Recently, as I was on my way to Looking Up One Thing On The Internet,™ I came across Something Else™ that really tickled my fancy, even though, or perhaps exactly because, it had nothing to do with the object of my search. This is something that frequently happens to me, and which I usually roll along with, because when it all pans out, I sometimes come across stuff that interests me more, and enlightens me more, than the thing I started out investigating. And what I ran across this time was a Google Books citation of Volume XXII-No. 2, of the “Michigan School Moderator.” A bit more noodling around, and I learned that Volume XIV was from 1893, and so I think “my” issue is from 1902 or thereabouts.
It’s one of those marvelous compendiums of knowledge, example, and character-building advice that was so common in the late-nineteenth, and early-twentieth century, in which everyone assumed that the reader actually could (read), and no-one talked down to the common citizenry who were expected to absorb, understand, and learn from, the contents thereof. I love these sorts of books and periodicals, and when I run across them in second-hand bookstores, I usually buy them. The most recent example of this sort of things that springs to mind is Bill Bennett’s Book of Virtues, but if you know of other recent and similar attempts (Heather Has Two Mommies doesn’t cut it), please include them in the comments. When my ship comes in, I’ll build another bookshelf and make a volume purchase. (See what I did there?)
Of course, the name of the organ, “The Moderator,” caught my eye, lol out loud. (For newbies, and those who’ve recently emigrated from the Planet Zygax, I’ll just mention that I did my turn in the barrel as a Ricochet moderator for a couple of years, but relieved myself of my duties [as moderators here mostly do, after a time, and that is perfectly OK], in March of 2019.)
And as I perused it, I was fascinated to discover improving articles, like the one by Mrs. Dwight Goss on “The Value of Truant Schools.” (She looks like a tough old bird, and I have a sense that she’d have made a good Marine Corps Drill Instructor, if what Mr. She has told me about them is true. Come to think of it, her vision of “the truant school” does sound an awful lot like boot camp.) Or Mrs. Bernice Shank’s discourse upon why it’s so important to teach “Language in Elementary School.” (She’s talking about English–what a novel idea.) And Miss Lucy Sloan’s “Study of [James Russell] Lowell’s ‘Vision of Sir Launfal.’” There’s Science. And Literature. And Mathematics. And Music. And Poetry. Interspersed throughout with news of the schools, invitations to sign up for correspondence courses, and news of current affairs. And all in forms, and at levels that I just can’t imagine being accessible to, or worse yet, of the remotest interest to, a substantial portion of the population today, even though so many of them are written by women, and none of them, at least that I have found, diminish the importance of female education in any way. In fact, they do quite the reverse, as so much of the intellectual, substantive, and thoughtful content of the issue is written by women who obviously expect what they say to be treated as worthwhile and with respect.
Is their advice perfect? Are their opinions uniformly commendable to our modern sensibilities and, in some cases, greater understanding? No, of course not. But what a solid foundation to start from and build on. (I didn’t see any strictures on the proper placement of prepositions in the English sentence, so I don’t expect any blowback from what, just there, I’m guilty of. Thanks very much for holding your fire.)
What really engaged my attention and made me chuckle, and what I recalled following an exchange in the comments section of a recent post on Ricochet about modern feminism, and roles and expectations for women, was this delightful little excerpt, titled “These Must Go.”
A trade magazine gives a list of the boys who are the first to lose their situations in any well-ordered business house. Here are a few of them:
The exquisite young man who parts his hair in the middle and is shocked at the idea of soiling his hands by a little honest work.
The luxurious youth who has twenty-dollar-a-week tastes and habits and a ten-dollar-a-week salary.
The young man who hasn’t sense enough to do anything unless he is ordered to do it; and the young man who is always doing things contrary to orders.
The remarkable youth, who invariably knows what a customer wants better than he does himself.
The young man who is ignorant of the use of soap and water, and hairbrush and comb and other toilet requisites, and the young man who is so wrapped up in the use of these that he has thought for little else.
The young man who wears flashy jewelry, exhales and odor of musk, wears wide stripes, daring cravats, violent checks, and is generally “horsey.”
To this may be added: The young man whose lusterless eyes and soiled fingers proclaim him a cigaret smoker.
It looks to me as if this list could be considered, in today’s phrase, quite “gender neutral,” and with the addition of a few more strictures, might still be of use.
I’d probably add something about “the young man with with a safety pin through his nose, and triangular metal blocks surgically inserted under his scalp, and who thinks himself a coxcomb in all senses of the word,” and “the young man who is constantly jawboning with his co-workers about how much he hates his job, at the same time as he is ‘serving’ a customer.” I daresay we could come up with many more of these if we put our minds to it. Advice for the ages, indeed.
Do you have a weakness for, or a collection of, old books or periodicals? A favorite second-hand bookstore or Internet source for same? Do you collect because you’re researching for a job or avocation, for financial reasons, or as a hobby, or do you simply collect what interests you?
Please share.
Just don’t be immoderate with your responses. And for heavens sake, don’t be “horsey.” Whatever that means in this context.
