Modern Prose And Poetry; For Secondary Schools Part 6

=An Old Soldier=:--Tell how you happen to know this old soldier. Where does he live? Do you see him often? What is he doing when you see him?

Describe him as vividly as you can:--his general appearance; his clothes; his way of walking. Speak particularly of his face and its expression. If possible, let us hear him talk. Perhaps you can tell some of his war stories--in his own words.

=A Mysterious Person=:--Imagine a mysterious person appearing in a little town where everybody knows everybody else. Tell how he (or she) arrives. How does he look? What does he do? Explain clearly why he is particularly hard to account for. What do people say about him? Try to make each person's remarks fit his individual character. How do people try to find out about the stranger? Does he notice their curiosity? Do they ask him questions? If so, give some bits of their conversations with him. You might go on and make a story of some length out of this.

Show whether the stranger really has any reason for concealing his ident.i.ty. Does he get into any trouble? Does an accident reveal who he is and why he is in the town? Does some one find out by spying upon him?

Or does he tell all about himself, when the right time comes?

Perhaps you can put the story into the form of a series of brief conversations about the stranger or with him.

=An Incident of the Civil War=:--Select some historical incident, or one that you have heard from an old soldier, and tell it simply and vividly in your own words.

COLLATERAL READINGS

The Story of a Bad Boy Thomas Bailey Aldrich Marjorie Daw and Other People " " "

The Stillwater Tragedy " " "

Prudence Palfrey " " "

From Ponkapog to Pesth " " "

The Queen of Sheba " " "

A Sea Turn and Other Matters " " "

For Bravery on the Field of Battle (in _Two Bites at a Cherry_) " " "

The Return of a Private (in _Main-Travelled Roads_) Hamlin Garland On the Eve of the Fourth Harold Frederic Ma.r.s.e Chan Thomas Nelson Page Meh Lady " " "

The Burial of the Guns " " "

Red Rock " " "

The Long Roll Mary Johnston Cease Firing " "

The Crisis Winston Churchill Where the Battle was Fought Mary N. Murfree The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come John Fox, Jr.

Hospital Sketches Louisa M. Alcott A Blockaded Family P.A. Hague He Knew Lincoln[2] Ida Tarbell The Perfect Tribute[3] M.R.S. Andrews The Toy Shop[4] M.S. Gerry Thomas Bailey Aldrich Ferris Greenslet Park Street Papers, pp. 143-70 Bliss Perry American Writers of To-day, pp. 104-23 H.C. Vedder American Authors and their Homes, pp. 89-98 F.W. Halsey American Authors at Home, pp. 3-16 J.L. and J.B. Gilder Literary Pilgrimages in New England, pp. 89-97 E.M. Bacon Thomas Bailey Aldrich (poem) Henry van d.y.k.e

For biographies and criticisms of Thomas B. Aldrich, see also: Outlook, 86:922, August 24, 1907; 84:735, November 24, 1906; 85:737, March 30, 1907. Bookman, 24:317, December, 1906 (Portrait); also 25:218 (Portrait). Current Literature, 42:49, January, 1907 (Portrait).

Chautauquan, 65:168, January, 1912.

PAN IN WALL STREET

A.D. 1867

EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN

Just where the Treasury's marble front Looks over Wall Street's mingled nations; Where Jews and Gentiles most are wont To throng for trade and last quotations; Where, hour by hour, the rates of gold Outrival, in the ears of people, The quarter-chimes, serenely tolled From Trinity's undaunted steeple,--

Even there I heard a strange, wild strain Sound high above the modern clamor, Above the cries of greed and gain, The curbstone war, the auction's hammer; And swift, on Music's misty ways, It led, from all this strife for millions.

To ancient, sweet-do-nothing days Among the kirtle-robed Sicilians.

And as it stilled the mult.i.tude, And yet more joyous rose, and shriller, I saw the minstrel where he stood At ease against a Doric pillar: One hand a droning organ played, The other held a Pan's-pipe (fashioned Like those of old) to lips that made The reeds give out that strain impa.s.sioned.

'Twas Pan himself had wandered here A-strolling through this sordid city, And piping to the civic ear The prelude of some pastoral ditty!

The demiG.o.d had crossed the seas,-- From haunts of shepherd, nymph, and satyr, And Syracusan times,--to these Far sh.o.r.es and twenty centuries later.

A ragged cap was on his head; But--hidden thus--there was no doubting That, all with crispy locks o'erspread, His gnarled horns were somewhere sprouting; His club-feet, cased in rusty shoes, Were crossed, as on some frieze you see them, And trousers, patched of divers hues, Concealed his crooked shanks beneath them.

He filled the quivering reeds with sound, And o'er his mouth their changes shifted, And with his goat's-eyes looked around Where'er the pa.s.sing current drifted; And soon, as on Trinacrian hills The nymphs and herdsmen ran to hear him, Even now the tradesmen from their tills, With clerks and porters, crowded near him.

The bulls and bears together drew From Jauncey Court and New Street Alley, As erst, if pastorals be true, Came beasts from every wooded valley; And random pa.s.sers stayed to list,-- A boxer aegon, rough and merry, A Broadway Daphnis, on his tryst With Nais at the Brooklyn Ferry.

A one-eyed Cyclops halted long In tattered cloak of army pattern, And Galatea joined the throng,-- A blowsy apple-vending slattern; While old Silenus staggered out From some new-fangled lunch-house handy, And bade the piper, with a shout, To strike up Yankee Doodle Dandy!

A newsboy and a peanut-girl Like little Fauns began to caper; His hair was all in tangled curl, Her tawny legs were bare and taper; And still the gathering larger grew, And gave its pence and crowded nigher, While aye the shepherd-minstrel blew His pipe, and struck the gamut higher.

O heart of Nature, beating still With throbs her vernal pa.s.sion taught her,-- Even here, as on the vine-clad hill, Or by the Arethusan water!

New forms may fold the speech, new lands Arise within these ocean-portals, But Music waves eternal wands,-- Enchantress of the souls of mortals!

So thought I,--but among us trod A man in blue, with legal baton, And scoffed the vagrant demiG.o.d, And pushed him from the step I sat on.

Doubting I mused upon the cry, "Great Pan is dead!"--and all the people Went on their ways:--and clear and high The quarter sounded from the steeple.

NOTES

=Wall Street=:--An old street in New York faced by the Stock Exchange and the offices of the wealthiest bankers and brokers.

=the Treasury=:--The Sub-Treasury Building.

=last quotations=:--The latest information on stock values given out before the Stock Exchange closes.

=Trinity=:--The famous old church that stands at the head of Wall Street.

=curbstone war=:--The clamorous quoting, auctioning, and bidding of stock out on the street curb, where the "curb brokers"--brokers who do not have seats on the Stock Exchange--do business.

=sweet-do-nothing=:--A translation of an Italian expression, _dolce far niente_.

=Sicilians=:--Theocritus (3rd century before Christ), the Greek pastoral poet, wrote of the happy life of the shepherds and shepherdesses in Sicily.

=Doric pillar=:--A heavy marble pillar, such as was used in the architecture of the Dorians in Greece.

=Pan's pipe=:--Pan was the Greek G.o.d of shepherds, and patron of fishing and hunting. He is represented as having the head and body of a man, with the legs, horns, and tail of a goat. It was said that he invented the shepherd's pipe or flute, which he made from reeds plucked on the bank of a stream.

=pastoral ditty=:--A poem about shepherds and the happy outdoor life.

The word pastoral comes from the Latin _pastor_, shepherd.

=Syracusan times=:--Syracuse was an important city in Sicily. See the note on Sicilians, above.

=Trinacrian hills=:--Trinacria is an old name for Sicily.

=bulls and bears=:--A bull, on the Stock Exchange, is one who operates in expectation of a rise in stocks; a bear is a person who sells stocks in expectation of a fall in the market.

=Jauncey Court=:--The Jauncey family were prominent in the early New York days. This court was probably named after them.

=aegon=:--Usually spelled aegaeon; another name for Briareus, a monster with a hundred arms.