Omaha daily bee., 1885-04-15
NEW FEATURES IN SCHOOL
READERS.
Interesting Newspaper Sketches Re.
told for Children and illustrated.

New fork Sun.
"The ccmpilsrs of school readers now
sdsys," said q publisher, "have to leave
the field they have hitherto cleaned, and
turn to the columns of the newspapers.
Pictures of curious features of actual life
are relished as much by the youthful as
the adult mind. The well-worn excerpts
from great authors are getting o bit stale
In the trade, and teachers are demanding
something that will quicken the interest
of the pupils.
1--WE find many suggestions In the daily
ewspspers. Do you remember the burn.
Ing of the World building, and how the
bootblack climed a telegraph pole and cut
a wire, which saved the lives of some who
were caught In the burning buildingY
Here Is q paraphrsse of the newspaper
story told for q primary class, and richly
illustrated.
: ''Thia Brave Little Kate is the out
growth of a newspaper clipping. Here is
a costly engraving of a little girl crawling
on hands and knees along a railroad track
upon a high trestle work. The rain is
pouring, and the sky is streaked with
lightning. AS the picture indicates, the
story is that of a girl who q year or two
saved q train out west. Now, you would
tell this story In one way In the news
papers, but 1t must be told in another
way In q Second Reader This Is the
way it runa:
''Near a large town in the new part Of
our country there is a place where q
railroad track crosses a brook on O high
bridge. Not far from this bridge lives
the little girl l am going to tell you
about. Her name Is Kate. One stormy
night not long ago, as little Kate stood
looking out of the window, watching for
her father to come home, she saw that q
train was coming along the track. She
could not see the carr,-the night was
too dark for that,-but she could see the
bright light on the front of the engine.
While the little girl was looking, and
just as the train had got to the brook
near by, all at ence the engine.l light
seemed to fall and 60 out.
skate looked again, but no light was
not to be seen. Then the little girl was
afraid that something was wrong. She
got a lantern and ran down toward the
railroad track. When she got there she
found that the bridge was gone-that the
rain had washed 1t away. Then Kate
knew that far below in the foaming
water lay the engine and the train she
had seen from the window. Now, Kate
had often watched the trains go by. 60
she knew just when to watch for them.
As she stood there by the broken bridge
1t came to her mind that another train
would soon come rushing along.
The brave girl made up her mind to
save this other train If she could. She
started to run back to the nearest station,
a mile away. To reach this station che
had to CROSS a long, high bridge over a
broad river. 1t is not easy to cross this
bridge, even In the daytime, and this
was night. a dark, stormy night. Worse
than all, just as Kate got to the bridge,
the wind blew out the light in her
lantern.
"But little Kate did not give up. The
brave girl crept along the beams on her
hand and knees till she reached the other
side of the river. Then she jumped to
her feet and a. on again till she came to
the station. Her clothes were torn and
wet, and she could hardly speak. All
she could say was, Stop the train! Stop
the train! Then she fell fainting to the
ground. Kate was just in time. In a
minute more the cars came along, and
the men of the station ran out and
stopped them.
"Wss not Kate a brave girl2
"There is an action in such a story
that sustains the interest far better than
pieces about dogs or cats or ponies. Then,
too, good pictures have become ne cessary.
The best resource of the wood engraver's
art Is taxed now for school books. 1t
cost $4,000 to illustrate a recent series
of readers. Some of the engravings rival
those In the magazines. They are made
With Infinite pains TO contain all that the
text suggests and to ill the imagination
OF the child.
cit is customary to think of school
reader making as the work of young wo-
men or college students, but In point of
fact 1t takes a man of great powers of In
vention to make frat class series of read
ers. There is one successful author of
school books, who, to make up his series
of readers, collected and carefully studied
every school reader that he could find In
this country and England"