In November, 1906, some forty students in the High School at
Covington, Ky., were organized into a Junior Story Tellers’
League. They met in the school on alternate Fridays, immediately
after dismissal. From the beginning, the meetings were
interesting, profitable and instructive. So enjoyable were they,
that members of the faculty were pleased to come in, not
occasionally, but regularly, to listen, and to contribute their
share to the pleasure of the meeting. The programs were
definitely planned, and a variety of stories was told at each
meeting. These included myths, fairy-tales, folk-tales, fables,
festival-stories, Bible-stories, and an occasional good
anecdote. During the first year, also, there was a systematic
presentation of the King Arthur legends in story form; and
during the second year the story of Ulysses was developed in the
same manner. At the close of the regular program, volunteer
stories were called for, and there was always a response.
Many excellent story-tellers were developed, and one genius was
discovered. The latter was a girl, who, at fifteen, gave promise
of becoming a rival to Uncle Remus, himself, in telling, in
dialect, the folk-tales of the South. Our National President,
after hearing her, saw fit to invite her to tell stories before
the Knoxville Convention of 1907.
In May, 1908, a public meeting was held, to which the parents,
teachers, and friends of the story-tellers were invited. No
successful evening’s entertainment was ever so easily prepared.
Seven students, whose stories, told at the regular meetings, had
been so well selected and so charmingly presented that their
companions desired to hear them again, were elected to tell them
in public. This, with some musical selections furnished by the
school glee-clubs, formed the program of the evening, which an
enthusiastic audience voted a success. The outcome of that
meeting was a demand for two more leagues, one of which has
recently been organized.