PENNY READINGS.
The foremost counsel to be given to those commencing Penny Readings is to beware of exciting an expectation that all readings and recitations shall be comic. It is probable that a considerable proportion of the audience will enjoy what is adventurous or pathetic; but if the lads, whose prime object is to make a noise, once get into the habit of expecting that everything shall be the occasion of laughing, they will consider themselves defrauded by anything else, and spoil all chance of listening. Even if they come in a civilised mood, a little excitement will set them off, and make them unmanageable all the rest of the time, and habits will set in which will drive the readers at last into mere buffoonery. Drollery is quite expedient, but it should be only just at the end, as a bonne bouche, when the uproariousness which it creates can speedily be worked off out of doors, or else a race of young tyrants will be raised up who will effectually prevent taste from being raised among the audience.
POETRY FOR READING OR RECITATION.
Poetry answers better than prose if well recited or read, and a child is generally rapturously listened to if it can do the thing with spirit and not like a lesson.
895. The Lifeboat, and Other Poems. By George R. Sims. (Fuller) 1s.
The first of these has been known to excite tears where the audience had not been demoralised by overmuch of the comic.
896. The Platelayer. In May Procter’s Poems.
897. The Noble Mercer. By Jean Ingelow.
The story of Winstanley’s lighthouse at the Eddystone. Rather long, but very effective.
898. Brough Bells. By Southey.
The legend of the bells given by John Brunskill to Brough.
899. The Bear and the Goblin. By the Rev. F. Dawson.
To be found in ‘Aunt Charlotte’s Evenings at Home.’ (Marcus Ward) Rather long, but very amusing.
900. George Nidiver. From ‘Society and Solitude.’ (Emerson)
An heroic incident. Also to be found in ‘Aunt Charlotte’s Evenings at Home.’
901. Paul Revere’s Ride. By Longfellow.
A spirited incident of the first American war.
902. Barbara Fritchie. By Whittier.
A heroine of the War of the Secession.
903. Sir Humphrey Gilbert. By Longfellow.
904. King Robert of Sicily. By Longfellow.
905. Loss of the ‘Birkenhead.’ By Sir F. Doyle.
906. George the Triller. By C. M. Yonge. From ‘Book of Golden Deeds.’
The capture and rescue of the two princes of Saxony, ancestors of the Prince Consort.
Some of Lockhart’s ‘Spanish Ballads’ would be liked in some places, and to many the ‘Children in the Wood’ and others of the old English ballads would be new.
907. Bells of Botreaux. By the Rev. R. Hawker.
The bells sunk in the bay just after the captain had pronounced the safe voyage due to his own seamanship.
908. Sir Richard Grenville. By Lord Tennyson.
909. Song of the Shirt. By Hood.
910. Charge of the Light Brigade. By Sir F. Doyle.
Could not this be followed up by singing Tennyson’s Charge?
911. Ballads. By the Rev. F. Langbridge. (Cassell)
Some serious, some comic, well suited for the purpose.
COMIC RECITATIONS.
912. The Crocodile King. By Southey.
913. Pairing Time Anticipated. By Cowper.
914. The Distressed Travellers; or, Labour in Vain. By Cowper.
A dialogue. If not in his poems, in Southey’s ‘Life of Cowper;’ also in ‘Aunt Charlotte’s Evenings at Home.’
915. Miss Kilmansegg and Her Golden Leg. By Hood.
If judiciously abridged, this will answer well.
916. The Walrus and the Carpenter. By Lewis Carroll. From ‘Through the Looking-Glass.’
917. The Elephant. In ‘Aunt Charlotte’s Evenings at Home.’
918. The Lady and the Pie. By Hannah More.
A clever and now forgotten fable on curiosity. To be found in H. More’s works.
919. The ‘Anon, Anon, Sir,’ Scene. Shakespeare’s Henry IV., Part I., Act 2, Sc. iv., as far as ‘Enter Vintner.’
Might be read or recited. Two persons visible and one out of sight to call Francis.
READINGS.
920. Hurricane in the West Indies. In Marryat’s ‘Peter Simple.’
921. An Incident in the Pacific.
A wonderful volcanic adventure told in vol. i., p. 142, of ‘Nature and Art,’ a magazine published in 1866 by Day and Son.
922. Wreck of the ‘Magpie.’ In ‘Book of Golden Deeds.’ (See [No. 730].)
923. Mary’s Ark. By Bret Harte, in ‘The Luck of Roaring Camp, and other Tales.’
A woman saved on a tree in a flood of the Mississippi.
924. Rab and his Friends. By Dr. John Browne. (Douglas) 6d.
In ‘Remains of Dr. J. Browne.’
925. The Sexton’s Hero. By Mrs. Gaskell. (See [No. 656].)
926. Discovery of the Colorado. By Lady Verney. In ‘Real Stories from Many Lands.’ [No. 721].
927. Eric’s Grave.
928. Helmsman of Lake Erie.
These two, taken from Neale’s ‘Triumphs of the Cross,’ are also published in one book, price 4d. (See [No. 361].)
929. A Saltash Story. (F. M. P.) From the ‘Monthly Packet.’
930. A Night of Terror. From a Christmas Number of the ‘Monthly Packet.’
931. Christmas Tale. By Hesba Stretton. 2d.
The miserly man who kept his hoards in his old trousers.
932. The Ghost at Fantford. By C. M. Yonge. In ‘Byewords.’ (Macmillan) [No. 574].
933. Wanted, a Letter Carrier. From the ‘Monthly Packet,’ Christmas Number, 1871.
COMIC READINGS.
934. Daniel O’Rourke’s Journey to the Moon.
935. Legend of Knock Grafton.
936. Hill of the Fairy Calf.
937. The Wonderful Tune.
These four are in ‘Croker’s Fairy Legends,’ republished by Swan Sonnenschein. Some of the stories in ‘Uncle Remus.’
938. Black Poodle. By F. Anstey. No. II. of ‘Longman’s Magazine.’
939. Tom Tumbletoes and the Cow. From the ‘Monthly Packet,’ V. 1st series. (Walter Smith)
940. A Yorkshire Butcher. By the Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould. In ‘Yorkshire Oddities,’ p. 139. (Hodges)
941. The Queen of the Dentists. By the Rev. S. Baring-Gould. In ‘Just One More Tale.’ (Skeffington) 3s. 6d.
942. Wow Wow. By the Rev. S. Baring-Gould. In ‘Just One More Tale.’ (Skeffington) 3s. 6d.
943. The Two Bulls. By Mrs. Beecher Stowe. In ‘Old Town Stories.’ (Sampson Low)
944. Calf Reared on Sawdust.
945. Been in the Omnibus.
946. The Old Sow.
947. The Bewitched Boots. All these four are in ‘The Boy with an Idea.’ [No. 138].
948. The Colonel’s Fall. By F. M. Peard. In ‘Princess Alethea.’ (Smith, Elder, & Co.)
A gentleman, who, finding his own house deserted on his return from a journey, tries to get in by a window, falls into the water-butt, and is taken for a burglar.
949. Pay your Debt; or, Jack Colquhoun.
950. The Enchanted Sledge.
Anyone who chances to possess the first year’s volume of ‘Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal,’ 1838, will find these two capital stories, the one in [No. 25], the other in [No. 19]. A good many years later there was an excellent bit about a stork brought home from the London Docks in a cab—about 1855.
951. The Abstraction. In ‘Hood’s Comic Annual for 1833.’
Many more readings may be found in these annuals by anyone who can disinter them.
952. A Fearful Rebuke.
953. Through the Telescope.
These two are in ‘Queer People,’ vol. i. Translated from the Swedish. (Allen)
954. The Baby with Two Grandfathers. From ‘Mary Barton.’ (See [No. 551].)
955. Lady Dumbleton’s Pig. Christmas Number ‘Monthly Packet.’
