Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-01-28
FEATURES IN READERS.
Interesting Newspaper Sketches RctoId
for Children and Illustrated.

''The compilers of school readers
nowadays" said publisher to New
York San reporter. shave 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 youth
full as by the adult mind. The we'll
worn experts from great authors are
getting a bit stale in the trade, and
teachers are demanding something
that will quicken the interest of the
pupils.
eve find many suggestions in the
daily newspapers. Do you remember
the burning of the World building, and
how the boot-black climbed telegraph
pole and cut wire, which saved the
lives of some who were caught in the
burning buildingp Here is paraphrase
OF newspaper story told for a primary
class and richly illustrated.
This Brave Little Kate is the out
growth OF newspaper clipping. Here
is a costly engraving of 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, a year or two ago, saved a
train out west. Now, you would tell
this story in one way in the newspa-
pers, but it must be told another way
in a second reader. This is the way it
runs:
" Near large town in the new part
OF our country there is place where a
railroad track crosses a brook on a
high bridge. Not far from the bridge
lives the little girl 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 train was coming along
the track. She could not see the cars
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
once the engine light seemed to fall
and 90 out.
80 Kate looked again, but no light
was 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 it away.
Then Kate knew that far below, in the
foaming water, lay the engine and
train she had seen from the window.
II to ha1 oft n%aI II 81
60 by, SO she knew just when to look
for them. AS she stood there by the
broken bridge, it came into her mind
that another train would soon come
rushing along.
:" The brave little girl made up her
mind to save the other train if she
could. She started to run back to the
nearest station, mile away. To
reach this station she had to cross a
long, high bridge over 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 little girl crept along the
beams ON her hands and knees till she
reached the other side of the river.
Then she jumped to her feet and ran
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 trainr'
Then she fell fainting to the ground.
Kate was just in time. In minute
more the cars came along, and the mer
of the station ran out and stopped
them.
"'Was not Kate brave girl?"
"'There is action in such story
that sustains the interest far better
than pieces about dogs, or cats, OF
ponies. Then, too, good pictures have
'ecome necessary. The best resource
the wood engrayer's art is taxed
now for school books 1t cost SIS, 900
to illustrate recent series of readers.
Some of the engravings rival those in
magazines. They are made with inf
mite pains to contain all that the text
suggests, and to fill the Imagination OF
the child.
at is customary to think of school,
reader making as the work of young
women or college students, but in
point of fact it takes a man of great
powers of invention to make first
class series of readers. There is one
successful author of school books, who.
to make up his series of readers, collect
ed and carefully studied every school
reader he could find in this country
and England.