The American Child   By: Elizabeth McCracken

by Elizabeth Mccracken

With Illustrations from photographs by Alice Austin

1913

[Illustration: COMPANIONS AND FRIENDS]

to My Father And Mother

PREFACE

The purpose of this preface is that of every preface to say "thank you" to the persons who have helped in the making of the book.

I would render thanks first of all to the Editors of the "Outlook" for permission to reprint the chapters of the book which appeared as articles in the monthly magazine numbers of their publication.

I return thanks also to Miss Rosamond F. Rothery, Miss Sara Cone Bryant, Miss Agnes F. Perkins, and Mr. Ferris Greenslet. Without the help and encouragement of all of these, the book never would have been written.

Finally, I wish to say an additional word of thanks to my physician, Dr. John E. Stillwell. Had it not been for his consummate skill and untiring care after an accident, which, four years ago, made me a year long hospital patient, I should never have lived to write anything.

E. McC.

CAMBRIDGE, January, 1913

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

I. THE CHILD AT HOME II. THE CHILD AT PLAY III. THE COUNTRY CHILD IV. THE CHILD IN SCHOOL V. THE CHILD IN THE LIBRARY VI. THE CHILD IN CHURCH CONCLUSION

ILLUSTRATIONS

COMPANIONS AND FRIENDS THREE SMALL GIRLS THE BOY OF THE HOUSE "DID YOU PLAY IT THIS WAY?" THE DEAR DELIGHTS OF PLAYING ALONE "THE CHILDREN THEY ARE SUCH DEARS" A SMALL COUNTRY BOY ARRAYED IN SPOTLESS WHITE THEY PAINT PICTURES AS A REGULAR PART OF THEIR SCHOOL ROUTINE THEY DO SO MANY THINGS! THEY HAVE SO MANY THINGS! THE STORY HOUR IN THE CHILDREN'S ROOM THE CHILDREN'S EDITION IN THE INFANT CLASS "DO YOU LIKE MY NEW HYMN?" CHILDREN GO TO CHURCH

INTRODUCTION

One day several years ago, when Mr. Lowes Dickinson's statement that he had found no conversation and worse still no conversationalists in America was fresh in our outraged minds, I happened to meet an English woman who had spent approximately the same amount of time in our country as had Mr. Lowes Dickinson. "What has been your experience?" I anxiously asked her. "Is it true that we only 'talk'? Can it really be that we never 'converse'?"

"Dear me, no!" she exclaimed with gratifying fervor. "You are the most delightful conversationalists in the world, on your own subject "

"Our own subject?" I echoed.

"Certainly," she returned; "your own subject, the national subject, the child, the American child. It is possible to 'converse' with any American on that subject; every one of you has something to say on it; and every one of you will listen eagerly to what any other person says on it. You modify the opinions of your hearers by what you say; and you actually allow your own opinions to be modified by what you hear said. If that is conversation, without a doubt you have it in America, and have it in as perfect a state as conversation ever was had anywhere. But you have it only on that subject. I wonder why," she went on, half musingly, before I could make an attempt to persuade her to qualify her rather sweeping assertion. "It may be because you do so much for children, in America. They are always on your mind; they are hardly ever out of your sight. You are forever either doing something for them, or planning to do something for them. No wonder the child is your one subject of conversation. You do so very much for children in America," she repeated.

Few of us will agree with the English woman that the child, the American child, is the only subject upon which we converse. Certainly, though, it is a favorite subject; it may even not inaptly be called our national subject. Whatever our various views concerning this may chance to be, however, it is likely that we are all in entire agreement with regard to the other matter touched upon by the English woman, the pervasiveness of American children. Is it not true that we keep them continually in mind; that we seldom let them go quite out of sight; that we are always doing, or planning to do, something for them? What is it that we would do? And why is it that we try so unceasingly to do it?