94 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Boy of nine : " I would like to be like Captain Jack Crawford. 

 I like him because be is so brave and because he fought the Indians. 

 I heard him speak at the Market Hall. He said, ' Once there was 

 a man in front of me and one in the back and I killed them both at 

 one time.' " 



Bo J of ten : " Captain John Smith because he made adventures 

 all over america where he was captured many times by the In- 

 dians." 



Boy of twelve : " Wicarta the N'ew York detective Becuse he 

 had so many adventures." 



Boy of twelve : " Eobison Crusoe. Becuse he had no expenses 

 to pay and I would like to be near the Indians and a person would 

 be more appt to discover something." 



Perhaps to us the most important result of historical instruction 

 in the lower grades is the making of patriots. At fifteen it is true 

 that only ten per cent of the papers consciously emphasize the love 

 of country. But Washington and Lincoln are the chosen ideals of 

 forty per cent of the children above ten years of age, and the curves 

 shown in Chart III are made up almost entirely of American heroes. 

 Probably no greater variety of nationalities could be represented in 

 an equal number of papers than are found in those forming the 

 basis of the present study; nevertheless, the public schools have done 

 their work. Children of English, German, Italian, Irish, Spanish, 

 Portuguese parentage have become Americans, and their loftiest 

 ideals are embodied in our national heroes. A striking illustration of 

 this is the case of an English boy of thirteen, who last year refused to 

 salute the American flag in the school exercises of Decoration Day, 

 but who, the following„ November, named, as his hero of heroes, 

 Abraham Lincoln, " because he was trueful, honest, kind and 

 brave." Indeed, those children who select foreign ideals often apolo- 

 gize, as in the case of the ten-year-old boy who explains his choice of 

 ]^apoleon, " He was in a great many more wars than Washington 

 or Lincoln." This patriotic spirit is exemplified below: 



Boy of ten : " George Washington because he saved our coun- 

 try." 



Boy of ten : " Col. Allen. I like him becuse he saved our coun- 

 try one clear morning." 



Girl of eleven : " Washington. I wish to be good myself as 

 Washington has been, and mostly because I wish to do good for my 

 country (the United States) as Washington has done." 



Boy of thirteen : " Abraham Lincoln. It was he who pro- 

 claimed slavery ended." 



Boy of thirteen (of foreign birth) : " The one whom I should 

 like to resemble most is George Washington, because he was brave 



