his books you would like to read.
FLINT AND FIRE
1. What does the title mean?
2. How does the author strike the keynote of the story in the
opening paragraph?
3. Where is the first hint of the real theme of the story?
4. Point out some of the dialect expressions. Why is dialect used?
5. What turn of surprise comes at the end of the story? Is it
probable?
6. What characteristics of New England country people are brought
out in this story? How does the author contrast them with "city
people"?
7. Does this story read as if the author knew the scenes she
describes? Read the description of Niram plowing (page 191), and
point out touches in it that could not have been written by one who
had always lived in the city.
8. Read the account of how this story was written, (page 210). What
first suggested the idea? What work remained after the story was
first written? How did the author feel while writing it? Compare
what William Allen White says about his work, (page 75).
9. Other stories of New England life that you will enjoy reading
are found in the following books: _New England Nun_, Mary E.
Wilkins; _Cape Cod Folks_, S. P. McLean Greene; _Pratt Portraits_,
Anna Fuller; _The Country Road_, Alice Brown; _Tales of New
England_, Sarah Orne Jewett.
THE ORDEAL AT MT. HOPE
1. This story contains three characters who are typical of many
colored people, and as such are worth study. Howard Dokesbury is
the educated colored man of the North. What are the chief traits of
this character?
2. Aunt Caroline is the old-fashioned darky who suggests slavery
days. What are her chief characteristics?
3. 'Lias is the new generation of the Southern negro of the towns.
What are his characteristics?
4. Is the colored American given the same rights as others? Read
carefully the opening paragraph of the story.
5. What were the weaknesses of the colored people of Mt. Hope? How
far are they true of the race? How were they overcome in this case?
6. There are two theories about the proper solution of what is
called "The Negro Problem." One is, that the hope of the race lies
in industrial training; the other theory, that they should have
higher intellectual training, so as to develope great leaders.
Which theory do you think Dunbar held? Why do you think so?
7. Other stories dealing with the life of the colored people are:
_Free Joe_, and _Tales of the Home Folks_, by Joel Chandler Harris;
_Polished Ebony_, by Octavius R. Cohen; _Aunt Amity's Silver
Wedding_, by Ruth McEnery Stuart; _In Ole Virginia_, by Thomas
Nelson Page.
ISRAEL DRAKE
The Pennsylvania State Police have made a wonderful record for
maintaining law and order in the rural sections of the state. The
history of this organization was told by Katherine Mayo in a book called
_Justice to All_. In a later book, _The Standard Bearers_, she tells
various incidents which show how these men do their work. The book is
not fiction--the story here told happened just as it is set down, even
the names of the troopers are their real names.
1. Do you get a clear picture of Drake from the description? Why
are several pages given to telling his past career?
2. Where does the real story begin?
3. Who was the tramp at the Carlisle Station? When did you guess
it?
4. What are the principles of the State Police, as you see them in
this story?
5. Why was such an organization necessary? Is there one in your
state?
6. What new words did you find in this story? Define aura,
primeval, grisly.
THE STRUGGLES AND TRIUMPH OF ISIDRO
In this story the author introduces a number of unfamiliar words,
chiefly of Spanish origin, which are current in the Philippines. The
meanings are given below.
_baguio_, hurricane.
_barrio_, ward; district.
_carabao_, a kind of buffalo, used as a work animal.
_cabo_, head officer.
_cibay_, a boys' game.
_daledale_, hurry up!
_de los Reyes_, of the King.
_de la Cruz_, of the cross.
_hacienda_, a large plantation.
_ladrones_, robbers.
_maestro_, teacher.
_nipa_, a palm tree or the thatch made from it.
_palay_, rice.
_pronto_, quickly.
_pueblo_, town.
_que barbaridad!_--what an atrocious thing!
_volador_, kite.
1. Why does the story end with Isidro's crying? What did this
signify? What is the relation of this to the beginning of the
story?
2. Has this story a central idea? What is it?
3. This might be called a story of local color, in that it gives in
some detail the atmosphere of an unfamiliar locality. What are the
best descriptive passages in the story?
4. Judging from this story, what are some of the difficulties a
school teacher meets with in the Philippines? What must he be
besides a teacher?
5. What other school stories are there in this book? The pupils in
Emmy Lou's school, (in Louisville, Ky.) are those with several
generations of American ancestry behind them; in Myra Kelly's
story, they are the children of foreign parents; in this story they
are still in a foreign land--that is, a land where they are not
surrounded by American influences. The public school is the one
experience that is common to them all, and therefore the greatest
single force in bringing them all to share in a common ideal, to
reverence the great men of our country's history, and to comprehend
the meaning of democracy. How does it do these things?
THE CITIZEN
1. During the war, President Wilson delivered an address at
Philadelphia to an audience of men who had just been made citizens.
The quoted passages in this story are taken from this speech. Read
these passages, and select the one which probably gave the author
the idea for this story.
2. Starting with the idea, that he would write a story about
someone who followed a dream to America, why should the author
choose Russia as the country of departure?
3. Having chosen Russia, why does he make Ivan a resident of a
village far in the interior? Why not at Libau?
4. Two incidents are told as occurring on the journey: the charge
of the police at Bobrinsk, and the coming on board of the apple
woman at Queenstown. Why was each of these introduced? What is the
purpose of telling the incident on Fifth Avenue?
5. What have you learned about the manner in which this story was
written? Compare it with the account given by Dorothy Canfield as
to how she wrote her story.
6. What is the main idea in this story? Why do you think it was
written? Edward Everett Hale wrote a story called "A Man without a
Country." Suggest another title for "The Citizen."
7. Has this story in any way changed your opinion of immigrants? Is
Big Ivan likely to meet any treatment in America that will change
his opinion of the country?
8. The part of this story that deals with Russia affords a good
example of the use of local color. This is given partly through the
descriptions, partly through the names of the villagers--Poborino,
Yanansk, Dankov; partly through the Russian words, such as verst
(about three quarters of a mile), ruble (a coin worth fifty cents),
kopeck (a half cent), muzhik (a peasant). How is local color given
in the conversations?
9. For a treatment of the theme of this story in poetry, read "Scum
o' the Earth," by Robert Haven Schauffler, in Rittenhouse's _Little
Book of Modern Verse_. This is the closing stanza:
"Newcomers all from the eastern seas,
Help us incarnate dreams like these.
Forget, and forgive, that we did you wrong.
Help us to father a nation, strong
In the comradeship of an equal birth,
In the wealth of the richest bloods of earth."