The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1916-05-18
SCHOOL READERS.
The Ones That SWayed the Boys
of a Generation Ago.
STIRRING "PIECES TO SPEAK"

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
time?"
"Why not recite Richard III. to his
| troops at Bosworth field? Apperson
answered confidently. There's 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 the boy.
mot in Mr.. AppersOn looked
stumped, but he pulled himself togeth-
er. "How about Freedom Shrieked
When Kosciusko Fell?" he asked.
"Got that in your reader?
mo, sir"
"And MY Name Is Norval on the
Grampian Hills?"
"The Grampians are in Scotland, l
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?"
mo, 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?"
"Well, there is something about the
ocean,"
"Good; we've saved the ocean. How
about 4 Give My Hand With My Heart
In It?"'
"Pshaw! Everybody knows that
piece"
Eyes, yes; then there is something
besides waste paper in that reader.
Does it by any chance cry to you from
it's pages to Strike for Your Affairs and
Your Fires?'"
; "NO, sir"
"My mistake Smith Apperson ex-
claimed. 81 asked you about that piece
before. It's a great one too. l used
to get it off regularly twice a term.
and when 1 didn't do it some other
boy did. Never a piece day came
| 1,,,t cfr11cly ont 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
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'l
: buy gross of them at good price
Scarcely week goes by that do not
have call for that book or for some
other old school book"
, How asked Mr.. Apperson, chow
DO you account Tor II!
"Well, it's this way" said the pro
, prietor GA father asks his boy some
thing about what he himself had stud
led at school, thinking, probably, t6
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 schoo
book that is what he calls real schoo
, book.
For instance, only few days age
man came in for an old geography
He said the book his boy studied wa
absolutely of no account, historically al
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, l 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.
81 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 I'll have to give
. young Harry Smith Apperson my best
information and belief. as lawyers say