The New York herald., 1922-04-23
By ALcERNoN TAssIN,

"" TIE great Ialry SeorleS OF tne
world were nos written for
children and did not contem-
plate the modern mode kindergarten.
They failed to consu.. he double
totem OF contemporary education
the psychology of the child and his
future service to the community.
This is why they are by school
standards the worst.
Most of our household taies-those
composed OF the material OF folk
lore-go back to the times when
modern morals. to say ns.thing of
modern ethics. were urd-eamed of
and nobody had written a look on
educational psychology. TIE folk
lore tales are a part of the common
heritage Of man. They travelled
from remote antiquity By means OF
oral tradition. gathering moss as
they rolled. The major stories of
the human family are all the same
and differ only in treatmsnt-of the
one story Cinderella Cor instance,
there are at least 345 known va
RANTS They all date from the days
when the primitive Aryln was not
very nice in his habits. lie rejoieed
In successful trickery. in branching
the bones OF his enemies. in the
broadest OF jokes and other things
not now thought edifyirS & for child
hood Almost all OF them contain
talking animals. and seem therefore.
to so back to a period WREN man
looked upon the beast as his brother
and envied a superior S. .rength or
courage or endurance or cunning or
keenness OF sight or scert. 1t can
not be denied that this predatory
person was not preoccupied with
the theories of modern education.
III.
What is a fairy tale7 The con-
temporary school defin,ticn is "a
symbolic presentation OF spiritual
truth" Chesterton. who believes in
definition by implication. not to say
complication. says 1t Is tale told
In q morbid age 10 the oaiy remain
ing sane person. a chill But both
these definitions proceed from highly
colored temperaments which think
things are what they can be twisted
into for the accomms dation OF
theories A fairy tale Is story of
something fairy" using the word in
its original sense of extraordinary
Its incidents are of a mCnstrous.
Irrational and unnatural character.
and take place in a locality where
all animate and inanimate nature is
on an intellectual leve. with man
and where everything responds to
fncantation.
These tales OF the folk surviving
from more or less barbarous times
have been written down for US By
persons who wished for scientific
motives to preserve them or for
artistic motives to reteu them, or
who had a mixture OF both motives
Grimm and Dasent and Bu-.cn were
hfethe first class. sett'Sg down for
use German and Morse and Oriental
tales. Perrault and Andersen aim at
making out of folk maierla' a new
creation Lang. Joel Chandler Har-
ris and Joseph Jacobs have all a
scientific interest. but frankly sub
ordinate it to that Of the artist, COM
pleting and changing and inventing
material at will. Then there is
fourth class-those who discard. con-
sciously at least. the folk material
and fit fairy tales OF their own into
the old setting and style. Such are
Lewis Carroll. Charles Kingsley.
Jean IngeIow. Mrs. Ewing. Frank
Stockton. Howard Pyle. Yet we
shall see that many o. these new
tales. as well as most Of the old
ones. are now kept from the well
schooled American child lest they
contaminate his morals. his mind or
-=APnanners.
The growing sensittveness OF the
custodians OF American childhood
was long ago discernible. Gelett
Burgess narrates that when in his