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Show I . ! A New Memorial to McGuffey t y vl'' v 5t ' f f . 7 , vi v 3 perhaps more often than any other oth-er sin, with an imperceptible in fluence on its victim. IU first pretext i3 inconsiderable, and falsely termed innocent ploy, with no more than the gentle excitement ex-citement necessary to amusement. amuse-ment. The plea, once indulged, is but too often 'as the letting out of water.' The interest imperceptibly imper-ceptibly grows. Pride of superior supe-rior skill, opportunity, avarice, and all the overwhelming passions pas-sions of depraved natures, ally themselves with the incipient and growing fondness. Dam and dike are swept away. The victim vic-tim struggles in vain, and is borne down by the uncontrolled current." "The Bible, the Best of Classics," Class-ics," "Religion the Only Basis of Society," "The Intemperate Husband," Hus-band," are the titles of other lessons, les-sons, and many of these articles are honored by the name of the author in the index. That familiar famil-iar poem, "The Spider and the Fly," is given in this reader. "Directions for Readfcig" are expounded ex-pounded and rules for proper diction dic-tion are stressed. It remains for the Sixth Reader Read-er to begin with "Principles of Education," which is considered under six heads: 1. Articulation. 2. Inflection. 3. Accent and Emphasis. Em-phasis. 4. Reading verse. 5. The voice. 6. Gesture. All faults to be remedied are meticulously listed. Indeed, lessons les-sons in articulation start with the second reader, and proper emphasis and correct pronunciation pronunci-ation are stressed all through the series. The Sixth Reader also contained con-tained such classics as Hamlet's j By ELMO SCOTT WATSON f 1HE other day a great T crowd of people gathered gath-ered in the little city of . Oxford, Ohio. They j1 were there for a double ' purpose to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the publication of a book but more particularly to honor the memory of the man who wrote that book by unveiling a statue of him. The man was William Holmes McGuffey and the book which he published in 1836 was the first of the McGuffey Eclectic Readers. Of him it has been 6aid that "he was the most popular pop-ular American of the Nineteenth Nine-teenth century, the man who had the largest influence in determining the thoughts and ideals of the American people during that period and the man to whose work many great Americans of the present day pay tribute as being the fountain foun-tain of their inspiration to aspire and to achieve." That is why many American notables authors, editors, educators, edu-cators, industrialists, statesmen were present when the statue, the creation of one of America's leading sculptors, was unveiled at Oxford. But the greater part of the crowd there was made up of "just plain folks," members of the numerous "McGuffey Societies" scattered all over the United States, who still cherish in their hearts the lessons they learned from this "Schoolmaster of a Nation" in his Eclectic Readers. The memorial at Oxford is the second which has been erected in his honor within the last two years. In 1934 another great DEDICATION OF THE McGUFFEY MEMORIAL AT niS BIRTHPLACE BIRTH-PLACE NEAR WASHINGTON, PA. (At the left stands Nancy Pardee Newton of Ypsilanti, Mich., Designer of the Plaque.) 2-1 u.vurriiT-fl ratwua i.kssok xxir. of tot i I w iCrSMlJ 1Dd r it A lioy put a cot in a hot A lien, was in tho box. TIio toy tat on tho Ld of the box. Jl Tlio cat bit th bca; tail the bn n put out tlio cyo of (he eat. Tho boy got eff tho b'd of th boi. Tho cat got out and ran o LESSON XI r. la ill p xpTSs a. lot e jj&S uy i " aon too s The ten was too ill to get up, but not to ill as to die. Tho ben was put on die lor, the cun. L the fifth and sixth readers. After some time at Miami, Professor McGufTey, whose interest in-terest lay in the field of literature litera-ture and philosophy, was tendered ten-dered a professorship of mental philosophy. He carried on theological theo-logical studies privately and on March 29, 1829, he received his ordination into the ministry of the Presbyterian church, with the degree of doctor of divinity. McGuffey recognized the dearth of reading material in the common schools of the time. He had a keen literary sense and was able to select much that appealed ap-pealed to young minds. It was this selection of lessons from a wide range of authors that caused him to name the readers McGuffey Eclectic Readers. To read them is to catch a glimpse of the stern reality of life in the America of the Nineteenth Nine-teenth century. Humor is absent ab-sent from every one of them from McGuffey's New First Eclectic Reader, from which the smallest children learned their ABCs and were fascinated by the quaint woodcuts of birds and animals, an-imals, to the New Sixth Eclectic Reader, a 456-page volume of solid and forbidding type, described de-scribed on the fly-leaf as "Exercises "Ex-ercises of Rhetorical Reading with Introductory Rules and Examples." Ex-amples." Moral Lessons All of the stories in this volume vol-ume ended with a moral and some of the poems were set to music for singing. At the end of the book were the Ten Commandments Com-mandments in verse and this exhortation: ex-hortation: "With all thy soul love God above. And as thyself thy neighbor love." Back in the eighties every child was told more than once by his parents: "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again!" They got that maxim from a poem in McGuffey's New Fourth Eclectic Reader, as they did the admonition to "Waste not, want not." When they taught their 1131 fa MmL United States Supreme court not infrequently was colored by the readers he had studied 50 years before. Ida M. Tarbell, the late Albert J. Beveridge, and many others credit McGuffey with having hav-ing had a large share in shaping their minds. The story of the McGuffeys goes back to August, 1774, when William and Anne (McKittrick) McGuffey emigrated to this country from Scotland. Landing at Philadelphia, they journeyed to the southern border of York county, Pennsylvania, where they settled. This Scotch family had one son, Alexander, who was six years old when they arrived in America. Alexander grew up to be a scout and Indian fighter, serving in Ohio and western Pennsylvania Pennsyl-vania under Arthur St. Clair and Anthony Wayne. At the end of the campaign of 1794 he married Miss Anna Holmes of Washington Washing-ton county, Pennsylvania, and settled as a farmer in that county. coun-ty. Here, William Holmes McGuffey Mc-Guffey was born, September 23, 1300. When the lad was two years old, the McGuffeys removed to Trumbull county, Ohio, where Alexander McGuffey purchased a farm of 165 acres in Cortsville village, Cortsville township, in the Connecticut Western Reserve. Re-serve. One day Rev. Thomas Hughes, Presbyterian minister, was riding rid-ing by the lonely McGuffey cabin, cab-in, lie overheard the mother praying that her young son, William, Wil-liam, might have the opportunity opportu-nity to secure an education that would fit him for life and for the ministry. Reverend Hughes arranged ar-ranged to have the boy attend school at the "Old Stone academy" acad-emy" which he had opened at Darlington, Pa. The tuition was $3 a year and board 75 cents a week. Here William received his academic training and by the time he was eighteen was ready for a collegiate course. He went to the nearest college, Washington college, in Pennsylvania, Pennsyl-vania, and there came under the influence of Dr. Andrew Wylie, president of the college. He studied stud-ied Lathi, Greek and Hebrew as well as English and was graduated gradu-ated with honors in 1826, receiving receiv-ing the bachelor of arts degree. A Pioneer Teacher Wnile attending Washington college he supported himself in part by teaching. He taught a pioneer school in Kentucky, his work being observed by the first president of Miami university that had been founded at Oxford, Ohio, in 1309. This man, Rev. Robert Hamilton Bishop, nt once recognized the power and devotion devo-tion of the young undergraduate student and offered him a position posi-tion at Miami, to begin in the autumn of 1826. The minutes of the board of trustees show that he was employed em-ployed as professor of languages. Miami tradition tells that he rode into Oxford with his little brother Alexander with his personal copies cop-ies of Levy, Horace, Memorabilia Memora-bilia and the Greek and Hebrew texts of the Bible in his saddle bags. Soon after coming to Oxford he met Harriet Spining, daughter of Judge Isaac Spining of Dayton, who was visiting her uncle in Oxford. Ox-ford. They became engaged and were married April 3, 1827. While at Miami, McGuffey wrote the first and second of the graded set of readers the first in 1836 and the second in 1837. Both the third and fourth readers read-ers were written at Cincinnati in 1838. His brother, Alexander, aided Professor McGuffey in the revision of the readers and collected col-lected much of the material for -l.3 AC P t fct '. . ' 'Vjil AMCRICAN BOOK COMPANY. ti A LEAF FROM THE PRIMER soliloquy and "The Fall of Cardinal Car-dinal Wolsey," from "Henry VIII;" Scott's "Lochinvar" and "Marmion and Douglas"; Gray's Elegy; Macauley on "The Impeachment Im-peachment of Warren Hastings"; Tennyson's "Enoch Arden"; Poe's "The Raven"; Longfellow's Longfel-low's "Evangeline," and "A Psalm of Life." In 1836 Doctor McGuffey left Oxford to accept the presidency of Cincinnati college. In 1839 he became president of Ohio university univer-sity at Athens. In 1844 he returned re-turned to Cincinnati and served as professor at Woodward college, col-lege, afterward known as Woodward Wood-ward high school. In 1845 McGuffey went to the University of Virginia as professor profes-sor of philosophy. He was popular pop-ular with his students and he taught, says one writer, "with the simplicity of a child, with the precision of a mathematician, and with the authority of truth." An old friend left the following description of Dr. McGuffey: "A man of medium stature and compact figure. His forehead was broad and full; his eyes clear and expressive. His features fea-tures were of the strongly marked rugged Scotch type. He was a ready speaker, "a popular lecturer on education, and an able preacher." Dr. McGuffey's conscientiousness conscientious-ness was proverbial. When he was nearly seventy-three years old he prepared a 500-page book on philosophy. It was the result of ten years of careful research. But he was so critical that after the book was already in type he decided that it was not worthy of publication and ordered it withheld. He remained at the Virginia institution until his death on May 4, 1873. But he had lived to see his readers selling into the millions and extending their influence in- -to other lands by being translat- B ed into many foreign languages. How great that influence was is impossible to estimate. But there is no doubt that their serious purpose, pur-pose, their kindly spirit and their high moral tone made children of an earlier generation better men and women today. At least, that is the unanimous testimony of the devoted members of the McGuffey Societies thousands of Americans in all walks of life. C Wntern Newp(wr Union. VILLLM II. McGUFFEY throng gathered near Washington, Washing-ton, Pa., to dedicate a huge granite gran-ite boulder on the site of the log cabin where McGuffey was born. The crumbling remains of that cabin were removed to Dearborn, Mich., in 1923, rebuilt and added to the Edison institute collection by Henry Ford, through whose efforts 70 acres of the McGuffey farm were purchased for a permanent per-manent memorial. At that time Mr. Ford made one of his few public addresses. It was this laconic statement: "I am glad to join you today in giving honor to Doctor McGuffey. He was a great American. The McGuffey Readers taught industry and morality mo-rality to America." Tributes From Notables But Henry Ford is not alone in paying tribute to the Ohio schoolmaster. In fact, the list of those who have acknowledged their indebtedness to his teachings teach-ings is a veritable American "Who's Who." Herbert Quick in writing of his childhood in rural Iowa in his book, "One Man's Life," says: "I had a burning thirst for books. On those farms a boy or girl with my appetite for literature was a frog in a desert. The thirst was satisfied and, more important, was stimulated to aspiration for further satisfaction by an old dog-eared volume of McGuffey's, the standard school readers of my day. My mastery of the first and second readers just the opening of the marvels of the printed page was a poignant delight de-light and gave me a sort of ecstasy. ec-stasy. Those text-books constitute consti-tute the most influential volumes ever published in America." Newton D. Baker, secretary of war under President Wilson, once declared that a certain melancholy melan-choly poem contained in the Fifth Reader mode an impression on him that still remains, and the late Justice John II. Clarke said that the language he used in handing down decisions of the FIRST READER TITLE PAGE children that it was a sin to abstain ab-stain from "licking the plate clean" they were repeating the title of a little drama in McGuffey's McGuf-fey's Fourth Reader. "Lazy Ned," "Meddlesome Matty," "A Mother's Gift, the Bible," "Extract "Ex-tract from the 'Sermon on the Mount' " are some of the other well-remembered titles. The Fifth Reader has the title: "McGuffey's New Fifth Eclectic Reader: Selected and Original Exercises for Schools." Here we find old friends: "Maud Mul-ler," Mul-ler," "Shylock, or the Pound of Flesh." "Effects of Gambling," which begins: "The love of gambling steals, |
