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Show r readers WmWl 5 tV ) William Holmes 'f 'X-. T ' r4. Alexander- HamiltoT12 W$mmm assssrsfeff te-jri said steal kinds words flowers fj- ', . . VgL, V' ' : V" ttf M ' ,J By ELMO SCOTT WATSON ' " " ----- Haste thee, school-boy, haste away h 1 1 - v ' 4 '' ' v- Far too long- has been thy stay; J""l5? 'V', OnJL " Often you have tardy been, a xT jC N Many a lesson you've not seen; f "" s' If " -. Haste thee, school-boy, haste away, , 't S 1 LESSON LX. Far too long has been thy stay. ,J aV jLt J" --(V- -McGulfey's Third Reader. tf . ? " ? , "1 over the United States during the -s-'"? ..v r, 1 9-, ? last two or three weeks there has " "i"- - " 1 'SC'tt ""kr t been a constant repetition of that 6. But, instead of minding her, he went AvZi'j 'i & y "haste thee, school-boy, haste away" 1 'J iT-- iVv n "m t x LESSON LX. must sight learn i-d!o gowl front talks nev-r college, in Pennsylvania, and there came under the influence of Dr. Andrew Wylie, president of the college. He studied Latin, Greek and Hebrew as well as English and graduated with honors in 1S2G, receiving the bachelor of arts degree. While attending Washington college he supported sup-ported himself in part by teaching. He taught a pioneer school in Kentucky, his work being observed by the first president of Miami university uni-versity that had been founded at Oxford, Ohio, in 1800. This man, I'.ov. Robert Hamilton Bishop, at once recognized tin" jiiiwer and devotion of the 1 By ELMO SCOTT WATSON Haste thee, school-boy, haste away Far too long has been thy stay; Often you have tardy been, Many a lesson you've not seen; Haste thee, school-boy, haste away, Far too long has been thy stay. McGulfey's Third Reader. mowiBBW LL over the United States during the A I last two or three weeks there has I been a constant repetition of that I "haste thee, school-boy, haste away" Jpfi scene, as the army of Young Amer- S o'-iHfl lea has marched schoolwards. And I iHwLi i as tlle el(3ers matched them go, have I trnl tneir min3 turned back to their L'&&&?8 own youth and did there come to ilM3 their minds the verse printed above? I iC?i3 But if the elders should quote the rVwiBKitw above verse to their juniors, would the name of McGuffey mean anything to Young America? Probably not! And yet there are those who say that it is the name of a man who wns the most popular American of the Nineteenth 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 of their inspiration to aspire and to achieve. Even though a recent popular American encyclopedia gives only 15 lines to this man and the Encyclopedia Encyclo-pedia Brlttanica doesn't mention him at all, there are thousands of Americans to whom the name of William Holmes McGuffey will bring a reminiscent gleam to the eye. For he was "the schoolmaster to a nation" and anyone who attended at-tended a public school in America from 1833 down to the end of the century can remember something which they learned in one of the McGuffey Readers. 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 aspira-tion for further satisfaction by an old dog-eared rolume of McGuffey's, the standard school readers read-ers of my day. My mastery of the first and second sec-ond readers just the opening of the marvels of the printed page was a poignant delight and gave me a sort of ecstasy. Those text-books constitute the most influential volumes ever published pub-lished In America." Nor is he the only notable to offer such testa-mony. testa-mony. Newton D. Baker declares that an especially meloncholy poem contained In the fifth reader made an impression on him that still remains, and the late Justice John H. Clarke said 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 50 years before. Ida M. Tarbell, the late Albert J. Beveridge, former Senator Charles S. Thomas of Colorado, Senator Simeon D. Fess and Senator Frank 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 Impor-tant 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 Dur-ing the days of the Revolutionary war George Washington often stopped at their home. 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 lighter, serving in Ohio and Western Pennsylvania Pennsyl-vania under Gen. Arthur St, Clair and Anthony Wayne. At the end of this campaign In 1794 he married Miss Anna Holmes of Washington county, coun-ty, Pennsylvania, and settled as a farmer In that county. Here, William Holmes McGuffey was born, September 23, 1800. When the lad was two years old, the McGuffey McGuf-fey a removed to Trumbull county, Ohio, where Alexander McGuffey purchased a farm of 10.5 acres in Cortsville village, Cortsville township, In the Connecticut Western Reserve. One day 1'ev. Thomas Hughes, Presbyterian minister, was riding by the lonely McGuffey cabin. He overheard the mother praying that her young son, William, might have the opportunity oppor-tunity to secure an education that would fit him for life ami for the ininl.sl.ry. Reverend Hughes arranged to have the boy al.lend school at tho "Old .Slono academy" which he had opened at Iiarllnglon, Pa. The tuition was $'! a year and board 75 cent.:-) a week. Here William received bin academic training and by Hie time be was l:;hlecn was ready for u collegiate course;. Lie went tu nearest college, Washington young undergraduate s; :;:ent and offered him a position at Miami, to beg n in the autumn of 1S23. The minutes of the board of trustees show that he was employed as professor of languages. Miami tradition tells that he rode into Oxford with his little brother Alexander with his personal per-sonal copies of Livy, Horace, Memorabilia nnd 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, Day-ton, who was visiting her uncle in Oxford. They became engaged and were married April 3, 1S27. In 1S28 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 Miami, McGuffey wrote the first and second of the graded set of readers. The third and fourth readers were written later at Cincinnati. Cin-cinnati. His 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, McGuf-fey, 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, 1S29, he received re-ceived his ordination into the ministry of the Presbyterian church, with the degree of doctor of divinity. He never 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 was this selection of lessons from a wide range of authors that caused him to name the readers McGuffey Eclectic Readers. The first reader was Issued In 1S30, the second sec-ond in ISf',7, and the third and fourth in 1833. The qualities that made the readers so popular pop-ular are the basic principles of life, honesty, justice nnd truth behind the lessons. In finding find-ing application of moral principles he selected the best In British and American literature. He takes in every phase of life with the home as the foundation of It all. The first reader Is all play, but In tho 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 reader begins be-gins to give a bigger and broader vision of life with lessons of travel, religion and statesmanship. In 18TI0 Doctor McGuffey left Oxford to accept the presidency of Cincinnati college. In 1839 he became president of Ohio university at Athens. In 1814 he returned to Cincinnati and served as professor at Woodward college, afterward known as Woodward high school. In 1815 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. Even the most casual survey of the McGulToy Readers reveals the stern reality of life in the century before this one. There Is not a speck of humor In them, from McGuffey's New First Kelectlc Reader, from which the wee children learned their A PC's and gazed with fascinated eyes at the quaint woodcuts of birds and heasls, to McGuffey's New Slxlh Eclectic Reader, an Imposing volume containing 450 pages of solid and forbidding type described on the flyleaf as "Exercises of Rhetorical Reading Wllh Introductory Intro-ductory Rules and Examples." The. stories ulways end with u moral, and some of the verses set to music and sung. The book 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 girl and boy in the eighties has been told more than once by his fond but strict parents: "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again I" This poem in its entirety appears in McGuffey's 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 was the title of a little drama in McGuffey's Fourth Reader. "Lazy Ned," "Meddlesome Matty," "A Mother's Girt, the Bible," "Extract from the 'Sermon on the Mount' " are some of the other well remembered titles. The Fifth Reader boasts the title: "McGuffey's "McGuf-fey's New Fifth Eclectic Reader: Selected and Original Exercises for Schools." Here we find old friends : "Maud Muller," "Shylock, or the round of Flesh," "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 fir&t pretext is Inconsiderable, In-considerable, nnd falsely termed innocent play, with no more than the gentle excitement necessary neces-sary to amusement. This plea, once indulged, is bnt too often 'as the letting out of water.' The Interest imperceptibly grows. Pride of superior skill, opportunity, avarice, and all the overwhelming over-whelming passions of depraved natures, ally themselves with the incipient and growing fondness. fond-ness. 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," "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 Fly," is given in this reader. read-er. "Directions for Reading" are expounded and rules for proper diction are stressed. It remains for the Sixth Header to begin with "Principles of Education," which Is considered con-sidered 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 tho second reader, and proper emphasis and correct pronunciation are stressed all through the series. Of the McGuffey Readers, adults are probably prob-ably most familiar with the Sixth Readers. To millions who live today, that work meant the literary peak. It contained Hamlet's sollllquy nnd "The Fall of Cardinal Wolsey," from "Henry "Hen-ry VIII;" Scott's "Loehinvar" and "Marmlon and Douglas"; Gray's Elegy; Macauley on "Tin Impeachment of Warren Hastings"; Tennyson's "Enoch Arden"; Poe's "The Raven"; Longfellow's Longfel-low's "Evangeline," nnd "A Psalm of Life." The McGuffey Headers have had a wide Influence. In-fluence. They have been translated Inlo many languages, even the Japanese. Their serious purpose, pur-pose, their kindly spirit, their high moral tono doublless made children of an older day heller men and women In our own lime. The sale of them has made a fortune for their publishers, who estimate that 122,000,000 copies of th renders have been sold. ( by WoHttfi n Ntiwtfpuitr Union.) |