Eclectic School Readings

Stories from Life - A Book for Young People

Orison Swett Marden

• Publisher: Light House
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781528713887
• eBook ISBN: 9781528788342
• Topic: Literature
• Index: Literature

"Eclectic School Readings" is a 1904 work by American writer Orison Swett Marden. Within it, Marden has briefly outlined various life stories from the lives of great historical figures in order to show to young people that—regardless of their circumstances or birth—they are able to live lives that are remembered in history book for generations. Contents include: "The Mill Boy of the Slashes", "The Greek Slave Who Won the Olive Crown", "He Aimed High and Hit the Mark", "The Evolution of a Violinist", "The Lesson of the Teakettle", "How the Art of Printing was Discovered", "Sea Fever and What it Led to", "Gladstone Found Time to be Kind", etc. Dr. Orison Swett Marden (1848–1924) was an American author of inspirational books. He wrote primarily on the subject of being successful and founded "SUCCESS" magazine in 1897. Marden's books deal with attaining a fruitful and well-rounded life, with many of his ideas being based on the New Thought movement.

THREE GREAT AMERICAN
SONGS AND THEIR AUTHORS

THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER

"Poetry and music," says Sir John Lubbock, "unite in song. From the earliest ages song has been the sweet companion of labor. The rude chant of the boatman floats upon the water, the shepherd sings upon the hill, the milkmaid in the dairy, the plowman in the field. Every trade, every occupation, every act and scene of life, has long had its own especial music. The bride went to her marriage, the laborer to his work, the old man to his last long rest, each with appropriate and immemorial music."

It is strange that Lubbock did not mention specifically the power of music in inspiring the soldier as he marches to the defense of his country, or in arousing the spirit of patriotism and kindling the love of country, whether in peace or war, in every bosom. "Let me make the songs of a country," Fletcher of Saltoun has well said, "and I care not who makes its laws."

Not to know the words and the air of the national anthem or chief patriotic songs of one's country is considered little less than a disgrace. To know something of their authors and the occasion which inspired them, or the conditions under which they were composed, gives additional interest to the songs themselves.

Francis Scott Key, author of "The Star-spangled Banner," one of the, if not the most, popular of our national songs, was born in Frederick County, Maryland, on August 1, 1779. He was the son of John Ross Key, an officer in the Revolutionary army.

Young Key's early education was carried on under the direction of his father. Later he became a student in St. John's College, from which institution he was graduated in his nineteenth year. Immediately after his graduation he began to study law under his uncle, Philip Barton Key, one of the ablest lawyers of his time. He was admitted to the bar in 1801, and commenced to practice in Fredericktown, Maryland, where he won the reputation of an eloquent advocate. After a few years' practice in Fredericktown, he removed to Washington, where he was appointed district attorney for the District of Columbia.

Young Key was as widely known and admired as a writer of hymns and ballads as he was as a lawyer of promise. But the production of the popular national anthem which crowned him with immortality has so overshadowed the rest of his life work that we remember him only as its author.

The occasion which inspired "The Star-spangled Banner" must always be memorable in the annals of our country. The war with the British had been about two years in progress, when, in August, 1814, a British fleet arrived in the Chesapeake, and an army under General Ross landed about forty miles from the city of Washington.

The army took possession of Washington, burnt the capitol, the President's residence, and other public buildings, and then sailed around by the sea to attack Baltimore. The fleet was to bombard Fort McHenry, while the land forces were to attack the city.

The commanding officers of the fleet and land army, Admiral Cockburn and General Ross, made their headquarters in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, at the house of Dr. William Beanes, whom they held as their prisoner.

Francis Scott Key, who was a warm friend of Dr. Beanes, went to President Madison in order to enlist his aid in securing the release of Beanes. The president furnished Key with a vessel, and instructed John L. Skinner, agent for the exchange of prisoners, to accompany him under a flag of truce to the British fleet.

The British commander agreed to release Dr. Beanes, but would not permit Key and his party to return then, lest they should carry back important information to the American side. He boastingly declared, however, that the defense could hold out only a few hours, and that Baltimore would then be in the hands of the British.

Skinner and Key were sent on board the Surprise, which was under the command of Admiral Cockburn's son. But after a short time they were allowed to return to their own vessel, and from its deck they saw the American flag waving over Fort McHenry and witnessed the bombardment.

All through the night the furious attack of the British continued. The roar of cannon and the bursting of shells was incessant. It is said that as many as fifteen hundred shells were hurled at the fort.

Shortly before daybreak the firing ceased. Key and his companions waited in painful suspense to know the result. In the intense silence that followed the cannonading, each one asked himself if the flag of his country was still waving on high, or if it had been hauled down to give place to that of England. They strained their eyes in the direction of Baltimore, but the darkness revealed nothing.

At last day dawned, and to their delight the little party saw the American flag still floating over Fort McHenry. Key's heart was stirred to its depths, and in a glow of patriotic enthusiasm he immediately wrote down a rough draft of "The Star-spangled Banner."

On his arrival in Baltimore he perfected the first copy of the song, and gave it to Captain Benjamin Eades, of the 27th Baltimore Regiment, saying that he wished it to be sung to the air of "Anacreon in Heaven." Eades had it put in type, and took the first proof to a famous old tavern near the Holliday Street Theater, a favorite resort of actors and literary people of that day. The verses were read to the company assembled there, and Frederick Durang, an actor, was asked to sing them to the air designated by the author. Durang, mounting a chair, sang as requested. The song was enthusiastically received. From that moment it became the great popular favorite that it has ever since been, and that it will continue to be as long as the American republic exists.

Key died in Baltimore on January 11, 1843. A monument was erected to his memory by the munificence of James Lick, a Californian millionaire. The sculptor to whom the work was intrusted was the celebrated W. W. Story, who completed it in 1887. The monument, which is fifty-one feet high, stands in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. It is built of travertine, in the form of a double arch, under which a bronze statue of Key is seated. A bronze figure, representing America with an unfolded flag, supports the arch.

On the occasion of the unveiling of this statue, the New York Home Journal contained an appreciative criticism of Key as a poet, and the following estimate of his greatest production.

"The poetry of the 'Star-spangled Banner' has touches of delicacy for which one looks in vain in most national odes, and is as near a true poem as any national ode ever was. The picture of the 'dawn's early light' and the tricolor, half concealed, half disclosed, amid the mists that wreathed the battle-sounding Patapsco, is a true poetic concept.

"The 'Star-spangled Banner' has the peculiar merit of not being a to...

Table of contents

• TO-DAY
• "THE MILL BOY OF THE SLASHES"
• THE GREEK SLAVE WHO WON THE OLIVE CROWN
• TURNING POINTS IN THE LIFE OF A HERO
• HE AIMED HIGH AND HIT THE MARK
• THE EVOLUTION OF A VIOLINIST
• THE LESSON OF THE TEAKETTLE
• HOW THE ART OF PRINTING WAS DISCOVERED
• SEA FEVER AND WHAT IT LED TO
• GLADSTONE FOUND TIME TO BE KIND
• A TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE
• THE MIGHT OF PATIENCE
• THE INSPIRATION OF GAMBETTA
• ANDREW JACKSON THE BOY WHO "NEVER WOULD GIVE UP"
• SIR HUMPHRY DAVY'S GREATEST DISCOVERY, MICHAEL FARADAY
• THE TRIUMPH OF CANOVA
• FRANKLIN'S LESSON ON TIME VALUE
• FROM STORE BOY TO MILLIONAIRE
• "I WILL PAINT OR DIE!"
• THE CALL THAT SPEAKS IN THE BLOOD
• WASHINGTON'S YOUTHFUL HEROISM
• A COW HIS CAPITAL
• THE BOY WHO SAID "I MUST"
• THE HIDDEN TREASURE
• LOVE TAMED THE LION
• "THERE IS ROOM ENOUGH AT THE TOP"
• THE UPLIFT OF A SLAVE BOY'S IDEAL
• "TO THE FIRST ROBIN"
• THE "WIZARD" AS AN EDITOR
• HOW GOOD FORTUNE CAME TO PIERRE
• "IF I REST, I RUST"
• A BOY WHO KNEW NOT FEAR
• HOW STANLEY FOUND LIVINGSTONE
• THE NESTOR OF AMERICAN JOURNALISTS
• THE MAN WITH AN IDEA
• "BERNARD OF THE TUILERIES"
• HOW THE "LEARNED BLACKSMITH" FOUND TIME
• THE LEGEND OF WILLIAM TELL
• "WESTWARD HO!"
• THREE GREAT AMERICAN SONGS AND THEIR AUTHORS
• TRAINING FOR GREATNESS
• THE MARBLE WAITETH