Forgotten Books of the American Nursery Part 14

With covers neat and cuts so pretty There's not its like in all the city; And that for three-pence he could buy A story book would make one cry; For little more a book of Riddles: Then let us not buy drums and fiddles Nor yet be stopped at pastry cooks', But spend our money all in books; For when we've learnt each bit by heart Mamma will treat us with a tart."

Later, when engraving had become more general in use, William Charles cut for an advertis.e.m.e.nt, as frontispiece to some of his imprints, an interior scene containing a shelf of books labelled "W. Charles' Library for Little Folks." About the same time another form of advertis.e.m.e.nt came into use. This was the publisher's _Recommendation_, which frequently accompanied the narrative in place of a preface. The "Story of Little Henry and his Bearer," by Mrs. Sherwood, a writer of many English Sunday-school tales, contained the announcement that it was "fraught with much useful instruction. It is recommended as an excellent thing to be put in the hands of children; and grown persons will find themselves well paid for the trouble of reading it."

Little Henry belonged to the Sunday-school type of hero, one whose biography Dr. Holmes doubtless avoided when possible. Yet no history of toy-books printed presumably for children's amus.e.m.e.nt as well as instruction should omit this favorite story, which represents all others of its cla.s.s of Religion-in-Play books. The following incidents are taken from an edition printed by Lincoln and Edmunds of Boston. This firm made a special feature of "Books suitable for Presents in Sunday-School." They sold wholesale for eight dollars a hundred, such tales as Taylor's "Hymns for Infant Minds," "Friendly Instruction,"

Fenelon's "Reflections," Doddridge's "Principles of the Christian Religion," "Pleasures of Piety in Youth," "Walks of Usefulness,"

"Practical Piety," etc.

The objective point of little Henry's melancholy history was to prove the "Usefulness of Female Missionaries," said its editor, Mrs. Cameron, a sister of the author, who at the time was herself living in India.

Mrs. Sherwood based the thread of her story upon the life of a household in India, but it winds itself mainly around the conversion of the faithful Indian bearer who served five-year-old Henry. This small orphan was one of those morbidly religious children who "never said a bad word and was vexed when he heard any other person do it." He also, although himself "saved by grace," as the phrase then ran in evangelical circles, was chronically anxious lest he should offend the Lord. To quote verbatim from this relic of the former religious life would savor too much of ridiculing those things that were sacred and serious to the people of that day. Yet the main incidents of the story were these: Henry's conversion took place after a year and a half of hard work on the part of a missionary, who finally had the satisfaction of bringing little Henry "from the state of grossest heathen darkness and ignorance to a competent knowledge of those doctrines necessary to salvation."

This was followed immediately by the offer of Henry to give all his toys for a Bible with a purple morocco cover. Then came the preparations for the teacher's departure, when she called him to her room and catechized him in a manner worthy of Cotton Mather a century before. After his teacher's departure the boy, mindful of the lady's final admonition, sought to make a Christian of his bearer, Boosy. Like so many story-book parents, Henry's mother was altogether neglectful of her child; and consequently he was left much to the care of Boosy--time which he improved with "arguments with Boosy concerning the great Creator of things." But it is not necessary to follow Henry through his ardent missionary efforts to the admission of the black boy of his sinful state, nor to the time when the hero was delivered from this evil world.

Enough has been said to show that the religious child of fiction was not very different from little Elizabeth Butcher or Hannah Hill of colonial days, whose pious sayings were still read when "Little Henry" was introduced to the American child.

Indeed, when Mrs. Sherwood's fict.i.tious children were not sufficiently religious to come up to the standard of five-year-old Henry, their parents were invariably as pious as the father of the "Fairchild Family." This was imported and reprinted for more than one generation as a "best seller." It was almost a modernized version of Janeway's "Token for Children," with Mather's supplement of "A Token for the Children of New England," in its frequent production of death-bed scenes, together with painful object lessons upon the sinfulness of every heart. To impress such lessons Mr. Fairchild spared his family no sight of horror or distress. He even took them to see a man on the gallows, "that," said the ingenuous gentleman, "they may love each other with a perfect and heavenly love." As the children gazed upon the dreadful object the tender father described in detail its every phase, and ended by kneeling in prayer. The story of Evelyn in the third chapter was written as the result of a present of books from an American _Universalist_, whose doctrines Mrs. Sherwood thought likely to be pernicious to children and should be controverted as soon as possible. Later, other things emanating from America were considered injurious to children, but this seems to be the first indication that American ideas were noticed in English juvenile literature.

But all this lady's tales were not so lugubrious, and many were immense favorites. Children were even named for the hero of the "Little Millenium Boy." Publishers frequently sent her orders for books to be "written to cuts," and the "Busy Bee," the "Errand Boy," and the "Rose"

were some of the results of this method of supplying the demand for her work. Naturally, Mrs. Sherwood, like Miss Edgeworth, had many imitators, but if we could believe the incidents related as true to life, parents would seem to have been either very indifferent to their children or forever suspicious of them. In Newbery's time it had been thought no sin to wear fine buckled shoes, to be genteelly dressed with a wide "ribband;" but now the vain child was one who wore a white frock with pink sash, towards whom the finger of scorn was pointed, and from whom the moral was unfailingly drawn. Vanity was, apparently, an unpardonable sin, as when in a "Moral Tale,"

"Mamma observed the rising la.s.s By stealth retiring to the gla.s.s To practise little arts unseen In the true genius of thirteen."

The constant effort to draw a lesson from every action sometimes led to overstepping the bounds of truth by the parents themselves, as for example in a similar instance of love for a mirror. "What is this I see, Harriet?" asked a mother in "Emulation." "Is that the way you employ your precious time? I am no longer surprised at the alteration in your looks of late, that you have appeared so sickly, have lost your complexion; in short I have twenty times been on the point of asking you if you are ill. You look shockingly, child."

"I am very well, Mamma, indeed," cried Harriet, quite alarmed.

"Impossible, my dear, you can never look well, while you follow such an unwholesome practice. Looking-gla.s.ses were never intended for little girls, and very few sensible people use them as there is something really poisonous in their composition. To use them is not only prejudicial to the health but to the disposition."

Although this conception of the use of looking-gla.s.ses as prejudicial to right living seems to hark back to the views expressed in the old story of the "Prodigal Daughter," who sat before a mirror when the Devil made his second appearance, yet the world of story-book literature, even though its creators were sometimes either careless or ignorant of facts, now also emphasized the value of general knowledge, which it endeavored to pour in increasing quant.i.ty into the nursery. Miss More had started the stream of goody-goody books, while Miss Edgeworth, Mrs. Barbauld, and Thomas Day were the originators of the deluge of conversational bores, babies, boys, and teachers that threatened to flood the family book-shelves of America when the American writers for children came upon the scene.

FOOTNOTES:

[148-A] As long ago as seventeen hundred and sixty-two, Garrat Noel, a Dutch bookseller in New York, advertised that, "according to his Annual Custom, he ... provided a very large a.s.sortment of Books ... as proper Presents at Christmas." See page 68.

[166-A] Linton, _Wood Engraving in America_. Boston, 1882.

[168-A] Linton, _Wood Engraving in America_. Boston, 1882.

[169-A] Linton, _Wood Engraving in America_. Boston, 1882.

CHAPTER VII

1825-1840

Old story-books! old story-books! we owe you much, old friends, Bright-coloured threads in Memory's warp, of which Death holds the ends.

Who can forget? Who can spurn the ministers of joy That waited on the lisping girl and petticoated boy?

Talk of your vellum, gold embossed, morocco, roan, and calf; The blue and yellow wraps of old were prettier by half.

ELIZA COOKE

Their works of amus.e.m.e.nt, when not laden with more religion than the tale can hold in solution, are often admirable.

_Quarterly Review_, 1843

CHAPTER VII

1825-1840

_American Writers and English Critics_

It is customary to refer to the early writings of Washington Irving as works that marked the time when literature pure and simple developed in America. Such writing as had hitherto attracted attention concerned itself, not with matters of the imagination, but with facts and theories of current and momentous interest. Religion and the affairs of the separate commonwealths were uppermost in people's minds in colonial days; political warfare and the defence of the policy of Congress absorbed attention in Revolutionary times; and later the necessity of expounding principles of government and of fostering a national feeling produced a literature of fact rather than of fancy.

Gradually all this had changed. A new generation had grown up with more leisure for writing and more time to devote to the general culture of the public. The English periodical with its purpose of "improving the taste, awakening the attention, and amending the heart," had once met these requirements. Later on these periodicals had been keenly enjoyed, but at the same time there appeared American magazines, modelled after them, but largely filled by contributions from literary Americans. Early in the nineteenth century such publications were current in most large towns. From the short essays and papers in these periodicals to the tales of Cooper and Irving the step, after all, was not a long one.

The children's literature of amus.e.m.e.nt developed, after the end of the eighteenth century, in a somewhat similar way, although as usual tagging along after that of their parents.

With the constantly increasing population the production of children's books grew more profitable, and in eighteen hundred and two Benjamin Johnson made an attempt to publish a "Juvenile Magazine" in Philadelphia. Its purpose was to be a "Miscellaneous Repository of Useful Information;" but the contents were so largely drawn from English sources that it was probably, like the toy-books, pirated from an English publisher. Indeed, one of the few extant volumes contains only one article of distinctly American composition among essays on _Education_, the _Choice of a Wife_, _Love_, papers on natural history, selections from poems by Coleridge and Cowper; and by anonymous makers of verse about _Consumption_ and _Friendship_. The American contribution, a discussion of President Washington's will, has already been mentioned.

In the same year, 1802, the "Juvenile Olio" was started, edited by "Amyntor," but like Johnson's "Juvenile Magazine," was only issued at irregular intervals and was short-lived.

Other ventures in children's periodicals continued to be made, however.

The "Juvenile Magazine," with "Religious, Moral, and Entertaining Pieces in Prose and Verse," was compiled by Arthur Donaldson, and sold in eighteen hundred and eleven as a monthly in Philadelphia--then the literary centre--for twelve and a half cents a number. In eighteen hundred and thirteen, in the same city, the "Juvenile Portfolio" made its appearance, possibly in imitation of Joseph Dennie's "Port Folio;"

but it too failed from lack of support and interest.

Boston proved more successful in arousing attention to the possibilities in a well-conducted children's periodical, although it was not until thirteen years later that Lydia Maria Child established the "Juvenile Miscellany for the Instruction and Amus.e.m.e.nt of Youth." Three numbers were issued in 1826, and thereafter it appeared every other month until August, 1834, when it was succeeded by a magazine of the same name conducted by Sarah J. Hale.

This periodical is a landmark in the history of story-writing for the American child. Here at last was an opportunity for the editors to give to their subscribers descriptions of cities in their own land in place of accounts of palaces in Persia; biographies of national heroes instead of incidents in the life of Mahomet; and tales of Indians rather than histories of Arabians and Turks. For its pages Mrs. Sigourney, Miss Eliza Leslie, Mrs. Wells, Miss Sedgwick, and numerous anonymous contributors gladly sent stories of American scenes and incidents which were welcomed by parents as well as by children.

In the year following the first appearance of Mrs. Hale's "Juvenile Miscellany," the March number is typical of the amus.e.m.e.nt and instruction the editor endeavored to provide. This contained a life of Benjamin Franklin (perhaps the earliest child's life of the philosopher and statesman), a tale of an Indian ma.s.sacre of an entire settlement in Maine, an essay on memory, a religious episode, and extracts from a traveller's journal. The traveller, quite evidently a Bostonian, criticised New York in a way not unfamiliar in later days, as a city where "the love of literature was less strong than in some other parts of the United States;" and then in trying to soften the statement, she fell into a comparison with Philadelphia, also made many times since the gentle critic observed the difference. "New York," she wrote, "has energy, spirit, and bold, lofty enterprise, totally wanting in Philadelphia, ... a place of neat, well regulated plans." Also, like the English story-book of the previous century, this American "Miscellany"

introduced _Maxims for a Student_, found, it cheerfully explained, "among the ma.n.u.scripts of a deceased friend." Puzzles and conundrums made an entertaining feature, and as the literary _chef d'oeuvre_ was inserted a poem supposed to be composed by a babe in South Carolina, but of which the author was undoubtedly Mrs. Gilman, whose ideas of a baby's ability were certainly not drawn from her own nursery.

A rival to the "Juvenile Miscellany" was the "Youth's Companion,"

established at this time in Boston by Nathaniel P. Willis and the Reverend Asa Rand. The various religious societies also began to issue children's magazines for Sunday perusal: the Ma.s.sachusetts Sunday School Union beginning in 1828 the "Sabbath School Times," and other societies soon following its example.

"Parley's Magazine," planned by Samuel G. Goodrich and published by Lilly, Wait and Company of Boston, ran a successful course of nine years from eighteen hundred and thirty-three. The prospectus declared the intention of its conductors "to give descriptions of manners, customs, and countries, Travels, Voyages, and Adventures in Various parts of the world, interesting historical notes, Biography, particularly of young persons, original tales, cheerful and pleasing Rhymes, and to issue the magazine every fortnight." The popularity of the name of Peter Parley insured a goodly number of subscriptions from the beginning, and the life of "Parley's Magazine" was somewhat longer than any of its predecessors.

In the south the idea of issuing a juvenile magazine was taken up by a firm in Charleston, and the "Rose Bud" was started in eighteen hundred and thirty. The "Rose Bud," a weekly, was largely the result of the success of the "Juvenile Miscellany," as the editor of the southern paper, Mrs. Gilman, was a valued contributor to the "Miscellany," and had been encouraged in her plan of a paper for children of the south by the Boston conductors of the northern periodical.

Mrs. Gilman was born in Boston, and at sixteen years of age had published a poem most favorably criticised at the time. Marrying a clergyman who settled in Charleston, she continued her literary work, but was best known to our grandmothers as the author of "Recollections of a New England Housekeeper." The "Rose Bud" soon blossomed into the "Southern Rose," a family paper, but faded away in 1839.

Among other juvenile weeklies of the time may be mentioned the "Juvenile Rambler" and the "Hive," which are chiefly interesting by reason of the opportunity their columns offered to youthful contributors.

Another series of "miscellaneous repositories" for the instructive enjoyment of little people was furnished by the Annuals of the period.

These, of course, were modelled after the adult Annuals revolving in social circles and adorning the marble-topped tables of drawing-rooms in both England and America.