Part 10 (1/2)

Another influence we have to counteract is that of newspaper headings and placards which catch the eye of children in the streets and appeal so powerfully to their iination

Shakespeare has said:

Tell me where is Fancy bred, Or in the heart, or in the head?

How begot, how nourished?

It is engendered in the eyes With gazing fed, And Fancy dies in the cradle where it lies

Let us all ring Fancy's knell

I'll begin it--ding, dong, bell

”Merchant of Venice”

If this be true, it is of importance to decide what our children shall look upon as far as we can control the vision, so that we can for alluded to the dangerous influence of the street, I should hasten to say that this influence is very far froether bad There are possibilities of romance in street life which may have just the sa stories I am indebted to Mrs Arnold Glover, Honorary Secretary of the National Organization of Girls' Clubs,[36] one of the most widely infor experiences gathered from the streets and which bear indirectly on the subject of story-telling:

Mrs Glover was visiting a sick wo on the door-step of the house, two little children, holding so with ed to knohat they were doing, but not being one of those uni into the s, she passed them at first in silence It was only when she found them still in the same silent and expectant posture half an hour later that she said tentatively: ”I wonder whether you would tellhere?” After some hesitation, one of them said, in a shy voice: ”We're waitin' for the barrer” It then transpired that, once a week, a vegetable-and-flower-cart was driven through this particular street, on its way to a hborhood, and on a few red-letter days, a flower, or a sprig, or even a root sometimes fell out of the back of the cart; and these two little children were sitting there in hope, with their hands full of soil, ready to plant anything which arden of oyster shells

This see a fairy tale as any that our books can supply

On another occasion, Mrs Glover was collecting the pennies for the Holiday Fund Savings Bank from the children who came weekly to her house She noticed on three consecutive Mondays that one little lad deliberately helped hi to frighten or startle him, she allowed this to continue for so dismissed the other children, she asked hi the envelopes At first he was very sulky, and said: ”I need theht be, but reed to her She promised, however, that if he would tell her for what purpose he wanted the envelopes, she would endeavor to help hi announceradual questioning, Mrs Glover drew froh water carts passed through the side street once a week, flushi+ng the gutter; that then the envelope shi+ps were made to sail on the water and pass under the covered hich fores for wayfarers and tunnels for the ”navy” Great was the excitenized as they arrived safely at the other end Of course, the expenses in raw reatly diminished by the illicit acquisition of Mrs Glover's property, and in this way she had unconsciously provided the neighborhood with a navy and a co acquainted with the whole story, was to present the boy with a real boat, but on second thought she collected and gave him a number of old envelopes with nareatly to the excite, because they could be more easily identified as they came out of the other end of the tunnel, and had their respective reputations as to speed

Here is indeed food for roes of street life are to be taken into consideration as well as the disadvantages, though I think we are bound to adh the former

One of the immediate results of dramatic stories is the escape fro Mr Goschen's words The desire for this escape is a healthy one, coet away fros and interests, we do for ourselves what I ht to do for children: we step into the land of fiction It has always been a source of astonish to escape fros, we do not step more boldly into the land of pure romance, which would form a real contrast to our everyday life, but, in nine cases out of ten, the fiction which is sought after deals with the subjects of our ordinary existence, namely, frenzied finance, sordid poverty, political corruption, fast society, and religious doubts

There is the saer in the selection of fiction for children: namely, a tendency to choose very utilitarian stories, both in form and substance, so that we do not lift the children out of the co the titles of two little books, the contents of which were being read or told to children; one was called, ”Tom the Bootblack”; the other, ”Dan the Newsboy” My chief objection to these stories was the fact that neither of the heroes rejoiced in his work for the work's sake Had _To, or if _Dan_ had started a newspaper, itthe listeners ere thinking of engaging in sie fortunes, but surely the school age is not to be limited to such dreams and aspirations as these! One wearies of the tales of boys who arrive in a toith one cent in their pocket and leave it as millionaires, with the added importance of a mayoralty It is undoubtedly true that the roon_, for e unconsciously cherish the affection which we often bestow on a far-off personage Perhaps--who can say?--it is the picturesque adjunct of the cat, lacking to modern millionaires

I do not think it Utopian to present to children a fair share of stories which deal with the is ”untouched by hand”

They, too, can learn at an early age that ”the things which are seen are tes which are unseen are spiritual” To those ish to try the effect of such stories on children, I present for their encourage lines from James Whitcomb Riley:

THE TREASURE OF THE WISE MAN[37]

Oh, the night was dark and the night was late, When the robbers caate, The robbers who caate, Seized his jewels and geold and his priceless plate,-- The robbers that ca red!-- For of what had the robbers robbed him?

Ho! hidden safe, as he slept in bed, When the robbers caolden shred Of the childish dreams in his wise old head-

”And they're welcos else,” he said, When the robbers careat deal of this rohtful sense of irresponsibility, which I clais for small children, to be found in our old nursery rhy article written by the Rev R L Gales for the _Nation_

After speaking on the subject of fairy stories being eliminated from the school curriculu the joy of the world and taking froenerations yet unborn the capacity for wonder, the power to take a large unselfish interest in the spectacle of things, and putting them forever at the mercy of small private cares