p. 70 | That Dana Family

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Feb 9, 1882

That Dana Family.

By Saw-Mill Chat, in National Baptist

STIMPSON, the postmaster, was expatiating on the wonderful use that might be made of the newspaper as an educator. Some one joked him, saying it was because he was postmaster, and he wanted to magnify his office and increase the sale of stamps.

Jericho Jones came to Stimpson's support. "Stimpson's right;" said he. "It is surprising what may be got out of a good newspaper, providing a man knows how to use it. It is like the magician's bottle which gives out seven different kinds of drink, and none of them harmful either. I know a case in point. There's that Dana family down on the Ohio River. Just now they own the finest farm in that whole region. The family are remarkable. There are three sons and two daughters. I have stopped there often over night on my commercial agency. I know all about them. George, the oldest, is now twenty-two. He is well educated, and can make a good speech, and has been called on to speak at county fairs, and sometimes fills a pulpit on Sunday. Bob, the second one, has developed a fine literary talent, and has in him the making of a fine writer. Sam, the youngest, has a turn for natural science; and, boy though he is, people from all around the country come to him to get recipes and prescriptions for all manner of useful appliances and remedies needed on a farm. As Sam has never been away from home, they wonder how he got so much information. The two girls, Mary and Harriet, are not a whit behind the boys in their departments. They are such splendid housekeepers; and then they are so well informed on all miscellaneous subjects that they are head and shoulders above all the other girls up and down that whole region.

"And how did it all happen? There were no good schools in the neighborhood when they came there, although there are now. The story is simple enough. I have heard the father tell it. Years ago he lost a fine farm near Pittsburg by going security for a false friend. They came down where they now are, and bought a narrow strip of cheap land alongside the farm they now own, on credit. The father managed to keep one good cow, and then he subscribed for the best family newspaper that he knew of. The cow was to furnish milk for his children, and the newspaper was to furnish some food for their understanding; as the father said to me with a laugh, 'after having lost my other farm, I started to bring up my family of five children on a cow and a newspaper.'

"And the father did it well. Here's the way he went about it. In the long evenings, first of all, he started a rousing fire in the big kitchen. They had their plain supper of milk and mush, and a few odds and ends. Then they had two good lamps lit. Whatever else they did without, the father said they must have a good fire and good light to make home cheery for the children. Then the father would get the newspaper and read. He was a very intelligent man; and he would stop and explain things and tell anecdotes as he went along. This gained the attention of the children. Then he and the mother would often discuss things that were in the papers, and often get the children to discuss the merits of different questions in their juvenile way. It was surprising what interest the children soon took in the newspaper. After a time, departments of the newspaper were assigned to each one. All the political and foreign news were assigned to George. He was to read them and to give a summary for the benefit of the rest. Sometimes the father got him on the floor, and got him to tell off in his own language the leading ideas of some fine editorial. That's what made George a speaker. Bob had all the book notices assigned to him. He told the contents of the books as reported in the newspaper notice of them. The father added all the information he had on each subject as it was brought up. In after years when they got in better circumstances, the best of these books were sent for; and now that old farm-house, has not a large, but one of the choicest libraries in the county. Besides, Bob soon found the way to get other books; and now he is preparing to write book-reviews for himself.

"Sam had the scientific department and all the items about improved agriculture. One evening, it came his turn to lecture, which he sometimes did standing out on the floor, after the style of his brother George, and with a deal of mock gravity and real interest, informed the assembled family of the latest discoveries in his department. He converted a deserted smoke house into a laboratory. He tried his own experiments with the recipes in the newspaper. Some he proved to be shams. Others turned out well. Then he classified them and pasted them in a scrap book. He was an authority upon varnishes and white-wash and lotions and ointments and plasters and cements and various improvements of all kinds.

"The two daughters divided up between themselves the housekeeping and the fancy articles of the newspaper. Both had a taste for decoration; and the old house from cellar to garret became ornamented with neat furnishing of their own handiwork. The household recipes they tried one after another, as they came out in the papers. Many of them were rejected after one trial. Others were found to be of value and found their way into their scrap-book. It was often said that no housekeeper in the county could put a quart of milk and a handful of meal or half a dozen eggs to as many good and varied uses as those two Dana girls. The neighbors who came there to supper at times were surprised at the elegant way in which the food was served up, and were always wondering why that Dana family should know so much more than other people."

Jericho ended his narrative with a thump of approbation. Stimpson resumed. "There it is; Jericho has proved what I said to be true. What a pity it is that all our farmers around here do not try to make their homes more cheery in winter evenings. Mr. Dana was right. He didn't spare the wood, and he didn't spare the oil. He furnished his children with good reading matter, and so he is making good men and women of them. There's a good deal, though," said Stimpson, "in knowing how to select a good newspaper, and in knowing how to read it when you get it. If a man doesn't care about reading a paper himself, he ought to take some thought for his children. The man who attempts to bring up a family of children without a good and well-read religious newspaper, does them a wrong which no amount of wealth bequeathed to them can ever atone for. Indeed, for lack of such a paper, many a legacy has proved a curse."—Saw-Mill Chat, in National Baptist.