Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1915-07-16
SCHOOL READERS.
The Ones That Swayed the Boys
Of a Generation Ago.
STIRRING "PlECES TO SPEAK"
Favorite Selections Of the Days Of
Yore Find No Favor In the Newer
Books-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 I speak next
tine?'
"Why not recite Richard III. to his
troops at Bosworth field? Apperson
answered confidently. '"There's piece
with lots of slam and 60 to it. Or
there Is 'Spartacus to the Gladiators.'"
'Who was be, Spartacus?'
Don't you know who Spartacus
WIS? Look In your Fifth reader. It
tells III about him there" ~
mot in my reader Insisted the boy.
Not M Mr.. Apperson looked
stumped, but he pulled himself togeth-
er. ''How about Freedom Shrieked
When Kosciusko Fell?" he asked.
Got that in your reader?"
no, sir.".
"And My Name Is Norval on the
Grampian Hills?"
'"The Gramp1anS are In Scotland,
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 reader?'
''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 reader?"
swell, there is something about the
ocean,"
Good; we've saved the ocean. How
about 4 Give Ny Hand I''itii Ny Heart
In It?" .~~~-@z'''**
"pshaw! Everybody. knows that
piece"
Eyes, yes; t]s.:. there is something
besides waste PAPER in that reader.
Does it by any chance cry 70 you from
its pages to Strike 70: You: Affairs and
Your ttres?"
"No, SIR
"My mistal:r.' Smith -Irrerson ex-
claimed. 81 >!>,vl YOU about that piece
before It's Il :rt::t exc 1Cu. used
to get it o.. it:3lll..v: twice Il term,
and when l <:;,:nA do ii some other
boy did, Never Il piece Gay came
round but some one struck out for his
affairs and his fires. III get you a
copy Of the kind Of reader used to
have
Mr.. Apperson went the next day into
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.
II want copy of McGuffey's old
Fifth reader" said he.
$50 do l." replied the owner Of the
store, who knew Apperson we'll "1'll
buy gross of them at good price.
Scarcely week goes by that do not
have a call for that book or for some
other old school book"
''How"- asked Mr.. Apperson. chow
do you account for ft?''
"Well, it's this way" said the pro-
prietor. "A father asks his boy some
thing about what he himself had stud
led 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 editions Of today.
Then he comes here. to get school
book that IS what he calls real school
book.
For instance, only few days ago
a man came in 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
geography" asked.
"'Why,' he replied, Il asked my boy
about the isthmus Of Darien, and he
had never heard Of such place; didn't
know there had ever been anything OF
the sort. OF course he could and did
tell me all about the isthmus Of Pana-
ma, but Darien wasn't In his geogra-
ply. Now, I 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-f1ve
years ago.
II couldn't MI 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 want to show to their
children what they had to 60 through
when they themselves went to school
"Webeter's Speller, Sanders Reader
and McGuney's Reader are the part1c-
ular books which seem to stay TN the
memories Of the old boy and the old
girl But can't sell them because
haven't got them"
'cThen I reckon I'll have to give