Part 6 (1/2)
=An Old Soldier=:--Tell how you happen to know this old soldier. Where does he live? Do you see him often? What is he doing when you see him?
Describe him as vividly as you can:--his general appearance; his clothes; his way of walking. Speak particularly of his face and its expression. If possible, let us hear him talk. Perhaps you can tell some of his war stories--in his own words.
=A Mysterious Person=:--Imagine a mysterious person appearing in a little town where everybody knows everybody else. Tell how he (or she) arrives. How does he look? What does he do? Explain clearly why he is particularly hard to account for. What do people say about him? Try to make each person's remarks fit his individual character. How do people try to find out about the stranger? Does he notice their curiosity? Do they ask him questions? If so, give some bits of their conversations with him. You might go on and make a story of some length out of this.
Show whether the stranger really has any reason for concealing his ident.i.ty. Does he get into any trouble? Does an accident reveal who he is and why he is in the town? Does some one find out by spying upon him?
Or does he tell all about himself, when the right time comes?
Perhaps you can put the story into the form of a series of brief conversations about the stranger or with him.
=An Incident of the Civil War=:--Select some historical incident, or one that you have heard from an old soldier, and tell it simply and vividly in your own words.
COLLATERAL READINGS
The Story of a Bad Boy Thomas Bailey Aldrich Marjorie Daw and Other People ” ” ”
The Stillwater Tragedy ” ” ”
Prudence Palfrey ” ” ”
From Ponkapog to Pesth ” ” ”
The Queen of Sheba ” ” ”
A Sea Turn and Other Matters ” ” ”
For Bravery on the Field of Battle (in _Two Bites at a Cherry_) ” ” ”
The Return of a Private (in _Main-Travelled Roads_) Hamlin Garland On the Eve of the Fourth Harold Frederic Ma.r.s.e Chan Thomas Nelson Page Meh Lady ” ” ”
The Burial of the Guns ” ” ”
Red Rock ” ” ”
The Long Roll Mary Johnston Cease Firing ” ”
The Crisis Winston Churchill Where the Battle was Fought Mary N. Murfree The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come John Fox, Jr.
Hospital Sketches Louisa M. Alcott A Blockaded Family P.A. Hague He Knew Lincoln[2] Ida Tarbell The Perfect Tribute[3] M.R.S. Andrews The Toy Shop[4] M.S. Gerry Thomas Bailey Aldrich Ferris Greenslet Park Street Papers, pp. 143-70 Bliss Perry American Writers of To-day, pp. 104-23 H.C. Vedder American Authors and their Homes, pp. 89-98 F.W. Halsey American Authors at Home, pp. 3-16 J.L. and J.B. Gilder Literary Pilgrimages in New England, pp. 89-97 E.M. Bacon Thomas Bailey Aldrich (poem) Henry van d.y.k.e
For biographies and criticisms of Thomas B. Aldrich, see also: Outlook, 86:922, August 24, 1907; 84:735, November 24, 1906; 85:737, March 30, 1907. Bookman, 24:317, December, 1906 (Portrait); also 25:218 (Portrait). Current Literature, 42:49, January, 1907 (Portrait).
Chautauquan, 65:168, January, 1912.
PAN IN WALL STREET
A.D. 1867
EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN
Just where the Treasury's marble front Looks over Wall Street's mingled nations; Where Jews and Gentiles most are wont To throng for trade and last quotations; Where, hour by hour, the rates of gold Outrival, in the ears of people, The quarter-chimes, serenely tolled From Trinity's undaunted steeple,--
Even there I heard a strange, wild strain Sound high above the modern clamor, Above the cries of greed and gain, The curbstone war, the auction's hammer; And swift, on Music's misty ways, It led, from all this strife for millions.
To ancient, sweet-do-nothing days Among the kirtle-robed Sicilians.
And as it stilled the mult.i.tude, And yet more joyous rose, and shriller, I saw the minstrel where he stood At ease against a Doric pillar: One hand a droning organ played, The other held a Pan's-pipe (fas.h.i.+oned Like those of old) to lips that made The reeds give out that strain impa.s.sioned.