Preface
^HE Editor of this volume has aimed to set forth in it the literary impulse of our own time, avoiding largely things that have gone stale in familiar anthologies. There are poems, there are speeches, there are chapters of fiction and of history that have a vital quality as infinite as God's truth, and are ever new, therefore, for all save the fool to whom there is nothing new. Many of these immortal things have succeeded from anthologer to anthologer by a sort of divine right, and some of them may be found herein. But this book also and largely reproduces the work of new writers — men and women who have not yet won the fame they merit. Inglorious obscurity now covers many a genius who shall write — nay, who may already have written — the novel or the poem that shall shortly go traveling from hand to hand around the earth and whose fame shall be everywhere. After all, they are the people of most importance always — they of the present who are making the things of the future. To them, and to many of greater fame whose courtesy has made this book possible, and to their publishers, the Editor makes grateful acknowledgment.
Special acknowledgment is due to Robert H. Russell; The Robert Clarke Company; Harper & Brothers; Houghton, MifHin & Co.; Mark Twain; Bacheller, Johnson & Bacheller; Little, Brown & Co.; The Century Co.; Frederick A. Stokes Company; Bacheller Syndicate; Bowen-Merrill Co.; and D. Appleton & Co.
Index To The Selections
Across the Jumping Sand Hills
Admiral, The Old
Answer of the Sea, The
Autocrat of the Breakfast Table,"
Wit and Wisdom from "The Battle Hymn of the Republic Bloom Was on the Alder and the
Tassel on the Corn, The Board Fence Toses a Plank, A Bourget, Le ...
Bud Zunts's Mail . .
Camp, Song of the .
Captain Mallinger Carpenter and His Son, The Chance, A Tale of Mere Conspiracy, The Daughter's Love, A Deacon's Daughter, The
Death of Rodriguez, The Decoy Despatch, The Descent Into the Maelstrom, A Detail, A ....
Dog on the Roof, The .
Gilbert Parker ....
Edmund Clarence Stedman John Langdon Heaton
Oliver Wendell Holmes Julia Ward Howe .
Donn Piatt
F. Hopkinson Smith .
Robert W. Chambers .
Ruth McEnery Stuart .
Bayard Taylor ....
Harriet Prescott Spofiford .
General Lew Wallace .
Stephen Crane ....
John Kendrick Bangs .
Fitz James O'Brien .
Marietta Holley ("Josiah Allen
Wife")
Richard Harding Davis
Clinton Ross
Stephen Crane ....
Edward W. Townsend .
37 267
415 229
BEST THINGS FROAI AMERICAN LITERATURE
Double Head and Single Heart
Eunice and the Doll
Father Damon's Temptation .
Flying March, The
Gates Ajar," A GHmpse from "The .
"Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye
May "
Gettysburg, Speech at
Golden Ingot, The
Hayne, Reply to
Heart of New England, The
In Evidence
Instinct, A Matter of
In the Mouth of the Sea ....
Invalid's Story, The
It Is Not Death to Die ....
Ivory Miniature, An
'Jinin' Farms, The
John's Trial
Judges
Language That Needs a Rest Laphams' Dilemma, The ....
Le Bourget
Life Lesson, A.
Lincoln, Abraham
Legend of Sonora, A
Matter of Instinct, A
Mother's Intuition, A
Movement Cure for Rheumatism, The, Mr. Rabbit, Mr. Fox, and Mr. Buzzard,
Nature
New England, The Heart of . . .
New England Sunday, A . . . .
Elisabeth Pullen Mary E. Wilkins . .
Charles Dudley Warner W. L. Alden . . .
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
Paul Leicester Ford Abraham Lincoln Fitz James O'Brien .
Daniel Webster .
Edmund Clarence Stedman Charles Kelsey Gaines .
Howard Fielding Edgar Allan Poe Mark Twain ....
George Washington Bethune Arthur Grissom .
Eugene Field Philander Deming .
Charles Sumner .
Willis Brooks Hawkins William Dean Howells .
Robert W. Chambers .
James Whitcomb Riley .
Speech at Gettysburg .
Hildegarde Hawthorne Howard Fielding .
Louisa M. Alcott . .
Robert J. Burdette . .
Joel Chandler Harris .
Ralph Waldo Emerson .
Edmund Clarence Stedman Henry Ward Beecher .
Index To The Selections 9
PAGE
Night Battle of the Revolution, A . S. Weir ^^litchell 153
Night Before Thanksgiving, The . Sarah Orne Jevvett 127
Night EleVator Man's Story, The E. W. Townsend . . . . . 232
Night of Defeat, A Joseph A. Altsheler 387
Ode Richard Watson Gilder . . . 353
Odin Moore's Confession .... Julian Hawthorne 399
Old Admiral, The Edmund Clarence Stedman . . 141
Old Jones Is Dead Louise Chandler Moulton . .291
Rainy Day, The Henry Wadsworth Longfellow . 167
Republic, Battle Hymn of the . . Julia Ward Howe j-ii
Revelation, The, from "The Scarlet
Letter" Nathaniel Hawthorne .... 255
Rip Van Winkle Washington Irving 331
Romance of the City Room, A . Elizabeth G. Jordan 347
Rudgis and Grim jMaurice Thompson 219
Scarlet Letter," The Revelation ;
from "The Nathaniel Hawthorne .... 255
Sickle of Fire, The Charles Kelsey Gaines .... 26
Sky, The Richard Henry Stoddard . . . 253
Smoke — Signifying Doubt . . . Donald G. Mitchell 213
Sober, Industrious Poet, and How He
Fared at Easter-time, The . . James L. Ford 33
Song of the Camp, The .... Bayard Taylor ...... 93
Speech in the Court House, Charlestown, Va John Brown '. 237
Spelling Down the Master . . Edward Eggleston 120
Story for a Child, A Bayard Taylor . . . . . . 118
Tale of Mere Chance, A . . . . Stephen Crane 69
Tell-tale Heart, The Edgar Allan Poe 248
Thanatopsis William Cullen Bryant .... 343
Under the Lion's Paw Hamlin Garland 157
Wauna, the Witch-maiden General Charles King .... 283
Wreck of "The Ariel," The . . James Fenimore Cooper . . . 277
Index To The Authors
Alcott, Louisa M. .
Alden, W. L. . .
Altsheler, Joseph A.
Bangs, John Kendrick . , Beecher, Henry Ward Bethune, George Washington Burdette, Robert J. . . .
Brown, John, of Ossawatomie
Br}^ant, WilHam Cullen Chambers, Robert W. .
Cooper, James Fenimore Crane, Stephen
Davis, Richard Harding Deming, Philander Eggleston, Edward Emerson, Ralph Waldo Field, Eugene .
Fielding, Howard .
A Mother's Intuition .... 293
The Flying March 112
A Night of Defeat, from "A Herald of the West" .... 387
The Conspiracy 185
A New England Sunday . . . 203 It Is Not Death to Die ... 235 The Movement Cure for Rheumatism 190
His Last Speech in the Court
House of Charlestown, Va. . 237
Thanatopsis 343
Le Bourget 175
The Wreck of "The Ariel" ... 277
A Detail 415
A Tale of Mere Chance ... 69
The Death of Rodriguez ... 17
John's Trial 97
Spelling Down the Master
Nature
The 'Ji"i" Farms .
A Matter of Instinct .
Ford, James L The Sober, Industrious Poet, and
How He Fared at Easter
Ford, Paul Leicester "Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye
Mav"
INDEX TO THE AUTHORS
Gaines, Charles Kelsey ....
Garland, Hamlin
Gilder, Richard Watson ....
Grissom, Arthur
Harris, Joel Chandler
Hawkins, Willis Brooks ....
Hawthorne, Hildegarde ....
Hawthorne, Julian
Hawthorne, Nathaniel ....
Heaton, John Langdon ....
Holley, Marietta ("Josiah Allen's
Wife")
Holmes, Oliver Wendell ....
Howe, Julia Ward
Howells, William Dean ....
Irving, Washington
Jewett, Sarah Orne
Jordan, Elizabeth G
King, General Charles ....
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth .
Mitchell, Donald G
Mitchell, S. Weir
Moulton, Louise Chandler
O'Brien, Fitz James
Parker, Gilbert
Phelps, Elizabeth Stuart . . . .
Piatt, Donn
In Evidence
The Sickle of Fire . . .
Under the Lion's Paw .
Ode
An Ivory Miniature
Mr. Rabbit, Mr. Fox, and Mr
Buzzard ....
Language That Needs a Rest A Legend of Sonora Odin Moore's Confession .
The Revelation ; from "The Scarlet
Letter"
The Answer of the Sea .
The Deacon's Daughter
Wit and Wisdom from "The Auto
crat of the Breakfast Table"
Battle Hymn of the Republic .
The Laphams' Dilemma Rip Van Winkle ....
The Night Before Thanksgiving A Romance of the City Room .
Wauna, the Witch-maiden .
The Rainy Day
Smoke — Signifying Doubt .
A Night Battle of the Revolution Old Jones is Dead ....
A Daughter's Love (From "The
Golden Ingot") Across the Jumping Sand Hills A Glimpse From "The Gates Ajar"
The Bloom Was on the Alder and
the Tassel on the Corn
Z7
PAGE
Poe, Edgar Allan The Tell-tale Heart 248
Pullen, Elisabeth DTDuble Head and Single Heart . 273
Riley, James Whitcomb .... A Life Lesson 385
Ross, Clinton The Decoy Despatch . . . . 169
Smith, F. Hopkinson A Board Fence Loses a Plank . . 267
Spofford, Harriet Prescott . Captain Mallinger 75
Stedman, Edmtind Clarence . . The Heart of New England . . 200
The Old Admiral 141
Stoddard, Richard Henry .... The Sky 253
Stuart, Ruth McEneiy .... Bud Zunts's Mail 81
Sumner, Charles Judges 363
Taylor, Bayard The Song of the Camp .... 93
A Story for a Child 118
Thompson, Maurice Rudgis and Grim 219
Townsend, Edward W The Dog on the Roof .... 229
The Night Elevator Man's Story . 232
Twain, Mark The Invalid's Story 57
Wallace, General Lew The Carpenter and His Son . . 43
Warner, Charles Dudley .... Father Damon's Temptation . . 39
Webster, Daniel Reply to Hayne 315
Wilkins, Mar}^ E Eunice and the Doll . . . . 369
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