| Show russia removes fairy bans childish classics restored though the russians were hy by no means the first to consider nursery literature dan dangerous crous it if tile the belief la Is widespread alint tile the world Is going mail counter evidencia la is furnished in a quarter least to be suspected It russia that country has removed its nan ban on childrens classics and balry tales robinson crusoe Is 19 first firpi on the hie list of nursery favorites farl tes to be reprinted by thi the hundred thousand it may be that this book will not come coine from the press just ns as defoe broto it for it tin hai no an element of piety that soviet russia dots does not dot formally endorse robert lynd of the news chronicle london finds it difficult to un dorastand dor der stand how the ti alea es originally came to believe that reading the nursery classics was like ly to turn rood good bolshevik children into wicked reactionaries lie points out that the hie emperors new clothes Is us lis sharp a satire on tile the ways waa of court courtiers lers us ns any communist could have written also lie ho argues that tho the marriage ot of a poor man with a princess or a poor girl with a king might bo be used as propaganda for fiuman hum in equally equality but ideas were rushing top too fast in ono one direction for soviet officials als to see it that way lie he draws upon america for support tho the american amu lean republic has survived the perlis perils implicit in ili fairy tales for a century and ft a halt without ever lieving had bad to revise the stories so as to make the beggar maid marry the president instead of the king and to leave leao cinderella living happily ever after as the wife of tile the mayor of new kew york mr lynd does docs the russim russians ns jus we in saying so in tint that they have vot not been tile list first people to suspect the presence prest ot of poison in nursery latera ture there have been puritans of so stern a cast that they looked on oil fairy tales as frivolous lies which it was dangerous to put into the land of chil children drell it might also be added that modern radicals have come near tile the puritan ideal by condemning fairy fates for another reason that they give enle ideals deals of life our c irly puritans may have known nothing of these stories and so BO did not condemn them but tho the substitutes they offered jre are shown in ili a recent book by dr A S rosen bach early american childrens books upon which aless carolyn dvells ells offers this comment in tile the new york american Amert cin to me tho the book Is of absorbing interest because it convinces me of something I 1 have heretofore refused to believe lii in the stern and rock bound hearts of tile 1111 grim Va bathers I 1 felt the awful tales of their strict and rigorous training of young peo plo roust must ile be exaggerated it if not post lively untrue hut but judging ns as one may and must by the literature glyen to youth in ili those times it Is en e 1 dent unit that tho the fathers were more inore cruet cruel to their offspring than the younger generation of today Is to its parents 1 tile I he first book for children printed in america published in in ili was the itule of the new cren ture lure to ile Imet leed every day in all AH the particulars of it which alch aro an ten the book begins thus lie ile sensible of thy original corruption dally liow how it inclines theo thee to evil ell and Indispose th thee to good groan under it and bewail it 1 I had no reason to be surprised at these admonitions for nt at my own sunday school I 1 recited from nn an in faut catechism which I 1 still rehem bet ber almost word for word otte one of 0 its early questions was what aro are you then by naturel to willcie my gilt balli reply for I 1 always knew tn ra lessons was 1 11 I am tin an tt a child of 0 satan and an 1111 heir of lie liall at that ahne I 1 had reached rea cliel the ali mature age eo of four literary dl DI gest est |
