The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-03-27
.ci11cfl and Society

KrN0 ARTHUR AND HIS COURT
 MonfRomery in general, and the friends 6f zffsz Frances Nimmo Greene In par kfcnlar. win be pleased yfo learn that one Of the twenky-four books finally adopted by the Illinois State Board, for the nffnols pupils reading course was her work King Arthur and His Court. !" The Illinois State Board held it's last meeting in Chicago. March [, 1908. and from 1os books previously selected. chose a. This book, therefore. has twice stood for feeling elated.
 Many books have been written for ehil- dren and many are being written. Of these. many are good. but many. many more are not. There is . crying need for stories like King Arthur and His Court which sound stirring trumpet call to all that is highest and best in the soul of the chiid. 1t is depiorAbie. but significant fact. that the tales of ex- ploits of the James boys. and their kind, have always been popular among boys even among boys who have access to good libraries. The reason for this startling fact Is. not that the taste of the boy is at fault. but that until n very few years ago the literature for children consisted of stories which altcrnated between ab-| eurlly unbelievable tales Of giants who walked abroad: making noise and scar inx law abiding citizens into convuisionsl by speaking in the fee-h-fo-fum tongue. and little. nauseous. sugar-coated pills # stories about little woodeny boys and girls. who were wearisonely good, weptI a great deal. and always died young.
 Children. like '.grown-ups." Ike tales where thee Is -something doing" Grown people call this quality action" Children do not ttouble to name 1t. but finding that the notorious heroes, Frank and Jesse, always kept things lively round them. read the record Of their doines wifh ea8erness and delight.
 lt is true that we Shavs always with. us that immortal cherry tree, but that tree has been worked for all it's worth on the Young America of several genery. ations. by fond mothers. ambitious fA-' thers, and painstaking teachers. Now. there is faint evidence on the part Of young patriots of slight weariness of too, too much perfection. and perhaps of an undenned wish that the hefo's "nev- CT told a lie,'' may finally be proven 10 be a hardly ever like the never said a big, big D." of the gallant Captatn Of the .sPinsfore." The remedy for this state of affairs is better literature For children. It Is one of nAture's fixed and most useful laws. that two things can not occupy the same epace at the same time Since this is true, though boys mind, like his pocket, may hold q tumble Of many tl1ings.e yet give him good liter ature which appeals to the imagination, touches the heart and rouses an ambition to become good and great, and there will be no room for stuff of . lower. coarser order
 Tell him tales of old world heroes whose names. though only part of a far dim past. will yet live forever. Tell him tales of old battles where men fafed forth, and gladly, even gaily, gave their lives for their ideals of honor, courage. faith and truth Give him lofty ideals to strive for and chfvalry will again live among us.
 The Nstory embodied in King Arthur and His Court is not new. It is as old as claivalry. It Is as old as mems ideals of truth and honor. It holds a message which must have been cried Gown to men in the long ago, from the dim heights of some far Olympus. Though heard but imperfectly at first. it was caught up and called down the ages, and like mighty watch-word was taken up by the great souls watching on the heights of time, till the sound of 1t, grown clearer with each passing century. has reached our ears. The message has lost none of it's beauty ,and the old martial note. calling the soul to high deeds. sounds clearer than ever, though spoken by the lips of a woman to the hearts of children.
 Virgfnia Hereford.