University of Virginia Library

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.