Show sn READERS by ELMO SCOTT WATSON hate thee school boy haste away VAT loo long ha been thy stay often you have tardy been many a lesson you ve not been haste thee schoolboy school boy haste away par too long has been thy stay mcguffey s third reader LL over the united states during the last two or three weeks there has been a constant repetition of that baste thee school boy haste away scene as the army of young america has marched schoolyards school wards and as the elders watched them go hive their minds turned back to their own youth and did there come to their minds the verse printed above but if the elders should quote the above verse to their juniors would the name of mcguffey mean anything to young america probably not I 1 and yet there are those who say that it Is the name of a man who was the most popular american 0 the s century the man who had the largest in determining the thoughts and ideals if the american people during that period and tl e man to whose work many great americans of fie present day pay tribute as being the fountain of their inspiration to aspire and to achieve even though a recent popular american a gives only 15 lines to this man and the encyclopedia Brit tanica doean doesn t mention him at all there are thousands of americans to whom the name of william mcguffey will bring a reminiscent gleam to the eye lor he was abe schoolmaster to a nation and anyone who attended a public school in america from down to the end of the century can remember something eom ething which they learned in one of the mcguffey readers herbert quick in writing of his childhood in rural iowa in his book one mans lite says 1 I had a burning thirst for books on those farag 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 the standard school readers of my day my mastery of the first and sec and readers jest the opening of the marvels of the printed page was a poignant delight and gave me a sort of ecstasy those test books constitute the most influential volumes ever published in america hor la he the only notable to offer such testa newton D baler declares that an especially melancholy melon choly poem contained in the fifth reader made an impression on him that still remains and the late justice john 13 cuirle eadd that the language he used in handing down decisions of the united states supreme court not infrequently was colored by the readers he had studied 60 years before ida M airbell Ti rbell the late albert J beveridge Beverl dge former senator charles S thomas of colorado senator simeon D fess and senator trank L greene are among others who credit mcguffey with having had a large share in shaping their minds to get the proper perspective on this important individual let us go back to the days before the revolution in august 1774 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 during the days of the revolutionary war george washington often stopped at their home this scotch family had one son alexander who was alx years old when they arrived in america alexander grew up to be a scout and indian fighter serving in ohio and western pennsylvania under gen arthur st clair and anthony wayne at the end of this campaign in 1794 he married miss anna of W ashington county pennsylvania and settled as a farmer in that county here william mcguffey was born september 23 1800 when the lad was two years old the feys removed to trumbull county ohio where alexander mcguffey purchased a farm of 1 acres in village township in the connecticut western reserve one day rev thomas II presbyterian minister was riding by the lonely mcguffey cabin he overheard the mother praying that her young son william might have the opportunity to secure an education that would alt him for life and for the ministry reverend hughea arranged to have the boy attend school at the old stone academy which he bad opened at darlington pa the tuition was 3 a year and board 73 cents a week here william received his academic training and by the time he was eighteen was ready for a collegiate course he went t t nearest college washington 6 but instead of minding her he went college in pennsylvania and there came under the influence of dr andrew wylle president of the lege lie studied latin greel and hebrew as well as english and graduated with honors in 1820 receiving the bachelor of arts degree while attending washington college he sup ported himself in part by teaching he taught a pioneer school in kentucky his work being observed by the first president of miami versley that ind been founded at oxford ohio in 1809 this rev robert himilton Hi mllton bishop at once recognized the power and devotion of the young undergraduate student and offered him a position at to begin in the autumn of 1820 the minutes of the board of trustees show that he was employed as professor of languages miami tradition tells that be rode into oxford with his little brother alexander with his personal copies of livy horace memorabilia and the greek and hebrew texts of the bible in his caddle bags soon after coming to oxford he met harriet daughter of judge isaac of dayton who was visiting her uncle in oxford they became engaged and were married april 3 1827 in 1828 professor mcguffey built as their home the house that still stands in the shadow of the campus in this home three children mary henrietta and charles were born while at mcguffey wrote the first and second of the graded set of readers the third and fourth re iders were written later at cincinnati 1 brother alexander as he grew to manhood became an attorney in cincinnati he aided professor mcguffey in the revision of the readers and collected much of the material for the fifth and sixth readers after some time at miami professor mcguffey whose interest lay in the field of literature and philosophy was tendered a professorship of mental philosophy he carried on theological studies privately and on march 29 1829 he received his ordination the ministry of the presbyterian church with the degree of doctor of divinity he gocr held a regular charge but filled many pulpits on sundays mcguffey recognized the dearth of reading material in the common schools of the time he had keen literary sense and was able to select much that appealed to young minds it wis this selection of lessons from n wide ringe of authors that caused him to mine the readers mcguffey readers reader was issued in the ond in 18 and the third and fourth in 1838 the qualities that made the readers so popular are the basic principles of life honesty justice and truth behind the lessons in find ing application of moral principles he selected the best in british and american literature he jalcs in every phase of life with alie home as the of it ail the first reader la all play but in the second he begins to get a little more responsibility holding to the home and stressing kindness to the family and to animals the third reader Is a character builder every lesson has a moral the fourth reider be ging to give a bigger and broader vision of life alth lessons cottriel ot religion and statesmanship in doctor mcguffey left oxford to accept the presidency of cincinnati college in 18 he became president of ohio university at athens in 1844 he returned to cincinnati and served as professor at woodward college afterward known as woodward high school in 1845 mcguffey went to the university of virginia as professor of natural and moral philosophy he remained at this institution designed and built by thomas jefferson until his death on may 4 1873 hven the most casual survey of the mcguffey readers reveals the stern reality of life in the century before this one bhore Is not a speck of humor in them from McGuff cys new first eclectic reader from which the wee children learned their and gazed with fascinated eyes at the quaint woodcuts wood cuts of birds and beasts to new sixth eclectic reader an imposing volume containing pages of solid and forbidding type described on the flyleaf as exercises of rhetorical reading with introductory rules and examples the stories always end with a moral aad some of the verses set to music and sung jhb boob ends with the ten commandments in verse and an exhortation with all thy soul love god above and as thyself thy neighbor love every little girt and boy in the eighties has been told more than once by his fond but strict parents if at first you dont succeed try try again 3 this poem in its entirety appears in new fourth eclectic reader waste not want not was a good old proverb of those days and we who were taught at an early age that it was a sin to abstain from licking the plate clean did not know then that this waa the title of a little drama in McGuff cys fourth render lazy ned meddlesome matty A mothers gift the bible extract from the sermon on the mount are some of the other ell remembered titles the fifth reader boasts the title feys new fifth eclectic reader selected and original for schools here we find old friends maud muller shylock or the pound of biesh effects of gambling which begins the love of gambling steals perhaps more often than any other sin with an imperceptible influence on its victim its first pretext Is inconsiderable and falsely termed innocent play with no more than the gentle excitement necessary to amusement this plea once indulged Is but too often as the letting out of water the interest imperceptibly grows pride of superior skill opportunity avarice and all the overwhelming wh elming passions of depraved natures oily themselves with the incipient and growing fondness dam and dike are swept away the victim struggles in vain and Is borne down by the uncontrolled current the bible the best of religion the only basis of society the intemperate husband are the titles of other lessons and many of these articles are honored by the name of the author in the index that familiar poem the spider and the 1 given in this reader directions for reading are expounded and rules for proper diction are stressed it remains for the sixth reader to begin with principles of education which la con under six heads 1 articulation 2 inflection 3 accent and emphasis 4 reading verse 5 the voice 6 gesture all faults to be remedied are meticulously listed indeed lessons in articulation start with the second reader and proper emphasis emp hasi and correct pronunciation are stressed all through the series of the mcguffey readers adults are probably most familiar with the sixth readers to millions who live codly that work meant the literary peak it contained hamlets and the ball of cardinal from hen ry vin scotts lochinvar and marelon Marm lon and douglas grays elegy macauley on the impeachment of warren hastings Tenny sons enoch arden foes the raven longfellow a lne and A psalm of life the readers have had a wide in fluency flue they have been translated into many languages even the Ja pinese their serious pur pose their kindly spirit their high moral tone doubtless made children of an older day better men and women in our own time the sale of them has made a fortune for their publishers who estimate that readers copies of the have been sold by petern |