REPORTS FROM LEAGUES IN SUMMER SCHOOLS
THE WOOSTER (OHIO) SCHOOL
Four summers ago the writer called a meeting in one of the rooms of Taylor Hall—one of the University buildings used by the Summer School.
A tentative organization was formed and meetings held until permanent organization was effected. The meetings were then held in the evening on the campus in front of Kanke Hall or the Memorial Chapel. A Kindergartner was also engaged by the management of the school to tell stories for a day or two. Each summer since a similar arrangement has been made and now a regular story-hour in the Model School is planned for in addition to weekly meetings of the League. This meets on the Library steps Saturday evenings at 6:30. Old familiar college and folk songs are sung, then the story-teller or story-tellers tell their stories, other songs follow and then all go home happier and better.
The story hour is an event here—several times within the past ten summers five or six hundred listeners were seated in a circle round the story-teller and we may safely predict that the League has a permanent place in the Summer School program. Commercial reasons, if no other, will compel it.
The attendance at the story hour is not confined to students in the Summer School—many of the leading citizens and summer visitors make it convenient to drop around at that time and join the magic circle. We have been able to discover some splendid story-tellers each summer, and the great myths and classics of the race have been splendidly told and added much to the lives of many.
Kipling, Van Dyke, Dickens and other masters have been quoted and several interesting, original stories and adaptations of translations have been given. The type of story has been the very highest. Much folk-lore study and legendary investigation has been the outcome of it all. And if the writer had done nothing else during the four years he was a member of the Faculty of Wooster Summer School than to organize and keep alive the Story Tellers’ League, he would have no reason to be ashamed.
It is now finally established on a high level, and will live as long as the Summer School. It will serve as the inspiration to many teachers to learn the fine art, thus placing within the reach of the little children of the Republic the golden key to the world’s great Literatures, and will give to teachers the secret of making children feel at home when at school and keeping them in touch with the heart strings of the future citizens of our country. So mote it be.
J. E. McKean.
FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
Among the pleasantest hours of the week at the University of Virginia Summer School, last July, were the twilight story-telling hours on the campus. Somehow there was the true Golden Age atmosphere, perhaps enhanced by the beautiful old academic building and grounds; the trees and the birds; the soft air and genial spirit of the South. At any rate, men and women listened rapt to the “Once upon a time,” and lost themselves in forgotten fairy tales, portions of the old epics, folk-lore, personal anecdote, funny stories, and ghost stories. Of course, there were good story-tellers present, among them being Mr. Woodley of New Jersey, Miss Wiggins of North Carolina, Miss King of Virginia, Mr. Ruediger of Washington, D. C., and Mr. Augsburg of California. Best of all were the biblical and folk-lore stories by Mr. Wyche, president of the Story Tellers’ League. It is Mr. Wyche’s distinction to tell his stories with a simple Homeric directness impossible to describe but which appeals alike to the child listener and to the jaded professor of English.
Occasionally, when the spirit moved, old songs were sung out of the hearts of those present,—Maryland, My Old Kentucky Home, Carry Me Back to Old Virginia, Annie Laurie, Suwanee River. Then more stories, and, finally, dispersal over the campus in singing, chatting groups.
A. S. B.
FROM EMPORIA, KANSAS
Meetings were held at Emporia, Kansas, in the State Normal Summer School during the second week in July. Sometimes as many as six hundred would gather on the Campus just at sunset, play games for a while and then sit on the grass and steps of the main building that opened to the glow of the west. Here for an hour or more stories and songs were rendered. The stories were told largely by members of the faculty, while the students interspersed the program with the popular national airs and melodies. From this large audience, a small group have organized themselves into a League.
FROM KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE
At the Summer School of the South, the birthplace of the League, the usual twilight meetings were held on Thursday and Sunday. The Summer School at Knoxville had an unusually large attendance and a very full schedule, with lectures every evening, yet the League always found time for its meeting just after supper. On Sunday evening, there being no exercises in the school, the twilight meetings were unusually large and interesting. Programs of the great religious hymns and appropriate stories from the Bible and other sources were given.
The young people came in such large numbers to these twilight meetings that it was found necessary to organize them into a Junior League. They were enthusiastic, met nearly every evening and told their stories and sang their songs in a creative refreshing way.
The time set apart for the annual meeting of the National League, July 17 at ten A. M. in Jefferson Hall, was devoted to a memorial to Joel Chandler Harris, who was a charter member of the League. The President of the League called the meeting to order and introduced Supt. Claxton, who presided and gave a brief talk.
The Georgia delegates, a hundred or more strong, sang “Massa’s in the Cold, Cold Ground.” Mrs. Legg, of Georgia, recited an original poem in memory of Harris. Dr. C. Alphonso Smith, Professor of English, University of North Carolina, gave an address on Joel Chandler Harris and his place in literature. Mr. R. T. Wyche told one of the Uncle Remus stories written by Joel Chandler Harris. The attendance was about two thousand.
BIG RAPIDS, MICHIGAN
A large and enthusiastic league was formed at Ferris’ Institute, Big Rapids, Mich., July 1907, and held a number of meetings.
During the past summer the meetings have continued. A picture of the League has reached us but no report.
R. T. W.