THE real lives of men and women are often quite as interesting as the imaginative tales which story tellers write. The persons whose stories are here told are interesting because each has done some important work in the world - something notable in politics, science, business, industry, education, or social service. Whatever may have been the aim of each individual, his achievements have added to the possibilities of human happiness and he may thus be called a benefactor of mankind. You who read these stories enjoy certain privileges today because these persons did well the work they undertook. In a real sense, therefore, they worked for you. Young people should early understand the part which industry plays in the world. Ours is a civilization based on work by all. Food, shelter, and clothing, the comforts, the leisure, and the pleasures we enjoy are due to the toil of ourselves and of others. We have these things because many persons work and because some persons work with great skill and intelligence. The men who do great things in the world are persons of strong character. They are men of courage, of industry, of perseverance, of self-sacrifice. Weak men and weak women do not do great deeds. Strong men have great ideals and follow them with whole-hearted devotion. As you read the selections in the following pages, try to understand the ideals which each sets forth. Try to understand the dominating traits of character which make life worth while. Some of life's great ideals are emphasized in the poems included here. These poems represent not alone the beliefs and the feelings of their authors but those of many thousands of persons the world over and, especially, we like to believe, of those who live in America. BOOKS TO READ While you are reading this section on MEN AND WORK, choose several of the books named below and read them. Keep in your notebook a list of all you read. ADAMS, ELMER C., and FOSTER, WARREN D. Heroines of Modern Progress. The Macmillan Company Ten girls who chose to be pioneers in blazing new trails, and in doing so became strong women. ANTIN, MARY. At School in the Promised Land, or The Story of a Little Immigrant. Houghton Mifflin Company The school life of a Russian Jewish girl, who profits by the advantages of free schools, free libraries, lecture halls, sympathetic teachers, and new-made friends. ATKINSON, ELEANOR. Johnny Appleseed. Harper and Brothers "The romantic tale of a traveling benefactor of our country, who dispensed apple seeds through several states and thus greatly enlarged the fruit crop of later generations." Stevens. BAKER, RAY STANNARD. The Boy's Book of Inventions. Doubleday, Page and Company Includes liquid air, wireless telegraphy, motor vehicles, X-rays, etc. BOK, EDWARD. A Dutch Boy Fifty Years After. Charles Scribner's Sons The Dutch boy is Edward Bok. He comes to America with his parents, who have lost their fortune; he goes to school, learns to edit a paper, and becomes a great national figure. BOLTON, SARAH K. Girls Who Became Famous. Thomas Y. Crowell Company Famous Leaders among Women. Thomas Y. Crowell Company Short biographical sketches of girls, each of whom achieved distinction in an important field of service or culture. CATHER, KATHERINE DUNLAP. Boyhood Stories of Famous Men. The Century Company Girlhood Stories of Famous Women. The Century Company Younger Days of Famous Writers. The Century Company "The author brings young people who became famous so close to those of the here and now that they will feel as if they had met them.” CONNOR, RALPH (Charles William Gordon). The Doctor. Fleming H. Revell Company Ralph Connor was the "Sky Pilot" (that is, the minister) who served a frontier settlement in the Canadian Rockies. He writes about the physician of the settlement. EPLER, PERCY HAROLD. The Life of Clara Barton. The Macmillan Company A story of Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross. GIBSON, CHARLES R. Heroes of Science. J. B. Lippincott Company "Endeavors to give a description of the lives of the most outstanding men of science in an easy and readable form." GILBERT, ARIADNE. More than Conquerors. The Century Company "Fifteen men, heroic in the achievements of peace, human enough in all their little personal ways" to be "good fellows" for boys and girls. GRENFELL, WILFRED T. The Labrador Doctor, An Autobiography. Houghton Mifflin Company Dr. Grenfell has spent his life as a medical missionary among the hardy fishermen of the bleak Labrador country. Some of his interesting experiences he tells here. HAGEDORN, HERMAN. Boys' Life of Roosevelt. Harper and Brothers A charmingly told tale of one of the great heroes of American youth. HALE, EDWARD EVERETT. A New England Boyhood. Little, Brown and Company How boys grew up in New England a hundred years ago. HUNGERFORD, EDWARD. The Romance of a Great Store. Robert M. McBride and Company The story of a great New York City department store. ILES, GEORGE. Leading American Inventors. Henry Holt and Company Biographies of America's great inventors from Fulton and Whitney to McCormick and Mergenthaler. JENKS, JEREMIAH W. Life Questions of Schoolboys. Association Press A very able man discusses the problems of schoolboys for the boys themselves. KELLER, HELEN. The Story of My Life. Doubleday, Page and Company Helen Keller became blind and deaf from illness in her childhood. How she learned to read and write, to go to school and later to college, and to become a cultured woman is told in her own words. KELLY, H. A. Walter Reed and the Yellow Fever. Medical Standard Book Company The story of men who risked their lives to learn the cause of yellow fever. KELLY, MYRA. Little Aliens. Charles Scribner's Sons -Little Citizens. Doubleday, Page and Company -Wards of Liberty. Doubleday, Page and Company Myra Kelly writes of the immigrant children who live in the Ghetto in New York City, speaking a mixed dialect of Yiddish and English. KENLON, JOHN. Fires and Fire Fighters. George H. Doran Company A history of modern fire-fighting with a review of its development from earliest times. The author was Chief of the New York Fire Department. MAULE, HARRY E. The Boys' Book of New Inventions. Doubleday, Page and Company. An account of the machines and mechanical processes that are making the history of our time more dramatic than that of any other age since the world began. MOFFETT, CLEVELAND. Careers of Danger and Daring. The Century Company The life of diver, steeple-climber, fireman, acrobat, locomotive engineer, etc. PARKMAN, MARY R. Conquests of Invention. The Century Company ances. -Heroines of Service. The Century Company Nine American women and two others whose names make a woman's roll of honor. Heroes of Today. The Century Company Men who fly, build great canals, discover new countries, serve their fellows, write poetry, and fight battles - heroes all. QUILLER-COUCH, SIR A. T. Roll Call of Honour, a New Book of Golden Deeds. George Sully and Company Stories of nineteenth-century heroes. RICHARDS, LAURA E. Florence Nightingale, the Angel of the Crimea. D. Appleton and Company "The Lady with a Lamp," who in the Crimean war nursed the soldiers who were ill and wounded and who reorganized the hospital service of the British army. RIIS, JACOB. The Making of an American. The Macmillan Company SMITH, HENRY LOUIS. Your Biggest Job - School or Business. D. Appleton and Company "Engines or box-cars. Which are you building in the workshop of youth?" Talks for boys about life and work. STEINER, E. A. From Alien to Citizen. Fleming H. Revell Company A Jewish boy leaves Russia to travel by steerage to the New World. This book tells of his troubles, hardships, and ultimate success as a great teacher. TAPPAN, EVA MARCH. Diggers in the Earth. Houghton Mifflin Company The author tells how men take from the earth its riches of coal, iron, stone, gold, silver, salt, and oil. |