Covington, Ky., Junior League
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.