Category: 1910s

The Mocking Bird

By Alexander Posey (Muskogee Creek)

Annotations by Karen Kilcup

Mockingbird and Dogwood. Colored illustration, 1771, by Mark Catesby.
*The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands*.
Courtesy Wilson Library, UNC Chapel Hill.

Whether spread in flight,
	Or perched upon the swinging bough,
Whether day or night,
	He sings as he is singing now—
Till ev’ry leaf upon the tree
Seems dripping with his melody![1]

Posey, Alexander. “The Mocking Bird.” Indian School Journal 6, no. 10 (April 1910): 30.

[1] The Northern Mockingbird inhabits most of United States and Mexico year-round. Known for its personality, the bird is famous for its singing ability, which enables it to mimic many other birds. They defend their nests boldly.

Contexts

The Indian School Journal was the official publication for the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School (also known as the Haworth Institute, the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School, and the Chilocco Indian School). Located in north-central Oklahoma near the Kansas border, it began taking students in 1884, enrolling 150 from seventeen tribes that first year. Enrollment had more than doubled by 1895, with students coming from various tribes, including the Cherokee, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Pawnee tribes. The Oklahoma Historical Society notes that “significant enrollment from the so-called ‘Five Civilized Tribes’ did not occur until after 1910 but by 1925, Cherokee constituted the largest single tribal affiliation at the school (26 percent of approximately nine hundred students).” Following World War II and the expansion of public education, the school enrolled mostly students who lacked access to such education.

Like most federally funded Indian schools, Chilocco sought to assimilate Native children into white society. Also like other schools, it stressed “industrial” education—manual and domestic labor—over academic pursuits, aiming to train them as workers for white families. Education at Chilocco was notably militaristic; students attended weekly Christian religious services, also intended to weaken their ties to family and tribe. In the 1950s, student numbers peaked at around 1300, and the school closed in 1980. Muskogee Creek poet, journalist, and humorist Alexander Posey was a nationally known writer whose appearance in the school’s magazine suggests his powerful influence on young Native American readers. Following his tragic death by drowning in the Oktahutchee River when he was only 34 years old—and only a few months after The Indian School Journal published several poems—his wife Minnie collected his work in The Poems of Alexander Lawrence Posey. His evocative poetry is also available through the Academy of American Poets (poets.org) and The Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation. The Envious Lobster uses the versions Posey published in the school’s magazine.

Resources for Further Study

Archuleta, Margaret L., Brenda J. Child, and K. Tsianina Lomawaima (Mvskoke/Creek Nation of Eastern Oklahoma, not enrolled), eds. Away from Home: American Indian Boarding School Experiences, 1879-2000.
Connelley, William Elsey. “Memoir or Alexander Lawrence Posey.” In The Poems of Alexander Lawrence Posey. Ed. Mrs. Minnie H. Posey. Topeka, KS: Crane and Company, 1910. Pp. 5-65.
Higgs, Richard. “The Oktahutchee Claims One of Its Own.” This Land, April 10, 2013.
Littlefield, Daniel F. Jr. Alexander Posey: Creek Poet, Journalist, and Humorist. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992.
Lomawaima, K. Tsianina (Mvskoke/Creek Nation of Eastern Oklahoma, not enrolled). “Chilocco Indian Agricultural School.” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Oklahoma Historical Society.
Lomawaima, K. Tsianina. (Mvskoke/Creek Nation of Eastern Oklahoma, not enrolled). They Called It Prairie Light: The Story of Chilocco Indian School (1995).
Wilson, Linda D. “Posey, Alexander Lawrence (1873-1908).” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture.

Contemporary Connections

“At Length with K. Tsianina Lomawaima.” At Length with Steve Scher. February 10, 2016.

“Chilocco Through the Years.” Firethief Productions. Chilocco History Project, August 2, 2019.

Douglas, Crystal. “A Look at the Chilocco Indian School.” The Kaw Nation: People of the Southwind. Fife, Ari. “At one former Native American School in Oklahoma, honoring the dead now falls to alumni.” The Frontier, July 21, 2021.

1910s Birds Native American Poem Seasons

To the Indian Meadow Lark

By Alexander Posey (Muskogee Creek)

Annotations by Karen Kilcup

Eastern Meadow Lark. Colored lithograph, 1919, by Louis Agassiz. Public Domain.

When other birds despairing southward fly
	In early autumn time away,
When all the green leaves of the forest die,
	How merry still art thou and gay.[1]

O golden breasted bird of dawn,
Through all the bleak days singing on,
Till winter, woo a captive by thy strain,
Breaks into smiles and spring is come again.

Posey, Alexander. “To the Indian Meadow Lark.” Indian School Journal 6, no. 10 (April 1910): 30.

[1] The Indian meadow lark is likely the Western Meadowlark, a year-round resident of Posey’s Oklahoma home. The Eastern Meadow Lark is similar in appearance, but its songs differ.

Contexts

Resources for Further Study

Archuleta, Margaret L., Brenda J. Child, and K. Tsianina Lomawaima (Mvskoke/Creek Nation of Eastern Oklahoma, not enrolled), eds. Away from Home: American Indian Boarding School Experiences, 1879-2000.
Connelley, William Elsey. “Memoir or Alexander Lawrence Posey.” In The Poems of Alexander Lawrence Posey. Ed. Mrs. Minnie H. Posey. Topeka, KS: Crane and Company, 1910. Pp. 5-65.
Higgs, Richard. “The Oktahutchee Claims One of Its Own.” This Land, April 10, 2013.
Littlefield, Daniel F. Jr. Alexander Posey: Creek Poet, Journalist, and Humorist. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992.
Lomawaima, K. Tsianina (Mvskoke/Creek Nation of Eastern Oklahoma, not enrolled). “Chilocco Indian Agricultural School.” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Oklahoma Historical Society.
Lomawaima, K. Tsianina. (Mvskoke/Creek Nation of Eastern Oklahoma, not enrolled). They Called It Prairie Light: The Story of Chilocco Indian School (1995).
Wilson, Linda D. “Posey, Alexander Lawrence (1873-1908).” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture.

Contemporary Connections

“At Length with K. Tsianina Lomawaima.” At Length with Steve Scher. February 10, 2016.

“Chilocco Through the Years.” Firethief Productions. Chilocco History Project, August 2, 2019.

1910s Essay Horses Native American Sketch Wild animals

How Wolves Catch Wild Horses

By Anonymous

Annotations by Karen Kilcup

Students at Chilocco Indian School. Date unknown. Courtesy Oklahoma Historical Society.

Travelers tell us that the wolves of Mexico have a strange way of catching the wild horses. These horses have a great speed. It is almost impossible for a single cowboy to catch one. The cowboys, when they wish to run them down, have relays of pursuers. First one set of cowboys will chase the horses, then another, and another, until at last the horses are caught by the lasso. But it is only when they are completely tired that they are caught; therefore it would be impossible for the wolves to catch them unless they used strategy, for the flight of the wolves is no so swift as that of the horses.

This is the way the wolves kill the wild horses of the Mexican plains. First, two wolves come out of the woods and begin to play together like two kittens. They gambol about each other and run backward and forward. Then the herd of horses lift their startled heads and gets ready to stampede. But the wolves seem to be so playful that the horses, after watching them for awhile, forget their fears, and continue to graze. Then the wolves in their play come nearer and nearer while other wolves slowly and stealthily creep after them. Then suddenly the enemies surround the herd and make one plunge, and the horses are struggling with the fangs of the relentless foes gripped in their throats.

Anonymous. “How Wolves Catch Wild Horses.” Indian School Journal 6, no. 10 (April 1910): 30.

[1] Here is some commentary. Turn this text red in the color settings if it isn’t already. You will need to name your anchor blocks in the block settings by clicking on it and assigning an ID. I like using the format note-x where x is the number of the note you’re on. Then, add the note number in brackets to your text where you want it to go, highlight the number, and link to #note-x.

[2] Here is some commentary. Turn this text red in the color settings if it isn’t already. You will need to name your anchor blocks in the block settings by clicking on it and assigning an ID. I like using the format note-# where # is the number of the note you’re on.

Contexts

Located in north-central Oklahoma near the Kansas border, the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School (also known as the Haworth Institute, the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School, and the Chilocco Indian School) began taking students in 1884, enrolling 150 from seventeen tribes that first year. Enrollment had more than doubled by 1895, with students coming from various tribes, including the Cherokee, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Pawnee tribes. The Oklahoma Historical Society notes that “significant enrollment from the so-called ‘Five Civilized Tribes’ did not occur until after 1910 but by 1925, Cherokee constituted the largest single tribal affiliation at the school (26 percent of approximately nine hundred students).” Following World War II and the expansion of public education, the school enrolled mostly students who lacked access to such education.

Resources for Further Study

Archuleta, Margaret L., Brenda J. Child, and K. Tsianina Lomawaima (Mvskoke/Creek Nation of Eastern Oklahoma, not enrolled), eds. Away from Home: American Indian Boarding School Experiences, 1879-2000.
Lomawaima, K. Tsianina (Mvskoke/Creek Nation of Eastern Oklahoma, not enrolled). “Chilocco Indian Agricultural School.” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Oklahoma Historical Society.
Lomawaima, K. Tsianina. (Mvskoke/Creek Nation of Eastern Oklahoma, not enrolled). They Called It Prairie Light: The Story of Chilocco Indian School (1995).

Contemporary Connections

“At Length with K. Tsianina Lomawaima.” At Length with Steve Scher. February 10, 2016.

“Chilocco Through the Years.” Firethief Productions. Chilocco History Project, August 2, 2019.

1910s African American Fairy Tale Short Story

The Fairy Goodwilla

The Fairy Goodwilla

By Minnibelle Jones, age 10

Annotations by Rene Marzuk

This uncredited photograph appeared alongside “The Fairy Goodwilla” in *The Crisis*, Vol. 8, No. 6, p. 294.

In the good old days when the kind spirits knew that people trusted them, they allowed them selves to be seen, but now there are just a few human beings left who ever remember or believe that a fairy ever existed, or rather does exist. For, dear children, no matter how much the older folks tell you that there are no fairies, do not believe them. I am going to tell you now of a clear, good fairy, Goodwilla, who has been under the power of a wicked enchanter called Grafter, for many years.

Goodwilla was once a very happy and contented little fairy. She was a very beautiful fairy; she had a soft brown face and deep brown eyes and slim brown hands and the dearest brown hair that wouldn’t stay “put,” that you ever saw. She lived in a beautiful wood consisting of fir trees. Her house was made of the finest and whitest drifted snow and was furnished with kind thoughts of children, good words of older people and everything which is beautiful and pleasant. She was always dressed in a white robe with a crown of holly leaves on her head.[1] In her hand she carried a long magic icicle, and whatever she touched with this became very lovely to look upon. Snowdrops always sprang up wherever she stepped, and her dress sparkled with many small stars.

The children loved Goodwilla, and she always welcomed them to her beautiful home where she told them of Knights and Ladies, Kings and Queens, Witches and Ogres and Enchanters. She never told them anything to frighten them and the children were always glad to listen. You must not think that Goodwilla always remained at home and told the children stories, for she was a very busy little fairy. She visited sick rooms where little boys or girls were suffering and laid her cool brown hands on their heads, whispering beautiful words to them. She touched the different articles in the room with her magic icicle and caused them to become lovely. Wherever she stepped her beautiful snowdrops were scattered. At other times she went to homes where the father and mother were unhappy and cross. She was invisible to them, but she touched them without their knowing it and they instantly became kind and cheerful. Other days she spent at home separating the good deeds which she had piled before her, from the bad deeds. So you see with all of these things to do Goodwilla was very busy.

Now, there was an old enchanter who lived in a neighboring wood. He was very wealthy, but people feared him, although they visited him a great deal. His house was set in the midst of many trees, all of which bore golden and silver apples.[2] The house was made of precious metal and the inside was seemingly handsome. But looking closely one could see that the beautiful chairs were very tender and if not handled rightly they would easily break. Music was always being played softly by unseen musicians, but one who truly loved music could hear discords which spoiled the beauty of all. In fact, every thing in his palace, although seemingly beautiful, if examined closely, was very wrong. Grafter, which was the enchanter’s name, spent all of his time in instructing men how to be prosperous and receive all that they could for nothing. He did not pay much attention to the children, although once in a while a few listened to his evil words. He was always very busy, but somehow he did not at all times get the results he expected. He scratched his head and thought and thought. Finally, one day he cried, “Ah, I have it, there is an insignificant little fairy called Goodwilla who is meddling in my affairs, I’ll wager. Let me see how best I can overcome her.” The old fellow who could change his appearance at will, now became a handsome young enchanter and looked so fine that it would be almost impossible for the fairy herself to resist him. He made his way to her abode and asked for admittance to her house. She gladly bade him enter, for, although she knew him, she thought she could persuade him to forego his evil ways and win men by fair means.

Now something strange happened. Every chair that Grafter attempted to take became invisible when he started to seat himself and he found nothing but empty air. After this had happened for a long while, he became so angry that he forgot the part he was trying to play and acted very badly indeed. He stormed at poor Goodwilla as if she had been the cause of good deeds and kind words to vanish at his touch. “You, Madam,” said he, “are the cause of this, and I know now why I cannot be successful in my work. You fill the children’s heads full of nonsense and when I have almost persuaded the fathers to do something which will benefit them as well as their children, these brats come with their prattle and undo all that I have done. Now I have stood it long enough. I shall give you three trials, and if you do not conquer, you shall be under my power for seven hundred years.”

The Good Fairy listened and felt very grieved, but she knew that Grafter was stronger than she, as minds of men turned more to his commanding way than they did to hers. Nevertheless she determined to do her best and said, “Very well, Grafter, I shall do as you wish and if I do not succeed I am in your hands, but later everything will be all right and I shall rule over you.” Grafter, who had not expected this, now be came alarmed and thought by soft words he could perhaps coax her to do his way, but Goodwilla was strong and would not listen to his cajoling and flattering. “Then, Madam,” he said, “I shall force you to perform these tasks or be my slave:

“First, you must cause all of the people in the world to help and give to others for the sake of giving and not for what they shall receive in return.

“Secondly, you must cause all of the rich to help the poor instead of taking from them to swell their already fat pocketbooks, and thirdly, you must cause men and women to really love for love’s sake and not because of worldly reasons.”

The poor little fairy sighed deeply, for she knew that she could not perform these tasks in the three days that Grafter had allowed her. She talked to the children, but they were being dazzled by Grafter since he had become so handsome. Goodwilla continued to work though, and had just commenced to open men’s eyes to Grafter as he really was, when the three days expired.

She was immediately whisked off by the wicked old fellow, who chuckled with glee. He did not know that there were many people in whose hearts a seed had been planted (which would grow) by this good little fairy and that she herself had a plan for helping all when she was released. Grafter, after having locked her up, departed on his way rejoicing. He has been prosperous for a long, long time, but the seven hundred years are almost up now, and soon Goodwilla will come forth stronger and more beautiful than ever with the children as her soldiers.

Anne Brigman. *The Breeze.* Gelatin silver print, 1909 (printed in 1915), Wilson Centre for Photography, London, UK. Public Domain.

JONES, MINIBELLE. “THE FAIRY GOOD WILLA.” THE CRISIS, VOL. 8, NO. 6 (OCTOBER 1914): 294-96.

[1] The symbolism of holly plants and holly leaves reaches back to antiquity. Druids thought the hollies were sacred and, according to some legends, these plants were a refuge for faeries and nature spirits during winter. In the Christian tradition, the holly is associated with Christ’s crown of thorns.

[2] Apples have had a long life in mythology. Greek and Teutonic myths feature golden apples.

Contexts

Starting in 1912, the October issues of The Crisis, the official magazine of the NAACP, were dedicated to children. A typical edition of these children’s numbers would contain a special editorial piece and two or three literary works specifically for children, while still including the serious pieces about contemporary issues with a focus on race that The Crisis was known for. These October numbers were sprinkled with children’s photographs sent in by the readers.

In his first editorial for the Children’s number in 1912, W. E. B. Du Bois wrote that “there is a sense in which all numbers and all words of a magazine of ideas myst point to the child—to that vast immortality and wide sweep and infinite possibility which the child represents.”

The success of The Crisis’ children’s number led to the standalone The Brownies’ Book, a monthly magazine for African American children that circulated from January 1920 to December 1921 under the editorship of Du Bois, Augustus Granville Dill, and Jessie Fauset.

Resources for Further Study

A brief history of fairies, courtesy of the World History Encyclopedia collective.
An article on fairies‘ folklore scholarship, with copious references and suggestions for further reading.

Contemporary Connections

Did you know that June 24th is International Fairy Day?

1910s African American Family Lullaby Poem

A Lullaby

A Lullaby

By Cora J. Ball Moten

Annotations by Rene Marzuk

*Daguerrotype of a Woman with a Child on Her Lap.* Daguerrotype, 1839-1865, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, D.C. Public Domain.

Dusky lashes droop and fall,
Night-winds whisper, night-birds call.
Closed your tired sleepy eyes,
Earth is singing lullabies.
Kindly twilight shadows creep
O’er a world that longs for sleep.
Little dusky babe of mine
Close those sleepy eyes of thine.
Mother’s love will softly keep
Watch above you while you sleep.
Cruel hate and deadly wrong
Cannot silence mother’s song
Though against thy soft brown cheek
She may hide her face and weep.
Sleep, brown baby, while you may
Peacefully, at close of day.
Oh, that mother’s love could guard,
Keep thee safe ‘neath watch and ward
From the cruel deadly things
That await thee while she sings.
Prejudice and cold white hate:
These, my baby, these, thy fate,
Little, gentle, trustful thing,
Thus, these sobs, the while I sing.

MOTEN, CORA J. BALL. “A LULLABY.” THE CRISIS, VOL. 8, NO. 6 (OCTOBER 1914): 296.

Contexts

Definitions from Oxford English Dictionary:

watch and ward: The performance of the duty of a watchman or sentinel, esp. as a feudal obligation. Now only (as often in earlier times) a rhetorical and more emphatic synonym of watch.

Resources for Further Study

In her 2006 book Children’s Literature of the Harlem Renaissance, Katharine Capshaw Smith refers to Cora J. Ball Moten’s poem “A Lullaby” within the context of The Crisis Magazine as representative of “maternal sorrow songs,” in which mothers “sing lullabies tinged with despair over the cribs of sleeping, still innocent, babes” (Smith 18). Smith connects this genre to the NAACP’s antilynching efforts.
In her 2011 book Racial Innocence: Performing American Childhood from Slavery to Civil Rights, Robin Bernstein illustrates how the American idea of childhood innocence became racialized and excluded black children starting in the mid nineteenth century. A poem like Cora J. Ball Moten’s “A Lullaby,” enacts a powerful corrective to this ideological trend while also bringing attention to the anxieties of black motherhood.
In 1943, Cora J. Ball Moten wrote “Negro Mother to Her Soldier Son,” a poem in which the speaker addresses her son lost in a war, perhaps World War II. Against the background of “A Lullaby,” the beginning of “Negro Mother to Her Soldier Son” is particularly poignant:

“Your tiny fingers kneaded my dark breast
like wind-stirred petals on the jungle bloom
of my fierce love for you, flesh of my flesh.
My knotted hands, work-calloused thru the years,
Once smoothed the fleecy softness of your hair.
That touch, remembered, thrills my fingers still.”

The poem appears in its entirety on volume 21 of Opportunity: Journal of Negro Life (1943), available through Google Books.

1910s African American Education Folktale Wild animals

Mr. Hare: A Story for Children

Mr. Hare: A Story for Children

By Anonymous [1]

Annotations by Rene Marzuk

Cover Page of the *The Crisis* magazine from October, 1912, the first Children’s Number and the one in which “Mr. Hare: A Story for Children” appeared. Public Domain.

Mr. Hare and Mr. Tortoise were, of course, great friends. Well, one nice warm day, when the sun was very hot in the thick African forest, they went out together a-hunting food, for they were very hungry. They walked and talked and talked and walked, when suddenly Mr. Tortoise stopped.

“Hello!” said Mr. Tortoise, pointing ahead.
“Well, I never!”[2] answered Mr. Hare, beginning to scamper, for there right before them arose in the air, in one tall, slim column, a nice tall white-ant hill.[3]
Now everybody in Africa knows what sweet morsels fat white ants are, and you can believe that Mr. Hare and Mr. Tortoise were overjoyed at the sight of the hill and lost little time getting to it. Carefully they dug a nice little hole at the bottom of the hill and then sat down patiently to await the coming out of the ants.

As Mr. Hare waited he got so hungry that he began to reckon that after all there would be just about enough ants on that hill for Mr. Hare himself, and it seemed a shame to give up any of this fine food to a great sleepy tortoise.

So greedy Mr. Hare began to look about with one eye, keeping the other on the ant hill. Pretty soon Mr. Tortoise fell sound asleep just as Mr. Hare, pricking up his ears, heard some of his friends going through the forest. He ran quickly to them and asked them to carry the sleepy tortoise into the tall grass, where Mr. Hare knew it would he hard for him to crawl out.

“But be careful not to hurt him,” said Mr. Hare.

When the tortoise was out of the way, Mr. Hare sat down and ate and ate until he could hardly waffle, and then crept off home. Poor Mr. Tortoise, awaking in the tall thick grass, had a long hard journey to get out. When at last, late and exhausted, he arrived at the ant hill, lo! there was nothing left and Mr. Hare was gone.

“So ho! my fine friend,” said Mr. Tortoise, angrily.

“I’ll be even with you yet,” and he crawled off home.

Mr. Hare met him and made a great fuss.

“My dear old fellow!” he cried, “how glad I am to see you safe! I feared you were dead. I myself escaped by the merest chance. Three spears grazed me!” and Mr. Hare pointed to a very small scratch on his soft side.

‘”Humph,” said Mr. Tortoise, busily making his bed.

“We must not go to that ant hill again.” said Mr. Hare, licking his chops.

“Humph,” said Mr. Tortoise as he went to sleep.

Now Mr. Tortoise knew full well that early in the morning Mr. Hare would make a beeline to the ant hill for breakfast. Sure enough, up jumped Mr. Hare at dawn and slipped away. No sooner was he out of sight, however, than up jumped Mr. Tortoise and also crept quickly away to his friends.

“Wait for him.” he told them,” and when he has his head deep in the hole pounce on him.”

But Mr. Tortoise was kind hearted, and he remembered that Mr. Hare had been careful not to let his friends injure him when they carried him to the jungle. So he added:

“But don’t kill him.”
“Oh, but we like rabbit—we want to eat him!” cried the friends.
“Very well,” said Mr. Tortoise, “but if you kill him quickly he will be tough. You must take him home and make a big pot ready, half filled with fine oil and salt and nice herbs. Put Mr. Hare in it, but leave a hole in the cover so that you may add cold water from time to time. For if you let the oil get hot it will spoil the meat. So be very careful and not let it boil.”

The friends of the tortoise did exactly as they were told. Just as Mr. Hare was finishing the nicest breakfast imaginable, and stopping between mouthfuls to chuckle over the outwitting of the tortoise, he was suddenly seized from behind, and despite his frantic struggles hurried through the forest and dropped, splash! into a big pot of oil and herbs. Salt was added and the pot raised on sticks. Soon the crackling of a fire struck the scared ears of Mr. Hare, while Mr. Tortoise’s friends sat around in a circle and discussed the coming meal.

Albrecht Durer. *Young Hare.* Watercolor, 1502. Public Domain.

“I certainly do like rabbit,” said one.

“Do you think it as good as elephant steak?” asked another.

“Oh, better—much better,” said a third.

Here Mr. Hare, faint with fear and heat, was just about to give up, when, splash! and through a hole in the cover of the pot came a nice dash of cold water. Mr. Hare revived and looked about cautiously. This program was kept up for some hours, making poor Mr. Hare very nervous, indeed, until at last the patient cooks decided that their meal was ready; and indeed, the oil and herbs were giving off a most tempting smell.

All the feasters washed their hands, laid out the dishes, and, seating themselves in a circle, ran their tongues expectantly over their lips. The pot was placed in the middle and the cover removed, when, presto! out popped the very scared and bedraggled Mr. Hare and leaped into the jungle like a flash leaving a thin trail of oil.

“Dear me!” said Mr. Tortoise, as Mr. Hare rushed gasping into the house, “wherever have you been?”

“Whew!” cried Mr. Hare, “but I surely had a narrow escape. I was nearly murdered. I’ve been caught and cooked, and only by a miracle did I escape,” and he began hastily licking his oily sides.

Mr. Tortoise with difficulty kept back his laughter and watched Mr. Hare lick himself. Mr. Hare kept on licking and Mr. Tortoise crept nearer. Mr. Hare took no notice and Mr. Tortoise perceived that bit by bit the fright on Mr. Hare’s oily face was being replaced by the most emphatic signs of pleasure as Mr. Hare continued to lick himself greedily. Mr. Tortoise was interested, and stepping over quickly he began to lick the other side.

“My! how delicious,” he exclaimed in rapture, tasting the fine oil and salt and the flavor of the herbs.

“Get away!” cried the greedy Mr. Hare. ” You have not been in the pot and boiled. Keep off!”

Mr. Tortoise, feeling that he had had a hand in that oil and salt, began to get angry.

“Let me have your left shoulder to lick,” he demanded.
“I will not,” said Mr. Hare, who was now thoroughly enjoying himself. Mr. Tortoise stormed out of the house in a great fury and almost ran into the arms of his friends. They, too, were in a towering rage.
“What did you mean?” they cried. “Through your advice we’ve lost our hare and all our beautiful oil and salt.”
”Dear me!” exclaimed Mr. Tortoise, losing in his indignation all thoughts of friendship. “This is very, very sad. Now I will tell you what to do. Arrange a dance and invite Mr. Hare. When he is dancing to your tom-toms seize him and kill him.”

And this should have been the end of Mr. Hare. But it wasn’t.

Jean-Charles Chenu. *Grinning Tortoise.* Drawing, 1856, *Encyclopedie d’histoire naturelle, Reptiles et Poissons* (1856). Public Domain.

ANONYMOUS. “Mr. Hare: A Story for Children.” the crisis, Vol. 4, No. 6 (October 1912): 292-94

[1] “Mr. Hare: A Story for Children” appeared in the October, 1912 edition of The Crisis under the following byline: “Adapted from the folk tales of the Banyoro Negroes in Uganda, Central Africa, as reported by George Wilson in Sir Harry Johnston’s Uganda Protectorate.”

[2] British colloquial expression used to express surprise or indignation.

[2] White ants are not ants at all, but termites, social insects that build large nests and, due to the damage the cause to wooden structures, are widely classified as pests. Termites are actually edible. A good source of protein, fat and minerals, they probably figured in our ancestors’ diet. Many people eat them today.

Unknown. *Single Termite Mounds or in Clusters.* 1884-85, *Popular Science Monthly.* Public Domain.

Contexts

1910s Flowers Poem Water

The Fairy Dew Drop

By Laura Ingalls Wilder

Annotations by Mary Miller/KK

*The World is But a Dream*. Courtesy of Peakpx. Public domain.

Down by the spring one morning
Where the shadows still lay deep,
I found in the heart of a flower
A tiny fairy asleep.

Her flower couch was perfumed,
Leaf curtains drawn with care,
And there she sweetly slumbered,
With a jewel in her hair

But a sunbeam entered softly
And touched her, as she lay,
Whispering that ’twas morning
And fairies must away.

All colors of the rainbow
Were in her robe so bright
As she danced away with the sunbeam
And vanished from my sight.

‘Twas while I watched them dancing,
The sunshine told me true
That my sparkling little fairy
Was lovely Drop O’ Dew. [1]

WILDER, LAURA. “THE FAIRY DEW DROP,” IN LAURA INGALLS WILDER, FAIRY POEMS, ED. STEPHEN W. HINES, 11-15. NEW YORK: BANTAM DOUBLEDAY DELL, 1998.

[1] Drop O’ Dew is the fairy who helps take care of the flowers. All night she carries drink to the thirsty blossoms, bathes the heads of those who have the headache from the heat of the day before, straightens them up on the their stems, and makes their colors bright for the morning.

Contexts

According to editor Stephen W. Hines, “The Fairy Dew Drop” was originally published in February 1915. His book collects five poems Ingalls wrote while visiting her daughter Rose in San Francisco. Ingalls aspired to authorship but had not yet written her famous Little House on the Prairie novels. With her daughter’s encouragement, she submitted poems to the San Francisco Bulletin, which eagerly accepted them. Hines includes Rose’s short essay, “Fairies Still Appear to Those With Seeing Eyes,” which she explains her feelings about fairies and the importance of imagination for children:

“I have a feeling that childhood has been robbed of a great deal of its joys by taking away its belief in wonderful, mystic things, in fairies and all their kin. It is not surprising that when children are grown, they have so little idealism or imagination, nor that so many of them are like the infidel who asserted that he would not believe anything that he could not see.” The Quaker made a good retort, ‘Friend? Does thee believe thee has any brains?'”

Resources for Further Study

Learn about the lore of fairies and other fantasy beings in The World Guide to Gnomes, Fairies, Elves, and Other Little People by Thomas Keightley, originally published in 1878 with the title The Fairy Mythology.
Read the other poems in Wilder’s Fairy Poems.
Laura Ingalls Wilder is best known for her books about growing up in a pioneer family, beginning with Little House on the Prairie. Her autobiography, Pioneer Girl, tells the true story of a family moving to the frontier of the western United States in the nineteenth century. Some scholars note Wilder’s stereotypical portraits of Native Americans in her famous novels.

Contemporary Connections

Fairies continue to hold children in thrall, feeding imaginations and creativity. Tinker Bell is a well-known modern fairy first introduced in J. M. Barrie’s 1904 play Peter Pan. Tinker Bell has gone on to have a stellar career with Disney, along with a host of other fairy co-stars. A recent film example is Tinker and the Legend of the Neverbeast. Tinker Bell and her fellow fairies have garnered great commercial success, so much so that since 2005 Disney has had a division devoted to them, the Fairy Franchise.

1910s African American Poem

The Band of Gideon

The Band of Gideon

By Joseph S. Cotter, Jr.

Annotations by Rene Marzuk

Albert Bierstadt. *A Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mt. Rosalie.* Oil on canvas, 1866, Brooklyn Museum, NY. Public domain.

The band of Gideon roam the sky,[1]
The howling wind is their war-cry,
The thunder's roll is their trump's peal,
And the lightning's flash their vengeful steel.
            Each black cloud
                 Is a fiery steed,
            And they cry aloud
                 With each strong deed,
“The sword of the Lord and Gideon.”

And men below rear temples high,
And mock their God with reasons why,
And live in arrogance, sin and shame,
And rape their souls for the world's good name.
            Each black cloud
                 Is a fiery steed,
            And they cry aloud
                 With each strong deed,
“The sword of the Lord and Gideon.”

The band of Gideon roam the sky
And view the earth with baleful eye;
In holy wrath they scourge the land
With earthquake, storm and burning brand.
            Each black cloud
                 Is a fiery steed,
           And they cry aloud
                 With each strong deed,
“The sword of the Lord and Gideon.”

The lightnings flash and the thunders roll,
And “Lord have mercy on my soul”
Cry men as they fall on the stricken sod
In agony, searching for their God.
            Each black cloud
                 Is a fiery steed,
            And they cry aloud
                 With each strong deed,
“The sword of the Lord and Gideon.”

And men repent and then forget
That heavenly wrath they ever met,
The band of Gideon yet will come
And strike their tongues with blasphemy dumb.
            Each black cloud
                 Is a fiery steed,
            And they cry aloud
                 With each strong deed,
“The sword of the Lord and Gideon.”

COTTER, JOSEPH S., JR. “THE BAND OF GIDEON,” IN THE DUNBAR SPEAKER AND ENTERTAINER, ED. ALICE MOORE DUNBAR-NELSON, 83-84. NAPERVILLE, ILL: J. L. NICHOLS & CO., 1920.

Maarten van Heemskerck. *Gideon Destroying the Army of the Midianites.* Engraving, 1561, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Public domain.

[1] Gideon was a biblical military leader, judge, and prophet, whose story appears in the Book of Judges of the Hebrew Bible. With only 300 men, the initially reluctant Gideon overtook a much larger army by ordering his men to blow their trumpets and scream in unison, “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!” In the ensuing confusion, Gideon defeated his enemy.

Contexts

“The Band of Gideon” was originally published in Cotter’s The Band of Gideon and Other Lyrics (1918). The poem also appeared in The Upward Path: A Reader for Colored Children in 1920, the same year it was published in The Dunbar Speaker and Entertainer.

The Dunbar Speaker and Entertainer‘s dedication reads: “To the children of the race which is herein celebrated, this book is dedicated, that they may read and learn about their own people.” In the foreword, Leslie Pinckney Hill, an African American educator, writer, and community leader who graduated from Harvard University in 1903, criticizes the one-sidedness of prevailing reading courses: “In vain may you search their pages—those pages upon which all our reading has been founded—for anything other than a patronizing view of that vast, brooding world of colored folk—yellow, black and brown—which comprises by far the largest portion of the human family.” Hill further writes that Alice Dunbar-Nelson’s book seeks to prove “that the white man has no fine quality, either by heart or mind, which is not shared by his black brother.”

Think of reading this poem out loud. Elocution (or public speaking) was a highly valued and widely taught skill in nineteenth-century America. In her introduction to the Dunbar Speaker, Alice Dunbar-Nelson offers some advice: “Before you begin to learn anything to recite, first read it over and find out if it fires you with enthusiasm. If it does, make it a part of yourself, put yourself in the place of the speaker whose words you are memorizing, get on fire with the thought, the sentiment, the emotion-then throw yourself into it in your endeavor to make others feel as you feel, see as you see, understand what you understand. Lose yourself, free yourself from physical consciousness, forget that those in front of you are a part of an audience, think of them as some persons whom you must make understand what is thrilling you–and you will be a great speaker.”

Definitions from Oxford English Dictionary:

baleful: Unhappy, wretched, miserable; distressed, sorrowful, mournful (archaic).

peal: A loud outburst or volley of sound, esp. of laughter or thunder.

rape: To take or seize (something) by force. In early use occasionally of an animal: to seize or devour prey (now obsolete).

scourge: Figuratively, to punish, chastise, correct (often said of God, with reference to Hebrews xii. 6); to “lash” with satire or invective; to afflict, torment; to devastate (a country) with war or pestilence.

steel: Steel in the form of weapons or cutting tools (occasionally spurs, a trap, etc.). Hence in particularized use, a sword, lance, bayonet, or the like.

trump: Trumpet (archaic and poetic).

Resources for Further Study

Joseph Seamon Cotter Jr.‘s profile at The War Poets Gallery.

1910s Poem

The Whippoorwill

By Madison Julius Cawein

Annotations by Mary Miller/KK

John James Audubon. “Whip-poor-will,” from Birds of America (1827-38), plate 82. Audubon.com.

Above lone woodland ways that led
To dells the stealthy twilights tread
The west was hot geranium red;
And still, and still,
Along old lanes the locusts sow
With clustered pearls [1] the May-times know,
Deep in the crimson afterglow,
We heard the homeward cattle low,
And then the far-off, far-off woe
Of “whippoorwill!” of “whippoorwill!” [2]

Beneath the idle beechen boughs
We heard the cow-bells of the cows
Come slowly jangling towards the house,
And still, and still,
Beyond the light that would not die
Out of the scarlet-haunted sky,
Beyond the evening star’s white eye
Of glittering chalcedony,
Drained out of dusk the plaintive cry
Of “whippoorwill,” of “whippoorwill.”

What is there in the moon, that swims
A naked bosom o’er the limbs,
That all the wood with magic dims?
While still, while still,
Among the trees, whose shadows grope
Mid ferns and flowers the dewdrops ope,—[3]
Lost in faint deeps of heliotrope [4]
Above the clover-scented slope,—
Retreats, despairing past all hope,
The whippoorwill, the whippoorwill.

**CAWEIN, MADISON JULIUS. “THE WHIPPOORWILL.” IN SOUTHERN PROSE AND POETRY FOR SCHOOLS, ED. EDWIN MIMS and Bruce R. Payne, 261-62. NEW YORK: SCRIBNER’S SONS, 1910.**

[1] In early spring, honey locust trees produce prolific, perfumed clusters of beautiful white flowers that dangle down from their branches and that eventually fall to the ground.

[2] The Eastern Whip-poor-will is known to sing a distinctive, and to some listeners, mournful song as the sun begins to set.

[3] “Ope” means “open.”

[4] Heliotrope, whose name means “turn toward the sun,” is an annual plant with white, blue, pink, or violet flowers.

Contexts

Hailing from Louisville, Kentucky, Madison Cawein wrote many poems featuring nature as a beautiful and mysterious force, and many of these he meant to be educational and inspiration for children. The many references to the colors and scents of flowers and trees evoke a very sensuous experience of nature. This poem was included in the anthology Southern Prose and Poetry for Schools in 1910. The preface to the collection begins by stating that the “principal purpose of this collection is to inspire the youth of the South to a more earnest and intelligent study of the literature of that section.” Cawein had collected a version of the poem–with a different final stanza–in his 1907 collection, The Poems of Madison Cawein (vol. 3).

Definitions from Oxford English Dictionary:

chalcedony: A precious (or semi-precious) stone, which in its various tints is largely used in lapidary [gemstone] work: a cryptocrystalline sub-species of quartz (a true quartz, with some disseminated opal-quartz), having the lustre nearly of wax, and being either transparent or translucent.

beechen: Of, pertaining to, or derived from the beech tree.

Resources for Further Study

The Audubon Society is a wonderful resource on birds. Read John James Audubon’s notes on the Whip-poor-will and listen to its calls at Cornell University’s All About Birds site. The bird is commonly referred to as the Eastern Whip-poor-will, which reflects the onomatopoetic nature of its name.
Whip-poor-wills are creatures that are often heard but rarely seen. Some people find their song sad or haunting, while others find it uplifting, and for poets they are a muse. There is even a country music song featuring them: Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry”.
Whip-poor-wills are unique in many ways. For example, they are active at night, do not build nests, feed on the wing, and coordinate their breeding habits with the phase of the moon. Out My Backdoor: Whip-poor-wills More Often Heard Than Seen by Terry W. Johnson , a former Non-game Program Manager with the Georgia Wildlife Resources Division discusses Whip-poor-wills from the perspective of a professional naturalist.

Contemporary Connections

The Eastern Whip-poor-will population has declined significantly over the past fifty years, due primarily to the use of insecticides and loss of habitat. These birds rely on insects for food and prefer open, young hardwood forests, which have been overtaken by maturing forests and housing developments in much of their range. A simple Google search will produce many hits, such as “Where Have All the Whip-poor-wills Gone?” and the American Bird Conservancy’s entry on the Eastern Whip-poor-will, on this concern. This poem could be a springboard for a classroom discussion on the importance of wildlife habitats and the importance of wildlife preservation.

1910s Fairy Tale Forests Poem Wild animals

The Moon in the Wood

By Madison Julius Cawein

Annotations by Mary Miller/KK

Ivan Bilibin. *Fairy Forest at Sunset*. 1906. Public domain. Courtesy of Wikimedia.

From hill and hollow, side by side,
The shadows came, like dreams, to sit
And watch, mysterious, sunset-eyed,
The wool-winged moths and bats aflit,
And the lone owl that cried and cried.

And then the forest rang a gong,
Hoarse, toadlike; and from out the gate
Of darkness came a sound of song,
As of a gnome that called his mate,
Who answered in his own strange tongue.

And all the forest leaned to hear,
And saw, from forth the entangling trees,
A naked spirit drawing near,
A glimmering presence, whom the breeze
Kept whispering, “Forward! Have no fear.”

II.

The woodland, seeming at a loss,
Afraid to breathe, or make a sound,
Poured, where her silvery feet should cross,
A dripping pathway on the ground,
And hedged it in with ferns and moss.

And then the silence sharply shook
A cricket tambourine; and Night
From out her musky bosom took
A whippoorwill flute, and, lost to sight
Sat piping to a wildwood brook.

Until from out the shadows came
A furtive foot, a gleam, a glow;
And with a lamp of crystal flame
The spirit stole, as white as snow,
And put the firmament to shame.

III.

Then up and down vague movements went,
As if the faeries sought an herb;
And here and there a bush was bent,
A wildflower raised: the wood-pool’s curb
Was circled with a scarf of scent.

And deep within her house of weeds
Old Mystery hung a glowworm lamp,
And decked her hair with firefly beads,
And sate herself ‘mid dew and damp,
And crooned a love-song to the reeds.

Then through the gates of solitude,
Where Witchery her shuttle plied,
The Spirit entered, white and nude
And where she went, on every side,
Dreams followed through the solitude.

CAWEIN, MADISON JULIUS. “THE MOON IN THE WOOD“, IN MINIONS OF THE MOON, 25-26. STEWART & KIDD COMPANY, 1913.

Contexts

“The Moon in the Wood” was included in Cawein’s collection of poems for children Minions of the Moon, A Little Book of Song and Story, published in 1913, was inscribed with the words “To All Children, big and little, who have ever believed or still believe in faeries, I dedicate this little book, that attempts to set forth in wolds all that such a belief may mean to the soul of man.”

Cawein’s love of nature and otherworldly spirits came to him early; his father was an herbalist who made patent medicines, and his mother was interested in spiritualism. His poems reflect his love of nature and his fascination with the spiritual creatures depicted by fairies and elves.

Definitions from the Oxford English Dictionary:

aflit: A light movement, as of a bird’s wing; a flutter; a light touch.

hollow: An area that is lower than the surface around it, especially on the ground.

sate: To fill or satisfy to the full with food, nourishment, etc.; to indulge or gratify fully with the satisfaction of an appetite or desire.

Resources for Further Study

The Story of a Poet: Madison Cawein includes biographical information about the poet as well as critical reviews and anecdotes from contemporaries.
Read all the poems in Minions of the Moon.
The Fairy Mythology by Thomas Kneightley, originally published in 1828, is a source for understanding the context for many of Cawein’s poems.
Spiritualism is a movement based on the belief that departed souls can interact with the living. The Fox sisters from Hydesville, New York, sparked the modern Spiritualist movement in 1848, with one sister, Maggie, eventually confessing that their performances were a farce.

Contemporary Connections

Fairies are messengers from another world with powers beyond that of any mortal human being. The enormous popularity of children’s books based on magic, such as the Harry Potter series and remakes of fairy tales in popular films such as Frozen and Beauty and the Beast demonstrate that otherworldly beings still appeal to many people, perhaps especially children.