New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-08-30

horn hook alphab bets was compelled to give up
the strugele The horn book may regard as
old we NAV think Of Il as being as old as the
sixteenth century and probably the fifteenth,
but exact Information on the subject Is unavaii-
able and naturally there Is nothing to be CLEANED
from the few surviving examples MANUFACTURE
ers in those DAYS who were making millions or
horn books and selling them for few pence
each were hardly going to bother about putting
so much as a trademark guild mark on their
wares The numbers we mention, by-the-way'
are not apochryphal. All England studied the
horn book in its primary schools a couple or CEN
turies ago and the implement was familiar IN
Scotland and on the Continent. But once 1t be-
gan to disappear early in the last century, 1t
went out with a rush. and, incredible as 1t may
seem the waits recovered here and there and
preserved among the dearest treasures OF prf-
yate and public collections Of antiquities are
easily TO be counted When they stray into the
auction room from time to time they fetch be-
tween $500 and 800.
In America though, as Mr.. Tuer points out.
there have been illusions to the horn-book by
numerous writer's Lowell observing in one OF the
Biglow Papers. Thrift was the first lesson In
their horn book" the rare production itself has
been as rare as anywhere else. The author OF
the work before us, writing with the enthusi-
asrn Of the collector pauses to note that BenJa-
min Franklin must have printed hOrn-books In
his dav and thpt, however. the ten-volume edi-
tion of his works by Sparks does not say any
thing about them Here Mr.. Tuer allows him.
self for a moment to be carried away by his
theme II Franklin had printed milk tickets on
his press supposing they had milk tickets in
those DAYS no editor would feel It incumbent
unon him to mention so trivial fact, and the
horn book II he had anything to do with 1t, he
probablv regarded az OF the same unimportant
character In one way this may seem unlikely.
II would have been characteristic of Franklin, II
he had any horn books to print. to improve the
occasion and produce work that his biograph-
crs would consider interesting whether he did
ar not But on the other hand. the question
raised by Franklin's name is settled by the same
reply that must be provoked in connection WIN
Investigations in England or elsewhere Inc
horn-book was too humble an affair to last MT
Tuer has ingeniously contrived to introduce a
few models into a kind of pocket In each or MS
volumes and to scrutinlze the simple little aids
70 pupilage whether in their bald condition or
plain wood and brass. or adorned with astamped
leather back Is to understand at once now read
uv they were destroyed or lost. One can mag
inc the urchin of two centuries ago porng over
this instrument Of torture with unwilling eyes,
and losing it a dozen times even before he was
readv To dispense with its crisscross and hg-
ures The book was slowed away In the attic
when he was at last graduated from IL, III MOST
cases it was probably thrown into the hre' anu
altogether there would not appear TO nave oeen
any occasion for its preservation humble or
not the horn book il to-day, as one or the TAMIL
lar possessions of our ancestors. an object or the
aorao,or,s goal and Of every students curiosity.
T, &c HIGHLY amusing to read Mr.. Tuer's careful
.s ord he has put go much minute writing
into them that he is also instructive