COPYRIGHT, 1925, BY WILL C. WOOD, ALICE CECILIA COOPER

AND FREDERICK A. RICE

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

825.8

The Athenæum Press

GINN AND COMPANY PRO-
PRIETORS BOSTON • U.S.A.

PREFACE

In "America's Message" the authors have purposed to bring together a collection of selections from American literature, both prose and poetry, which reveal the significant ideals of American life, and through which an understanding patriotism and a finer appreciation of the spirit of America may be upbuilt in high-school students.

Many collections of American historical and political exposition and argument are already available; but since these, as a rule, are of little interest to students in the first two years of high school, the editors of this volume have aimed to show the spirit of America mainly through narrative, descriptive, and lyric selections, giving preference to recent or contemporary material rather than to the older and more familiar strictly patriotic writings.

Since this book is intended as a revelation of spirit, it does not attempt to present all periods of American literature or to arrange the selections chronologically. It does represent various sections of our country, and each selection portrays a significant incident, an important character, or a fundamental ideal of American life. In order that the patriotic message of America may impress itself, the editors have preferred to sacrifice logical order and completeness to variety and interest.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The editors acknowledge with appreciation and thanks the
courtesy of the following publishers in granting their per-
mission to reprint extracts and poems from their copyrighted
publications:

American Unitarian Association. Extract from "Life's Enthusiasms,"
by David Starr Jordan.

D. Appleton and Company. Chapters from "The Story of the Cow-
boy," by Emerson Hough, and from "The Career of Leonard Wood," by
Joseph H. Sears.

Barse & Hopkins. Poem from "Rhymes of a Red Cross Man," by
Robert Service.

Brentano's. Poem by Harry Kemp.

The Century Co. Selections from Conquests of Invention," by
Mary R. Parkman, and from "Stories of the Great West," by Theodore
Roosevelt.

Dodd, Mead & Company. Poem from "The Hour has Struck," by
Angela Morgan.

George H. Doran Company. Poem from "The Vision Splendid," by
John Oxenham. Copyright 1917.

Doubleday, Page & Company. Selections from "The Life and Letters
of Walter Hines Page," by Burton J. Hendrick; "Brotherhood" and
"Man-Making" from "The Gates of Paradise," and "The Man with the
Hoe" from "The Man with the Hoe," by Edwin Markham; "The
Octopus," by Frank Norris; "Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout," by
Stewart Edward White; and "Poems" by Walt Whitman, copyrighted,
by permission of Doubleday, Page & Company.

Harcourt, Brace and Company, Inc. Poem from "McAroni Ballads,"
by T. A. Daly, copyright 1919, and selection from "Masters of Science
and Invention," by Floyd L. Darrow, copyright 1923.

Harper & Brothers. Selections from "Roughing It," by Mark Twain.
Harr Wagner Publishing Co. Poem by Joaquin Miller.

Henry Holt and Company. Story from "Home Fires in France," by
Dorothy Canfield Fisher.