The Adair County news., 1915-07-07

The Ones That SWayed the Boys
of a Generation Ago.
STIRRING "PIEcEs TO SPEAK"

toTo Ti1o NO TdNor IN knS INSWoT
eooks-Lament of an Old Timer
and Bookstore Chat.
Forty school weeks mean forty Fri
day afternoons. Forty Friday after
moons mean to the pupils in some
schools near New York forty hated
piece speaking occasions.
"What," asked the boy of Smith Ap-
person, pater, "shall 1 speak next
timer"
"Why not recite Richard III. to his
troops at Bosworth f1eldr Apperson
answered confidently. There's piece
with lots Of slam and go to 1t. Or
there is 'Spartacus to the Gladiators.'
"Who was he, Spartacus?"
"Don't you know who Spartacus
was? Look in your Fifth reader. 1t
tells all about him there"
'Not In my reader" insisted the boy.
mot in"- Mr.. Apperson looked
stumped, but he pulled himself togeth-
er. How about Freedom Shrieked
When Kosciusko FellP" he asked.
"Got that in your reader?"
"No, sir"
"And My Name Is Norval on the
Grampian Hills?"
'GThe Grampians are In Scotland, 1
believe, but who was Norval and why
the limitation to his name?" the boy
asked.
"Hum! And that Midnight In His
Guarded Tent when the Turk Lay
Dreaming Of the Hour Got that in
your readerr
"No, SIR"
"What kind Of reader have you gOt"
Smith Apperson demanded Once
more. Does the Deep and Dark Blue
Ocean roll on through any of the pages
Of that expurgated edition they've
palmed off on you for a reader?"
"Well, there is something about the
ocean"
Good; we've saved the ocean. How
about L Give My Hand With Ny Heart
In ItT"'
'Pshaw! Everybody knows that
piece"
'Yes, yes; then there is something
besides waste paper in that reader.
Does it by any chance cry to you from
its pages to Strike for Your Affairs and
Your FiresT"
'fNo. sir"
my mistake" Smith Apperson ex-
claimed. 81 asked you about that piece
before. It's i great enc too l used
to get it off regularly twice a term,
and when l didn't do it some other
boy did. Never a piece day came
round but some one struck out for his
altars and his fires. I'll get you a
copy Of the kind Of reader I used to
have
Mr.. AppersOn went the next day into
a downtown book store, known to him
as place where, if they did not have
a book, they would get it for you If it
was to be had.
81 want a copy of McGuffey's old
Fifth reader said he.
$50 do l." replied the owner of the
store, who knew Apperson well. "I'H
buy a gross of them at a good price
Scarcely a week goes by that do not
have a call for that book or for some
other old school book"
How asked Sir. Apperson, chow
do you account for itT'
'Wen, it's this way" said the pro
prietor, "a father asks his boy some
thing about what he himself had stud
fed at school, thinking, probably, to
test him. The boy fails to give the
correct answer or says he never took
it in his grade. The father looks into
the boys book or books and finds, as
perhaps in your case. that the stories
IN which he delighted are not includ-
ed in the reader eSitions of today
Then he comes her to get a school
book that is what he AaIls a real school
book.
For instance, only a few days ago
a man came in fol an old geography.
He said the book Ff boy studied was
absolutely of no acE.sunt Historically at
least
"'What do you neaG. history in a
geography" I asked.
why he repllSd, 4. asked my boy
about the isthmu- of lDarien, and he
had never heard OF sucs a place; didn't
know there had e<er t9en anything Of
the sort. OF cousse he could and did
tell me all about he Ethmus of Pana-
ma, but Darien E)asBss in his geogra-
ply. Now, w&1t that boy to know
there was an istknus If Darien, and
don't want him 10 lave to take his
fathers word fo, it. Give me an old
geography, one Of Lbout thirty-f1ve
years ago.
81 couldn't fill Che CIDER. Old school
books are rare. Everybody wants them,
some to renew DaemoHes of their youth