OLD-TIME SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL-BOOKS - online book

An Illustrated history & description Of Schools in the 18th & 19th Centurys.

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	184 Old-time Schools and School-books The little sentences make a curious medley, and are not at all childlike; yet they have a certain lively straightforwardness and are often picturesque and entertaining. They inculcate thrift, sobriety, and the other virtues, and considerable instruction is conveyed by them, though some of it is rather indigestible. All the editions of Webster's book from first to last have about them a certain crudity and primitiveness, but the book was suited to the times and regions when and where it most flourished. It did its work well, and it would have made Noah Webster's fame secure, had he produced nothing else. Its sway weakened first in New England, but its use continued to increase in the South and West until the Civil War began. Since then the sales have dwindled, yet there are schools where it is studied even at present, and " The Old Blue-back" stands unrivalled among American books in circulation and length of life.
	The Bad Boy, as he appeared in the Illustrated Edition of 1829.