The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1896-06-03

men and women, seeing the evil eff
fects of mental diet of daily news
papers and cheap novels, have set to
work to discover a way of deliverance.
The public library and the school Ii
brary are the most hopeful solutions of
the problem.
The school library has the merit of
being inexpensive, while its value is
incalculable. -Four or five dollars, or
even less, invested in the right kind
of books and placed in a school will do
a work which cannot be measured by
dollars and cents. OF course an intel
ligent teacher can do much to add to
the efficiency of such books, and there
are not few of our teachers who
would not be greatly benefited by
such library. But the school library
does not stop with the purchase of a
few books Under the present text
book law the directors can select few
supplementary books for the schools
each year, and these books are to be
added to the library. Thus the little
library will grow. Somebody may give
it few books, and in few years the
people will be proud of those rows of
books, and the teachers and children
Will COuiO W ItdllLt uOTb anu more
what a treasure they are.
How to use such books is not diff
cult question to answer. When the
little ones have finished the first reader
they are hardly ready for the second
reader, and yet to keep going over the
old book is not to make progress, but
simply to learn it by heart to repeat
parrot-like. The true way is to have
books easy enough for the children to
read, and suited to their mental capac-
ity. Put such book in the children's
hands and they will make vastly more
progress in real learning and culture
than is possible with only the regula-
ton reading books. There are plenty
of such books. Scudder's Fables and
Folk Stories, the first volume of Heart
of Oak Books and of Seaside and Way
side, Stickney's Book of Fables, and
the like, are just the books for such a
purpose. They are real literature and
worth a thousand of the "we. do-gc-up-
so " style of children's books.
Or take geography. The children
will learn much more if they have an
opportunity to read Seven Little Sis
/ tiers, Footprints of Travel, Kings
Geographical Readers and Rupert's
A Geographical Reader. No text
book can do what these works can to
impress and inform the minds of the
pupils. The same is true in history.
Let them read Pilgrim and Puritan,
From Colony to Commonwealth,
and the Beginners American His
tory, or The Story of Our Country
and Noble Deeds of Our Fathers, or
American History Stories, and Sto-
ries of Massachuse it's. Children are
to be pitied who have none of these
books to read
1t is large part of education, and
means of liberal culture, the learning
how to use books. There is no excuse
for school officers neglecting this most
important part of education. The
choicest treasures of the worlds best
literature are now put in shape for
school libraries. We would call espe-
cial attention to the The Heart of Oak
Books, edited by Charles Elliot Norton
and published by D. G. Heath & Co.;
to Classics for Children, published by
CHM & Company; to The Riverside
Literature Series, issued by Houghton,
Mifflin e. Co.; also to the books issued
by the Educational Publishing Com
pany. The five volumes of the Heart
of Oak Books contain over 400 pages
of the choicest literature, with judicious
and instructive notes. The books make
library of themselves. Classics for
Children are a series of well-printed
and tsstefully-bound works of acknowl-
edged merit, and sold at low price.
They are all carefully edited and many
contain valuable notes. We have never
seen more desirable editions of the best
of Scott's stories than are to be found
here. We advise all who are inter-
ested in this matter to send to CHM Il
Company for their pamphlet on School
Libraries, as it contains much valuable
information.
The Riverside Literature Series is
especially noteworthy for its issue of
the choicest works of Longfellow,
Whittier and other American writers of
note, the selections being carefully
made with reference to the needs Of
children. The series also contains
some of the best work of foreign au-
thors. Lists of these books can be OBJ
tanned from the publishers. The Edu-
cational Publishing Company have
choice list of original works on history
and also on nature. Their American
History Stories and Leaves from Ma
ture's Story-book are among the most
valuable of their kind. There is no
lack of suitable books for school Ii
braries-books of the highest quality