The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-11-09
BY MRS. c. O. ROBINSON

Times Hobby Editor
IF you remember this rhyme you
l. probably studied the First
Eclectic Reader for Young Learn
ers,' written by William Holmes Nc
Guffey This first reader was a
small, thin book with paper covers,
but it sold for 1921 cents when the
wage for days work was so cents.
1t was the first of series of read
ers printed continuously from 1886
until revised by Hoosier educator
DR.. James Baldwin, for the last
publication in 1901 No other school
books have had as general and
protracted use.
The scarcity of other books and
the superior quality of the readers
made them very popular. They pro-
vided intellectual food for ambitious
pioneers and influenced the lives of
American youths for at least three
generations, as well as the manners,
morals and cultural growth Of the
middle west.
A CCORDING to DR.. H. G. Min
N mich, dean of Miami university
at oxford, o., and foremost Nc
Guffey authority, the stories in the
earlier books we're written by Nc
Guffey, and the First Reader was
practically all his own compost
ton. The later books, however,
we're a compilation of stories and
poems as acknowledged by eclectic,
a new word in tn west, meaning the
best parts taken from all.
Passages from the greatest and
best in literature we're included in
the more advanced books and in the
lessons for little folks every rhyme
or story stressed a moral or intel
lectual virtue, as in the jingle from
the Second Reader:
Brides in their nests agree, but tits q
shameful sight
When children in one family. fall out
and chide and fight.
The Second Reader contains many
dear old favoriteS, Twinkle, Twin
kle, Little Star" Mary Had a
Little Lamb" "Once There Was a
Little Kitty" II Like to See a Lit
tie Dog and Pat Him on the Head"
and many others, including the ia
miliar lullaby, Sleep, Baby, Sleep"
VXTILLIAM H. M'GUFFEY, A. B.,
w D. D. and LII. D., was born
in Washington county, Pennsyl-
vania, in 1900. When he was 2, his
father, who had been an Indian
scout under General st. Clair,
established a homestead in Ohio.
Young McGuffey went ba k
to the Old Stone academy at
Darlington, Pa, to get his educa-
ton and worked to pay his So year
tuition and rs cents week board
He continued through Washing
ton college under Dr. Andrew Wiley,
later president of Indiana univer-
sity, and after graduation in 1926,
became professor of ancient Ian
guages at the newly founded Miami
university.
While there, he wrote the first
four readers.
In 1886, McGuffey went to Gin
cinnati college as president and
with Joseph Ray, author of the
arithmetics, and Lyman Beecher,
father of Henry Ward Beecher,
formed the first teachers associa-
ton in the west.
In 1845 he accepted the chair of
philosophy at the University of
Virginia, whose handsome buildings
were designed by Thomas Jefferson.
A well-loved and successful teacher,
this slight man with high forehead
and red hair also was a popular
and witty lecturer, but won his
greatest fame as an author and edu-
Gator.
OTTIS j. MILLER, Bloomington,
" Ind, organized the McGuf-
feyite Club of Indiana in 1924. Julia
Chapman Reid acted as secretary,
and shortly after the first meeting
in January, 1925, the membership
numbered over a thousand per-
sons from all parts of the United
States. Any one, old or young, is
eligible to belong if interested in
collecting and preserving the read
ers, or in honoring the memory of
NHaN,,Ro1y I,o