Short Stories of Various Types Part 37

Miss Mayo during the world war has done active work over seas in the "Y." True stories of her experiences with the doughboys have appeared in _The North American_, and in _The Outlook_.

John G.

68, 1. Barrack-Room Ballads. Poems by Rudyard Kipling with the atmosphere of the far East.

69, 1. Pennsylvania State Police. See sketch of Katherine Mayo.

2. I. W. W. Industrial Workers of the World, a revolutionary labor organization. The members have given much trouble by their extreme views, such as eternal war against their employers. They believe that they should organize as a cla.s.s and take possession of the earth, abolis.h.i.+ng the wage system.

70, 1. Blue ribbon. A sign of distinction; a blue ribbon worn by a horse at a horse show denotes that he has won the first prize.

2. Atlantis. A mythical island of vast extent mentioned by Plato and other ancient writers and placed by them in the distant unknown West.

72, 1. Two by twelves. A plank two inches thick by twelve inches wide.

MYRA KELLY (Page 77)

Myra Kelly, who later became Mrs. Allan Macnaughton, was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1876 and died in England in 1910. She lived almost all of her short life, however, in New York City. Here she was educated in the public schools and at Teachers College, Columbia University.

She was an American teacher and author. She taught in the New York public schools from 1899 to 1901 and at Teachers College in 1902 and 1903. She first became known by her stories of children in the primary schools of New York City. She wrote chiefly of the children of the East Side, with whom she had had first-hand experience, while teaching in the public schools. Her stories give the Yiddish dialect inimitably and they show a fine, wise tolerance as well as a shrewd knowledge of child character.

Mrs. Macnaughton's published volumes include _Little Citizens_, _Wards of Liberty_, _Rosnah_, _Little Aliens_, _New Faces_, and _Her Little Young Ladys.h.i.+p_. The story "Friends," presented in this collection, is taken from _Little Aliens_.

_Little Aliens_ contains nine stories, of which the settings are all in the homes of the children. Most of the stories in her first volume, _Little Citizens_, have their settings in the schools. The stories reveal a rich humor, an underlying pathos, a deep understanding of child nature, and a full grasp of the conditions with which all aliens, big or little, must contend.

Friends

77, 1. Friends. The dialect spoken by the child in this story is the American adaptation of the Yiddish, which is a German dialect spoken by the Jews of eastern Europe, containing many Hebrew and Slav expressions.

78, 1. Board of Monitors. A group of children appointed by the pupils to help the teacher in various ways.

79, 1. Krisht. Christian.

82, 1. Rabbi. A Jewish t.i.tle for a teacher or interpreter of the law, also a pastor of a Jewish congregation. Kosher law refers to special Jewish laws. The laws regarding food specify how animals must be slaughtered in order that the meat may be ceremonially clean.

89, 1. Vis-a-vis. Opposite to one another.

HAMLIN GARLAND (Page 97)

Hamlin Garland is a poet and novelist, whose stories are set mostly in the Middle West. He was born in 1860 on a farm near the present site of West Salem, Wisconsin. In 1869 his family moved out on the prairie of Mitch.e.l.l County, Iowa, the scene of his _Boy Life on the Prairie_, and of many of the stories in _Main-Traveled Roads_. The selection, "A Camping Trip," given in this volume, is taken from _Boy Life on the Prairie_.

Mr. Garland's education was different from that of most of his contemporaries. When about sixteen, he became a pupil at the Cedar Valley Seminary, Osage, Iowa, though he worked on a farm during six months of the year. He graduated in 1881 from this school and for a year tramped through the eastern states. His people having settled in Brown County, Dakota, he drifted that way in the spring of 1883 and took up a claim in McPherson County, where he lived for a year on the unsurveyed land, making studies of the plains country, which were of great value to him later. _The Moccasin Ranch_ and several of his short stories resulted from this experience.

In the fall of 1884 he sold his claim and returned to the East, to Boston, intending to qualify himself for teaching. He soon found a helpful friend in Professor Moses True Brown, and became a pupil, and a little later an instructor, in the Boston School of Oratory. During years from 1885 to 1889 he taught private cla.s.ses in English and American literature, and lectured in and about Boston on Browning, Shakespeare, the drama, etc., writing and studying meanwhile in the public library. In Boston he made the acquaintance of Oliver Wendell Holmes, William Dean Howells, Edward Everett Hale, Edwin Booth, and other leaders in literature and art.

Mr. Garland wrote his stories from first-hand experience with men under certain typical American conditions. His stories of _Boy Life on the Prairie_ and of _Main-Traveled Roads_ are grim stories of farm life in the West. They portray the conditions under which people lived on the prairies only a generation or two ago. He shows us that men may become true and strong because of their battle with such conditions. His books are as truly American as any our country has produced.

As a writer of literature, these books show Mr. Garland to be a realist, that is, a writer who deals with the facts of real life, but as you read _Boy Life on the Prairie_, you will see that he is fond of the ideal, of the fanciful, and of descriptions of simple rural scenes.

The latter quality is very plain, when he writes of the birds and of the thrill of the open country that comes to the boys on their camping trip.

A Camping Trip

100, 1. A prairie schooner. A long canvas-covered wagon used especially by emigrants crossing the prairies.

105, 1. Skimmer-bugs. Bugs that skip or glide over the surface of the water.

111, 1. Luff. To turn the head of a vessel towards the wind.

Hard-a-port is a direction given to the helmsman, meaning to put the helm quickly to the port or left side.

DOROTHY CANFIELD FISHER (Page 114)

Dorothea Canfield, the author of "A Thread Without a Knot," is one of the most brilliant and forceful writers in America to-day. She was born in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1879. The daughter of a teacher and writer, her education was intensive and varied. As a child she learned to speak several languages. She received her B.A. from Ohio State University and a Ph. D. from Columbia University. She has studied and traveled extensively in Europe as well as in America.

Both as a person and as a writer, Dorothea Canfield has been extraordinarily well liked. As an author she is characterized by originality, clearness, and the vital quality of human sympathy. She always writes with a purpose, both in her works of fiction and in her educational writings. The writer's own ideals and common sense are revealed in her work and her stories are thoroughly interesting. Under the name, Dorothy Canfield, she has written some notable fiction. _The Bent Twig_ is a graphic American novel in which are portrayed the influences of environment upon a most interesting character.

_Understood Betsy_ is a girl's story of warm sympathy and strong common sense. _The Real Motive_ is a volume of short stories from which the story, "A Thread Without a Knot," is taken. The stories in the volume range in their settings from Paris to a middle western university town.

As the t.i.tle suggests, they are studies in human motives.

Under her married name, Dorothea Canfield Fisher, she has written some valuable educational works, as _The Montessori Mother_ and _Mothers and Children_. During the World War, Mrs. Fisher spent her time in France working for the relief of those made blind by the war. _Home Fires in France_ and _The Day of Glory_ are truthful records of Mrs. Fisher's impressions of life in that tragic, mutilated land.

A Thread without a Knot

114, 1. Doctor's dissertation. Before a student can obtain the highest degree a university gives, the doctor's degree, he must write a dissertation, that is, a formal and elaborate essay on some original research work he has done. The degree Mr. Harrison was working for was that of Doctor of Philosophy, or Ph. D.

2. Archives. A place where public records and historical doc.u.ments are kept.

116, 1. Munich. A city in Germany where one of the largest and oldest German universities is located.

2. Treaty of Utrecht. A treaty of peace in 1713 which concluded the war of the Spanish succession, a war fought by most of the other countries of Europe against the armies of France and Spain.

117, 1. Bibliotheque Nationale. The national library at Paris.

125, 1. Versailles. A city about twelve miles from Paris, noted for the beautiful chateau, or palace, and gardens of Louis XIV. The palace is now used as a historical museum and art gallery. It was in the famous Hall of Mirrors at Versailles that the treaty between Germany and the Allies was signed at the end of the World War.

The formal gardens and the fountains are among the famous sights of Paris. In the garden stands the Trianon, sometimes called the Grand Trianon, a villa built by Louis XIV for one of his favorites. Near it is the Pet.i.t Trianon, or little Trianon, the favorite resort of Marie Antoinette, the unfortunate and beautiful queen of France who was executed during the French Revolution. Here she and her ladies-in-waiting used to play at being shepherdesses and milkmaids.

2. Tram line. A street railway or trolley line.

129, 1. Fontainebleau. A town of northern France, situated in the midst of a beautiful forest which covers an area of nearly 66 miles. At Fontainebleau is a famous chateau of the French kings. It is noted for the beauty of its architecture and contains many wonderful paintings.