LOCAL LEAGUE WORK

HOW ONE LEAGUE WAS FORMED BY MISS MABEL COOPER

The Story Teller’s League, which has done so much towards reviving and encouraging the almost forgotten art of story-telling in the city of Memphis, owes its origin to Prof. Wharton S. Jones, one of the leading educators of Tennessee.

Prof. Jones is assistant superintendent of the Memphis City Schools and in November, 1907, he issued an invitation to his teachers to meet him for the purpose of forming a Story Tellers’ League. About forty teachers responded and the League was organized with Prof. Jones as president; Mrs Fannie Landis, vice-president; Miss Mary Herron, secretary, and an executive committee composed of Miss Mable Solly, Mrs. L. B. Mitchell, Miss Florence Schloss and Miss Elizabeth Shield. At this meeting it was decided that the membership should not be limited to teachers in the city schools but to all interested in telling or learning how to tell stories. The membership constantly increased until at the close of the first year there were almost one hundred members, among which were many teachers from both public and private schools, Sunday schools, prominent club members and ministers.

At the second general meeting of the League the executive committee had completed and ready for distribution a most attractive Year Book showing an outline for the year’s work. To defray the cost of printing these year books, each member was asked to purchase two of them at twenty-five cents each. No other dues were asked except an earnest co-operation and willingness to take part in the programs.

There is a special line of stories for study at each meeting and a leader who assigns the numbers and conducts the meetings. The numbers on the program consist of two or three short papers on the origin, time, place and value of the particular line of stories discussed, then two or three stories followed by a discussion. The meetings are held Saturday morning two weeks apart.

One of the most pleasing incidents connected with last year’s meetings was the visit of Dr. Richard T. Wyche, President of the National Story Tellers’ League. Dr. Wyche was most encouraging in his remarks to us and delighted us with several of his stories.

The Memphis League belongs to the National Story Tellers’ League, and sent delegates to the Annual Convention held at Knoxville, Tenn., in July 1908. Last year’s work was devoted principally to stories for primary and intermediate grades. We will proceed along the same line this year, giving more attention to stories suitable for higher grade children.

The executive committee is, at present, working on the year book for 1908-9. On October 7, we held our first meeting.

The League is yet in its infancy, but it has gained a popularity most remarkable for so young an organization. It is recognized as a very powerful instrument for accomplishing good and its influence is felt far beyond the city in which it thrives. Our year books have been sent, by request, to many parts of the country and we are ready to give what help we can, by way of suggestions, to aid others in forming leagues. The power of story-telling is limitless. Story work stands to the children for what books, poetry, drama, sermon and art are to the adult. The child should be constantly in touch with the best in Literature,—stories within his comprehension, stories that may be woven into his experiences, that will arouse his emotions and lead him to a spontaneous expression of his ideas.

To this end the Story Tellers’ League is seeking to develop splendid story tellers of its grown-up members so that they may reach and help the little child. Truly it has a noble ambition; for, as Philip Brooks says, “He who helps a child helps humanity with a distinctness, with an immediateness which no other help given to human creatures in any other stage of their human life can possibly give again.”

REPORTS FROM LEAGUES IN SUMMER SCHOOLS

THE WOOSTER (OHIO) SCHOOL

Four summers ago the writer called a meeting in one of the rooms of Taylor Hall—one of the University buildings used by the Summer School.

A tentative organization was formed and meetings held until permanent organization was effected. The meetings were then held in the evening on the campus in front of Kanke Hall or the Memorial Chapel. A Kindergartner was also engaged by the management of the school to tell stories for a day or two. Each summer since a similar arrangement has been made and now a regular story-hour in the Model School is planned for in addition to weekly meetings of the League. This meets on the Library steps Saturday evenings at 6:30. Old familiar college and folk songs are sung, then the story-teller or story-tellers tell their stories, other songs follow and then all go home happier and better.

The story hour is an event here—several times within the past ten summers five or six hundred listeners were seated in a circle round the story-teller and we may safely predict that the League has a permanent place in the Summer School program. Commercial reasons, if no other, will compel it.

The attendance at the story hour is not confined to students in the Summer School—many of the leading citizens and summer visitors make it convenient to drop around at that time and join the magic circle. We have been able to discover some splendid story-tellers each summer, and the great myths and classics of the race have been splendidly told and added much to the lives of many.

Kipling, Van Dyke, Dickens and other masters have been quoted and several interesting, original stories and adaptations of translations have been given. The type of story has been the very highest. Much folk-lore study and legendary investigation has been the outcome of it all. And if the writer had done nothing else during the four years he was a member of the Faculty of Wooster Summer School than to organize and keep alive the Story Tellers’ League, he would have no reason to be ashamed.

It is now finally established on a high level, and will live as long as the Summer School. It will serve as the inspiration to many teachers to learn the fine art, thus placing within the reach of the little children of the Republic the golden key to the world’s great Literatures, and will give to teachers the secret of making children feel at home when at school and keeping them in touch with the heart strings of the future citizens of our country. So mote it be.

J. E. McKean.

FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA

Among the pleasantest hours of the week at the University of Virginia Summer School, last July, were the twilight story-telling hours on the campus. Somehow there was the true Golden Age atmosphere, perhaps enhanced by the beautiful old academic building and grounds; the trees and the birds; the soft air and genial spirit of the South. At any rate, men and women listened rapt to the “Once upon a time,” and lost themselves in forgotten fairy tales, portions of the old epics, folk-lore, personal anecdote, funny stories, and ghost stories. Of course, there were good story-tellers present, among them being Mr. Woodley of New Jersey, Miss Wiggins of North Carolina, Miss King of Virginia, Mr. Ruediger of Washington, D. C., and Mr. Augsburg of California. Best of all were the biblical and folk-lore stories by Mr. Wyche, president of the Story Tellers’ League. It is Mr. Wyche’s distinction to tell his stories with a simple Homeric directness impossible to describe but which appeals alike to the child listener and to the jaded professor of English.

Occasionally, when the spirit moved, old songs were sung out of the hearts of those present,—Maryland, My Old Kentucky Home, Carry Me Back to Old Virginia, Annie Laurie, Suwanee River. Then more stories, and, finally, dispersal over the campus in singing, chatting groups.

A. S. B.

FROM EMPORIA, KANSAS

Meetings were held at Emporia, Kansas, in the State Normal Summer School during the second week in July. Sometimes as many as six hundred would gather on the Campus just at sunset, play games for a while and then sit on the grass and steps of the main building that opened to the glow of the west. Here for an hour or more stories and songs were rendered. The stories were told largely by members of the faculty, while the students interspersed the program with the popular national airs and melodies. From this large audience, a small group have organized themselves into a League.

FROM KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE

At the Summer School of the South, the birthplace of the League, the usual twilight meetings were held on Thursday and Sunday. The Summer School at Knoxville had an unusually large attendance and a very full schedule, with lectures every evening, yet the League always found time for its meeting just after supper. On Sunday evening, there being no exercises in the school, the twilight meetings were unusually large and interesting. Programs of the great religious hymns and appropriate stories from the Bible and other sources were given.

The young people came in such large numbers to these twilight meetings that it was found necessary to organize them into a Junior League. They were enthusiastic, met nearly every evening and told their stories and sang their songs in a creative refreshing way.

The time set apart for the annual meeting of the National League, July 17 at ten A. M. in Jefferson Hall, was devoted to a memorial to Joel Chandler Harris, who was a charter member of the League. The President of the League called the meeting to order and introduced Supt. Claxton, who presided and gave a brief talk.

The Georgia delegates, a hundred or more strong, sang “Massa’s in the Cold, Cold Ground.” Mrs. Legg, of Georgia, recited an original poem in memory of Harris. Dr. C. Alphonso Smith, Professor of English, University of North Carolina, gave an address on Joel Chandler Harris and his place in literature. Mr. R. T. Wyche told one of the Uncle Remus stories written by Joel Chandler Harris. The attendance was about two thousand.

BIG RAPIDS, MICHIGAN

A large and enthusiastic league was formed at Ferris’ Institute, Big Rapids, Mich., July 1907, and held a number of meetings.

During the past summer the meetings have continued. A picture of the League has reached us but no report.

R. T. W.

BOOK REVIEWS

Telling Bible Stories. By Mrs. Louise Seymour Houghton; Scribners.

If, as we believe, the story is one of the best ways to reach and nourish the child’s inner spiritual being, then we must go to the greatest source of spiritual stories, the Bible. To those who have been imbued with modern thought, science and education, and yet feel the wonderful power and value of the Bible, hardly knowing how to meet conditions as they exist, Mrs. Louise Seymour Houghton’s book, “Telling Bible Stories,” will come as a welcome supply to a real need. She points out how the literal accuracy takes care of itself, if the truth underlying goes to the child’s heart. The book is for adults, leading them to analyze the stories and get at the real meaning, and with that knowledge to construct his own story to suit the needs of the child from three years of age to the adult period. It recognizes the child’s growing knowledge of history, science, geography, myth, fable, poetry, etc., and yet points out, however valuable and interesting this is, that the Bible has this illuminating difference, that it is saturated with God consciousness.

Pearl Carpenter.

How to Tell Stories to Children. By Sara Cone Bryant; Houghton, Mifflin Co.,1905; pp. vii, 260. $1.00

This book is intended primarily for the teachers of the kindergarten and of the primary and intermediate grades. It opens with an introduction on story telling in general, which is followed by chapters successively on the purpose of story-telling in the school; selection of stories to tell; adaptation of stories for telling; how to tell the story; and some specific schoolroom uses. The second half of the book is devoted to 32 selected stories arranged in three groups,—one for the kindergarten and grade I, and one for grades II and III, and one for grades IV and V. The book closes with a bibliography for the story teller, which must prove to be a veritable gold mine for the teacher and parent and is easily one of the most helpful chapters in the book. As a sample of the good things the book contains, we reproduce elsewhere in this number of the Story Hour one of the stories from the third group entitled, “Arthur and the Sword.”

W. C. R.