Show OLD HORN BOOK Primers From Which Children Used to Learn to Read What is a horn book Dont be ashamed to say I dont know for that is precisely what Mr Gladstone aid when some one wrote to him to ask if he had one in his library There are only a few of them known to be in existence the famous British Museum I library has but three and only one has been found in the whole of the United States A horn book was nothing but a piece I of wood on which a slip of paper with the small letters and capitals nrlnted in order was pasted and then covered with a piece of transparent horn so I that the children could not spoil or tear the paper while they were learning I their letters It was made in this way After the piece of wood usually oak had been cut in the shape of a square paddle the printed sheet was pasted on the broad surface the horn was laid on and they aroused a great deal of int rest r-est As late as the beginning of the nineteenth nine-teenth century the little children In England used the horn book and it is said that their shape was so convenient that the teacher sometimes used it upon the head or hand of a stupid or lazy pupil The Pilgrim Fathers undoubtedly un-doubtedly brought over horn books with them for the only one found in this country is exactly like those made in England Some of the wooden hornbooks horn-books were covered on the back with leather to add to their durability Still more elaborate ones had pictures under each letter just like the picture alphabets alpha-bets in our ABC booksunder A was an apple under B a bull under C a cat etc On one of these there is a line of advice at the top and bottom of the page He that neer learns his A B C Forever will a Blockhead be But he that learns these letters fair Shall have a coach to take the air The most Interesting form of the hornbook horn-book undoubtedly was that one made of gingerbread It had all the letters on It Ilka a real horn book and according accord-ing to the poet To Master John the English maid A horn book gives of gingerbread And that the chiT may learn the better I As he can name he eats the letter Proceeding thus with vast delight lIe spells and gnaws from left to right |