The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-11-04
THE PITY OF 1T.
The Modern ChiId's Attitude Towards
Fairies.
New York Commercial Advertiser.

| New York Commercial Advertiser.
| Some time ago Soross had a literary
| meeting and the Sorosisters assailed the
good old-fashioned fairy story. The
| shades of Hans Andersen and Grimm cid
not appear TO rebuke the bold mortals
| who thus rode roughshod over cherished
| traditions and brutality abused tales hal
| lowed by the love of generations of chill
dren, but ii was q matter or wonder 10
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 Tor the
| presence of such a disturbingly prosaic
person in the land of fancy.
| The gist of Sorosis's protest was that
| fairy stories lacked logic and common
sense and all the other disagreeable ana
practical things considered necessary Tor
children who might some day have TO
battle with the world. The benefits TO De
derived from dreaming, the DeautieS Oh
fancy the lessons of chivalry and KIND
ness the code that provides that virtue
be rewarded and evil punished taught py
all good fairy stories-none OF these Things
Sorosis deemed good and many OF them
she didn't approve OF at all
How pleased and happy the Sorosisters
would have been had they been on the
judges bench the other day when mum
Der of stories written by children were
submitted in a competition for prize OF
fered by children's magazine. Apparent
ly the day of fanciful children Is over. Inc
young imagination grows with what IL
feeds upon and doubtless the stories that
children read in lieu of fairy stories are
accountable for the sad state or Things
indicated in the following address, deliv-
cred by the principal judge of the stories
to the children who wrote them:
II never felt so depressed in my lie! AND
what do you think has done 1t? Why, your
stories, to be sure! oh, the weary weight
of woe that burdens all of them, with
few bright exceptions. Surely, my dear
,Nt az sod
rubicon which makes it necessary that
everything fanciful or fantastic should
turn out to be but dream, or that all the
bright elves, sprites. fairies, gopilns ana
little people should have to turn into real
mortals at the right moment, and only have
been dressed up to play part; wanted
YOU to have let your fmaglnatlons run
little riot I should have welcomed with
outstretched hands even an ogre, ana as
for any one metamorphosed into swan,
then bear, and then into green paLrot,
/ cannot tell you how glad j should nave
been to have met him. Are there no prln-
cesses left to be saved? No giants lert 10
be fought? Have we indeed left the region
of romance so far behind that all the
kind-hearted fairies have 10 ADOPT
the disguise of a hospital nurse; and Is no
one to get glimpse into fafryiand, unless
they are crippled or deserted? Bless your
tender hearts, which have taken you into
the houses of the poor and nave mace you
feel that above all things the poor should
be comforted and shown land of bright
ness and promise which TO them can be
but a dream. 1t is not that L underrate
this sympathy with all that is sunerlng,
and especially with suffering children, only
/ think you are apt to get little morbid.
and | want you to write from life as
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 10 point moral and adorn
tale which without it would not be OF much
account. You have sent in to me- num-
Der of exceedingly pretty stories; but they
are not for the most part, fairy stories.
Next time I shall ask you to take me to
Topsy-turvy Land; and, mind. shall In
sist upon being taken i'm flying chariot
drawn by dragons, unless am waited for
miles on a magic carpet. And won't be
put off with beneficient old gentlemen:
good fairies they may be, in their way,
but their place Is in different sort of
story. And utterly refuse TO do without
fairy wands incantations, philtres. witches,
curses and all the paraphernalia that goes
to form a real good old-fashioned fairy
tale