The Republican journal., 1909-12-09
QUILLCOTE PRODUCTS.
Quaint Youngsters In Kate Douglas Wiz
gins Bo0lss-The Home Setting.

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gins Boolss-The Home Setting.
The early reviews of "Rebecca of Sum
nybrook Farm" as well as those which
appeared later, spoke highly of the book
for its quaintness and the lovable chill
dren it added to that joyous circle of
Kate Douglas Wiggin, says writer in
the Springfield Republican. To think of
Mrs. Wiggin is to see her surrounded
with child faces, for there is scarcely a
book of hers without glimpse of juven-
lie life, and the greater part of her work
centers about child hero or heroine.
When an author develops a decided bent
in one direction or another, it is always
interesting to speculate as to the causes
which lie back of it. In the case of Mrs.
Wiggin, the question is a simple one.
Born of a family prominent on both sides
preachers, and law-givers, no less than
for its interests in charitable and philan-
thropic matters, her attention was early
drawn to serious things. From that fine
old school for girls, Abbott Academy at
Andover, where she was educated. she
went at once to California where her
family had moved, and there took up the
Kindergarten work, of which she became
the most noted exponent on the Pacific
coast. She was but slip of girl when
she was called to assume the directorship
of the Silverstreet kindergartens of San
Francisco, but to her inspiration and ex-
ample were undoubtedly due the rapid
and successful growth of Froebel's sys-
TEN of education in the West.
Her varied piftS musical and artistic
her personal magnetism, her enthusiasm,
the Unborn quality of leadership which
she possessed, had full play in her work,
first as a Kindergarten and then as
training teacher. and raised up about her
host of followers. More than this, it
focused her attention, at one Of the most
impressionable periods of her life, upon
little children, their charms, and lido
syncrasies, their unexpected way of look
ing at things and their quaint sayings,
their likes and dislikes, and their rela-
tons to their parents and guardians. Had
she elected to make herself the historian
of childhood, she could have received no
better training for the position than that
which she received in those years among
the babies Of Tar Flat and the Barbary
Coast. Her literary work is never NOR
bid, and while Astounding in touches of
pathos and human feeling, sparkles with
wit. Her powers of clear vision and
friendly raillery are we'll shown in her
''Rebecca" books, which, as the London
Spectator has lately said, have made her
one of the most successful of embassa-
doris between America and Great Britain.
A recent article in the Critic on Books
that have passed the hundred thousand
mark, " includes some of Mrs Wiggin S
successes and gives the general impress
sion of its authors conviction that no
book can be widely and speedily popular
which is not more or less light, super
ficial, and especially designed to catch
the public taste. The criticism contains
much truth, but t. e are other qualities
upon which popularity depends, and one
of them is an appeal to the heart, enforc-
ed by perfect sincerity as we'll as by
sunny humor. That Mrs. Wiggin's work
makes this appeal there can be no ques-
ton.
The principal of New York High
school looked for years for a book to
recommend to the 5000 girls in his care,
found it in "Rebecca of Sunnybrook
Farm" begged SO copies from a gener-
Gus friend, and the 5000 read them to
shreds. At an age when true sentiment
can be trusted to stamp out sentimental
ity, and real humor to reveal the cheap
ness of horseplay, these young women
are fortunate to be given the tears and
laughter of a Rebecca in whom there is
no sham.
The good people," great and small,
of whom Mrs. Wiggin writes, grow into
being during the summer months at
Quillcote, her quaint old house of CO.
lonial date and style, set among it's arch
ing elms in Hollis, Me. Hollis is not a
summer resort; hardly even village, as
it quietly dreams the years away on the
banks of its beautiful river. The SAGE
widens into placid lake as it flows past
the Quillcote elms, and then, within a
few rods from the house, makes a mag
niticent fall, and for a mile or so in it's
downward course gives one an idea of
what State of Maine river can do in
the way of foaming, white water. This
is the stream, by the way, if the reader
cares for literary geography, that runs
through 'Rebecca'" AS Mrs. Wiggin
sits in her study at Quillcote the song of
the river is in her ears, while looking
from the windows by her desk, her eyes
rest on the shining weather-vane, "a
golden quill, that swings, emblem of her
PROFESSION ana us successes, on the ROOF
of the old barn.
The present Quillcote barn would hard
ly be recognized by the old yeoman who
built it, though he would realize how adj
mirably it is adapted to village festivi-
ties. A year ago all the interior fittings
were removed, new floor laid, case
ment windows added and the building
converted into rustic hall. The cen
tury-old rafters, strong as when they
were aid, remain in position, the walls
were brushed down and left in their
original tawny-brown hue; other old
barns generously gave it ancient fishhook
hinges, antique latches, and moose
horns, while substantial settles were
fashioned from old boards weathered to a
silver gray. Quaint lanterns fitted with
candles hang from score of harness
pegs about the walls, and the old grain
chest, piled high with cushions, stands
at one end of the room. Wide doors
open at the back into field Of butter
cups and daisies, and no more pictur-
esque setting can be imagined for rus