INTRODUCTION FOR TEACHERS
BY MABEL HILL
THIS Source Reader is intended to serve a twofold purpose. The
book in the first place is a Reader, answering the demands of modern
reading-books. Its literary flavor, its strong phraseology, its wholesome
vocabulary, and its diversity in style combine to give it a character
stamped with the hall-mark of good English.
In the second place, the material is so chosen that the volume
may be used in correlation with any course in historical study which
includes the late colonial and revolutionary periods, and which deals
with the subject in an elementary manner in the classes of graded
grammar schools. Moreover, as the sketches, for the most part
anecdotal or narrative, are the original expressions of chief actors or
eyewitnesses of the scenes described, the book forms a small library of
source material, thereby solving in part the problem of how to make
possible some use of first-hand material in the public schools.
The time was when to "read through" a reading-book, page by
page, was the ambition of every teacher for each individual pupil. This
is no longer deemed important or wise, the real requirement is that the
child shall know how to read intelligently, and that his reading shall
open his eyes toward a larger mental horizon. Each requirement, in a
measure, involves the other; the expression depends upon the thought
and the interest in the thought; while the thought itself cannot be
properly interpreted without the
proper emphasis, clear enunciation, and liquid flow of full sentence
expressions. Here, in the Source Reader, we find a book of such
character that the thought may be copartner with the work of the
history lesson; and this gives it an illumination not otherwise to be
commanded. The moment the interest is aroused, the act of reading
well will follow from sheer force of circumstance. This copartnership
with the work along historical lines gives the added emphasis of
interest to the reading lessons.
The material in the Source Reader is so chosen that each
selection has its place in the annals of the colonial and revolutionary
periods. Here we have at hand the desired correlative material, in its
chronological relations. Here are stories and sketches, so transliterated
from the early orthography and changed from the old-fashioned
printing, that it is possible for children from ten to twelve years old to
read the text intelligently. The very grouping of these selections is
unique, as the titles of each part will indicate upon examination.
Teachers who are working in the earlier grammar grades, where the
objective side of history is borne in mind, so that a clear mental picture
of the time may be produced, will find a fresh invoice of delightful
literary material in the first two parts, Home Life, and
Highways and Byways. Take for instance the very first
selection, entitled "Thrifty Quaker Housekeeping." The charm of
Hannah Penn's personality pervades the whole letter; while her mention
of domestic utensils and household articles gives much valuable
information regarding the details of living.
We find herein ample material for pleasant conversation
concerning old-time house furnishings; and along with Benjamin
Franklin's entertaining account of London shopping ("Presents from
London"), it forms a capital inventory of articles used by dame and
maiden for personal or home decorations. No matter how youthful the
little girl, or
how dignified the school-teacher, the two will meet on common
grounds of interest as they read together these rare accounts of colonial
shopping, ever dear to woman's heart. It is a pleasure, too, to meet the
honored Franklin in a domestic moment, when his interest in old china,
his appreciation of artistic designs, and his admiration for becoming
frocks for the fair sex give the student a new and perhaps closer insight
into the personal tastes of the great diplomat. The teacher will find that
the girls, after reading a half-dozen such records, will discover a new
and wholesome interest in the home side of history.
The book abounds in stories equally adapted to boys, tales
which set the pulse throbbing, and stir the very depths of boy nature. In
Parts III and IV, where the relations between the Indians and the white
men are described, both in times of peace and during the wars between
France and England, the selections seem especially suggestive in their
correlation with any ordinary textbook of history. Turn to Peter Kalm's
various narratives of Indian life, and not one of them will fail to stir the
imagination as well as to develop the historical sense. John Bertram's
sketch of "Indian Hospitality" will suggest a scheme for a make-believe
Indian hunting ground, which will serve as a pastime for many a
holiday to come. The pupil who loves adventure will find delight in
"How Mackinac was Taken and Detroit was Saved," where Jonathan
Carver tells the story of Pontiac, and how the wily chief was outwitted.
Over and over again the lover of adventure will find tales of wonder in
this volume to open bright eyes still wider, if the teacher will but guide
to text and page.
The chapters are so arranged chronologically, that from day to
day the Source Reader may supplement the work of the history
recitation. Not only in the opening selections, where we find the
characteristics of colonial life accurately
portrayed through narratives setting forth the commercial, social,
literary, and religious tendencies of the period, but as the history of the
American colonist grows more tangled with national political affairs,
the sketches are admirably adapted to throw light upon the conditions
in this country during the "Old French War." Parkman himself has not
told the story of the brave Wolfe with more thrilling touch than is here
reproduced from the pen of John Knox, one of the party who stormed
the Plains of Abraham.
The sketches taken from personal letters, diaries, journals, or
documentary accounts have not only their own individual charm to
catch the appreciation of the child reader, and to implant an interest in
colonial affairs, but the fact that the writings are part of the literary
products of the colonial period gives them a value in themselves.
The extreme care with which the author has edited these
pages, that the story may appear in the modern clothes of orthography,
punctuation, and type, has not taken away the flavor of the original
text; the thought and expression have been preserved intact; and,
indeed, few serious changes of words and sentences have been found
necessary.
The reading matter grows in interest as we turn the pages.
Parts V, VI, VII, and VIII are rife with the spirit of '76, as their titles
suggest: Getting Ready for the Revolution; Revolutionary
Incidents; In Camp; In the Field. Each terse term quickens the
imagination as it suggests what is to follow.
As the class studies the American Revolution, becoming more
and more enthusiastic with patriotic sympathy, it is well that its
attention should be called to such a sketch as is given by Governor
Hutchinson, under the title of "A Furious Mob." To most questions
there are two sides to consider, and a broader-minded point of view
will be held by the boy or girl "historian" who knows something of the
over-patriotic Sons of Liberty. As the battles and sieges of the War of
Independence are discussed in their turn, this volume becomes an open
commentary with its valuable anecdotes, making real the life of battle-field and camp. Thatcher's "Amenities of Camp Life" gives an
interesting and curious picture of what we may suppose to have been
the daily life at Valley Forge, in 1779. What a surprise to the young
reader it will be to find Mrs. Washington sharing that winter of
hardship with her husband and gallant soldiers I How entertaining to
read of the dignified review of the revolutionary brigade as it drew up
before General Washington and the visiting chiefs! On a later page, a
brave story is told by Madame Riedesel, as she describes her journey
with the Hessian army, under the command of her husband. The
famous Burgoyne surrender is thus made very human, by this short
sketch of "A German Lady's Campaign."
The poetry of the volume has literary merit of itself in many
instances, but its great value lies in the lusty outpourings of warrior,
sailor, or patriot whose blood tingles with the spirit of the age. It would
be well, perhaps, to have the class commit the lines of Yankee
Doodle to memory, that our first American "battle-song" may be
handed down with accuracy to the next generation.
Although the scope of this book permits a variety in kinds of
writing, as well as in style, the literature is never beyond the
intellectual grasp of children from ten to fifteen years of age. If the
sketch be descriptive in character, the clear-cut picture is drawn in
simple language; if narrative, the story-teller sets forth his tale in plain,
forceful words. The colonial pen was dipped in the ink of earnest
feeling, and the simplicity of the Anglo-Saxon vocabulary best fitted
the trend of the thought of our early American writers. The literary
expression of David Humphreys, Thomas Hutchinson, Francis Goelet,
John Adams, or Timothy Dwight is
the natural output of a mental activity, marked by peculiarly virile
language, and imbued with a rare combination of imagination and
dramatic emotion.
The inborn capability of children to live in all ages through
mental vision and imaginary personality demands something more than
is offered in most text-books. Through these sketches of the Source
Reader the opportunity is given to visualize the past. It is youth's happy
privilege to be king or patriot as the story inspires; moreover, it is the
teacher's privilege to aid that inspiration. She must interpret the story in
such a manner that a wider knowledge, a keener appreciation of the
subject, shall follow; and she will appeal to the principles for which the
volume was conceived and executed.
As a companion book to historical work the Source Reader
affords a large field of fresh material; as a reading book it is rich with
extracts from masters of English who wrote because the New World
had caught them in its spirit of venture, enterprise, and freedom.
