Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-03-03
The Cultivation Of Literary Taste in
Children.
From scribner for March.

the OLner Qay l. SalQ some Things q bout
the various ways In which little chill
dren can be educated long before they
are old enough to go to school. Their
literary taste, also, can be cultivated
at very early age. Now, don't mis-
understand me, and say you don't like
precocious children, like Macaulay, for
instanee-for between you and me, /
think he must have been an insufera-
bic little ''prig" if he did all the won
ierful things his Life" says he did
Children can learn to like the good
things in our literature, and need not
be confined to a mental diet of Moth
eT Goose" Nothing ever can take
the place Of boy Blue" and DO
peep" But because children like mo-
lasses candy, are they never to have
beefsteak and bread ? And, en- pas
SAINT, let me suggest what an excellent
basis Mother Goose" makes for sto-
Ties, when a mothers wits fail under
the Unsuitable demands for "a story,
new one, something we have never
heard before" Take Jack Horner;;"
dress him up in a new name, and, with
variations and details innumerable,
la Susan Coolidge, make a new story.
You can even smuggle in a little moral
about selfshness if you re skillful, and
then end by repeating the immortal
verse, and the children's shouts of
laughter will repay you for the exer-
else of your Imagination. And here
let me whisper what a help such a sto-
~ Is, when you re doing disagTeeable
things, like washing their ears, or
combing snarls out of their hair, at
which even good children fret and
twist about.
But | was speaking of cultivating a
child's literary taste. | know two lit
tie girls, aged seven and four, who,
quite ANONYMOUSLY, have made the ac-
quaintance of some of the writings of
our best poets, and find great delight
in them, and are learning to appreciate
good things in a perfectly natural,
chiid-ike way. The oldest was a very
nervous, excitable child il was almost
impossible to quiet her to sleep, and
she was very wakeful at night. When
she was about three years old, her
mother began reading to her at bed
time some of those pretty little pieces
Of poetry for children-such as are
found in so many collections like
Hymns and Rhymes for Home and
School, Our Baby" and the ike,
and found the rhythm so soothing to
the chIld's restless nerves, that she
committed several to memory, to use
when the book was not at hand. She
kept the little book or newspaper scrap
in her work basket, and when she was
holding the baby or could do nothing
else, she learned stanza or two. She
soon had quite a little collection at
her tongues end, and now it is part
of the bedtime routine for mamma to
repeat one or two. The little rollick-
ing fOur-year old, a perfect embOdi-
ment Of animal life and spirits, gene
rally calls for TennysOn's Sweet and
low, wind of the Western sea" while
the older one is charmed by Mary
Howitt's pretty ballad of Mabel on
Midsummer Eve"-sweet. pure, good
English, all of 1t. watched the older
child, as she stood at the window be-
side her mother one wild November
morning, looking at the dead leaves
whirling in the wind, while the mother
recited to her Bryants lines, The
melancholy days are come" 1t was
almost as good as the poem to see the
child's gray eyes kindle with apprecia-
ton as she eagerly drank in the words.
One can see the influence Of this Gull
ture in the little songs they make UT
for their dOllies-a jingle and jargon,
of course, but interspersed with re-
membered lines from their little YER
Ees, and having withal a good deal OF
rhythm and movement about them
Their ear has been educated to a GER
tain standard Of appreciation-just as
German children who grow up in the
atmosphere of good music find delight
in harmOnies which are hardly under.
stood by our less cultivated American
ears. Of course, you must carefully
select beforehand to suit the children
minds, and must explain SMILES auC
illusions.
On the other hand, if children
minds are so susceptible to good i'm.
pressions, they are equally affected by
bad ones. A childs world is made NJ
of the things he has already learned
and these things are conveyed to his
mind by what he has actually seer
himself, or by pictures and stories Of
what he has not seen. His magma.
ton is as quick to supply missing
links as the most enthusiastic Oar.
winian. What isn't there ought to be
so it's all right. Whether he lives ID
world peopled by distorted, horrible
unnatural objects, or in one full of all
lovely and pleasant ones, depends very
largely on the pictures he sees and
the stories he hears. If his picture
books are Of the hideous order, in
which blue bearded monster holds a
sword over an equally horrible pink.
and-scarlet woman, yeu must expect
him to wake at night from dreadful
dreams, shrieking with terror, and i'm
agining grotesque figures leering al
him from every dark corner; and much
mere so If he is allowed to hear ghost
aud hubgoblin stories told by super
Stiticus servant girls. Besides this il
hIs ideas of art are built upon the ba'
sis of Punch-aud- j udy style of pict-
ure-boOk, agents eRgravings, or news
paper and tea-store chrOmos, he must
pass through long course of training
before he is capable of knowing What
a good picture is, if indeed he ever
does know. In these days of photo
.,raphs aud beautiful children's books
;here is nc reason why people of even
moderate meaBs should not educate
their children into something like 4
sense of artistic appreciation. Why
you can buy at any print-stOre good
photograph, neatly framed, of any OF
the great pictures of the world (the
San Sistine" cherubs, for instance,
for a dollar. And yet how many PEG.
ole there are who would spend that
money for Hamburg edgiugs without
q thought, but would never dream o!
buying a good picture TO hang on the
agrsery wall.
Now, l can hear you say with a sigh
oh DEAR this all takes SO much time
and thought" 0fcourse it dOes-SC
does everything that is good for any,
thing. As to time, you have all there
IS = it depends only upon what you
use it for. / feel almost like grooming
when a young mother shows me some
marvel of embroidery or machine,
stitching, saying triumphantly, There
did every stitch of that myself
When will women learn that then
time is worth too much for better
things. to be snent upon such trihes