The courier., 1902-07-05
TIL E COURI ER

enCe ana It's universally manifested Pc
culiarities. Youth is not given to ex-
haustive examination Of details. The
author who writes for the young as
Won Hoist. for instance, writes for stu
dents Of history, may feel the satisfac-
tion which Won Hoist felt in uncover
ing the roots Of a subject and taking
care that the smallest fibrous root is as
carefully examined and preserved as
the tap root; but such a writer may be
sure beforehand that the youths for
read it. Youth likes broad effects and
to see the whole first, and youth will
have it's way. There are some spec
tacled prodigies who have inherited
sophistication, but these are not taken
into account by the wise man or wom-
an who writes history for the young.
Our Country's Story" combines
definiteness and an excellent arrange
ment of parts with the attractions of
style just adverted to. At the end of
cinct, integral part of an epoch If not
whole epoch, there are a summary of
events and suggestions for written
work The quick Imagination of a child
siezes upon the scraps of conversation
and the local color which in the few
pages devoted to the great events of
America Miss Tappan has managed to
impart to her work and he has written
an account of a colonial winter, or
leaf from a poor Debtors diary
without effort. The book is further
supplied with a scholarly and compre-
hensive index. 1t is filled with illus
trations and maps to the number of
about two hundred and sixty-five. 1t
is bound in linen, lettered in black and
o. mirabile dictu! it opens fiat in the
hands and stays open without pres
sure or further impulse than its own
open disposition. The Illustrations IL
lustrate the text and satisfy the Curl
osity that the text artfuIy excites. 1t
is printed by Houghton, Miffiin and
Company.
Children are afraid of reading history
and they avoid the subject in vacation
time. If this book of Miss Tappan's
could be put on the forbidden list so
that children would have to read it on
the sly, it would be the most thumbed,
untidy book in the library. Miss Tap
pan has a dramatic appreciation of the
possibilities of American history, and
having once become interested in the
story any interruption that prevents
its being finished at a sitting is unwel-
come. Having finished it, the reader
has the drama as a whole. If any one
thinks the task is an easy one let him
attempt to select from a mass of mate
rial like that bearing upon the history
of this country the salient facts upon
which other long trains of fact depend.
1t is only then that Miss Tappan's self
controlled work is appreciated at its
full value. The effect of the primitive
life led by the early settlers in this
a life which brought out their
inventive genius and developed their
activities and self dependence, is
shown by the comparative value of the
men as soldiers. The few colo
nists, who were not yet Americans, de-
feated the overwhelming number of
British soldiers by force Of energy, ver-
satility and adaptability." The children
did their part of the work Of the house.
The girls helped their mother and the
boys helped their father. If the boys
wished for playthings, they made them.
If boy must have a basket, he made
1t of birch bark: while for paint he
used elderberry or pigeon berry juice
A boy who grew up in this way learned
to depend upon himself and to know
what to do if he found himself in any