The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1916-05-19
SCHOOL READERS
The Ones That SWayed the Boys
of a Generation Ago.
STIRRING ''PIEcEs TO SPEAK"

day afternoons. Forty br1uay a1ter
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 fleldT Apperson
answered confidently. There's piece
with lots of slam and go to 1t. Or
there Is 'spartacus to the Gladiator
"Who was he, Spartacus"
Don't you know who Spartacus
was? Look In your Fifth reader. It
tells all about him there"
mot in my reader" insisted the boy.
mot in"- Mr.. Apperson looked
stumped, but he pulled himself togeth-
er. Glow about Freedom Shrieked
When Kosciusko TellP" he asked
"Got that In your readerT'
mo, SIR"
"And My Name Is Norval on the
Grampian HillsY"
"The Grampians are in Scotland, /
believe, but who was Norval and why
the limitation to his Manner the boy
asked.
Hum! And that Midnight In His
Guarded Tent when the Turk Lay
Dreaming Of the Hour Got that In
your reader"
mo, SIR"
"What kind of reader have you gotT
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 4 Give My Hand With My Heart
In It7"
'Pshawl Everybody knows that
piece"
Eyes, yes; then there is something
besides waste paper In that reader.
Does 1t by any chance cry to you from
its pages to Strike for Your Affairs and
Your FiresT"
"No, SIR"
"My mistake" Smith Apperson sx-
claimed. II asked you about that piece
before. It's a great one too. I used
TO get It off regularly twice a term,
and when I didn't do 1t some other
boy did. Never a piece day came
round but some one struck out for his
affairs and his fires. I'll get you a
copy Of the kind Of reader used to
have"
Mr.. Apperson went the next day into
a downtown book store, known to him
as a place where. II they did not have
a book, they would get 1t for you II it
was to be had.
II want a copy Of McGuffey's old
Fifth reader" said he.
$50 do l." replied the owner OF the
store, who knew Apperson well. "Tu
buy a gross of them at a good price.
Scarcely a week goes by that I do not
have a call for that book or for some
other old school book"
How asked Mr.. Apperson, how
do you account for it?" u
"Well, it's this way" said the pro-
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, I 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, 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-fve
years ago.
II couldn't I'LL 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 parttc-
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
Information and belief. as lawyers say,
about how Freedom shrieked when
Kosciusko FELL and so forth"
Precisely. as you say."-New York
Post
Contentment, as It Is short road
and nleasant. has great delight and lit