The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1908-01-03

| If chicken stealing jokes: Shrewd
! joke is characteristic of the Irishnan:
! but the humOr Of Eugene Field was
not the humOr of the Irish or Dutch;
! it was the kind Of humOr you find in
children. He kept the heart of lit
tie child all the way through. Eugene
Field wrote the greatest lullybies Of
any land. Out of the heart of children
he took his song and to the hearts of
the children he gave them again.
Such as 1.-The Fishermen Three"
wink, Blind and a Nod" Eugene
Field was especially the children's
poet He built for sympathy in child
life in all he said. What a tribute to
the memory of the death of his Little
Boy that Died." which was the Occa-
sion Of the writing Of that expressive
poem, 1.-THE Little Boy Blue"
DR.. Hulley said Eugene Field was
good deal of freak. He was one of
those fellows that everything he said
or did was funny. Once, while working
on a paper in Chicago. Field dressed
up in the convict's striped 'garb, and
worked two weeks in the printing Of
fee, much to the amusement of his
associates. He could do this, what
others could not. Sitting at his win
dow, looking out upon the scene Of
the season, he. said to his wife, TT is
the dying time of the year." and ere
another day had passed Eugene Field
had sung his last song for childhood.
At the conclusion Of this admirable
address the audience resolved itself
into a reception, and two hours were
spent in making acquaintance and
having good time generally. Refresh
were free to all, dispensed with charm
ing hospitality by bevy Of ST. Peters
burgs fairest young ladies.
Thursday Morning
The subject, Primary Work." was
next taken up by Miss Emma Quar-
terman, Of Quincy, who demonstrated
her method of teaching the pupils in
her primary grade. A number Of large
calendars made by these pupils were
shown. Miss Quarterman will base
her work this year on nature study.
history, art and literature. The child
rem gather material for their studies
or lessons and discuss them with their
parents and the teacher. who gathers
the result of these discussions into
printed lessons. Each day on these
calendars, instead Of being represented
by figures. was represented by flow
err. bird or some fruit. or some event
of history happening on that day.
There were each taken up and studied,
the studies in nature being especially
interesting. each part of a plant and
It's different stages Of development be-
ing carefully studied. The events Of
history were explained and represent
ed on the children's sand table.
The children would take a poem,
"Hiawatha," for instance, and the
events would be represented as well
as they could be. by the pupils, who
would make baskets and different ar
ticles used by the Indians. The little
article were to be made and presented
as Christmas gifts. thus being taught
to make Christmas gifts themselves.
Charts of words and sentences are
used and the pupils are drilled on these
and then given mounted letters to
form words. When a pupil learns
new word he puts it in an indexed
dictionary given for that purpose.
Charts of the weather report are also
used, consisting of cards bearing the
| names Of the months, days and condi-
ton of the weather and the little pu-
pills are required to group these prop
| erly The pupils are taught to read
| at sight.
| This paper was discussed by Miss
| Frances Barnard, Of West Palm Beach,
who said that the method Of teaching
was not so important as the teacher.
tShe commended the method used by
! Miss Quarterman, and spoke Of the
difficulty of teaching the little ones
from the books, as they lose interest
after seeing the pictures, but believed
the best results could be obtained by
| using objects, as these leave a desire
! to inquire further into the subject
| The annual business meeting Of the
Florida Library Association was one Of
| the features of this session.
| A paper prepared by DR.. Tucker. of
| the Florida Female College. on the
subject. "How Can the Public Library
| Aid the Public SchOOls?" was read by
substitute in the absence of the au-
thor. A thought in this paper was
that training Of literary taste by read
ing good books was better than class