The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1901-06-13
EEELED IT OFF IN RHYME.
That Il the Way Geography Was Taughs
Fifty Years Ago.

RELIED 1T OFF IN RHYME.
That II the Way Geography Was Taughs
Fifty Years Ago.
Kansas City Star: Do our parents and
grandparents still remember the way they
said their lessons in rhyme when they
went to school fifty years ago? Now and
then we hear them recite bit of verse
to help their memories on important facts.
such as the number of days in June, OF
the date Of a battle. But we seldom see
any Of the old rhyming text books they
used to use.
Mrs Carrie Whitney, librarian Of the
public library. recently came across a
poetical geography of the kind they used
fifty years ago. She bought it, and learned
that the author, George Van Waters,
was an uncle of her mothers. 1t is
quaint and curious volume, little worn
at the edges, little faded in places and
yellow with age. but In a good state OF
preservation. 1t was printed in 1851 at
Louisville. Philadelphia, Hartford. New
York and Boston. The book had big
sale, apparently. 1t was used in hundreds
Of schools. Thousands of school children
We're compelled to study it.
FIFTY years ago it was not enough for
school children to study their text books
and gain the ideas they taught. They had
70 mem mem 2 their books and speak off the
!! just as the author set them down.
10 help, the pupils do this the rhyminG
geography of Mr.. Van Waters-he was
Dutchman, was Van Waters-was written.
are some pretty tough lessons between
the covers. Mr.. Van Waters arranged his
geography good deal like the modern
geography, with the old familiar cuts OF
seas and continents, strange animals and
savage tribes. But half the book is In
verse. Each page has two parallel col
umns the second in prose, the first In
some idea of the state of Missouri, for
instance, from reading the two and one
half inches of prose description which Mr..
Van Waters gave the state. But what
child could get any idea at all of Missouri
from the following tortuous verses which
the teachers compelled their patient lit
tie pupils to learn by hearth
UP the Missouri tide twice sixty miles
Q2D,
On the same side just 20 from its mouth,
st. Charles is on the north bank, not the
south,
And Independence, west of all hath laid
her,
/ From whence the Santa Fe leaves many
st. Louis on the Mississippis seen,
, Down from Missouris mouth miles seven
teen,
From New Orleans twelve hundred up
, Missouris largest town, Missouri's pride.
And M troHF St. Louis, seventy miles south
Gould. any child learn anything at all
about the state even If he did get all the
rhymes "hy hearth What did they mean?
He could not tell even when he could re-
peat them
The situation in Iowa City is thus told
| In rhyme:
Iowa City sits the first in the state,
Up her fair stream a cipher and a:
Figures in parenthesis explain that the
poet meant eighty miles when he said "a
cipher and an eight" But it wasn't suffi-
Gent for the child to know that Iowa City
was eighty miles UP stream; the child had
to tell it in the lines Of the book
Even the definitions are told In verse.
The peninsula is explained thus:
A peninsula the dark sea wave entwines
save by some mech that TO the mainland
Joins.
OF mountains, the poet says:
Mountains are high and elevated land
That rises Ger the province, dark and
grand.
And of volcanoes:
Volcanoes from their craters, vomit fire
And smoke and lava, in a stream, most
dire.
Here are some more rhyming definitions:
An ocean is a vast extent of brine
Vt salt sea water. boundless and sublime.
seas are large bodies of the briny tide
BY land encircled round on every side.
A channel is strait that opens wide
AS the English channel where proud ma
vies ride.
here; = " "
One-half globe is called hemisphere.
A map is thus defined:
maps picture of the whole or part
VI the earth's surface, to be learned |
heart.
The top is north. while south points to
your breast;
The right hands east, the left hands al
More maps than one, bound up for school
or college,
Is called an atlas, and contains mncb
knowledge.
A foot note in the book directs the
teacher as to the use of the book. ..To
answer the question: says the author.
the pupil repeats the poetry, and in his
own language gives the sum and sub
stance OF the prose. The teacher, in all
instances, should explain the licensed
poetic phrases to Juvenile classes, . - -
The books Illustrations are as amusing
as the verses. For instance, there is a
picture of ladies Of Lima" in the para
graph about Peru. The ladies are pic
tured as OF extraordinary height and very
slender. They are shown standing against
building, and they are almost as tall as
the building. This is what the author
says about them, in prose:
The ladies of Lima are distinguished
dress and admiration. In walking abroad
they invest themselves in cloak called
the manic, which hides their face from
view, so that they are enabled to pass
among their most intimate friends with
out being recognized.
BARRED SECRETARY WILSON,.
4 .