The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-10-18

children were so much interested in Hiawatha that they wanted to make pictures of Hiawatha, Then l let them illustrate the story, writing it in their composition books, and illustrat- ing it. As we studied geography, the upper Mississippi valley and the lake regions all took on new meaning, be- cause Hiawatha had once lived, toiled and suffered there.
 But most of all, what had I done for those children? l had fed their souls-given them masterpiece of literature. Starting with the child hood of Hiawatha, they had followed him and admired him. They had seen him when he caught the king us fish es, slew the Pearl Feather, prayed and lasted for his people, punished Pau -kee-wis, wooed and won Minne- haha, and when his task was done, sailed away into the fiery sunset,
 That something inexpressibly sweet and beautiful that I felt in the vision hour, and longer to impart to the children, and heretofore had not been able to, I had at last found lncarnate in a hero! while the music, meter and imagery of poetry had awakened the sense of the beautiful, and revealed new world to them. New life had come into the school. It had been born again, and born from above,
 Two months passed. I had tried an experiment.; it had succeeded. Cram mar, language, composition, drawing, spelling, story telling, had been taught by that method. Formal language had become linked to literature, and thereby to life. The formal had be- come an expression of the spiritual.
 Where could I find another such story. I had recently studied in the university the "Idylls of the King. " Could the children appreciate the story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table? I feared they could not; but then I would try them l must have another story. It was more profound, more complex and more difficult in every way to tell than Hiawatha. I began with the flnd- ing of naked baby on the beach, the childhood of Arthur, Merlin's work, the sword Excalibur, and Arthur's coronation.
 At first King Arthur was not so popular as Hlawatha, but as we got more into the meaning of the story the interest deepened, and at times became intense, especially among the older boys and girls as we gave Gar eth and Lynette, Geraint and Enid, the Holy Grail, Elaine, Guinevere and the Passing of Arthur As with Hia- watha, the story was reproduced, il- lustrated, correlated with English his tory and geography; at the same time it furnished the most excellent mate rial for ethical and esthetic culture. After the last story was told, the Passing of Arthur, and the children 1 saw with Sir Bedivere their king pass with the three tall queens in barge over the sea, they stood in wonder gazing on the splendor of his pass | ing. Defeated in the last weird bat tie in the west he was victorious 1T his ideal. From the great deep tC the great deep he goes"
 The children heard but did no quite understand. It was the better for that because 1t awakened in tht child something of the mystery O. life and death. In that it served thu highest purpose. It helped the chile to realize that there are things il life that 'feye hath not seen, nor cal heard" Let 1t not be forgotten tha
 while we use these great stories fol 1 formal work, the formal was always
 the result of the creative The let ter killeth; the spirit giveth life. Thus it was that children and teach Ter left the low planes of the lessor nearer" and hand in hand walked th'
 upland pastures of the soul-RlcharC
 T. Wycke, President of the Natlona
 Story Tellers' League, in Education.