man in all England. And Goldborough answered that no -man should wed her unless he was a king or a king's heir.</p> - -<p>At this Godrich grew very angry. “Thou shalt marry -whom I please!” he commanded. “Dost thou think thou -shalt be queen and lady over me? I will choose a husband -for thee. To-morrow shalt thou wed my cook's kitchen-boy -and none other, and he shall be lord over thee.”</p> - -<p>Goldborough wept and prayed; but she could not turn -Godrich from his shameful purpose.</p> - -<p>Then Godrich sent for Havelok, and when he had come -before him, he said, “Fellow, do you want a wife?”</p> - -<p>“Nay, truly,” said Havelok, “no wife for me! What -should I do with a wife? I have neither clothing nor shoes -nor food for her, neither house nor home to put her in. I -own not a stick in the world, and even the coat I bear on my -back belongs to Bertram the cook.”</p> - -<p>But Godrich told Havelok he must marry the wife he had -chosen for him, willy-nilly, or he should suffer for it. And -finally Havelok, for fear of his life, consented, and Goldborough -was sent for, and the Archbishop of York came, and -soon they were married, one as unwilling as the other.</p> - -<p>But when the wedding was over, and gifts had been given -to Goldborough, rich and plenty, Havelok was perplexed. -He beheld the beauty of Goldborough and was afraid to remain<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</span> -at Godrich's castle for fear of treachery that might -befall her. For Goldborough now had only Havelok to protect -her, since the kitchen-boy had become her lord and master, -and Havelok, with a man's courage, determined to defend -her to the best of his ability. The first thing to do, as -it seemed to him, was to go back to Grim's cottage, there to -think over the matter carefully before acting further. And -straightway, in company with Goldborough, he set out secretly -for the little cot by the seashore.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>When Havelok and Goldborough came to Grim's house, -he found that there had been many sad changes during the -time he had been living in Lincoln. In the first place, the -good Grim had died, and also his wife, Dame Leve. But the -three sons of Grim and his two daughters were still living at -Grimsby, and they still caught the fish of the sea and carried -them about in baskets to sell them. The oldest of these sons -was called Robert the Red, and, of the remaining two, one -was named William Wendout, and Hugh the Raven the other. -They were filled with joy when they found that their foster-brother, -Havelok, had come back to them, and they prepared -a fine dinner for him and Goldborough. And Robert the Red -begged Havelok now to stay with them at Grimsby and be -their chief and leader. They promised to serve him faithfully, -and their two sisters were eager to care for all the -needs of Goldborough, his wife. But for the time being, -Havelok put them off, for he had not yet decided what would -be the best course for him to follow.</p> - -<p>Now that night, as Goldborough lay awake, sad and sorrowful, -she was suddenly aware of a bright light, surrounding, -as it seemed, the head of the sleeping Havelok. Then at the -same time, there came a voice, she could not tell whence, -which said to her: “Goldborough, be no longer sorrowful, for -Havelok, who hath wedded thee, is a king's son and heir. -Upon his shoulder he bears a royal birthmark to prove it. -The day shall come when he will be king both in Denmark -and in England, and thou shalt be of both realms queen and -lady.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</span></p> - -<p>Now just at this same time, Havelok dreamed a strange -dream; and when he awoke, he told his dream to Goldborough. -He dreamed that he was sitting on a high hill in Denmark, -and when he stretched out his arms, they were so long that -they reached to the farthest limits of the land; and when he -drew his arms together to his breast, everything in Denmark, -all the towns, and the country, and the lordly castles, all -cleaved to his arms and were drawn into his embrace. Then -he dreamed that he passed over the salt sea with a great host -of Danish warriors to England, and that all England likewise -came into his power.</p> - -<p>When Goldborough heard this dream, she thought straightway -of the strange light she had seen over Havelok's head -and the voice that she had heard, and she interpreted it to -mean that Havelok should be king over Denmark and afterward -over England.</p> - -<p>She knew not how this should come to pass, but unhesitatingly -advised Havelok to prepare to set sail for Denmark. -Her plan was this: that they should buy a ship, and take -Grim's three sons, Robert the Red, William Wendout, and -Hugh the Raven, with them, and, when they came to Denmark, -pretend that they were merchants until they could -find out what course to follow. And when this plan was told -to the three sons of Grim, they immediately agreed to it, for -they were ready to follow Havelok wherever he went. And -now, also, Havelok for the first time learned who his father -was, and that he was really heir to the throne of Denmark. -For Grim, before he left Denmark, had told all of Havelok's -story to a cousin of his, and she now, for she was still alive -and had come to stay with Grim's family at Grimsby, told -Havelok all about Earl Godard's treachery. Happy indeed -was Goldborough when she heard this story, and they were -all more anxious than ever to set out for Denmark. They -got a good ship ready, and it was not long before all were well -on their way.</p> - -<p>When the ship reached Denmark, they all went up on land -and journeyed forth until they came to the castle of the great -Danish baron, Earl Ubbe. Now Ubbe had been a good friend<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</span> -of Havelok's father, the former King Birkabeyn, and a good -man and true was he. When they reached Ubbe's castle, -Havelok sent word that they were merchants, come to trade -in Ubbe's country, and, as a present, he sent in to Ubbe a -gold ring with a precious stone in the setting.</p> - -<p>When Ubbe had received this generous gift, he sent for -Havelok to come to see him. When the young man came, -Ubbe was greatly struck by Havelok's broad shoulders and -sturdy frame, and he said to himself: “What a pity that this -chapman is not a knight! He seems better fitted to wear a -helmet on his head and bear a shield and spear than to buy -and sell wares.” But he said nothing of this to Havelok, and -only invited him to come and dine in the castle and to bring -his wife, Goldborough, with him. And Ubbe promised that -no dishonor should be done either to one or the other, and -pledged himself as their protector. And when the dinner -was over, Ubbe, who had taken a great liking to both Havelok -and Goldborough, entrusted them to the safe-keeping of one -of his retainers, a stout and doughty warrior whose name was -Bernard the Brown. To Bernard's house, therefore, Havelok -and Goldborough went, and there too were lodged Robert the -Red and William Wendout and Hugh the Raven.</p> - -<p>Now when they had reached Bernard's house, and Bernard -and Havelok and Goldborough were sitting there peacefully at -supper, the house was suddenly attacked by a band of fierce -robbers. Travelers were not as safe in Denmark as they were -in England in the days of the strong King Athelwold, and -these robbers, thinking that Havelok must be a very rich man, -since he had given so valuable a ring to the Earl Ubbe, were -come now, a greedy gang, to see if they could get hold of -some of his treasure. Before Bernard and his guests were -aware of them, the robbers had reached the door, and they -shouted to Bernard to let them in or they would kill him. -But the valiant Bernard recalled that his guests were in his -safe-keeping; and shouting back that the robbers would have -to get in before they could kill him, he jumped up and put -on his coat of mail and seized an ax and leaped to the doorway. -Already the robbers were battering at the door, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</span> -they took a huge boulder and let it fly against the door, so -that it shivered to splinters. Then Havelok mixed in the fray. -He seized a heavy wooden door-tree, which was used to bar -the door, and when the robbers tried to break through the -door, he laid on right and left. It was not long before -Robert and William and Hugh, in the other part of the -house, heard the din and came rushing up; and then the fight -was on, fast and furious. Robert seized an oar and William -and Hugh had great clubs, and these, with Bernard's ax and -Havelok's door-tree, made it lively enough for the robbers. -But especially Havelok and his door-tree made themselves felt -there. The robbers, for all they were well armed with shields -and good long swords, were compelled to give way before the -flail-like strokes of Havelok's door-tree. When they saw their -comrades falling right and left, those that were still able to -do so took to their legs and ran away. Some harm they did, -however, while the fray lasted, for Havelok had a severe -sword-wound in his side, and from several other gashes the -blood was flowing freely.</p> - -<p>In the morning, when Bernard the Brown told Ubbe of the -attacks of the robbers, Ubbe swore that he would bring them -to punishment; and he also took further measures to protect -Havelok. When he heard that Havelok was wounded, he had -him brought to his own castle and gave him a room right next -to his own.</p> - -<p>Now that night, when Havelok lay asleep in his room and -Ubbe in the room next to it, about the middle of the night -Ubbe was awakened, and thought he saw a light on the other -side of the door. “What's this?” he said to himself. “What -mischief are they up to in there?” And he got up to see if -everything was all right with his new friend the chapman.</p> - -<p>Now when Ubbe peeped through a crack in the door, he -saw a strange sight. For there was Havelok peacefully sleeping, -and over his head there gleamed the miraculous light -that Goldborough had seen and that had caused Grim to spare -his life when he was a little child. And looking closer, Ubbe -saw something more. For the cover was thrown back, and he -saw on Havelok's shoulder the royal birthmark, and he knew<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</span> -immediately that this was the son of his old friend and king, -Birkabeyn, and the rightful heir to the throne of Denmark. -Eagerly he broke open the door and ran in and fell on his -knees beside Havelok, acknowledging him as his lawful lord.</p> - -<p>As soon as Havelok realized that he was not dreaming, he -saw that good fortune had at last put him in the way of -winning back his rights.</p> - -<p>And it had indeed, for Ubbe immediately set to work getting -together an army for Havelok. It was not long before -Havelok had a fine body of fighters ready to follow wherever -he led them, and then he thought it was time to seek out his -old enemy, Earl Godard. Before this, however, there was -another thing to be done, and that was to make knights of -Robert and William and Hugh. They were given the stroke -on the shoulder with the flat of the sword by Earl Ubbe and -thus were dubbed knights. They were granted land and -other fee, and they became as brave and powerful barons as -any in Denmark.</p> - -<p>When Havelok had his plans all made, he set out to find -Earl Godard. It was Robert the Red who had the good -fortune first to meet with him. But Godard was no coward, -and was not to be taken without struggle for his freedom. He -defended himself as best he could, but his followers soon -became frightened and took to their heels, leaving the -wretched Godard a helpless prisoner in the hands of Robert. -Havelok was glad enough to have Godard in his power at -last, but he made no effort to punish Godard for the injuries -he had done to him personally. It was as a traitor to his -king and his country that Godard was now held prisoner. -When the time of the trial came, by the judgment of his peers, -Godard was convicted of treason and sentence of death was -passed upon him.</p> - -<p>When peace had again been restored throughout Denmark, -then the people all joyfully accepted Havelok as their king -and the beautiful Goldborough as their queen.</p> - -<p>One thing still remained for Havelok to do in England -after affairs had all been settled in Denmark—there still -remained an accounting with Earl Godrich. And so, as soon<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</span> -as he had got his army together, Havelok and Goldborough -went on board ship and sailed over the sea, and soon they -were again back at Grimsby. The earl was ready for him, -too, for he had heard of Havelok's arrival in England, and -he thought he could make quick work of his former kitchen-boy. -But Havelok the man, with a Danish army at his back, -was a quite different person from Havelok the boy, who carried -the cook's baskets from market and distinguished himself -only by his record at putting the stone. And this difference -Earl Godrich was soon to discover.</p> - -<p>It was Ubbe, this time, who had the first meeting with -Godrich. Ubbe claimed Godrich as his prisoner, but Godrich -immediately drew his sword in self-defense. They fought -long and fiercely, and Godrich was decidedly getting the -better of it, when Havelok fortunately appeared upon the -scene. Havelok demanded that Godrich should yield himself -as his prisoner, but for answer Godrich only rushed at -Havelok all the more fiercely with his drawn sword, and so -violent was his attack, that he succeeded in wounding Havelok. -At this, Havelok's patience gave out, and exerting all -his powerful strength, in a short time he overcame Godrich -and disarmed him and bound him hand and foot. Then -Havelok had Godrich carried before a jury of his peers in -England, where he was made to answer to the charge of -treason, just as Godard had been made to do in Denmark.</p> - -<p>All the English barons acknowledged that Goldborough -was their true queen, and that Godrich was a tyrant and -usurper. And since not only plain justice, but also the -welfare of the kingdom, demanded it, the barons passed the -sentence of death upon the traitorous Earl Godrich. With -much feasting and celebration, Havelok and Goldborough -were taken in triumph to London, and there were crowned -king and queen of England. Thus Goldborough's dream had -come to pass, for she was now queen and lady and Havelok -was lord and king over both Denmark and England.</p> - -<p>But since Havelok could not be in both countries at one -time, and since his Danish friends were eager to get back -again to Denmark, now that their work in England was finished,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</span> -Havelok made Ubbe ruler over Denmark in his place, -and he remained in England. Moreover there were other old -friends who were also richly deserving of reward. Of these, -one was Bertram the cook, Havelok's former master, who -had fed him when he was starving. Bertram was made a -rich baron, and he was married to one of Grim's daughters, -who were still living at Grimsby, but who, of course, had now -become great ladies. The other daughter was married to -Reynes, Earl of Chester, who was a brave young bachelor and -glad enough to get so beautiful and so highly favored a wife -as Havelok gave him. Robert the Red and William Wendout -and Hugh the Raven all remained in England, where they -married rich and beautiful wives, and became Havelok's -right-hand men in the good government of the country.</p> - -<p>And you can be sure the country was now again well -governed. As in the days of the good King Athelwold, a -traveler might bear a bag full of red gold on his shoulder -from one end of England to the other, and be as safe as -though he were guarded by an army of soldiers. Loved by -their subjects and feared by their enemies, thus in peace and -contentment King Havelok and Queen Goldborough dwelt -together many a long year in England, and their children -grew up around them. They had passed through their trials -and tribulations, and at last only good days were in store for -them.</p> - -<p>This is the end.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</span></p> - -<h4>SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS</h4> - -<ol class="f"> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What advantage does the author gain by using a somewhat -archaic style?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Why does he tell the story with almost the same simplicity that -marks the original story?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What events show the character of Havelok?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What is the character of Grim?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What is the character of Goldborough?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> In what respects are Earl Godrich and Earl Godard alike?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Show that the story is like some of the familiar nursery legends.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Outline the principal events of the narrative.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Which events are most impressive?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Point out local allusions in the story.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> In what respects is Havelok truly royal?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Point out any uses of the supernatural.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Is Bertram a realistic or a romantic character?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Point out exceedingly human touches in the story.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Point out the emphasis of noble characteristics.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Show how description adds to the effectiveness of the story.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Show how the story resembles other stories you have read.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What reasons have made the story live for a thousand years?</li> -</ol> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<h4>SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION</h4> -</div> - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="his15"> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">1. Uncle Tom's Cabin</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">11. Robinson Crusoe</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">2. Washington's Boyhood</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">12. Rip Van Winkle</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">3. The Story of Treasure Island</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">13. The Story of Portia</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">4. The Story of Ivanhoe</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">14. The Story of Rosalind</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">5. The Vision of Sir Launfal</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">15. The Story of Viola</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">6. Lancelot and Elaine</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">16. Silas Marner</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">7. Robin Hood and His Men</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">17. The Ancient Mariner</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">8. Huckleberry Finn</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">18. The Black Knight</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">9. Tom Sawyer</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">19. King Arthur</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">10. Ben Hur</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">20. Joan of Arc</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - - -<h4>DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING</h4> - - -<p class="p2">You are to re-tell an old story. Select one with which you are -entirely familiar. Tell it very simply and plainly, but try very hard -to give it the quality of human interest. Make your readers sympathize -with your hero and heroine. Tell a number of dramatic -episodes, selecting those that do most to emphasize character. Make -your story move very quickly, and make its action very vivid and -intense. Give emphasis to good characteristics.</p> - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</span></p> -<p class="p4 center big3" >THE STORY ESSAY</p> -</div> - -<h2 class="nobreak">POLITICS UP TO DATE</h2> - -<p class="center big1">By FREDERICK LEWIS ALLEN</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p2"><em>(1890-). A contributor to many magazines. At different -times he served as Instructor in English at Harvard, and as a -member of the editorial staff of</em> The Atlantic Monthly, <em>and of</em> -The Century.</p> -</div> - -<div class="indent1 bold small1"> - -<p class="p2">The short story and the essay may be combined in what may be called -the story-essay or the dialogue-essay. Many of Addison's <em>Sir Roger de -Coverley</em> essays illustrate such a combination.</p> - -<p><em>Politics Up To Date</em> is really a critical essay, directed against certain -tendencies in political campaigns in the United States, but it is presented -in the form of a dialogue between a young politician and an old -politician. It is very effective in its satire.</p> -</div> - - -<p class="p2">“So you've come to me for advice, have you?” said the Old -Politician to the Young Politician. “You want to know how -to succeed in politics, do you?”</p> - -<p>The Young Politician inclined his head.</p> - -<p>“I do,” he replied. “Will you tell me?”</p> - -<p>The Old Politician was silent for a moment.</p> - -<p>“Times change,” he said at last, “and I dare say there are -new issues now in politics that there weren't in the good old -days. The technic is somewhat different, too. However, the -basic principles remain the same, and, after all, the issues -don't really matter; it's what you say about them that -counts, and I can tell you what to say about them. Very -well, I'll advise you. First of all, if you're running for -office in these days, you must run as a hundred-per-cent. -American candidate.”</p> - -<p>The Young Politician's eye clouded with perplexity.</p> - -<p>“What is Americanism,” he asked, “and how does one -figure it on a percentage basis?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</span></p> - -<p>The Old Politician brought down his fist on the table with -a crash.</p> - -<p>“You aspire to political office, and ask questions like that!” -he exclaimed in a voice of wrath. “Never question what -hundred-per-cent. Americanism is, even to yourself. If you -do, somebody else will question, too. Nothing could be more -fatal. Don't try to define it; assert it. Say you're hundred -per cent. and your opponent isn't. Intimate that if George -Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln went -over your opponent with a slide rule and an adding-machine, -they couldn't make him add up to more than ninety-nine per -cent. If he's out for a seven-cent fare or a new set of -municipal waterworks, tell the people that such things are -un-American. Say that he's dodging the issue, and the issue -is Americanism.” He paused. “If you were my opponent, -and asked what Americanism is, I'd double you up. 'Think -of it, my fellow-citizens! He doesn't even know what -Americanism is! Is that the kind of man to hold office in the -country of Washington and Lincoln?'”</p> - -<p>The Young Politician looked round uneasily to make sure -that they were indeed alone, for the Old Politician was almost -shouting.</p> - -<p>“Please,” said the Young Politician, “not so loud. I won't -ask that question again. I see your point. What else do -you advise?”</p> - -<p>“You must learn,” continued the Old Politician, “to be a -good denouncer.”</p> - -<p>“A good what?”</p> - -<p>“Denouncer. Keep your eyes open for objects of popular -disapproval, and when you're sure you've got hold of something -that is heartily disapproved by the great majority of -the people, denounce it. At present I should advise you to -denounce the high cost of living, the profiteers, and the Bolshevists. -Next year, of course, the list may be quite different, -but for the present those three are the best objects of denunciation.”</p> - -<p>“What bothers me,” suggested the Young Politician in a -hesitating voice, “is that it may be rather hard to drag those<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</span> -things into the campaign. Suppose, for example, I'm -pledged to broaden the Main Street of the city upon my -election to the city council. Won't it be rather hard to tie the -Main Street and the Bolshevists together?”</p> - -<p>The Old Politician looked upon the troubled face of the -Young Politician with disgust.</p> - -<p>“You're a great politician, you are,” he said wearily. -“Tie them together? Don't be so ridiculously logical.” He -rose to his feet, and as he did so he smote the table once more -with his fist. “Gen-tle-men,” he cried hoarsely, surveying -an imaginary audience with his glittering eye, “there is a -movement on foot in this very county, this very State, nay, -this very city, to undermine our Congress, to topple over the -Constitution, to put a bomb under our President! Confronted -by such a menace to our democratic institutions, -what, gentlemen, shall be our answer? Let us broaden Main -Street, as Washington would have broadened it, as Lincoln -would have broadened it, and let us put down the red flag -wherever it shows its head!”</p> - -<p>“Its mast,” corrected the Young Politician, visibly moved. -“Thank you for those courageous, those hundred-per-cent. -words. I shall try to strike that note. But there is something -else I want to ask. Suppose I am elected. What shall I do -while I hold office in order that I may become ultimately -eligible for still higher office?”</p> - -<p>“In that case,” replied the old man, who by this time had -subsided into his chair, “you must not merely denounce the -high cost of living, the profiteers, and the Bolshevists; you -must campaign against them.”</p> - -<p>“But suppose I am a commissioner of roads or an attorney-general,” -queried the Young Politician. “In that case, -clearly such things lie outside my province. How can I -campaign against them?”</p> - -<p>“My dear young man,” said the Old Politician, with a -weary smile, “don't bother about your province, as you call -it. Your job will undoubtedly be uninteresting and the -public won't know anything about it or care anything about<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</span> -it, and the test of your success will be your ability to conduct -campaigns which have nothing to do with your job, and -therefore stand some chance of interesting the public. There -is no reason why even an attorney-general shouldn't campaign -against anything, provided he handle his campaign -right.</p> - -<p>“The principal thing to bear in mind is that you must -begin your campaigns noisily and end them so quietly that the -sound of their ending is drowned in the noise of the next -campaign's beginning. Let's say you begin with a campaign -against the high cost of living. First come out with a statement -that you, as attorney-general or commissioner of roads -or what not, are going to knock the high cost of living to bits, -and the whole force of the Government will be behind you. -That will put you on the front page once. Then send out -telegrams calling a conference to take steps against the cost -of living. That will put you on the front page again. Then -when the conference meets, address them, and tell them -they've got to make conditions better, simply got to. By the -way, you ought to have a couple of able secretaries to help -you with these speeches, or, better still, to do the routine -work of your office so that there will be nothing to divert your -mind from your campaigns. Then, after you have the conference -well started, step out. Don't stay with them; they -may begin asking you for constructive ideas. Step clear of -the thing, and start a new campaign.</p> - -<p>“I can't over-emphasize the fact that when the conference -is well started, you must help the public to forget about it, -and stir up interest in something new. Flay the profiteer -for a month or two, and get a conference going on profiteers. -Rap the Bolshevists, and telegraph for a crowd of citizens to -come and probe the Bolshevists while you're deciding what -your next campaign shall be. Don't let the people's minds -run back to the high cost of living, or they'll be likely to -notice that it hasn't gone down. Refer constantly to the -success of your own campaigns, and keep the public mind -moving.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</span></p> - -<p>The Young Politician was visibly impressed, but apparently -a doubt still lingered in his mind.</p> - -<p>“There's one thing I'm afraid I don't quite understand,” -he said at last. “All this denouncing and rapping and probing—isn't -it likely to look rather destructive? Will people -want to vote for a man whose pleasantest mood is one of -indignation?”</p> - -<p>“My dear young man,” replied the Old Politician, “I fear -that you misunderstood me. A politician must be always -pleasant to the people who are about him, and denounce only -persons who are not present. You should compliment your -audience when speaking. Be sure to make the right speech -in the right place; don't get off your profiteer speech to the -Merchants' Association, or they may begin to wonder whether -they agree with you, but draw their hearts to yours with your -anti-Bolshevik speech; assure them that you and they are -going to save the nation from red ruin. Denunciation is -pleasant if it's somebody else who is getting denounced. Tell -the merchants or the newspaper publishers or the party committeemen, -or whoever it is that you are addressing, that they -are the most important element in the community and that -the war could not have been won if they had not stepped -forward to a man and done their duty. That's good to hear.</p> - -<p>“Finally, give them a little patriotic rapture. Tell them -this is a new age we're in. Picture to them the capitalist and -working-man walking hand in hand with their eyes on the -flag. Make the great heart of America throb for them. Unpleasant? -Why, if you top off with a heart-throb, you can -make the most denunciatory speech delightful for one and -all.”</p> - -<p>The Young Politician rose.</p> - -<p>“I see,” he said. “Thank you. Have you any other -advice?”</p> - -<p>“Merely one or two minor hints,” said the Old Politician. -“If the photographers want to take your picture teaching -your baby to walk, let them do it; the public loves the home -life of its leader. Always be affable to the reporters, but -never state your views explicitly, or you may find them<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</span> -embarrassing at some later date. Stick to generalities. I -think that's all.”</p> - -<p>“Thank you again,” said the Young Politician, putting out -his hand. “You are very good. You're—” An idea -seemed to seize his mind, and his bearing perceptibly altered. -“You, sir, are a good American. I'm always delighted to -have an evening with a man who is absolutely one-hundred-per-cent. -patriotic American to the core.”</p> - -<p>“Good night,” said the Old Politician. “You're getting -it very nicely. I think you'll do well.”</p> - - -<h4>SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS</h4> - -<ol class="f"> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What advantage is gained by presenting the thought through -the medium of dialogue?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What is the character of the Old Politician?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Explain the writer's satire of the use of “Americanism.”</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What are the Old Politician's principles concerning denunciation?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What are the writer's principles?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> In what ways does the writer satirize the American public?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> How does the writer satirize political campaigns?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> How does the writer satirize hypocrisy in political life?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> How would the writer have a political campaign conducted?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> How would the writer have an office holder act?</li> -</ol> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h4>SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION</h4> -</div> - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="his16"> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">1. The Good American</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">11. The Right Kind of Leader</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">2. Campaign Speaking</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">12. Testing Political Speeches</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">3. Political Beliefs</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">13. Good Citizens</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">4. Honesty in Public Life</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">14. How to Vote Conscientiously</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">5. A Worthy Office Holder</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">15. A Genuine Statesman</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">6. Political Methods</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">16. Patriotic Speeches</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">7. Denunciation</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">17. Soap-box Orators</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">8. A Political Campaign</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">18. Diverting Attention</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">9. Sincerity</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">19. Public Servants</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">10. Deceiving the Public</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">20. The American People</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</span></p> - - -<h4>DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING</h4> - -<p class="p2">Think of a series of principles in which you strongly believe. -Imagine two people who will represent definite attitudes toward the -principles that you have in mind. Write a dialogue between the -two people, presenting your real thought in the disguise of satire. -Let your work represent both the beginning and the ending of the -conversation. As in all other writing, make the ending effective.</p> - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak">FREE!</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center big1">By CHARLES HANSON TOWNE</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p2"><em>(1877—). Managing editor of</em> McClure's Magazine. <em>He -has written many delightful books, among which are:</em> The -Quiet Singer, and Other Poems; Jolly Jaunts with Jim; -Autumn Loiterers; Shaking Hands with England.</p> -</div> - -<div class="indent1 bold small1"> - -<p class="p2">Over two hundred years ago Joseph Addison imagined a character -whom he called “The Spectator” meeting with various friends and -discussing with them the life of the times. Through what was said -by these imaginary beings Addison gave his own shrewd comments on -foibles and follies. Mr. Towne's “young-old philosopher” is a sort -of modern “Spectator.” He talks of the drudgery of work, and the -glowing joy of a holiday, and comes to the sudden realization that the -world is a world of work in which every one must play his part if he -is to have real contentment. The essay is Mr. Towne's comment both -on a life of unvaried drudgery and on a life of idleness.</p> - -<p>“I have wondered what it would seem like to be ... jogging along -with nowhere to go save where one pleased.”</p> -</div> - -<p class="p2">The young-old philosopher was speaking.</p> - -<p>“I had a strange experience yesterday. To have spent -twenty years or so at office work, and then suddenly to arrange -one's affairs so that a portion of the week became one's -own—that is an experience, isn't it?”</p> - -<p>We admitted that it was an achievement to be envied.</p> - -<p>“How did you manage it?” was the natural question.</p> - -<p>“That is a detail of little importance,” he replied. “Let -the fact of one's sudden liberty be the point dwelt upon. I -found myself walking up the avenue at the miraculous hour -of eleven in the morning, and not going to a desk! I was -headed for the park, where I knew the trees had long since -loaded their branches with leaves, and the grass was so green -that it made the heart ache with its loveliness. You know -how perfect yesterday was, a summer day to remember and -to be grateful for.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</span></p> - -<p>“To you who have never known what it is to drudge day -in and day out, this may seem a trifling thing to speak of. -For myself, a miracle had happened. I could not believe -that this golden hour was mine completely. I had never seen -shop-windows with quite this slant of the sun on them. Always -I had viewed them early or late, or wistfully at noon, -when the streets were so crowded with other escaped office -men that I could take no pleasure in what I beheld. Shop-windows -at eleven in the morning were for the elect of the -earth. That hour had always heretofore meant for me a -manuscript to be read or edited, a conference to be attended, -a telephone call to be answered, a visit from some one seeking -advice—something, at any rate, that made it impossible for -me to call it my own. I have looked often from a high -window at that hour, and seen the people in the streets as -they trailed like ribbons round and round the vast city, and -I have wondered what it would seem like to be one of them, -not hurrying on some commercial errand, but jogging along -with nowhere to go save where one pleased.</p> - -<p>“At last my dream had come true, and when I found -myself projected upon that thrilling avenue, and realized -that I had nothing, absolutely nothing, to do until luncheon-time, -and I could skip that if I wished, I could scarcely believe -that it was I who had thus broken the traces.</p> - -<p>“The green of the park greeted me, and, like Raleigh's -cloak,<a id="FNanchor_55" href="#Footnote_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> a gay pattern of flowers was laid at the entrance for -even my unworthy feet metaphorically to tread. And to -think that these bright blooms unfolded here day after day -and I had so seldom seen them! An old man dozed on a -bench near at hand, oblivious to the beauty around him; and -a septuagenarian gardener leaned over the circular border, -just as Narcissus<a id="FNanchor_56" href="#Footnote_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> looked into the pool. Perhaps he saw -some image of his youth in the uplifted face of a flower.</p> - -<p>“I know that I saw paths and byways everywhere that -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</span>reminded me of my vanished boyhood; for I am one of those -who have always lived in Manhattan, and some of the happiest -days I ever spent were those in the park as a child, -seeing the menagerie, feeding the squirrels, and rolling a -hoop on a graveled pathway.</p> - -<p>“I remembered Rossetti's line,<a id="FNanchor_57" href="#Footnote_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> 'I have been here before,' -as I walked along on this exultant morning; and it indeed -seemed as if in some previous incarnation, and not in this life, -I had known my footsteps to take this perfumed way. For -in the hurry of life and in the rush of our modern days we -forget too soon the leisure of childhood, plunging as we do -into the rough-and-tumble of an agonized manhood.</p> - -<p>“And all this was while the park, like a green island set in -a throbbing sea, had waited for me to come back to it! No -lake isle of Innesfree<a id="FNanchor_58" href="#Footnote_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> could have beguiled the poet more. -Anchored at a desk, I had dreamed often of such an hour -of freedom; and now that it was really mine, I determined -that I would not analyze it, but that I would simply drink -in its wonder. It would have been as criminal as to pluck a -flower apart.</p> - -<p>“Policemen went their weary rounds, swinging their sticks, -and it suddenly came to me that even in this sylvan retreat -there was stern labor to be done. Just as some one, some -time, must sweep out a shrine,—possibly nowadays with a -vacuum-cleaner!—so papers must be picked from God's -grass, and pick-pockets must be diligently looked for in holiday -crowds. Men on high and practical sprinkling-carts -must keep the roadways clean, and emissaries of the law must -see to it that motorists do not speed too fast. You think of -ice-cream as being miraculously made in a park pavilion, and -unless you visit the city woodland at the hour of eleven or so -in the morning, you may keep your dream. But I beheld a -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</span>common ice-wagon back up to the door of that cherished -house of my childhood, and a strong, rough fellow proved -himself the connecting-link between the waitress and her -eager little customers.</p> - -<p>“At this hour it was as though I had gone behind the scenes -of a theater while the stage-hands were busy about their -necessary labors. Wiring had to be done,—I had forgotten -that they have telephones even in the park,—and a mason -was repairing a crumbling wall. How much better to let it -crumble, I thought. But all my practicality, through my -sense of strange freedom, had left me, and I was ardent for -a mad, glad world, where for a long time there would be -nothing for anybody to do. I wanted masons and policemen -and icemen and nurse-maids and electricians and keepers of -zoölogical gardens to be as free as I, forever and ever.</p> - -<p>“You see, my unexpected holiday had gone to my head, -and it was a summer morning, and I felt somehow that I -ought to be working rather than loitering here.</p> - -<p>“I suppose I shall be sane to-morrow, but I wonder if I -want to be.”</p> - -<p>And we all wondered if we didn't like him better when he -was just this way, a child with a new toy, or, rather, a child -with an old toy that he had almost but not quite forgotten -how to play with.</p> - - -<h4>SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS</h4> - -<ol class="f"> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What advantage does the essayist gain by using characters to -express his own thoughts?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What made the philosopher's holiday so notable?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What had been his daily life?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Comment on the various thoughts and fancies that came to the -philosopher on his holiday.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What is meant by the expression, “An Agonized Manhood”?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What joys does the philosopher find?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Show how his thoughts come back to the idea of work.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> In what did his lack of “sanity” consist?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Does the expression, “I suppose I shall be sane to-morrow,” -mean that he will wish to work, or wish to have a holiday, or -wish for something else?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What was the toy that he had almost forgotten how to play -with?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What is the author's purpose?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What evils in modern life does the essay criticize?</li> -</ol> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</span></p> - -<h4>SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION</h4> - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="his17"> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">1. School Athletics</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">11. Selfishness</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">2. Home Study</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">12. School Spirit</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">3. Exercise</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">13. Good Manners</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">4. Reading</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">14. Playing Jokes</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">5. Writing Letters</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">15. Carefulness</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">6. Aiding Others</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">16. Honesty in School Work</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">7. Politeness</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">17. Thoughtfulness</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">8. Using Reference Books</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">18. Practising Music Lessons</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">9. Going to Bed Early</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">19. Looking Out for Number One</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">10. Obedience</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">20. “Bluffing”</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - -<h4>DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING</h4> - -<p class="p2">When you have selected a subject that interests you, write out, -in a single sentence, your one most important thought on that subject. -Then plan to write an essay that will embody that thought.</p> - -<p>If you are to imitate Mr. Towne's method you will think of a -typical character who will express your own thought. As soon as -you have introduced your character—notice how quickly Mr. Towne -introduced the “young-old philosopher”—lead him to relate an experience -that made him think about the subject. Write his meditations -in such a way that they will show all view-points. Let the end of -your essay indicate, rather than state, the view-point that you wish -to emphasize.</p> - -<p>Mr. Towne gives his essay many elements of originality and much -beauty of thought and expression. Imitate his style as well as you -can.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="footnotes"> -<p class="p2 center big2">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_55" href="#FNanchor_55" class="label">[55]</a> Sir Walter Raleigh is said to have laid his cloak in the mud so that -Queen Elizabeth might pass without soiling her garments.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_56" href="#FNanchor_56" class="label">[56]</a> Narcissus. A Greek myth tells of a young man named Narcissus -who, leaning over a pool, fell in love with his own reflection, and -changed into a flower.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_57" href="#FNanchor_57" class="label">[57]</a> Dante Gabriel Rosetti (1828-1882). An English poet of Italian -and English descent. His poems are marked by beauty of form, -symbolism and color.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_58" href="#FNanchor_58" class="label">[58]</a> Innesfree. The Irish poet, William Butler Yeats (1864—) wrote -<em>The Lake Isle of Innisfree</em> in which he imagines Innisfree as an island -of perfect peace, a place for which he longs when “on the roadway, -or on the pavements gray.”</p> - -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</span></p> -<p class="p4 center big3">THE STORY OF ADVENTURE</p> -</div> - -<h2 class="nobreak">PRUNIER TELLS A STORY</h2> - -<p class="center big1">By T. MORRIS LONGSTRETH</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p2"><em>An American author and lover of natural scenery. His books -on</em> The Adirondacks, <em>and</em> The Catskills <em>are enticements into -the mountain world. He is a writer for many periodicals.</em></p> -</div> - -<div class="indent1 bold small1"> - -<p class="p2">The romantic story of adventure deals with events that are far from -being the events of daily life. Usually such a story has for its setting -an unusual scene.</p> - -<p><em>Prunier Tells a Story</em> deals with events that come into very few lives; -its setting is a region into which very few people penetrate. The -principal character, the French-Canadian Prunier, is likewise a type of -person with whom few are acquainted.</p> - -<p>At the same time, the story is told with a degree of naturalness that -makes it seem real. The French-Canadian is brought into touch with -daily life by the presence of his two listeners, who are people of the -ordinary world, and one of whom is a boy.</p> - -<p>The story is not told merely for wild event: it hangs upon character -and upon noble purpose. It emphasizes courage, ability, self-sacrifice -and faith.</p> - -<p>The setting of the story is so used that it contributes in a marked -degree to the entire effect. As one reads he feels himself in the icy -north, in the grip of cold and darkness where wild events are altogether -probable.</p> -</div> - - -<h3>PART I</h3> - -<p class="small1 center">THE PILLAR OF CLOUD BY DAY</p> - -<p>It was after supper one November evening, at Wilderness -House, with the sleet dancing on the eaves and the great -forest of Wildyrie closing us about with its dark presence, -when Essex Lad and I stumbled by chance on the fact that -we didn't have to read books for adventure, but merely touch -Prunier in some-story-telling place, and then—listen.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</span></p> - -<p>Prunier, you remember, is the blue-shirted, black-hatted -French-Canadian who lives with us and thinks he works. He -is a broad-shouldered, husky, simple-faced man of forty, who -never opens his mouth unless it be to point out a partridge we -are overlooking or to put in his black pipe. He spent his -youth in the great Northland, where adventures are as common -as black flies in a swamp, and yet he had never even -explained the scar across his cheek, or the white patch on -his scalp where some other excitement had been registered, -until that evening when I had closed the Bible.</p> - -<p>“Tink dat true?” he had suddenly asked.</p> - -<p>I had been reading them how the Lord God had led Moses -and the children of Israel across that other wilderness by a -pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. It had -roused him strangely.</p> - -<p>“I know it true,” he said, “for <em>le bon Dieu</em> show me way -by pillars of cloud and fire <em>aussi</em>. If you want story, I tole -you dat wan, <em>moi-même</em>.”</p> - -<p>It was our turn to be excited. Here was luck—a vacant -evening, a hearth fire, and Prunier promising <em>une longue -histoire</em>, as he called it. We formed a semi-circle before the -blazing birch, and, with the dull beat of the sleet above us -for accompaniment, listened for the first word that would -launch the black-eyed man upon his tale. It was long coming. -He relit the pipe, recrossed his legs, muttered once -“Pore ole Pierre,” and stopped. We ceased to breathe; for -though I could command him to cut wood and wash dishes, -I could not force from him a syllable about “Pore ole Pierre” -until he was good and ready.</p> - -<p>“Monsieur Moses <em>et moi</em>, we have purty hard times in -wilderness widout doze pillars,” he said.</p> - -<p>The Lad and I gave a nervous laugh. I could not fancy -myself personally conducting forty thousand Hebrews, even -through Wildyrie, without much assistance.</p> - -<p>“Yaas,” he said, “purty hard. I now begin.”</p> - -<p>And begin he did, slowly and with his quaint talk seasoned -with his habitant French, which I'll have to omit in my -retelling.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</span></p> - -<p>“It was a night just like this, in my little cabin on Wolf -River. It had rained and then frozen, and the dark closed -in with sleet. A very good night to be indoors, thought ole -Pierre and I. Ole Pierre was my best friend, an old husky, -who had been trapping with me four—five years. He knew -all that men know, I think, as well as all that dogs understand, -and he could smell a werewolf in the twilight.”</p> - -<p>“A werewolf, what's that?” was on the very opening of -the Lad's lips, but he held back the question.</p> - -<p>“A werewolf, you know,” went on Prunier, “is worse -than real wolf, for it is in the air—a ghost-wolf. That is why -ole Pierre sometimes howled in his sleep and kept her from -visiting us. That is why I put a candle in the window every -dusk-time. As you shall see, it was lucky habit.</p> - -<p>“<em>Eh bien</em>, that night I was sorting over my traps, for I -thought it would turn cold after the storm. Then I would -cross Breknek Place and begin the winter's trapping.</p> - -<p>“Breknek Place is its name, because the sides of Wolf -River come very close together, almost so near a man can -jump. Indeed its name is really because a trapper like me -was surprised by the wolves and ran for it. But he was too -scared, and missed. They never got his body, the wolves, -because the river runs so fast down to the Smoky Pool. -Smoky Pool is a warm cove in the St. Lawrence that freezes -last, and from which clouds of vapor rise on still days into -the colder air.</p> - -<p>“I never intended to be washed down that way, and in the -summer I felled a tree from bank to bank, a broad hemlock, -big enough to run a sledge over, almost; and that save many -miles walking up river to Portage du Loup. I never intended, -either, to be run by the wolves, you bet! And ole Pierre and -I were pretty-very careful to be inside at the candle-lighting -time.</p> - -<p>“That night our cabin was very quiet, like this, for the -sleet was a little pleasant sound, and ole Pierre was dreaming -of old hunts, and I was on the floor with the traps, when both -the dog and I were brought out of our thoughts by a wild<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</span> -cry, very faint and far away, but as sharp and sudden as a -cut of lightning on a summer night.</p> - -<p>“The hair on the back of my neck rises just like ole -Pierre's, for I know it is the werewolf. And he looks at me -and whines, for he knows it, too. I rush and light a second -candle, though I have not too many, and look out the pane. -But of course, there is nothing to be seen, nothing to be heard, -except the moaning of wind in the dark. Yet later I hear a -noise, very weak, very unsteady, as if a person was approaching.</p> - -<p>“Ole Pierre howls low in his throat and scratches on the -door. I reprove him: 'Are you possessed, ole Pierre? There -is no soul within sixty—seventy miles. And you and I have -done nothing that should let the werewolf in.'</p> - -<p>“But it was fearful hearing that stealthy approach, stopping -long, then many steps, and a groan. I get out the Bible -and read fast. But there comes a <em>tap-tap</em> at the door, and I -tremble so the book almost falls from my hand, and ole Pierre, -he calls to his saints, too.</p> - -<p>“What is the use of looking out, for who can see a werewolf?</p> - -<p>“Presently there is no noise. The <em>tap-tap</em> stops; and except -for a noise as of a bundle of something dropping against -the door, there is nothing to hear except the dull sleet on the -eaves, ole Pierre crying in his throat, and the <em>trip-trip</em> of my -heart that goes like a werewolf pounding on my ribs. A -voice inside me says open the door. But another voice says -'That is a werewolf trick and you will be carried away, -Prunier.' Twenty times my hand is on the bolt.</p> - -<p>“At last I can stand it no longer,—that voice inside saying -to me to open,—and I rush to it and throw it open before I -have time to think, and a body falls in, against my legs. -A long, thin body it is, and I hesitate to touch it, for a werewolf -can take any form. But a groan comes from it, and I -have not the heart to push it out into the dark. I prop it by -the fire and its eyes droop open. 'Food—tie up food.' That -is the first word it says.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</span></p> - -<p>“I push some medicine for weakness into his mouth, and -his life comes back little by little. 'You must take food to -her,' he says; and soon again, 'The ship by Smoky Pool—she -starves in it—my sister.'</p> - -<p>“Indeed, I soon saw that he was faint from long travel and -no feeding, and perhaps a sickness past thrown in, for he -faints much between parts of his account. But I gather the -news that he had come very far from some deserted ship in -which a sister was starving to death; and alone, since his -three partners had cleared out. He begged of me to leave -him and take food for her. He cried out that he was dying, -and I had to believe him; for death's shadows sat at the -entrance to his eyes. I made him glad by placing bread beside -him, and by putting on my Mackinaw and the pack after -it, in which I had put food.</p> - -<p>“A fever of uneasiness stirred him between faints until -I had lit a lantern and called to ole Pierre to follow. Then -joy shone in his worn eyes, and a blessing on us both followed -us out into the icy night.</p> - -<p>“With a last look through the window at the stranger, -who had now, as I thought, closed his eyes in surrender to -the end, ole Pierre and I turned into the endless forest on our -long trail to the Smoky Pool. The sleet was freezing as it fell, -and the rays of my lantern lit the woods, which seemed made -of marble, the dark trunks glistening, the laden boughs hanging -down like chandeliers in a cathedral, and the shrubs -glittering like ten million candles as we passed. In such a -place, I thought, no werewolf dare attack us.</p> - -<p>“Instead, I thought of the trail ahead, the long miles till -we come to Breknek Place, the long miles after to the ice-locked -arm of the St. Lawrence near by the Smoky Pool. On -such an errand we had nothing to fear, though outside the -lantern-shine it was as dark as the one of Monsieur Moses' -bad plagues you have read to the Lad so lately.</p> - -<p>“We had got within three—four miles of Wolf River, ole -Pierre slip-slipping on the ice in front of me, the lantern -swinging, my pack beginning to feel like a rest, when for -the second time that night a cry shivers across the distance,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</span> -an awful sound for a lonely man to hear in the night forest.</p> - -<p>“It is a long howl, fierce and almost gladsome, like when -the evil one is clutching a new victim. And it is answered -from the other side of the night by another howl, and then a -chorus from both sides at once. And then the trail turns, -and I know the pack of them is not chasing deer far away, -but chasing <em>me</em>, <em>us</em>. For ole Pierre knows it, too, and crouches -whining at my feet. Ole Pierre knows there is no escape, -like me.</p> - -<p>“Have you ever seen a wolf-pack run down a deer by -turns, leap at its throat, and pull it down? I have once, near -<em>Trois Rivières</em>, from a safe place on a mountain. And it was -bad enough to be in the safe place, only watching. But that -night how much worse! I pat ole Pierre on the head and -tell him to cheer up, there is no use dying three—four times -ahead of time. And as I say that, I think of that other man -chased by wolves who had tried to leap at Breknek Place.</p> - -<p>“<em>'Tiens!</em> ole Pierre,' I cry, 'let us do better!' And off I -start at a dead run, feet slipping sideways, lantern swinging, -pack rising, falling, like a rabbit's hind leg, with ole Pierre -chasing after. It is less than a mile to the narrow gorge. -Could we make that, perhaps I could throw the big hemlock -in and stop them from crossing after us. A revolver is no -good against a pack, and going up a tree is only putting off -till to-morrow their big feast on habitant.</p> - -<p>“The quick motion of our running put courage in our -blood, and after a little while even ole Pierre's brush waves -higher in the air, as if he had remembered some fight of old, -and we gallop. We gallop, but the wolves they gallop too. -First on one side far off, then on the other nearer, and ever -as the trail winds in a new direction they sound like pack -on pack of them, although there might have been less than -ten. It is only late in the winter with us, when the snow is -deep, that they gather into big packs to pull down the moose.</p> - -<p>“At length, breathless, very tired, but still ahead of them, -ole Pierre and I come out into the clear space just before the -river. It was very slippery with frozen sleet, and I fall -once—twice; and ole Pierre slide here—there, like a kitten on<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</span> -new ice. Ahead of us roars the river through the deep gorge. -Behind on two sides the howling comes from the forest, and -once, when I look back, I see them. But that can't be, for it -is so dark. Yet I imagine I see them—black, racing forms, -tongues out, muzzles sharp and red, and a green-yellow fire -from the eyes.</p> - -<p>“And it was so. For before we reach the fallen hemlock, -our bridge to safety, two come between us and the river. -With a yell, I fire straight where they were, but it is too dark, -too slippery to hit, and they only circle back to wait till their -partners come up. I fling myself down breathless, weak, for -just two seconds' wind.</p> - -<p>“'Cross ole Pierre, cross over, <em>mon enfant</em>!' And he -trotted to the long log, but crawled back with his tail dragging, -and whined about me. Black shadows, five, ten, twelve -maybe, circled outside the ring of my lantern-light, and the -green-yellow eyes were no imagination now. But they were -quiet, intent on closing in. With the lantern, which was our -only salvation from their fangs, in one hand and my revolver -in the other, I backed to the hemlock, calling to ole Pierre to -follow. He is trembling, and I soon know why; for when I -put my foot on our bridge to safety, it cannot stay, and I -nearly plunge headlong into the rocky stream thirty feet -below. The log was slippery with frozen mist. We were -trapped. At our backs, a river not to be crossed; about us, -a crew of wolves getting bolder every minute.</p> - -<p>“'Courage, ole Pierre!' I cried; and I fired once into them. -There was a shrill howl and cry, and several made a rush -toward us, instead of away. I drop the lantern to load my -revolver. Ole Pierre brushes against it, and in a second it -starts to glide down the slope on the sleet-ice. It goes faster, -I gaping after it, slips with a flicker over the edge, and we -hear it crash and tinkle on the rocks down there!</p> - -<p>“<em>Quel horreur!</em> It was savage. The kerosene flares up, -and for once I see the whole scene plainly: the gorge, a great -leap wide at its narrowest, spouting light; the ice-silvered -hemlock-bridge leading to safety, but uncrossable except for -a circus-dancer; a fringe of bushes, with the sudden-illuminated<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</span> -forms of strong-shouldered wolves cowering in their -surprise at the light.</p> - -<p>“Ole Pierre and I had three minutes,—I thought the -kerosene would last that long,—then darkness, a rush from -the dark, hot fangs feeling for the throat, and there would be -no ole Pierre, no Prunier to rescue the girl in the ship from -starvation.</p> - -<p>“And at the thought of her came the picture of my little -cabin, the fire we had left, the coziness of it. It made me -mad—to die!</p> - -<p>“'Quick, ole Pierre,' I say. '<em>Allons!</em> We will crawl over -the bridge,' and I kneel on it. But my knees slip. I sit on -it and push myself along, until I can see the wrecked lantern, -going slowly out. I call to ole Pierre, and he comes out two—three -paces, whines, cries, lies down and trembles. The -light is fading and when it goes it is our end. But I cannot -leave ole Pierre.</p> - -<p>“I crawl back and take him in my arms, a very big arm-load. -The light is fading. I cannot see the bushes. And -the eyes of the indistinct brutes again begin to gleam. They -approach the end of the tree. Ole Pierre is too big to carry, -and I set him down to fix my cartridges so that I can get -them easily. It is not so long to dawn. If we can hold them -at the end of the bridge till dawn, we might live.</p> - -<p>“Suddenly a fearful thing happens: the kerosene flares up -in a dying leap, then the dark rushes at us, and, with a concert -of snarls, the pack comes with it. Ole Pierre is brave, -but, as they reach us, the rush of them cannot stop on the -ice, and I feel the hair of one, I hear his jaws. I know that -they are pushing toward the edge, and in the dark I have to -feel for ole Pierre.</p> - -<p>“There is an awful melée, and I fire. By the flash I see -ole Pierre by the brink, with two big wolves upon him. I -drop my revolver to clutch at him. A dark form leaps at -me. I have my knife in my teeth. I drive it hard and often, -sometimes growling like a wolf myself, sometimes calling to -ole Pierre.</p> - -<p>“Once more the lantern flares enough to show the blood on<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</span> -my knife, the heap of struggling forms flung on my dog, and -as it dies for the last time I fancy them sliding—sliding. I -rush to save him, but must beat back a great hot-breathed -creature whose jaws just scrape my scalp. We are all sliding -together now, faster, faster, toward the edge of the gorge. -A dripping muzzle tears my cheek,—it is this scar you see,—but -with both hands I throttle it; and clutching with a sort -of madness, I hold as we go over the edge—down, all together -down—Poor ole Pierre!”</p> - -<p>Prunier stopped. For an hour Essex Lad and I had listened, -more and more intently, until now, when the subdued -sound of his slow-speaking ceased, we were both gripping the -edge of our chairs, falling over the edge of that gorge with -him, sympathetically. I could have imagined the least noise -into the click of jaws.</p> - -<p>But there was no noise, the Lad sitting perfectly rigid, -speechless, staring at the man. Presently he put out a hand, -slowly, and touched the guide as if to make sure that the fall -had not been fatal. And still neither of us spoke. Prunier -was going to recommence. He opened his mouth, but it was -only to yawn.</p> - -<p>“<em>Mon Dieu</em>,” he said, “but I sleep! It ees very late.” -And the man actually rose.</p> - -<p>“But '<em>mon Dieu</em>,'” I said, “you can't leave us falling -over a precipice! What happened? Tell us at least what -happened. And you haven't even mentioned the pillar of -fire or of smoke.”</p> - -<p>“<em>C'est une très longue histoire.</em>” [“It is a very long -story.”]</p> - -<p>“Poor ole Pierre!” said the Lad, as if coming out of a -dream; “did it kill him?”</p> - -<p>Prunier shook his head, no. “It kill only the wolves we -landed on—<em>geplump!</em> We had stopped on a gravel ledge, -with the cold breath of the river rushing by a foot away. I -never lose sense. I begin chuck wolves into the river. Three—four—five, -in they go, my back bending, my back straightening, -and <em>gesplash!</em> another howl down-stream! I think I -never lose sense. But I did.” He stopped again, and rubbed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</span> -a slow hand across his summer-tanned brow. “I must have -losed sense. In the morning there are <em>no</em> animals on the -ledge.”</p> - -<p>“You mean—” began the Lad, and did not finish. -Prunier nodded.</p> - -<p>“But he would not have lived anyway,” I said, to ease -the pain in his memory. “Ole Pierre could not have lived -with all the wolf-bites he must have had.”</p> - -<p>“I hope he know I was not in my sense,” said Prunier. -“<em>Alors</em>, dawn came soon, and I cross the stream on big rocks -and climb up birch sapling to the opposite bank. I look back. -No sign of wolves. I look forward, no sign of life to the north -pole, no forest even, just endless plain to the frozen river -endless far away.</p> - -<p>“I give a big groan, for there is no strength in my legs, no -courage in my heart, and I feel like falling on my knees and -asking <em>le bon Dieu</em> to show me the way. And it was as if He -had heard, for suddenly my eye is caught by a thin pillar of -white ascending into the gray sky.</p> - -<p>“'Courage,' I said, 'it is His sign.' I fixed my torn pack, -bound up my cheek and scalp, and made over the glassy surface -of the plain straight where the pillar led me. On and -on I stumbled. I would never have reached my errand's end -but for that pillar of smoke. And if I had not reached it.—” -Again there was a pause. Then, “I will tell some other -time,” he said, “<em>c'est une longue histoire</em>.”</p> - -<p>Not another word could we get from him, and we soon -turned in. The last thing I remember was the Lad's voice -coming to me from his bed, “Don't forget, Lucky, we'll get -his pillar of fire out of him, too.”</p> - -<div class="section"> -<h3>PART II</h3> -</div> - -<p class="center small1">THE PILLAR OF FIRE BY NIGHT</p> - -<p>By next morning our storm of sleet had turned into a half-blizzard -of snow and we put another great birch log on the -fire, got out a new can of Prunier's favorite pipe tobacco,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</span> -and generally made ready to extract the rest of his story from -him when he had finished straightening up the kitchen.</p> - -<p>“Yaas,” he said, “the next day to the day I was telling -you about was just such another as this. All that morning I -walked toward <em>le bon Dieu's</em> pillar of smoke, and in the -afternoon I reached it, rising from the great whirling pool -of steaming water into the gray sky that was thickening for -a great snow—the real beginning of winter.</p> - -<p>“Not far from the Smoky Pool, just as the dead man had -said it would be, rode the schooner in the ice-locked cove -where she had been wrecked. All was as still as a scared -mouse. Behind me rose that white wavering pillar; and in -front the vessel leaned a little, as if to subside into a wave-trough -that would never receive her. But silence covered all, -and I dreaded to enter that ship for fear of what I should see.</p> - -<p>“But the dead man had been a better brother than he had -been a ship-pilot, for he had left his sister most of the food; -and when my foot-falls sounded uncannily loud upon the -deck, she came running out of the cabin, a thin-cheeked, pale, -slim woman. How she smiled! How the smile died from her -face when she saw it was not her brother, but a stranger, -torn, bloody-bandaged, ready to drop for fatigue!</p> - -<p>“'Tell me, tell me quickly, what has happened. Who are -you?' She steadied herself against the cabin doorway. 'Is -my brother—not living?'</p> - -<p>“I had not the heart or the words to tell her at that -moment that I had left her brother closing his eyes in death -in my little cabin so far away. I think I asked <em>le bon Dieu</em> -to put words in my mouth that would not cause her to faint. -Anyway, the words came from me: 'Your brother sent me. -I left him—happy.'</p> - -<p>“'I knew God would not desert me entirely,' she said. -'When will he return?'</p> - -<p>“'When <em>le bon Dieu</em> leads the way,' I said, and I told her -about the pillar of cloud which had guided me to her.</p> - -<p>“She pointed aloft, and I saw a lantern tied to the masthead. -'I have put it there to light every night until he -returns,' she said. 'It will be lit many a night,' said I to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</span> -myself; and I must have sighed aloud, for she looked curiously -at me. 'I am cruel!' she exclaimed; 'I must show you -your room.' She said it with almost a laugh, for it was a -funny little bunk she led me to. Into it I crawled, and off to -sleep I went, scarcely conscious that she washed the blood -from my face and ministered to my other wounds. When I -woke, it was the next day.</p> - -<p>“And such a day as it was! one thick smother of snow -coming up the great valley of the St. Lawrence on a bitter -wind. And bitter cold it was, too, in the little cabin of our -schooner, though the fire in the stove did its best. I was too -sick, though, to know much what was going on. Several times -I heard the chopping of a hatchet. Several times she came -to me with hot food. And as the day passed, strength came -back to my blood and I got up. I surprised her lighting the -lantern and taking it out into the wild evening. I tried to -stop that, fearing some accident to her in the roar and rush -of the storm, but she said her brother must be lighted back, -and so in the end it was I who had to haul the swaying lantern -to the masthead.</p> - -<p>“For three days the snow flew by and heaped an ever-increasing -drift across the deck, around the cabin door. On -the fourth day we looked out on a scene of desolation. The -sun shone dimly in skies of pinching cold. There was no -pillar of smoke, the pool having at last been frozen over. -There was a wide river of ice, piled in fantastic floes, a wider -plain, spotted here and there with thickets. And far off -ran the dark line of forest, inhabited by wolves which would -speedily become fiercer. In the forest far away stood my -little cabin with its dead man keeping guard. It would be -long before I should see it, if I ever did. Without snow-shoes, -it would be impossible to cross the forest now; without food, -we could live only a short time longer on the ship. And -then I made the discovery that our stove fire was being maintained -by schooner wood. That had accounted for her chopping -and for her grave face as she carried in the wood. -She had been breaking up a part of the ship each day -to keep the fire going!</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</span></p> - -<p>“The responsibilities upon me made me forget my sorrows, -the death of ole Pierre, the lost time for trapping, the pinch -of hunger. I made a makeshift pair of skees from two -plankings of the schooner, and journeyed daily to some -thicket by the shore wherein I had set my snares, and we -lived on rabbit stew. With much labor I cut a hole in the -ice, through which, with much patience, she fished. But days -went by when it was too stormy either to hunt or to fish, -and we sat huddled about the stove in which we burned as -little wood as we could to keep from freezing.</p> - -<p>“During such times we talked, but not of the future, -only of the past. She told me how they, she and her brother, -had set out on a rumor of gold in the Laurentians; how -the crew had deserted in a body with most of the stores; -how she and her brother had been unable to man the ship -sufficiently to keep it from this disaster. A dozen times she -described the scene where he had said farewell to her on -the morning of the day he had found me. A hundred times -she asked me to tell her of our meeting; and a thousand, -I may well say, she wondered how soon he would return.</p> - -<p>“Every evening she had me hang the lantern to the mast -to guide him back. I could not prevent it, except by telling -of his death, and that I could not do. I feared that the -news, coupled with our desperate situation, would end her -life. As it was, she was far too weak to travel now, even -if I had had the snow-shoes for her.</p> - -<p>“Thus passed the first days. Then I saw that something -must be done or else we should soon have burned up the -house that sheltered us, deck, mast, and hull, before Christmas. -Even then we were beginning on the walls of the -schooner, since she would not let me chop down the mast.</p> - -<p>“'There will be no place to hang the lantern if you destroy -that!' she cried, when she had rushed out on deck -one morning, to find me half-way through the strong oak.</p> - -<p>“'Your brother will not travel by night,' I said.</p> - -<p>“'How do you know?' she asked, a new harshness in her -tired voice; 'you, who will tell me so little about my brother!'</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</span></p> - -<p>“This was an unkind reproach, for I had indeed stretched -the facts too much already in order to comfort her.</p> - -<p>“'We cannot freeze,' I replied. 'You would not want him -to arrive and find us dead. I have measured out the fuel -and know it is unwise not to begin on these unnecessary parts -of the ship first.'</p> - -<p>“'Do you call my signal-mast unnecessary?' she called, -her two thin hands beating upon the wood. 'You are cruel. -You would keep my brother from me.'</p> - -<p>“From that morning there began a sullenness between us, -which was nourished by too little food, and by being shut -up in that bit of a schooner cabin too long together. For relief's -sake, when I was not off snaring rabbits or looking -for some stray up-river seal with my revolver in my hand, -I began building an igloo, a hut of snow you know, not far -from the ship. I thought that the time must be prepared -for when we should have chopped up our shelter, and have -pushed our home piecemeal into that devouring stove.</p> - -<p>“She made no comment on my preparations. In fact, we -did not talk now, except to say the most necessary things. I -was not sorry, for it relieved me from telling over and over -that impossible story of her brother's return. I was convinced -now that he had died, and my heart grieved for her -final discovery of the news. But the saddest thing was to see -the hunger for him grow daily stronger on her face. And -it was pitiful, too, to watch her light the lantern with hands -weak enough to tremble, to attach it to the signal-rope, and -pull it to the masthead. She would never let me assist her -in this act.</p> - -<p>“'To-morrow we must move,' I said one night. 'I have -completed the igloo. It will economize our fuel.'</p> - -<p>“She nodded, weakly, as if she cared little what happened -on the morrow.</p> - -<p>“'And unless we catch a seal, we must save oil,' I added. -The waste of burning a lantern to attract a dead man's -notice had got upon my nerves. 'Please do not light it -to-night, else we will go into the new year dark.'</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</span></p> - -<p>“'I shall not give up my brother!' she cried, with all her -strength, 'for he will not give up me. But why does he -not come? Why does he not come?'</p> - -<p>“It was heart-wringing to see her—to know what was in -store. But it would have been less kind of me to let this -deception go on.</p> - -<p>“'He will never come,' I said, as softly as I could; 'there -is no use in the light. Let us save oil.'</p> - -<p>“Her weary, searching eyes questioned my face for the -first time in days, and then she struck a match and applied -it to the wick.</p> - -<p>“'He will come,' she said calmly, 'for God will guide him, -and I am helping God.' She went out into the dusk, and I -heard the futile lantern being pulled up to the masthead. -I could not bear to interfere.</p> - -<p>“So, since save fuel we must, I began practising deceit -by stealing out the next evening, lowering the signal and -extinguishing it, then hoisting the black lantern into place. -But she guessed; and on the second night, as I had my hand -upon the rope to lower it, she grasped my arm, her eyes -flashing, her weak voice vibrant like the storm-wind.</p> - -<p>“'Do you dare?' she said; 'do you dare betray me? You -do not <em>want</em> my brother.' And with fury she grasped the -rope and jerked it from my hand. A sudden anger filled me.</p> - -<p>“'Unreasonable woman,' I cried, 'we must have the mast -for firewood; we must have the oil for light in the igloo! -Let me alone.'</p> - -<p>“'Let <em>me</em> alone!' she screamed, struggling for the rope.</p> - -<p>“It must have been insecurely fastened. At any rate, we -had not been contending many seconds in the darkness for -the control of the light above our heads when we heard a -rattle and saw it coming down upon us. I pushed her away -just in time. The lantern struck some metal, burst, and the -spattering oil caught fire in the swiftness of a thought.</p> - -<p>“For the first moment we were dumb; in the second, horror-struck. -As a serpent darts its tongue, rills of oil spread -down the plank-seams of the deck; and from each rill, flame -leaped and ran about the ship. With a wild shriek, the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</span> -woman began to carry snow from a drift on the prow and -sprinkle it on the spreading conflagration. She might as -well have tried to extinguish it with her tears. In two minutes, -yellow tongues were running up the mast—that mast -I had hoped would warm our igloo for a fortnight. In -three, there was no hope of a splinter of the cold-dried -boat remaining. I made one plunge into the cabin and -grabbed an arm-load of clothes and food, and ran with -them to the igloo. But when I had returned, there was no -chance for a second try. The cabin was a furnace of eager -flame.</p> - -<p>“The woman, the weeping cause of this, and I were beaten -back by the heat, and at the opening of our only refuge -now, the hut of snow, we stood and watched the swift destruction -of the schooner's hulk. About us, the night's darkness -was driven to its dusky horizons. Overhead, the zenith -was lit by the up-roaring pillar of fire which had so lately -been a mast, a deck, a ship. We looked in silence, while -the tower of flame rushed into the sky, like a signal to the -wilderness. But a signal of what? Two houseless individuals, -robbed of their store of food, with no means of -moving, and nowhere to move.”</p> - -<p>Prunier paused, and Essex Lad drew a long breath. It -was his first for minutes.</p> - -<p>“So that was your pillar of fire?” I said, “It seems to -me more like one of Satan's than the Lord's.”</p> - -<p>Prunier made an expressive gesture with his pipe. “<em>Le -bon Dieu</em> does all things for the best,” he said reverently. -“<em>Alors.</em> We stood there watching, the heat reaching us, -and even eating maliciously into the white walls of our -last hiding-place. But that did not go on long, for the -ship was pouring its soul too lavishly into that hot pyre to -last.</p> - -<p>“'Quick,' I said to my fellow-outcast, 'drink in all the -heat you can, for this is the end.'</p> - -<p>“'And it is my fault!' she said; 'can you forgive me?'</p> - -<p>“'Can <em>you</em>?' I asked. 'We must be brave now. Let us -warm ourselves while there are coals to warm us. Let us<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</span> -warm our wits and think, for before day dawns we must -have a plan.'</p> - -<p>“'It is too hard,' she said hopelessly.</p> - -<p>“'Trust God for one night more. Perhaps I can make -a sledge and pull you to my cabin. There is food there.'</p> - -<p>“'You are too weak,' she said. And I knew that she -was right.</p> - -<p>“As the pillar of fire died down until it was a mere bright -spiral of gilded smoke, and after the sides of the schooner -had burned to the water-line, leaving great benches of blackened -ice about, we drew nearer and nearer to the lessening -warmth. Darkness and cold and the northern silence shut -us in.</p> - -<p>“We spoke in whispers, but hope died in me with the fading -fire. What chance for escape was there with a half-starved -woman across a great snow-plain; and then through -forests deep with the first snows and roamed by wolves, whose -savageries I had tasted?</p> - -<p>“Luckily there was no wind. Smaller and smaller was -the circle of light, weaker and weaker the heat. And tireder -and more tired grew our heads that could see no light of -safety ahead.</p> - -<p>“I think, sitting close together there, we dozed. Certainly -not for long, however, because the pillar of fire, -though now a mere thread, was still pointing a finger into -<em>le bon Dieu's</em> heaven, when I heard a <em>crunch</em>, <em>crunch</em>!</p> - -<p>“'Wolves!' I said to myself, coming to my senses with -a jerk. I felt for a revolver, but the only one had been -left in the cabin.</p> - -<p>“'Dear Lord,' I prayed, 'spare us this.'</p> - -<p>“But the crunch came nearer, nearer, like the soft foot-falls -of many beasts, yet not quite like them either. I -grasped a black-charred spar; ran it into a heap of red ashes -to make it as deadly a weapon as possible. A little flame -sprang from the pile, and in its light I went to grapple -with this new danger.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</span></p> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter illowp54" id="ilo_fp-165" style="max-width: 36.875em;"> - <img class="w100" src="images/ilo_fp-165.jpg" alt="" /> -<p class="right">(<em>page 165</em>)</p> - <p class="caption p1 center">“'You made a fine signal'.”</p> -</div> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="p1">“The woman had heard, and, with a little scream, sprang -to her feet and quickly came up behind me, put her hand -upon me, and cried: 'He has come! It is my brother who -has come!'</p> -</div> - -<p>“And, as in the Bible, where Monsieur Moses spoke to -the rock and the water gushed from it, so the woman cried -into the dark and an answering voice sprang from it—a -voice as from the dead.</p> - -<p>“I stood trembling, too weak to move.</p> - -<p>“'You made a fine signal,' the voice said. 'Thank God -for it!'</p> - -<p>“'Yes, thank <em>le bon Dieu</em>, for it was His pillar of fire,' I -said. 'Who are you?'</p> - -<p>“'The rescued come to rescue,' he replied; 'her brother.'</p> - -<p>“His sister had sunk upon the snow. As he bent to pick -her up, I saw the extra pairs of snow-shoes on his back, -I noticed my toboggan that he was pulling, and the stores -of food upon it.</p> - -<p>“'You are strong again,' I said, wishing to pinch him -to see whether he was he, or a trick of some werewolf who -was deceiving me.</p> - -<p>“'Thanks to your food,' “'But you have been long coming, brother,' said she, -weakly. 'Why so long?'</p> - -<p>“'All the bays are much alike,' he explained; 'and when -the Smoky Pool was frozen, I lost my only clue. I was -getting always farther away on my hunt, when the Lord -turned and led me here by His pillar of fire.'</p> - -<p>“And the three of us, standing there in the dark of -earliest dawn beneath the Great Bear, we keep still and say -three—four prayers from ourselves to that same Jehovah who -had guided Monsieur Moses, for the making of us safe.”</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Prunier ceased abruptly and knocked out his pipe upon -the hearth-side, then gazed reminiscently out into the falling -snow.</p> - -<p>I was busy with the picture in my brain of that blackened -hulk, the frail woman and her almost helpless companion<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</span> -standing there in the midst of that gray waste of coming -dawn. But the Lad's mind had already gone scouting on -before.</p> - -<p>“And were you made safe, Prunier?” he asked.</p> - -<p>“Oh, <em>certainement</em>!” said the guide, almost drolly. -“<em>Voyez</em>, I am here.”</p> - -<p>“Then tell us—” commanded the insatiable youth.</p> - -<p>“<em>Mais, cette une longue histoire</em>,” was all we heard.</p> - - -<h4>SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS</h4> - -<ol class="f"> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What means does the author employ to lead naturally into the -story of romantic adventure?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What is the advantage of introducing two ordinary people in -the very beginning of the story?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What is the character of Prunier?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> How do Prunier's peculiar characteristics aid the story?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> How does the author indicate Prunier's way of speaking?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Why is the entire story not told in dialect?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> How does the author present the setting of the story?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What part does the dog play in the story?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What part does superstition play?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Point out the three or four most exciting parts of the story.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Explain how the characters are saved from threatening dangers.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> In what respects is the story a narrative of contest?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Why is the narrative divided into two sections?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Why are the two ordinary people mentioned throughout the -story?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What part does religious faith play?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> In what respects is the second part of the story more intense -than the first part?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What is the character of the sister?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What is the character of the brother?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> How does misfortune turn into blessing?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> How is the climax made emphatic?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What did Prunier omit?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Point out the most romantic episodes in the story.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Point out the most realistic touches in the story.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What noble qualities does the story emphasize?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> How does the story affect the reader?</li> -</ol> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</span></p> - - -<h4>SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION</h4> - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="his18"> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">1. Prunier's Return</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">11. Prunier's First Moose</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">2. The Brother's Adventures</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">12. Why Prunier Lived in the North</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">3. The Story of the Shipwreck</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">13. The Sister's Return to Civilization</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">4. The Mutiny of the Crew</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">14. In Prunier's Hut</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">5. Prunier's Boyhood</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">15. The Strange Visitor</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">6. How Prunier Obtained Pierre</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">16. The End of the Wolves</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">7. Prunier's Longest Journey</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">17. Prunier Tells Another Story</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">8. Why Prunier Was Superstitious</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">18. The Sister Tells a Story</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">9. The Rescue of Pierre</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">19. The Fate of the Deserters</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">10. How Prunier Lost a Companion</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">20. Prunier's Last Day</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - -<h4>DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING</h4> - -<p class="p2">In the introduction of your romance use familiar scenes, events or -characters that will lead naturally to a narrative of startling events. -Say enough to indicate the setting of your story and to make it a -vital factor in producing effect but do not write any long-drawn -descriptions or explanations. Let your characters tell the story -and present its setting.</p> - -<p>Make all the action hinge on worthy effort, and contribute to -awakening respect for the characters. Tell a series of most unusual -events. In telling every incident make full use of suspense and of -climax. Tell the incidents in such a way that one will lead naturally -to another.</p> - -<p>Your story will produce the most startling effect if you show -your hero apparently defeated but able, at the last moment, to find -a means of escape from danger.</p> - -<p>Keep your story true to human nature, and to the best ideals of -human nature.</p> - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</span></p> -<p class="p4 center big3">THE DIDACTIC ESSAY</p> -</div> - -<h2 class="nobreak">THE AMERICAN BOY</h2> - -<p class="center big1">By THEODORE ROOSEVELT</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p2"><em>(1858-1919). Twenty-sixth President of the United States. -One of the most vigorous, courageous and picturesque figures -in the public life of his day. Soon after his graduation from -Harvard, and from Columbia Law School he entered public -life, and gave invaluable service in many positions, becoming -President in 1901, and again in 1904. His work as an organizer -of the “Rough Riders,” his skill in horsemanship, his courage -as an explorer and hunter, and his staunch patriotism and -high ideals all made him both interesting and beloved. His work -as an author is alone sufficient to make him great. Among his -many books are</em> The Winning of the West; The Strenuous -Life; African Game Trails; True Americanism.</p> -</div> - -<div class="indent1 bold small1"> - -<p class="p2"><em>The American Boy</em> is a didactic essay,—an essay that expresses the -writer's individuality and opinions and at the same time conveys -instruction in the form of inspiration. Such an essay approaches the -oration and the treatise. It differs from the oration in being less -strongly didactic, and from the treatise in being less formal and -comprehensive.</p> - -<p>Mr. Roosevelt's personality is particularly evident in <em>The American -Boy</em>. In every paragraph the reader feels the virile strength, the -masterful force, the firm-set manhood, the broad-minded attitude toward -all things that are good, and the intense hatred of cowardice and evil -that always characterized Mr. Roosevelt. The writer is not so much -telling a boy what to do as he is telling what sort of boy he admires.</p> - -<p>The force of such an essay is great. No one, boy or man, can read -<em>The American Boy</em> without being the better for it, without himself -admiring manliness, the right balance between athletics and study, and -the ideals of courage and fair-play.</p> -</div> - - -<p class="p2">Of course, what we have a right to expect of the American -boy is that he shall turn out to be a good American man. -Now, the chances are strong that he won't be much of a man -unless he is a good deal of a boy. He must not be a coward -or a weakling, a bully, a shirk, or a prig. He must work<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</span> -hard and play hard. He must be clean-minded and clean-lived, -and able to hold his own under all circumstances and -against all comers. It is only on these conditions that he -will grow into the kind of American man of whom America -can be really proud.</p> - -<p>There are always in life countless tendencies for good -and for evil, and each succeeding generation sees some of -these tendencies strengthened and some weakened; nor is it by -any means always, alas! that the tendencies for evil are -weakened and those for good strengthened. But during the -last few decades there certainly have been some notable -changes for good in boy life. The great growth in the love -of athletic sports, for instance, while fraught with danger if -it becomes one-sided and unhealthy, has beyond all question -had an excellent effect in in-reared manliness. Forty or -fifty years ago the writer on American morals was sure to -deplore the effeminacy and luxury of young Americans who -were born of rich parents. The boy who was well off then, -especially in the big Eastern cities, lived too luxuriously, -took to billiards as his chief innocent recreation, and felt -small shame in his inability to take part in rough pastimes -and field sports. Nowadays, whatever other faults the son -of rich parents may tend to develop, he is at least forced -by the opinion of all his associates of his own age to bear -himself well in manly exercises and to develop his body—and -therefore, to a certain extent, his character—in the -rough sports which call for pluck, endurance, and physical -address.</p> - -<p>Of course, boys who live under such fortunate conditions -that they have to do either a good deal of outdoor work -or a good deal of what might be called natural outdoor -play, do not need this athletic development. In the Civil -War the soldiers who came from the prairie and the backwoods -and the rugged farms where stumps still dotted the -clearings, and who had learned to ride in their infancy, -to shoot as soon as they could handle a rifle, and to camp -out whenever they got the chance, were better fitted for -military work than any set of mere school or college athletes<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</span> -could possibly be. Moreover, to mis-estimate athletics is -equally bad whether their importance is magnified or minimized. -The Greeks were famous athletes, and as long as -their athletic training had a normal place in their lives, it -was a good thing. But it was a very bad thing when they -kept up their athletic games while letting the stern qualities -of soldiership and statesmanship sink into disuse. Some of -the boys who read this paper will certainly sometime read -the famous letters of the younger Pliny, a Roman who -wrote, with what seems to us a curiously modern touch, in -the first century of the present era. His correspondence -with the Emperor Trajan is particularly interesting; and -not the least noteworthy thing in it is the tone of contempt -with which he speaks of the Greek athletic sports, treating -them as the diversions of an unwarlike people which it -was safe to encourage in order to keep the Greeks from turning -into anything formidable. So at one time the Persian -kings had to forbid polo, because soldiers neglected their -proper duties for the fascinations of the game. To-day, -some good critics have asserted that the reverses suffered -by the British at the hands of the Boers in South Africa -are in part due to the fact that the English officers and -soldiers have carried to an unhealthy extreme the sports -and pastimes which would be healthy if indulged in with -moderation, and have neglected to learn as they should the -business of their profession. A soldier needs to know how -to shoot and take cover and shift for himself—not to box -or play football. There is, of course, always the risk of -thus mistaking means for ends. English fox-hunting is a -first-class sport; but one of the most absurd things in real -life is to note the bated breath with which certain excellent -Englishmen, otherwise of quite healthy minds, speak of -this admirable but not over-important pastime. They tend -to make it almost as much of a fetish as, in the last century, -the French and German nobles made the chase of the -stag, when they carried hunting and game-preserving to a -point which was ruinous to the national life. Fox-hunting -is very good as a pastime, but it is about as poor a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</span> -business as can be followed by any man of intelligence. Certain -writers about it are fond of quoting the anecdote -of a fox-hunter who, in the days of the English Civil War, -was discovered pursuing his favorite sport just before a -great battle between the Cavaliers and the Puritans, and -right between their lines as they came together. These -writers apparently consider it a merit in this man that when -his country was in a death-grapple, instead of taking arms -and hurrying to the defense of the cause he believed right, -he should placidly have gone about his usual sports. Of -course, in reality the chief serious use of fox-hunting is -to encourage manliness and vigor, and keep a man so that -in time of need he can show himself fit to take part in work -or strife for his native land. When a man so far confuses -ends and means as to think that fox-hunting, or polo, or -football, or whatever else the sport may be, is to be itself -taken as the end, instead of as the mere means of preparation -to do work that counts when the time arises, when the -occasion calls—why, that man had better abandon sport -altogether.</p> - -<p>No boy can afford to neglect his work, and with a boy -work, as a rule, means study. Of course, there are occasionally -brilliant successes in life where the man has been -worthless as a student when a boy. To take these exceptions -as examples would be as unsafe as it would be to advocate -blindness because some blind men have won undying honor -by triumphing over their physical infirmity and accomplishing -great results in the world. I am no advocate of senseless -and excessive cramming in studies, but a boy should work, -and should work hard, at his lessons—in the first place, for -the sake of what he will learn, and in the next place, for -the sake of the effect upon his own character of resolutely -settling down to learn it. Shiftlessness, slackness, indifference -in studying, are almost certain to mean inability to get -on in other walks of life. Of course, as a boy grows older -it is a good thing if he can shape his studies in the direction -toward which he has a natural bent; but whether he can -do this or not, he must put his whole heart into them. I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</span> -do not believe in mischief-doing in school hours, or in the -kind of animal spirits that results in making bad scholars; -and I believe that those boys who take part in rough, hard -play outside of school will not find any need for horse-play -in school. While they study they should study just -as hard as they play football in a match game. It is wise -to obey the homely old adage, “Work while you work; play -while you play.”</p> - -<p>A boy needs both physical and moral courage. Neither -can take the place of the other. When boys become men -they will find out that there are some soldiers very brave -in the field who have proved timid and worthless as politicians, -and some politicians who show an entire readiness -to take chances and assume responsibilities in civil affairs, -but who lack the fighting edge when opposed to physical -danger. In each case, with soldiers and politicians alike, -there is but half a virtue. The possession of the courage -of the soldier does not excuse the lack of courage in the -statesman, and even less does the possession of the courage -of the statesman excuse shrinking on the field of battle. -Now, this is all just as true of boys. A coward who will -take a blow without returning it is a contemptible creature; -but, after all, he is hardly as contemptible as the boy who -dares not stand up for what he deems right against the -sneers of his companions who are themselves wrong. Ridicule -is one of the favorite weapons of wickedness, and it is sometimes -incomprehensible how good and brave boys will be -influenced for evil by the jeers of associates who have no -one quality that calls for respect, but who affect to laugh at -the very traits which ought to be peculiarly the cause for -pride.</p> - -<p>There is no need to be a prig. There is no need for a boy -to preach about his own good conduct and virtue. If -he does he will make himself offensive and ridiculous. But -there is urgent need that he should practise decency; that -he should be clean and straight, honest and truthful, gentle -and tender, as well as brave. If he can once get to a proper -understanding of things, he will have a far more hearty<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</span> -contempt for the boy who has begun a course of feeble dissipation, -or who is untruthful, or mean, or dishonest, or -cruel, than this boy and his fellows can possibly, in return, -feel for him. The very fact that the boy should be -manly and able to hold his own, that he should be ashamed -to submit to bullying without instant retaliation, should, in -return, make him abhor any form of bullying, cruelty, or -brutality.</p> - -<p>There are two delightful books, Thomas Hughes's “Tom -Brown at Rugby,” and Aldrich's “Story of a Bad Boy,” -which I hope every boy still reads; and I think American -boys will always feel more in sympathy with Aldrich's story, -because there is in it none of the fagging, and the bullying -which goes with fagging, the account of which, and the acceptance -of which, always puzzle an American admirer of -Tom Brown.</p> - -<p>There is the same contrast between two stories of Kipling's. -One, called “Captains Courageous,” describes in the liveliest -way just what a boy should be and do. The hero is painted -in the beginning as the spoiled, over-indulged child of wealthy -parents, of a type which we do sometimes unfortunately -see, and than which there exist few things more objectionable -on the face of the broad earth. This boy is afterward thrown -on his own resources, amid wholesome surroundings, and -is forced to work hard among boys and men who are real -boys and real men doing real work. The effect is invaluable. -On the other hand, if one wishes to find types of boys to -be avoided with utter dislike, one will find them in another -story by Kipling, called “Stalky & Co.,” a story which ought -never to have been written, for there is hardly a single -form of meanness which it does not seem to extol, or of school -mismanagement which it does not seem to applaud. Bullies -do not make brave men; and boys or men of foul life cannot -become good citizens, good Americans, until they change; -and even after the change scars will be left on their souls.</p> - -<p>The boy can best become a good man by being a good -boy—not a goody-goody boy, but just a plain good boy. I -do not mean that he must love only the negative virtues;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</span> -I mean he must love the positive virtues also. “Good,” in -the largest sense, should include whatever is fine, straightforward, -clean, brave, and manly. The best boys I know—the -best men I know—are good at their studies or their -business, fearless and stalwart, hated and feared by all that -is wicked and depraved, incapable of submitting to wrongdoing, -and equally incapable of being aught but tender to -the weak and helpless. A healthy-minded boy should feel -hearty contempt for the coward, and even more hearty indignation -for the boy who bullies girls or small boys, or -tortures animals. One prime reason for abhorring cowards -is because every good boy should have it in him to thrash -the objectionable boy as the need arises.</p> - -<p>Of course, the effect that a thoroughly manly, thoroughly -straight and upright boy can have upon the companions -of his own age, and upon those who are younger, is incalculable. -If he is not thoroughly manly, then they will -not respect him, and his good qualities will count for but -little; while, of course, if he is mean, cruel, or wicked, then -his physical strength and force of mind merely make him -so much the more objectionable a member of society. He -cannot do good work if he is not strong, and does not try -with his whole heart and soul to count in any contest; and -his strength will be a curse to himself and to every one else -if he does not have thorough command over himself and -over his own evil passions, and if he does not use his strength -on the side of decency, justice, and fair dealing.</p> - -<p>In short, in life, as in a football game, the principle -to follow is:</p> - -<p>Hit the line hard; don't foul and don't shirk, but hit -the line hard!</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</span></p> - -<h4>SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS</h4> - -<ol class="f"> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> In a single sentence express Mr. Roosevelt's principal thought.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Point out the subordinate thoughts that aid the development of -the essay.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Point out examples of antithesis.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Show how Mr. Roosevelt gains power by the use of short and -common words.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Describe the sort of boy whom Mr. Roosevelt does not admire.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Describe the sort of boy whom Mr. Roosevelt does admire.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What is Mr. Roosevelt's opinion of the value of athletics?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What is Mr. Roosevelt's opinion of the relative position of -study and of athletics?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What sort of books for boys does Mr. Roosevelt admire?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What is the effect of the last sentence?</li> -</ol> - - -<h4>SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION</h4> - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="his19"> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">1. The American Girl</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">11. Fearlessness</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">2. The American Man</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">12. Physical Strength</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">3. The American Woman</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">13. Fair Play</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">4. The Good Athlete</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">14. Energy</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">5. The Good Student</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">15. The Under Dog</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">6. The True Aristocrat</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">16. American Ideals</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">7. The Truly Rich</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">17. Success in Life</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">8. The Ideal of Work</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">18. Skill</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">9. Good Reading</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">19. A Good Time</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">10. Good Citizenship</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">20. Manliness</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h4>DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING</h4> -</div> - -<p class="p2">Your subject must be one on which you have strong convictions -as the result of personal experience. In a certain sense, your -essay must represent your own life. Try to hold forward no ideals -that you yourself do not uphold.</p> - -<p>Formulate a strong central thought, and two or three subordinate -and supporting thoughts. When you have done this develop your -essay step by step, giving examples drawn from history or from -well-known facts. Mention books that set forward the ideals you -wish to emphasize.</p> - -<p>Write in a strong, forceful, almost commanding style, but do not -say “Thus and so shalt thou do.” Speak in strong terms of the -principles that you admire but leave your readers to draw value -from the enthusiasm of your words rather than information from -directions given.</p> - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak">THE SPIRIT OF ADVENTURE</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center big1">By HILDEGARDE HAWTHORNE</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p2"><em>Daughter of Julian Hawthorne, and grand-daughter of -Nathaniel Hawthorne. She writes with rare charm and literary -power, and contributes regularly to many periodicals. Among -her books are</em>: A Country Interlude; The Lure of the Garden; -Old Seaport Towns of New England; Girls in Bookland.</p> -</div> - -<div class="indent1 bold small1"> - -<p class="p2">The article that follows is much like an oration or an editorial article -in that it is directed to “you” rather than expressive of “I”. The -true essay is not concerned with “you”: it is concerned only with “I”.</p> - -<p>Both the oration and the editorial article have much in common with the -essay type; for both turn aside frequently into the happy fields of -meditation.</p> - -<p>The first three paragraphs of <em>The Spirit of Adventure</em> are purely -personal in nature and therefore wholly in keeping with the spirit of -the essay form. Furthermore, those paragraphs—so reminiscent of the -fancy of the writer's famous grandfather, Nathaniel Hawthorne,—represent -poetic prose. Throughout the article the personal note mingles -with the directing voice of the editorial article. Indeed, it would be -easy to drop from <em>The Spirit of Adventure</em> everything that is not -personal, and thereby to leave pure essay.</p> - -<p>As it stands, <em>The Spirit of Adventure</em> is a didactic essay, brave and -strong in its thought, and poetic in its style.</p> -</div> - - -<p class="p2">Wind has always seemed wonderful and beautiful to me.</p> - -<p>Invisible as it is, it pervades the whole world. It has the -very quality of life. Without wind, how dead and still the -world would be! In the autumn, wind shakes the leaves -free and sends them flying, gold and red. It takes the seeds -of many plants and sows them over the land. It blows away -mists and sets clouds to voyaging, brings rain and fair -weather the year round, builds up snow in fantastic palaces, -rolls the waves high, murmurs a fairy music in the pines and -shouts aloud in storms. Wind is the great adventurer of -nature. Sometimes it is so fierce and terrible that nothing -can stand before it—houses are torn to shreds, trees are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</span> -felled, ruin follows where it goes. At other times, it comes -marching wet and salt from the sea, or dry and keen from -the mountains on hot summer days, bringing ease and rest -and health. Keen as a knife, it whips over the frozen ground -in winter and screams wildly round the farm-house, taps the -panes with ghost fingers, and whistles like a sprite in the -chimney. It brings sails from land to land, turns windmills -in quaint foreign places, and sets the flags of all the countries -of the world fluttering on their high staffs.</p> - -<p>Wind is nature's spirit of adventure, keeping her world -vigorous, clean, and alive.</p> - -<p>For us, too, the spirit of adventure is the fine wind of -life, and if we have it not, or lose it, either as individual -or nation, then we begin to die, our force and freshness -depart, we stop in our tracks, and joy vanishes. For joy -is a thing of movement and energy, of striving forward, -a thing of hope as well as fruition. You must be thoroughly -alive to be truly joyful, and all the great things -accomplished by men and nations have been accomplished -by vigorous and active souls, not content to sit still and -hold the past, but eager to press on and to try undiscovered -futures.</p> - -<p>If ever a nation was founded on, and built up by, the -spirit of adventure, that nation is our own. The very finding -of it was the result of a splendid upspring of that spirit. -From then on through centuries it was only men in whom -the spirit of adventure was strong as life itself who reached -our shores. Great adventurers, on they came, borne as they -should be, by wind itself! Gallant figures, grim figures, -moved by all sorts of lures and impulses, yet one and all -stirred and led by the call of adventure, that cares nothing -for ease of body or safety, for old, tried rules and set ways -and trodden paths, but passionately for freedom and effort, -for what is strange and dangerous and thrilling, for tasks -that call on brain and body for quick, new decisions and -acts.</p> - -<p>The spirit of adventure did not die with the settling of -our shores. Following the sea adventures came those of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</span> -the land, the pioneers, who went forward undismayed by the -perils and obstacles that appeared quite as insurmountable -as did the uncharted seas to Columbus's men. Think of the -days, when next you ride across our great continent in -the comfort of a Pullman, when it took five months and more -to make the same journey with ox-teams. Think how day -followed day for those travelers across the Great Plains in -a sort of changeless spell, where they topped long slow rise -after long slow rise only to see the seemingly endless panorama -stretch on before them. Think how they passed the -ghastly signs of murdered convoys gone before, and yet -pressed on. Think how they settled here and there in new -strange places where never the foot of men like themselves -had been set before, and proceeded to build homes and till -the land, rifle in hand; think how their wives reared their -children and kept their homes where never a white child -or a Christian home had been before.</p> - -<p>Where should we be to-day but for such men and women—if -this wind of the spirit had never blown through men's -hearts and fired them on to follow its call, as the wind blows -a flame?</p> - -<p>Wherever you look here in America you can see the signs -and traces of this wonderful spirit. In old towns, like -Provincetown or Gloucester,<a id="FNanchor_59" href="#Footnote_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a> you still hear tales of the whale-fisheries, -and still see boats fare out to catch cod and mackerel -on the wild and dangerous Banks. But in the past, the fishers -sailed away for a year or two, round the globe itself, after -their game! You see the spirit's tracks along the barren -banks of the Sacramento,<a id="FNanchor_60" href="#Footnote_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> where the gold-seekers fronted the -wilderness after treasure, and in Alaska it walks incarnate. -It is hewing its way in forests and digging it in mines; it -is building bridges and plants in the deserts and the mountains. -Out it goes to the islands of the Pacific, and in -Africa it finds a land after its heart.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</span></p> - -<p>How much of this spirit lives in you?</p> - -<p>I tell you, when I hear a girl or a boy say: “This place -is good enough for me. I can get a good job round the corner! -I know all the folks in town; and I don't see any reason -for bothering about how they live in other places or what -they do away from here”; when I hear that sort of talk from -young people, my heart sinks a bit.</p> - -<p>For such boys and girls there is no golden call of adventure, -no lure of wonder by day and night, no desire to measure -their strength against the world, no hope of something -finer and more beautiful than what they have as yet known -or seen.</p> - -<p>I like the boy or girl who sighs after a quest more difficult -than the trodden trail, who wants more of life than -the assurance of a good job. I know very well that the home-keeping -lad has a stout task to perform and a good life -to live. But I know, too, that if the youth of a nation loses -its love of adventure, if that wild and moving spirit passes -from it, then the nation is close to losing its soul. It has -about reached the limit of its power and growth.</p> - -<p>So much in our daily existence works against this noble -spirit, disapproves it, fears it. People are always ready to -prove that there is neither sense nor profit in it. Why -should you sail with Drake<a id="FNanchor_61" href="#Footnote_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> and Frobisher,<a id="FNanchor_62" href="#Footnote_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> or march with -Fremont<a id="FNanchor_63" href="#Footnote_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a> or track the forest with Boone,<a id="FNanchor_64" href="#Footnote_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> when it is so -much easier and safer and pays better to stay at home? Why -shouldn't you be content to do exactly like the people about -you, and live the life that is already marked out for you -to live?</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</span></p> - -<p>That is what most of us will do. But that is no reason -why the glorious spirit of adventure should be denied and -reviled. It is the great spirit of creation in our race. If -it stirs in you, listen to it, be glad of it.</p> - -<p>A mere restless impulse to move about, the necessity to -change your environment or else be bored, the dissatisfaction -with your condition that leads to nothing but ill temper or -melancholy, these are not part of the spirit of which I am -speaking. You may develop the spirit of adventure without -stirring from home, for it is not ruled by the body -and its movements. Great and high adventure may be yours -in the home where you now live, if you realize that home -as a part of the great world, as a link of the vast chain -of life. Two boys can sit side by side on the same hearth-stone, -and in one the spirit of adventure is living and -calling, in the other it is dead. To the first, life will be an -opportunity and a beckoning. He will be ready to give -himself for the better future; he will be ready to strike hands -with the fine thought and generous endeavor of the whole -world, bringing to his own community the fruit of great -things, caring little for the ease and comfort of his body, -but much for the possibilities of a finer, truer realization -of man's eternal struggle toward a purer liberty and a -nobler life. The spirit of adventure is a generous spirit, -kindling to great appeals. Of the two boys, sitting there -together, the second may perhaps go round the world, but -to him there will be no song and no wonder. He will not -find adventure, because he has it not. The old phrase, “adventures -to the adventurous,” is a true saying. The selfish -and the small of soul know no adventures.</p> - -<p>As I think of America to-day, I say the spirit that found -and built her must maintain her. There are great things -to be done for America in the coming years, in your years. -Her boundaries are fixed, but within those boundaries marvelous -development is possible. Her government has found its -form, but there is work for the true adventurer in seeing -that the spirit of that government, in all its endless ramifications -and expressions, fulfils the intention of human liberty<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</span> -and well-being that lie within that form. Her relations -with the world outside of herself are forming anew, and here -too there is labor of the noblest. The lad who cares only -for his own small job and his own small comforts, who dreads -the rough contacts of life and the dangers of pioneering will -not help America much.</p> - -<p>In the older days the Pilgrim Fathers cast aside every -comfort of life to follow the call of liberty, coming to a -wilderness so remote, that for us a voyage to some star -would scarcely seem more distant or strange. None of -us will be called upon to do so tremendous a thing as -that act of theirs, so far as the conditions of existence go, -since the telegraph and the aëroplane and turbine knit us -close. But there are adventures quite as magnificent to be -achieved.</p> - -<p>The spirit of adventure loves the unknown. And in the -unknown we shall find all the wonders that are waiting for -us. Our whole life is lived on the very border of unknown -things, but only the adventurous spirit reaches out to these -and makes them known, and widens the horizons for humanity. -The very essence of the spirit of adventure is in doing -something no one has done before. Every high-road was -once a trail, every trail had its trail-breaker, setting his foot -where no man's foot had gone before through what new forests -and over what far plains.</p> - -<p>It is good to ride at ease on the broad highway, with every -turning marked and the rules all kept. But it is not the -whole of life. The savor of lonely dawns, the call of an unknown -voice, the need to establish new frontiers of spirit -and action beyond any man has yet set, these are also part -of life. Do not forego them. You are young and the world -is before you. Be among those who perceive all its variety, its -potentialities, who can see good in the new and unknown, -and find joy in hazard and strength in effort. Do not be -afraid of strange manners and customs, nor think a thing -is wrong because it is different.</p> - -<p>Throw wide the great gates of adventure in your soul, -young America!</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</span></p> - - -<h4>SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS</h4> - -<ol class="f"> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Point out effects that have been gained by the use of figures of -speech.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What is the relation of the first three paragraphs to the remainder -of the essay?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Point out the parts of <em>The Spirit of Adventure</em> that depart from -the strict form of the essay.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Indicate what may be omitted in order to make <em>The Spirit of -Adventure</em> truly an essay.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> How many historical allusions are made in the essay?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Explain the most important historical allusions.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What does the writer mean by “the spirit of adventure”?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em">8. What does she say is the importance of such a spirit?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> How can an ordinary person carry out the writer's wishes?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> How does the style of the essay strengthen the presentation of -thought?</li> -</ol> - - -<h4>SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION</h4> - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="his20"> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">1. Love of Truth</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">11. The Snow</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">2. The Spirit of Fair Play</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">12. Falling Leaves</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">3. The Sense of Honor</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">13. The Ocean</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">4. Stick-to-it-iveness</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">14. The Storm</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">5. Faithfulness</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">15. Moonlight</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">6. School Spirit</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">16. The Voice of Thunder</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">7. Loyalty</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">17. Flowers</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">8. The Scientific Spirit</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">18. The Friendly Trees</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">9. Work</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">19. Country Brooks</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">10. The Spirit of Helpfulness</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">20. Gentle Rain</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - -<h4>DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING</h4> - -<p class="p2">If you wish to write two or three paragraphs of poetic prose in -imitation of the first three paragraphs of <em>The Spirit of Adventure</em> -choose one of the topics in the second column. Write, first of all, -a sentence that will summarize your principal thought, a sentence -that will correspond with the sentence that forms the third paragraph -of Miss Hawthorne's essay. Then lead up to this sentence by -writing a series of sentences full of fancy. Use figures of speech<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</span> -freely. Arrange your words, phrases or clauses so that you will -produce both striking effects and also rhythm.</p> - -<p>If you wish to write in imitation of the entire essay choose one of -the topics in the first column. Begin your work by writing a series -of poetic paragraphs that will present the spirit of your essay. -Continue to write in a somewhat poetic style, but make many definite -allusions to history, literature or the facts of life.</p> - -<p>Throughout your work express your own personality as much as -you can. End your essay by making some personal appeal but do -not make your work too didactic.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="footnotes"> -<p class="p2 center big2">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_59" href="#FNanchor_59" class="label">[59]</a> Provincetown or Gloucester. Famous sea-coast towns on the coast -of Massachusetts.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_60" href="#FNanchor_60" class="label">[60]</a> Sacramento. A river of California, near which gold was discovered -in 1848.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_61" href="#FNanchor_61" class="label">[61]</a> Sir Francis Drake (1540-1596). A great English sailor and naval -commander. He was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the earth, -and was one of the commanders in the fight with the Spanish Armada, -1888.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_62" href="#FNanchor_62" class="label">[62]</a> Sir Martin Frobisher (1535-1594). The discoverer of Frobisher -Bay; one of the leaders against the Spanish Armada.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_63" href="#FNanchor_63" class="label">[63]</a> John C. Fremont (1813-1890). An American general noted for his -explorations of the West.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_64" href="#FNanchor_64" class="label">[64]</a> Daniel Boone (1735-1820). An early American explorer, pioneer -and Indian fighter.</p> - -</div> -</div> -</div> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak">VANISHING NEW YORK</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center big1">By ROBERT and ELIZABETH SHACKLETON</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p2"><em>Robert Shackleton (1860—) and his wife, Elizabeth Shackleton, -have written much in collaboration. Among such works -are:</em> The Quest of the Colonial; Adventures in Home Making; -The Charm of the Antique. <em>Mr. Shackleton was at one time -associate editor of</em> The Saturday Evening Post. <em>He is the -author of many books, among which are</em> Touring Great Britain; -History of Harper's Magazine, <em>and</em> The Book of New York.</p> -</div> - -<div class="indent1 small1 bold"> - -<p class="p2">Washington Irving's <em>Sketch Book</em> tells of Irving's delighted wanderings -around old London, and of his interest in streets and buildings that -awoke memories of the past. <em>Vanishing New York</em> is an essay that -corresponds closely with the essays written by Irving so many years ago. -In this modern essay Robert and Elizabeth Shackleton tell of their -wanderings about old New York, of odd streets, curious buildings, and -romantic and historic associations. The essay gives to New York an -interest that makes it, in the eyes of the reader, as fascinating as -Irving's old London.</p> - -<p>The writers do more than tell the story of a walk about New York, -and much more than merely name and describe the places they saw. By -a skilful use of adjectives, and by an interested suggestiveness, they -throw over the places they mention an atmosphere of charm. We feel -that we are with them, enjoying and loving the curious old places that -seem so destined to vanish forever.</p> - -<p>What is left of old New York that is quaint and charming? The -New York of the eighties and earlier, of Henry James,<a id="FNanchor_65" href="#Footnote_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> of Gramercy -Park, Washington and Stuyvesant squares, quaint old houses on curious -by-streets? The period of perhaps a more beautiful and certainly a -more leisurely existence? All places of consequence and interest that -remain to-day are herewith described.</p> -</div> - -<p class="p2">To one, vanishing New York means a little box garden up -in the Bronx, glimpsed just as the train goes into the subway. -To another, it is a fan-light on Horatio Street; an -old cannon, planted muzzle downward at a curb-edge; a -long-watched, ancient mile-stone; a well; a water-tank bound -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</span>up in a bank charter; a Bowling Green sycamore; an ailantus -beside the twin French houses of crooked Commerce Street. -And what a pang to find an old landmark gone! To another -it is the sad little iron arch of the gate of old St. John's -at the end of the once-while quaint St. John's Place, all -that is now left of the beautiful pillared and paneled old -church and its English-made wrought-iron fence. To many -it is the loss of the New York sky-line, one of the wonders -of the world—lost, for it has vanished from sight. Now -the sky-line is to be seen only from the water, and the city -is no longer approached by water except by a few; but is -entered under the rivers on each side, by tunnels down into -which the human currents are plunged. A positive thrill, a -morning-and-evening thrill that was almost a worship of -the noble and the beautiful, used to sweep over the packed -thousands on the ferry-boats as they gazed at the sky-line.</p> - -<p>It is extraordinary how swiftly New York destroys and -rebuilds. There is the story of a distinguished visitor who, -driven uptown on the forenoon of his arrival, was, on his -departure in the late afternoon of the same day, driven -downtown over the same route in order that he might see -what changes had meanwhile taken place. The very first -vessel built in New York—it was three hundred years ago—was -named in the very spirit of prophecy, for it was called -the <em>Onrust</em> (<em>Restless</em>).</p> - -<p>Yet it is astonishing how much of interest remains in this -iconoclastic city, although almost everything remains under -constant threat of destruction. Far over toward the North -River is one of the threatened survivals. It is shabby, ancient; -indeed, it has been called the oldest building in New -York, though nothing certain is known beyond 1767. But -it is very old, and may easily date much further back. It -is called the Clam Broth House, and is on Weehawken -Street, which, closely paralleling West Street, holds its single -block of length north from Christopher. It is a lost and -forgotten street, primitively cobblestoned with the worst pavement -in New York, and it holds several lost and forlorn old -houses—low-built houses, with great broad, sweeping roofs<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</span> -reaching almost to the ground, houses tremulous with age. -Of these the one now called the Clam Broth House, low, -squat, broad-roofed, is the oldest. In a sense the fronts are -on West Street, but all original characteristics have there -been bedizenedly lost, and the ancient aspect is on Weehawken -Street.</p> - -<p>These were fishermen's houses in ancient days, waterside -houses; for West Street is filled-in ground, and the broad -expanse of shipping space out beyond the street is made -land. When these houses were built, the North River reached -their doors, and, so tradition has it, fishermen actually rowed -their boats and drew their shad-seines beneath this Clam -Broth House.</p> - -<p>Of a far different order of interest is a demure little -church, neat and trim, on Hudson street. It is built of brick, -bright red, with long red wings stretching oddly away from -the rear, with a low, squat tower of red, and in the midst -of gray old houses that hover around in fading respectability. -It is St. Luke's, is a century old, and with it is connected -the most charming custom of New York.</p> - -<p>In 1792 a certain John Leake died, leaving a sum to Trinity -Church for the giving forever, to “such poor as shall appear -most deserving,” as many “six-penny wheaten loaves” as the -income would buy, and this sweet and simple dole has ever -since been regularly administered, and it will go on through -the centuries, like the ancient English charity at Winchester, -where for eight hundred years bread and ale have been -given.</p> - -<p>But there is one strictly New York feature about this -already old Leake dole that differentiates it from the dole -of Winchester, for it is still at the original wicket that the -Winchester dole is given. There the custom was instituted, -and there it has continued through all these centuries. But -in New York the dole began at Trinity, but after something -more than half a century, as population left the neighborhood -of Trinity, the dole was transferred to St. John's, on Varick -Street, once known as “St. John's in the Fields,” and now, -after more than another half-century, there has come still<span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</span> -another removal, and the dole is given at quaint old St. -Luke's. Thus it has already had three homes, and one -wonders how many it will have as the decades and the centuries -move on. One pictures it peripatetically proceeding -hither and thither as further changes come upon the city, -the dole for the poor that never vanish.</p> - -<p>A short distance south from St. Luke's, on the opposite -side of Hudson Street, is an open space that is a public playground -and a public garden. It was a graveyard, but a few -years ago the city decreed that it should vanish, with the -exception of a monument put up to commemorate the devotion -of firemen who gave their lives for duty in a fire of -the long ago. It was not the graveyard of St. Luke's, although -near, but of farther away St. John's; and it is pleasant -to remember that it was in walking to and fro among -the now vanished graves and tombs that Edgar Allan Poe<a id="FNanchor_66" href="#Footnote_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a> -composed his “Raven.”</p> - -<p>Cheerful in its atmosphere—but perhaps this is largely -from its name—is short little Gay Street, leading from -Waverley Place, just around the corner from Sixth Avenue. -Immediately beyond this point—for much of the unexpected -still remains in good old Greenwich Village—Waverley becomes, -by branching, a street with four sidewalks; for both -branches hold the name of Waverley. It is hard for people -of to-day to understand the power of literature in the early -half of the last century, when Washington Irving<a id="FNanchor_67" href="#Footnote_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> was -among the most prominent citizens, and James Fenimore -Cooper<a id="FNanchor_68" href="#Footnote_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> was publicly honored, and admirers of the Waverley -Novels made successful demand on the aldermen to -change the name of Sixth Street, where it left Broadway, -to Waverley Place, and to continue it beyond Sixth Avenue, -discarding another name on the way, and at this forking-point -to do away with both Catharine and Elizabeth streets -in order to give Waverley its four sidewalks. Could this be -done in these later days with the names, say of Howells<a id="FNanchor_69" href="#Footnote_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a> -or of Hopkinson Smith!<a id="FNanchor_70" href="#Footnote_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> Does any one ever propose to -have an “O” put before Henry Street!<a id="FNanchor_71" href="#Footnote_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</span></p> - -<p>At the forking-point is a triangular building, archaic in -aspect, and very quiet. It is a dispensary, and an ancient -jest of the neighborhood is, when some stranger asks if it has -patients, to reply, “It doesn't need 'em; it's got money.”</p> - -<p>Gay Street is miniature; its length isn't long and its -width isn't wide. It is a street full of the very spirit of -old Greenwich, or, rather, of the old Ninth Ward; for thus -the old inhabitants love to designate the neighborhood, some -through not knowing that it was originally Greenwich Village, -and a greater number because they are not interested -in the modern development, poetic, artistic, theatric, empiric, -romantic, sociologic, but are proud of the honored record -of the district as the most American ward of New York -City.</p> - -<p>In an apartment overlooking a Gay Street corner there -died last year a man who had rented there for thirty-four -years. There loomed practical difficulties for the final exit, -the solution involving window and fire-escape. But the landlord, -himself born there, said, “No; he has always gone in -and out like a gentleman, and he shall still go out, for the -last time, as a gentleman,” thereupon he called in carpenter -and mason to cut the wall.</p> - - - -<p>Then some old resident will tell you, pointing out house -by house and name by name, where business men, small manufacturers, -politicians, and office-holders dwelt. And, further -reminiscent, he will tell of how, when a boy, at dawn -on each Fourth of July, he used to get out his toy cannon and -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</span> -fire it from a cellar entrance (pointing to the entrance), -and how one Fourth the street was suddenly one shattering -crash, two young students from the old university across -Washington Square having experimentally tossed to the pavement -from their garret window a stick of what was then “a -new explosive, dynamite.” No sane and safe Fourths then!</p> - -<div class="figcenter illowp43" id="ilo_fp-185" style="max-width: 32.125em;"> - <img class="w100" src="images/ilo_fp-185.jpg" alt="ilop185" /> -<p class="right">(<em>page 185</em>)</p> - <p class="caption p1 center">“It has been called the oldest building in New York.” </p> -</div> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="p1">It is still remembered that some little houses at the farther -end of Gay Street, on Christopher, were occupied by -a little colony of hand-loom weavers from Scotland, who -there looked out from these “windows in Thrums.”<a id="FNanchor_72" href="#Footnote_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a></p> -</div> - -<p>Around two corners from this spot is a curiously picturesque -little bit caused by the street changes of a century -ago. It is Patchin Place, opening from Tenth Street opposite -Jefferson Market. The place is a cul-de-sac, with a -double row of little three-story houses, each looking just like -the other, of yellow-painted brick. Each house has a little -area space, each front door is up two steps from its narrow -sidewalk. Each door is of a futuristic green. Each has -its ailantus-tree, making the little nooked place a delightful -bower.</p> - -<p>Immediately around the corner is the still more curious -Milligan Place, a spot more like a bit of old London than -any other in New York. It is a little nestled space, entered -by a barely gate-wide opening from the busy Sixth Avenue -sidewalk. Inside it expands a trifle, just sufficiently to -permit the existence of four little houses, built close against -one another. So narrowly does an edge of brick building -come down beside the entrance that it is literally only the -width of the end of the bricks.</p> - -<p>In an instant, going through the entrance that you might -pass a thousand times without noticing, you are miles away, -you are decades away, in a fragment of an old lost lane.</p> - -<p>Near by, where Sixth Avenue begins, there is still projective -from an old-time building the sign of the Golden Swan, -a lone survival of long ago. And this is remindful of the -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</span>cigar-store Indians. Only yesterday they were legion, now -a vanished race. And the sidewalk clocks that added such -interest to the streets, they, too, have gone, banished by -city ordinance.</p> - -<p>The conjunction of Seventh Avenue and Greenwich Avenue -and Eleventh Street makes a triangle, at the sharp point of -which is a small, low, and ancient building, fittingly given -over to that ancient and almost vanished trade, horseshoeing. -A little brick building with outside wooden stair stands -against and above it as the triangle widens, and then comes -an ancient building a little taller still. And this odd conglomerate -building was all, so you will be told, built in the -good old days for animal houses for one of the earliest -menageries! Next came a period of stage-coaches, with -horses housed here. And, as often in New York, a great -shabbiness accompanies the old. Within the triangle, inside -of a tall wooden fence, are several ancient ailantus trees, remindful -that long ago New York knew this locality as—name -full of pleasant implications—“Ailanthus Gardens.” And -every spring Ailanthus Gardens, oblivious to forgetfulness -and shabbiness, still bourgeons green and gay.</p> - -<p>An old man, a ghost-of-the-past old man, approached, and, -seeing that we were interested, said abruptly, unexpectedly, -“That's Bank Street over there, where the banks and the -bankers came,” thus taking the mind far back to the time of -a yellow-fever flight from what was then the distant city -to what was in reality Greenwich.</p> - -<p>Only a block from here, on Seventh Avenue, is a highly -picturesque survival, a long block of three-story dwellings -all so uniformly balconied, from first floor to roof-line, -across the entire fronts, that you see nothing but balconies, -with their three stories fronted with eyelet-pattern -balustrades. In front of all the houses is an open grassy -space, and up the face of the balconies run old wistaria-vines. -Each house, through the crisscrossing of upright and -lateral lines, is fronted with nine open square spaces, like -Brobdingnagian pigeon-holes.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</span></p> - -<p>On West Eleventh Street is a row almost identical in -appearance. If you follow Eleventh Street eastward, and -find that it does not cut across Broadway, you will remember -that this comes from the efforts of Brevoort, an early -landowner, to save a grand old tree that stood there. And -then Grace Church gained possession, and the street remained -uncut.</p> - -<p>A most striking vanishing hereabouts has been of the -hotels. What an interesting group they were in this part -of Broadway! Even the old Astor, far down town, has gone, -only a wrecked and empty remnant remaining.</p> - -<p>But a neighbor of the Astor House is an old-time building -whose loss, frequently threatened, every one who loves -noble and beautiful architecture would deplore—the more -than century-old city hall, which still dominates its surroundings, -as it has always dominated, even though now the buildings -round about are of towering height.</p> - -<p>Time-mellowed, its history has also mellowed, with myriad -associations and happenings and tales. That a man who was -to become Mayor of New York (it was Fernando Wood) made -his first entry into the city as the hind leg of an elephant -of a traveling show, and in that capacity passed for the first -time the city hall, is a story that out-Whittingtons Whittington.<a id="FNanchor_73" href="#Footnote_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a></p> - -<p>And noblest and finest of all the associations with the -city hall is one which has to do with a time before the city -hall arose; for here, on the very spot where it stands, George -Washington paraded his little army on a July day in 1776, -and with grave solemnity, while they listened in a solemnity -as grave, a document was read to them that had just been -received from Philadelphia and which was forever to be -known as the Declaration of Independence.</p> - -<p>It used to be, three quarters of a century ago, that people -could go northward from the city hall on the New York and -Harlem Railway, which built its tracks far down in this direction. -It used the Park Avenue tunnel, which had been -built in 1837 for the first horse-car line in the world. After -the railway made Forty-second Street its terminal, horse-cars -again went soberly through the tunnel. What a pleasure -to remember the tinkle, tinkle as they came jerkily jogging -through, from somewhere up Harlemward, and, with quirky -variety as to course, to an end somewhere near University -Place! A most oddly usable line.</p> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</span></p> -<p>A few minutes' walk from University Place is one of the -most fascinating spots in New York—“St. Mark's in the -Bouwerie,” although it is actually on Second Avenue and -Stuyvesant Street.</p> - -<p>The church was built in 1799, but it stands on property -that the mighty Petrus Stuyvesant<a id="FNanchor_74" href="#Footnote_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a> owned, and on the site -of a chapel that he built, and his tomb is beneath the pavement -of the church, and the tombstone is set in the foundation-wall -on the eastern side. There is an excellent bronze -close by, fittingly made in Holland, of this whimsical, irascible, -kind-hearted, clear-headed captain-general and governor who -ruled this New Amsterdam. Nothing else in the city so -gives the smack of age, the relish of the saltness of time, -as this old church built on Stuyvesant's land and holding his -bones. For Stuyvesant was born when Elizabeth reigned -in England and when Henry of Navarre, with his white -plume, was King of France. The great New-Yorker was -born in the very year that “Hamlet” was written.<a id="FNanchor_75" href="#Footnote_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a></p> - -<p>He loved his city, and lived here after the English came -and conquered him and seized the colony.</p> - -<p>This highly pictorial old church, broad-fronted, pleasant-porticoed, -stands within a great open graveyard space, green -with grass and sweetly shaded, and its aloofness and beauty -are markedly enhanced by its being set high above the level -of the streets.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</span></p> - -<p>On Lafayette Street, once Lafayette Place, a quarter of a -mile from St. Mark's, still stands the deserted Astor Library, -just bought by the Y. M. H. A. as a home for immigrants, -built three quarters of a century ago for permanence, but -now empty and bare and grim, shorn of its Rialto-like<a id="FNanchor_76" href="#Footnote_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a> steps, -with closed front, as if harboring secrets behind its saddening -inaccessibility. Once-while stately gate-posts and gateway, -now ruinous, beside the library building, marked the -driveway entrance of a long-vanished Astor home.</p> - -<p>All is dreary, dismal, desolate, and the color of the -Venetian-like building has become a sad combination of -chocolate brown and dull red.</p> - -<p>The tens of thousands of books from here, the literature -and art of the Lenox collection, and the fine foundation of -Tilden are united at Fifth Avenue and Forty-second Street. -From what differing sources did these three mighty foundations -spring! One from the tireless industry of a great -lawyer;<a id="FNanchor_77" href="#Footnote_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a> one from a far-flung fur trade that over a century -ago reached through trackless wilderness to the Pacific;<a id="FNanchor_78" href="#Footnote_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a> -one from a fortune wrung by exactions from American -soldiers of the Revolution, prisoners of war, who paid -all they had in the hope of alleviating their suffering—a -fortune inherited by a man who studied to put it out for the -benefit of mankind in broad charity and helpfulness, in -hospitals and colleges, and in his library, left for public -use.<a id="FNanchor_79" href="#Footnote_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a></p> - -<p>With the old Astor Library so stripped and deserted, one -wonders if a similar fate awaits the stately and palatial -building to which it has gone. Will the new building some -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</span>day vanish? And similarly the superb and mighty structures -that have in recent years come in connection with -the city's northern sweep?</p> - -<p>A curious fate has attended the Lenox Library property. -Given to the city, land and building and contents, the land -and building were sold into private ownership when the -consolidation of libraries was decided upon. The granite -stronghold, built to endure forever, was razed, and where -it had stood arose the most beautiful home in New York, -which, gardened in boxwood, its owner filled with priceless -treasures. And now he is dead, and again the land, a building, -and costly contents are willed to the city.</p> - -<p>Across from the old Astor Library stood Colonnade Row, -a long and superb line of pillar-fronted grandeur; but only -a small part now remains, with only a few of the fluted Corinthian -pillars. All is shabby and forlorn, but noble even -in shabbiness. And the remnant, one thinks, must shortly fall -a victim to the destructive threat that hangs over everything -in our city.</p> - -<p>Colonnade Row was built in the eighteen twenties. Washington -Irving lived there. One gathers the impression that -Irving, named after Washington, lived in as many houses as -those in which Washington slept. In the row occurred the -wedding of President Tyler,<a id="FNanchor_80" href="#Footnote_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a> an event not characterized -by modest shrinking from publicity, for after the ceremony -the President and his bride were driven down Broadway -in an open carriage, drawn by four horses, to the Battery, -whence a boat rowed them out to begin their married life -on—of all places!—a ship of war!</p> - -<p>It is interesting to find two Virginia-born Presidents of -the United States coming to Lafayette Street; for here dwelt -Monroe,<a id="FNanchor_81" href="#Footnote_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a> he of the “Doctrine,” during the latter part of -his life, at what is now the northwest corner of Lafayette -Street and Prince; and he died there. Long since the house -fell into sheer dinginess and wreck, and a few months ago -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</span>was sold to be demolished; but New York may feel pride in -her connection with the American who, following Washington's -example, declared against “entangling ourselves in the -broils of Europe, or suffering the powers of the old world -to interfere with the affairs of the new.”</p> - -<p>Near this house Monroe was buried, in the Marble Cemetery -on Second Street, beyond Second Avenue, a spot with high -open iron fence in front and high brick wall behind, with -an atmosphere of sedateness and repose, although a tenement -district has come round about. Monroe's body lay here for -a quarter of a century, and then Virginia belatedly carried -it to Virginian soil.</p> - -<p>Close by, entered through a narrow tunnel-like entrance -at 41-1/2 Second Avenue, is another Marble Cemetery (the -Monroe burying-place is the New York City Marble Cemetery, -and this other is the New York Marble Cemetery), -and this second one is quite hidden away in inconspicuousness, -as befits a place which, according to a now barely decipherable -inscription, was established as “a place of interment -for gentlemen,” surely the last word in exclusiveness!</p> - -<p>Across the street from the entrance to this cemetery for -gentlemen is a church for the common people, one of the -pleasant surprises of a kind which one frequently comes -upon in New York—a building really distinguished in appearance, -yet not noticed or known. A broad flight of steps -stretches across the broad church front. There are tall pillars -and pilasters, excellent iron fencing and gateway. The -interior is all of the color of pale ivory, with much of classic -detail and with a “Walls-of-Troy” pattern along the gallery. -There were a score of such classic churches in New -York early in the last century.</p> - -<p>Always in finding the unexpected there is charm, as when, -the other day, we came by the merest chance upon “Extra -Place”! What a name! It is a little court nooked out of -First Street,—how many New Yorkers know that there is -a First Street in fact and not merely in theory?—between -Second and Third avenues. Extra Place is a stone's throw -in length, a forgotten bit of forlornness, but at its end, beyond<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</span> -sheds and tall board fencing, are suggestions of pleasant -homes of a distant past, great fireplace chimneys and queer -windows, and an old shade tree, and under the tree a brick-paved -walk, formal in its rectangle, where happy people -walked in the long ago, and where once a garden smiled, -but where now no kind of flower grows wild.</p> - -<p>The tree of the New York tenements is the ailantus, palm-like -in its youth, brought originally from China for the gardens -of the rich. It grows in discouraging surroundings, is -defiant of smoke, does not even ask to be planted; for, Topsy-like, -it “jest grows.” Cut it down, and it comes up again. -It is said to have no insect enemies. An odd point in its -appearance is that every branch points up.</p> - -<p>The former extraordinary picturesqueness of the waterfront -has gone; but still there is much there that is strange, -and a general odor of oakum and tar remains. And, leading -back from the East-Side waterfront, narrow, ancient -lanes have been preserved, and by these one may enter the -old-time warehouse portion of the city, where still the -permeative smell of drugs or leather or spice differentiates -district from district.</p> - -<p>Vanished is many a delightful old name. Pie Woman's -Lane became Nassau Street. Oyster Pasty Alley became -Exchange Alley. Clearly, early New Yorkers were a gustatory -folk.</p> - -<p>A notable vanishing has within a few months come to Wall -Street itself—the vanishing of the last outward and visible -sign of the feud of Alexander Hamilton[18] and Aaron Burr.<a id="FNanchor_82" href="#Footnote_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a> -Hamilton was the leading spirit in establishing one bank -in the city, and Burr, through a clause in a water-company -charter, established another, and through all these decades -the banks have been rivals. Now they have united their -financial fortunes and become one bank.</p> - -<p>An interesting rector of Trinity Church, which looks in -such extraordinary fashion into the narrow gorge of Wall</p> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</span></p> -<p>Street, became over a century ago Bishop of New York, -Benjamin Moore, and he is chiefly interesting, after all, -through his early connection with the then distant region -still known as Chelsea, in the neighborhood of Twenty-third -Street and the North River, where he acquired great land-holdings -that had been owned by the English naval captain -who had made his home here and given the locality its -name.</p> - -<p>Chelsea still holds its own as an interesting neighborhood, -mainly because of its possession of the General Theological -Seminary, which has attracted and held desirable people -and given an atmosphere of quiet seclusion.</p> - -<p>The seminary buildings occupy the entire block between -Ninth and Tenth avenues and Twentieth and Twenty-first -streets. They are largely of English style, and there are -long stretches of ten-foot garden wall. Now and then a -mortar-boarded student strides hurriedly across an open -space, and now and then a professor paces portentously. -The buildings are mostly of brick, but the oldest is an odd-looking -structure of silver-gray stone. The varied structures -unite in effective conjunction. It may be mentioned -that, owing to a Vanderbilt who looked about for something which -in his opinion would set the seminary in the front -rank, its library possesses more ancient Latin Bibles, so it -is believed, than does even the Bodleian.<a id="FNanchor_83" href="#Footnote_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a></p> - -<p>The chapel stands in the middle of the square, and above -it rises a square Magdalen-like tower,<a id="FNanchor_84" href="#Footnote_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a> softened by ivy; and, -following a beautiful old custom as it has been followed -since the tower was built, capped and gowned students -gather at sunrise on Easter morning on the top of this tall -tower and sing ancient chorals to the music of trombone -and horn.</p> - -<p>Chelsea ought to be the most home-like region in New -York on account of its connection with Christmas; for a -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</span>son of Bishop Moore, Clement C. Moore,<a id="FNanchor_85" href="#Footnote_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a> who gave this land -to the seminary, and made his own home in Chelsea, wrote -the childhood classic, “'Twas the night before Christmas.”</p> - -<p>In this old-time neighborhood stand not only houses, but -long-established little shops. One for drugs, for example, -is marked as dating back to 1839. But, after all, that is not -so old as a great Fifth Avenue shop which was established -in 1826. However, there is this difference: the Chelsea shops -are likely to be on the very spots where they were first -opened, whereas the great shop of Fifth Avenue has reached -its location by move after move, from its beginning on Grand -Street, when that was the fashionable shopping street of -the city.</p> - -<p>In Chelsea are still to be found the old pineapple-topped -newel-posts of wrought iron, like openwork urns; there are -old houses hidden erratically behind those on the street-front. -One in particular remains in mind, a large old-fashioned -dwelling, now reached only by a narrow and built-over passage, -a house that looks like a haunted house, from its desolate -disrepair, its lost loneliness of location.</p> - -<p>Chelsea is a region of yellow cats and green shutters, -shabby green on the uncared for and fresh green for the -well kept. Old New York used typically to temper the dog-days -behind green slat shutters, or under shop awnings -stretched to the curb, and with brick sidewalks, sprinkled -in the early afternoon from a sprinkling-can in the 'prentice -hand.</p> - -<p>One of the admirable old houses of Chelsea is that where -dwelt that unquiet spirit, Edwin Forrest,<a id="FNanchor_86" href="#Footnote_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a> the actor. It -is at 436 West Twenty-second Street, a substantial-looking, -square-fronted house, with a door of a great single panel. -And the interior is notable for the beautiful spiral stair -that figured in court in his marital troubles.</p> - -<p>There are in Chelsea two more than usually delightful -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</span>residential survivals, with the positively delightful old names -of Chelsea Cottages and London Terrace. The cottages are -on Twenty-fourth Street, and the Terrace is on Twenty-third, -and each is between Ninth and Tenth avenues, and both were -built three quarters of a century ago.</p> - -<p>The cottages are alternating three-story and two-story -houses, built tightly shoulder to shoulder, astonishingly narrow-fronted, -each with a grassy space in front. Taken together, -they make one of the last stands on Manhattan of -simple and modest and concerted picturesque living.</p> - -<p>The Terrace is a highly distinguished row of high-pilastered -houses, set behind grassy, deep dooryards. There are precisely -eighty-eight three-and-a-half-story pilasters on the front -of this stately row. The houses have a general composite -effect of yellowish gray. They are built on the London plan -of the drawing-room on the second floor, so that those that -live there “go down to dinner.” The drawing-rooms are of -pleasant three-windowed spaciousness, extending across each -house-front.</p> - -<p>The terrace is notable in high-stooped New York in having -the entrance-doors on virtually the sidewalk level. That the -familiar and almost omnipresent high-stooped houses of the -nineteenth century ought all to have been constructed without -the long flight of outside stone steps characteristic of -the city is shown by a most interesting development on -East Nineteenth Street, between Third Avenue and Irving -Place. There the houses have been excellently and artistically -remodeled, with highly successful and highly satisfactory results. -With comparatively slight cost, there has been alteration -of commonplaceness into beauty.</p> - -<p>The high front steps have been removed, and the front -doors put down to where they ought to be. Most of the -house-fronts have been given a stucco coat, showing what -could be done with myriad commonplace houses of the city.</p> - -<p>The houses are colorfully painted tawny red or cream or -gray or pale pink or an excellent shade of brown. You think -of it as the happiest-looking street in New York. Solid shutters -add their effect, some the green of bronze patina. There<span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</span> -are corbeled gables. Some of the roofs are red-tiled. Two -little two-story stables have been transformed by little Gothic -doors. There are vines. There are box-bushes. There are -flowers in terra-cotta boxes on low area walls. Here and -there is a delightful little iron balcony, here and there a -gargoyle. On one roof two or three storks are gravely -standing! There are charming area-ways, and plane-trees -have been planted for the entire block. And here the vanishing -is of the undesirable.</p> - -<p>On Stuyvesant Square, near by, are the Quaker buildings, -standing in an atmosphere of peace which they themselves -have largely made—buildings of red brick with white trimmings, -and with a fine air of gentleness and repose; a little -group that, so one hopes, is very far indeed from the vanishing -point.</p> - -<p>And there is fine old Gramercy Park, whose dignified -homes in the past were owned by men of the greatest prominence. -Many of the great homes still remain, and the central -space, tall, iron-fenced, is still exclusively locked from -all but the privileged, the dwellers in the houses on the park. -And there, amid the grass and the trees, sedate little children, -with little white or black dogs, play sedately for -hours.</p> - -<p>We went for luncheon, with two recent woman's college -graduates, all familiar with New York, into the club house -that was the home of Samuel J. Tilden. Our companions -were unusually excellent examples of the best that the colleges -produce; they were of American ancestry. But any -New-Yorker will feel that much of the spirit of the city has -vanished, that much of the honored and intimate tradition -has gone, when we say that, it being mentioned that this had -been the Tilden home, it developed that neither of them had -ever heard of Samuel J. Tilden.</p> - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</span></p> - -<h4>SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS</h4> - -<ol class="f"> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What is the authors' attitude toward the past?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What does the essay say concerning change?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> In what spirit does the essay mention old buildings?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What does the essay prophesy for the future?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Tell the origin of some of the street names in New York City.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What does the essay say concerning the influence of people who -are now dead?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Point out examples of pleasant suggestion.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Show where the writers express originality of thought.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What is the plan of the essay?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What advantage does the essay gain by making so frequent -reference to names of people?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> How do the writers gain coherence?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Point out pleasing allusions.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What spirit does the essay arouse?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What do the writers think concerning the present?</li> -</ol> - - -<h4>SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION</h4> - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="his21"> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">1. Things That Have Vanished</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">11. A Trip About Town</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">2. My Own Town Years Ago</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">12. Some Curious Buildings</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">3. Old Buildings</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">13. The Highway</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">4. The People of a Former Day</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">14. The Founding of My Town</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">5. Legacies</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">15. Early Settlers</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">6. Street Names</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">16. My Ancestors</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">7. The Story of a Street</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">17. Family Relics</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">8. The Story of an Old House</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">18. A Walk in the Country</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">9. The Farm</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">19. The Making of a City</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">10. Eternal Change</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">20. Main Street</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - -<h4>DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING</h4> - -<p class="p2">Your object is not to tell what you do on any walk that you -choose to take, nor is it to tell what you see. You are not to try to -inform people concerning facts. You are to give them pleasing -impressions that come to you as you meditate on something that -has changed.</p> - -<p>In order to do this you must, first of all, have a real experience, -both in visiting a place and in feeling emotion. Then you must -make a plan for your writing, so that you will take your reader -just as easily and just as naturally as possible over the ground -that you wish him to visit in imagination.</p> - -<p>Make many allusions to people, to books, to events, and to anything<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</span> -else that will bring back the past vividly. Make that past -appear in all its charm. You can do this best if your emotion is -real, and if you pay considerable attention to your style of writing. -Use many adjectives and adjective expressions. Above all, try to -find words that will be highly suggestive.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="footnotes"> -<p class="p2 center big2">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_65" href="#FNanchor_65" class="label">[65]</a> Henry James (1843-1916). An American novelist noted for strikingly -analytical novels. His boyhood home was on Washington Square.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_66" href="#FNanchor_66" class="label">[66]</a> Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849). Perhaps the most widely known -American poet and short story writer. <em>The Raven</em> is the best-known -poem by any American poet. Poe wrote the poem while he was living -in New York City.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_67" href="#FNanchor_67" class="label">[67]</a> Washington Irving (1783-1859). The genial American essayist, -biographer and historian. He spent much of his time in New York City.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_68" href="#FNanchor_68" class="label">[68]</a> James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851). The first great American -novelist, best known for his famous “Leatherstocking Tales.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_69" href="#FNanchor_69" class="label">[69]</a> William Dean Howells (1837-1920). A celebrated modern novelist, -noted for his realistic pictures of life.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_70" href="#FNanchor_70" class="label">[70]</a> F. Hopkinson Smith (1838-1915). An American civil engineer, artist -and short story writer. <em>Colonel Carter of Cartersville</em> is one of his best-known -books.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_71" href="#FNanchor_71" class="label">[71]</a> O. Henry (William Sidney Porter) (1867-1910). A popular American -short story writer, noted for originality of style and treatment.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_72" href="#FNanchor_72" class="label">[72]</a> “Windows in Thrums”. The title of a novel by James Matthew -Barrie (1860.—) is <em>A Window in Thrums</em>, <em>Thrums</em> being an imaginary -village in Scotland, inhabited principally by humble but devout -weavers.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_73" href="#FNanchor_73" class="label">[73]</a> Sir Richard Whittington (1358-1423). Three times Lord Mayor of -London; the hero of the legend of <em>Whittington and His Cat</em>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_74" href="#FNanchor_74" class="label">[74]</a> Petrus Stuyvesant (1592-1672). The last of the Dutch governors -of New York. In 1664 he surrendered New York to the English. His -farm was called “The Bouwerij”.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_75" href="#FNanchor_75" class="label">[75]</a> <em>Hamlet.</em> While the date of <em>Hamlet</em> can not be told with certainty -it is reasonably sure that Shakespeare wrote his version of an older play -about 1592.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_76" href="#FNanchor_76" class="label">[76]</a> Rialto. A celebrated bridge in Venice, Italy. It has a series of -steps.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_77" href="#FNanchor_77" class="label">[77]</a> Samuel J. Tilden (1814-1886). An American lawyer, at one time -Governor of New York. As candidate for the Presidency he won 250,000 -more votes than Rutherford B. Hayes, but lost the election in the -Electoral College.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_78" href="#FNanchor_78" class="label">[78]</a> John Jacob Astor (1763-1848). A German immigrant who, through -the founding of a great fur business, established the Astor fortune. He -bequeathed $400,000 for the Astor Library.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_79" href="#FNanchor_79" class="label">[79]</a> James Lenox (1800-1880). An American philanthropist who -founded the great Lenox Library.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_80" href="#FNanchor_80" class="label">[80]</a> John Tyler (1790-1862). Tenth President of the United States.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_81" href="#FNanchor_81" class="label">[81]</a> James Monroe (1758-1831). Fifth President of the United States; -originator of the “Monroe Doctrine” policy designed to prevent -foreign interference in affairs in North or South America.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_82" href="#FNanchor_82" class="label">[82]</a> Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804). A great American statesman and -financier. He was killed in a duel with Aaron Burr (1756-1836), an -American politician.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_83" href="#FNanchor_83" class="label">[83]</a> The Bodleian Library. The great library of Oxford University, -England, named after Sir Thomas Bodley, one of its founders.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_84" href="#FNanchor_84" class="label">[84]</a> Magdalen College. One of the colleges of Oxford University, -England. It is noted for an especially beautiful tower.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_85" href="#FNanchor_85" class="label">[85]</a> Clement C. Moore (1779-1863). A wealthy American scholar and -teacher who wrote the poem, <em>'Twas the Night Before Christmas</em>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_86" href="#FNanchor_86" class="label">[86]</a> Edwin Forrest (1806-1872). A great American actor, noted for his -rendition of Shakespeare.</p> - -</div> -</div> -</div> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak">THE SONGS OF THE CIVIL WAR<a id="FNanchor_87" href="#Footnote_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a></h2> -</div> - -<p class="center big1">By BRANDER MATTHEWS</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p2"><em>(1852—). One of the most influential American critics and -essayists, Professor of Dramatic Literature in Columbia University. -He was one of the founders of The Authors' Club, and -The Players, and a leader in organizing the American Copyright -League. He is a member of the National Institute of -Arts and Letters. He is the author of works that illustrate -many types of literature, including novels, short stories, essays, -poems and plays. Among his books are:</em> A Story of the Sea, -and Other Stories; Pen and Ink; Americanisms and Briticisms; -The Story of a Story; Vignettes of Manhattan; His Father's -Son; Aspects of Fiction; Essays in English; The American -of the Future.</p> -</div> - -<div class="indent1 bold small1"> - -<p class="p2">When companionable people meet in pleasant converse, whether before -the open fire at home, or in chance gatherings at any place, they tell -one another about the interesting experiences that they have had or the -discoveries that they have made. If you could place on paper what -any one of them says, except in narration, and if you could, at the -same time, show the feeling and the spirit of the speaker,—if you -could in some way transfer the personality of the speaker to the -paper,—you would, in all probability, produce an essay.</p> - -<p>The author of <em>The Songs of the Civil War</em> has learned some interesting -facts concerning our national songs. He communicates those -facts as he would to a company of friends, indicating throughout his -remarks his own interests and beliefs. His words are the pleasant -words of friendship,—not the formal giving of information that characterizes -most encyclopedia articles. That part of his essay which is -given here is sufficient to indicate the charm of his presentation.</p> -</div> - - -<p class="p2">A national hymn is one of the things which cannot be -made to order. No man has ever yet sat him down and -taken up his pen and said, “I will write a national hymn,” -and composed either words or music which a nation was -willing to take for its own. The making of the song of -the people is a happy accident, not to be accomplished by -taking thought. It must be the result of fiery feeling long -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</span>confined, and suddenly finding vent in burning words or -moving strains. Sometimes the heat and the pressure of -emotion have been fierce enough and intense enough to call -forth at once both words and music, and to weld them together -indissolubly once and for all. Almost always the maker of -the song does not suspect the abiding value of his work; -he has wrought unconsciously, moved by a power within; -he has written for immediate relief to himself, and with no -thought of fame or the future; he has builded better than -he knew. The great national lyric is the result of the conjunction -of the hour and the man. Monarch cannot command -it, and even poets are often powerless to achieve it. -No one of the great national hymns has been written by a -great poet. But for his single immortal lyric, neither the -author of the “Marseillaise”<a id="FNanchor_88" href="#Footnote_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a> nor the author of the “Wacht -am Rhein”<a id="FNanchor_89" href="#Footnote_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a> would have his line in the biographical dictionaries. -But when a song has once taken root in the -hearts of a people, time itself is powerless against it. The -flat and feeble “Partant pour la Syrie,” which a filial -fiat made the hymn of imperial France, had to give way to the -strong and virile notes of the “Marseillaise,” when need -was to arouse the martial spirit of the French in 1870. The -noble measures of “God Save the King,” as simple and dignified -a national hymn as any country can boast, lift up -the hearts of the English people; and the brisk tune of the -“British Grenadiers” has swept away many a man into the -ranks of the recruiting regiment. The English are rich in -war tunes and the pathetic “Girl I Left Behind Me” encourages -and sustains both those who go to the front and -those who remain at home. Here in the United States we -have no “Marseillaise,” no “God Save the King,” no “Wacht -am Rhein”; we have but “Yankee Doodle” and the “Star-spangled -Banner.” More than one enterprising poet, and -more than one aspiring musician, has volunteered to take -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</span>the contract to supply the deficiency; as yet no one has succeeded. -“Yankee Doodle” we got during the revolution, -and the “Star-spangled Banner” was the gift of the War of -1812; from the Civil War we have received at least two war -songs which, as war songs simply, are stronger and finer -than either of these—“John Brown's Body” and “Marching -Through Georgia.”</p> - -<p>Of the lyrical outburst which the war called forth but -little trace is now to be detected in literature except by special -students. In most cases neither words nor music have -had vitality enough to survive a quarter of a century. -Chiefly, indeed, two things only survive, one Southern and -the other Northern; one a war-cry in verse, the other a -martial tune: one is the lyric “My Maryland” and the other -is the marching song “John Brown's Body.” The origin and -development of the latter, the rude chant to which a million -of the soldiers of the Union kept time, is uncertain and -involved in dispute. The history of the former may be -declared exactly, and by the courtesy of those who did the -deed—for the making of a war song is of a truth a deed -at arms—I am enabled to state fully the circumstances -under which it was written, set to music, and first sung -before the soldiers of the South.</p> - -<p>“My Maryland” was written by Mr. James R. Randall, a -native of Baltimore, and now residing in Augusta, Georgia. -The poet was a professor of English literature and the classics -in Poydras College at Pointe Coupee, on the Faussee Riviere, -in Louisiana, about seven miles from the Mississippi; and -there in April, 1861, he read in the New Orleans <em>Delta</em> the -news of the attack on the Massachusetts troops as they passed -through Baltimore. “This account excited me greatly,” Mr. -Randall wrote in answer to my request for information; “I -had long been absent from my native city, and the startling -event there inflamed my mind. That night I could not sleep, -for my nerves were all unstrung, and I could not dismiss -what I had read in the paper from my mind. About midnight -I rose, lit a candle, and went to my desk. Some powerful -spirit appeared to possess me, and almost involuntarily<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</span> -I proceeded to write the song of 'My Maryland.' I remember -that the idea appeared to first take shape as music -in the brain—some wild air that I cannot now recall. The -whole poem was dashed off rapidly when once begun. It -was not composed in cold blood, but under what may be -called a conflagration of the senses, if not an inspiration of -the intellect. I was stirred to a desire for some way linking -my name with that of my native State, if not 'with my land's -language'. But I never expected to do this with one single, -supreme effort, and no one was more surprised than I was -at the widespread and instantaneous popularity of the lyric -I had been so strangely stimulated to write.” Mr. Randall -read the poem the next morning to the college boys, and at -their suggestion sent it to the <em>Delta</em>, in which it was first -printed, and from which it was copied into nearly every -Southern journal. “I did not concern myself much about -it, but very soon, from all parts of the country, there was -borne to me, in my remote place of residence, evidence that -I had made a great hit, and that, whatever might be the -fate of the Confederacy, the song would survive it.”</p> - -<p>Published in the last days of April, 1861, when every -eye was fixed on the border States, the stirring stanzas of the -Tyrtæan bard<a id="FNanchor_90" href="#Footnote_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a> appeared in the very nick of time. There is -often a feeling afloat in the minds of men, undefined and -vague for want of one to give it form, and held in solution, -as it were, until a chance word dropped in the ear of a -poet suddenly crystallizes this feeling into song, in which all -may see clearly and sharply reflected what in their own -thought was shapeless and hazy. It was Mr. Randall's good -fortune to be the instrument through which the South spoke. -By a natural reaction his burning lines helped to fire the -Southern heart. To do their work well, his words needed -to be wedded to music. Unlike the authors of the “Star-spangled -Banner” and the “Marseillaise,” the author of -“My Maryland” had not written it to fit a tune already -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</span>familiar. It was left for a lady of Baltimore to lend the lyric -the musical wings it needed to enable it to reach every camp-fire -of the Southern armies. To the courtesy of this lady, then -Miss Hetty Cary, and now the wife of Professor H. Newell -Martin, of Johns Hopkins University, I am indebted for a -picturesque description of the marriage of the words to -the music, and of the first singing of the song before the -Southern troops.</p> - -<p>The house of Mrs. Martin's father was the headquarters -for the Southern sympathizers of Baltimore. Correspondence, -money, clothing, supplies of all kinds went thence -through the lines to the young men of the city who had -joined the Confederate army. “The enthusiasm of the girls -who worked and of the 'boys' who watched for their chance -to slip through the lines to Dixie's land found vent and -inspiration in such patriotic songs as could be made or -adapted to suit our needs. The glee club was to hold its meeting -in our parlors one evening early in June, and my sister, -Miss Jenny Cary, being the only musical member of the -family, had charge of the program on the occasion. With -a school-girl's eagerness to score a success, she resolved -to secure some new and ardent expression of feelings that -by this time were wrought up to the point of explosion. -In vain she searched through her stock of songs and airs—nothing -seemed intense enough to suit her. Aroused by her -tone of despair, I came to the rescue with the suggestion -that she should adapt the words of 'Maryland, my Maryland,' -which had been constantly on my lips since the appearance -of the lyric a few days before in the South. I -produced the paper and began declaiming the verses. -'Lauriger Horatius!'<a id="FNanchor_91" href="#Footnote_91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a> she exclaimed, and in a flash the immortal -song found voice in the stirring air so perfectly -adapted to it. That night, when her contralto voice rang -out the stanzas, the refrain rolled forth from every throat -present without pause or preparation; and the enthusiasm -communicated itself with such effect to a crowd assembled -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</span>beneath our open windows as to endanger seriously the liberties -of the party.”</p> - -<p>“Lauriger Horatius” had long been a favorite college song, -and it had been introduced into the Cary household by Mr. -Burton N. Harrison, then a Yale student. The air to which -it is sung is used also for a lovely German lyric, “Tannenbaum, -O Tannenbaum,” which Longfellow has translated “O -Hemlock Tree.” The transmigration of tunes is too large -and fertile a subject for me to do more here than refer to -it. The taking of the air of a jovial college song to use as -the setting of a fiery war-lyric may seem strange and curious, -but only to those who are not familiar with the adventures -and transformations a tune is often made to undergo. Hopkinson's<a id="FNanchor_92" href="#Footnote_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a> -“Hail Columbia!” for example, was written to the -tune of the “President's March,” just as Mrs. Howe's<a id="FNanchor_93" href="#Footnote_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a> -“Battle Hymn of the Republic” was written to “John -Brown's Body.” The “Wearing of the Green,” of the Irishman, -is sung to the same air as the “Benny Havens, O!” of -the West-Pointer. The “Star-spangled Banner” has to make -shift with the second-hand music of “Anacreon in Heaven,” -while our other national air, “Yankee Doodle,” uses over the -notes of an old English nursery rhyme, “Lucy Locket,” once -a personal lampoon in the days of the “Beggars' Opera,”<a id="FNanchor_94" href="#Footnote_94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a> -and now surviving in the “Baby's Opera” of Mr. Walter -Crane.<a id="FNanchor_95" href="#Footnote_95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a> “My Country, 'tis of Thee,” is set to the truly -British tune of “God Save the King,” the origin of which is -doubtful, as it is claimed by the French and the Germans as -well as the English. In the hour of battle a war-tune is subject -to the right of capture, and, like the cannon taken from -the enemy, it is turned against its maker.</p> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</span></p> -</div> - -<h4>SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS</h4> - -<ol class="f"> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Why cannot a national hymn be made to order?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Why is it true that the great national hymns have not been -written by great poets?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What establishes the worth of a national hymn?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Name the best national hymns of the United States.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What are some of the best national hymns of other countries?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What type of music is necessary for a good national hymn?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Tell the story of the origin of <em>My Maryland</em>.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What sources gave rise to the music of many of our national -hymns?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Explain the last sentence of the essay.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Point out the respects in which the essay differs from an encyclopedia article.</li> -</ol> - - - -<h4>SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION</h4> - - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="his22"> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">1. Popular Songs</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">11. Games</td> - </tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">2. Popular Music</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">12. Athletic Sports</td> - </tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">3. Popular Opera</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">13. Streets</td> - </tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">4. Fashions in Dress</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">14. Furniture</td> - </tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">5. Every Day Habits</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">15. Dancing</td> - </tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">6. Hats</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">16. Mother Goose Rimes</td> - </tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">7. Buttons</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">17. Favorite Poems</td> - </tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">8. Uniforms</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">18. Legends</td> - </tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">9. Social Customs</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">19. <em>Evangeline</em></td> - </tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">10. Architecture</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">20. Political Customs</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - -<h4>DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING</h4> - -<p class="p2">When you have chosen a subject consult encyclopedias and other -works of reference and find out all you can that is peculiarly interesting -to you. Do not make any attempt to record all the facts -that you may learn. Select those that make some deep appeal to -you and that will be likely to have unusual interest for others. -When you write do all that you can to avoid the encyclopedia -method. Write in a pleasantly familiar manner that will carry -your interests and your personality.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="footnotes"> -<p class="p2 center big2">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_87" href="#FNanchor_87" class="label">[87]</a> From “Pen and Ink” by Brander Matthews. Copyright, 1888, by -Longmans. Printed here by special permission of Professor Matthews.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_88" href="#FNanchor_88" class="label">[88]</a> Author of the <em>Marseillaise</em>. Rouget de Lisle (1760-1836). An enthusiastic -French Captain who composed the <em>Marseillaise</em> at Strasburg -on April 24, 1792, as a song for the Army of the Rhine.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_89" href="#FNanchor_89" class="label">[89]</a> Author of the <em>Wacht am Rhein</em>. Max. Schneckenburger (1819-1849).</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_90" href="#FNanchor_90" class="label">[90]</a> Tyrtæan Bard. Tyrtæus (7th century B.C.) was an unknown -crippled Greek school teacher who wrote songs of such power that they -inspired the Spartans to victory.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_91" href="#FNanchor_91" class="label">[91]</a> Lauriger Horatius. The first words of a well-known college song -written in Latin.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_92" href="#FNanchor_92" class="label">[92]</a> Joseph Hopkinson (1770-1842). Author of <em>Hail Columbia!</em> He -was the son of Francis Hopkinson who signed the Declaration of -Independence.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_93" href="#FNanchor_93" class="label">[93]</a> Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910). Author of the <em>Battle Hymn of the -Republic</em>, which she wrote in 1861 as the result of a visit to a great -camp near Washington.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_94" href="#FNanchor_94" class="label">[94]</a> <em>Beggars' Opera</em>. An opera written by John Gay (1685-1732). The -songs in the opera made use of well-known Scotch and English tunes. -The opera itself is a satire on dishonesty in public life.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_95" href="#FNanchor_95" class="label">[95]</a> Walter Crane (1845-1915). An English painter and producer of -children's books.</p> - -</div> -</div> -</div> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak">LOCOMOTION IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY<a id="FNanchor_96" href="#Footnote_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a></h2> -</div> - -<p class="center big1">By H. G. WELLS</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p2"><em>(1866—). A leading novelist, essayist and historian. -Through his energy and high ability he won his way to a place -in the educational world, and ultimately to a commanding position -in the literary world. He writes with unusual vigor and -originality. Some of his most stimulating books are</em> The Time -Machine; The War of the Worlds; When the Sleeper Wakes; -Anticipations; Tono Bungay; The Future of America; Social -Forces in England and America; The History of the World.</p> -</div> - -<div class="indent1 bold small1"> - -<p class="p2">Some essays go beyond the world of little things and set forward -their writers' meditations on matters of great import. Such essays -look back across the whole field of history or look forward into the -remoteness of the future. In essays of this kind Mr. H. G. Wells has -done much to stimulate thought.</p> - -<p>In the selection that follows Mr. Wells traces the development of -locomotion from the days of wagons to the days of steam. At the close -of the selection Mr. Wells suggests to the reader that the advance to be -made in the future may be as great as that which has been made in -the past.</p> -</div> - - -<p class="p2">The beginning of this twentieth century happens to coincide -with a very interesting phase in that great development -of means of land transit that has been the distinctive feature -(speaking materially) of the nineteenth century. The nineteenth -century, when it takes its place with the other centuries -in the chronological charts of the future, will, if it needs a -symbol, almost inevitably have as that symbol a steam-engine -running upon a railway. This period covers the first experiments, -the first great developments, and the complete -elaboration of that mode of transit, and the determination of -nearly all the broad features of this century's history may -be traced directly or indirectly to that process. And since -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</span>an interesting light is thrown upon the new phases in land -locomotion that are now beginning, it will be well to begin -this forecast with a retrospect, and to revise very shortly -the history of the addition of steam travel to the resources of -mankind.</p> - -<p>A curious and profitable question arises at once. How is -it that the steam locomotive appeared at the time it did, and -not earlier in the history of the world?</p> - -<p>Because it was not invented. But why was it not invented? -Not for want of a crowning intellect, for none of the many -minds concerned in the development strikes one—as the mind -of Newton, Shakespeare, or Darwin<a id="FNanchor_97" href="#Footnote_97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a> strikes one—as being -that of an unprecedented man. It is not that the need for -the railway and steam-engine had only just arisen, and—to -use one of the most egregiously wrong and misleading phrases -that ever dropped from the lips of man—the demand created -the supply; it was quite the other way about. There was -really no urgent demand for such things at the time; the -current needs of the European world seem to have been fairly -well served by coach and diligence in 1800, and, on the other -hand, every administrator of intelligence in the Roman and -Chinese empires must have felt an urgent need for more rapid -methods of transit than those at his disposal. Nor was the -development of the steam locomotive the result of any sudden -discovery of steam. Steam, and something of the mechanical -possibilities of steam, had been known for two thousand -years; it had been used for pumping water, opening doors, -and working toys before the Christian era. It may be urged -that this advance was the outcome of that new and more -systematic handling of knowledge initiated by Lord Bacon<a id="FNanchor_98" href="#Footnote_98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</span>and sustained by the Royal Society;<a id="FNanchor_99" href="#Footnote_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a> but this does not appear -to have been the case, though no doubt the new habits of -mind that spread outward from that center played their part. -The men whose names are cardinal in the history of this -development invented, for the most part, in a quite empirical -way, and Trevithick's<a id="FNanchor_100" href="#Footnote_100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a> engine was running along its rails and -Evans'<a id="FNanchor_101" href="#Footnote_101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a> boat was walloping up the Hudson a quarter of a -century before Carnot<a id="FNanchor_102" href="#Footnote_102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a> expounded his general proposition. -There were no such deductions from principles to application -as occur in the story of electricity to justify our attribution -of the steam-engine to the scientific impulse. Nor does this -particular invention seem to have been directly due to the -new possibilities of reducing, shaping, and casting iron, -afforded by the substitution of coal for wood in iron works, -through the greater temperature afforded by a coal fire. In -China coal has been used in the reduction of iron for many -centuries. No doubt these new facilities did greatly help the -steam-engine in its invasion of the field of common life, but -quite certainly they were not sufficient to set it going. It -was, indeed, not one cause, but a very complex and unprecedented -series of causes, set the steam locomotive going. It -was indirectly, and in another way, that the introduction of -coal became the decisive factor. One peculiar condition of -its production in England seems to have supplied just one -ingredient that had been missing for two thousand years in -the group of conditions that were necessary before the steam -locomotive could appear.</p> - -<p>This missing ingredient was a demand for some comparatively -simple, profitable machine, upon which the elementary -principles of steam utilization could be worked out. If one -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</span>studies Stephenson's “Rocket”<a id="FNanchor_103" href="#Footnote_103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a> in detail, as one realizes its -profound complexity, one begins to understand how impossible -it would have been for that structure to have come into -existence <em>de novo</em>,<a id="FNanchor_104" href="#Footnote_104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a> however urgently the world had need of it. -But it happened that the coal needed to replace the dwindling -forests of this small and exceptionally rain-saturated country -occurs in low, hollow basins overlying clay, and not, as in -China and the Alleghenies, for example, on high-lying outcrops, -that can be worked as chalk is worked in England. -From this fact it followed that some quite unprecedented -pumping appliances became necessary, and the thoughts of -practical men were turned thereby to the long-neglected possibilities -of steam. Wind was extremely inconvenient for the -purpose of pumping, because in these latitudes it is inconstant: -it was costly, too, because at any time the laborers -might be obliged to sit at the pit's mouth for weeks together, -whistling for a gale or waiting for the water to be got under -again. But steam had already been used for pumping upon -one or two estates in England—rather as a toy than in earnest—before -the middle of the seventeenth century, and the attempt -to employ it was so obvious as to be practically unavoidable.<a id="FNanchor_105" href="#Footnote_105" class="fnanchor">[105]</a> -The water trickling into the coal measures<a id="FNanchor_106" href="#Footnote_106" class="fnanchor">[106]</a> acted, -therefore, like water trickling upon chemicals that have long -been mixed together, dry and inert. Immediately the latent -reactions were set going. Savery,[11] Newcome,<a id="FNanchor_107" href="#Footnote_107" class="fnanchor">[107]</a> a host of other -workers culminating in Watt,<a id="FNanchor_108" href="#Footnote_108" class="fnanchor">[108]</a> working always by steps that -were at least so nearly obvious as to give rise again and again -to simultaneous discoveries, changed this toy of steam into a -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</span>real, a commercial thing, developed a trade in pumping-engines, -created foundries and a new art of engineering, and, -almost unconscious of what they were doing, made the steam -locomotive a well-nigh unavoidable consequence. At last, -after a century of improvement on pumping-engines, there -remained nothing but the very obvious stage of getting the -engine that had been developed on wheels and out upon the -ways of the world.</p> - -<p>Ever and ever again during the eighteenth century an -engine would be put upon the roads and pronounced a failure—one -monstrous Palæoferric creature<a id="FNanchor_109" href="#Footnote_109" class="fnanchor">[109]</a> was visible on a -French high-road as early as 1769—but by the dawn of the -nineteenth century the problem had very nearly got itself -solved. By 1804 Trevithick had a steam locomotive indisputably -in motion and almost financially possible, and from -his hands it puffed its way, slowly at first, and then, under -Stephenson, faster and faster, to a transitory empire over the -earth. It was a steam locomotive—but for all that it was primarily -<em>a steam-engine for pumping</em> adapted to a new end; it -was a steam-engine whose ancestral stage had developed under -conditions that were by no means exacting in the matter of -weight. And from that fact followed a consequence that has -hampered railway travel and transport very greatly, and -that is tolerated nowadays only through a belief in its practical -necessity. The steam locomotive was all too huge and -heavy for the high-road—it had to be put upon rails. And -so clearly linked are steam-engines and railways in our minds, -that, in common language now, the latter implies the former. -But, indeed, it is the result of accidental impediments, of -avoidable difficulties, that we travel to-day on rails.</p> - -<p>Railway traveling is at best a compromise. The quite conceivable -ideal of locomotive convenience, so far as travelers -are concerned, is surely a highly mobile conveyance capable -of traveling easily and swiftly to any desired point, traversing, -at a reasonably controlled pace, the ordinary roads and -streets, and having access for higher rates of speed and long-distance -traveling to specialized ways restricted to swift -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</span>traffic and possibly furnished with guide rails. For the collection -and delivery of all sorts of perishable goods also the -same system is obviously altogether superior to the existing -methods. Moreover, such a system would admit of that -secular progress in engines and vehicles that the stereotyped -conditions of the railway have almost completely arrested, -because it would allow almost any new pattern to be put at -once upon the ways without interference with the established -traffic. Had such an ideal been kept in view from the first, -the traveler would now be able to get through his long-distance -journeys at a pace of from seventy miles or more -an hour without changing, and without any of the trouble, -waiting, expense, and delay that arise between the household -or hotel and the actual rail. It was an ideal that must have -been at least possible to an intelligent person fifty years ago, -and, had it been resolutely pursued, the world, instead of -fumbling from compromise to compromise as it always has -done, and as it will do very probably for many centuries yet, -might have been provided to-day, not only with an infinitely -more practicable method of communication, but with one -capable of a steady and continual evolution from year to year.</p> - -<p>But there was a more obvious path of development and one -immediately cheaper, and along that path went short-sighted -Nineteenth Century Progress, quite heedless of the possibility -of ending in a <em>cul-de-sac</em>.<a id="FNanchor_110" href="#Footnote_110" class="fnanchor">[110]</a> The first locomotives, apart -from the heavy tradition of their ancestry, were, like all experimental -machinery, needlessly clumsy and heavy, and -their inventors, being men of insufficient faith, instead of -working for lightness and smoothness of motion, took the -easier course of placing them upon the tramways that were -already in existence—chiefly for the transit of heavy goods -over soft roads. And from that followed a very interesting -and curious result.</p> - -<p>These tram-lines very naturally had exactly the width of -an ordinary cart, a width prescribed by the strength of one -horse. Few people saw in the locomotive anything but a -cheap substitute for horseflesh, or found anything incongruous<span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</span> -in letting the dimensions of a horse determine the dimensions -of an engine. It mattered nothing that from the -first the passenger was ridiculously cramped, hampered, and -crowded in the carriage. He had always been cramped in a -coach, and it would have seemed “Utopian”<a id="FNanchor_111" href="#Footnote_111" class="fnanchor">[111]</a>—a very dreadful -thing indeed to our grandparents—to propose travel without -cramping. By mere inertia the horse-cart gauge—the 4 -foot 8-1/2 inch gauge—<em>nemine contradicente</em>,<a id="FNanchor_112" href="#Footnote_112" class="fnanchor">[112]</a> established itself -in the world, and now everywhere the train is dwarfed to a -scale that limits alike its comfort, power, and speed. Before -every engine, as it were, trots the ghost of a superseded horse, -refuses most resolutely to trot faster than fifty miles an hour, -and shies and threatens catastrophe at every point and curve. -That fifty miles an hour, most authorities are agreed, is the -limit of our speed for land travel so far as existing conditions -go.<a id="FNanchor_113" href="#Footnote_113" class="fnanchor">[113]</a> Only a revolutionary reconstruction of the railways or -the development of some new competing method of land travel -can carry us beyond that.</p> - -<p>People of to-day take the railways for granted as they -take sea and sky; they were born in a railway world, and -they expect to die in one. But if only they will strip from -their eyes the most blinding of all influences, acquiescence in -the familiar, they will see clearly enough that this vast and -elaborate railway system of ours, by which the whole world is -linked together, is really only a vast system of trains of horse-wagons -and coaches drawn along rails by pumping-engines -upon wheels. Is that, in spite of its present vast extension, -likely to remain the predominant method of land locomotion, -even for so short a period as the next hundred years?</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</span></p> -<h4>SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS</h4> - -<ol class="f"> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What, according to Mr. Wells, was the distinctive feature of the -nineteenth century?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Why did steam locomotion appear when it did?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> How many of the principles of steam locomotion had been -known before the nineteenth century?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Name all the causes that contributed to the development of -steam locomotion.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Explain the relation between the mining of coal and steam -locomotion.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What characteristics of wagons appear in steam locomotives?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> In what ways is modern steam locomotion unsatisfactory?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What are some of the possibilities for future locomotion?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> On what fields of information is the essay based?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What are the characteristics of Mr. Wells' style?</li> -</ol> - - -<h4>SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION</h4> - - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="his23"> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">1. The Development of Steam Boats</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">11. Steps Toward the Use of Motor Trucks</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">2. The Development of the Automobile</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">12. The Improvement of Highways</td> - </tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">3. The Development of the Airplane</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">13. The Evolution of Good Sidewalks</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">4. The Development of the Bicycle</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">14. The Development of the Telephone</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">5. The Story of Roller Skates</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">15. Improved Railway Stations</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">6. The Development of Comfort in Travel</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">16. The Use of Voting Machines</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">7. The Story of the Sleeping Car</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">17. The Protection of the Food Supply</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">8. The Development of the Dining Car</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">18. The Increase of Forest Protection</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">9. Comfort in Modern Carriages</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">19. The Work of the Weather Bureau</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">10. The Development of the Mail System</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">20. The Development of the Wireless Telegraph.</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - -<h4>DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING</h4> - -<p class="p2">Before you can write upon any such subject as the one upon -which Mr. Wells wrote it will be necessary for you to obtain a wide<span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</span> -amount of information. Go to any encyclopedia and find lines along -which you can investigate further. Then consult special books that -you may obtain in a good library. When you have gained full information -remember that it is your business not to transmit the -information that you have gained, but to put down on paper the -thoughts to which the information has led you. Try to show the -relation between the past and the present, and to indicate some -forecast for the future. Do all this in a pleasantly straightforward -style as though you were talking earnestly.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="footnotes"> -<p class="p2 center big2">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_96" href="#FNanchor_96" class="label">[96]</a> From “Anticipations” by H. G. Wells. Copyright by the North -American Review Publishing Company, 1901; copyright by Harper -and Brother, 1902.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_97" href="#FNanchor_97" class="label">[97]</a> Newton, Shakespeare, or Darwin. Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727). -A great English mathematician, especially noted for his establishment -of knowledge of the law of gravitation. William Shakespeare (1564-1616). -The great English dramatist, regarded as the greatest of -English writers. Charles Darwin (1809-1882). The English naturalist, -who established a theory of evolution. Three of the most intellectual -men of all time.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_98" href="#FNanchor_98" class="label">[98]</a> Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626). A great English philosopher, who -established the inductive study of science, that is, study through investigation -and experiment.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_99" href="#FNanchor_99" class="label">[99]</a> The Royal Society. Established about 1660 in London, England, for -the study of science. It has had a great influence in developing scientific -knowledge.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_100" href="#FNanchor_100" class="label">[100]</a> Richard Trevithick (1771-1833). An English inventor who did much -to improve the steam engine. In 1801 his locomotive conveyed the first -passengers ever carried by steam.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_101" href="#FNanchor_101" class="label">[101]</a> Oliver Evans (1755-1819). An American inventor who was one of -the first to use steam at high pressure.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_102" href="#FNanchor_102" class="label">[102]</a> Sadi Carnot (1796-1832). A French physicist whose “principle” -concerns the development of power through the use of heat.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_103" href="#FNanchor_103" class="label">[103]</a> Stephenson's Rocket. A locomotive made in 1829 by George Stephenson -(1781-1848), which was so successful that it won a prize of £500. -Stephenson was one of the most potent forces in developing steam -locomotion.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_104" href="#FNanchor_104" class="label">[104]</a> <em>De Novo.</em> As something entirely new.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_105" href="#FNanchor_105" class="label">[105]</a> It might have been used in the same way in Italy in the first century, -had not the grandiose taste for aqueducts prevailed.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_106" href="#FNanchor_106" class="label">[106]</a> And also into the Cornwall mines, be it noted.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_107" href="#FNanchor_107" class="label">[107]</a> Captain Thomas Savery (1650?-1715). An English engineer who -made one of the first steam engines in 1705, working in connection with -Thomas Newcome.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_108" href="#FNanchor_108" class="label">[108]</a> James Watt (1736-1819). A Scotch inventor who in 1765 perfected -the condensing steam engine.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_109" href="#FNanchor_109" class="label">[109]</a> Palæoferric creature. Ancient iron creature.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_110" href="#FNanchor_110" class="label">[110]</a> <em>Cul-de-sac.</em> A passage closed at one end.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_111" href="#FNanchor_111" class="label">[111]</a> Utopian. In 1516 Sir Thomas More (1478-1535) wrote about an -island called Utopia on which was an ideal government. The word -“Utopian” means “ideal beyond hope of attainment”.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_112" href="#FNanchor_112" class="label">[112]</a> <em>Nemine contradicente.</em> No one saying anything against it.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_113" href="#FNanchor_113" class="label">[113]</a> It might be worse. If the biggest horses had been Shetland ponies, -we should be traveling now in railway carriages to hold two each side -at a maximum speed of perhaps twenty miles an hour. There is hardly -any reason, beyond this tradition of the horse, why the railway carriage -should not be even nine or ten feet wide, the width that is, of the -smallest room in which people can live in comfort, hung on such springs -and wheels as would effectually destroy all vibration, and furnished with -all the equipment of comfortable chambers.</p> - -</div> -</div> -</div> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak">THE WRITING OF ESSAYS</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center big1">By CHARLES S. BROOKS</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p2"><em>(1878—). After some years of business life, following his -graduation from Yale, Mr. Brooks turned entirely to literary -work. He has written</em> A Journey to Bagdad; Three Pippins -and Cheese to Come; Chimney-Pot Papers. <em>During the World -War he served with the Department of State in Washington.</em></p> -</div> - -<div class="indent1 bold small1"> - -<p class="p2">Here is a delightful, easy-going essay that presents most effectively -the ideals and the methods of essay writing.</p> - -<p>An essayist, Mr. Brooks says, has no great literary purpose to -accomplish: he is a reader, a thinker, a person who is interested in all -sorts of subjects just because they are interesting. He writes of the -little things in life because he loves them. He is essentially a lover of -books and of libraries; one who dwells in the companionship of pleasant -thoughts; one who gives us a sort of happy gossip that comes across -the years, redolent with the charm of personality.</p> -</div> - - -<p class="p2">An essayist needs a desk and a library near at hand, because -an essay is a kind of back-stove cookery. A novel needs -a hot fire, so to speak. A dozen chapters bubble in their turn -above the reddest coals, while an essay simmers over a little -flame. Pieces of this and that, an odd carrot, as it were, a -left-over potato, a pithy bone, discarded trifles, are tossed in -from time to time to feed the composition. Raw paragraphs, -when they have stewed all night, at last become tender to the -fork. An essay, therefore, cannot be written hurriedly on -the knee. Essayists, as a rule, chew their pencils. Their -desks are large and are always in disorder. There is a stack -of books on the clock-shelf; others are pushed under the bed. -Matches, pencils, and bits of paper mark a hundred references. -When an essayist goes out from his lodging he wears -the kind of overcoat that holds a book in every pocket; his -sagging pockets proclaim him. He is a bulging person, so -stuffed even in his dress with the ideas of others that his own -leanness is concealed. An essayist keeps a note-book and he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</span> -thumbs it for forgotten thoughts. Nobody is safe from him, -for he steals from every one he meets. Like the man in the -old poem, he relies on his memory for his wit.</p> - -<p>An essayist is not a mighty traveler. He does not run to -grapple with a roaring lion. He desires neither typhoon -nor tempest. He is content in his harbor to listen to the storm -upon the rocks, if now and then by a lucky chance he can -shelter some one from the wreck. His hands are not red with -revolt against the world. He has glanced upon the thoughts -of many men, and as opposite philosophies point upon the -truth, he is modest with his own and tolerant of others. He -looks at the stars and, knowing in what a dim immensity we -travel, he writes of little things beyond dispute. There are -enough to weep upon the shadows; he, like a dial, marks the -light. The small clatter of the city beneath his window, the -cry of peddlers, children chalking their games upon the pavement, -laundry dancing on the roofs, and smoke in the winter's -wind—these are the things he weaves into the fabric of his -thoughts. Or sheep upon the hillside, if his window is so -lucky, or a sunny meadow is a profitable speculation. And -so, while the novelist is struggling up a dizzy mountain, -straining through the tempest to see the kingdoms of the -world, behold the essayist, snug at home, content with little -sights! He is a kind of poet—a poet whose wings are clipped. -He flaps to no great heights, and sees neither the devil nor -the seven oceans nor the twelve apostles. He paints old -thoughts in shiny varnish and, as he is able, he mends small -habits here and there.</p> - -<p>And therefore, as essayists stay at home, they are precise, -almost amorous, in the posture and outlook of their writing. -Leigh Hunt<a id="FNanchor_114" href="#Footnote_114" class="fnanchor">[114]</a> wished a great library next his study. “But -for the study itself,” he writes, “give me a small snug place, -almost entirely walled with books. There should be only one -window in it, looking on trees.” How the precious fellow -scorns the mountains and the ocean! He has no love, it -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</span>seems, for typhoons and roaring lions. “I entrench myself -in my books,” he continues, “equally against sorrow and the -weather. If the wind comes down the passage, I look about -to see how I can fence it off by a better disposition of my -movables.” And by movables he means his books. These -were his screen against cold and trouble. But Leigh Hunt -had been in prison for his political beliefs. He had grappled -with his lion. So perhaps, after all, my argument fails.</p> - -<p>Mr. Edmund Gosse<a id="FNanchor_115" href="#Footnote_115" class="fnanchor">[115]</a> had a different method to the same -purpose. He “was so anxious to fly all outward noise” that -he wished for a library apart from the house. Maybe he had -had some experience with Annie and her clattering broomstick. -“In my sleep,” he writes, “'when dreams are multitude,' -I sometimes fancy that one day I shall have a library -in a garden. The phrase seems to contain the whole felicity -of man.... It sounds like having a castle in Spain, or a -sheep-walk in Arcadia.”<a id="FNanchor_116" href="#Footnote_116" class="fnanchor">[116]</a></p> - -<p>Montaigne's<a id="FNanchor_117" href="#Footnote_117" class="fnanchor">[117]</a> study was a tower, walled all about with -books. At his table in the midst he was the general focus of -their wisdom. Hazlitt<a id="FNanchor_118" href="#Footnote_118" class="fnanchor">[118]</a> wrote much at an inn at Winterslow, -with Salisbury Plain around the corner of his view. Except -for ill health, and a love of the South Seas (here was the -novelist showing itself), Stevenson<a id="FNanchor_119" href="#Footnote_119" class="fnanchor">[119]</a> would probably have -preferred a windy perch overlooking Edinburgh.</p> - -<p>It does seem as if rather a richer flavor were given to a -book by knowing the circumstance of its composition. Consequently -readers, as they grow older, turn more and more -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</span>to biography. It is not chiefly the biographies that deal with -great crises and events, but rather the biographies that are -concerned with small circumstance and agreeable gossip.</p> - -<p>Lately in a book-shop at the foot of Cornhill<a id="FNanchor_120" href="#Footnote_120" class="fnanchor">[120]</a> I fell in with -an old scholar who told me that it was his practice to recommend -four books, which, taken end on end, furnished the -general history of English writing from the Restoration<a id="FNanchor_121" href="#Footnote_121" class="fnanchor">[121]</a> to -a time within his own memory. These books were Pepy's -“Diary,”<a id="FNanchor_122" href="#Footnote_122" class="fnanchor">[122]</a> Boswell's “Johnson,”<a id="FNanchor_123" href="#Footnote_123" class="fnanchor">[123]</a> the “Letters and Diaries” -of Madame D'Arblay,<a id="FNanchor_124" href="#Footnote_124" class="fnanchor">[124]</a> and the “Diary” of Crabbe -Robinson.<a id="FNanchor_125" href="#Footnote_125" class="fnanchor">[125]</a></p> - -<p>Beginning almost with the days of Cromwell, here is a -chain of pleasant gossip the space of more than two hundred -years. Perhaps at the first there were old fellows still alive -who could remember Shakespeare; who still sat in chimney-corners -and babbled through their toothless gums of Blackfriars -and the Globe.<a id="FNanchor_126" href="#Footnote_126" class="fnanchor">[126]</a> And at the end we find a reference to -President Lincoln and his freeing of the slaves.</p> - -<p>Here are a hundred authors, perhaps a thousand, tucking -up their cuffs, looking out from their familiar windows, -scribbling their masterpieces.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</span></p> -<h4>SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS</h4> - -<ol class="f"> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Why does the writer of an essay need a desk and a library?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Explain the figure of speech that compares an essay with something -that cooks slowly.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Why must essays be written slowly?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Why does an essayist make great use of books?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Why does an essayist keep a note-book?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Why is an essayist “modest with his own thoughts and tolerant -of others”?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Why does the essayist enjoy the little things of life?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What is meant by “mending small habits here and there”?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> In what ways are many books of biography like essays?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Prove that Mr. Brooks' article is an essay.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Point out unusual expressions, or striking sentences.</li> -</ol> - - -<h4>SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION</h4> - - - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="his24"> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">1. The Writing of School Compositions</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">11. A Clerk in a Store</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">2. The Preparation of a Debate</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">12. A Teacher of Chemistry</td> - </tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">3. The Writing of Letters</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">13. Preparing an Experiment</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">4. A Pupil in School</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">14. The Work of a Book Agent</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">5. The Work of a Blacksmith</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">15. Buying a Dress</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">6. The Leader of an Orchestra</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">16. Selecting a New Hat</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">7. The Cheer-Leader at a Game</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">17. Being Photographed</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">8. Memorizing a Speech</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">18. The Senior</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">9. The Janitor of a School</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">19. The Freshman</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">10. The Editor of a Paper</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">20. The Alumnus</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - -<h4>DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING</h4> - -<p class="p2">Your aim is to write an essay in imitation of the one written by -Mr. Brooks. Read Mr. Brooks' essay so carefully that you will -know just what to imitate.</p> - -<p>Notice how easily and how pleasantly Mr. Brooks writes, and -especially how he makes use of figurative language rather than of -direct statement. Then, too, he uses some very striking expressions, -such as “He desires neither typhoon nor tempest,” and “He paints -old thoughts in shiny varnish.” At the same time he uses common -expressions now and then, as if to give a touch of familiarity or of -humor,—“He flaps to no great heights,” “He mends small habits,”<span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</span> -“Who still sat in chimney corners and babbled through their toothless -gums.” With it all, he gives a clear conception of the essayist -and his work.</p> - -<p>Try to imitate all this in your own writing. Avoid being stiff -and formal, and try to write easily, familiarly, originally, and with -dignity. Remember that your aim is to give pleasure rather than -information.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="footnotes"> -<p class="p2 center big2">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_114" href="#FNanchor_114" class="label">[114]</a> Leigh Hunt (1784-1859). A famous English essayist and poet, noted -for his love of books. When he was imprisoned because of an article ridiculing -the Prince Regent he sent for so many books that he made his -prison a sort of library.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_115" href="#FNanchor_115" class="label">[115]</a> Edmund Gosse (1849- ). A noted English poet, critic, and -student of literature. Since he based much of his writing on close -study he naturally wished for quiet.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_116" href="#FNanchor_116" class="label">[116]</a> A castle in Spain, or a sheep-walk in Arcadia. Places of perfect -happiness, where all desired things may be obtained. Arcadia is a -mountain-surrounded section of Greece noted for its happy shepherd life.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_117" href="#FNanchor_117" class="label">[117]</a> Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592). The great French essayist who -invented the familiar essay.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_118" href="#FNanchor_118" class="label">[118]</a> William Hazlitt (1778-1830). An English essayist, lecturer, biographer -and critic; a student of literature.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_119" href="#FNanchor_119" class="label">[119]</a> Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894). A British poet, novelist, short -story writer and essayist, born in Edinburgh, Scotland. At various -times he lived in France, Switzerland, the United States and the South -Sea Islands. He was buried in Samoa.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_120" href="#FNanchor_120" class="label">[120]</a> Cornhill. A famous street in London.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_121" href="#FNanchor_121" class="label">[121]</a> The Restoration. The restoration of the English monarchy in 1660 -after its overthrow by the Parliamentary forces under Oliver Cromwell.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_122" href="#FNanchor_122" class="label">[122]</a> Samuel Pepys (1633-1703). An English business man, office-holder -and lover of books. For nine years he kept a most personal, self-revealing -diary, which he wrote in shorthand. The diary gives an -accurate picture of the age in which he lived.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_123" href="#FNanchor_123" class="label">[123]</a> James Boswell (1740-1795). A Scotch advocate and author, noted -especially for his <em>Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.</em>, a book that many -pronounce the best biography ever written. The work makes one -intimately acquainted with Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), a great essayist, -poet, biographer, play-writer, and author of a famous dictionary -of the English language. Dr. Johnson was a leader of the learned -men of his time.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_124" href="#FNanchor_124" class="label">[124]</a> Frances Burney D'Arblay (1752-1840). An English novelist, -author of <em>Evelina</em>, and a friend of Dr. Samuel Johnson. Her <em>Letters</em> -and <em>Diary</em> give an intimate account of her entire life.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_125" href="#FNanchor_125" class="label">[125]</a> Henry Crabbe Robinson (1775-1867). An English war-correspondent -and social leader. His <em>Diary</em> gives intimate information concerning the -great men of his time, with nearly all of whom he was personally -acquainted.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_126" href="#FNanchor_126" class="label">[126]</a> Blackfriars and the Globe. London theaters in which Shakespeare's -plays were first produced.</p> - -</div> -</div> -</div> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak">THE RHYTHM OF PROSE</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center big1">By ABRAM LIPSKY</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p2"><em>(1872- ). A teacher in the high schools of the City -of New York. Among his works is a volume entitled “Old -Testament Heroes.” Dr. Lipsky writes for many publications.</em></p> -</div> - -<div class="indent1 small1 bold"> - -<p class="p2"><em>The Rhythm of Prose</em> is a meditation on the music of language, on -the “tune” that accompanies thought. The essay is not severe and -formal,—as it would be if it were a treatise on prose rhythm,—but is -easy-going and almost conversational. It is an interesting example of -the didactic type of essay.</p> - -<p>“Good prose is rhythmical because thought is: and thought is -rhythmical because it is always going somewhere, sometimes strolling, -sometimes marching, sometimes dancing.”</p> -</div> - - -<p class="p2">The rhythm of prose is inseparable from its sense. This -sense-rhythm is abetted and supported by the mechanical -rhythm of syllables, but its larger outlines are staked out by -tones of interrogation, by outcries, expostulations, threats, -entreaties, resolves, by the tones of a multitude of emotions. -These are heard as interior voices, and have their accompaniment -of peculiar bodily motions, such as gritting of -teeth, holding of breath, clenching of fists, tensions, and relaxations -of numberless obscure muscles. All the organs of -the body compose the orchestra that plays the rhythm of -prose, which is not only a rhythm, but a tune. In short, the -really important sort of rhythm in prose is that of phrase, -clause, and sentence, and this rhythm is marked not merely -by stresses, but by tones, which are of as great variety as the -modes of putting a proposition, dogmatic, hypothetical, imperative, -persuasive; or as the emotional tone of thought, -solemn, jubilant, placid, mysterious.</p> - -<p>Good prose is rhythmical because thought is; and thought -is rhythmical because it is always going somewhere, sometimes<span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</span> -strolling, sometimes marching, sometimes dancing. -Types of thought have their characteristic rhythms, and a -resemblance is discernible between these and types of dancing. -Note, for example, the Oriental undulation of De Quincey,<a id="FNanchor_127" href="#Footnote_127" class="fnanchor">[127]</a> -the sprightly two-stepping of Stevenson,<a id="FNanchor_128" href="#Footnote_128" class="fnanchor">[128]</a> the placid glide of -Howells,<a id="FNanchor_129" href="#Footnote_129" class="fnanchor">[129]</a> the march of Gibbon.<a id="FNanchor_130" href="#Footnote_130" class="fnanchor">[130]</a> A man who wishes to put the -accent of moral authority into his style writes in a sententious, -staccato rhythm. One who would appear profound -adopts the voluminous, long-winded German period. The -apocalyptic spirit manifests itself in a buoyant, shouting, -leaping rhythm. Meditative calmness adopts the gliding -movement that suggests the waltz.</p> - -<p>Now, why do we become uneasy the moment we suspect a -writer of aiming at musical effects? It is because we know -instinctively that every thought creates its own rhythm, and -that when a writer's attention is upon his rhythm, he is bent -upon something else than his thought processes. The only -way of giving the impression of thought that is not original -or spontaneous is by imitating the rhythm of that thought. -For real meanings cannot be borrowed. They are always -new. Real thought is an action, an original adventure. It -pulsates, and the body pulsates with it. No writer can produce -this sense of original adventure in us unless he has it -himself.</p> - -<p>The various classes of writers and talkers whose business -it is to sway the minds of others understand as well as the -medicine-man in the primitive tribe the part that rhythm -plays in their work. The rhythm of each is characteristic. -The swelling, pompous senatorial style that suggests the -weight of nations behind the speaker is familiar.</p> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</span></p> - -<div class="indent1 small1"> - -<p class="p2">I admit that there is an ultimate violent remedy, above the Constitution -and in defiance of the Constitution, which may be resorted to -when a revolution is to be justified. But I do not admit that, under -the Constitution and in conformity with it, there is any mode in which -a state government, as a member of the Union, can interfere and stop -the progress of the general Government by force of her own laws under -any circumstances whatever.</p> -</div> - -<p class="p2">Rhythm of this sort is not a matter of accented and unaccented -syllables, but of length of phrase and suspension of -voice as it gathers volume and momentum to break finally in -an overwhelming roar.</p> - -<p>Then there is the suave, insinuating clerical style that lulls -opposition and penetrates the conscience of the listener with -its smooth, unhalting naïveté.</p> - -<div class="indent1 small1"> - -<p class="p2">How many of us feel that those who have committed grave outward -transgressions into which we have not fallen because the motives to -them were not present with us, or because God's grace kept us hedged -round by influences which resisted them—may nevertheless have had -hearts which answered more to God's heart, which entered far more into -the grief and joy of His Spirit, than ours ever did.</p> -</div> - -<p class="p2">Or, if the preacher is of the apocalyptic variety, we get -the explosive shocks, the hammer-blows, and the thunderous -reverberations.</p> - -<div class="indent1 small1"> - -<p class="p2">Ah, no, this deep-hearted son of the wilderness with his burning black -eyes and open, social, deep soul, had other thoughts in him than ambition.... -The great mystery of existence, as I said, glared in upon -him, with its terrors, with its splendors; no hear-says could hide that -unspeakable fact, “Here am I.”</p> -</div> - -<p class="p2">Editorial omniscience clothes itself in a martial array of -unwavering units. There is no quickening or slackening in -their irresistible advance. There is no weakening in their -ranks, nor are they subject to sudden accessions of strength. -All is as it was in the beginning, perfect wisdom without -flaw.</p> - -<p>All this is in prose what conventional meter is in verse. -The writer sets himself a tune, which he follows. The political -orator, the preacher, the editorial writer, the philosopher, -the rhapsodist, knows that his writing acquires prestige from -the class wisdom whose rhythm he chants. The reader who<span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</span> -does not examine the thought too critically, but who recognizes -the rhythm, is satisfied with the writer's credentials -and bolts the whole piece. The reverence the average man -has for print is largely due to the hypnotizing effect of its -rhythm.</p> - -<p>What we find intolerable is the setting of the tune at the -start and the grinding it out to the end. In revenge the reading -world consigns the much-vaunted Sir Thomas Browne's<a id="FNanchor_131" href="#Footnote_131" class="fnanchor">[131]</a> -“Urn Burial,” De Quincey's “Levana,”<a id="FNanchor_132" href="#Footnote_132" class="fnanchor">[132]</a> and Pater's<a id="FNanchor_133" href="#Footnote_133" class="fnanchor">[133]</a> -famous purple patch about Mona Lisa to the rhetorical -museums; but it never ceases to read “Robinson Crusoe,”[8] -“Pilgrim's Progress,”[8] and “Gulliver's Travels,”<a id="FNanchor_134" href="#Footnote_134" class="fnanchor">[134]</a> and it -devours G. B. Shaw<a id="FNanchor_135" href="#Footnote_135" class="fnanchor">[135]</a> with delight.</p> - - -<h4>SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS</h4> - -<ol class="f"> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Explain just how prose rhythms aid in communicating thought.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Show that it is perfectly natural to adapt prose rhythm to -thought.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What honesty of style does the writer demand?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Why is an artificial rhythm unsuccessful?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Why is a continued rhythm unsuccessful?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What sort of prose rhythm does Dr. Lipsky advocate?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Point out figurative language in the essay? Why is it used? -What effect does it produce?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Point out conversational expressions in the essay. Why are -they used? What effects do they produce?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What advantage is gained by making references to various -authors?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Why does the writer quote from several authors?</li> -</ol> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</span></p> - - - -<h4>SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION</h4> - - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="his25"> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">1. Public Speaking</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">11. Stories in School Papers</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">2. Tone in Conversation</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">12. School Editorial Articles</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">3. Selling Goods</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">13. Written Translations</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">4. Style in Letter Writing</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">14. Laboratory Note Books</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">5. The Art of Advertising</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">15. The Sort of Novel I Like</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">6. Coaching a Team</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">16. Good Preaching</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">7. Style in Debating</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">17. Interesting Lectures</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">8. The Best Graduation Oration</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">18. Directions</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">9. Newspaper Articles</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">19. Good Teaching</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">10. School Compositions</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">20. Useful Text Books</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - -<h4>DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING</h4> - -<p class="p2">Think of a thesis, or statement, in which you believe strongly. -Explain, first of all, that it is entirely natural for any one to act in -accordance with your thesis. Illustrate your thought by making -definite references to well-known characteristics, and by making apt -quotations. End your work by writing a paragraph that will correspond -with the last paragraph of Dr. Lipsky's essay.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="footnotes"> -<p class="p2 center big2">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_127" href="#FNanchor_127" class="label">[127]</a> Thomas de Quincey (1785-1859). A celebrated English essayist, noted -for the poetic beauty of his prose style.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_128" href="#FNanchor_128" class="label">[128]</a> Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894). A great modern novelist and -essayist whose style has both vigor and beauty of rhythm.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_129" href="#FNanchor_129" class="label">[129]</a> William Dean Howells (1837-1920). A modern realistic novelist and -literary critic who wrote in a serene and quiet style.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_130" href="#FNanchor_130" class="label">[130]</a> Edward Gibbon (1737-1794). A great English historian, author of -<em>The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire</em>. His style is stately and -impressive, as befits a great subject.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_131" href="#FNanchor_131" class="label">[131]</a> Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682). A writer of essay-like books that -are notable because of unusual beauty of phrasing and rich suggestiveness -of expression.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_132" href="#FNanchor_132" class="label">[132]</a> <em>Levana.</em> One of the most poetic of Thomas De Quincey's essays.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_133" href="#FNanchor_133" class="label">[133]</a> Walter Pater (1839-1894). An English essayist noted for the richness -of his prose style.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_134" href="#FNanchor_134" class="label">[134]</a> <em>Robinson Crusoe</em>, by Daniel Defoe (1661-1731), and <em>Pilgrim's -Progress</em>, by John Bunyan (1628-1688), are both written in plain, -unaffected style.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_135" href="#FNanchor_135" class="label">[135]</a> George Bernard Shaw (1856—). A present-day dramatist and critic -who adapts his style to his thought.</p> - -</div> -</div> -</div> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</span></p> -<p class="p4 center big3">THE REALISTIC STORY</p> -</div> - -<h2 class="nobreak">THE CHINAMAN'S HEAD</h2> - -<p class="center big1">By WILLIAM ROSE BENÉT</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p2"><em>(1886). Formerly with</em> Century Magazine, <em>and at present -associate editor of</em> The Literary Review. <em>Contributor, particularly -of poems and humorous verse, to many magazines. -He is the author of</em> Merchants from Cathay; The Falconer of -God; The Great White Wall; The Burglar of the Zodiac; -Perpetual Light (<em>memorial</em>).</p> -</div> - -<div class="indent1 small1 bold"> - -<p class="p2">Humor depends upon incongruity, exaggeration, misunderstanding, -ignorance, the unexpected, and the use of the absurd in a thousand -different ways. Humor that is spontaneous is always most effective.</p> - -<p>A good humorous story is realistic, its humor apparently created from -within, by the characters, rather than from without, by the author.</p> - -<p><em>The Chinaman's Head</em> is an example of the simple, humorous story. -It gives sufficient character indication to support the incongruity, the -misunderstanding, and the unexpected on which the humor of the story -depends. The brevity of the story contributes to its effect.</p> -</div> - -<p class="p2">There must be oodles of money in it, I thought, and what -a delightful existence, just one complication after another. I -can imagine a beginning: “As he looked more nearly at the -round object in the middle of the sidewalk, he discovered that -it was the completely severed head of a Chinese laundryman.” -There you have it at once—mystery! Gripping! -Big! Large! In fact, immense! Then your story covers -twenty-five chapters, in which you unravel why it was a -Chinese laundryman and whose Chinese laundryman it was. -Excellent! I shall write mystery stories.</p> - -<p>I lit another cigarette and sat thinking of mystery. Did -you ever realize this about mystery? It gets more and more -mysterious the more you think of it. It was getting too -mysterious for me already. Just then my wife called me to -lunch.</p> - -<p>“Did you ever think, my dear,” I said affably as I unfolded -my napkin and the roll in it bounced to the floor.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</span> -They always do with me. It seems a rather cheap form of -amusement, putting rolls in napkins. “Did you ever think,” -I said, recovering the roll.</p> - -<p>“Oh, often,” said my wife.</p> - -<p>This somewhat disconcerted me.</p> - -<p>“I mean,” I said, accidentally ladling the cold consomme -into my tea-cup—“I mean, what would you do if you found -a Chinaman's head on the sidewalk?”</p> - -<p>“Step on it,” said my wife, promptly.</p> - -<p>It was quite unexpected.</p> - -<p>“I mean <em>seriously</em>,” I said, handing her my tea-cup, which -she refused.</p> - -<p>“I am quite serious,” said my wife; “but I wish you would -watch what you are doing.”</p> - -<p>I spent the next few minutes doing it.</p> - -<p>“I am thinking,” I said gravely over my cutlet, “of writing -mystery-stories.”</p> - -<p>“That will be quite harmless,” returned the woman I once -loved with passion.</p> - -<p>I ignored her tone.</p> - -<p>“The mystery-story,” I said, “is a money-maker. Look -at 'Sherlock Holmes,' and look at—well, look at 'Old and -Young King Brady'!”</p> - -<p>“All those dime novels are written by the same man,” said -my wife, unemotionally.</p> - -<p>“<em>Were</em>, my dear. I believe that man is dead now.”</p> - -<p>“Then it's his brother,” said my wife.</p> - -<p>“But I am not going to descend to the dime novel,” I -went on. “I am going to write the higher type of mystery-story. -My first story will concern the Oriental of whom I -have spoken. It will be called 'The Chinaman's Head.' -Don't you think it a good idea?”</p> - -<p>“But that isn't all of it?” the rainbow fancy of my lost -youth questioned, at the same time making a long arm for -the olives.</p> - -<p>“Of course not. There are innumerable complications. -They—er—they complicate—”</p> - -<p>“Such as?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</span></p> - -<p>“Of course,” I said, “I conceived this idea just before -lunch. I have had no time as yet to work out the mere -detail.”</p> - -<p>“Oh,” said my lifelong penance, chewing an end of celery.</p> - -<p>But after lunch I sat down at my desk and began to concentrate -upon my complications. I wrote down some names -of characters that occurred to me, and put them into a hat. -Then I took them out of the hat and wrote after them the -type of person that belonged to the name. Then I put them -into the hat again, shook the hat, and drew them out. This -is entirely my own invention in writing a mystery-story. The -first name that came out was that of “Rudolph Habakkuk, -soap manufacturer.”</p> - -<p>It was an excellent beginning. I was immediately interested -in the story. I began it at once.</p> - -<p>“'Ha!' exclaimed Rudolph Habakkuk, soap manufacturer, -starting violently at what he saw before him upon the broad -pavements of Fifth Avenue. The round, yellow object glistened -in the oblique rays of the afternoon sun. It was a -Chinaman's head!”</p> - -<p>I thought it excellent, pithy, precise. Scene, the whole -character of one of the principal figures in the story, the crux -of the mystery—all at a glance, as it were. And what more -revealing than that simple, yet complete, designation, soap -manufacturer! I couldn't resist going into the next room -and reading it to my wife. I said:</p> - -<p>“Doesn't it arouse your curiosity?”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” said my wife, biting off a thread. “But how did it -get there?”</p> - -<p>“What? The Chinaman's head? Oh, that is the mystery.”</p> - -<p>“I should say it was,” said my wife to herself.</p> - -<p>I left the begrudging woman and returned to my study. I -sat down to think about how it got there. I thought almost -an hour about how it got there. Do you know, it quite eluded -me? I took my hat and overcoat and went down the street to -talk to Theodore Rowe, who is an author of sorts.</p> - -<p>“Let's hear your plot,” said Theodore, giving me a cigarette -and a cocktail.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</span></p> - -<p>“Well,” I started off immediately, with decision, “you see, -this Rudolph Habakkuk is a wealthy soap manufacturer. On -Christmas day, when he is walking down Fifth Avenue, he is -arrested—”</p> - -<p>“Ah,” said Theodore. “Arson, or just for being a soap -manufacturer?”</p> - -<p>“I did not think <em>you</em> would interrupt,” I said solemnly. -“He is arrested by a Chinaman's head.”</p> - -<p>“Really,” said Theodore, “don't you think that's drawing -the long bow a bit? Is it 'Alice in Wonderland' or a ghost-story?”</p> - -<p>“He sees it on the pavement,” I pursued as well as I -could. “It is entirely cut off. I mean it is decapitated, you -know. The head is decapitated.”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” answered Theodore, slowly, “I see. It would be, -Heads get that way.”</p> - -<p>“Well,” I said, “what do you think of it?”</p> - -<p>“I haven't heard the story yet,” remarked Theodore.</p> - -<p>“Oh,” I replied a trifle impatiently, I am afraid. “But -that is the idea. The details are to be worked out later. -Don't you think it's a striking idea?”</p> - -<p>“I should say so,” said Theodore, rising; “almost too -striking. Have another cocktail. They're good for what -ails you.”</p> - -<p>“Thanks,” I said. “But, you see, the fact is I <em>have</em> got a -bit—er—perplexed about how to explain the appearance of -the head. Possibly you could suggest?”</p> - -<p>“We-ll,” said Theodore, pursing his lips in deep thought, -“let me see. Have you thought of the Chinaman being in a -manhole? Only his head showing, you know.” He turned -his back on me and drew out his handkerchief. He seemed -to have a very bad cold.</p> - -<p>“No,” I said emphatically, “this is a severed head.”</p> - -<p>“It might have been dropped from a ballooo—<em>achoo!</em>” -gargled Theodore, his back still turned.</p> - -<p>“Really, Theodore,” I said, rising, “thank you for the -drinks, but I must say your mind doesn't seem to fire to a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</span> -true mystery-story. I must have something better than that. -I shall have to find it.”</p> - -<p>As I was going down the front steps, Theodore opened the -door.</p> - -<p>“Oh, Tuffin,” he called after me, “how did he know it was -a Chinaman?”</p> - -<p>“By the queue wound round the neck,” I called back. It -was rather good for an impromptu, I think. “The man had -been murdered.”</p> - -<p>I then found myself colliding with a policeman. He -looked after me suspiciously.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>My wife reminded me that we were to dine at the Royles's -that night. As I dressed I was still turning over in my mind -the unlimited possibilities of my first mystery-story. I could -see the colored jackets of the book, the publisher's announcements, -other volumes in the same series, “The Musical -Fingerbowls,” “The Pink Emerald,” “The Green Samovar,” -“The Purple Umbrella.” Imagination flamed. My wife said -she had called me three times, but I know it was only once.</p> - -<p>I had expected it to be rather a dull dinner party, but -really Mrs. Revis quite brightened it for me. She was immediately -interested in my becoming an author, and she began -to talk about Dostoyevsky.</p> - -<p>“Well, you know—just at first,” I rejoined in modest -deprecation of my own talents.</p> - -<p>“And tell me your first story. What is it to be?” She -leaned toward me with large and shining eyes. I had a -moment of wishing the title were not quite so sensational.</p> - -<p>“It is to be called 'The Chinaman's Head,'” I said, hastening -to add, “You see, it is a very deep mystery-story.”</p> - -<p>“A-ah, mystery!” said Mrs. Revis, clasping her beautiful -hands and gazing upward. “I <em>adore</em> mystery!”</p> - -<p>“The plot is,” I said—“well, you see, there is a soap -manufacturer—”</p> - -<p>“A-ah, soup!” softly moaned Mrs. Revis, gazing at hers.</p> - -<p>“No; soap,” I said. “The soap manufacturer is walking -along Fifth Avenue—”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</span></p> - -<p>“They really shouldn't allow them,” exclaimed my confidante.</p> - -<p>“Yes, but he is—and—and he sees a Chinaman's head.”</p> - -<p>“Where?”</p> - -<p>“A-ah,” I said, “that is the touch—a severed head at his -feet!”</p> - -<p>Her dismay was pleasing. I had aroused her. She choked -over her soup.</p> - -<p>“Tell me more!” she gasped.</p> - -<p>“Certainly,” I said. “The—the way it got there—”</p> - -<p>What an infernal thing a mystery-story is! How should -I know how it got there! Isn't the effect enough? Some day -I shall write a story entirely composed of effects.</p> - -<p>As I drew our Ford up at our door, my wife suddenly -turned to me.</p> - -<p>“It isn't late, George, and Sam Lee is just down at the -corner. He should have brought the laundry this afternoon. -I entirely forgot about it, and to-morrow's Sunday.”</p> - -<p>“But surely they close up.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, no; he'll be open. Maida went for it two Saturdays -ago at about this time. They work all night, you know. -Please, George!”</p> - -<p>“Oh, all right,” I said resignedly. I jogged and pulled -things and ambled down the block. Sure enough, the laundry -was still lighted and doing business. It always smells of -lychee-nuts and bird's nest soup inside. The black-haired -yellow boy grinned at me. “How do!”</p> - -<p>I explained my errand and secured the large parcel. Suddenly -a thought occurred to me. The very thing! These -Orientals were full of subtlety. I would put it to him.</p> - -<p>“John,” I said impressively, “listen!” His name was -Sam, but I always call them John.</p> - -<p>He listened attentively, watching me with beady black -eyes.</p> - -<p>“John,” I said, “what would you do if your head—no; I -mean—what would you do if a soap manufacturer—no; perhaps -we had better get at it this way. If a Chinaman's head -was cut off—see what I mean?” I leaned forward and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</span> -indicated by an appropriate and time-honored gesture the -process of decapitation. John—I mean Sam—took two steps -hastily backward, and his eyes became pin-points. He jabbered -something at his friend in the rear room.</p> - -<p>“Now, John—I mean Sam,” I said mollifyingly, “don't -be foolish. Just come back nearer—”</p> - -<p>“That'll be all of that shenanigan,” said a very Irish -voice behind me. I turned, and saw the policeman with -whom I had so nearly collided that afternoon.</p> - -<p>“That'll be all, I say,” remarked Roundsman Reardon, as -I afterward found his name to be. “Sur-r, ain't yees -ashamed of yerself, scarin' the likes o' these Chinks into the -fright o' their shadow?” He leveled a large, pudgy finger -at me. “An' I hear-rd ye this afternoon. I seen ye an' I -hear-rd ye. An' ye may be thankful I know ye by repitation -to be har-rmless. But ye'll come with me quiet, an' I'll -escar-rt ye back to yer own house, an' leave the wife to put -ye to bed. Ain't ye ashamed to be drinkin' this way an' -makin' a sneak with the la'ndry without payin', by hopes of -frightenin'—”</p> - -<p>“That is not true,” I answered hotly, for my blood was up. -“I intend to pay. I had forgotten.”</p> - -<p>“Ye had forgotten,” said Reardon, a whit contemptuously. -“An' ye was askin' the China boy how he w'u'd like to be -murthered!”</p> - -<p>“I will explain to you, Officer,” I said in the street. “I -am writing a story. I was merely seeking a native impression.”</p> - -<p>“That'll be as it may be,” said Reardon. “Ye give me -the impression—”</p> - -<p>“Suppose you had <em>your</em> head cut off—” I began affably -enough. But I got no further.</p> - -<p>“It is as I thought,” said Reardon, gloomily. He got in -beside me, and he helped me out at my own house, though I -needed absolutely no assistance. He seemed to want to give -me a bit of advice.</p> - -<div class="figcenter illowp50 chapter" id="ilo_fp-234" style="max-width: 37.5em;"> - <img class="w100" src="images/ilo_fp-234.jpg" alt="ilop234" /> -<p class="right">(<em>page 234</em>)</p> - <p class="caption p1 center">“'A-ah, mystery!'” said Mrs. Revis, clasping her beautiful hands -and gazing upward. “'I adore mystery!'” </p> -</div> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="p1">“Lay off the stuff, sur-r,” he said ponderously. “An' ye -wid the fine wife you have!” He shook his head a number -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</span> -of times, glanced with sad resignation at my wife as she led -me in, and departed, still shaking his head. I can't tell you -how all that head-shaking annoyed me.</p> -</div> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>I started awake in the middle of the night. It was unbelievably -excellent.</p> - -<p>“Jane!” I said to my wife, “Jane, it's wonderful. It's -come to me!”</p> - -<p>But Jane did not answer.</p> - -<p>“Jane,” I said happily, “you see, the Chinaman's head—”</p> - -<p>“If you say Chinaman to me again,” returned my wife, -sleepily, “I'll leave you. There are six pieces missing from -that laundry.”</p> - -<p>And she never knew.</p> - - -<h4>SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS</h4> - -<ol class="f"> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What is the character of the speaker? How does the speaker's -personality contribute to the humor of the story?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What sort of story did he contemplate writing?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What is the character of the speaker's wife? How does her -personality contribute to the humor of the story?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What gives humor to Theodore's remarks?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Why is the incident of meeting the policeman mentioned early -in the story?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What gives humor to Mrs. Revis's remarks?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What misunderstandings give humor to the story?</li> -</ol> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h4>SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION</h4> -</div> - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="his26"> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">1. Adventures of an Amateur Detective</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">11. Conducting a Meeting</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">2. Going on My Travels</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">12. Making an Excuse</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">3. Reading Aloud at Home</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">13. Cooking Experiences</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">4. A Mysterious Package</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">14. Housecleaning</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">5. The Lost Dog</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">15. Buying a Dress</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">6. My Pet Snakes</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">16. Speaking a Foreign Language</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">7. Writing a Composition</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">17. My First Speech</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">8. Graduation</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">18. Little Brother</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">9. Being an Editor</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">19. Being Careful</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">10. Doing an Errand</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">20. My Letter Writing</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</span></p> - - -<h4>DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING</h4> - -<p class="p2">Found your story on some actual interest that you have. Write -in the first person, as realistically as possible. Do not over-use -exaggeration, but make your story unusual. You will gain the -best effects if you base your humor on natural misunderstanding, -and on remarks or events that are incongruous. Confine your story -to two or three principal incidents, and bring the narrative to a -natural conclusion that will give the effect of climax.</p> - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak">GETTING UP TO DATE</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center big1">By ROBERTA WAYNE</p> - - -<p class="p2 center small1"><em>An American short story writer and contributor to magazines.</em></p> - - -<div class="indent1 bold small1"> - -<p class="p2">A realistic story differs from a romantic story in that it concerns the -events of ordinary life. Its characters are the people whom we know,—those -who move about us in daily life. Its plot centers around everyday -events. Naturally a realistic story depends largely upon character -interest.</p> - -<p><em>Getting Up To Date</em> concerns such a simple thing as storekeeping, and -the methods of attracting customers. Job Lansing, in the story, represents -the type of person who clings to old ways. His niece, Ellie, -represents the spirit of youth and progress,—the spirit of adaptability.</p> - -<p>The simplicity and familiarity of such a story is just as interesting -as is wild adventure in the most vivid romance.</p> -</div> - - -<p class="p2">Old Job Lansing stood, hatchet in hand, and stared down -into the big packing-case that he had just opened.</p> - -<p>“El-lee,” he called, “come here quick.” And as footsteps -were heard and the shutting of a door, he continued: -“They've sent the wrong stuff. This isn't what we ordered!”</p> - -<p>The girl buried her head in the box from which she brought -forth bolt after bolt of dress goods, voiles with gay colors, -dainty organdies, and ginghams in pretty checks and plaids. -As she rose, her eyes glowed and instinctively she straightened -her shoulders. “Yes, Uncle, it is what we ordered. I -sent for this!”</p> - -<p>“You <em>did</em>!” The old man trembled with rage.</p> - -<p>“But, Uncle, they're so pretty and I think—”</p> - -<p>“You can think and think as much as you please, but those -goods will never sell. They'll just lie on the shelves. <em>You</em> -may think they're pretty, but an Injin won't buy a yard of -'em, and it's Injins we're trading with.”</p> - -<p>“But there's no reason why the squaws shouldn't buy<span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</span> -pretty dresses instead of ugly calico. There's more money -in this, and it's a pleasure to sell such dainty stuff. Besides, -we can sell to the white people. There's Mrs. Matthews—”</p> - -<p>“I've heard all your arguments before, and I tell you, -you'll never sell it.”</p> - -<p>Old Job had never married. For many years he had lived -alone in the rooms behind his store, and he had become self-centered -and a bit fussy and intolerant. If he had realized -how much his life was to be upset, he could never have -brought himself to offer his widowed sister and her family -a home; for he valued his quiet life, and, above all, he wanted -to do things in his own way.</p> - -<p>He was never at ease with the two nephews, who soon left -to make their own way in the world.</p> - -<p>But with Ellie it was different. Her affectionate ways -won Job's heart. They were chums, often going together on -long horseback rides to distant peaks that looked inviting. -And as the girl developed, he loved to have her with him as -he worked and he was delighted at her interest in everything -in the little store. She even learned the prices of the goods -and helped him.</p> - -<p>Old Job had kept this store at the “summit” for thirty -years, and he was sure he knew every side of the business. -As long as he kept a good supply of beans and flour, that -was all that was necessary. A good-sized Indian village lay -down the creek about a mile, and it was from this settlement -that Job Lansing got most of his trade.</p> - -<p>The old man had come to the age when he lived mostly in -the past. He liked to talk of the “glorious” days. “Things -were lively around here then,” he used to say. “Why, for -every dollar's worth I sell now, then I used to sell fifty -dollars. They were the good old times!”</p> - -<p>“But why?” questioned Ellie, bringing him sharply back -to the present. “There are a lot more people here now and -we should do better.” Then, with a gesture of impatience, -“Uncle, there's no sense in it. We've got to get up to date. -I don't blame Joe and Glenn for leaving. There's no future -here.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</span></p> - -<p>“Shucks!” said Job Lansing. “You don't know what -you're talking about.”</p> - -<p>But Ellie always managed to have the last word. “I'm -going to do <em>something</em>! See if I don't!”</p> - -<p>And she had done it!</p> - -<p>For weeks, now, Job Lansing had been quite pleased with -her. She had never been so reasonable. She had taken a -great notion to cleaning up the store. Not that he approved -of her moving the goods around; but still, it was a woman's -way to be everlastingly fussing about with a dust-cloth. You -couldn't change them.</p> - -<p>He had decided that this new interest on Ellie's part came -from the feeling of responsibility he had put upon her two -months before when he had been called to Monmouth. His -old mining partner was ill and wanted to see him. Before he -went he gave his niece a few directions and told her how to -make up the order for goods, that had to go out the next day. -He rode away feeling that the business would be all right in -her hands.</p> - -<p>Now, as he stormed around the store, he realized why she -had taken such an interest in the arrangement of the shelf -space; why a gap had been left in a prominent place. It -was for this silly stuff that wouldn't sell! He wanted to -send it back, but, as it had been ordered, he would have to -pay express on it both ways.</p> - -<p>Ellie stood her ground, a determined expression in her -face. She unpacked the heavy box and put the gay organdies -and voiles in the places she had arranged for them. One -piece, of a delicate gray with small, bright, magenta flowers -in it, she left on the counter; and to the astonishment of the -old man, she let a length of the dainty goods fall in graceful -folds over a box placed beneath it.</p> - -<p>This was one of the notions she had brought back from -Phœnix, where she had gone on a spring shopping trip with -Mrs. Matthews, wife of the superintendent at the Golden -Glow mine. How she had enjoyed that day! Her eager eyes -noted every up-to-date detail in the big stores where they -shopped; but to her surprise, Mrs. Matthews had bought only<span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</span> -such things as they might easily have carried in her uncle's -store—plain, but pretty, ginghams for the Matthews' children, -a light-blue organdie for herself, a box of writing-paper, and -a string of beads for Julie's birthday.</p> - -<p>Ellie's pretty little head was at once filled with ideas that -coaxed for a chance to become solid facts. Her uncle's trip -to Monmouth gave her an opportunity, and, after weeks of -waiting, the boxes had been delivered and the storm had -broken.</p> - -<p>When they closed the store for the night, Ellie was tired. -She was not so sure of success as she had been. But, at least, -she had made an effort to improve things. How she longed -for her mother, absent on a two months' visit to one of her -sons!</p> - -<p>With the morning came new courage, even exhilaration, -for unconsciously she was finding joy in the struggle; not -as a diversion in the monotony and loneliness of her life, for -Ellie did not know what monotony meant, and she felt herself -rich in friends. She had two.</p> - -<p>One was Louise Prescott at Skyboro, only ten miles away, -daughter of a wealthy ranchman. They often visited each -other, for each had her own pony and was free to come and -go as she wished. And the other was Juanita Mercy, down -the cañon in the opposite direction. Now, for the last two -years, Louise had been away at school. But she was always -thrilled at getting back to the mountains. She had returned -the day before, and Ellie knew that early the next morning -she would be loping her pony over the steep road that led to -the little mountain store.</p> - -<p>And it was when Ellie was standing guard over her new -goods, fearing that her uncle might, in a moment of anger, -order them to be sent back, that Louise rode up, and, throwing -her reins forward over her pony's neck, leaped from the -saddle and rushed into the store.</p> - -<p>“Oh, Ellie! it's good to get back, and I have four months -of vacation. Won't we have a grand time!—Why, you've -been fixing up the store, Mr. Lansing; and how lovely it looks! -I must have Mama come up and see these pretty summer<span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</span> -things.” Turning again to Ellie, she threw her arms around -her and whispered: “Come on out and sit on our dear old -bluff. I just can't get enough of the hills to-day, and I want -to talk and talk and talk.”</p> - -<p>But it was not Louise who did the talking this time. While -her eyes were feasting on the gorgeous scenery before her, the -dim trails that led up and up the steep mountain on the other -side of the creek, Ellie unburdened herself of her troubles. -She told how she had ordered the goods on her own responsibility.</p> - -<p>“Why, Ellie, how could you do it? I'd never have had -the courage!”</p> - -<p>“But I just <em>had</em> to, Lou. I don't want to leave the mountains, -and I don't want to be poor all our lives. Uncle's -getting old and set in his ways, and he can't seem to see that -things are going behind all the time. Dear old uncle! He's -been so good to us! And now I'd like to help him. I'm just -trying to save him from himself.”</p> - -<p>“And you will. I think it's fine!”</p> - -<p>“Yes, it's fine, if—if—if!” exploded Ellie, who was not -quite so optimistic as she had been in the morning. Several -Indian women had come into the store, and while they stared -in astonishment at the pretty goods displayed on the counter, -they had gone out without buying anything.</p> - -<p>Job Lansing had shrugged his shoulders, and while not a -word had escaped him, his manner had said emphatically, -“I told you so!”</p> - -<p>“But where is there any <em>if</em>, I'd like to know. You just -have to sell all that stuff as fast as you can, and that will -show him.”</p> - -<p>“But if the squaws won't buy? They didn't seem wild -about it this morning.”</p> - -<p>“Well, you're not dependent on the squaws, I should hope. -I'm going to tell Mother, and she'll come up, if I say so, -and buy a lot of dresses.”</p> - -<p>“Now, Lou Prescott, don't you dare! That will spoil -everything. Uncle would say it was charity. You see <em>we</em> -are trading with squaws. Don't laugh, Louise! I must make<span class="pagenum" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</span> -good! I just <em>must</em>! But how am I going to make those -squaws buy what I want them to buy? If Uncle would only -plan and work with me, I know we could make a success of it. -But he won't!”</p> - -<p>“You should have invested in beads, reds and blues and -greens, all colors, bright as you could get them.”</p> - -<p>“That's a good idea, Lou. I'll do it. But they can't buy -a string of beads without buying a dress to match it! I'll -do it, Lou Prescott!”</p> - -<p>An hour later, when they returned to the store, Job Lansing -looked up from the counter, his face wrathful. He had -just measured off six yards of pink organdie and was doing -it up in a package for Joe Hoan's daughter. Job Lansing -hated to give in. He had tried to get Lillie Hoan to wait -until Ellie returned, but she had insisted, and so the old man -was the first to sell a piece of the pretty goods. He did it -ungraciously.</p> - -<p>Ellie and Louise stood still and stared at each other. Then -Ellie whispered: “It's a good omen. I'm going to succeed.”</p> - -<p>And that night a second order was dispatched. Job -Lansing made no objection, but he did not ask her what she -had sent for.</p> - -<p>The next two days were busy ones for Ellie. Her uncle -fretted to himself, for not once did she come inside the store -to help him. Louise came each day, and the two girls spent -their time in Ellie's room, where the rattling sound of the -old sewing-machine could be heard.</p> - -<p>But on the third day Ellie was up early and was already -dusting out the store when her uncle entered. It was Saturday, -always a busy day. This pleased Job Lansing. “That -girl has a pile of good sense along with this other nonsense,” -he said to himself as he watched her.</p> - -<p>About nine o'clock Louise arrived and entered quickly, -throwing down a square package. “Here they are, Ell. He -brought them last night. I came right over with them, but -I have to hurry back. They are beauties, all right.”</p> - -<p>The girls disappeared once more into the bedroom, where -they could be heard laughing and exclaiming.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</span></p> - -<p>When Ellie emerged no one would have known her, for -the little cowboy girl was dressed in a dainty voile with -pink blossoms in it, and around her neck was a long string -of pink beads that matched perfectly the flowers in her -gown.</p> - -<p>Job Lansing started as if he were going to speak, then -suppressed the words and went on with his work. Ellie tried -to act as if everything was the same as usual. Selecting some -blues and pinks and greens among her ginghams and voiles, -she draped them over boxes and tubs. Then across each piece -she laid a string of beads that matched or contrasted well with -the colors in the material, and waited for results.</p> - -<p>And the result was that when Joe Phinney's wife, the -squaw who helped them in the kitchen, came in with the -intention of buying beans and flour, she took a long look, first -at Ellie, then at the exhibit, and without a word turned and -left. She did not hurry, but she walked straight back to the -Indian village.</p> - -<p>“Guess she was frightened,” commented Job.</p> - -<p>Ellie was disappointed. She had depended on old Mary, -and it was through her that she hoped to induce the other -squaws to come. Some of them had never been in the store. -They were shy, and left their men to do the buying.</p> - -<p>Their sole visitor for the next hour was Phil Jennings, the -stage-driver, who stopped in for the mail. “Well, well, -what's all this about! Are you trying to outshine the stores -in town, Miss Ellie? And how pretty you look this morning.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, Mr. Jennings. We're going to have a fine store -here by this time next year. Uncle's thinking of enlarging -it and putting in an up-to-date stock. On your way down, -you might pass the word along that our summer goods are -in and that I have some beautiful pieces here for dresses, -just as good as can be bought in Tucson or Phœnix. It's -easier than sending away to Chicago.”</p> - -<p>“Well, I sure will, Miss Ellie. Mother was growling the -other day because she would have to go to Monmouth to buy -ginghams for the kids.”</p> - -<p>“Please tell her that next week I'm expecting some ready-made<span class="pagenum" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</span> -clothes for children, and it will pay her to come up and -see them.”</p> - -<p>“I'll tell her,” said Phil Jennings, as he cracked his whip -and started off. All he could talk about that day was “that -clever little girl of Job Lansing's” who was going to make -a real store at the summit and keep the mountain trade where -it belonged.</p> - -<p>“Where are you, Uncle?” called Ellie, as she came back -into the store.</p> - -<p>“I'm hiding!” said Job. “Ashamed to be seen. Enlarge -the store! It's more than likely I'll have to mortgage it. -And you drumming up trade that way. It isn't ladylike.”</p> - -<p>“Well, it simply has to be done. He'll give us some good -advertising down the road to-day. I wish there was some one -I could send down the creek. I wonder if you couldn't ride -down, yourself.”</p> - -<p>But Job Lansing pretended not to hear.</p> - -<p>Ellie did not feel as brave as her words indicated. She -knew that their trade from day to day came from the Indian -settlement, and looked disconsolately out of the window. But -in a moment she gave an exclamation of joy and found herself -shaking her uncle's arm. “Here they come, Uncle, dear! -Here they come!”</p> - -<p>“Who? What are you talking about?”</p> - -<p>“The squaws! They're here in full force. Mary, the old -darling, she's brought the whole tribe, I do believe!”</p> - -<p>Ellie busied herself at the counter, trying to appear at ease -when the Indian women filed into the store and stood gazing -about them. She was impatient to know if they were pleased, -but their impassive faces told nothing. She would just have -to let them take their time. So she pretended not to notice -them as they drew near to the counter, fingering the beads -and dress-goods.</p> - -<p>“How do you like my new dress, Mary?” Ellie turned on -them suddenly. The squaws approached slowly and began -to feel the cloth. Mary took hold of the beads and said, -“Uh!” Then in a moment, “How much?”</p> - -<p>Ellie's impulse was to throw her arms around Mary and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</span> -hug her, but she was very dignified and grown-up as she -answered calmly: “We don't sell the beads. They are not -for sale!”</p> - -<p>“Well of all things! Not for sale!” muttered Job, as he -slipped through the rear door into the store-room and -slammed it vehemently.</p> - -<p>“They are not for sale, but we give a string of them to -any one who buys a dress.”</p> - -<p>Five of the squaws bought dresses, and each time a long -string of beads was passed over.</p> - -<p>In the afternoon, Ellie's watchful eyes caught the first -glimpse of them as the same squaws, accompanied by others, -rounded the curve in the path and came single file up the -steep short-cut to the store.</p> - -<p>Ellie counted her profits that night and was satisfied. Still, -there were some twenty or twenty-five squaws in the settlement -who had never been inside the store, and she made up -her mind that they must be persuaded to come.</p> - -<p>The next week a large packing-case arrived. Ellie was the -one to wield the hatchet this time, for her uncle was still in -an ungracious mood. The box was larger than she expected, -but this was explained when it was opened. Two large dolls -were inside—one with curly short hair and boyish face, and -the other a real “girly” doll. A letter explained that with -an order for children's ready-to-wear clothes it might be an -advantage to have dolls on which to display them.</p> - -<p>“I wonder!” said Ellie, to herself. “Look here, Uncle,” -she called, as the old man came into the store; “see what -they've sent me! Look at these pink and white dolls, when -we're trading with Indians. Isn't it a joke?”</p> - -<p>“A coat of brown paint is what you want,” said old Job, -laughing a cynical laugh.</p> - -<p>“You've hit it, Uncle! You certainly have dandy ideas! -I shouldn't have thought of it.”</p> - -<p>Then in a moment he heard her at the telephone giving a -number. It was the Prescott ranch. “Hello, is that you, -Louise? Can you come up to-day? I need you. All right. -And Lou, bring your oil paints. It's very important.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</span></p> - -<p>It was with much giggling and chattering that the two -girls began their transformation of the pink-and-white dolls. -Their bisque faces were given a thin coating of brown paint. -The old man watched them from across the store and almost -gasped as he saw them rip off the wigs. Then they retreated -to the kitchen. He was so curious that he made several trips -to the door and peeked through a crack.</p> - -<p>What he saw was the two girls bending over a pot on the -stove, which they were stirring furiously. Once in a while -Ellie raised the stick with something black on the end, and -finally the two dripping dolls' wigs were hung over the stove -to dry. Of course the boiling had taken all the curl out of -the hair, but that was what they wanted, for the two dolls -were now brown-faced, dark-haired figures. They were arrayed -in the ready-to-wear clothes, and the girls stood back -to survey them.</p> - -<p>“They look fine, Ellie! That is, yours does; but my girl -here doesn't look quite right.”</p> - -<p>Job Lansing was pretending to be busy. He turned and -at once broke into a roar of laughter. “Well, when did you -ever see a blue-eyed Injin?”</p> - -<p>“Oh that's it, Ellie. Your doll had brown eyes, but mine -are blue. What shall we do? It looks silly this way.”</p> - -<p>“Paint 'em black!” chuckled the old man.</p> - -<p>“Of course!” said Ellie. Then in a tone loud enough to -carry across the store, “Isn't Uncle quick to notice things?” -Ellie meant him to hear what she said, but she was none the -less sincere, for she did have a high regard for her uncle's -ability. She had said to Louise often in the last few days, -“When I get Uncle started, there'll be no stopping him.” -Still, the remark had been sent forth with a purpose.</p> - -<p>Job Lansing gave the girl a quick glance. She was daubing -brown paint on the girl-doll's eyes. He was pleased by her -praise and no less by her readiness to take his advice.</p> - -<p>The little dresses and suits sold quickly. Mrs. Matthews -bought a supply, and told others about them.</p> - -<div class="figcenter illowp70 chapter" id="ilo_fp-250" style="max-width: 36.875em;"> - <img class="w100" src="images/ilo_fp-250.jpg" alt="ilop250" /> -<p class="right">(<em>page 250</em>)</p> - <p class="caption center p1">“'Isn't this great! They're here, every one of them! You're -awfully good to let us use the phonograph'.” </p> -</div> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="p1">But they were mostly white women who purchased these -things; and while Ellie was glad to get their trade, she still -had the fixed idea that she must get the squaws in the habit - of coming in to do their own shopping.</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</span></p> - -<p>The quick sale of the new goods made a deep impression -on Job Lansing, and he seemed especially pleased at the sales -made to the white women at the mines. One morning he approached -his niece with the suggestion that she had better -keep her eyes open and find out what the women around the -mountains needed. Ellie had been doing this for weeks. She -had a big list made out already, but she saw no need of telling -her uncle. She looked up, her face beaming.</p> - -<p>“That's a capital idea, Uncle. I think we might just as -well sell them all their supplies.” Ellie was exultant. She -knew her troubles were over, that her plan was working out.</p> - -<p>Still, she wasn't quite satisfied. A few of the shy squaws -had been induced to come up and look at things from the -outside, peering into the shop through the door and windows. -But there were probably twenty who had not been in the -store. If only she could persuade them to come once, there -would be no more trouble.</p> - -<p>The final stroke which brought the Indians, both men and -women, into the store was a bit of good luck. Ellie called it -a miracle.</p> - -<p>It was after a very heavy rain-storm in the mountains that -Jennings, the stage-driver, shouted to her one evening: “Do -you mind if I leave a big box here for young Creighton over -at the Scotia mine? The road's all washed out by Camp 3, -and I don't dare take this any farther. It's one of those -phonygrafts that makes music, you know. And say, Miss -Ellie, will you telephone him that it's here?”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” answered Ellie in an absent-minded way. “I'll -telephone him. She was still half dreaming as she heard -young Creighton's voice at the other end of the line, but at -once she became eager and alert. “I want to ask a favor of -you, Mr. Creighton? Your phonograph is here. They can't -take it up on account of the washout. May I open it and -play on it. I'll make sure that it is boxed up again carefully.”</p> - -<p>“Why, certainly, Miss Ellie! I'll be glad to have you<span class="pagenum" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</span> -enjoy the music. The records and everything are in the box. -Perhaps I'll come over and hear it myself.”</p> - -<p>The next evening, about eight o'clock, Will Creighton arrived -on horseback, and found such a throng of Indians close -about the door that he had to go in by the kitchen. He heard -the strains of the phonograph music and had no need to ask -the cause of the excitement. All the squaws were inside the -store. Occasionally one would extend a hand and touch the -case or peer into the dark box, trying to discover where the -sound came from.</p> - -<p>Creighton approached Ellie, who was changing a needle. -She turned her flushed face to him with a smile. “Isn't this -great! They're here, every one of them! You're awfully -good to let us use the phonograph. I've ordered one like it -for ourselves. These blessed squaws do enjoy music so -much!”</p> - -<p>Job Lansing was standing near the machine, enjoying it -as much as any one. A new record had been put on, the -needle adjusted, and the music issued forth from that mysterious -box. It was one of those college songs, a “laughing” -piece. And soon old Job was doubled over, with his enjoyment -of it. The squaws drew closer together. At first they -scowled, for they thought that the queer creature in the -polished case was laughing at <em>them</em>. Then one began to -giggle, and soon another and finally the store was filled with -hysterical merriment. Sometimes it would stop for a moment, -and then, as the sounds from the phonograph could be -heard, it would break forth again.</p> - -<p>Ellie stood for hours, playing every record four or five -times, and when she finally shut up the box, as a sign that -the concert was over, the taciturn Indians filed silently out -of the store and went home without a word.</p> - -<p>But the girl knew that they would return. She had won!</p> - -<p>Another triumph was hers when the springtime came -again. One day her uncle approached her and hesitatingly -said, “Ellie, we're going to be awfully cramped when our -new summer goods arrive. Guess I'd better have Hoan ride -over and give me an estimate on an addition to the store.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</span></p> - -<p>Ellie suppressed the desire to cry out, “I told you so!” -Instead she said very calmly: “Why, that's a fine idea, Uncle. -Business <em>is</em> picking up, and it would be nice to have more -room. I'm glad you thought of it.”</p> - - -<h4>SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS</h4> - -<ol class="f"> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Why does the story begin so abruptly?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What is the character of Job Lansing?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What is the character of Ellie?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> How does the author explain that Ellie has views that do not -harmonize with her uncle's views?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What advantage does the author gain from the setting of the -story?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> How does the author make the story seem real?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Why did the author introduce subordinate characters?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Divide the story into its component incidents.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> At what point is the reader's interest greatest?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> At what point is Ellie's success certain?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Which incident has the greatest emphasis?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> How does the author make Ellie the principal character?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What is the effect of the quick conclusion?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> How does the author make use of conversation as a means of -telling events?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> On what one idea is the story founded?</li> -</ol> - - -<h4>SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION</h4> - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="his27"> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">1. Re-Arranging the House</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">11. Our Piazza</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">2. Fixing Up the Office</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">12. The Flower Garden</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">3. Increasing Sales</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">13. Selling Hats</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">4. The New Clerk</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">14. Building Up Trade</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">5. The Old Store Made New</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">15. Father's Desk</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">6. Our Dooryard</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">16. Making Study Easy</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">7. A Back-Yard Garden</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">17. Making a Happy Kitchen</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">8. Making Over the Library</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">18. A Successful Charity Fair</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">9. Father's Stable</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">19. The Window Dresser</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">10. Decorating the School Room</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">20. A Good Advertisement</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</span></p> - - -<h4>DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING</h4> - -<p class="p2">Write about a subject with which you are familiar, and with -which your readers are familiar. Make your principal character a -young person. Make your story concern the contrast of two -methods of accomplishment, one of which will represent the old -and least successful method; the other, the new and more successful. -Write a series of three or four briefly told incidents that will lead -to a climax. Make free use of conversation. Notice that the author -of <em>Getting Up to Date</em> has left out much that might have been said, -and has thereby made the story crisp and emphatic. Make your -own story condensed and to the point. Pay particular attention to -writing a strong ending.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak">THE LION AND THE MOUSE</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center big1">By JOSEPH B. AMES</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p2"><em>(1878-). An American engineer and author. After his -graduation from Stevens Institute Mr. Ames at first devoted -himself entirely to engineering. He has been prominent in -promoting the work of the Boy Scouts. Among his books are -the following:</em> The Mystery of Ram Island; Curly of the Circle -Bar; Curly and the Aztec Gold; Pete the Cowpuncher; Under -Boy Scout Colors; Shoe-Bar Stratton; The Emerald Buddha.</p> -</div> - -<div class="indent1 small1 bold"> - -<p class="p2">Realism and romance may be combined in a story of school life as -well as in a story of any other kind. <em>The Lion and the Mouse</em> tells, in -part, of ordinary, everyday events, and in part, of events that are -distinctly out of the ordinary. The characters are the characters of -school life,—two boys of entirely different natures but, after all, one -at heart,—and subordinate characters who belong in the realm of real -life. Many of the events of the story are commonplace enough. On -this basis of reality there has been founded a story of quick event, a -story of the unusual, entirely probable, centering around character and -character development.</p> -</div> - - -<p class="p2">Big Bill Hedges scowled out of the locker-room window -and groaned softly. There was something about that wide, -unbroken sweep of snow which affected him disagreeably. If -only it had been crisscrossed by footprints, or the tracks of -snow-shoes or toboggans, he wouldn't have minded it nearly -so much. But there it lay, flat, white, untrodden, drifting -over low walls and turning the clumps of shrubbery into -shapeless mounds. And of a sudden he found himself hating -it almost as much as the dead silence of the endless, empty -rooms about him. For it was the fourth day of the Christmas -vacation, and, save the kitchen staff, there were only two other -human beings in this whole great barracks of a place.</p> - -<p>“And neither of them is really human,” grunted Hedges, -turning restlessly from the window.</p> - -<p>With a disgusted snort he recalled the behavior of those -two, whom so far he had met only at meal-time. Mr. Wilson,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</span> -the tutor left in charge of the school, consumed his food in a -preoccupied sort of daze, rousing himself at rare intervals -to make some plainly perfunctory remark. He was writing -some article or other for the magazines, and it was all too -evident that the subject filled his waking hours. And “Plug” -Seabury, with his everlasting book propped up against a -tumbler, was even worse. But then Hedges had never expected -anything from him.</p> - -<p>Crossing to his locker, the boy pulled out a heavy sweater, -stared at it dubiously for a moment, and then let it dangle -from his relaxed fingers. For once the thought of violent -physical exertion in the open failed to arouse the least enthusiasm. -Ever since the departure of the fellows, he had -skeed and snow-shoed and tramped through the drifts—alone; -and now the monotony was getting on his nerves. He -flung the sweater back, and, slamming the locker door, strolled -aimlessly out of the room.</p> - -<p>One peep into the cold, lofty, empty “gym” effectually -quelled his half-formed notion of putting in an hour or two on -the parallel bars. “I'm lonesome!” he growled; “just—plumb—lonesome! -It's the first time I've ever wished I -didn't live in Arizona.”</p> - -<p>But the thought of home and Christmas cheer and all the -other vanished holiday delights was not one to dwell on now; -he tried instead to appreciate how absurd it would have been -to spend eight of his twelve holidays on the train.</p> - -<p>A little further dawdling ended in his turning toward the -library. He was not in the least fond of reading. Life -ordinarily, with its constant succession of outdoor and indoor -sports and games, was much too full to think of wasting time -with a book unless one had to. But the thought occurred to -him that to-day it might be a shade better than doing absolutely -nothing.</p> - -<p>Opening the door of the long, low-ceiled, book-lined room, -which he had expected to find as desolately empty as the rest, -he paused in surprise. On the brick hearth a log fire burned -cheerfully, and curled up in an easy chair close to the hearth, -was the slight figure of Paul Seabury.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</span></p> - -<p>“Hello!” said Hedges, gruffly, when he had recovered from -his surprise. “You've sure made yourself comfortable.”</p> - -<p>Seabury gave a start and raised his head. For a moment -his look was veiled, abstracted, as if his mind still lingered -on the book lying open in his lap. Then recognition slowly -dawned, and a faint flush crept into his face.</p> - -<p>“The—the wood was here, and I—I didn't think there'd -be any harm in lighting it,” he said, thrusting back a straggling -lock of brown hair.</p> - -<p>“I don't s'pose there is,” returned Hedges, shortly. Unconsciously, -he was a little annoyed that Seabury should seem -so comfortable and content. “I thought you were upstairs.”</p> - -<p>He dragged a chair to the other side of the hearth and -plumped down in it. “What you reading?” he asked.</p> - -<p>Seabury's eyes brightened. “Treasure Island,” he answered -eagerly. “It's awfully exciting. I've just got to -the place where—”</p> - -<p>“Never read it,” interrupted the big fellow, indifferently. -Lounging back against the leather cushions, he surveyed the -slim, brown-eyed, rather pale-faced boy with a sort of contemptuous -curiosity. “Do you read <em>all</em> the time?” he asked.</p> - -<p>Again the blood crept up into Seabury's thin face and his -lids drooped. “Why, no—not all the time,” he answered -slowly. “But—but just now there's nothing else to do.”</p> - -<p>Hedges grunted. “Nothing else to do! Gee-whiz! Don't -you ever feel like going for a tramp or something? I s'pose -you can't snow-shoe, or skee, but I shouldn't think you'd -want to stay cooped up in the house all the time.”</p> - -<p>A faint, nervous smile curved the boy's sensitive lips. “Oh, -I can skee and snow-shoe all right, but—” He paused, -noticing the incredulous expression which Hedges was at no -pains to hide. “Everybody does, where I live in Canada,” -he explained, “often it's the only way to get about.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I see.” Hedges' tone was no longer curt, and a -sudden look of interest had flashed into his eyes. “But don't -you <em>like</em> it? Doesn't this snow make you want to go out and -try some stunts?”</p> - -<p>Seabury glanced sidewise through the casement windows<span class="pagenum" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</span> -at the sloping, drifted field beyond. “N—no, I can't say it -does,” he confessed hesitatingly; “it's such a beastly, rotten -day.”</p> - -<p>His interest in Plug's unexpected accomplishments made -Hedges forbear to comment scornfully on such weakness.</p> - -<p>“Rotten!” he repeated. “Why, it's not bad at all. It's -stopped snowing.”</p> - -<p>“I know; but it looks as if it would start in again any -minute.”</p> - -<p>“Shucks!” sniffed Hedges. “A little snow won't hurt you. -Come ahead out and let's see what you can do.”</p> - -<p>Seabury hesitated, glancing with a shiver at the cold, white -field outside and back to the cheerful fire. He did not feel -at all inclined to leave his comfortable chair and this enthralling -book. On the other hand, he was curiously unwilling -to merit Bill Hedges' disapproval. From the first -he had regarded this big, strong, dominating fellow with a -secret admiration and shy liking which held in it no touch -of envy or desire for emulation. It was the sort of admiration -he felt for certain heroes in his favorite books. When -Hedges made some spectacular play on the gridiron or pulled -off an especially thrilling stunt on the hockey-rink, Seabury, -watching inconspicuously from the side-lines, got all hot and -cold and breathlessly excited. But he was quite content that -Hedges should be doing it and not himself. Sometimes, to be -sure, he wondered what it would be like to have such a person -for a friend. But until this moment Hedges had scarcely -seemed aware of his existence, and Seabury was much too -shy to make advances, even when the common misfortune of -too-distant homes had thrown them together in the isolation -of the empty school.</p> - -<p>“I—I haven't any skees,” he said at length.</p> - -<p>Hedges sprang briskly to his feet. “That's nothing. I'll -fix you up. We can borrow Marston's. Come ahead.”</p> - -<p>Swept along by his enthusiasm, Seabury closed his book -and followed him out into the corridor and down to the locker -room. Here they got out sweaters, woolen gloves and caps, -and Hedges calmly appropriated the absent Marston's skees.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</span></p> - -<p>Emerging finally into the open, Seabury shivered a little as -the keen, searching wind struck him. It came from the -northeast, and there was a chill, penetrating quality about it -which promised more snow, and that soon. By the time -Seabury had adjusted the leather harness to his feet and -resumed his gloves, his fingers were blue and he needed no -urging to set off at a swift pace.</p> - -<p>In saying that he could skee, the boy had not exaggerated. -He was, in fact, so perfectly at home upon the long, smooth, -curved-up strips of ash, that he moved with the effortless ease -and grace of one scarcely conscious of his means of locomotion. -Watching him closely, Hedges' expression of critical -appraisement changed swiftly to one of unqualified approval.</p> - -<p>“You're not <em>much</em> good on them, are you?” he commented. -“I suppose you can jump any old distance and do all sorts of -fancy stunts.”</p> - -<p>Seabury laughed. He was warm again and beginning to -find an unwonted pleasure in the swift, gliding motion and -the tingling rush of frosty air against his face.</p> - -<p>“Nothing like that at all,” he answered. “I can jump -some, of course, but I'm really not much good at anything -except just straight-away going.”</p> - -<p>“Huh!” grunted Hedges, sceptically. “I'll bet you could -run circles around any of the fellows here. Well, what do -you say to taking a little tramp. I've knocked around the -grounds till I'm sick of them. Let's go up Hogan Hill,” -he added, with a burst of inspiration.</p> - -<p>Seabury promptly agreed, though inwardly he was not -altogether thrilled at the prospect of such a climb. Hogan -Hill rose steeply back of the school. A few hay-fields ranged -along its lower level, but above them the timber growth was -fairly thick, and Paul knew from experience that skeeing on -a wooded slope was far from easy.</p> - -<p>As it turned out, Hedges had no intention of tackling the -steep slope directly. He knew of an old wood-road which led -nearly to the summit by more leisurely twists and curves, and -it was his idea that they take this as far as it went and then -skee down its open, winding length.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</span></p> - -<p>By the time they were half-way up, Seabury was pretty -well blown. It was the first time he had been on skees in -nearly a year, and his muscles were soft from general lack -of exercise. He made no complaint, however, and presently -Hedges himself proposed a rest.</p> - -<p>“I wish I could handle the things as easily as you do,” he -commented. “I work so almighty hard that I get all in a -sweat, while you just glide along as if you were on skates.”</p> - -<p>“I may glide, but I haven't any wind left,” confessed -Seabury. “It's only practice you know. I've used them -ever since I was a little kid, and compared to some of the -fellows up home, I'm nowhere. Do you think we ought to -go any farther? I felt some snow on my face just then.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, sure!” said Hedges, bluffly. “A little snow won't -hurt us, anyhow, and we can skee down in no time at all. -Let's not go back just yet.”</p> - -<p>Presently they started on again, and though Seabury kept -silent, he was far from comfortable in his mind. He had had -more than one unpleasant experience with sudden winter -storms. It seemed to him wiser to turn back at once, but he -was afraid of suggesting it again lest Hedges think him a -quitter.</p> - -<p>A little later, still mounting the narrow, winding trail, they -came upon a rough log hut, aged and deserted, with a sagging, -half-open door; but the two boys, unwilling to take off their -skees, did not stop to investigate it.</p> - -<p>Every now and then during the next half mile trifling little -gusts of stinging snowflakes whirled down from the leaden -sky, beat against their faces, and scurried on. Seabury's -feeling of nervous apprehension increased, but Hedges, in his -careless, self-confident manner merely laughed and said that -the trip home would be all the more interesting for little -diversions of that sort.</p> - -<p>The words were scarcely spoken when, from the distance, -there came a curious, thin wailing of the wind, rising swiftly -to a dull, ominous roar. Startled, both boys stopped abruptly, -and stared up the slope. And as they did so, something like<span class="pagenum" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</span> -a vast, white, opaque curtain surged over the crest of the hill -and swept swiftly toward them.</p> - -<p>Almost before they could draw a breath it was upon them, -a dense, blinding mass of snow, which whirled about them in -choking masses and blotted out the landscape in a flash.</p> - -<p>“Wough!” gasped Hedges. “Some speed to that! I guess -we'd better beat it, kid, while the going's good.”</p> - -<p>But even Hedges, with his easy, careless confidence, was -swiftly forced to the realization that the going was very far -from good even then. It was impossible to see more than a -dozen yards ahead of them. As a matter of course, the older -fellow took the lead, but he had not gone far before he ran -off the track and only saved himself from a spill by grabbing -a small tree.</p> - -<p>“Have to take it easy,” he commented, recovering his -balance. “This storm will let up soon; it can't possibly last -long this way.”</p> - -<p>Seabury made no answer. Shaking with nervousness, he -could not trust himself to speak.</p> - -<p>Regaining the trail, Hedges started off again, cautiously -enough at first. But a little success seemed to restore his -confidence, and he began to use his staff as a brake with less -and less frequency. They had gone perhaps a quarter of a -mile when a sudden heavier gust of stinging flakes momentarily -blinded them both. Seabury instantly put on the -brake and almost stopped. When he was able to clear his -eyes, Hedges was out of sight. An instant later there came -a sudden crash, a startled, muffled cry, and then—silence!</p> - -<p>Horrified, Seabury instantly jerked his staff out of the snow -and sped forward. At first, he could barely see the tracks -of his companion's skees, but presently the storm lightened -a trifle and of a sudden he realized what had happened. -Hedges had misjudged a sharp curve in the trail and, instead -of following it, had plunged off to one side and down a steep -declivity thickly grown with trees. At the foot of this little -slope Seabury found him lying motionless, a twisted heap, -face downward in the snow.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</span></p> - -<p>Sick with horror, the boy bent over that silent figure. -“Bill!” he cried, “what has—”</p> - -<p>His voice died in a choking sob, but a moment later his -heart leaped as Hedges stirred, tried to rise, and fell back -with a stifled groan.</p> - -<p>“It's—my ankle,” he mumbled, “I—I've—turned it. -See if you can't—”</p> - -<p>With shaking fingers, Seabury jerked at the buckles of his -skees and stepped out of them. Hedges' left foot was twisted -under him, and the front part of his skee was broken off. -As Paul freed the other's feet from their encumbering straps, -Bill made a second effort to rise, but his face turned quite -white and he sank back with a grunt of pain.</p> - -<p>“Thunder!” he muttered. “I—I believe it's sprained.”</p> - -<p>For a moment or two he sat there, face screwed up, arms -gripping his knees. Then, as his head cleared, he looked up -at the frightened Seabury, a wry smile twisting the corners of -his mouth.</p> - -<p>“I'm an awful nut, kid,” he said. “I forgot that curve -and was going too fast to pull up. Reckon I deserve that -crack on the head and all the rest of it for being so awfully -cocky. Looks as if we were in rather a mess, doesn't -it?”</p> - -<p>Seabury nodded, still unable to trust himself to speak. -But Hedges' coolness soothed his jangled nerves, and presently -a thought struck him.</p> - -<p>“That cabin back there!” he exclaimed. “If we could -only manage to get that far—”</p> - -<p>He paused and the other nodded. “Good idea,” he agreed -promptly. “I'm afraid I can't walk it, but I might be able -to crawl.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I didn't mean that. If we only had some way of -fastening my skees together, you could lie down on them and -I could pull you.”</p> - -<p>A gleam of admiration came into the older chap's dark -eyes. “You've got your nerve with you, old man,” he said. -“Do you know how much I weigh?”</p> - -<p>“That doesn't matter,” protested Seabury. “It's all<span class="pagenum" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</span> -down hill; it wouldn't be so hard. Besides, we can't stay -here or—or we'll freeze.”</p> - -<p>“Now you've said something,” agreed Hedges.</p> - -<p>And it was true. Already Seabury's teeth were chattering, -and even the warmer blooded Hedges could feel the cold penetrating -his thick sweater. He tried to think of some other -way out of their predicament, but finally agreed to try the -plan. His heavy, high shoes were laced with rawhide thongs, -which sufficed roughly to bind the two skees together. There -was no possibility, however, of pulling them. The only way -they could manage was for Hedges to seat himself on the -improvised toboggan while Seabury trudged behind and -pushed.</p> - -<p>It was a toilsome and painful method of progress for them -both and often jolted Hedges' ankle, which was already badly -swollen, bringing on a constant succession of sharp, keen -stabs. Seabury, wading knee-deep in the snow, was soon -breathless, and by the time they reached the cabin, he felt -utterly done up.</p> - -<p>“Couldn't have kept that up much longer,” grunted -Hedges, when they were inside the shelter with the door -closed against the storm.</p> - -<p>His alert gaze traveled swiftly around the bare interior. -There was a rough stone chimney at one end, a shuttered -window at the back, and that was all. Snow lay piled up on -the cold hearth, and here and there made little ridges on the -logs where it had filtered through the many cracks and -crevices. Without the means of making fire, it was not much -better than the out-of-doors, and Hedges' heart sank as he -glanced at his companion, leaning exhausted against the wall.</p> - -<p>“It's sure to stop pretty soon,” he said presently, with a -confidence he did not feel. “When it lets up a little, we -might—”</p> - -<p>“I don't believe it's going to let up.” Seabury straightened -with an odd, unwonted air of decision. “I was caught -in a storm like this two years ago and it lasted over two -days. We've got to do something, and do it pretty quick.”</p> - -<p>Hedges stared at him, amazed at the sudden transformation.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</span> -He did not understand that a long-continued nervous -strain will sometimes bring about strange reactions.</p> - -<p>“You're not thinking of pushing me all the way down the -road, are you?” he protested. “I don't believe you could -do it.”</p> - -<p>“I don't believe I could, either,” agreed the other, frankly. -“But I could go down alone and bring back help.”</p> - -<p>“Gee-whiz! You—you mean skee down that road? Why, -it's over three miles, and you'd miss the trail a dozen times.”</p> - -<p>“I shouldn't try the road,” said Seabury, quietly. His -face was pale, but there was a determined set to the delicate -chin. “If I went straight down the hill back of this cabin, -I'd land close to the school, and I don't believe the whole -distance is over half a mile.”</p> - -<p>Hedges gasped. “You're crazy, man! Why, you'd kill -yourself in the first hundred feet trying to skee through -those trees.”</p> - -<p>“I don't think so. I've done it before—some. Besides, -most of the slope is open fields. I noticed that when we -started out.”</p> - -<p>“But they're steep as the dickens, with stone walls, and—”</p> - -<p>Seabury cut short his protests by buttoning his collar -tightly about his throat and testing the laces of his shoes. -He was afraid to delay lest his resolution should break down.</p> - -<p>“I'm going,” he stated stubbornly; “and the sooner I -get off, the better.”</p> - -<p>And go he did, with a curt farewell which astonished and -bewildered his companion who had no means of knowing that -it was a manner assumed to hide a desperate fear and nervousness. -As the door closed between them, Seabury's lips -began to tremble; and his hands shook so that he could -scarcely tighten up the straps of his skees.</p> - -<p>Back of the cabin, poised at the top of the slope, with the -snow whirling around him and the unknown in front, he had -one horrible moment of indecision when his heart lay like -lead within him and he was on the verge of turning back. -But with a tremendous effort he crushed down that almost -irresistible impulse. He could not bear the thought of facing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</span> -Hedges, an acknowledged coward and a quitter. An instant -later a thrust of his staff sent him over the edge, to glide -downward through the trees with swiftly increasing momentum.</p> - -<p>Strangely enough, he felt somehow that the worst was over. -To begin with, he was much too occupied to think of danger, -and after he had successfully steered through the first hundred -feet or so of woods, a growing confidence in himself -helped to bolster up his shrinking spirit. After all, save for -the blinding snow, this was no worse than some of the descents -he had made of wooded slopes back there at home. If the -storm did not increase, he believed that he could make it.</p> - -<p>At first he managed, by a skilful use of his staff, to hold -himself back a little and keep his speed within a reasonable -limit. But just before he left the woods, the necessity for -a sudden side-turn to avoid a clump of trees through which -he could not pass nearly flung him off his balance. In struggling -to recover it, the end of his staff struck against another -tree and was torn instantly from his grasp.</p> - -<p>His heart leaped, then sank sickeningly, but there was no -stopping now. A moment later he flashed out into the open, -swerved through a gap in the rough, snow-covered wall, and -shot down the steep incline with swiftly increasing speed.</p> - -<p>His body tense and bent slightly forward, his straining -gaze set unwaveringly ahead, striving to pierce the whirling, -beating snow, Seabury felt as if he were flying through the -clouds. On a clear day, with the ability to see what lay -before him, there would have been a rather delightful exhilaration -in that descent. But the perilous uncertainty of -it all kept the boy's heart in his throat and chained him in -a rigid grip of cold fear.</p> - -<p>Long before he expected it, the rounded, snow-covered bulk -of a second wall seemed to leap out of the blinding snow-curtain -and rush toward him. Almost too late, he jumped, -and, soaring through the air, struck the declining slope again -a good thirty feet beyond.</p> - -<p>In the lightning passage of that second field, he tried to -figure where he was coming out and what obstacles he might<span class="pagenum" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</span> -encounter, but the effort was fruitless. He knew that the -high-road, bordered by a third stone wall, ran along the foot -of the hill, with the school grounds on the other side. But -the speed at which he was traveling made consecutive thought -almost impossible.</p> - -<p>Again, with that same appalling swiftness, the final barrier -loomed ahead. He leaped, and, at the very take-off, a gasp -of horror was jolted from his lips by the sight of a two-horse -sledge moving along the road directly in his path!</p> - -<p>It was all over in a flash. Helpless to avoid the collision, -Seabury nevertheless twisted his body instinctively to the -left. He was vaguely conscious of a monstrous looming bulk; -of a startled snort which sent a wave of hot breath against -his face, and the equally startled yell of a human voice. The -next instant he landed badly, his feet shot out from under -him, and he fell backward with a stunning crash.</p> - -<p>His first conscious observation was of two strange faces -bending over him and of hands lifting him from where he -lay half buried in the snow. For a moment he was too dazed -to speak or even to remember. Then, with a surging rush of -immense relief, he realized what had happened, and gaining -speech, he poured out a hurried but fairly coherent account -of the situation.</p> - -<p>His rescuers proved to be woodsmen, perfectly familiar -with the Hogan Hill trail and the old log-cabin. Seabury's -skees were taken off and he was helped into the sledge and -driven to the near-by school. Stiff and sore, but otherwise -unhurt, he wanted to go with them, but his request was -firmly refused; and pausing only long enough to get some -rugs and a heavy coat, the pair set off. Little more than two -hours later they returned with the injured Hedges, who was -carried at once to the infirmary to be treated for exposure -and a badly sprained ankle.</p> - -<p>His rugged constitution responded readily to the former, -but the ankle proved more stubborn, and he was ordered by -the doctor not to attempt even to hobble around on it for at -least a week. As a result, Christmas dinner had to be eaten -in bed. But somehow Hedges did not mind that very much -for Paul Seabury shared it, sitting on the other side of a -folding table drawn up beside the couch.</p> - -<div class="figcenter illowp53 chapter" id="ilo_fp-264" style="max-width: 36.875em;"> - <img class="w100" src="images/ilo_fp-264.jpg" alt="ilop264" /> -<p class="right">(<em>page 264</em>)</p> - <p class="caption p1 center">“At the very take-off, a gasp of horror was jolted from his lips.”</p> -</div> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</span></p> -</div> - -<p class="p1">Having consumed everything in sight and reached that -state of repletion without which no Christmas dinner may be -considered really perfect, the two boys relapsed for a space -into a comfortable, friendly sort of silence.</p> - -<p>“Not <em>much</em> on skees, are you?” commented Hedges, presently, -glancing quizzically at his companion.</p> - -<p>Seabury flushed a little. “I wish you wouldn't,” he -protested. “If you had any idea how scared I was, and—and—Why, -the whole thing was just pure luck.”</p> - -<p>Hedges snorted. “Bosh! You go tell that to your grandmother. -There's one thing,” he added; “as soon as I'm -around again, you've got to come out and give me some -points. I thought I was fairly decent on skees, but I guess -after all I'm pretty punk.”</p> - -<p>“I'll show you anything I can, of course,” agreed Seabury, -readily. He paused an instant and then went on -hesitatingly: “I—I'm going to do a lot more of that sort -of thing from now on. It—it was simply disgusting the way -I got winded so soon and all tired out.”</p> - -<p>“Sure,” nodded Hedges, promptly. “That's what I've -always said. You ought to take more exercise and not mope -around by yourself so much. But we'll fix that up all right -from now on.” He paused. “Aren't you going to read some -more in 'Treasure Island'?” he asked expectantly. “That's -some book, believe me! What with you and that and everything, -I'm not going to mind being laid up at all.”</p> - -<p>Seabury made no comment, but as he reached for the book -and found their place, the corners of his mouth curved with -the beginnings of a contented, happy smile.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</span></p> - -<h4>SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS</h4> - -<ol class="f"> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What is the character of Bill Hedges?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What is the character of “Plug” Seabury?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Why are both boys at the school in vacation time?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What had been the past life of each boy?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What had been their feeling for each other?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What change does the story make in their feeling for each other?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> How does the author make the story seem probable?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Show how the author leads to the climax of the story.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Divide the story into its most important incidents.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Show that the author is consistent in character presentation.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> How does the author make the climax powerful in effect?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What makes the conclusion effective?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What use does the author make of conversation?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What is the proportion of description and explanation in the -story?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What are the good characteristics of the story?</li> -</ol> - - -<h4>SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION</h4> - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="his28"> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">1. A Summer Adventure</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">11. The Fire in School</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">2. At Easter Time</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">12. An Unexpected Hero</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">3. The Swimming Match</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">13. Tony's Brother</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">4. A Cross Country Adventure</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">14. Skating on the River</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">5. The Lost Books</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">15. The Bicycle Meet</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">6. The School Bully</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">16. At the Sea Shore</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">7. The Hiding Place</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">17. The Trip to the Woods</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">8. An Excursion</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">18. The Surprise of the Day</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">9. The Little Freshman</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">19. The Best Batter</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">10. Our Election Day</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">20. How We Found a Captain</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - -<h4>DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING</h4> - -<p class="p2">Write a story that will be closely connected with school life. Use -the ordinary characters that are to be found in your school, but use -typical characters that will sum up well-recognized characteristics. -Base your story upon any sharp contrast in characters. Begin -your story by telling of everyday events, but make those events lead -quickly to events that are out of the ordinary. In like manner begin -with familiar surroundings and then lead your readers into surroundings -that will be less familiar and that will be an appropriate -setting for unusual action. Make the climax of your story powerful -by using suspense. Indicate that your hero is likely to be overcome. -Make his final success depend upon his resolution or good -spirit,—upon his character. Use much conversation. Omit everything -that will not contribute to the effect of the climax.</p> - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</span></p> -<p class="p4 center big3">THE CRITICAL ESSAY</p> -</div> - -<h2 class="nobreak">CODDLING IN EDUCATION</h2> - -<p class="center big1">By HENRY SEIDEL CANBY</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p2"><em>(1878). Editor of The Literary Review; Assistant Editor of -The Yale Review, and Assistant Professor of English in the -Sheffield Scientific School. He is author and co-author of many -books on English, among which are:</em> The Short Story; Facts, -Thought and Imagination; <em>and</em> Good English.</p> -</div> - -<div class="indent1 bold small1"> - -<p class="p2">The critical essay comments on a fault,—but it does no more: it -makes no searching analysis and it points to no specific remedy.</p> - -<p><em>Coddling in Education</em> is a critical essay. It points at what its -author believes is a serious fault in American education. Like all -critical essays it aims at reform, but it merely suggests the means of -reform.</p> - -<p>Many of the editorial articles in newspapers are examples of the -critical essay.</p> -</div> - - -<p class="p2">American minds have been coddled in school and college -for at least a generation. There are two kinds of mental -coddling. The first belongs to the public schools, and is one -of the defects of our educational system that we abuse privately -and largely keep out of print. It is democratic -coddling. I mean, of course, the failure to hold up standards, -the willingness to let youth wobble upward, knowing little -and that inaccurately, passing nothing well, graduating with -an education that hits and misses like an old type-writer with -a torn ribbon. America is full of “sloppy thinking,” of inaccuracy, -of half-baked misinformation, of sentimentalism, -especially sentimentalism, as a result of coddling by schools -that cater to an easy-going democracy. Only fifty-six per -cent. of a group of girls, graduates of the public schools, -whose records I once examined, could do simple addition, -only twenty-nine per cent. simple multiplication correctly; -a deplorable percentage had a very inaccurate knowledge of -elementary American geography.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</span></p> - -<p>A dozen causes are responsible for this condition, and -among them, I suspect, one, which if not major, at least deserves -careful pondering. The teacher and the taught have -somehow drifted apart. His function in the large has been -to teach an ideal, a tradition. He is content, he has to be -content, with partial results. It is not for life as it is, it is -for what life ought to be, that he is preparing even in arithmetic; -he has allowed the faint unreality of a priestcraft to -numb him. In the mind of the student a dim conception has -entered, that this education—all education—is a garment -merely, to be doffed for the struggle with realities. The will -is dulled. Interest slackens.</p> - -<p>But it is in aristocratic coddling that the effects of our -educational attitude gleam out to the least observant understanding. -This is the coddling of the preparatory schools -and the colleges, and it is more serious for it is a defect that -cannot be explained away by the hundred difficulties that -beset good teaching in a public-school system, nation-wide, -and conducted for the young of every race in the American -menagerie. The teaching in the best American preparatory -schools and colleges is as careful and as conscientious as any -in the world. That one gladly asserts. Indeed, an American -boy in a good boarding-school is handled like a rare microbe -in a research laboratory. He is ticketed; every instant of his -time is planned and scrutinized; he is dieted with brain food, -predigested, and weighed before application. I sometimes -wonder if a moron could not be made into an Abraham -Lincoln by such a system—if the system were sound.</p> - -<p>It is not sound. The boys and girls, especially the boys, -are coddled for entrance examinations, coddled through -freshman year, coddled oftentimes for graduation. And they -too frequently go out into the world fireproof against anything -but intellectual coddling. Such men and women can -read only writing especially prepared for brains that will -take only selected ideas, simply put. They can think only on -simple lines, not too far extended. They can live happily -only in a life where ideas never exceed the college sixty per<span class="pagenum" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</span> -cent. of complexity, and where no intellectual or esthetic experience -lies too far outside the range of their curriculum. -A world where one reads the news and skips the editorials; -goes to musical comedies, but omits the plays; looks at illustrated -magazines, but seldom at books; talks business, sports, -and politics, but never economics, social welfare, and statesmanship—that -is the world for which we coddle the best of -our youth. Many indeed escape the evil effects by their -own innate originality; more bear the marks to the grave.</p> - -<p>The process is simple, and one can see it in the English -public school (where it is being attacked vivaciously) quite -as commonly as here. You take your boy out of his family -and his world. You isolate him except for companionship -with other nursery transplantings and teachers themselves -isolated. And then you feed him, nay, you cram him, with -good traditional education, filling up the odd hours with the -excellent, but negative, passion of sport. Then you subject -him to a special cramming and send him to college, where -sometimes he breaks through the net of convention woven -about him, and sees the real world as it should appear to the -student before he becomes part of it; but more frequently -wraps himself deep and more deeply in conventional opinion, -conventional practice, until, the limbs of his intellectual being -bound tightly, he stumbles into the outer world.</p> - -<p>And there, in the swirl and the vivid practicalities of -American life, is the net loosened? I think not. I think -rather that the youth learns to swim clumsily despite his -encumbrances of lethargic thinking and tangled idealism. -But if they are cut? If he goes on the sharp rocks of experience, -finds that hardness, shrewdness, selfish individualism -pay best in American life, what has he in his spirit to meet this -disillusion? Of what use has been his education in the liberal, -idealistic traditions of America? Of some use, undoubtedly, -for habit, even a dull habit, is strong; but whether useful -enough, whether powerful enough, to save America, to keep -us “white” in the newer and more colloquial sense, the future -will test and test quickly.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</span></p> - - -<h4>SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS</h4> - -<ol class="f"> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Explain what the writer means by “coddling.”</li> -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Define “democratic coddling.”</li> -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Define aristocratic “coddling.”</li> -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What are the results of “coddling”?</li> -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What are the causes of “coddling”?</li> -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What is the writer's ideal of education?</li> -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What criticism of American life does the essay present?</li> -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Point out effective phrasing.</li> -</ol> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h4>SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION</h4> -</div> - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="his29"> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">1. The Best Kind of Teacher</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">11. Thinking for One's Self</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">2. The Most Helpful Subjects</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">12. 60% or 100%</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">3. The Value of Marks</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">13. Serious Reading</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">4. Study and Play</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">14. Pleasure Seeking</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">5. What Promotion Means</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">15. Character Training</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">6. Mistaken Kindness</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">16. The Value of Hard Work</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">7. The Passing Mark</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">17. Discipline</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">8. Scholarship in My School</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">18. Faithfulness in Work</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">9. The Purposes of Study</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">19. Real Success in Life</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">10. The School Course</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">20. “Cramming.”</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - -<h4>DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING</h4> - -<p class="p2">Plan to emphasize some original phrasing like “Coddling in School -and College.” Use familiar words that every one will understand -but use them in some new relation.</p> - -<p>Make your essay point at a really serious fault that will be worthy -of attack. Do not go into details, but make your writing represent -your honest opinion.</p> - -<p>Use expressions that will represent you, and that will make your -essay personal in nature. Notice how Mr. Canby makes use of -such words as “wobble,” “sloppy,” “half-baked,” “coddle,” “cram” -and “white.” Notice, too, how many conversational short sentences -Mr. Canby uses. His essay is like a vigorous talk. Make your -own essay equally personal and equally vigorous.</p> - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak">A SUCCESSFUL FAILURE</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center big1">By GLENN FRANK</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p2"><em>(1887-). Editor of</em> The Century Magazine. <em>He is a member -of many important associations, and was one of ex-President -Taft's associates in suggesting a covenant for the League of -Nations. His magazine articles are notable for constructive -thought.</em></p> -</div> - -<div class="indent1 bold small1"> - -<p class="p2">Any subject is appropriate material for the essayist, and any method -of treatment is satisfactory so long as the writer gives us his personal -reaction on some province of human thought.</p> - -<p>The following critical essay begins with the writer's account of a -series of papers that he once read. To this he adds his own serious -comment, and he concludes his work by suggesting an ideal. In doing -all this he makes free use of the pronoun “I,” and writes in an -informal style.</p> - -<p>The work is therefore not hard and fast logic, but mature and serious -comment on life.</p> -</div> - - -<p class="p2">Several years ago there appeared a series of papers that -purported to be the confessions of a successful man who was -under no delusion as to the essential quality of his attainments. -The papers are not before me as I write, and I must -trust to memory and a few penciled notes made at the time -of their appearance, but it will be interesting to recall his -confessions regarding his education. I think they paint a -fairly faithful picture of the mind of the average college -graduate.</p> - -<p>He stated that he came from a family that prided itself on -its culture and intellectuality and that had always been a -family of professional folk. His grandfather was a clergyman; -among his uncles were a lawyer, a physician, and a -professor; his sisters married professional men. He received -a fairly good primary and secondary education, and was -graduated from his university with honors. He was, he -stated, of a distinctly literary turn of mind, and during his -four years at college imbibed some slight information concerning<span class="pagenum" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</span> -the English classics as well as modern history and -metaphysics, so that he could talk quite glibly about -Chaucer,<a id="FNanchor_136" href="#Footnote_136" class="fnanchor">[136]</a> Beaumont, and Fletcher,<a id="FNanchor_137" href="#Footnote_137" class="fnanchor">[137]</a> Thomas Love Peacock,<a id="FNanchor_138" href="#Footnote_138" class="fnanchor">[138]</a> -and Ann Radcliffe,<a id="FNanchor_139" href="#Footnote_139" class="fnanchor">[139]</a> and speak with apparent familiarity -about Kant<a id="FNanchor_140" href="#Footnote_140" class="fnanchor">[140]</a> and Schopenhauer.<a id="FNanchor_141" href="#Footnote_141" class="fnanchor">[141]</a></p> - -<p>But, in turning to self-analysis, he stated that he later saw -that his smattering of culture was neither broad nor deep; -that he acquired no definite knowledge of the underlying -principles of general history, of economics, of languages, of -mathematics, of physics, or of chemistry; that to biology and -its allies he paid scarcely any attention at all, except to take -a few snap courses; that he really secured only a surface acquaintance -with polite English literature, mostly very modern, -the main part of his time having been spent in reading Stevenson<a id="FNanchor_142" href="#Footnote_142" class="fnanchor">[142]</a> -and Kipling.<a id="FNanchor_143" href="#Footnote_143" class="fnanchor">[143]</a> He did well in English composition, he -said, and pronounced his words neatly and in a refined manner. -He concluded the description of his college days by -saying that at the end of his course, twenty-three years of -age, he was handed an imitation parchment degree and proclaimed -by the president of the college as belonging to the -brotherhood of educated men. On this he commented:</p> - -<div class="indent1 small1"> - -<p class="p2">I did not. I was an imitation educated man; but though spurious, -I was a sufficiently good counterfeit to pass current for what I was -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</span>declared to be. Apart from a little Latin, considerable training in -writing the English language, and a great deal of miscellaneous reading -of an extremely light variety, I really had no culture at all. I could -not speak an idiomatic sentence in French or German. I had only the -vaguest ideas about applied science or mechanics and no thorough -knowledge about anything; but I was supposed to be an educated man, -and on this stock in trade I have done business ever since, with the -added capital of a degree of LL.B. Now, since graduation, twenty-seven -years ago, I have given no time to the systematic study of any subject -except law. I have read no serious works dealing with either history, -sociology, economics, art, or philosophy. I have rarely read over again -any of the masterpieces of English literature with which I had at least -a bowing acquaintance when at college. Even this last sentence I must -qualify to the extent of admitting that now I see that this acquaintance -was largely vicarious, and that I frequently read more criticism than -literature.</p> - -<p>I was taught about Shakespeare, but not Shakespeare. I was instructed -in the history of literature, but not in literature itself. I knew -the names of the works of numerous English authors and knew what -Taine<a id="FNanchor_144" href="#Footnote_144" class="fnanchor">[144]</a> and others thought about them, but I knew comparatively little -of what was between the covers of the books themselves. I was, I find, -a student of letters by proxy. As time went on I gradually forgot that -I had not in fact actually perused these volumes, and to-day I am accustomed -to refer familiarly to works I have never read at all.</p> - -<p>I frankly confess that my own ignorance is abysmal. In the last -twenty-seven years what information I have acquired has been picked up -principally from newspapers and magazines; yet my library table is -littered with books on modern art and philosophy and with essays on -literary and historical subjects. I do not read them. They are my -intellectual window-dressings. I talk about them with others who, I -suspect, have not read them either, and we confine ourselves to generalities, -with careful qualifications of all expressed opinions, no matter -how vague or elusive.</p> -</div> - -<p class="p2">This quotation is made from slightly abbreviated notes and -may be guilty of some verbal variation from the text, but it is -entirely accurate as to content. As I remember the paper, -the writer went on to catalogue his educational shortcomings -in the various fields of interest, confessing fundamental ignorance, -save for superficial smatterings of information, of -art, history, biography, music, poetry, politics, science, and -economics. He painted an amusing picture of the hollow -pretense of culture with which the average man of his type -covers his intellectual poverty. Men of his type speak -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</span>casually, he said, of Henry of Navarre,<a id="FNanchor_145" href="#Footnote_145" class="fnanchor">[145]</a> Beatrice d'Este,<a id="FNanchor_146" href="#Footnote_146" class="fnanchor">[146]</a> -or Charles the Fifth,<a id="FNanchor_147" href="#Footnote_147" class="fnanchor">[147]</a> without knowing within two hundred -years when any of them lived or what was their rôle. His -lack of knowledge goes deeper than mere names and dates; -it goes, he said, to the significance of events themselves. For -an illustration at random, he knew nothing about what happened -on the Italian peninsula until Garibaldi,<a id="FNanchor_148" href="#Footnote_148" class="fnanchor">[148]</a> and really -never knew just who Garibaldi was until he read Trevelyan's<a id="FNanchor_149" href="#Footnote_149" class="fnanchor">[149]</a> -three books on the Risorgimento, the only serious -books he had read in years, and he read them because he had -taken a motor trip through Italy the summer before. He -knew virtually nothing of Spain, Russia, Poland, Turkey, -Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Holland, or Belgium. He described -his type going to the Metropolitan Opera House, -hearing the best music at big prices, content to murmur vague -ecstasies over Caruso, in ignorance of who wrote the opera or -what it is all about, lacking enough virile intellectual curiosity -even to spend an hour reading about the opera in one of -the many available hand-books.</p> - -<p>Coming to the vital matters of public affairs, he confessed -that, although holding a prominent place on the citizens' -committee at election-time, he knew nothing definite about -the city's departments or its fiscal administration. He could -not direct a poor man to the place where he might obtain -relief. He knew the city hall by sight, but had never been -in it. He had never visited the Tombs<a id="FNanchor_150" href="#Footnote_150" class="fnanchor">[150]</a> or the criminal -courts, never entered a police station, a fire-house, or prison -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</span>of the city. He did not know whether police magistrates -were appointed or elected, nor in what congressional district -he resided. He did not know the name of his alderman, assemblyman, -state senator, or representative in Congress. He -did not know who was head of the street-cleaning, health, -fire, park, or water departments of his city. He could name -only five of the members of the Supreme Court, three of the -secretaries in the President's cabinet, and only one of the -congressmen from his State. He had never studied save in -the most superficial manner the single tax, minimum wage, -free trade, protection, income tax, inheritance tax, the -referendum, the recall, and other vital questions.</p> - -<p>Of the authorship of these anonymous confessions I know -nothing. They may have been fiction instead of biography, -for all I know. But their content would still be true were -their form fiction. I have recalled these confessions at length -because in my judgment they present an uncomfortably true -analysis of the average American college graduate's mind, -his range of interests, and his grasp of those fundamentals -which underlie a citizen's worth in a democracy. It is from -the college graduates of this country that we must look for -our leaders in the complex and baffling years ahead, and it is -a matter of the gravest concern to the country if we are -raising up a generation of men, into whose hands leadership -will pass, whose minds have been atrophied by superficial -study, whose imagination is unlit, who have an apathetic -indifference toward the supreme issues of our political, social, -and industrial life, who lack capacity and background for -the analysis of broad questions and for creative thinking. If -these confessions of “The Goldfish” papers tell a true story, -if we are failing to produce a leader class adequate to meet -the needs of the present time, as it seems to me there is sound -evidence to prove, then it behooves us to reëxamine, reconceive, -and reorganize our colleges.</p> - -<p>If we are to raise up adequate leadership for the future, -our colleges must contrive to give to students a genuinely -liberal education that will make them intelligent citizens of -the world; an education that will make the student at home<span class="pagenum" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</span> -in the modern world, able to work in harmony with the -dominant forces of his age, not at cross-purposes to them; -an education that will acquaint him with the physical, social, -economic, and political aspects, laws, and forces of his world; -an education that will furnish to the student that adequate -background and primary information needed for the interpretation -of current life; an education that will help the -student to plot out the larger world beyond the campus; an -education that will give the student an interest in those events -and issues in which people generally are concerned; an education -that will enable the student to give intelligent and -informed consideration to the significant political and economic -problems of American life; an education that will -provide the student with a sort of Baedeker's<a id="FNanchor_151" href="#Footnote_151" class="fnanchor">[151]</a> guide to -civilization; in short, an education that will make for that -spacious-minded type of citizen which alone can bring adequate -leadership to a democracy.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</span></p> - -<h4>SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS</h4> - -<ol class="f"> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em">Apply the writer's criticism to work done in school.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em">What should be the purpose of public school education?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em">What advantage does the writer gain by quoting from the -“successful failure”?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Why does the writer give only a résumé of some of the words -of the “successful failure”?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em">What is real culture?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What is the difference between “passing” and “learning”?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What is an “imitation parchment degree”?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> How long should a person pursue systematic study?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What principles should guide a person in reading books?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What is the difference between being “taught about Shakespeare” -and being “taught Shakespeare”?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What is the proper attitude toward newspaper reading?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em">What is “intellectual window-dressing”?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What should one know of history?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What should one know concerning various lands?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> On what should real appreciation of music depend?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> How should education contribute to political life?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What is the importance of education in the United States?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What is the basis of real leadership?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Make a list of the “vital matters of public affair” on which the -writer believes people should be informed.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> On how many of these subjects are you informed?</li> -</ol> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h4>SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION</h4> -</div> - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="his30"> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">1. My Own Scholarship</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">11. Learning a Foreign Language</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">2. My School Career</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">12. The Value of Science</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">3. Public School Scholarship</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">13. Reading Shakespeare</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">4. Real Study</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">14. Studying Music</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">5. The Passing Mark</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">15. Newspaper Reading</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">6. The Best Teachers</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">16. The Use of a Library</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">7. The Study of History</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">17. A Real Student</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">8. Good Reading</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">18. An Educated Citizen</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">9. The Study of Governments</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">19. A Good School</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">10. The Purpose of Education</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">20. Systematic Study</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - -<h4>DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING</h4> - -<p class="p2">If you cannot quote from the words of written articles you can -at least quote from what people have said in conversation. You -can also make full use of your own experience. Begin your essay, -as Mr. Frank begins his, by making some statement of actual experience. -When you have done this add original comments that will -lead, in the end, to a wise suggestion for the future. Both by the -use of the pronoun “I,” and by a certain informality of style, make -your work personal.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="footnotes"> -<p class="p2 center big2">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_136" href="#FNanchor_136" class="label">[136]</a> Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400). Author of <em>The Canterbury Tales</em>, a -series of realistic narratives in verse.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_137" href="#FNanchor_137" class="label">[137]</a> Francis Beaumont (1584-1616) and John Fletcher (1579-1625). Two -of the most celebrated of Shakespeare's contemporaries. They wrote in -collaboration, and produced at least 52 plays.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_138" href="#FNanchor_138" class="label">[138]</a> Thomas Love Peacock (1785-1866). Author of a number of highly -original and witty novels.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_139" href="#FNanchor_139" class="label">[139]</a> Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823). An English novelist who wrote chiefly -of the mysterious and terrible, as in <em>The Mysteries of Udolpho</em>, her most -famous book.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_140" href="#FNanchor_140" class="label">[140]</a> Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). A great German philosopher, one of -the most profound thinkers who ever lived.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_141" href="#FNanchor_141" class="label">[141]</a> Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860). A German philosopher noted for -his pessimistic beliefs.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_142" href="#FNanchor_142" class="label">[142]</a> Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894). Novelist, essayist, poet and -traveler, noted for his personal appeal and the charm of his style.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_143" href="#FNanchor_143" class="label">[143]</a> Rudyard Kipling (1865—). A popular present-day novelist, short -story writer and poet.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_144" href="#FNanchor_144" class="label">[144]</a> Hippolyte Adolphe Taine (1828-1893). A French critic, especially -noted for his <em>History of English Literature</em>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_145" href="#FNanchor_145" class="label">[145]</a> Henry of Navarre (1553-1610). King of Navarre and later King -of France, author of the celebrated <em>Edict of Nantes</em>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_146" href="#FNanchor_146" class="label">[146]</a> Beatrice d'Este (1475-1497). A beautiful and highly cultured -Duchess of Milan who, in spite of her early death, deeply influenced the -intellectual leaders of her time.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_147" href="#FNanchor_147" class="label">[147]</a> Charles the Fifth (1500-1558). A masterful and virile Emperor of -the Holy Roman Empire.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_148" href="#FNanchor_148" class="label">[148]</a> Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882). A great Italian patriot who aided -in bringing about the unification of Italy. He was at one time a citizen -of the United States, and was employed in a candle factory on Staten -Island, New York.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_149" href="#FNanchor_149" class="label">[149]</a> George Macaulay Trevelyan (1876). An English historian, author -of important works on Garibaldi.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_150" href="#FNanchor_150" class="label">[150]</a> The Tombs. A New York City prison.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_151" href="#FNanchor_151" class="label">[151]</a> Karl Baedeker (1801-1859). The originator of Baedeker's <em>Guide -Books</em> to various lands.</p> - -</div> -</div> -</div> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak">THE DROLLERIES OF CLOTHES</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center big1">By AGNES REPPLIER</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p2"><em>(1858-). One of the most noted American essayists. -Among her books are:</em> Essays in Miniature; Essays in Idleness; -In the Dozy Hours; A Happy Half Century; Americans and -Others.</p> -</div> - -<div class="indent1 bold small1"> - -<p class="p2">Miss Agnes Repplier for many years has kept her high place as one -of the most popular American essayists. She has written upon a great -variety of subjects, and always with charm and substantial thought. -The essay on <em>The Drolleries of Clothes</em> shows with how much good spirit -one may write even a critical essay.</p> -</div> - - -<p class="p2">In that engaging volume, “The Vanished Pomps of Yesterday,” -Lord Frederic Hamilton,<a id="FNanchor_152" href="#Footnote_152" class="fnanchor">[152]</a> commenting on the beauty -and grace of the Austrian women, observes thoughtfully: -“In the far-off seventies ladies did not huddle themselves -into a shapeless mass of abbreviated oddments of material. -They dressed, and their clothes fitted them. A woman upon -whom nature has bestowed a good figure was able to display -her gifts to the world.”</p> - -<p>That a woman to whom nature had been less kind was -compelled to display her deficiencies is a circumstance ignored -by Hamilton, who, being a man of the world and a man of -fashion, regarded clothes as the insignia of caste. The costly -costumes, the rich and sweeping draperies in which he delighted, -were not easy of imitation. The French ladies who -followed the difficult lead of the Empress Eugenia<a id="FNanchor_153" href="#Footnote_153" class="fnanchor">[153]</a> supported -the transparent whiteness of their billowy skirts with at least -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</span>a dozen fine, sheer petticoats. Now it is obvious that no woman -of the working classes (except a blanchisseuse de fin<a id="FNanchor_154" href="#Footnote_154" class="fnanchor">[154]</a> who -might presumably wear her customers' laundry) could afford -a dozen white petticoats. But when it comes to stripping off a -solitary petticoat, no one is too poor or too plain to be in the -fashion. When it comes to clipping a dress at the knee, the -factory girl is as fashionable as the banker's daughter, and -far more at her ease. Her “abbreviated oddments” are a -convenience in the limited spaces of the mill, and she is -hardier to endure exposure. She thanks the kindly gods who -have fitted the fashions to her following, and she takes a -few more inches off her solitary garment to make sure of -being in the style.</p> - -<p>Not that women of any class regard heat or cold, comfort -or discomfort, as a controlling factor in dress. In this regard -they are less highly differentiated from the savage than are -men, who, with advancing civilization, have modified their -attire into something like conformity to climate and to season. -The savage, even the savage who, like the Tierra del Fuegian,<a id="FNanchor_155" href="#Footnote_155" class="fnanchor">[155]</a> -lives in a cold country, considers clothes less as a covering -than as an adornment. So also do women, who take a simple -primitive delight in garments devoid of utilitarianism. For -the past half-dozen years American women have worn furs -during the sweltering heat of American summers. Perhaps -by the sea, or in the mountains, a chill day may now and -then warrant this costume; but on the burning city -streets the fur-clad females, red and panting, have been -pitiful objects to behold. They suffered, as does the Polar -bear in August in the zoo; but they suffered irrationally, -and because they lacked the wit to escape from self-inflicted -torment.</p> - -<p>For the past two winters women have worn fur coats or -capes which swathed the upper part of their bodies in voluminous -folds, and stopped short at the knee. From that point -down, the thinnest of silk stockings have been all the covering -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</span>permitted. The theory that, if one part of the body be -protected, another part may safely and judiciously be exposed, -has ever been dear to the female heart. It may be -her back, her bosom, or her legs which the woman selects to -exhibit. In any case she affirms that the uncovered portions -of her anatomy never feel the cold. If they do, she endures -the discomfort with the stoicism of the savage who keeps his -ornamental scars open with irritants, and she is nerved to -endurance by the same impelling motive.</p> - -<p>This motive is not personal vanity. Vanity has had little -to do with savage, barbarous, and civilized customs. The -ancient Peruvians who deformed their heads, pressing them -out of shape; the Chinese who deform their feet, bandaging -them into balls; the Africans who deform their mouths, -stretching them with wooden discs; the Borneans who -deform their ears, dragging the lobes below their shoulder -blades; the European and American women who -deformed their bodies, tightening their stays to produce the -celebrated “hour-glass” waist, have all been victims of something -more powerful than vanity, the inexorable decrees of -fashion.</p> - -<p>As a matter of fact the female mind is singularly devoid of -illusions. Women do not think their layers of fat or their -protruding collar bones beautiful and seductive. They display -them because fashion makes no allowance for personal -defects, and they have not yet reached that stage of civilization -which achieves artistic sensibility, which ordains and -preserves the eternal law of fitness. They know, for example, -that nuns, waitresses, and girls in semi-military -uniforms look handsomer than they are, because of straight -lines and adroit concealment; but they fail to derive from -this knowledge any practical guidance.</p> - -<div class="figcenter illowp67 chapter" id="ilo_fp-280" style="max-width: 36.875em;"> - <img class="w100" src="images/ilo_fp-280.jpg" alt="ilop280" /> -<p class="right">(<em>page 280</em>)</p> - <p class="caption p1 center">“The fluctuations of fashion are alternately a grievance and a -solace.” </p> -</div> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</span></p> -</div> - -<p class="p1">I can remember when “pull-back” skirts and bustles were -in style. They were uncomfortable, unsanitary, and unsightly. -Their wearers looked grotesquely deformed, and -knew it. They submitted to fate, and prayed for a speedy -deliverance. The fluctuations of fashion are alternately a -grievance and a solace. John Evelyn,<a id="FNanchor_156" href="#Footnote_156" class="fnanchor">[156]</a> commenting on the -dress worn by Englishmen in the time of Charles the First,<a id="FNanchor_157" href="#Footnote_157" class="fnanchor">[157]</a> -says that it was “a comely and manly habit, too good to -hold.” It did not hold because the Puritans, who saw no -reason why manliness should be comely, swept it aside. The -bustle was much too bad to hold. It grew beautifully less -every year, and then suddenly disappeared. Many dry eyes -witnessed its departure.</p> - -<p>If abhorrence of a fashion cannot keep women from slavishly -following it, they naturally remain unmoved by outside -counsel and criticism. For years the doctors exhausted themselves -proclaiming the disastrous consequences of tight-lacing, -which must certainly be held responsible for the obsolete -custom of fainting. For years satirists and moralists united -in attacking the crinoline. In <em>Watson's Annals</em>, 1856, a -virtuous Philadelphian published a solemn protest against -Christian ladies wearing enormous hoops to church, thereby -scandalizing and, what was worse, inconveniencing the male -congregation. When the Great War started a wave of fatuous -extravagance, it was solemnly reported that Mrs. Lloyd -George was endeavoring to dissuade the wives of workingmen -from buying silk stockings and fur coats. When the Great -Peace let loose upon us the most fantastic absurdities known -for half a century, the papers bristled with such hopeful -headlines as these: “Club Women Approve Sensible Styles -of Dress,” “Social Leaders Condemn Indecorous Fashions,” -“Crusade in Churches Against Prevailing Scantiness of -Attire,” and so on, and so on indefinitely.</p> - -<p>And to what purpose? The unrest of a rapidly changing -world broke down the old supremacies, smashed all appreciable -standards, and left us only a vague clutter of impressions. -When a woman's dress no longer indicates her fortune, -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</span>station, age, or honesty, we have reached the twilight of taste; -but such dim, confused periods are recurrent in the history -of sociology. The girl who works hard and decently for -daily bread, but who walks the streets with her little nose -whitened like concrete, and her little cheeks reddened like -brick-dust, and her little under-nourished body painfully -evidenced to the crowd, is tremulously imitating the woman -of the town; but the most inexperienced eye catalogues her -at a glance. Let us be grateful for her sake if she bobs her -hair, for that is a cleanly custom, whereas the great knobs -which she formerly wore over her ears harbored nests of -vermin. It is one of the comedies of fashion that short hair, -which half a century ago indicated strongmindedness, now -represents the utmost levity; just as the bloomers of 1852 -stood for stern reform, and the attempted trousers of 1918 -stood for lawlessness. Both were rejected by women who -have never been unaware that the skirt carries with it an -infinite variety of possibilities.</p> - - -<p class="p1 indent20 small1">A winning wave, deserving note,<br /> -In the tempestuous petticoat,</p> - - -<p class="p1">wrote Evelyn's contemporary, Herrick,<a id="FNanchor_158" href="#Footnote_158" class="fnanchor">[158]</a> who was more concerned -with the comeliness of Julia's clothes than with his -own.</p> - -<p>There is still self-revelation in dress, but not personal self-revelation. -We may still apply the test of costume to people -and to periods, but not safely to individuals, who suffer from -coercion. Women's ready-made clothes are becoming more -and more like liveries. A dozen shop windows, a dozen establishments, -display the same model over and over again, -the materials and prices varying, the gown always the same. -The lines may lack distinction, and the colors may lack -serenity; but then distinction and serenity are not the great -underlying qualities of our fretted age. The “abbreviated -oddments,” with their strange admixture of the bizarre and -the commonplace, strike a purely modern note. They are -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</span>democratic. They are as appropriate, or, I might say, as -inappropriate, to one class of women as to another. They are -helping, more than we can know, to level the barriers of caste.</p> - - -<h4>SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS</h4> - -<ol class="f"> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Summarize what the essay says in criticism of modern fashions.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What does the essay say concerning fashions in the past?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Summarize Miss Repplier's suggestions for ideal costumes.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> Explain why the writer refers to the fashions of savages.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> By what means does the writer give interest to her work?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> How does the essay differ from an ordinary informational -article?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What advantage does the writer gain by referring to various -works of literature?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> How does the writer avoid harshness of criticism?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What is the general plan of the essay?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom: 0.6em"> What does the article show concerning Miss Repplier?</li> -</ol> - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<h4>SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION</h4> -</div> - - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="his31"> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">1. Fashions for Men</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">11. Children's Clothes</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">2. Jewelry</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">12. Style in Shoes</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">3. Good Manners</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">13. Social Customs</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">4. Table Etiquette</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">14. Street Behavior</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">5. Neckties</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">15. Ribbons</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">6. Dancing</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">16. School Yells</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">7. Spoken English</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">17. Slang</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">8. Stockings</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">18. Hair Dressing</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">9. Buttons</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">19. The Use of Mirrors</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">10. Exercise</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">20. Walking</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - -<h4>DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING</h4> - -<p class="p2">Your object is to write, in a critical vein, about some modern -custom, and to write without bitterness. Embody your criticism in -mild humor. Find something good even in the midst of what is bad. -Above all, draw definite examples from literature and history, in -order to make your thought have weight.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="footnotes"> -<p class="p2 center big2">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_152" href="#FNanchor_152" class="label">[152]</a> Lord Frederic Hamilton (1856—). An English diplomat and editor. -He has travelled in many lands. Among his works are: <em>The Holiday -Adventures of Mr. P. J. Davenant</em>; <em>Lady Eleanor</em>; <em>The Vanished -Pomps of Yesterday</em>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_153" href="#FNanchor_153" class="label">[153]</a> Empress Eugenia (1826-1920). A Spanish Countess who in 1853 -became the wife of Napoleon III of France and the natural leader -of French society.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_154" href="#FNanchor_154" class="label">[154]</a> Blanchisseuse de fin. A laundress.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_155" href="#FNanchor_155" class="label">[155]</a> Tierra del Fuegian. An inhabitant of the archipelago at the extreme -southern end of South America.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_156" href="#FNanchor_156" class="label">[156]</a> John Evelyn (1620-1706). The author of a diary kept from 1624-1706 -in which he gives a wealth of information concerning life in his -period.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_157" href="#FNanchor_157" class="label">[157]</a> Charles I (1600-1649). King of England from 1625 to 1649. He -was overthrown and beheaded by the adherents of the parliamentary, -or Puritan, forces.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_158" href="#FNanchor_158" class="label">[158]</a> Robert Herrick (1591-1674). An English poet, author of many -charming poems, one of which is <em>Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May</em>.</p> - -</div> -</div> -</div> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</span></p> -<p class="p4 center big3">POETIC PROSE</p> -</div> - -<h2 class="nobreak">CHILDREN</h2> - -<p class="center big1">By YUKIO OZAKI</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p2"><em>Madame Ozaki is the wife of a former mayor of Tokyo and -former Minister of Justice in the Okuma Cabinet. She writes -for many magazines. Among her books are:</em> Warriors of Old -Japan; The Japanese Fairy Book; Romances of Old Japan.</p> -</div> - -<div class="indent1 bold small1"> - -<p class="p2">The essay is so natural an expression of the writer's personality that -it has much in common with lyric poetry. Both the essay and the lyric, -at their best, are ardent expressions of self. When the emotion in -either is deep and genuine the language takes on richness of rhythm, -and the effect becomes entirely poetic. Many of the best essays contain -passages that in all except meter and rime are poems,—prose poems.</p> - -<p><em>Children</em> is an example of highly poetic prose.</p> -</div> - - -<p class="p2">Let us love our children serenely, devotedly, even passionately. -Surely in their innocence and angelic simplicity -they play on the threshold of heaven. Let us hush our noisy -activities and stale anxieties, and under the trees and in the -open that they love listen to the words of refreshing wisdom -dropping like jewels from their naïve lips.</p> - -<p>Let us be willing to sit at their dainty little feet, so unused -to the dusty roads of this world, and learn from them divinest -lessons. Let us with uplifted hearts realize our responsibility -when with unconscious humility they accept us as their guides -in the sweet, fresh morning of their lives.</p> - -<p>O sister-mothers in the world, let us awaken to a deeper -sense of this sublime trust, our high charge in the care of these -immortal treasures, only for a little while, such a little while, -given into our keeping! Let us make our hearts, our minds, -our consciences worthy of these transcendent marvels of life!</p> - -<p>Oh, joy of joys! Oh, purest wonder! How often my -children lift the invisible veils that hide undreamed-of casements<span class="pagenum" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</span> -opening out on luminous vistas of the mystical world -in which they wander, roaming fancy-free with keen and -wondering delight!</p> - -<p>Take me with you, oh, take me with you, children mine, -when with bright eyes and with kindled imagination, all spirit, -fire and dew, you sally forth on these highroads of discovery, -to the elysiums of your day-dreams, peopled by the souls of -birds, animals, flowers and pictures in happy communion!</p> - - -<h4>SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS</h4> - -<ol class="f"> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Point out examples of rhythmical sentences.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Point out figures of speech.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Point out words that have been chosen because of their charm, -or their suggestive power.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Show how the selection rises in emotion.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> How do children “play on the threshold of heaven”?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What “refreshing wisdom” do children express?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What “divinest lessons” may we learn from children?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What “undreamed of casements” do children open?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Explain the last paragraph.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Point out all the respects in which this selection is like a poem.</li> -</ol> - - -<h4>SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION</h4> - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="his32"> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">1. The Baby</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">11. Dreams</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">2. The Helpless</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">12. Beautiful Views</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">3. The Old</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">13. The Sunshine</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">4. Father and Mother</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">14. Summer</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">5. Grandmother</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">15. Favorite Flowers</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">6. Home</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">16. Birds</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">7. Playmates</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">17. My Dog</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">8. Memories</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">18. The Garden</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">9. Holidays</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">19. Snow</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">10. Ambitions</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">20. Sunrise</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h4>DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING</h4> -</div> - -<p class="p2">In order to write poetic prose you must write from genuine -emotion. Write about something that you really love. Choose your<span class="pagenum" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</span> -words so that they will most clearly reveal your feelings. Think -of the deeper meanings and of the greater values of your subject. -Make your essay increase steadily in power until the very end. -Make it, like a good lyric poem, reveal the writer's best self in one -of his noblest moments.</p> - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak">SHIPS THAT LIFT TALL SPIRES OF CANVAS<a id="FNanchor_159" href="#Footnote_159" class="fnanchor">[159]</a></h2> -</div> - -<p class="center big1">By RALPH D. PAINE</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p2"><em>(1871—). An American author and journalist, especially -noted for excellent work as a war correspondent. Among his -many books concerning the sea are the following:</em> The Praying -Skipper, and Other Stories; The Ships and Sailors of Old -Salem; The Judgments of the Sea; The Adventures of Captain -O'Shea; The Fighting Fleets; The Fight for a Free Sea. He -is a frequent contributor to magazines.</p> -</div> - -<div class="indent1 bold small1"> - -<p class="p2"><em>Ships That Lift Tall Spires of Canvas</em> is practically a poem, although -it is written in prose. It is an emotional expression of admiration for the -sailing vessels of the past, and for the gallant sailors who manned -them. It is evident that the author is familiar with many stories of -romantic voyages and grim adventure on the deep, and that his emotion -springs from his knowledge. That genuineness of feeling did much to -lead him to choose suggestive words and to write in balanced and -rhythmical sentences. All good style comes in large part from earnestness -of thought or depth of emotion, and in smaller degree from -knowledge of the rhetorical means of conveying thought or emotion.</p> - - -<div class="poetry-container pw20"> -<div class="poetry"> -<p class="p1"> -Oh, night and day the ships come in,<br /> -The ships both great and small,<br /> -But never one among them brings<br /> -A word of him at all.<br /> -From Port o' Spain and Trinidad,<br /> -From Rio or Funchal,<br /> -And along the coast of Barbary.</p> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="p2">Steam has not banished from the deep sea the ships that -lift tall spires of canvas to win their way from port to port. -The gleam of their topsails recalls the centuries in which men -wrought with stubborn courage to fashion fabrics of wood -and cordage that would survive the enmity of the implacable -ocean and make the winds obedient. Their genius was unsung, -their hard toil forgotten, but with each generation the -sailing ship became nobler and more enduring, until it was -a perfect thing. Its great days live in memory with a peculiar -atmosphere of romance. Its humming shrouds were -vibrant with the eternal call of the sea, and in a phantom -fleet pass the towering East Indiaman, the hard-driven Atlantic -packet, and the gracious clipper that fled before the -Southern trades.</p> - -<p>A hundred years ago every bay and inlet of the New -England coast were building ships that fared bravely forth -to the West Indies, to the roadsteads of Europe, to the -mysterious havens of the Far East. They sailed in peril of -pirate and privateer, and fought these rascals as sturdily as -they battled with wicked weather. Coasts were unlighted, -the seas uncharted, and navigation was mostly guesswork, -but these seamen were the flower of an American merchant -marine whose deeds are heroic in the nation's story. Great -hearts in little ships, they dared and suffered with simple, -uncomplaining fortitude. Shipwreck was an incident, and to -be adrift in lonely seas or cast upon a barbarous shore was -sadly commonplace. They lived the stuff that made fiction -after they were gone.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h4>SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS</h4> -</div> - -<ol class="f"> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Make a list of the most effective adjectives in the selection.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Make a list of the words that do most to suggest the sea.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Read aloud the most effective sentences.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Point out examples of balanced construction.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Show that the author has indicated the entire field of the subject.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> In what ways is the selection poetic?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What famous books tell stories of sailing vessels?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What books of the sea did Fenimore Cooper write?</li> -</ol> - - -<h4 class="nobreak">SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION</h4> - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="his33"> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">1. Old Gardens</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">11. My Grandmother</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">2. Farm Houses</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">12. Old Letters</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">3. My Childhood Home</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">13. A Happy Day</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">4. Mothers</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">14. The Old Soldier</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">5. Flowers</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">15. A Relic</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">6. Memories</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">16. A Familiar Street</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">7. Old School-books</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">17. Changes</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">8. Old Friends</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">18. Souvenirs</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">9. Childhood Games</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">19. Skating</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">10. Favorite Stories</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">20. Summer Days</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</span></p> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter illowp48" id="ilo_fp-287" style="max-width: 36.875em;"> - <img class="w100 p2" src="images/ilo_fp-287.jpg" alt="ilop288" /> - <p class="right">(<em>page 287</em>)</p> - <p class="caption p1 center">“Its humming shrouds were vibrant with the eternal call of the sea.”</p> -</div> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h4>DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING</h4> -</div> - -<p class="p2">The subject that you select must be one concerning which you -know a great deal. It must be one that exists not only in your -brain but also in your heart.</p> - -<p>When you have selected your subject make a list of the points -that appeal to you most, and that will represent every side of the -subject.</p> - -<p>When you write, let your emotion guide your pen. At the same -time make every effort to select words that will be full of suggestive -power. Write easily and rhythmically, and let your work end, as -Mr. Paine's does, in an especially effective sentence.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="footnotes"> -<p class="p2 center big2">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_159" href="#FNanchor_159" class="label">[159]</a> From “Lost Ships and Lonely Seas,” by Ralph D. Paine. Copyright -by the Century Co.</p> - -</div> -</div> -</div> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</span></p> -<p class="p4 center big3">PERSONALITY IN CORRESPONDENCE</p> -</div> - -<p class="p4 center big1">By THEODORE ROOSEVELT and AUGUSTUS SAINT-GAUDENS</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="p2"><em>(1858-1919). Twenty-sixth President of the United States. -One of the most vigorous, courageous and picturesque figures -in the public life of his day. Soon after his graduation from -Harvard, and from Columbia Law School he entered public -life, and gave invaluable service in many positions, becoming -President in 1901, and again in 1904. His work as an organizer -of the “Rough Riders,” his skill in horsemanship, his courage -as an explorer and hunter, and his staunch patriotism and -high ideals all made him both interesting and beloved. His work -as an author is alone sufficient to make him great. Among his -many books are</em> The Winning of the West; The Strenuous -Life; African Game Trails; True Americanism.</p> - -<p class="p1"><em>(1848-1907). One of the greatest American sculptors. His -statues of Admiral Farragut, Abraham Lincoln, The Puritan, -Peter Cooper, and General Sherman are noble examples of his -art. Many other works of sculpture, including the beautiful -“Diana” on Madison Square Garden Tower, New York, attest -his rare skill. He excelled in what is called “relief.” His -influence on American art was remarkably great. His portrait-plaque -of Robert Louis Stevenson is especially interesting to -lovers of literature.</em></p> -</div> - -<div class="indent1 bold small1"> -<p class="p2">The essay and the friendly letter are closely related. It is natural -for one who writes a friendly letter to express himself freely and -intimately, to make wise or humorous comments on life, to write meditatively -of all the things that interest him,—in fact, to reveal himself -in full. To do all that, even within the limited form of the letter, is to -write an approach to an essay. Almost any one of the essays in this -book might have been written as part of a friendly letter.</p> - -<p>The spirit of the essay, that of personality, should enter into all -letters except those that are purely formal in nature. In fact, the -amount of personality expressed in a letter is, often, a measure of -the success of the letter.</p> - -<p>The following letters written by Theodore Roosevelt and Augustus -Saint-Gaudens are, in a sense, business letters. In 1905 Mr. Roosevelt -was president of the United States. He believed that the coins of the -United States, like the coins of the ancient Greeks, should be beautiful. -That he had the highest respect for the great sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, -is shown by a letter that he wrote in 1903 concerning the -impressively beautiful statue of General Sherman, that now stands at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</span> -the 59th Street entrance to Central Park, New York City. In 1905 -Mr. Roosevelt met Mr. Saint-Gaudens at a dinner in Washington and -talked with him concerning the coinage of the United States and the -possibility of improving it. The letters given in this book are part of -the correspondence that followed this conversation.</p> - -<p>Both men had serious purpose in writing and both were intensely -practical; yet each man wrote in a manner that is exceedingly personal. -The letters have something of the spirit of the essay.</p> -</div> - -<h3><span class="smcap">The Statue of General Sherman</span></h3> - - -<p><span class="smcap">White House<br /> -Washington</span></p> - -<p style="padding-left: 75%; "><span class="smcap">Oyster Bay</span>, N. Y.<br /> -August 3, 1903.</p> - -<p>Personal</p> - -<p style="padding-left: 1em;"><em>My dear Mr. Saint-Gaudens</em>:</p> - -<p>Your letter was a great relief and pleasure to me. I had -been told that it was you personally who had opposed ——. -I have no claim to be listened to about these matters, save -such claim as a man of ordinary cultivation has. But I do -think that ——, like Proctor, has done excellent work in -his wild-beast figures.</p> - -<p>By the way, I was very glad that the Grant decision -in Washington went the way it did. The rejected figure, -it seemed to me, fell between two schools. It suggested allegory; -and yet it did not show that high quality of imagination -which must be had when allegory is suggested. The -figure that was taken is the figure of the great general, the -great leader of men. It is not the greatest type of statue -for the very reason that there is nothing of the allegorical, -nothing of the highest type of the imaginative in it. But -it is a good statue. Now to my mind your Sherman is the -greatest statue of a commander in existence. But I can -say with all sincerity that I know of no man—of course -of no one living—who could have done it. To take grim, -homely, old Sherman, the type and ideal of a democratic -general, and put with him an allegorical figure such as you -did, could result in but one of two ways—a ludicrous failure -or striking the very highest note of the sculptor's art. Thrice<span class="pagenum" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</span> -over for the good fortune of our countrymen, it was given to -you to strike this highest note.</p> - -<p style="padding-left: 70%;"> -Always faithfully yours,<br /> -<span class="smcap">Theodore Roosevelt</span>.</p> - -<p>Mr. Augustus Saint-Gaudens,<br /> -<span style="padding-left: 1em;">Aspet, Windsor, Vermont.</span></p> - -<h3><span class="smcap">The Roosevelt-Saint-Gaudens Correspondence Concerning Coinage</span></h3> - -<p><span class="smcap">The White House<br /> -Washington</span></p> - -<p style="padding-left: 75%; ">Nov. 6, 1905.</p> - -<p style="padding-left: 1em;"><em>My dear Saint-Gaudens</em>:</p> - -<p>How is that old gold coinage design getting along? I -want to make a suggestion. It seems to me worth while to -try for a really good coinage; though I suppose there will -be a revolt about it! I was looking at some gold coins of -Alexander the Great to-day, and I was struck by their high -relief. Would it not be well to have our coins in high relief, -and also to have the rims raised? The point of having -the rims raised would be, of course, to protect the figure on -the coin; and if we have the figures in high relief, like the -figures on the old Greek coins, they will surely last longer. -What do you think of this?</p> - -<p style="padding-left: 10em;">With warm regards.</p> - -<p style="padding-left: 70%;"> -Faithfully yours,<br /> -<span class="smcap">Theodore Roosevelt</span>.</p> -<p>Mr. Augustus Saint-Gaudens,<br /> -<span style="padding-left: 1em;">Windsor, Vermont.</span></p> - -<p class="p2" style="padding-left: 75%;"> -<span class="smcap">Windsor, Vermont</span>,<br /> -Nov. 11, 1905.</p> - -<p><i>Dear Mr. President</i>:</p> - -<p>You have hit the nail on the head with regard to the -coinage. Of course the great coins (and you might almost -say the only coins) are the Greek ones you speak of, just -as the great medals are those of the fifteenth century by -Pisanello and Sperandio. Nothing would please me more</p> - - -<div class="figcenter illowp100" id="ilo_fp-292-1" style="max-width: 34.375em;"> - <img class="w100 p1" src="images/ilo_fp-292-1.jpg" alt="ilop292-1" /> - -<table class="autotable" summary="fig1"> -<tr> -<td class="tdl bold small1">Obverse of the ten-dollar gold<br /> -piece, in high relief, and before<br /> -the addition of the head-dress,<br /> -on President Roosevelt's suggestion.</td> - -<td class="tdl bold small1" style="padding-left: 2em;">Obverse of the ten-dollar gold<br /> -piece with the Roosevelt feather <br /> -head-dress. Before the relief<br /> -was radically lowered for minting.</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter illowp100" id="ilo_fp-292-2" style="max-width: 34.375em;"> - <img class="w100 p2" src="images/ilo_fp-292-2.jpg" alt="ilop192-2" /> -<table class="autotable" summary="fig2"> -<tr> -<td class="tdl small1 bold">Liberty obverse of the twenty-dollar<br /> -gold piece as finally designed.<br /> -The relief, however, was made lower<br /> -before minting.<br /> - </td> - -<td class="tdl small1 bold" style="padding-left: 2em;">Liberty obverse of the twenty-dollar<br /> -gold piece. The head-dress, President<br /> -Roosevelt's idea, was later eliminated<br /> -on this figure as too small to be<br /> -effective on the actual coin.</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</span></p> - -<p class="p1">than to make the attempt in the direction of the heads of -Alexander, but the authorities on modern monetary requirements -would, I fear, “throw fits,” to speak emphatically, if -the thing was done now. It would be great if it could be -accomplished and I do not see what the objection would be -if the edges were high enough to prevent rubbing. Perhaps -an inquiry from you would not receive the antagonistic -reply from those who have the say in such matters that -would certainly be made to me.</p> - -<p>Up to the present I have done no work on the actual models -for the coins, but have made sketches, and the matter is -constantly in my mind. I have about determined on the -composition of one side, which would contain an eagle very -much like the one I placed on your medal with a modification -that would be advantageous. On the other side I would -place a (possibly winged) figure of liberty striding energetically -forward as if on a mountain top holding aloft on -one arm a shield bearing the Stars and Stripes with the -word “Liberty” marked across the field, in the other hand, -perhaps, a flaming torch. The drapery would be flowing -in the breeze. My idea is to make it a <em>living</em> thing and typical -of progress.</p> - -<p>Tell me frankly what you think of this and what your ideas -may be. I remember you spoke of the head of an Indian. -Of course that is always a superb thing to do, but would it -be a sufficiently clear emblem of Liberty as required by law?</p> - -<p>I send you an old book on coins which I am certain you -will find of interest while waiting for a copy that I have -ordered from Europe.</p> - -<p style="padding-left: 65%;">Faithfully yours,<br /> -<span class="smcap">Augustus Saint-Gaudens</span>.</p> - - -<p class="p2"><span class="smcap">The White House<br /> -Washington</span></p> - -<p style="padding-left: 75%; ">Nov. 14, 1905.</p> - -<p style="padding-left: 1em;"><em>My dear Mr. Saint-Gaudens</em>:</p> - -<p>I have your letter of the 11th instant and return herewith -the book on coins, which I think you should have until you<span class="pagenum" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</span> -get the other one. I have summoned all the mint people, -and I am going to see if I cannot persuade them that coins -of the Grecian type but with the raised rim will meet the -commercial needs of the day. Of course I want to avoid too -heavy an outbreak of the mercantile classes, because after -all it is they who do use the gold. If we can have an eagle -like that on the Inauguration Medal, only raised, I should -feel that we would be awfully fortunate. Don't you think -that we might accomplish something by raising the figures -more than at present but not as much as in the Greek coins? -Probably the Greek coins would be so thick that modern -banking houses, where they have to pile up gold, would -simply be unable to do so. How would it do to have a design -struck off in a tentative fashion—that is, to have a model -made? I think your Liberty idea is all right. Is it possible -to make a Liberty with that Indian feather head-dress? -Would people refuse to regard it as a Liberty? The figure of -Liberty as you suggest would be beautiful. If we get down -to bed-rock facts would the feather head-dress be any more -out of keeping with the rest of Liberty than the canonical -Phrygian cap which never is worn and never has been worn -by any free people in the world?</p> - -<p style="padding-left: 70%;"> -Faithfully yours,<br /> -<span class="smcap">Theodore Roosevelt</span>.</p> - -<p>Mr. Augustus Saint-Gaudens,<br /> -<span style="padding-left: 1em;">Windsor, Vermont.</span></p> - - - -<p class="p2" style="padding-left: 75%"><span class="smcap">Windsor, Vermont</span>,<br /> - Nov. 22, 1905.</p> - -<p style="padding-left: 1em;"><em>Dear Mr. President</em>:</p> - -<p>Thank you for your letter of the 14th and the return -of the book on coins.</p> - -<p>I can perfectly well use the Indian head-dress on the -figure of Liberty. It should be very handsome. I have been -at work for the last two days on the coins and feel quite -enthusiastic about it.</p> - -<p>I enclose a copy of a letter to Secretary Shaw which explains<span class="pagenum" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</span> -itself. If you are of my opinion and will help, I -shall be greatly obliged.</p> - -<p style="padding-left: 65%;">Faithfully yours,<br /> -<span class="smcap">Augustus Saint-Gaudens</span>.</p> - -<p class="p1">[Hand-written postscript.]</p> - -<p>I think something between the high relief of the Greek -coins and the extreme low relief of the modern work is -possible, and as you suggest, I will make a model with that -in view.</p> - - - -<p class="p2" style="padding-left: 75%;"><span class="smcap">Windsor, Vermont</span>,<br /> -Nov. 22, 1905.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Hon. L. M. Shaw</span>,<br /> -Secretary of the Treasury,<br /> -Washington, D. C.</p> - -<p style="padding-left: 1em;"><em>Dear Sir</em>:</p> - -<p>I am now engaged on the models for the coinage. The law -calls for, viz., “On one side there shall be an impression -emblematic of liberty, with an inscription of the word 'liberty' -and the year of the coinage.” It occurs to me that -the addition on this side of the coins of the word “Justice” -(or “Law,” preferably the former) would add force as -well as elevation to the meaning of the composition. At -one time the words “In God we trust” were placed on the -coins. I am not aware that there was authorization for that, -but I may be mistaken.</p> - -<p>Will you kindly inform me whether what I suggest is -possible.</p> - -<p style="padding-left: 65%;"> -Yours very truly,<br /> -<span class="smcap">Augustus Saint-Gaudens</span>.</p> - - - - -<p class="p2"><span class="smcap">The White House<br /> -Washington</span></p> - -<p style="padding-left: 75%;">Nov. 24, 1905.</p> - -<p style="padding-left: 1em;"><em>My dear Mr. Saint-Gaudens</em>:</p> - -<p>This is first class. I have no doubt we can get permission -to put on the word “Justice,” and I firmly believe that you -can evolve something that will not only be beautiful from -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</span> -the artistic standpoint, but that, between the very high relief -of the Greek and the very low relief of the modern coins, -will be adapted both to the mechanical necessities of our -mint production and the needs of modern commerce, and -yet will be worthy of a civilized people—which is not true -of our present coins.</p> - -<p style="padding-left: 70%;"> -Faithfully yours,<br /> -<span class="smcap">Theodore Roosevelt</span>.</p> - -<p>Mr. Augustus Saint-Gaudens,<br /> -<span style="padding-left: 1em;">Windsor, Vermont.</span></p> - - -<p class="p2"><span class="smcap">The White House<br /> -Washington</span></p> - -<p style="padding-left: 75%;">Jan. 6, 1906.</p> - - -<p style="padding-left: 1em;"><em>My dear Saint-Gaudens</em>:</p> - -<p>I have seen Shaw about that coinage and told him that -it was my pet baby. We will try it anyway, so you go -ahead. Shaw was really very nice about it. Of course he -thinks I am a mere crack-brained lunatic on the subject, -but he said with great kindness that there was always a certain -number of gold coins that had to be stored up in -vaults, and that there was no earthly objection to having -those coins as artistic as the Greeks could desire. (I am -paraphrasing his words, of course.) I think it will seriously -increase the mortality among the employees of the mint at -seeing such a desecration, but they will perish in a good -cause!</p> - -<p style="padding-left: 70%;"> -Always yours,<br /> -<span class="smcap">Theodore Roosevelt</span>.</p> - -<p>Mr. Augustus Saint-Gaudens,<br /> -<span style="padding-left: 1em;">Windsor, Vermont.</span></p> - -<p class="p2"><span class="smcap">The White House<br /> -Washington</span></p> - -<p style="padding-left: 75%;">October 1, 1906.</p> - -<p>Personal</p> -<p style="padding-left: 1em;"><em>My dear Mr. Saint-Gaudens</em>:</p> - -<p>The mint people have come down, as you can see from -the enclosed letter which is in answer to a rather dictatorial -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</span> -one I sent to the Secretary of the Treasury. When can we -get that design for the twenty-dollar gold piece? I hate -to have to put on the lettering, but under the law I have -no alternative; yet in spite of the lettering I think, my dear -sir, that you have given us a coin as wonderful as any of -the old Greek coins. I do not want to bother you, but do -let me have it as quickly as possible. I would like to have -the coin well on the way to completion by the time Congress -meets.</p> - -<p>It was such a pleasure seeing your son the other day.</p> - -<p>Please return Director Roberts' letter to me when you -have noted it.</p> - -<p style="padding-left: 70%;">Sincerely yours,<br /> -<span class="smcap">Theodore Roosevelt</span>.</p> - -<p>Mr. Augustus Saint-Gaudens,<br /> -<span style="padding-left: 1em;">Windsor, Vermont.</span></p> - - - -<p class="p2"><span class="smcap">The White House<br /> -Washington</span></p> - -<p style="padding-left: 75%;">December 11, 1906.</p> - -<p style="padding-left: 1em;"><em>My dear Mr. Saint-Gaudens</em>:</p> - -<p>I hate to trouble you, but it is very important that I should -have the models for those coins at once. How soon may I -have them?</p> - -<p style="padding-left: 10em;">With all good wishes, believe me,</p> - -<p style="padding-left: 70%;">Sincerely yours,<br /> -<span class="smcap">Theodore Roosevelt</span>.</p> - -<p>Mr. Augustus Saint-Gaudens,<br /> -<span style="padding-left: 1em;">Windsor, Vermont.</span></p> - - - -<p class="p2" style="padding-left: 75%;"><span class="smcap">Windsor, Vermont</span>,<br /> - December 19, 1906.</p> - -<p style="padding-left: 1em;"><em>Dear Mr. President</em>:</p> - -<p>I am afraid from the letter sent you on the fourteenth -with the models for the Twenty-Dollar Gold piece that you -will think the coin I sent you was unfinished. This is not -the case. It is the final and completed model, but I hold -myself in readiness to make any such modifications as may -be required in the reproduction of the coin.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</span></p> - -<p>This will explain the words, “test model” on the back of -each model.</p> - -<p style="padding-left: 65%;">Faithfully yours,<br /> -<span class="smcap">Augustus Saint-Gaudens</span>.</p> - -<p class="p2"><span class="smcap">The White House<br /> -Washington</span></p> - -<p style="padding-left: 75%;">December 20, 1906.</p> - -<p style="padding-left: 1em;"><em>My dear Saint-Gaudens</em>:</p> - -<p>Those models are simply immense—if such a slang way -of talking is permissible in reference to giving a modern -nation one coinage at least which shall be as good as that -of the ancient Greeks. I have instructed the Director of -the Mint that these dies are to be reproduced just as quickly -as possible and just as they are. It is simply splendid. I -suppose I shall be impeached for it in Congress; but I shall -regard that as a very cheap payment!</p> - -<p style="padding-left: 10em;">With heartiest regards,</p> - -<p style="padding-left: 70%;"> -Faithfully yours,<br /> -<span class="smcap">Theodore Roosevelt</span>.</p> - -<p>Mr. Augustus Saint-Gaudens,<br /> -<span style="padding-left: 1em;">Windsor, Vermont.</span></p> - - - -<h4>SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS</h4> - -<ol class="f"> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Why should a great statue have in it something of the allegorical?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Describe Mr. Saint-Gaudens' statue of General Sherman.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What does the first letter show concerning Mr. Roosevelt's opinion -of the art of sculpture?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> In what ways are the old Greek coins beautiful?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Point out essay-like freedom in the use of English.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Point out passages that are notably personal.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What were Mr. Roosevelt's plans for the making of United -States coins?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What were Mr. Saint-Gaudens' plans?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Draw from the letters material for an essay on coinage.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Show in what respects the letters have something of the spirit -of the essay.</li> -</ol> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</span></p> - - -<h4>SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION</h4> - - -<ol class="f"> -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> A letter suggesting an inter-school debate.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> A letter inviting a graduate of the school to act as judge at a -debate.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> A letter inviting a prominent citizen to address a society of -which you are a member.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> A letter telling of your experiences in a place that you are visiting -for the first time.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> A letter giving your opinion of a book that you have read -recently.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> A letter telling your plans for the coming vacation.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> A letter concerning the use of an athletic field.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> A letter inviting the graduates of your school to come to a school -festival or entertainment.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> A letter concerning music in your school.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> A letter giving an excuse for absence.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> A letter concerning work in photography.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> A letter concerning the work of prominent athletes.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> A letter concerning arrangements for class day exercises.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> A letter concerning graduation week.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> A letter to a teacher who has left the school.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> A letter to a person much older than you.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> A letter to a school in a foreign country.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> A letter to a school in another State.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> A letter written, in the name of your class, for publication in -the school annual.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> A letter of congratulation.</li> - -</ol> - -<h4>DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING</h4> - -<p class="p2">Write your letter so that it will express a definite and practical -proposal. Express your own individual opinion modestly and tactfully. -Use language that will thoroughly represent yourself. Try, -in all ways possible, to avoid making your letter heavy, “cut-and-dried,” -conventional, and purely formal.</p> - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</span></p> -<p class="p4 center big3">THE SYMBOLIC STORY</p> -</div> - -<h2 class="nobreak">HI-BRASIL</h2> - -<p class="center big1">By RALPH DURAND</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p2"><em>An English traveller, soldier and author, who is still young -and who has “followed the Sea Maid” over every ocean. Like -the English poet, John Masefield, he served for a time as a sailor -before the mast. He has seen life intimately in various out-of-the-way -places, such as the South Sea Islands, Central Africa, -and the Arctic Regions. In the World War he performed -patriotic duty in the trenches and on Intelligence Staffs.</em></p> -</div> - -<div class="indent1 bold small1"> - -<p class="p2"><em>Hi-Brasil</em> is a charming and fascinating story, a symbolic narrative -that most artistically combines realism and fancy, and appeals to the -unfulfilled longings that every reader possesses.</p> - -<p>What is Hi-Brasil? It is the “Never-Never-Land,” the land of -dreams, the land of longings. In this story it is specifically the land -where the lost ships go. Who is the Sea Maid? She is the Spirit of -Adventure, the love of whom calls men ever restlessly on. In this story -she is the Spirit of the Sea. How skilfully Mr. Durand describes her -in sea-words: “With sea-blue eyes” and “Wind-blown” hair; her -laugh “Like the ripple of a stream that runs over a pebbly beach”; -her song “Like the surge of breakers on a distant reef”; herself “As -old as the sea, and a little older than the hills.”</p> - -<p>No one but a lover of the sea, and a lover also of bold enterprise and -high deeds, could have written such a story, emphasizing as it does -somewhat of the theme of Longfellow's <em>Excelsior</em> and Poe's <em>Eldorado</em>—</p> - -<div class= "poetry-container pw20"> -<div class="poetry"> -<p class="p1"> -“Over the mountains<br /> -Of the moon,<br /> -Down the Valley of the Shadow,<br /> -Ride! Boldly ride!...<br /> -If you seek for Eldorado!”</p> - -<p class="p1"> -“I've never sailed the Amazon,<br /> -I've never reached Brazil;<br /> -But the <em>Don</em> and <em>Magdalena</em>,<br /> -They can go there when they will!”</p> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="p2">Peter Luscombe was the dullest man that ever audited an -account. Once when his neighbor at a dinner-party, having -heard that he was an authority on marine insurance, quoted<span class="pagenum" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</span> -Longfellow about “the beauty and the mystery of the ships -and the magic of the sea,” Peter looked embarrassed and -turned the conversation to the subject of charter-parties.</p> - -<p>His life was as carefully regulated as Big Ben. He caught -the same train every morning, dined at the same hour every -evening, indexed his private correspondence, and for recreation -read Price's “Calculations.” On Saturday afternoons -he played golf.</p> - -<p>One Summer a business matter took Peter to St. Mawes, and -on his way there he met the Sea Maid. To get to St. Mawes -he had to cross Falmouth Harbor by the public ferry.</p> - -<p>Though till then he had had no more direct personal experience -of the sea than can be obtained from the Promenade -at Hove, Peter was so little interested in his surroundings -that he spent the first part of the ferry journey making notes -of his personal expenditure since leaving London, including -tips, on the last page of his pocket-diary. Midway across the -harbor he chanced to look up and saw a yawl-rigged fishing-boat—subconsciously -he noticed the name <em>Maeldune</em> painted -on her bows—running before the wind in the direction of -Falmouth Quay. An old, white-haired man, whose cheeks -were the color of an Autumn leaf, was sitting amidships tending -the sheets, and at the tiller sat a girl—a girl with sea-blue -eyes and untidy, wind-blown, dark-brown hair.</p> - -<p>She was bending forward, peering under the arched foot -of the mainsail, when Peter first caught sight of her. Their -eyes met; the girl smiled—and Peter dropped his pocket-diary -into the dirty water that washed about the ferryman's -boots and stared after the <em>Maeldune</em> till he could no longer -distinguish her among the other small craft in the harbor.</p> - -<p>When the ferry-boat reached St. Mawes and discharged her -other passengers Peter remained in her, and on the return -journey sat in the bows straining his eyes to pick out the -<em>Maeldune</em> among the other fishing-boats. Falmouth Harbor -is two and a half miles wide, and the ferryman refused to be -hurried; but at last the quay came in sight, and Peter's heart -leaped, for the <em>Maeldune</em> was lying at the steps, and the girl -was still on board of her. As soon as the ferry-boat reached<span class="pagenum" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</span> -the steps Peter jumped ashore and faced the girl. Then he -hesitated, embarrassed. He had nothing to say to her, or, -rather, no excuse for speaking to her. “I—I—I saw you—as -you came up the harbor,” he faltered.</p> - -<p>But the girl showed no sign of embarrassment. She smiled -at him again, and her smile was brighter than sunlight shining -through the curl of a breaking wave.</p> - -<p>“I'm just going out for a sail again,” she said, “and I've -room for a passenger. Old John has just gone to have a yarn -with the sailmaker. Would you care to come?”</p> - -<p>Peter jumped onto the <em>Maeldune's</em> thwart, and the girl cast -off and hoisted the sail. “I'm afraid I don't know anything -about sailing,” said Peter.</p> - -<p>The girl laughed, and her laugh sounded like the ripple of -a stream that runs over a pebbly beach.</p> - -<p>“That doesn't matter,” she said; “I can manage the old -<em>Maeldune</em> single-handed.”</p> - -<p>They beat down the harbor, rounded the Loze, and stood -out in the direction of mid-channel. Peter was entirely happy. -The wind was blowing fresh from the southwest, and the -<em>Maeldune</em> danced lightly over the waves like a thing alive, -her thwarts aslant and her lee-rail just clear of the water.</p> - -<p>“This is glorious,” said Peter. “Do you know, this is the -first time I have ever been on the sea.”</p> - -<p>“It won't be the last,” said the girl.</p> - -<p>For a long while neither spoke again. Peter did not want -to talk. He was content to watch the Sea Maid as she sat at -the tiller, looking toward the horizon with dreamy eyes and -crooning to herself a wordless song that sounded like the -surge of breakers on a distant reef.</p> - -<p>“What song is that?” he asked after a long silence.</p> - -<p>“That is the song that Orpheus sang to the <em>Argo</em> when she -lay on the stocks and all the strength of the heroes could not -launch her. Then Orpheus struck his lyre and sang of the -open sea and all the wonders that are beyond the farthest -horizon, till the <em>Argo</em> so yearned to be afloat with a fair wind -behind her that she spread her sails of her own accord and -glided down the beach into the water.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</span></p> - -<p>“I hadn't heard about it,” said Peter. The story was so -fantastically impossible that he supposed that the girl was -chaffing him.</p> - -<p>“You are young, surely, to handle a boat by yourself,” he -said. “Don't think me rude. How old are you?”</p> - -<p>“As old as the sea, and a little older than the hills.”</p> - -<p>Now Peter was sure that the girl was chaffing him.</p> - -<p>Neither spoke again. Occasionally the girl looked at him -and smiled, and her smile was the most beautiful thing that -Peter had ever known. Toward evening they turned and -sailed back, right in the golden path of the sinking sun. -Slowly the old town of Falmouth took shape; the houses became -distinct, then the people on the quay. Peter sighed -because he was coming back to the shore again, and because -for the first time in his life he had tasted absolute happiness.</p> - -<p>Close to the quay the girl threw the boat up in the wind, -ran forward and lowered the head-sails, and then ran back to -the tiller. The <em>Maeldune</em> came gently up to the landing-stage. -Peter jumped ashore and turned, expecting that the girl -would follow, but she pushed off and began to hoist the head-sails -again.</p> - -<p>“May I—may I see you again?” said Peter, as the gap -widened between the boat and the shore.</p> - -<p>The Sea Maid laughed.</p> - -<p>“If you come to Hi-Brasil,” she said.</p> - -<p>Peter walked slowly in the direction of Fore Street, then -realized that he needed some more definite address if he were -to see the girl again. He hurried back to the landing-stage -and looked eagerly for the <em>Maeldune</em>. She was nowhere in -sight.</p> - -<p>“Did you see a little sailing-boat leave the steps about five -minutes ago?” he asked a man who was lounging on the -quay. “Which way did she go?”</p> - -<p>“What rig?”</p> - -<p>“I don't know what you call it—one big mast and one little -one.”</p> - -<p>“A yawl. There's been no yawls in here this afternoon.”</p> - -<p>Peter inwardly cursed the man's stupidity and walked<span class="pagenum" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</span> -dejectedly away. He dreamed of the Sea Maid that night, -and in the morning told himself that he was a fool. He had -had an hour or so of happiness with a jolly girl who evidently -did not wish to continue the acquaintance. Obviously, the -sensible thing to do was to forget all about her. But he could -not forget. Work became impossible. When he tried to -write the laughing face of the Sea Maid danced before his -eyes, and when clients talked to him he could not listen, for -the song she had sung rang in his ears. He went back to -Falmouth determined to see her again, and not till he reached -the Cornish port did he realize the futility of his search. -How was he to make inquiries as to the whereabouts of two -people of whom he knew nothing more definite than that the -man was white-haired and bronzed, and that the girl, when -last seen, had worn a white jersey and a blue-serge skirt?</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>A month later he was an unwilling guest at a reception -given by a famous London hostess. The rooms were packed -with a well-dressed crowd who walked about rather aimlessly, -talking on the stairs or listening to music in one or other of -the reception-rooms. Suddenly Peter's heart stood still for -a moment. Clear above the chatter he heard the Sea Girl's -voice. He was standing at the head of the stairs and she was -singing in one of the adjoining rooms,</p> - -<div class= "poetry-container pw20"> -<div class="poetry"> -<p class="p1"> -I've never sailed the Amazon,<br /> -I've never reached Brazil;<br /> -But the <em>Don</em> and <em>Magdalena</em>,<br /> -They can go there when they will!</p> - -<p class="p1">Yes, weekly from Southampton,<br /> -Great steamers, white and gold,<br /> -Go rolling down to Rio<br /> -(Roll down—roll down to Rio!),<br /> -And I'd like to roll to Rio<br /> -Some day before I'm old!</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="p1">The doorway into the room from which he could hear the -Sea Maid's voice was so crowded with people that it was some -minutes before Peter could edge his way into the room. By -that time the song was over and the singer had gone. Peter -made inquiries from a man standing near, and was told that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</span> -she had left the room by another door. He sought out his -hostess and asked her to introduce him to the lady who had -sung “Rolling down to Rio.” But his hostess could not help -him. She admitted reluctantly that she knew no more of the -singer than that she was a professional entertainer engaged -through the medium of a concert agent and that she had -probably already left the house. Peter followed up the clue. -Next morning, after inquiry from the agent, he rang the bell -of a tiny flat in Maida Vale and stood with beating heart waiting -for the door to open.</p> - -<p>Five minutes later he was out in the street again, bitterly -disappointed. The lady he had seen was able to prove indisputably -that it was she who had sung “Rolling down to Rio,” -but she bore not the slightest resemblance to the Sea Maiden. -To cover his confusion and excuse his visit, Peter had engaged -her to sing at a charity concert that he had invented on the -spur of the moment, had insisted on paying her fee in advance, -and had left the flat, promising to send details of the -place and date of the engagement by post.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>That evening, brooding in his lonely chambers, Peter, who -till then had prided himself on believing nothing that is not -based on the fundamental fact that two and two make four, -became obsessed by the idea that the Sea Maid had sent him -a spirit-message, using the unconscious professional entertainer -as her medium. He tried to shake off the idea, telling -himself that it was fantastic and ridiculous, but gradually it -overmastered him. At eleven o'clock he rose from his chair, -picked up the <em>Times</em>, and consulted the shipping advertisements. -Five minutes later he rang for his man servant.</p> - -<p>“Buck up and pack, Higgins,” he said. “I'm off to Brazil. -You haven't too much time. Boat-train leaves Waterloo at -midday to-morrow.”</p> - -<p>“To Brazil, sir? Isn't that one of those foreign places?”</p> - -<p>“Yes. Why? What are you staring at? Why shouldn't -I go to Brazil?”</p> - -<p>“Shall you want me, sir?”</p> - -<p>“You can come if you like.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</span></p> - -<p>“If it's all the same to you, sir, I'd rather——”</p> - -<p>“Man alive! I thought you'd have jumped at the chance. -Don't you want to go rolling down to Rio? Can't you feel -the magic of it—even in the mere words? Wouldn't you like -to see the armadillo dilloing in his armor——?”</p> - -<p>“I'd better get on with the packing, sir.”</p> - -<p>Higgins was convinced that his master had suddenly “gone -balmy.”</p> - -<p>Before sunset next evening Peter again saw the Sea Maid.</p> - -<p>The <em>R. M. S. Maranhão</em>, outward bound for Rio de Janeiro, -had just left St. Alban's Head abeam when she passed a full-rigged -ship bound down-channel so closely that Peter could -see the men on board of her. Her tug had just left her and -she was setting all sails. One by one the sails fluttered free -and swelled to the soft breeze. Men were lying out on the -upper topsail-yards casting loose the gaskets, and others on -deck were running up the royals to the tune of a chantey,</p> - - -<div class="poetry-container pw15"> -<div class="poetry"> -<p class="p1"> -Sing a song of Ranzo, boys,<br /> -Ranzo, boys, Ranzo.</p> -</div> -</div> - - -<p class="p1">A crisp wave curled from her bows, a long wake of gleaming -foam streamed astern of her, and she curtsied gracefully on -the swell as if gravely saluting the larger, newer vessel. The -<em>Maranhão</em> passed under her stern, and as she passed Peter, -looking down on her poop, saw the Sea Maid. And the Sea -Maid saw him and waved her hand as the great mail-steamer -surged past.</p> - -<p>“D'you know that vessel?” asked Peter eagerly of a ship's -officer who was standing near him.</p> - -<p>“She's the <em>Sea Sprite</em>. Cleared from Southampton early -this morning. Bound for Rio in ballast for hides.”</p> - -<p>“Bound for Rio? Splendid!” said Peter. “How long -will it take her to get there? I know some one on board.”</p> - -<p>“A month—more or less. Who's your pal?”</p> - -<p>“That girl that waved her hand to me.”</p> - -<p>The ship's officer focused his binoculars on the <em>Sea Sprite</em>.</p> - -<p>“There's no girl on her deck. Girls very seldom travel on -wind-jammers nowadays. Look for yourself.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</span></p> - -<p>Peter took the glasses, and again saw the Sea Maid quite -distinctly—but he did not care to argue about it.</p> - -<p>While waiting at Rio de Janeiro Peter took care to make -friends with the port authorities, and arranged with them to -let him have the first news that they had of the <em>Sea Sprite</em>.</p> - -<p>At last one morning found him in the customs launch, -steaming out to the roadstead where the <em>Sea Sprite</em>, her -anchor down, was stowing her canvas. As soon as the quarantine -doctor gave permission Peter scrambled up the ship's -side and looked eagerly round her deck. The Sea Maid was -not there. He could hardly contain himself until he could -find an opportunity to ask for her.</p> - -<p>“I passed you in the Channel, Captain,” he said, “and I -saw a lady on your deck who is an old friend of mine. May I -speak to her?” The captain shook his head.</p> - -<p>“Must have been some other ship,” he said. “We've got -no ladies aboard.”</p> - -<p>Peter's heart sank.</p> - -<p>“I suppose you dropped her at some port on the way.”</p> - -<p>“We haven't smelled harbor mud since we left Southampton -Water,” said the skipper. “You're making a mistake, -mister. Why, you look as if you thought I was lying. -Take a look at the ship's articles, then, if you don't believe -me. Stands to reason, doesn't it, that if I had a woman -aboard her name would be on the articles?”</p> - -<p>Peter returned to the shore, bitterly disappointed and -hardly convinced that he had been mistaken. He booked a -passage on the next homeward-bound steamer. On the homeward -voyage he fell in love with an old lady, one of those -women whose personality is so magnetic that they can draw -the innermost secrets out of a young man's heart. One -evening, when the sea was ablaze with splendor under the -moon, he told her of the Sea Maid, and found it eased his -longing to talk of her. The old lady understood.</p> - -<p>“You'll see your Sea Maid again,” she said. “I'm sure of -it. But perhaps not in this life.”</p> - -<p>But Peter refused to give up hope of seeing the Sea Maid -in the flesh. When he got back to London he sought an interview<span class="pagenum" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</span> -with one of the most eminent members of the Royal -Geographical Society.</p> - -<p>“I want you to tell me where Hi-Brasil is,” he said. “I -want to go there.”</p> - -<p>“Then you'll have to wait till you die,” said the geographer -with a laugh.</p> - -<p>“What do you mean?”</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>“Hi-Brasil is a purely mythical island, like St. Brendan's, -The Fortunate Islands, Avalon, and Lyonnesse, that ancient -and medieval geographers supposed to be somewhere out in -the Atlantic. They've served their purpose. If nobody had -ever believed in them it is probable that America would not -have been discovered yet. The myth of Hi-Brasil's existence -took a long time to die. Venetian geographers of the Middle -Ages supposed it to be somewhere near the Azores, and until -1830 Purdy's chart of the Atlantic marked 'Brasil Rock -(High)' in latitude fifty-one degrees ten minutes north, and -longitude fifteen degrees fifty minutes west—that is, about -two hundred miles westward of the Irish coast.”</p> - -<p>“But isn't it possible that there really is such an island?” -persisted Peter. “The sea is a big place, you know.”</p> - -<p>“Absolutely impossible,” said the geographer. “Why, the -spot indicated by Purdy is right in the track of steamers -going from England to Newfoundland. If you want to read -about Hi-Brasil you must read old books, published before -geography was an exact science.”</p> - -<p>Though he knew it was useless Peter followed the advice -given him and eagerly read every book he could find that -had any bearing on the subject—Rubruquis, Hakluyt, Linschoten, -and many others—and to his delight he found that -his reading brought him nearer to his Sea Maiden. After an -evening spent in imagination exploring the coast of Vinland -with Leif Ericsson, or rounding North Cape with Othere, or -groping blindly in the unknown Atlantic with Malacello, he -almost invariably dreamed that he and the Sea Maiden were -once more sailing together in the little <em>Maeldune</em>.</p> - -<p>It was after reading, first in Longfellow and afterward in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</span> -Hakluyt, about Othere's voyage to the Northern Seas, that -Peter saw an advertisement of a holiday cruise through the -Norwegian fiords to Spitzbergen. He booked a passage, saw -the bleak, storm-harried point that Othere was the first to -round, and, on his way home, saw the Sea Girl again. Just -south of the Dogger Bank the tourist-steamer passed a disreputable-looking -tramp steamer. Half of her plates were -painted a crude red; others were brown with rust; the awning -stanchions on her bridge were twisted and bent; she had a -heavy list to starboard, and she was staggering southward -under a heavy deck-cargo of timber. On the bridge, leaning -against the tattered starboard-dodger, the Sea Maid stood -and waved her hand to him. Peter eagerly sought out a ship's -officer.</p> - -<p>“Where's that steamer bound for?” he asked.</p> - -<p>“Goodness knows!” was the answer. “South Wales, most -likely, as she's carrying pit-props.”</p> - -<p>Hope of seeing the Sea Girl in the flesh again returned, and -Peter wasted the next few weeks vainly searching all the -South Wales coal ports. He had given up the search, and was -returning to his much-neglected business when the South -Wales-London express stopped for a moment on the bridge -over the Wye near Newport. Peter looked idly out of the -window at the dirty river flowing sluggishly between banks -of greasy mud. Then his heart leaped again. Lying embedded -in the mud far below were the rotting remains of a -derelict barge, and on her deck were some ragged children -hauling lustily on a scrap of rope that they had fastened to -one of the barge's bollards and singing what, no doubt, they -supposed to be a chantey. Standing on the barge's rotting -deck was the Sea Maid. This time she not only waved her -hand but called to him, “We are bound for the Spanish -Main.” Peter leaned far out of the window of the railway-carriage.</p> - -<p>“Where can I find you?” he shouted.</p> - -<p>“In Hi-Brasil,” was the answer, and the train moved on.</p> - -<p>Peter was now convinced that the eminent geographer -whom he had consulted as to the whereabouts of Hi-Brasil<span class="pagenum" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</span> -had not known what he was talking about. It must, he decided, -be some little Cornish fishing village, too insignificant -to be worth the great man's notice.</p> - -<p>In pursuit of this idea he went at once to Falmouth and -began to make inquiries, first at the police stations and post-offices, -and afterward among the fishermen. At Falmouth -no one could answer his questions, till at last an old gray-beard -told him that he'd heard of the place and believed it -was somewhere farther west. At Penzance and Newlyn Peter -could hear nothing, and he walked westward to Mousehole, -determined that if he heard nothing there he would go on to -the Scilly Islands. At Mousehole people laughed at him. One -man to whom he spoke was so amused that he called out to a -group of fishermen standing on the quay waiting for the tide -to float their boats.</p> - -<p>“Gen'elman wants to know where Hi-Brasil is.”</p> - -<p>“Then he'll have to go farther west,” said one.</p> - -<p>“To the Scillies?” asked Peter.</p> - -<p>“Aye, and farther than that.”</p> - -<p>“A long way farther than that,” said another. “It's an -old wives' tale, mister. Stout ships that sail westward and -never come back to port again have their last moorings at -Hi-Brasil, so the saying goes. You ask Old John there. He's -the only man that talks about Hi-Brasil, and he's daft.”</p> - -<p>An old man whose broad back was bent with the weight of -many years was hobbling toward him, and Peter knew that -at last he was on the right track. The old fisherman who was -coming down the quay was none other than the man he had -seen sailing in the <em>Maeldune</em> with the Sea Girl.</p> - -<p>“Hi-Brasil?” asked Old John. “What d'you want with -Hi-Brasil?”</p> - -<p>“I want to go there.”</p> - -<p>“Then I'm the man to take 'ee. But mark 'ee, mister, I -can't bring 'ee back.”</p> - -<p>“Never mind about that,” said Peter. “You take me. I'll -pay you well.”</p> - -<p>“Time enough to talk about payment when we get there,” -said the old man. “When do 'ee want to start?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</span></p> - -<p>“At once, if possible.”</p> - -<p>“If 'ee really want to go us can start at half-flood.”</p> - -<p>Peter assured the old man that he was in earnest, and the -latter hobbled away over the cobbles, promising to be back -in an hour's time.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>“You're never going to sea with Old John, are you, -mister?” said one of the fishermen anxiously. “He was a -rare bold seaman in his day, but his day has passed this many -a year. He was old when we were boys. Old John says he'll -last as long as a deep-sea wind-jammer remains afloat. But -he's daft. You oughtn't to listen to him. It's all old wives' -foolishness about Hi-Brasil.”</p> - -<p>But Peter would not be dissuaded, and an hour later, when -the pilchard-boats jostled each other between the Mousehole -pier-heads, and spread across Mount's Bay for sea-room, Peter -and John, in a crazy old mackerel-boat, went with them. The -setting sun gleamed on the brown sails of the pilchard fleet, -and Peter drew a deep breath of delight. He knew that he -would soon see the Sea Maid again.</p> - -<p>At midnight the pilchard fleet was a line of riding lights -on the horizon behind them. When the sun rose the Scillies -lay to the north of them. Passing under the lofty Head of -Peninnis, they exchanged hails with a fisherman of St. Mary's -who was hauling his lobster-pots.</p> - -<p>“Going far?” asked the fisherman.</p> - -<p>“Aye, far enough,” answered John.</p> - -<p>“Looks like it's coming on to blow from the east,” said the -fisherman.</p> - -<p>“Like enough,” answered John, and they passed out of -hearing.</p> - -<p>By midday a fresh wind was blowing. The mackerel-boat's -faded, much-patched sails tugged at her mast, and she groaned -as she leaped from the tops of the waves.</p> - -<p>“Afeard, be 'ee?” asked Old John.</p> - -<p>“Not I,” said Peter.</p> - -<p>“The harder it blows, the quicker we'll get there,” said -John, and not another word was said.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</span></p> - -<p>By night-time it was blowing a gale. A driving, following -sea hustled and banged the boat from wave to wave, and the -night fell so dark that Peter could not see the old man sitting -motionless at the tiller, except when a wave broke in foam -and formed a great white background behind him. Peter -felt no fear. He knew with the certainty that admits of no -argument that he was on his way at last to his beloved.</p> - -<p>The wind hummed in the boat's rigging with a droning -note like that of the Sea Maid's song. The waves washed -along her counter, flinging aboard stinging showers of spray -that drenched Peter as he sat on the midship thwart. The -jib flapped and tugged at its sheet when her stern rose on a -wave and groaned with the strain as her bow lifted. Each -time she strained streams of water gushed through her crazy -seams. At last a fierce gust of wind drove her nose so deep -into the water that it poured in a cascade over her bows, and -then a great, curving comber broke over them. Peter was -washed from his seat and jammed between the mast and the -leech of the mainsail as the water rose over his head.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>When Peter recovered consciousness the sun was shining, -the air was warm, the sea still, and the mackerel-boat, with -Old John still at the tiller, was entering the mouth of a great -land-locked harbor. Cliffs, gay with heather and golden -gorse, sheltered it from the wind. The lazy, offshore breeze -was fragrant with the smell of thyme. Shoals of fish played -in the clear water, and on the far side a stream of fresh water -rippled over golden sand.</p> - -<p>Peter rubbed his eyes and looked around him with amazement. -The harbor was thronged with shipping of every size, -shape, and rig: yachts and smacks, schooners and ketches, -tramp steamers and ocean-liners, barks and full-rigged ships, -galleys and galleons, cogs and caracks, dromons and balingers, -aphracts and cataphracts.</p> - -<p>“See that vessel?” said Old John, as they passed under the -stern of a stoutly built brig. “That's Franklin's ship, the -<em>Terror</em>—crushed in the ice, she was, off Beechey Island in the -Arctic. And that little craft alongside of her is the <em>Revenge</em>.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</span> -She sank in the Azores after fighting fifty-three Spaniards -for a day and a night. Away over there is what they used to -call a trireme. Cleared from the Port of Tyre, she did, when -I was young, and foundered off Marazion, just where we left -the pilchard fleet.”</p> - -<p>But Peter was not listening. He was eagerly watching a -yawl that was scudding toward them; for the yawl was the -<em>Maeldune</em>, and under the arched foot of her mainsail the Sea -Maid was smiling a greeting.</p> - - -<h4>SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS</h4> - -<ol class="f"> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Why did the author make his hero “the dullest man that ever -audited an account”?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Point out, and explain, all the classical and literary allusions.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Why did the author make his story so largely realistic?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What is the effect of the songs?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> How does the author make his story clear?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> Comment on the author's use of conversation.</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> In what respects is the story poetic?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What effect does Old John contribute to the story?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What is the effect of the abrupt ending?</li> - -<li style="margin-bottom:0.6em"> What makes the story unusually artistic?</li> -</ol> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h4>SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION</h4> -</div> - -<div class="autotable-container"> -<div class="autotable"> -<table class="autotable" summary="his34"> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">1. Utopia</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">11. The World of Puck and Oberon</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">2. Castles in Spain</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">12. The Summit of Olympus</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">3. The Fountain of Youth</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">13. Eldorado</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">4. Arcadia</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">14. St. Brendan's Isle</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">5. The Garden of the Hesperides</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">15. Lyonesse</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">6. Over the Mountains</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">16. The Fortunate Islands</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">7. The Happy Valley</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">17. The Land of the Lotus</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">8. The Land of Dreams</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">18. The Lost Atlantis</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 0.9em;">9. The Isle of Avalon</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">19. At Camelot</td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">10. The Enchanted World</td> -<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">20. The Land of Heart's Delight</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - -<h4>DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING</h4> - -<p class="p2">It is not easy to write, even with only a small degree of success, -so happily suggestive a story as <em>Hi-Brasil</em>. Such a story is the -product both of experience and of art.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</span></p> - -<p>The best that you can do is to think of some longing that has -possessed you, as the longing for the sea possessed the author of -<em>Hi-Brasil</em>. Take some prosaic character, not usually moved by -such longings as your own, and show him brought strongly under -the influence of a great desire. Make your story so realistic that it -will seem true, and so symbolic that it will be at once poetic and -capable of conveying a strong idea. Do all in your power to make -your story crystal-clear, strongly outlined, and effective in power.</p> -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MODERN ESSAYS AND STORIES ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ -concept and trademark. 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