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Some vanishing types as portrayed in American literature; (a collection of material to be used as the basis for a junior high school textbook) Item Type text; Thesis-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Thiel, Olga Berta Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 03/10/2021 19:27:30 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/553214 Some Vanishing Types as Portrayed in American Literature (A collection of material to be used as the basis for a Junior high school textbook) by Olga Berta Thiel Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, of the University of Arizona 1 9 3 3 Approved: ^— Majdr adviser ) 6 ? ? ? / Contents Page c~*yO,2~ I • Introduction 1 Meaning of the term, vanishing types Value of a study of these characters Purpose of this thesis II. The vanishing type as material for literature . • • 3 Brief history of the vanishing type in literature Value of various types to literature Manner of treatment III. Discussion of types and selections Lumberjack •••*. .................. ....6 Stagecoach driver , . ... ......... 18 Spinster.......... ••.*..••29 Blacksmith ....... .................... • .41 Schoolmaster ......................................49 Circuit rider . ............................... 59 Lime burner ................................. .. • 69 Drummer boy • • ...................... .....74 Country doctor ............ ........ .82 Peddler ............................... •••••91 Bibliography • ......................... ..... 103 Appendix A. Additional list of books in which the types discussed are portrayed ........ 107 Appendix B. Additional list of types, and books and poems in which they are described • • • • • 109 90845 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION Living in an age that is scientifically and mechanically minded, we have adjusted ourselves readily to each new comfort or convenience that has been provided for us. It is interest- ■ • ' ■ ■ : ■ - ' ■ - : ■ • ' . • .. , / : _ ing to look ahead and make conjectures regarding new scientific marvels, but it is equally interesting to face about and exam­ ine the background of some of our highly systematized and effi­ cient institutions. Here are many quaint and picturesque fig­ ures. Behind our great metropolitan department stores with ' 'i their infinite variety of merchandise, their deliveries to homes, and their credit systems, there is the peddler with his pack, a miniature department store, delivering to homes and frequently taking his pay in kind. Behind our well-organized clinics with their highly trained specialists and uniformed nurses, there is the country doctor jogging along over dusty roads, the major part of his equipment in one or two battered leather cases. Behind, the airplanes droning overhead and carrying mail with incredible speed there are the riders of the ■ ■ ■ ■ : r - ; ■ ■■ ■ . :■ ■ ' ' ' .. • ■■■: ■ pony express upon their mustangs covering the dangerous miles between St. Joseph and San Francisco in eight days. So there are countless other figures, some of them steps in the evolution of our modern institutions, others, however, of such nature that modern progress has not seen fit to build upon them. But all of them are gradually fading into the past There are those whose outlines are already faint and dim; -8- othere are still definite in form and bright in color; atill others in an attempt to survive are changing in character as the old form vanishes. As they disappear, their quaintness and picturesqueness become more apparent, and we sense their value as embodiments of an age when life moved more slowly, but less comfortably. Fortunately the poet, the novelist, and the short story writer saw them in their prime and have left us lifelike portrayals of them, to which we must turn for a complete conception of the peddler, the lumberjack, the stagecoach driver, and their con­ temporaries. Literature reveals them to us as human beings, real and alive, with problems and feelings similar to ours. History gives the facts about them, but literature makes them human. Familiarity with one of these disappearing figures usually Invites acquaintance with others until the background of our institutions becomes filled with vital beings as real as the people around us. The purpose of my thesis is to examine the portrayals of some of these vanishing types, and to collect a number of ex­ tracts describing them, together with historical facts and sup­ plementary reading lists. My intention in making the collec­ tion is to use the whole as a basis for a textbook for junior high school English classes. CHAPTER II THE VANISHING TYPE AS MATERIAL FOR LITERATURE THE VANISHING TYPE AS MATERIAL FOR LITERATURE The vanishing type as a character In American literature is closely associated with the use of local color, a term which implies the presentation of a setting in such manner as to bring out the distinctive features of a certain group of peo­ ple in a certain section of the country or of a definite occu­ pation . Local color shows the peculiarities of people and their differences from the ordinary and has an interest in place only so far as it helps to bring out human characterist­ ics. Irving, making use of local color in his stories of the Hudson River valley, produced his famous Knickerbockers and the unforgettable schoolmaster of Sleepy Hollow. Cooper created the scout, Leatherstocking, a man of simple life and elemental passions. A few decades later the famous New Eng­ land group, Hawthorne, Holmes, Whittier, and Longfellow, added to the list of vanishing types. But it was Bret Herte, the creator of John Oakhurst and Yuba Bill, who headed the list of distinotively local color writers that began in the 1860*s and have continued to the present day. Almost contemporary with Harte, Edward Eggleston wrote of the circuit rider and the Hoosier schoolmaster, while Mark Twain described the river captain and the stagecoach driver. During the last quarter of the nineteenth century, a num­ ber of writers made special characters their own, among *4 them Sarah Orne Jewett and Mary E. Wilkins who wrote of their neighbor* in Hew England, George W. Cable of the Louisiana Creoles, Mary M# Murfree of the Tennessee mountaineers, Thomas Helson Page and Joel Chandler Harris of the Southern negro, Hamlin Garland of certain types in the Middle West, and Owen V/ister of those in the Southwest. Some drew upon definite occupations for their characters as Stewart Edward White upon -lumbering and Will James upon cattle ranching. The search by the story-teller for local color has led to the exploitation of almost every distinctive community and mode of life, but a- mong the later writers some have forgotten that external tags and catalog!eh details do not produce true character anti that they must penetrate beneath the surface to portray real people. Hot all types present the same appeal to the story-teller, even as not all attract the popular fancy. There is always admiration for the physically strong, the skillful, the re­ sourceful in danger| and to the extent that this is true, characters like the cowboy, the lumberman, and the stagecoach driver have found a place in literature. On the other hand while the blacksmith has muscular strength and skill, his life lacks movement anti the element of danger; consequently interest in him is not sustained. The attraction of the peddler lies chiefly in his quick wit, his infallible good nature, and his skill in bargaining. He touched life in such a variety of ways that he never ceases to be interesting. If the life of the circuit rider had had more of romance and color, the itin­ erant preacher would be a more popular figure in literature. -5. While his life called for great courage and self-eaerifice, it was filled with too much that is not obviously heroic. Sometimes a type, uninteresting in itself, attracts at­ tention because of a certain personality behind it. It is not the lime burner that attracts us; it is Ethan Brand, and he would be an arresting figure in any occupation. In a similar manner it is David Ritchie and Sam Cruder that interest us in the drummer boy. If realism is a showing of people and conditions as we know them, then most of these types have been portrayed in & realistic manner. With the exception of certain Southern wri­ ters all wrote of their own time; Cable, Harris, and Page, turning back, chose their characters from the period preceding the Civil War, and, as is usual in the portrayals of the past, have invested their characters with a certain amount of roman­ ticism. Caricature is scarce, the only striking example being Irving's famous schoolmaster. Ho particular type of treat­ ment can claim Paul Bunyan, the folk hero of the nation; he is the product of the exuberant spirit and exaggeration of the American people. CHAPTER III DISCUSSION OF TYPES WITH SELECTIONS 6 THE LUMBERJACK When the colonists came to America, they were obliged to take up lumbering as their first Industry, not only that they might have material with which to build their homes, but also that they might have cleared land for their crops. Lumber, too, was the one commodity at hand which could be sent back across the ocean in exchange for necessities from the mother country. This industry accompanied the spread of population westward; however, as one section after another became settled, it was no longer left to each man to hew down trees as he pleased. Individuals and companies accepted the cutting down of timber as their calling and found a gainful occupation in supplying their country with material for houses and ships. The supremacy in lumber production moved from New England to New York and on to Pennsylvania.

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