The Tupelo journal., 1915-08-27
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
Books-lament Of an Old Timer
and a Bookstore Chat.

moons mean to the pupils in some
schools near New York forty hated
piece speaking occasions.
what" asked the boy Of Smith APP
person, pater, shall l speak next
timer"
.Why not recite Richard III. to his
troops at Bosworth feld?' Apperson
answered confidently. There's a piece
with lots of slam and go to it 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 b boy.
Not in Mr.. Apperson looked
stumped, but he pulled himself togeth-
err. How about Freedom Shrieked
When Kosciusko Fell?" he asked.
"Got that in your reader?'
No, sir"
And My Mare Is Norval on the
Grampian HillsY
THE Grampians are in Scotland, 1
believe. but III was Norval and why
lie 4lluIldlACA ~ Ao hNAhS' AhS ~
asked.
Hum! And that Midnight In His
Guarded Tent when the Turk Lay
Dreaming of the Hour Got that In
your readerY
mo, sir"
"Wha 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?"
We'll, there is something about the
ocean"
Good: we've saved the ocean. How
about i Give My Hand 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 any chance cry TO you from
its pages to Strike for Your Affairs and
Your Fires?"
mo, sir"
MY mistake Smith Apperson ex-
claimed. Il asked you about that piece
before. It's a great M too. | used
TO get it off regularly~twice a term,
and when | didn't do II some other
boy did. Never 4 piece day came
round but some one struck u for his
affairs and bis fires. I'll get you a
COPY of the kind of reader l used to
have"
Mr.. Apperson went the next day into
d downtown book store. known to him
as a place where. if they did not have
a book. they would get it for you If 1t
was to be had.
Il want a copy of McGufey's old
Fifth reader" said he.
$50 do l." replied the owner of the
store. who knew Apperson well. I'll
buy a gross of them at a good price.
Scarcely a week goes by that l do no
have a call for that book or for some
other old school book"
How asked MIR. Apperson, how
do you account for itT'
well it's this way" said the pro-
prietor. "a father asks his boy some
thing about what be 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 be delighted are not includ-
ed in the reader editions Of today.
Then he comes here to get a school
book that is what he calls a real school
book.
For instance, only a 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, 4 asked my boy
about the isthmus of Darien, and he
had never heard of such a place; didn't
know there had eve 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. l want that boy to know
there was an isthmus of Darien, and l
don't want him to have to take his
fathers word for it. Give me an old
geography, M of about thirty-fve
years ago.
II couldn't fill 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 go through
when they themselves went to school.
.Webster's Speller, Sanders Reader
and McGuffey's Reader are the partic-
ular books which seem to stay in the
memories of the old boy and the old
girl. But l can't sell them because |
haven't got them"
.'Then l reckon III have to give
young Harry Smith Apperson my best
- ~ nr rvr4u saw