Chapter XII: Part II: Stories to Tell (9)

His first invention was an automatic repeater by which messages could be transmitted without the presence of the operator. Since then his inventions have been many and important, among them the quadruplex telegraph, the printing telegraph, the megaphone, the aerophone, the phonograph, the moving-picture machine, the storage battery, the incandescent lamp and light system, and the kinetoscope. He has received patents for more than seven hundred inventions by which daily life has been made more attractive. Thomas Alva Edison is the foremost genius of his day, and the modern magician who has made “the fairy tales of science” as fascinating as “Aladdin’s Wonderful Lamp,” or “Boots and His Brothers.”

11. BURBANK, FAIRY GODFATHER OF THE ORCHARDS

This is the story of a boy with a magic wand who has made everything he touched more beautiful and more useful. Even when a little baby, he would hold flowers in his hands for hours, never harming them. He loved flowers best of all--better than pets or animals or playthings; better than anything else in the world except his dear mother with her loving, smiling eyes. He and his mother were chums. His father loved books, but his mother loved flowers. While Luther Burbank loved beautiful thoughts from books, like his father, the flowers, trees, and plants that his mother loved, attracted him to the fields and orchards. All the time he longed to help nature. He wondered if he could make weeds useful and make more and better potatoes grow in each hill. He planted the potato-seed ball, watched it, picked it up when the dog knocked it down and, after a great deal of work he had the delicious Burbank potato.

Then, taking the little field-daisy that he found growing by the roadside, he sent to Japan for daisies from that land, and planted the two together. The bees carried the pollen from one flower to another, and after a long time there was the beautiful Shasta Daisy, which is named for Mount Shasta that is within sight of Mr. Burbank’s home.

He is the fairy godfather of the orchards, for he waves his magic wand, and year after year his trees bear finer fruit--sweeter oranges, better plums, larger apricots; and the world is richer for his work.

He teaches the men who help him his magic. They grow tender-eyed, and their fingers are quick and gentle as they plant the tiny seeds, set the tender grafts, and nurse the little frail flower-stalks. He is now a rich man, but he was not always so. When he first left his home in Massachusetts to go to California, he could get no work, and he was often hungry. At last he got a place in a hothouse doing the work he loved--tending flowers and plants. But the poor boy had no money for a room, and had to sleep in the plant-house. But this place was so damp he grew ill, and a poor woman, seeing that he was ill because he did not have the right kind of food, made him drink a pint of milk from her one cow every day. Luther was afraid he might never be able to pay her back, but when he got better and was able to work he paid the good woman for the milk.

When people saw what a wonderful boy Luther Burbank really was, he had more than he could do. He saved his money, bought a little farm, and began to invent wonderful ways of doing things. Later he bought a great nursery, where he loved to experiment with plants and berries and vegetables. He took the prickly, ugly cactus growing in the desert, scratching the hands and tearing the clothes, and caused it to shed its thorns and to put forth flowers and fruit that is good for man and beast. No wonder he is called the “Fairy Godfather of the Orchards,” this man with the smiling blue eyes, loving boys and girls next after the flowers, and loving his mother best of all. What is the magic wand of the “Flower Magician”? It is “Patient Toil”!

12. MARY LYON, EDUCATOR

Girls who appreciate the possibility of the higher education of women in America will hold the name of Mary Lyon in high esteem. She was born on a stony Massachusetts farm, February 28, 1797. She was not pretty, but her face was bright and intelligent, and her spirit was proud, energetic, and helpful. She loved to devise ways by which she could do the largest amount of work in the shortest time. One day she said, “Mother, I have found a way to make time.” At school she showed a wonderfully retentive memory. When Mary was still young, her father died, leaving the family quite poor. But Mary’s mother with energy, prudence, and cheerfulness, managed the little farm so as to keep her children together. Her flowers were the sweetest anywhere. She always found time to do many kind deeds for her neighbors. Struggling against poverty, Mary taught school for almost nothing; spun and wove her own clothes; and studied hard. Her friends thought her foolish to try and learn so much, saying she could never use it. But deep down in her heart she felt she was to lift the world toward the higher education of woman. So she toiled on for years amid hardship, disappointment, and opposition, for neither the men nor the women of that day approved of women being educated or speaking in public. When she solicited funds for her college her friends thought she was unwomanly and a disgrace to her sex. But her earnest, unselfish, persistent spirit won friends for her cause, and on October 3, 1836, Mount Holyoke Seminary, the first school in America for the higher education of women, was founded. She was at the head of it until her death. Her influence over the young ladies was wonderful. She was firm but kind, always expecting them to do right without rules. She was greatly beloved. When she died she was buried in the seminary grounds and a beautiful marble tablet stands over her honored grave, on one side of which are the words:

Mary Lyon, the Founder of Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, and for
twelve years its Principal; a Teacher for more than thirty-five
years and of more than three thousand pupils. Born Feb. 28, 1797;
Died March 5, 1849.

After her death a paper was found containing seven ways of wasting time, against which she guarded, as follows:

1. Indefinite musings.
2. Anticipating needlessly.
3. Needless speculations.
4. Reluctance to begin a duty.
5. Not deciding at once in doubtful cases.
6. Musing needlessly on what has been said or done, or what may be.
7. Spending time in reveries which should be spent in prayer.

13. FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE, NURSE

Florence Nightingale was born in Florence, Italy, in 1820. She was the daughter of an English landowner, who lived on a picturesque estate in Derbyshire, and who gave her the best education she could secure from books, school, and travel. As a little girl she showed great interest in the poor and sick, and was kind to animals. Even the squirrels on the lawn made friends with her. Often as she sat at her father’s table with all the good things to eat and the beautiful silver, glass, and china before her, she would think of the poor and sick who were without even an orange to quench the thirst of fever. Frequently she drove with her father’s physician into the country, taking baskets filled with dainties, often denying herself something that she might share with others. Everybody loved to have her enter the sickroom, for her unselfish and helpful nature made her a tender nurse. Until then, nurses were taken from the same class of women as ordinary domestic servants. Few realized that nursing was an art to be learned, requiring intelligence, knowledge, and skill, as well as sympathy and love. But the devotion of Florence Nightingale changed all this. She was an accomplished young lady, possessing abundant wealth. She was happy at home, a general favorite, and the center of an admiring circle. She was favored with everything that might have made her social and domestic life full of attractiveness to most young women. But she turned her back on the gay world that opened to her to tread a path that led to suffering and sorrow. She went to Germany to take training as a nurse, beginning at the very start. She learned the use of the washing-cloth, the scrubbing-brush, and the duster. For three months she was in daily and nightly attendance on the sick in the German hospital. Returning to England she gave her time, strength, and means to nursing her sisters in the Hospital for Sick Governesses in London. Here her health began to fail, and she returned home to seek the needed rest in her father’s home of wealth. But a new cry arose for help. The Crimean war was raging. There was a great want of skilled nurses to relieve the dreadful sufferings of the wounded soldiers who were lying in the hospitals. She at once offered her services to her country, and was sent, with thirty-four other women nurses, reaching Russia on the day of the fearful battle of Inkerman, November 5, 1854. The hospitals were filled with sick and wounded soldiers--four thousand suffering from cholera and other horrors that war brings. Miss Nightingale met the wounded and dying with smiles and words of cheer. Many of the sick wept for joy at the first touch of a woman’s hand they had felt for years. She seemed to be everywhere, superintending the washing of their clothing, and beds, cooking their food, assisting the chaplain with his school, furnishing books for the soldiers to read, writing their letters, saving their money, or sending it to their relatives at home. How the soldiers loved her! Many of them whom she could not personally tend kissed her very shadow as it fell on their pillows, as she passed at night. They called her the “Lady of the Lamp.”

He sleeps! Who o’er his placid slumber bends?
His foes are gone; and here he hath no friends.
Is it some seraph sent to grant him grace?
No! ’Tis an earthly form with human face!

Returning to England at the close of the war she was invited to Balmoral Castle by Queen Victoria, who gave her a beautiful jewel, an emblem of her work, with the inscription, “Blessed are the Merciful,” engraved on one side, surmounted by a crown of diamonds. The English Government gave her two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which she used in founding “The Nightingale School of Nurses” in London. The English soldiers wanted to erect a statue of her in London, and each promised to give one penny for it, thinking she could not object to a gift so small from each grateful giver; but she refused to let them do it, telling them that it would please her more if they would give the money to the hospitals. She left a record of unselfish devotion to duty which has enriched the world. She died in 1910, full of years and honors.

On England’s annals, through the long
Hereafter of her speech and song,
That light its rays shall cast
From portals of the past.
A Lady with a Lamp shall stand
In the great history of the land,
A noble type of good,
Heroic womanhood.

--_Longfellow, “Santa Filomena”_

14. FRANCES E. WILLARD, REFORMER

Frances E. Willard was born in Churchville, near Rochester, N. Y. When she was two years old her family moved to Oberlin, Ohio, and when she was five, to the beautiful farm in Wisconsin, “Forest Home.” Here she spent her girlhood, working and playing in the fields with her only brother and sister Mary. Her father promised each of the children a library if they would not use coffee or tea until they were twenty-one. They gladly complied with this condition, because each of them had a great thirst for knowledge. Frances wrote stories, plays, poems, and essays at an early age, and at sixteen she won a prize for an essay on “Country Houses.” At eighteen she entered Milwaukee College, but with the removal of the family to Evanston, Ill., she entered Northwestern University, graduating with honors. She first taught a country school, then became teacher in her alma mater, then a teacher in Pittsburg Female Seminary, and later preceptress in the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, at Lima, N. Y. After a short time of travel in Europe studying widely and writing for American magazines, she made so deep an impression in an address delivered at a woman’s missionary meeting, that she was urged to become a lecturer, which she did with great success. In 1871 she was elected president of the woman’s college of her alma mater, and two years later she became dean of the college and professor of esthetics in the Northwestern University. In 1873 she gave up her college work to organize the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union of America, and to begin her twelve years’ campaign with lectures before four thousand audiences. She was largely instrumental in securing the enactment of laws in many States of the Union to introduce physiological temperance and the scientific study of stimulants and narcotics into the curriculum of the public schools. For years she was misunderstood; often bitterly criticized, despised, and scorned. But at last she triumphed! Distinguished philanthropists, reformers, and citizens of England assembled in the City Temple of London to give her a reception, and heaped upon her the highest honors, which she modestly received in the name of the women of America. Beginning with nothing, in twenty years, single-handed, this noble woman organized the women of her country into a vast army that extends to village and city, and State and nation, and to foreign lands, with vast equipment of more than sixty departments and methods of activity for public agitation, a system of temperance journals for children and youth for securing instruction in the public schools upon the nature of stimulants. It is said Frances Willard was a woman without a fault. Not only in temperance, but in every good work, did she work for the redemption of humanity. In an article to girls, she wrote: “Keep to your specialty, whether it is raising turnips, or painting screens or battle scenes, studying political economy or domestic receipts. Have a resolute aim. If I were asked the mission of the ideal woman, I would reply, ‘It is to make the whole world homelike!’”

15. LIVINGSTONE, MISSIONARY-EXPLORER

David Livingstone was born in Blantyre, Scotland, March 19, 1813. His father was a traveling tea-merchant who often acted as a colporter, distributing tracts, and showing a true missionary spirit. His mother was an active, sunny, loving woman. His home, enriched by little beyond the bare necessities of life, was happy and brightened by industry, cheerfulness, love for one another, and faith in God. He was a good boy to his mother, often helping her sweep and even scrub, “if she would bolt the door so none of the boys would see him,” because in Scotland it was thought beneath a man’s dignity to “help the women-folk.” It was the proud boast of his mother that in his sweeping, “he even swept under the door-mat.” He loved to climb the hills of beautiful Scotland, gathering wildflowers, curious stones, and mineral specimens. One day he climbed the highest tower in the ruins of Bothwell Castle and carved his name above those of the other boys. When he was ten he was sent to work as a piecer in a cotton-factory. With a part of his first week’s wages he purchased a Latin grammar. Although working from six in the morning until eight at night, he attended night-school from eight to ten, learning Latin and the sciences. At the age of sixteen he was familiar with Virgil and Horace and other classical authors. In his thirst for knowledge he placed his book on the spinning-jenny where he could read it as he walked back and forth at his work. When he was nineteen he gave up his work in the winter months to attend Glasgow University, where he studied Greek, medicine, and theology. He became deeply interested in missionary work and desired to go to China, but Dr. Robert Moffat persuaded him to go to Africa by telling him that “on a clear morning could be seen the smoke of a thousand villages where no missionary had ever been.” So, in December, 1840, he began the long, five-months’ trip to the far-off African coast, studying the stars and taking observations by them, which experience was of great value to him later when in Africa he was deserted by his guides and had to blaze his own trail. He traveled inland, first learning the language and then preaching, healing, and teaching. In the forest one day he shot at a lion which sprang upon him, caught him by the shoulder, shook him as a terrier dog does a rat, crushed his arm, and would have ended his life at once if one of the natives had not appeared and quickly shot the lion dead. In 1844 David Livingstone married the daughter of Doctor Moffat. He went back to Scotland several times, where he wrote many books, one of which made him rich; but he used his wealth in further work of discovery and the suppression of the slave-trade. In 1863 he set out on his long search for the source of the Nile, and for seven long years amid sufferings, massacres, atrocities, disappointments, he traveled through the jungles of the black continent, until one day, in 1871, Henry M. Stanley, sent out by the New York _Herald_, appeared, “almost as an angel from heaven.” Stanley, who lived with him in the same house, boat, and tent for four months, said, “I never found a fault in him.” Stanley urged him to return, but Livingstone felt his task was unfinished, and so plunged again into the work, writing to the New York _Herald_: “All I can add in my loneliness is, may heaven’s rich blessing come down on every one, American, English, or Turk, who will help to heal the open sore of the world”--meaning the awful slave-traffic. Not long after, an attack of pneumonia made him so weak that he had to be carried to a hut, where his servants left him for the night. About four o’clock in the morning the boy who lay at the door keeping watch called in alarm. By the light of the candle still burning they saw him upon his knees by his bedside, as if in prayer. Then they knew that he had gone on his last journey, and without a single attendant. Lovingly his devoted servants embalmed his body and sent it to England to be buried in Westminster Abbey with the great of the earth. But his heart they buried by Lake Banguilo, in the land for whose people he had toiled so long, and for whom he gave up his life. On April 18, 1874, the great missionary-explorer was laid in his grave in Westminster Abbey, with sorrow and yet with rejoicing, for they knew well that his life had not been lived in vain.

Open the abbey doors and bear him in
To sleep with king and statesman, chief and sage--
The missionary, come of weaver kin,
But great by work that brooks no lower wage.

He needs no epitaph to guard a name
Which men shall prize while worthy work is known;
He lived and died for good--be that his fame;
Let marble crumble--this is Living-stone!

16. SPURGEON, PREACHER

The life-story of Charles Haddon Spurgeon is an epic of accomplishment. The eldest of a family of seventeen children--a true Rooseveltian family--he was born June 19, 1834, to Rev. John Spurgeon, minister of the Congregational Church at Kilvedon, Essex County, England, and his wife, formerly Miss Jarvis. Both parents were earnest, devout, intellectual people who gave their children all that was possible to provide on a very small salary. At an early age he went to live in the home of his grandfather, also a Congregational minister. One day a visiting minister, struck with the boy’s ability and character, said, “This lad will preach the gospel to thousands.” Having received a good education at a private academy at Colchester, at fifteen he became an assistant school-teacher. One Sunday, when he was sixteen, he visited a little Methodist church and heard a sermon on the text, “Look unto me and be ye saved.” This sermon led to his conversion. He said, “I had been waiting to do fifty things, but when I heard the word ‘Look!’ what a charming word it seemed to me.” At seventeen he became a teacher in a classical school in Cambridge, and was often in demand for addresses to Sunday-school children. At eighteen he was known as the “boy preacher,” and became minister of the Baptist Church at Waterbeach, five miles from Cambridge, on an annual salary of two hundred dollars. This young school-teacher also preached at thirteen village stations maintained by his little church. An address at a Sunday-school anniversary was heard by a stranger, who was so much impressed by it that he recommended this young man as the pastor of a famous Baptist church in London, to which he was called at the age of nineteen. He was so eloquent, persuasive, straightforward, that he won the hearts of his hearers, and soon all London and England was talking of the youthful Whitefield. Within a year the church building had to be enlarged and overflowing congregations came to hear him in the great Exeter Hall. Then the enlarged church proved much too small to accommodate the crowds who flocked to hear him. The Music Hall of Surrey Gardens, an immense building, was rented, and it was a common thing for him to preach to ten thousand people at one service. He was ridiculed and caricatured in merciless ways by newspapers, ministers, and others, but his motto was, “Drive On! Drive On!” And in his simple and earnest preaching he drove on. In 1861 the great, classic Metropolitan Tabernacle was opened for services. It cost one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and seats five thousand five hundred persons, with standing room for almost one thousand more. For thirty years, or until his death, he preached in the great building with every seat and all the available standing-room occupied. His congregation included all classes--professional men, tradesmen, dock-hands, soldiers in their bright-red uniforms, men and women of title, the poor outcast with the shawl over her head, the blear-eyed drunkard, Chinamen and bronzed Indiamen, and visitors from America and other lands--all hanging on the words of this most popular preacher of the world. In appearance he was not a prepossessing man. He was below the medium height, stout, his short hair brushed back from a low forehead, small eyes, heavy lips, fat cheeks hanging over a heavy jaw fringed with a short beard. He looked like a plain, every-day business man. Instead of a white cravat he wore a little black tie. His voice was remarkable for its sweetness and purity, as well as its penetrating power. His language was simple, but a massive grandeur accompanied his simplicity of speech, which captivated every listener. There was also a peculiar directness of address that made every hearer feel that he was the person spoken to as a member of a family entering into confidence with the father of the household. Besides being “England’s greatest preacher,” as an archdeacon of Saint Paul’s Cathedral called him, he was a great philanthropist, commentator, administrator, lecturer, and writer. An orphanage for boys was begun in 1867, and one for girls in 1880, at Stockwell, London. In these orphanages five or six hundred father-less children, from six to ten years, find a comfortable home and training until they are fourteen. People of wealth entrusted to him large gifts of money for this philanthropic work, because they had perfect confidence in whatever he undertook. He built a Pastor’s College, where poor young men could receive proper training for their work as ministers or missionaries. He also edited a monthly magazine, “The Sword and Trowel”; wrote commentaries; organized a colportage association; and encouraged his wife’s “Book Fund” to provide free gifts of books for poor pastors. He wrote and published thirty-seven volumes of sermons and numberless tracts. He loved to give away Bibles. He was beloved by all denominations, and his sermons and other works, read and admired by all classes, have been translated into many foreign tongues. He was very happy in his home life with his charming wife and twin sons, who became preachers. “That word ‘home,’” he used to say, “rings like a peal of wedding bells, only more sweet and low, and it chimes deeper into the ear of the heart.” After a short illness, this great preacher and philanthropist died, at the age of only fifty-eight. That wonderful voice, which for more than forty years had swayed great multitudes with its fervid eloquence, was heard by a few listeners to say, faint and low, and almost inarticulate, “I have finished my course. I have kept the faith.” These words were inscribed on his coffin of olive-wood, the wood itself symbolic of peace.

17. GRENFELL, MEDICAL MISSIONARY

Where the bitter winds of the north Atlantic sweep over the coast of Labrador, and the giant icebergs slowly sail in their opalescent majesty through the waters of the ocean, like phantom ships or dream palaces, lies a country inhabited by very poor fisherfolk, who depend upon the scanty harvests gathered from the waters for their living. When the “catch” is poor there is much suffering, and the children are clothed and fed more poorly than usual. The warm, bright days are few, and there are no swimming holes or long, delightful summer vacations and picnics for boys and girls.

Far away in merry England under its soft and sunny skies, a boy was born in 1865--Wilfred T. Grenfell. When he became a young medical student he heard Dwight L. Moody, the great American evangelist, so interpret the old, old story of Jesus in terms of loving service for others, that he resolved to devote his life to the poor and desolate. With such a vision of love the young physician left his home and friends, and sailed away up into the North Sea among the poor fishermen, where there were no doctors to cure them when they were ill or set their broken bones when the cruel sea dashed them upon the rocks. Later, when others came to help, Doctor Grenfell decided to go where no one else cared to go. He again sailed away, this time to Labrador and the coast of Newfoundland. How cheerless and desolate that country appears, how far away from England and America! Think of the coldest day and bitterest storm you ever knew, and that is what Doctor Grenfell found when he arrived, all alone, and where he has worked so long and hard to make life happier and to help the poor Eskimos understand something of the unselfish love of the Christ-life, which is his ideal. He found them ignorant, poor, and miserable. When they were ill there was no one to help. When they fell over the mountain spurs and broke their bones, they must die or be crippled for life, for no one knew how to put the bones in place. Along three thousand miles of coast this good man goes in summer in his little steamboat, fighting the cruel waves, dodging the icebergs, always in peril, but never caring as long as he can reach the sick and ease their pain and suffering. In winter the water is frozen, and he must take his long, perilous journey by sledge. With his teams of dogs hitched to his stout sledge “Lend-a-hand,” he drives over those snow-covered fields where there are only tall poles set up to mark a trail, often being lost in the storms or breaking through the ice into the waters of half-frozen streams, or being dashed over the side of the steep path, or being buried under an avalanche of snow from which he must dig himself and his dogs out. But he is never discouraged. With a keen sense of humor he sees the funny side of things and in those cheerless, miserable homes he laughs and tells his experiences, plays with the little ones, and makes every one around him happy. He is Santa Claus to the children, and “Good Samaritan” to the man by the wayside. Often “Lend-a-hand” is his only bed, for although the dogs are trained to watch for the poles set to mark the path, they sometimes miss them in the storm, and stray from the trail, and then Doctor Grenfell turns his sledge up on the side, digs a hole in the snow, lights a fire, and crawls into his sleeping-bag and spends the night out-of-doors, while the dogs dig a place in the snow for themselves, to wait for the morning light to help them to find the lost trail. Through Doctor Grenfell a hospital has been erected on the coast, where trained physicians and nurses care for the poor people who are shipwrecked or who can be taken away from their wretched homes to be cared for. Do you wonder that the people love this bright, cheerful Englishman, with the endurance of a man and the tenderness of a woman, who is translating his life into love, and trying to follow John Wesley’s golden advice in the simple familiar lines?

Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.

18. WRIGHT BROTHERS, AVIATORS

Rarely in the history of the world have two great brothers been linked as closely together as Wilbur and Orville Wright, the pioneers in aviation. Four years different in age, they grew up together, studied, experimented, invented, and dared together. Each has an equal claim to be called the creator of the aeroplane, the Edison of the air, the dean of birdmen, and even “the first man to fly.” Wilbur may have been the first actually to rise from the earth in an engine-driven, “heavier-than-air” aeroplane, but neither of the brothers would ever make a positive statement about it. They always spoke of themselves as “Wright Brothers,” or “We.” Wilbur was born near Millville, Ind., April 16, 1867; Orville, in Dayton, Ohio, August 19, 1871. Their father was a cultured bishop of the United Brethren Church, and their mother was a college graduate. Both boys graduated from the Dayton public school and high school, after which they became printers and bicycle dealers in a dingy, common-place little brick shop. Here fame found them. They had no idea of flying until 1896, when they read the newspaper report of the death of Otto Lillienthal, who, after he had made over two thousand gliding flights in the air, met his death by a fall. In 1900 they became intensely interested in the experiments with air-gliders then carried on by Professor Langley, Octave Chanute, and others. On a country road outside of Dayton they began to fly kites and gliders equipped with an ingenious motive-power method of control. After this they went to Kitty Hawk, N. C., where a number of sand-dunes made a suitable place to glide from against the strong, steady winds that they found necessary for their gliding tests. They studied birds in flight and found that, in reality, a bird is an aeroplane. The part of the wings nearest to the body support it in the air, leaving the more flexible portion at the extremities to flap up and down and act as propellers. By gliding experiments they also found that the air along the surface of the earth is continually undergoing a churning movement, every building, hill, and tree sending up its air wave. In 1903 they made their first real flight of twelve seconds with their twelve horsepower aeroplane; in 1904 they increased their flight from one to five minutes; and in 1905 they made a hundred and fifty flights, making twenty-four miles through the air in thirty-eight minutes. Desiring some government to purchase their invention, they offered it to France, only to be refused. But two years later Wilbur sailed for France, where he was so successful in flights that the French Government paid him one hundred thousand dollars; and in Italy and Germany many private sales were made. Meanwhile Orville was flying his aeroplane at Fort Meyer in the United States, where he succeeded in selling a machine to the United States Government for thirty thousand dollars. In one of his flights Orville received a fall, which broke his thigh and caused the death of Lieutenant Selfridge, the first victim of power-driven aeroplanes. How both brothers ever lived through their early flights is a matter of wonder. A part of the explanation is to be found in their character. They proved their scientific theories to the last point. They were always courageous, never reckless. Unstinted praise should be given them because they have been a conservative influence in the field of aviation. By precept, example, and command, when they could command, they fought against the recklessness of performers who have dared death in unnecessary feats to thrill spectators at a show. Neither in America nor in Europe did either of them make one curve or flight for sensational effect. It seems strange that Wilbur should have died in his bed of typhoid fever, and not have met his death from a fall. He died in the height of his inventive genius and glory, leaving his brother Orville to continue the work alone. He left a large estate as the result of their joint invention. But best of all, he left an unsullied name. Simple, honest, unaffected, devoted to his art, he lived, worked, and died as becomes a true man. He was always gentle and modest, as is his brother. The things he had done never seemed much to him on account of the things he intended to do. In the record of American inventions there is no more brilliant chapter than the story of their marvelous conquest of the air, and no matter what the future may hold in store, the name and fame of the Wright Brothers will live with those of Watts, Stephenson, Howe, Arkwright, Fulton, and Edison.

There is no chance, no destiny, no fate,
Can circumvent, or hinder, or control
The firm resolve of a determined soul,
Gifts count for nothing; will alone is great;
All things give way before it soon or late.
What obstacle can stay the mighty force
Of the sea-seeking river in its course,
Or cause the ascending orb of day to wait?
Each well-born soul must win what it deserves.
Let the fool prate of luck. The fortunate
Is he whose earnest purpose never swerves,
Whose slightest action or inaction serves
The one great aim.
Why, even death stands still
And waits an hour, sometimes, for such a will.

19. JANE ADDAMS, SETTLEMENT WORKER

Among the “girls who became useful,” none can take a higher rank than Jane Addams, the founder of “Hull House,” a center which radiates love and good will into the great city of Chicago. This “Palace of a Thousand Joys” is a little city of refuge for the homeless and hopeless, for the man without work, for the overworked mother whose fretful children can be left to the gentle care of the sweet-voiced helpers of Miss Addams, for the discouraged mill-girl and factory-hand, for the old and young of that bustling city.

Miss Addams was born in a home of plenty in Cedarville, Ill., where her happy childhood was passed without knowing poverty, as she played with her brother in the free out-of-doors that should be the heritage of every boy and girl in America. She was not strong, as her spine was weak, and she had to carry her head on one side. This was a great sorrow to her, for she was afraid her father, a large, handsome man, would be ashamed of his plain, crooked girl. But she found her father was all the more tender to his frail child. He talked lovingly to her of the equality of all, of the rich and poor, and taught her that the duty of the rich was to help make life happier for the poor. In this teaching of her wise, loving father, was laid the foundation of the life-work of this “Little Sister of the Poor.” She was so sensitive that once when she had told an untruth she could not sleep until she had confessed her fault to her father, who said: “I am glad if I have a little daughter who must tell lies, that she cannot sleep afterward.”

She attended the village school until she went to Rockford to a seminary, from which she graduated. Afterward she went to Europe several times, visiting all the great art-galleries. While in London she went to the East Side, where the poorest of England’s poor live. She was greatly grieved by the sight of tiny children, half-starved, with old, wizened faces, toiling from morning until night in the mills and factories, with never a day to play in the green fields, chasing the butterflies and gathering wildflowers. In America she saw things that made her sad--poverty, vice, and sorrow; little children and weak women with tasks too heavy for them, and with no time for pleasure or improvement. So when she was traveling in Spain for pleasure, she suddenly resolved to devote the rest of her life to helping the poor of her own land. Returning to Chicago, she and her friend, Miss Starr, took an old house that had once been a handsome home, but was now in the midst of the poorest part of the city. They fitted it up with comfortable furniture, hung beautiful pictures brought from Europe on the walls, and began the work among Chicago’s poor that has resulted in the celebrated settlement of Hull House. They provided a day-nursery where little children could be cared for while their mothers were at work; reading clubs for boys and girls; sewing clubs; a gymnasium; an art school and kindergarten; entertainments for the children and their fathers and mothers. Every one is welcome to this bright, cheerful home, full of love and good will for each and all. The Polish, Italian, and Jewish children mingle freely together. No creed is thought of save the creed of Jesus, “A new commandment I give unto you, Love one another.” The children are told stories, given care when ill, and help at all times, so that, in the eyes of the world, “Hull House” and “Jane Addams” now stand together for all that is best and most helpful in philanthropy and settlement work.

Miss Addams’ service does not cease at the door of Hull House. She goes about the country talking to thousands of people in the interests of better laws for children and better wages for women and girls. Do you wonder that this useful woman is known by the gentle title of “Kind Heart”?

20. HELEN KELLER, MARVEL

No fairy tale can be more marvelous than the story of Helen Keller, the wonderful heroine who overcame insurmountable obstacles before she could find her way to mingle with her fellow men and attain her place in the world’s work.

Until she was almost a year old Helen was like other babies--only brighter. She talked when she was six months old, walked as early as one year, and seemed interested in everything her baby eyes saw, and her ears heard. But a serious illness fell upon this bright little baby girl, and she was not expected to live. When at last she was out of danger the light had gone from her beautiful eyes, her tiny ears could not hear the tender crooning of her mother’s voice, and her little tongue was still. In darkness and silence she must pass her days, as if some wicked fairy, had suddenly stolen the greatest treasures of her life. At first she would lie in her mother’s lap, as she had done while she was ill, but as she grew older she learned to play with her little colored girl, Martha Washington, who went everywhere with her. She was also fond of her little dog Belle. She hunted eggs with Martha and Belle, through the tall grass, where the nests of the guinea-hens were, and she always wanted to carry the eggs herself for fear Martha might fall and break them. When she wished to go on an egg-hunt she would double up her hands and stoop down, as if she were feeling for something. She nodded her head for “yes,” shook it for “no,” and shivered for cold, but she would often become angry because she could not make herself understood by any one, and had to live in her dungeon of darkness with all the beautiful things of life shut out. She grew so unhappy in her loneliness that her parents took her to a great specialist to learn if anything could be done to restore her sight, speech, or hearing, but all was hopeless. Dr. Graham Bell, of Washington, told them what was being done for the blind, deaf, and dumb children in Boston, in the school for the blind under Doctor Anagnos. He secured a special teacher, Miss Anne Sullivan, who went to live with the little “shut-in” girl in her home in Tuscumbia, Ala. With infinite patience the teacher taught Helen the sign-language, first spelling the words for things in the little hand. Helen thought this was a new kind of game, but one day when at the pump the teacher held Helen’s hand under the spout and spelled w-a-t-e-r as the water poured over her hand, then Helen knew she was being taught the meaning of words. From that moment she learned very fast. Then she learned to touch the lips of the speaker, with her sensitive finger-tips, and she understood what was said. So Helen Keller came out of her house of bondage into the wonderful world of knowledge and delight. She could “feel” things. She could express herself. Others could understand her. She could tell the color of a flower she held. She learned the blind alphabet, she went to Perkins Institute for the Blind where she learned to read many books in the blind language. At last she learned to speak. Then she resolved to go to college. At length she entered Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Mass., where she studied and listened to the lectures by having some one who could hear spell the lecture out into her hand. She learned, to use the typewriter and make out her lessons. At nineteen, when she entered college, she had accomplished what many girls of that age, in possession of all their senses, have not accomplished. She wrote a book of her life which was published and brought her a great deal of money. She was a general favorite among her schoolmates. She enjoyed her life, and was bright, happy, and gay; having no consciousness of being in any way handicapped. She was fond of fun, and laughed heartily at the funny side of things. She went to the seashore, having pleasant times in bathing. Although still shut away in blindness and in deafness, she lives a courageous life of usefulness in a wonderful degree, and often entertains audiences by the story of her life. Miss Sullivan is married, but still lives with her and loves her as when she was a little girl who depended on her for everything worth having in life.

Helen Keller, this ambitious, brilliant girl who can neither see nor hear, has been likened to Napoleon Bonaparte in her ability to overcome insurmountable obstacles and attain the pinnacle of success through the exercise of an indomitable will-power and the cooperation of those who loved and admired the spirit and ambition of her, whom Mark Twain called the “Marvel of the Twentieth Century,” and of whom Edmund Clarence Stedman sang:

Mute, sightless visitant,
From what uncharted world
Hast voyaged into life’s wide sea
With guidance scant?
As if some bark mysteriously
Should hither glide with spars aslant
And sails all furled.

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF STORIES

PAGE

Addams, Jane, Settlement Worker 284

Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp 60

Alcott, Louisa May, Author 252

America, How, Was Found 200

America, How, Was Named 201

Androcles and the Lion 184

Ant, The, and the Grasshopper 71

Arrow-boy, The, and the Two Friends 135

Audubon, Naturalist 262

Babies, The, and the Wise Judge 137

Baby Brother, The, in a Basket-boat 128

Bear, Why the, Has a Stumpy Tail 77

Bell, The, of Justice 190

Blind Men, The, and the Elephant 70

Bonheur, Rosa, Painter 253

Boone and His Swing 223

Boots and His Brothers 63

Boston Tea Party, The 213

Boy, The, and the Echo 72

Boy, The, and the Mad Dog 242

Boy, The, and the Nuts 66

Boy, The, and the Train 242

Boy, The, Who Hated Trees 103

Boy, The, Who Lived in a Church 130

Boy, The, With His Lunch 164

Boy Hero, The, of Holland 233

Boys, The, and the Frogs 67

Boys, Why, Take off Their Hats in Church 129

Bride, The, Worth Her Weight in Silver 210

Brothers, The First Two 117

Bruce and the Spider 187

Burbank, Fairy Godfather of the Orchards 265

Camel, The Lost 106

Camel, The, in the Tent 72

Christmas Day, The First 150

Christmas Gift, The 112

Christmas Tree, The Legend of 114

Cloud, The 94

Cobwebs, The Golden 113

College Boys, Four, Who Kept Strong 143

College, The First, in America 212

Cornelia and Her Jewels 185

Coyote, The, and the Indian Fire-bringer 88

Cripple, The, at the Beautiful Gate 174

Crow, The, and the Pitcher 68

Damon and Pythias 183

Darling, Grace 237

Daughter, The, Who Honored Her Mother 131

Diamonds and Toads 51

Dick Whittington and His Cat 101

Dog, The, in the Manger 66

Dove, The, and the Ant 67

Duckling, The Ugly 90

Dwarf, The, in the Mulberry Tree 166

Earthquake, The Japanese and the 235

Easter Day, The First 172

Edison, Wizard of Electricity 263

Elephant, The, and the Tailor 105

Emperor, The, and the Bird’s Nest 193

Emperor, The, and the Goose-boy 195

Emperor, The, and the School Children 196

Evangeline and the Burning of Acadia 211

Face, The Great Stone 95

Fir Tree, The 109

Flood, The, and the Rainbow 119

Fourth of July, The First 217

Fox, The, and the Grapes 67

Fox, The, Without a Tail 71

Friend, The Children’s 161

Friends, Four, in the Fiery Furnace 144

Frog King, The 52

Garibaldi and the Lost Lamb 240

Girl, The, and Her Red Petticoat 243

Girl, The Obliging, at the Well 122

Girl, The, Who Knew She Was Right 175

Girl, Tired of Being a Little 105

Gladstone and the Street-sweeper 239

Golden Goose, The 49

Goldilocks and the Three Bears 55

Goose With the Golden Eggs 66

Grasshopper, The Conceited 70

Greeley, Horace, Editor 260

Grenfell, Medical Missionary 278

Hale, Nathan 215

Hare, The, and the Tortoise 69

Hen, The Little Red 48

Heroine, The, of Gettysburg 225

Heroine, The, of North Carolina 219

Heroine, The, of Ohio 221

Hobson and the Merrimac 226

Home, How a Happy, Was Lost 116

Horatius at the Bridge 182

Hovenden and the Little Boy 241

Inchcape Bell, The 187

Indians’ Gunpowder Harvest 205

Jack and the Bean-stalk 58

Jack the Giant-killer 59

Jesus, When, Left His Carpenter Shop 157

Jesus, When, Was a Boy 152

Jesus, When, Was Forsaken 171

Jesus, When, Was Lost 155

Jesus, When, Won His Great Victory 159

Keller, Helen, Marvel 286

King Alfred and the Cakes 186

King, The Little Boy 138

King, The, of the Golden River 91

King, The, With the Basin and the Towel 170

Kit Carson and the Bears 224

Ladder, The, that Reached to Heaven 124

Larks, The, in the Wheat-field 74

Lincoln, Abraham, and the Pig 239

Lincoln, Emancipation President 257

Lind, Jenny, Singer 255

Lion, The, and the Fox 69

Lion, The, and the Mouse 74

“Little Ten Minutes” 198

Livingstone, Missionary-Explorer 273

Longfellow, Poet 246

Lost Colony, The 203

Love, Where, Is, God Is 98

Lyon, Mary, Educator 267

Maid, The, Awakened 162

Man, The, in the Moon 78

Man, The, Who First Sailed Around the World 202

Man, The, Who Was Not Afraid to Pray 146

Man, The, Who Wrote “America” 230

Mayflower, The, and the Pilgrims 206

Miller, The, and His Donkey 75

Monkey, The, and the Cats 73

Mozart, Musician 248

Napoleon and the Drummer-boy 191

Neighbor, The Good 167

Newsboy, The, of Gary 244

Nightingale, Florence, Nurse 268

Ole Bull, Violinist 250

Patriot, The German, and the Barley-fields 234

Patriot, The Swiss, and the Spears 194

Paul Revere’s Ride 214

Persian, The, and His Sons 76

Phaethon’s Wonderful Ride 80

Picciola 192

Piper, The Pied 100

Pocahontas 204

Prince, The Little Lame 136

Prince, The, Who Hated Spiders and Flies 104

Prisoner, The, and the Shipwreck 177

Prometheus, The Greek Fire-giver 79

Putnam and the Wolf 223

Raleigh, Sir Walter 188

Rebecca and the Snake 209

Red Ridinghood 54

Reed, General, and the Bribe 217

Robin’s Breast, Why the, is Red 77

Ross, Betsy, and the Flag 228

Runaway Pancake, The 47

Saint Christopher 108

Saint George and the Dragon 84

Saint Patrick and the Snakes 86

Scepter, The Golden, in the Palace of the Lily 147

Servant, The Russian 236

Shepherd Boy, The, and the Wolf 68

Shepherd Boy, The, Who Slew a Giant 133

Sidney, Sir Philip 189

Slave-boy, The, Who Became a Prince 126

Slave-girl, The, Who Helped a Great Captain 141

Slave, The, Who Ran Away from His Master 179

Sleeping Beauty, The 56

Spurgeon, Preacher 275

Storm-king, The 169

Story, The, Without an End 107

Sunflower, The Story of the 81

Surveyor, The, and the Little Boy 238

Thanksgiving Day, The First 207

Toadstool, The, and the Acorn 67

Tolstoy’s Daughter and the Peasant Boy 197

Tom, the Chimney-sweep 96

Touch, The Golden 82

Trick, One Good 70

Uncle, The Generous, and the Selfish Nephew 121

Washington’s Christmas Victory 218

Willard, Frances E., Reformer 271

Wind, The, and the Sun 68

Wise Men, The, and the Star 151

Woman, The, Who Shared Her Last Loaf 139

World, How the, Was Made 115

Wright Brothers, Aviators 281

Wrists, The, Bound With the Red Thread 197

ETHICAL INDEX OF STORIES

Roman numerals refer to chapters of stories, and Arabic numerals refer to the number of story in the chapter. By this reference a story illustrating any ethical principle desired may be readily found. The pages on which the chapters of stories occur may readily be found by turning to the Table of Contents in front of book.

Accuracy: II. 11, 13, 15; IV. 13; VIII. 15; IX. 2; XI. 18.

Achievement: I. 11; II. 13; III. 8, 9, 10; IV. 8; VI. 8, 13, 23;
VIII. 6, 15; IX. 1, 12, 14, 15, 17; X. 1-14; XI. 1-20.

Adversity, action in: III. 8, 9, 10; IV. 1; VI. 12, 23;
VII. 11, 12, 13; IX. 1, 4-8, 11, 13-16, 18, 19, 20, 24; X. 1-14;
XI. 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 20.

Agreeableness: II. 18, 23; IV. 2; V. 3, 5; VI. 5, 6, 12, 18;
VII. 3, 7; VIII. 15, 16, 17; IX. 9, 10; X. 2, 7, 8, 14; XI. 1, 3.

Aim: II. 22; III. 8, 9, 10; VIII. 6, 11; IX. 1, 3; XI. 1-20.

Altruism: I. 1, 3, 4, 8, 10; II. 6, 21, 24; III. 2, 4, 8, 9, 10;
IV. 2, 3, 6; V. 1; VI. 12, 18, 23; VII. 5, 9, 11, 13, 14, 16;
VIII. 1-3, 8, 9, 14, 17; IX. 1, 5, 9, 14-21, 24, 25; X. 1-14;
XI. 1-20.

Ambition: I. 10-12; II. 4, 9, 12; III. 8-10; IV. 2, 4, 8; V. 1;
VI. 5, 8, 12, 13, 21, 23; VII. 3, 5, 13, 16; VIII. 11, 16;
IX. 1, 15, 16; X. 3, 10, 14; XI. 1-20.

Anger: III. 9; IV. 2, 6, 7; VI. 3, 5; VIII. 5, 17; IX. 19.

Art, love of: IV. 4; V. 2, 4; VIII. 4; IX. 19, 26; X. 10; XI. 5.

Artfulness: II. 17, 19; IV. 14; VI. 16; IX. 6.

Attention: I. 12; II. 11, 19, 22; IV. 13; VII. 2, 18; IX. 1.

Beauty of character: II. 24; III. 8; IV. 1, 4; V. 5;
VI. 5, 6, 11, 12, 15, 18-20, 22; VII. 3-19; VIII. 4, 9;
IX. 5, 15, 16, 24, 27; X. 3-14; XI. 1-20.

Boasting: II. 12-14; VIII. 4, 7; IX. 19.

Brotherliness: II. 24; IV. 2, 5; VI. 5, 7, 12; VII. 3, 11, 13;
VIII. 9, 17; IX. 5; X. 12; XI. 18.

Carefulness: I. 11; III. 10, 15; VI. 20; VIII. 13.

Carelessness: I. 8; III. 1; IV. 2, 6; V. 5; VI. 3, 5; VII. 9, 11, 16;
VIII. 5, 7, 9, 19; X. 2, 3, 8, 14; XI. 3, 5, 6, 16, 19.

Chivalry: II. 24; III. 8; VIII. 8, 17.

Cleanliness: IV. 5; V. 4; VII. 3.

Complaining: II. 18; IV. 9, 11; V. 2.

Conceit: II. 14; VIII. 7.