West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1878-02-02

SlVSS oY Inllauelpnln, ana now part
OF that great city, is Germantown, a
quiet and lovely village then, which had
been settled many years before by Ger
mans, Tor whom il was named, and by
Quakers, such as came to philadelphia
with William Penn. Here Louisia May
Alcott was born, and she spent the two
first years of her life in Germantown
and Philadelphia. Then, her father
and mother went back 10 Boston, where
Mr.. Alcott taught celebrated school i'm
n hne large building called the Temple,
close by Boston Common, and about this
school an interesting book has been
written, which, perhaps, you will some
day read. The little Louisa did not
60 TO it at first, because she was not old
enough, but her father and mother
taught her at home the same beautiful
things which the older children learned
in the Temple school. BY and by peo-
pie began to complain that Mr.. Alcott
was too gentle with his scholars. that he
read to them from the New Testament
too much, and talked with them about
Jesus, when he should have been max
ing them say their multiplication table.
10 his school became unpopular, and all
the more so because he would not refuse
TO teach n poor colored boy who wanted
To be his pupil. The fathers and moth.
ers OF the white children were not will
ing 10 have colored child in the same
school with their darlings. so they
took away their children, one after an.
other, until, when Louisa Alcott was
between six and seven years old, her
father was left with only five pupils,
Louisa and her sisters {" 10" Beth "
and Meg y, one white boy, and the
colored boy whom he would not send
away. Mr.. Alcott had depended for
his support on the money which his pu-
pills paid him, and now he became poor,
and gave up his school.
There was friend of Mr.. Alcott's
then living in Concord, not far from
Boston-a man of great wisdom and
goodness, who had been very sad to see
the noble Connecticut schoolmaster so
shabbily treated in Boston and he in
vited his friend TO come and live in Con-
cord. so Louisa went To that old coun-
try town with her father and mother
when she was eight years old, and lived
with them in a cottage, where her father
worked in the garden, or cut wosd i'm
the forest, while her mother kept the
house and did the work of the cottage,
aided by her three little girls.
BY and by, when Louisa was ten
years old, they went TO another country
town not far of, named Harvard, where
some friends of MIR. Alcott had bought
n farm, on which they were all to live
together, in a religious community.
working with their hands, and not eat
ing the flesh OF slaughtered animals,
but living on vegetable food, for this
practice, they thought, made people
more virtuous. Miss Alcott has written
an amusing story about this, which she
calls Transcendental Wild Oats"
When Louisa was twelve years old, and
had third sister ("Amy y, the family
returned to Concord, and for three years
occupied the house in which MIR. Haw-
thorne, who wrote the fine romances, af-
terward lived. There Mr.. Alcott planted
a fair garden, and built summer
house near brook for his children,
where they spent many happy hours.
and where, as have heard, Miss Alcott
first began TO compose stories TO amuse
her sisters and other children of the
neighborhoOd
When she was almost sixteen, the
family returned TO Boston, and there
Miss Alcott began to teach boys and
girls their lessons. She had not been at
school much herself, but she had been
instructed by her father and mother.
She had seen 50 much that was generous
and good done by them that she had
learned 1T is far better to have n kind
heart and TO do uDselfsh acts than tO
have riches or learning or fine clothes.
So, mothers were glad to send her their
children to be taught, and she earned
money in this way for her own support.
But she did not like to teach 30 we'll as
her father did, and thought that per-
| haps she could write stories and be paid
for them, and earn more money in that
way. So she began TO write stories.
At first nobody would pay her any
money for them, but she kept patiently
at work, making better and better what
she wrote, until in few years she could
earn good sum by her pen. Then the
great civil war came on, and Miss Alcott.
like the rest OF the people, wished to do
something for her country. So she went
20 Washington as a nurse, and for some
time she took care Of the poor soldiers
who came into the hospital wounded or
sick, and she has written a little book
about these soldiers which you may have
read. But soon she grew III herself
from the labor and anxiety she had in
the hospital, and almost died Of typhoid
fever; since when she has never been
the robust, healthy young lady she was
before, but was more or less an invalid
while writing all those cheerful and en-
tertaining books And yet TO that ill
ness all her success as an author might
perhaps be traced. Her Hospital
Sketches" first published in Boston
newspaper, became very popular, and
made her name known all over the
North. Then she wrote other books.
encouraged by the reception given 10
this, and finally, in 1868, i've years after
she left the hospital i'm Washington. she
| published the first volume Of "Iittle
| Women" From that day to this she
has been constantly gaining in the pub
lic esteem, and now perhaps no lady i'm
all the land stands higher. Several
hundred thousand volumes of her books
have been sold in this country, and
probably as many more in England and
other European countries.
GENTLEMAN relates. after leaving
the paper of which he was the editor.
and returning on n visit, ne wrote n
leader for the new editor, and hc really
Thought It gOOd-better than he had
written for months. Next day he met
an old acquaintance with a paper i'm his
/ hand. "Ah," said he, this paper T.