Modern Americans - A Biographical School Reader for the Upper Grades

Grace Arlingtonsanford Owen, Grace Arlington Owen, Chester Milton Sanford

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• Publié par: vawyung
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 25
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

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Project Gutenberg's Modern Americans, by Chester Sanford and Grace Owen This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: Modern Americans A Biographical School Reader for the Upper Grades Author: Chester Sanford Grace Owen Release Date: October 19, 2009 [EBook #30287] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MODERN AMERICANS *** Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net Modern Americans A Biographical School Reader for the Upper Grades By CHESTER M. SANFORD H EAD OF THE D EPARTMENT OF EXPRESSION Illinois State Normal University GRACE A. OWEN TEACHER OF R EADING Illinois State Normal University LAUREL BOOK COMPANY N EW YORK CHICAGO PHILADELPHIA Image of book cover. Copyright, 1918, 1921 by Laurel Book Company 5 INTRODUCTION “Tell us about real folks.” This is the request that comes to us again and again from children in the upper grades. In response to this appeal, the authors, in preparing “Modern Americans,” have attempted to give the pupils the worthwhile things they like to read rather than the things adults think they ought to like. Those who have taught reading very long agree that the old-time hero stories have always had a peculiar charm for pupils. But all the heroes did not live in olden times; they are with us today. Why, then, isn’t it well to acquaint the children with present-day heroes? Young people in the upper grades are especially interested in the men and women who are actually doing things. They desire to study in school the persons they read about in the daily papers. Elihu Root recently said: “It seems sometimes as if our people were interested in nothing but personalities.” To bridge the gap between our schools and practical everyday life has become one of the chief concerns of the wide-awake teacher. Accordingly, in geography we are studying the industries about us. In English, civics, and history we are devoting an increasing amount of time to a consideration of “Current Events.” All this is in the right direction; for, to create an interest in the men and women of the hour and the social activities of the day makes for an intelligent citizenship. “Acquaint the people with the great men of any period and you have taught them the history of the period,” says Carlyle. Know the past, if possible; know the present by all means. At first thought the reader may disagree with the authors in the list of characters chosen. He may think that many of America’s greatest men and women have been omitted while others of less importance have been given a place. In reply permit us to say that greatness of achievement has not been the only consideration in choosing the character studies. Not all great men and women have life stories that appeal to children, and unless the stories do appeal, it is better to omit them until the children are older. Then, too, it seemed desirable to select persons in various fields of human activity, thus broadening the scope of the child’s knowledge. 6 The reader will observe that we have placed much stress upon the childhood experiences of the men and women studied, for the reason that children are to read the stories; and since they are sure to interpret what they read in terms of their own experiences, we must, as far as possible, record experiences that are common to all, namely, childhood experiences. It is hoped that these stories have been so brought within the experiences of the pupils that they will be led to discuss them. Many of the stories were tried out with children in the University Training School and the enthusiastic discussions that followed were both interesting and helpful. Lastly, and most important, the authors have attempted to inspire the pupils with a purpose to make the most of themselves. The lives of great men and women are sure to be an inspiration to the young. Since great men stand for great things they are sure to embody the latest and best in science, art, government, religion, and education. By studying the lives of these representative men and women it is hoped that the pupils will be stimulated to lofty purposes. Acknowledgement is hereby made to The Bobbs-Merrill Co., publishers of Mr. Riley’s poems, for kind permission to republish “The Old Swimmin’-Hole”; and also, to the publishers of “The Story of a Pioneer”––Jordan; “The Story of My Life”––Keller ; and the magazine “Success” for additional source material. C HESTER M. SANFORD GRACE A. OWEN CONTENTS 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 19. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. Calvin Coolidge Thomas A. Edison Alexander Graham Bell Theodore Roosevelt John Pershing William Howard Taft Luther Burbank Clara Barton George W. Goethals James Whitcomb Riley Helen Keller Wilbur and Orville Wright Robert E. Peary William Jennings Bryan Henry Ford Ben B. Lindsey Frances Willard Jane Addams 9 17 29 37 44 51 57 65 73 81 91 99 109 117 125 131 139 147 7 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. John Mitchell Maude Ballington Booth Andrew Carnegie Anna Shaw Ernest Thompson Seton John Wanamaker Woodrow Wilson Mark Twain Warren G. Harding 155 161 169 177 187 195 205 213 221 8 Pacific and Atlantic Photos PRESIDENT COOLIDGE, MRS. COOLIDGE, AND SON, JOHN 9 CALVIN COOLIDGE As I begin this story, I am seated in an old-fashioned hotel in a small village nestled amid the hills of Vermont. I have come all the way from the broad prairies of Illinois that I might catch a little of the spirit of Calvin Coolidge. In his autobiography, Mr. Coolidge wrote: “Vermont is my birthright. Here one gets close to Nature, in the mountains and in the brooks, the waters of which hurry to the sea; in the lakes that shine like silver in their green setting; in the fields tilled, not by machinery, but by the brain and hand of man. My folks are happy and contented. They belong to themselves, live within their income, and fear no man.” Yes, and I have met the folks of whom he boasts, and in conversing with them it seems easy for my mind to go back to the time when Mr. Coolidge was a barefoot boy, roaming amid these beautiful hills. In fact, everything about this rugged New England state, with its farmhouses and barns that were built so many years ago, seems to carry one back to the early history of our country. As I looked upon the little country schoolhouse to which Mr. Coolidge used to go, I thought of this story. One time, many years ago, there lived a schoolmaster who had this unique custom. Every time he met a boy who attended his school, he would lift his hat. When asked why he did this, he replied, “Who can tell but that one of these boys will some day become the chief ruler of the land; and inasmuch as I cannot tell which one it will be, I must lift my hat to them all.” Surely if a teacher were to slight any of the boys, it would be the one with freckles and red hair, for never before in the history of our great country have we had a red-headed president. Let us go back then in our imagination forty-four years and visit the little red schoolhouse at Plymouth, Vermont, that was then better known as the “Notch.” To reach Plymouth is not easy, for it is eleven miles from Ludlow, which is the nearest railroad station, and the road from Ludlow is rough and hilly. When we reach Plymouth, we are likely to drive by, for the town is so small it doesn’t seem possible that a future President could have been born in such an out-ofthe-way place. The first man we meet in Plymouth is John Calvin Coolidge, the father of our President. We soon learn that he keeps the village store, shoes horses, collects insurance premiums, and runs a small farm. In conversing with him, we discover that he is of staunch American stock––in fact, he reminds us that his ancestors came to America in 1630, just ten years after the Pilgrims landed. In 1880, his grandfather moved to the hill country that is now known as “Vermont,” and for four generations the Coolidges have lived on the same farm. But, we are not so much interested in the father as in the son, who, we are told, is at school. As we approach the little country school, we observe that it is recess, and the children are playing. Soon young Calvin is pointed out and we try to get acquainted with him, but he is silent and bashful. From his teacher we learn that he has few friends and no enemies. Unlike the average freckled, red-headed boy, he is rarely teased and never gets into a fight. He is so modest and minds his own business so well, that the other pupils are inclined to leave him by himself. Rarely does he play any games––not even marbles or baseball. Later in life he bought a pair of skates, but was never known to wear them but once. 11 10 Young Calvin had no brothers and only one sister, Abigail, who died when she was fifteen. His mother also died when he was a lad of twelve, but his stepmother was always very kind to him. His own mother, however, was his idol and even to this day, President Coolidge carries in one of his pockets a gun metal case that holds a picture of his mother. Calvin’s father, in speaking of his son, says that he was always a great hand to work. He continues, “When Calvin was a boy on the farm, if I was going away and there was anything I wanted him to do, I would tell him; but when I came back, I never thought of going to see whether it had been done. I knew it was done.” The following incident shows that he could not bear to leave his work undone. “One night an aunt who was sleeping in the house heard a strange noise in the kitchen. Hurriedly she put on her kimona, and went downstairs to see what the commotion might be. There she found little Calvin filling the wood box, for he had forgotten to do so the night before. She tried to persuade him to wait until