The American Child

The American Child, by
Elizabeth McCracken

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McCracken
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Title: The American Child
Author: Elizabeth McCracken
Release Date: December 7, 2003 [eBook #10398]
Language: English
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AMERICAN CHILD***
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The American Child
by Elizabeth Mccracken

With Illustrations from photographs by Alice Austin
1913

[Illustration: COMPANIONS AND FRIENDS]
to My Father And Mother

PREFACE
The purpose of this preface is that of every preface--to say "thank you"
to the persons who have helped in the making of the book.
I would render thanks first of all to the Editors of the "Outlook" for
permission to reprint the chapters of the book which appeared as
articles in the monthly magazine numbers of their publication.
I return thanks also to Miss Rosamond F. Rothery, Miss Sara Cone
Bryant, Miss Agnes F. Perkins, and Mr. Ferris Greenslet. Without the
help and encouragement of all of these, the book never would have
been written.
Finally, I wish to say an additional word of thanks to my physician, Dr.
John E. Stillwell. Had it not been for his consummate skill and untiring
care after an accident, which, four years ago, made me a year-long
hospital patient, I should never have lived to write anything.
E. McC.
CAMBRIDGE, January, 1913

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION

I. THE CHILD AT HOME II. THE CHILD AT PLAY III. THE
COUNTRY CHILD IV. THE CHILD IN SCHOOL V. THE CHILD IN
THE LIBRARY VI. THE CHILD IN CHURCH CONCLUSION

ILLUSTRATIONS
COMPANIONS AND FRIENDS THREE SMALL GIRLS THE BOY
OF THE HOUSE "DID YOU PLAY IT THIS WAY?" THE DEAR
DELIGHTS OF PLAYING ALONE "THE CHILDREN--THEY ARE
SUCH DEARS" A SMALL COUNTRY BOY ARRAYED IN
SPOTLESS WHITE THEY PAINT PICTURES AS A REGULAR
PART OF THEIR SCHOOL ROUTINE THEY DO SO MANY
THINGS! THEY HAVE SO MANY THINGS! THE STORY HOUR
IN THE CHILDREN'S ROOM THE CHILDREN'S EDITION IN THE
INFANT CLASS "DO YOU LIKE MY NEW HYMN?" CHILDREN
GO TO CHURCH

INTRODUCTION
One day several years ago, when Mr. Lowes Dickinson's statement that
he had found no conversation and--worse still--no conversationalists in
America was fresh in our outraged minds, I happened to meet an
English woman who had spent approximately the same amount of time
in our country as had Mr. Lowes Dickinson. "What has been your
experience?" I anxiously asked her. "Is it true that we only 'talk'? Can it
really be that we never 'converse'?"
"Dear me, no!" she exclaimed with gratifying fervor. "You are the most
delightful conversationalists in the world, on your own subject--"
"Our own subject?" I echoed.
"Certainly," she returned; "your own subject, the national subject,--the
child, the American child. It is possible to 'converse' with any
American on that subject; every one of you has something to say on it;

and every one of you will listen eagerly to what any other person says
on it. You modify the opinions of your hearers by what you say; and
you actually allow your own opinions to be modified by what you hear
said. If that is conversation, without a doubt you have it in America,
and have it in as perfect a state as conversation ever was had anywhere.
But you have it only on that subject. I wonder why," she went on, half-
musingly, before I could make an attempt to persuade her to qualify her
rather sweeping assertion. "It may be because you do so much for
children, in America. They are always on your mind; they are hardly
ever out of your sight. You are forever either doing something for them,
or planning to do something for them. No wonder the child is your one
subject of conversation. You do so very much for children in America,"
she repeated.
Few of us will agree with the English woman that the child, the
American child, is the only subject upon which we converse. Certainly,
though, it is a favorite subject; it may even not inaptly be called our
national subject. Whatever our various views concerning this may
chance to be, however, it is likely that we are all in entire agreement
with regard to the other matter touched upon by the English
woman,--the pervasiveness of American children. Is it not true that we
keep them continually in mind; that we seldom let them go quite out of
sight; that we are always doing, or planning to do, something for them?
What is it