The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-10-21
FAREWELL TO FAIRIES
Sorosis Has Banished Them From
the Juvenile World.
Elm Queens and the sprites md
Elves who People Their Kingdoms
Are Voted Too Impractical for
Sensible Children Who VIII BE
ON to Battle With the World

Some time ago Sorosis had literary
| meeting and the Sorosisters assailed the
good old-fashioned fairy story. The
shade of Hans Andersen and Grimm did
not appear to rebuke the bold mortals
| who thus rode roughshod over cherished
traditions and brutality abused tales hall
lowed by the love of generations of chill
dren, but it vas matter of wonder to
more than one woman present that the
COLLINS did not catch Sorosis and carry
her away from her luncheon and her es-
| says into the world of fancy and poetry
where the little people live. or course.
the COLLINS may not have cared for the
presence Of such a disturbingly prosaic
person in the land of fancy.
The gist of Sorosis' protest was that
fairy stories lacked logic and common
sense and all the other disagreeable and
practical things considered necessary FOR
children who might some day have to
battle with the world. The benefits to
be derived from dreaming, the beauties
Of fancy. the lessons Of chivalry and
kindness. the code that provides that
virtue be rewarded and evil punished
taught by all good fairy stories-none Of
these things Sorosis deemed good and
mary of them she didn't approved of at
all.
How pleased and happy the Sorosisters
would have been had they been on the
judges bench the other day when a num-
Der of stories written by children were
submitted in competition for a prize
offered by children's magazine, says the
Commercial Advertiser" Apparently
the day OF fanciful children is over. The
young imagination grows with what it
feeds upon, and doubtless the stories that
children read in lieu of fairy stories are
accountable for the sad state of things
indicated in the following address. deliv-
cred by the principal Judge of the stories
to the children who wrote them:
Il never felt so depressed in my life!
Ard what do you think has done it? Why,
your stories, to be sure! On, the weary
weight Of woe that burdens all of them,
with few bright exceptions! Surely.
my dear members, you have not yet
crossed that rubicon which makes it ne
cessary that everything fanciful or fan
tastic should turn out to be but a dream,
or that all the bright elves, sprites, fai-
ries, COLLINS ami little people should
have to turn into real mortals at the right
moment, and only have been dressed up
to play a part. / wanted you to have let
your imagnations run a little riot.
Il should have welcomed with out
stretched hands even an ogre; and as for
anyone metamorphosed into a swan,
then into bear. and then into a green
parrot, cannot tell you how glad should
have been to have met him. Are there no
princesses left to be saved? 40 giants
left to be fought? Have we indeed left
the region of romance SO far behind that
all the kind-hearted fairies have to adopt
the disguise Of hospital nurse; and is
no one to get glimpse into fairyland,
unless they are crippled or deserted?
Bless your tender hearts, which have TAX
en- you into the houses of the poor and
have made you feel that above all things
the poor should be comforted and shown
a land of brightness and promise which
to them can be but a dream. 1t is not
that underrate this sympathy with all
that is suffering, and especially with SUI
fering children, only I think you are apt
to get a little morbid, and I want you to
write from life as 1 want you to-draw
from life. and these ideal poor little
children SAVIOR to me somewhat of stories
that have been told before. and are just
of that type which is seized upon to point
a moral and adorn tale which without it
would not be Of much account. You have
sent in to me a number Of exceedingly
pretty StoiieS, uut ehey al i'o'' ioi .ie
most part fairy stories. Next time
shall you ask to take me to Topsy-Turvy
Land; and mind. shall insist upon being
taken in flying chariot drawn by dra-
goons, unless 1 am waited for miles on a
magic carpet. And l won't be put of with
benefcent old gentlemen; good fairies
they may be. in their way, but their place
is in a different sort of story. And I ut
terly refuse to do without fairy wands,
philtres, witches. curses.
and all the paraphernalia that goes to
form a real good old-fashioned fairy
tale''