The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-07-04
ANCIENT SCHOOL BOOKS

Joel Benton in the New York World
In the literature that abides with the
individual memory and becomes a part
of the souls furniture, so to speak, 1
know of nothing that surpasses a dis
used and departed school book.
The Webster spelling book and the
English reader-the first one obso-
lescent and the last now nowhere used
have probably had the longest histo-
~ Of any, going through at least three
fUn generations. Beginning with the
symbolic picture of the Temple of
Fame and knowledge, to which a Nj
nerva-like female figure points the
young girl pupil whom she is leading
and continuing to the end, there Is
hardly a page in this spelling book
which an old student who has used it
ever forgets. Although it has gone
through several editions, its type and
essential style are preserved in every
change of 1t.
How familiar, after you pass the
alphabet page, these lines appeal to US:
Am l to go in? I am TO go in" "She
fed the old hen" THE hen was fed by
her" Ann can hem my cap" "She
has new fan" Fire will burn wood
and coal" Coal and wood will make
fire" viii you help me pin my
frOck?' The good girl may Jump the
rope" Bakers bake bread and cakes. 8"
Cider is made of apples" "a tiger
will kill and eat a man. Ann can spin
max" "A shad can swim" 1--WE can
burn fish oil in lamps. Never. poster
the little boys" 4 had some green corn
in July on a plate"
At the middle and end Of the book
the words and lessons are arranged for
the older and higher classes of pupils.
and furnish all the equipment that is
required for a speller and reader. The
pictures and their fables perhaps in
terest US most in the retrospect. The
milkmaid in her careless dreamland,
the boy driven from the apple tree by
the irate farmer, and the bull that
gOred the OK are still unfaded treasures
which carried in their day notable in
struction. The wood cuts that were
used that were Of the Anderson and
Bewick fashion, look quaint enough
now.
Who. at any rate, that was nurtured
on Webster's speller can ever forget
the Milkmaid's Revere She was car
rying the full pail of milk on her head
when she said: THE money for which
shall sell this milk Will enable me to
increase my stock Of eggs to 3OO."
After deducting for adding and YER
min there would be at least $50 chick
ems got from them. These were to go
to market at Christmas for good
prices. Consequently by May day, she
says, Il cannot fail to have money
enough to purchase a new gown. Them
let me cOnsideT-yes, green becomes
my complexion best, and green Il shall
be. In this dress I viii go to the fair.
where all the young fellows will strive
to have me for a partner; but I shall.
g,arharc -
with an air of disdain toss from them"
Being transported by this thought"
she gave a sudden toss of her head.
land down came the pail of milk. and
with It all her imaginary happiness.
Lindlay Murray's English Reader
was held to be excellent in its day. But
is was Overwhelmingly serious and
solemn and was so advanced that
many of the younger pupils who used
it had to wait for years to have all its
meaning made clear to them Murray
was not only a stern Quaker, but
seems to have been a man who could
not smile even. q To him a laugh was
levity and in one Of the editions of his
reader he apOlOgized in a foot note for
few sentences in which he thought
there was something playfuIly said.
No one else, however, discovered this.
On one page. in speaking Of Niagara
falls-an idea which he might have
found in GOldsmith's Animated Ma
ture'-he announces its height and
grandeur, but slips Immediately into an
untruth and anti-climax by SAYING
that in spite Of its vastness. 1T is said
that the Indians have sometimes
passed down it in their canoes in safe
ty."
Murrays grammar was excellent. but
its circulation could not compare with
that of the English reader. Of arith-
metiCs there were no end. Pixies was
a big octave and began its career in
the eighteenth century. It was really
a whole compendium Of mathematics
DabolFs perhaps is now the best re-
membered Of the multiplied kinds. Col
burns was noted, and Smiths began
almost in the cradle by asking the kin
dergartner, How many little fingers
have you on your right hand?" And
how many on your left hand ?" Ma
than Daboll was a born mathemati-
clan and his problems We're no easy
nuts to crack. as a great number Of the
books patrons still remember.
Jacob Willett's arithmetic was the