The Devils Lake world and inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, N.D.) 1915-1920, 1915-08-26
SCHOOL READERS.
The Ones That Swayed the Boys
Of a Generation Ago.
STIRRING "PIECEs TO SPEAK,"
Favorite Selections Of the Days Of
Yore Find No Favor In the Newer
Bouks-Lament Of an Old Timer
and a Bookstore Chat.

Yore Find No Favor In the Newer
Booss-Lament of an Old Timer
and a Bookstore Chat.
Forty school weeks mean forty Fri.
day afternoons. Forty Friday after
moons mean to the pupils in sumc
schools near New York forty hated
piece speaking occasions.
What" asked the boy of Smith -\p-
person. pater, "Shall | speak next
time"
why not recite Richard I'LL. to his
troops at Bosw0rth icldT Aplcr>on
answered confidently. "Thele's Il piece
with lots Of slam and go to it. Or
there Is 'Spartacus to the GladiniorS.'"
Who was he. Spartacus:'
Don't you know who Slnr,a"us
was: Look in your Fifth reader. 1t
tells all about him there"
Not IN my reader" insisted tile hoy.
Not in Mr.. ApperSon looked
stumped. but he pulled himself lu"r,h.
err. How about Freedom SilirA",.
When k"sciusko Fell" lie ~;l>..rl
'Got tina, in your reader"
NO. sir"
And My Name Is Nnrva! ., ~;
Granlpian Hills" !
''Tlle tirampinnS are in Scul!:lN!. !,
believe. but who was Norval ;nrl Nay
the limitation to his Nance" TIM lazy
asked.
Hum. And that 'Midni=l, In lis
Guarded Tent when tine 'riirN i..'y
Dreaming OF the Hour .;"t llr.l i,
your reader"
mo, sir
What kind OF readcr HAY. you ="i:'
Smith ApperSon demanded. 'Onrr
more. Does the Deep and Dark Blue
Ocean roll Oh through amy Of the pages
of that expurgatcd edition they've
palmcd off on % for Il reader"
We'll, there Is something about the
ocean"
Good: we've saved the ocean. How
about i Give MyIIand With My Heart
In It?"
'pshaw:: Everybody knows. that
piece"
Yes, yes: then there is something
besides waste paper in that reader.
Does it by amy chance cry to you from
It's pages to Strike for Your Affairs and
Your Fires"
No. sir"
My mistake" Smith .Npperson ex-
claimed. :! asked YOU about that piece
before. It's :: great one too. used
to get it off regularly twice u term.
and when didn't do it some other
10S- li1 \,,.n. =, ,.-., l,. ,.,. |
round but some one struck out for his
affairs and his fires. I'll get you !;
copy of the kind of reader used to
have"
Mr.. .Apl"r>nr wcnt the lex day into
a downtown book store. known to him
as q place where. if they did not have
a book. they would get it for you if it
was to be had.
II want y copy of McG:uffry's old
Fifth reader" said he.
$50 do l." replied the owner of the
store. who knew .AppelSon well. Ill
buy Il gross of them at a good price.
Scarcely Il week "ncS by that l do not
have a call fUl that bool or for some
other Old school book"
How asked Mr.. Apperson. how
do you account for it,"
We'll. its this way" said the pro
prietor. "A father asks his boy some
thing about wlla, lie himself had stud
led at school. thinking. probably, to
test him. The boy fails TO give the
correct answer or says he never took
1t in his grade. Tho father looks into
the boys book or books and finds. as
perhaps in your case. that the stories
in which he delighted arc not includ-
ed in the reader editions of today.
Then he comes here to get Il school
boOk that is what he raliS a real school
book.
For instance. only Il few days ago
a man came i'll for an old geography.
He said the book his boy studied was
absolutely of no account, historically at
least.
What DO YOU mean, history in a
geographic" l asked.
Why ne replied. i asked my boy
lhout the isthmus Of Darien. and he
bad never heard of such Il place: didn't
know there had ever been anything Of
the sort. or course he could and did
tell me all about the isthmus of Pana-
ma, but Daricn wasn't in his geogra
ply. Now, | want that boy to know
there was an isthmus OF Darien, and |
don't want him to have to take his
fathers word for it. Give me an old
geography. one Of about thirty-five
years ago
II couldn't ill the order. Old school
books are rare. Everybody wants them.
some to renew memories of their youth
by reading over the old pieces, others
because they wan to show to their
children what they had to go through
when they themselves went to school.
"Webster's Speller. Sanders Reader
and McGuffey's Reader are the partic-
nlar books which seem to stay in the
memories of the old boy and the old
girl. But I can't sell them because