The times., 1899-07-06
WAR ON MOTHER GOOSE.
Mothers Clubs Pronounce Her
Rhymes Unit for Children.
(From the New York SUM-

(From the New York SUM-
War has been declared against Mother
Goose" by the Mothers Clubs of the State.
Her rhymes are not charming but barbaric,
they say. and they will no longed admit
them into ther nurseries. The movement
against Mother Goose in the Mothers' Clubs
seems to be simultaneous. New York city,
oswego, Rome, and Syracuse have all con-
demned her. They suggest that kinder
garten stories and songs be substituted for
her rhymes Mrs. Arthur J. Wells Of Syr-
acuse who is one of the most active work.
ers in the State organization OF the Society
for the Prevention Of Cruelty to Animals,
presented the argument against Mother
Goose" in an address before the Mothers
Club CT Syracuse last week.
1T is with a feeling Of delicacy." she
said. that We assail any Of the traditions
of the past Some of them, although
worthless. are so time-honored that we
have learned to accept them without criti-
cism for our children because we were
taught them in our childhood. We do not
stop to look back and trace through our
own lives the influence of such traditions
Today would ask you to imagine to your
self an entire stranger to the literature OF
babyland and look at the question impair
TALLY.
THE object of the Mothers Clubs is to
make the environment of a child such as
to develop all the good and dwarf all the
evil which inheritance gave. The channels
to babys mind are through what he sees
and what he hears. And right here, when
the young mind and the delicate nervous
organization are subject 10 the eye and ear,
/ want to enter my protest against the
vulgar, senseless jangle Of some of the
sainted Mother Goose rhymes and the
blood -curdling tales that as children we
used to hear and grow chilly over. and
that are told with no Improvements TO this
day One of the first rhymes sung for
baby's edification is that delightful picture
of animal life which begins:
Iii, diddle, diddle! The cat and the fiddle!
The jumped over TIE moon!
The little dog laughed to see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon
''All the child knows of animals life is
what you are teaching him, and If he gets
false ideas it is because you have given
him a wrong perspective, which his baby
mind absorbs, and which he has to N
gle and unlearn later on. Why not give
a rhyme that is true? There is no Wit in
Mother Goose; often vulgarity, and
usually bad grammar. These are exam
pies:
The white dove sat on the castle wall;
bend my bow and shoot her / shall,
A was an archer.
And shot at a frog.
Here comes candle to light You to bed,
And here comes chopper to chop of your head
Money want. and money I'll have,
II you don't give ne money
I'll sweep you TO your grave.
When 1 look back on the stories 1 used
to hear-'Jaek and the Beanstaik-with
its terrible
Fee, f. 70, ium
/ smell the blood of an Englishmun;
Dead or alive l must have sonel
uttered IN a sepulchral voice, l can again
feel the sensation of ehills and the terror
that made me cover my head with the
bedelothes and from the memory of it
all protest earnestly against such grew
some tales for children"
Members of the clubs say there is need
OF literature of some kind for very young
children. but it should be free, they think,
from suggestions of cruelty and terror.
THE Arabian Nights" also comes under
the ban. Il was shocked, said one of the
club women. upon reading the time-hoa-
ored Arabian Nights to find it such an
undesirable book for my child
1t is proposed by the Mothers Clubs TO
substitute for Mother Goose" the rhymes
of Mother Truth" a collection of nur-
sery songs on such natural subjects as
animals, flowers, etc.