The Oregon daily journal., November 15, 1908, Page 20, Image 20

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THE OREGON SUNDAY JOURNAL, PORTLAND, SUNDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER .15, "; 1903
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u p-to-UatebuDjects
, Now Pictured in th
School Books
T7
HOSE of us who have been so busy of
late years with business, pohttcs or
the pleasures of life are compelled
to pause now and then to note some wonder
ful achievement of science or a seven-league
'ftride of progress.
How many of us realize the correspond
ing progress being made in the world of ju
veniles? Do we bear in mind the fact that
vur little ones are advancing to new ideas,
modern conceptions and up-to-date revela
tions as well as their elders?
When we pick up the school books of
..today- those for the earlier grades, particularly-
we look for the well-known woodcut of
Wary and her little lamb for instance.
'. Alas! Mary and her lamb have gone at
J east, from most of the modern books. Now,
we behold an up-to-date Mary or Ruth at the
telephone a Alary or Ruth so tiny that she
must stand on a chair to use the instrument of
'progress. Then we see her whirling off to
school on a bicycle. Who ever heard of a
lamb following a bicycle?
Mary and her Jamb, within a year, according to
copyright dates, retire from their Arcadian simplicity
of verse, and In recent publications the former sim
plicity is transformed Into up-to-date dialogue. One
of the learned young ladies who shares In the dia
logue carries the tale to the sequel, about the little
girl who wished she was the lamb and dreamed her
wish came true. Fearful to relate, she no sooner
dreamed she was the happy, happy lamb, than lo!
there came the butcher man.
She (tared around In wild surprise.
And rubbed her sleepy, wondering eyes.
- 'O dearl" she cried, "how itlad I am
That I am really not a lambt
"A lamb!" bar mother lauvbed outright
At Kuch a queer excuse.
"If that's the reason for your fright.
I think you are a little noose!"
"Tou wouldn't," sobbed poor ellly Nan,
"If you had seen that butcher-man!"
Then, for a time, Mary and her little lamb appear
to vanish altogether, as though some of those dread
ful genii of learning had whisked the dear, innocent
pair of them off and immolated them as ruthlessly
as the pitiless butcher man.
But. with the close of the century, when the new
pedagogy was firmly on Its scientific, positive,
triumphant feet, prepared to let the modern child
study its C-A-T Cat in the role of heir of the ages
of science and art, a rescuer appeared.
In the other books, it would seem, most of the good
old rhymes and fables are fated to remain embalmed,
save for some few which the modern teaching finds
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best adapted to Its delicate and scrupulous uses.
Little Red Riding Hood still has her dreadful ad
venture with the wicked wolf, in company with the
thrilling and glorious career of tick. Whlttlngton and
his Immortal cat. But we can see how the educational
soul rejoices in such historical instruction as the land
ing of the Pilgrim Fathers, the biographies of men
like General Grant and the poets, Whittler and Long
fellow, and child versions of the myths of Clytle and
Pandora.
Up-to-date publications for grown-ups, with their
brilliant color work and their ambitions to cope with
the problems solved by the master hands of art when
they used oil on canvas, have not progressed so very
far beyond the achievements of Its rivals in the field
of the childish school books.
It may be a question. Indeed, whether even the
most lavish periodical appealing to the artlstio taste
of mature minds can give them anything more genu
inely entertaining than some of the "first readers'
supplied in schools to the children who are only grad
uating into the real schools from the kindergarten.
In many of the half -tone Illustrations, and In oolor
pictures, there appear achievements in printing which
must make of the child readers, who learn this year,
rrltlcs with the most exacting tastes In the future.
And not critics only. From the hour when, eager
to see what pleasures of the eye the books of their
new grade will offer them, they turn the pages of their
reader with chubby, careful fingers, they find thern-
selves in the presence of the realities of the life that
is about them.
It Is teaching of the -kind that has wholly ignored
the old unreal "realities" of the books that have been
supplanted, and has replaced them with brightened,
lightened aspects of the wonders of civilized life to
day. The little girl who. In 1908 Is as loath -to help
mother at the ignoble labor of dishwashing as her
grandmother was when Johnny came marching home
In '(5, can see herself, a radiant creature in fashion's
seductive array, .trying: the hot and cold water spigots
on her own account, so attractively portrayed that
mother has a rebellious kitchen maid converted on the
spot
The talk of the dinner table. In the evening, over
the triumphs of the nfcw, marvelous race of aeronauts
is no longer composed entirely of echoes from an un
known land. Little Pitcher, with her big ears, has al
ready pored over the reproduction In her reader of
the painting by Jullen Dupre, showing peasants In the
hayfleld, gaslng astonished at the vagarious balloon.
The telephone? it is no mystery to any modern
-year-old. If she hasn't been born Into a household
that concedes the necessity of the telephone, her
reader will show her the most beautifully colored pic
tures, all in dainty pink and natural -blue and most
convincing brown, of Ruth's sandal-shod little friend
answering Ruth's summons at the receiver.
The seashore? There are, by this time, millions of
children who have not had the chance to g-ase upon
the majesty of the ocean or to share In the laughter
of Its waters purling on the beach. But the picture
of those who have reveled in that ecstatic pleasure Is
presented to them as clearly as it is possible for color
printing to reproduce the jubilant reality.
Boys who have heard of the splendid adventures
Incident to "camping out," but have never belonged
to the favored of the earth In the enjoyment of that
crowning boon, see It all In their school books, graph
ically limned.
So these new Instructors of the children, while
they have developed a whole science of adapting their
teaching to the capacities of the growing minds they
guide, have themselves learned the great lesson of
making palatable that learning; which was onoe so
hard to swallow.
isease Danders m SeeMud aJjyE
Mary had a little lamb,
lla Beec waa white u snow:
And everywhere that Mary want
The lamb waa sure to so- Bars Hale.
WHOLE book could be written about the edu
cational adventures of Mary and her little
lamb, to say nothing of such favorites as the
little star once so earnestly admonished to
Keep on twinkling, and the juvenile hero who stood
en the burning deck.
Remarkable adventures they have been, too, more
avstoundlng than the transformations of the Arabian
Kighls; and those transformations have attended, in
sv curious manner, the alteration of all methods of
Instruction.
Retrospect of schooldays, seen through the golden
haze that gilds all childhood, leaves little room (or
the memories of the tribulations we survived. More,
perhaps, than all the other trials more, even, than the
material anguish of being kept In, and perhaps con
tributing to that bitter consummation of Idleness and
Inattention was the sense of haunting unreality at
tending many of the lessons that had to be learned.
It was amid those arid deserts of learning that
Mary and her iamb greeted the children of that older
iay, like friendly, real' creatures in some oasis they
ftad chanced on. beyond which loomed the dark do
main of the grown-ups.
tilde by side with the immortal tale of the naughty
boy who cried "wolf so often that nobody came to
ave him wr.en the wolf did actually eat him a tale
which any child knew must have happened, in all its
sruesomeness and of Little lied Riding Hood ap
peared the edifying narrative of the poor but worthy
'widow, whose honesty the noble-hearted banker re
warded with 1500 narrative which every childish
reader doubled with all the incredulity of the human
lfistlnct for detecting blithering nonsense.
it - was very mystifying, this First, Second and
Third Header job of trying to guess where facts began
"and fancy left off.
Children of the thousands who came back from
the fearful Civil War were Just old enough to go
to school, la their turn, when the modern science of
education, iiks modern journalism, began to think
about being born. .
Teachers, suspecting that llttl children wera not
wholly little pitchers that could be filled with know
esgeby pouring learning into them, were far from
being courageous enough to deal With them as a part
tf that roost delicate) of creations, humanity., So peda
ktgy compreftilsea.
" n enlightening adventure) to brows among
the old school books remaining upon the shelves of
ome ,r lrie areat -toTe, tllt make them a specialty
llf 'r and to fotethe era of the change,
about the time t.f rne country's first noteworthy es
Jwuiou. th Centennial of Hit. T
K. ? h 1"' "l1'" ' though the whoU
..... wer suddenly ,a-lvnlJd Into enterprise. Into
...h.tion that th world It was entertaining as a
i '- was survrlmlnir , it into t.Z.Z
"' of efficiency;'
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HAT it your ocpupation I And what is the
disease or malady, from which you suffer
the greatest distress!
Learning the diseases of occupations,
science has, beea able, By preventive means, and se
curing ( the enactment of factory, laws to reduce
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inch diseases to as nearly a minimum as possible.
However, the afflictions of various workers take on .
various forms, from the strange disease known, as
ankylostoma of miners,; to the "glassblower's
ntauth," or swollen cheeks, lof the pliers of that
. trade. , : .
'O natter what parliamentary legislation
mar enact, industrial hygiene will never
be secured until the workers themselves
are educated In regard to the dangers ln
eldentaj to particular trades," writes Dr, Thomas Oil-
ver, physician of th Royal Vlctorl Infirmary at New-castie-on-Tyne.
England, who has-published a book
upon the subject." , 'J . v ,
One of the strangest and-most painful .diseases of
wupatlons Is one to which workers in (falssons are
subject, known as the "bends." ' Below the beds of
rivers. In closed iron cylinders, bell shaped, which sink
as excavation goes on, men work, breathing com
pressed air driven In by powerful machinery. Air La
pumped Into the caissons to force out the water.
' To a person first entering a chamber the condition
Is well-nigh intolerable. . The eardrum Is forcibly
driven In as the pressure rises,, and earaches and head
aches follow. Experienced workers swallow the air
and pass it up to the Eustachian tube In the middle
ear, and by a pressure on the internal side counteract
the pressure from without.
Imagine the suffering of those who fall to over
come the pressure. They experience severe tains in
their muscles and joints, so Intense that often they
roll on the ground and writhe. The symptoms mani
fest themselves usually after the men emerge from'
their prison, while they are walking home. They begin
to stagger as though Intoxicated, sometimes they be
come delirious. Their suffering may last from a few
hours to several days, and In many cases the trouble,
proves fatal.
One of tbo strangest diseases Is one which has
made headway within the- last several years in the
mines of Alabama and , other southern states. It Is
known as ankylostoma, and for snany years was as
perplexing to physicians as the hieroglyphs on the.
'Egyptian tombs. In which country it is said to have
first manifested Itself.. It is known as Egyptian
anemia.
In certain Darts of Germany ankylostoma each year
carries many men to the grave.. During the past five
years a vigorous campaign has been waged against
It In Belgium. An idea of the prevalence of the dls-
of the entire number were Infected.
Ankylostoma Is due to a little worm, which propa
gates In amazing numbers, living and fattening In
the Intestines, and virtually sucking the life blood
from the veins of the vlctlnv.
"These worms," saya Dr. Albert Bernhelm, who re
ported the first case found In the grand duchy of
Baden la 1892, "bite themselves Into the mucous)
membrane of the duodenum, and suck the blood.' To
lose one drop of blood, which one of the parasites
would suck, would not be much, but one can realize
the drain upon the system when 10,000 parasites are
drawing the life-giving blood from the veins."
Men working In mines or brickyards usually were
the victims. In the Belgian coal districts, particularly
the Liege district, it has been prevalent for about
thirty years. Prophylactic measures were begun in
1898. From that time to 1908 a vigorous cam
palgn was waged throughout Belgium; the miners
were examined and were paid indemnities by the prov
ince during enforced absence from work; provincial
bacteriological Institutes were established, where the
worm, the development of the larvae and means of
Infection were studied.
At the end of December, 1906,- the percentage
of those contaminated In the tdega district was 81. 1,
against f per cent, in 1902, a reduction of more than
three-quarters.
Olassblowers often suffer from a painful condition
of the mouth, which Is accompanied by swelling of
the cheeks. The face appears puffed up. According to
an English physician. Dr. Schule, 25 per cent. 0f glass
blowers suffer from this deformity, which Is caused
by the great strain on the face muscles when the men
blow. The pressure enters the duct of the parotid
gland, which results In the swelling.
One would hardly Imagine tea-tasting to be a dan
gerous work; yet, according to physicians, tea-tasters
often become neurasthenic; they suffer from nervous
Irritability and Ipsa of sleep, and finally extreme ema
ciation. Another task not requiring much muscular exer
tion and which is fraught with danger Is licking
labels. In factories where young girls and children
do this work one will find nrany suffering from en
larged glands ef the neck and ulcerated tongues. Often
metallic poison results from copper and lead used In
the labels.
Men who work in chemical Industries where coal
tar products are manufactured often succumb to
cancer. This Is due to fumes arising from coal oil and
coal tar.
According to Dr. Oliver, the Imperious chauffeur
has not escaped scot free, despite his time-killing
pace. The London physlcan declares chauffeurs are
subject to headache, loss of appetite, and giddiness,
caused by the inhalation of petrol vapor; others lose
their nerve by overspeedlng and become exhausted.
Tuberculosis and phthisis are often found among
women employed in laundries, especially III laundries
where hygienic, precautions are not observed. Pro
fessor Landousy, of Paris, made an Investigation and
found one-third of the women employes in. certain
laundries afflicted with tuberculosis. '
House, painters suffer from lead oollc due to the
icxhalatlons given oft by pa hit and the emanations of
dust while sandpapering or burning off old paint.
Workers In shoddy And rsg are liable to bronchitis
and deafness; chimney sweepers suffer from cancer;
rardeners, who use soot ' to sprinkle roses, are also
affected; coal miners suffer from tuberculosis, although
ease can DO kol w n r ri u i r eaurr, i j! . L ui vv nmmiw .... . . . . . . .. - . ,
4amln-d In one mine 'near Heme. In the Rhenish within recent. years, there has been a reduction of the
"Westphallaa'coal district of Germany, 25 per cent. disease. - ,r . ; j v i