Forgotten Books of the American Nursery Part 13

"'Francis shall have a little dog, which will do instead of a horse,'

replied his mama, 'but he must take care to give him some victuals, and not do him any harm.'"

The dog was purchased, and named Chloe. "She was as brisk as a bee, prettily spotted, and as gentle as a lamb." We are now prepared for trouble, for the lesson of the story is surely not hidden. Chloe was fastened to the chaise, a cat secured to serve as a pa.s.senger, and "Francis drove his little chaise along the walk." But "when he had been long enough among the gooseberry trees, his mama took him in the garden and told him the names of the flowers." We are thus led to suppose that Francis had never been in the garden before! The mother is called away.

We feel sure that the trouble antic.i.p.ated is at hand. "As soon as she was gone Francis began whipping the dog," and of course when the dog dashed forward the cat tumbled out, and "poor Chloe was terrified by the chaise which banged on all sides. Francis now heartily repented of his cruel behaviour and went into the house crying, and looking like a very simple boy."

[Ill.u.s.tration: _A Kind and Good Father_]

"I see very plainly the cause of this misfortune," said the father, who, however, soon forgave his repentant son. Thereafter every day Francis learned his lesson, and was rewarded by facts and pictures about animals, by table-talks, or by walks about the country.

Knowledge offered within small compa.s.s seems to have been a novelty introduced in Philadelphia by Jacob Johnson, who had a juvenile library in High Street.

In eighteen hundred and three he printed two tiny volumes ent.i.tled "A Description of Various Objects." Bound in green paper covers, the two-inch square pages were printed in bold type. The first volume contained the ill.u.s.trations of the objects described in the other. The characterizations were exceedingly short, as, for example, this of the "Puppet Show:" "Here are several little boys and girls looking at a puppet show, I suppose you would like to make one of them."

Four years later Johnson improved upon this, when he printed in better type "People of all Nations; an useful toy for Girl or Boy." Of approximately the same size as the other volumes, it was bound with stiff sides and calf back. The plates, engraved on copper, represent men of various nationalities in the favorite alphabetical order. A is an American. V is a Virginian,--an Indian in scant costume of feathers with a long pipe,--who, the printed description says, "is generally dressed after the manner of the English; but this is a poor African, and made a slave of." An orang-outang represents the letter O, and according to the author, is "a wild man of the woods, in the East Indies. He sleeps under trees, and builds himself a hut. He cannot speak, but when the natives make a fire in the woods he will come and warm himself." Ten years later there was still some difficulty in getting exact descriptions of unfamiliar animals. Thus in "A Familiar Description of Beasts and Birds" the baboon is drawn with a dog's body and an uncanny head with a snout. The reader is informed that "the baboon has a long face resembling a dog's; his eyes are red and very bright, his teeth are large and strong, but his swiftness renders him hard to be taken. He delights in fis.h.i.+ng, and will stay for a considerable time under water.

He imitates several of our actions, and will drink wine, and eat human food."

Another series of three books, written by William Darton, the English publisher and maker of toy-books, was called "Chapters of Accidents, containing Caution and Instruction." Thrilling accounts of "Escapes from Danger" when robbing birds'-nests and hunting lions and tigers were intermingled with wise counsel and lessons to be gained from an "Upset Cart," or a "Balloon Excursion." With one incident the Philadelphia printer took the liberty of changing the t.i.tle to "Cautions to Walkers on the Streets of Philadelphia." High Street, now Market Street, is represented in a picture of the young woman who, unmindful of the warning, "Never to turn hastily around the corner of a street," "ran against the porter's load and nearly lost one of her eyes." The change, of course, is worthy of notice only because of the slight effort to locate the story in America.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _a Virginian_]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _A Baboon_]

An attempt to familiarize children with flowers resulted in two tales, called "The Rose's Breakfast" and "Flora's Gala," in which flowers were personified as they took part in fetes. "Garden Amus.e.m.e.nts, for Improving the Minds of Little Children," was issued by Samuel Wood of New York with this advertis.e.m.e.nt: "This little treatise, (written and first published in the great emporium of the British nation) containing so many pleasing remarks for the juvenile mind, was thought worthy of an American edition.... Being so very natural, ... and its tendency so moral and amusing, it is to be hoped an advantage will be obtained from its re-publication in Freedonia."

Dialogue was the usual method of instruction employed by Miss Edgeworth and her followers. In "Garden Amus.e.m.e.nts" the conversation was interrupted by a note criticising a quotation from Milton as savoring too much of poetic license. Cowper also gained the anonymous critic's disapproval, although it was his point of view and not his style that came under censure.

In still another series of stories often reprinted from London editions were those moral tales with the sub-t.i.tle "Cautionary Stories in Verse."

Mr. William James used these "Cautionary Verses for Children" as an example of the manner in which "the muse of evangelical protestantism in England, with the mind fixed on the ideas of danger, had at last drifted away from the original gospel of freedom." "Chronic anxiety," Mr. James continued, "marked the earlier part of this [nineteenth] century in evangelical circles." A little salmon-colored volume, "The Daisy," is a good example of this series. Each rhyme is a warning or an admonition; a chronic fear that a child might be naughty. "Drest or Undrest" is typical of the sixteen hints for the proper conduct of every-day life contained in the innocent "Daisy:"

"When children are naughty and will not be drest, Pray what do you think is the way?

Why, often I really believe it is best To keep them in night-clothes all day!

"But then they can have no good breakfast to eat, Nor walk with their mother and aunt; At dinner they'll have neither pudding nor meat, Nor anything else that they want.

"Then who would be naughty and sit all the day In night-clothes unfit to be seen!

And pray who would lose all their pudding and play For not being drest neat and clean."

Two other sets of books with a like purpose were brought out by Charles about eighteen hundred and sixteen. One began with those familiar nursery verses ent.i.tled "My Mother," by Ann Taylor, which were soon followed by "My Father," all the family, "My Governess," and even "My Pony." The other set of books was "calculated to promote Benevolence and Virtue in Children." "Little f.a.n.n.y," "Little Nancy," and "Little Sophie"

were all held up as warnings of the results of pride, greed, and disobedience.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Drest or Undrest_]

The difference between these heroines of fiction and the characters drawn by Maria Edgeworth lies mainly in the fact that they spoke in rhyme instead of in prose, and that they were almost invariably naughty; or else the parents were cruel and the children suffered. Rarely do we find a cheerful tale such as "The Cherry Orchard" in this cautionary style of toy-book. Still more rarely do we find any suspicion of that alloy of nonsense supposed by Miss Edgeworth to make the sense work well. It is all quite serious. "Little Nancy, or, the Punishment of Greediness," is representative of this sort of moral and cautionary tale. The frontispiece, "embellis.h.i.+ng" the first scene, shows Nancy in receipt of an invitation to a garden party:

"Now the day soon appear'd But she very much fear'd She should not be permitted to go.

Her best frock she had torn, The last time it was worn; Which was very vexatious, you know."

However, the mother consents with the _caution_:

"Not to greedily eat The nice things at the treat; As she much wished to break her of this."

Arrived at the party, Nancy shared the games, and

"At length was seated, With her friends to be treated; So determin'd on having her share, That she drank and she eat Ev'ry thing she could get, Yet still she was loth to forbear."

The disastrous consequences attending Nancy's disregard of her mother's admonition are displayed in a full-page ill.u.s.tration, which is followed by another depicting the sorrowful end in bed of the day's pleasure.

Then the moral:

"My young readers beware, And avoid with great care Such _excesses_ as these you've just read; For be sure you will find It your interest to mind What your friends and relations have said."

Perhaps of all the toy imprints of the early century none are more curious in modern eyes than the three or four German translations printed by Philadelphia firms. In eighteen hundred and nine Johnson and Warner issued "Kleine Erzahlungen uber ein Buch mit Kupfern." This seems to be a translation of "A Mother's Remarks over a Set of Cuts," and contains a reference to another book ent.i.tled "Anecdoten von Hunden."

Still another book is extant, printed in eighteen hundred and five by Zentler, "Unterhaltungen fur Deutsche Kinder." This, according to its preface, was one of a series for which Jacob and Benjamin Johnson had consented to lend the plates for ill.u.s.trations.

Patriotism, rather than diversion, still characterized the very little original work of the first quarter of the century for American children.

A book with the imposing t.i.tle of "Geographical, Statistical and Political Amus.e.m.e.nt" was published in Philadelphia in eighteen hundred and six. "This work," says its advertis.e.m.e.nt, "is designed as an easy means of uniting Instruction with Pleasure ... to entice the youthful mind to an acquaintance with a species of information [about the United States] highly useful."

"The Juvenile Magazine, or Miscellaneous Repository of Useful Information," issued in eighteen hundred and three, contained as its only original contribution an article upon General Was.h.i.+ngton's will, "an affecting and most original composition," wrote the editor. This was followed seven years later by the well-known "Life of George Was.h.i.+ngton," by M.L. Weems, in which was printed the now famous and disputed cherry-tree incident. Its abridged form known to present day nursery lore differs from the long drawn out account by Weems, who, like Thomas Day, risked being diffuse in his desire to show plainly his moral. The last part of the story sufficiently gives his manner of writing:

"Presently George and his hatchet made their appearance. 'George,' said his father, 'do you know who killed that beautiful little cherry tree yonder in the garden?' That was a tough question; and George staggered under it for a moment; but quickly recovered himself, and looking at his father, with the sweet face of youth brightened with the inexpressible charm of all conquering truth, he bravely cried out, 'I can't tell a lie, Pa; you know I can't tell a lie. I did cut it with my hatchet!'

'Run to my arms, you dearest boy,' cried his father in transports, 'run to my arms; glad am I, George, that you killed my tree; for you have paid me for it a thousand fold. Such an act of heroism is worth more than a thousand trees, though blossomed with silver, and their fruits of purest gold.'"

Franklin's "Way to Wealth" was considered to be perfectly adapted to all children's comprehension, and was issued by various publishers of juvenile books. By eighteen hundred and eight it was ill.u.s.trated and sold "with fine engravings for twenty-five cents."

Of patriotic poetry there was much for grown folks, but the "Patriotic and Amatory Songster," advertised by S. Avery of Boston about the time Weems's biography was published, seems a t.i.tle ill-suited to the juvenile public for whom Avery professed to issue it.

Among the books which may be cited as furnis.h.i.+ng instructive amus.e.m.e.nt with less of the admixture of moral purpose was the "London Cries for Children," with pictures of street peddlers. This was imitated in America by the publication of the "Cries of New York" and "Cries of Philadelphia."

In the Lenox Collection there is now one of the various editions of the "Cries of New York" (published in 1808), which is valuable both as a record of the street life of the old-fas.h.i.+oned town of ninety-six thousand inhabitants, and as perhaps the first child's book of purely local interest, with original woodcuts very possibly designed and engraved by Alexander Anderson.

The "Cries of New York" is of course modelled after the "London Cries,"

but the account it gives of various incidents in the daily life of old New York makes us grateful for the existence of this child's toy. A picture of a chimney-sweep, for instance, is copied, with his cry of "Sweep, O, O, O, O," from the London book, but the text accompanying it is altered to accord with the custom in New York of firing a gun at dawn:

"About break of day, after the morning gun is heard from Governor's Island, and so through the forenoon, the ears of the citizens are greeted with this uncouth sound from figures as unpleasant to the sight, clothed in rags and covered with soot--a necessary and suffering cla.s.s of human beings indeed--spending their childhood thus. And in regard to the unnecessary bawling of those sooty boys; it is _admirable_ in such a noisy place as this, where every needless sound should be hushed, that such disagreeable ones should be allowed. The prices for sweeping chimneys are--one story houses twelve cents; two stories, eighteen cents; three stories, twenty-five cents, and so on."

"Hot Corn" was also cried by children, whose business it was to "gather cents, by distributing corn to those who are disposed to regale themselves with an ear." Baked pears are pictured as sold "by a little black girl, with the pears in an earthen dish under her arm." At the same season of the year, "Here's your fine ripe water-melons" also made itself heard above the street noises as a street cry of entirely American origin. Again there were pictured "Oyster Stands," served by negroes, and these were followed by cries of

"Fine Clams: choice Clams, Here's your Rock-a-way beach Clams: here's your fine Young, sand Clams,"

from Flus.h.i.+ng Cove Bay, which the text explains, "turn out as good, or perhaps better," than oysters. The introduction of negroes and negro children into the ill.u.s.trations is altogether a novelty, and together with the scenes drawn from the street life of the town gave to the old-fas.h.i.+oned child its first distinctly American picture-book. Indeed, with the exception of this and an occasional ill.u.s.tration in some otherwise English reproduction, all the American publishers at this time seem to have modelled their wares for small children after those of two large London firms, J. Harris, successor to Newbery, and William Darton.

To Darton, the author of "Little Truths," the children were indebted for a serious attempt to improve the character of toy-books. A copper-plate engraver by profession, Darton's attention was drawn to the scarcity of books for children by the discovery that there was not much written for them that was worth ill.u.s.trating. Like Newbery, he set about to make books himself, and with John Harvey, also an engraver, he set up in Grace Church Street an establishment for printing and publis.h.i.+ng, from which he supplied, to a great extent, the juvenile books closely imitated by American printers. Besides his own compositions, he was very alert to encourage promising authors, and through him the famous verses of Jane and Ann Taylor were brought into notice. "Original Poems," and "Rhymes for the Nursery," by these sisters, were to the old-time child what Stevenson's "Child's Garden of Verses" is to the modern nursery.

Darton and Harvey paid ten pounds for the first series of "Original Poems," and fifteen pounds for the second; while "Rhymes for the Nursery" brought to its authors the unusual sum of twenty pounds. The Taylors were the originators of that long series of verses for infants which "My Sister" and "My Governess" strove to surpa.s.s but never in any way equalled, although they apparently met with a fair sale in America.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Little Nancy_]

Enterprising American booksellers also copied the new ways of advertising juvenile books. An instance of this is afforded by Johnson and Warner of Philadelphia, who apparently succeeded Jacob and Benjamin Johnson, and had, by eighteen hundred and ten, branch shops in Richmond, Virginia, and Lexington, Kentucky. They advertised their "neatly executed books of amus.e.m.e.nt" in book notes in the "Young Gentlemen and Ladies' Magazine," by means of digressions from the thread of their stories, and sometimes by inserting as frontispiece a rhyme taken from one used by John Harris of St. Paul's Churchyard:

"At JO---- store in Market Street A sure reward good children meet.

In coming home the other day I heard a little master say For ev'ry three-pence there he took He had received a little book.