The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1903-09-25
PUBLIC FREE LIBRARY NOTES.

twenty-five years, and all or nom VIII
probably one exception, had enjoyed the
advantages of a high school education
revealed a want of familiarity with Eng
lish and American authors and classics
that is absolutely startling, not to say
appalling. Among the questions were
the following: "What author wrote, l
Idylls of the King; 2. Endymion;3 8. Man
fred 4. Lady of the Lake; 5, Henry Els
mond?'' a q d, ''Name one work o
each of the following authors: l. Chau.
Ger; 2. Milton; 3. Hawthorne; 4. Dryden
5. Dickens"
One of the candidates answered seven
of the questions correctly, and another
six. The best of the others knew the
answers to but four, while one poor fel.
low thought he knew but one of the ten
questions, and he said Milton wrote
"Lady of the Lake" Another, equally
as modest in the estimate of his attain
ments, but more fortunate in his guess,
ascribed"Dickens Newsstand Pickwick
Papers to their proper author, and to
that extent evinced his superiority over
the other. Even he who made the most
favorable showing thought Spencer
wrote Endymion, and Browning, Henry
Esmond. Anther thought there was
some connection between the produc-
tions mentioned in the first question,
and the author named in the second, and
set opposite those five titles in their
order, the names of Milton, Chaucer,
Shakespeare, Hawthorne and Dryden.
He correctly answered three of the re-
naming five questions, and while he did
not know, when he came to this part of
the examination, which he had assum-
ed, a moment before, was the converse
of the proceeding question, what Dryden
had written, he thought Chaucer- was
the author of "Tales of a Wayside Inn"
The candidate who had answered six of
the questions correctly, thought John
Keats wrote Endymion, and ascribed
Ivanhoe to Dickens. The one who had
answered but four of the questions cor
rectly said that Longfellow wrote Endy-
mion, Edgar Allen Poe, Henry Esmond,
and believed Hawthorne was the author
of The Knickerbockers.
Three said that Tennyson wrote Idylls
of the King, which a fourth ascribed to
Milton. From the in these
papers one might well believe that a
diversity of opinion existed as to the
authorship of Endymion, ~variously cred
tied to Spencer, John Keats, Longfellow
and Chaucer. Not one answered the
question correctly, nor did any one know
who wrote Manfred. To this question
but one candidate had the temerity to
make answer, and he, bold and wild in
all his replies, said Shakespeare. Only
three knew that Lady of the Lake was
written by Scott, which a fourth ascrib-
ed to Milton, while but one knew the
authorship of Thackery's masterpiece,
which was laid, by three others, at the
doors of Browning, Edgar Allen Poe
and Dryden.
Asked to name some one work of
Chaucer, two named the Canterbury
Tales, a third, apparently recalling that
the ''father of English literature" had
written some sort of "Tales," mentioned
Tales of Wayside Inn, while the fourth,
the only other man who attempted an
answer to the question, thought that
Chaucer was che author of Gulliver's
Travels. A curious development of this
analysis was the fact that a larger num-
Der of correct answers was made in re-
spouse to the inquiry for one work of
Milton, than to any other question, all
those who attempted an answer naming
Paradise Lost. Two gave the Scarlet
Letter, and one The House of''7" Gables
as a work of Hawthorne, while still an
other said Hawthorne had written The
Knickerbockers. Only one hazarded a
guess as to what Dryden had written.
He said, simply, GABLES" Three nam
ed David Copperfield as a work of Dick
ems. A fourth remembered that Dickens
had written novels and the Pickwick
Papers, while still another ascribed to
that author Scott's great story, Ivanhoe.
Someone is to blame for this woeful
exhibition Of ignorance. All these young
men have had the educational advan-
tages that this great state so prides her
self on furnishing to her children. They
are, probably, young men of more than
average intelligence for their ages and
stations in life but the result of this ex-
seems to indicate that a cog
has been slipped somewhere in their
training.