DECLAMATION, RECITAȚION, AND ELOCUTIONARY

READINGS IN COMMON SCHOOLS.

Entered according to Act of Congress, A. D. 1867,

By H. H. BANCROFT & COMPANY,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for tho

District of California

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This compilation of prose and poetical selections for declamations, recitations, and elocutionary readings, is designed for use in Grammar Schools and ungraded country schools. The large size and high price of most of the “ School Speakers” practically exclude them from schools below the grade of High Schools. A book of medium size, and reasonable price, seems to be needed for our Common Schools.

It has been the aim of the compiler to select pieces adapted to the tastes and understanding of school children, to make modern selections not found in other works of a similar character, and to exclude the waste matter, never used by either teachers or pupils, which fills so large a space in many works on elocution. The prose declamations, selected from American orators, are patriotic and national in their character; and the poetical selections, mostly from American poets, are full of that fervid devotion to freedom which constitutes the life of the

nation. Many of the selections in this volume bave stood the practical test of use in a large grammar school, in which some attention was given to elocution; and its preparation originated in a desire to meet a want felt and expressed by many common school teachers.