as to make it in any degree certain that our children’s treasures may not be consigned to an equal oblivion.  For these too are but composites made by superimposing the latest fads or theories as to instructive amusement of children upon those of previous generations of toy-books.  Most of what was once considered the “perfume of youth and freshness” in a literary way has been discarded as dry and unprofitable, mistaken or deceptive; and yet, after all has been said by way of criticism of methods and subjects, these chap-books, magazines, gift and story books form our best if blurred pictures of the amusements and daily life of the old-time American child.

We are learning also to prize these small “Histories” as part of the progress of the arts of book-making and illustration, and of the growth of the business of publishing in America; and already we are aware of the fulfilment of what was called by one old bookseller, “Tom Thumb’s Maxim in Trade and Politics:”  “He who buys this book for Two-pence, and lays it up till it is worth Three-pence, may get an hundred per cent by the bargain.”

FOOTNOTES: 

[204-A] Election Day, p. 71.  American Sunday School Union, 1828.

[216-A] Mr. G.C.  Verplanck was probably the editor of this book, published by Harper & Bros.

[216-B] This statement the writer has been unable to verify.

Index

INDEX

ABBOTT, Jacob, 201, 208, 213, 215, 218, 222, 223.

Abbott, John S.C., 129.

A, B, C Book, 101.

A, B, C of religion, 22.

Absence from Christ intolerable, 39.

Adams, John, 165.

Adams, Mrs. John, 91.

Adams, J.A., 169.

Adams, John Quincy, 196.

Addison, Joseph, 159.

Adventures of a Peg-top, 109.

Adventures of a Pincushion, 109, 111, 112.

Adventures of Lot, 206.

Aesop, 63, 66, 67, 69, 90, 101, 109.

Affectionate Daughter-in-Law, 206.

Affection’s Gift, 227.

Aikin, Dr. John, 139, 140, 163.

Ainsworth, Robert, 63.

Aitkin, Robert, 100, 101.

Alarm to Unconverted Sinners, An, 206.

Althea Vernon, 210.

American Antiquarian Society, 103.

American Flag, 148.

American Girls’ Book, 209.

American Juvenile Keepsake, 197, 200.

American Sunday School Union, 201, 202, 204.

American Weekly Mercury, 20.

Ami des Enfans, 134, 135.

Amyntor, 192.

Anderson, Dr. Alexander, 166-169, 180.

Andre, Major John, 97.

Andrews, Joseph, 196.

Andrews, Thomas, 102.

Anecdoten von Hunden, 178.

Anecdotes of Christian Missions, 206.

Animated Nature, 108.