Historic leaves, volume 3, April, 1904 - January, 1905

[62] name it bears, noting the traits and events that prove him worthy the honor. Sub-divisions of some of these topics would, of course, be made as events require, my effort being directed to an orderly arrangement with topics broad enough to include all the knowledge that may be gained, with a place for every fact. The arrangement is, in the main, necessarily chronological, excepting that under such topics as education or religious life, we should bring together in order all the facts, from earliest to present times; or, again, if we are studying the business life of the city, we should go back to first conditions and follow events, searching for the causes and influences which have affected its growth and development.

Under ‘Charter,’ there should be a study of our city government, the departments, the duties and powers of each, and methods of transacting business, elections, etc.

The schools should be provided with a standard text-book of local history, but others more complete should be accessible to the children, not a single copy or two, but in sufficient number to meet the demands of many pupils. Much material contained in souvenir editions of our papers and in souvenir books and pamphlets that cannot be bought for the schools because of the advertising in them can be brought by pupils from their homes, and used by them as their own property. The information gained will be useful in later years, so many of our pupils are making histories for themselves, in which they write brief statements of facts, references to sources of information, illustrated by clippings from papers and souvenir books, small pictures of historic spots and of prominent men.

Quite a demand has been made of late by the children for photographs after the plan of the Perry pictures and the Brown pictures, but of Somerville subjects, and a proposition is under consideration to print large quantities of them to sell at a very low cost. The camera craze is being turned to good use, and interest in history thereby increased.

Collections and exhibits of relics borrowed for the occasion also add to the interest. The reading of poems, such as Mr. Foss's ‘Raising of the Flag on Prospect Hill,’ and the narration,