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Tl Firi.-&-L -::- Il Monthly Newsleller of the HORATIO ATGER SOCIETY. The World's Only Publicotion Devol- ed to Thot Wonderlul World of Horotio Alger. Fountletl 1961 bq Forrest Campbell b Kennetlt Butler ;iH ,t,Tl firi.-&-l -::- il 'IIIEPARSONAGE' d the Elid Church h the courtry and 6c flrst Indtan Church of South Natfuk will be do6icated as a in America. A plaque will bG prcEcnted to National Histaic site on Nov. 2. Ihe the Rev. Thomas C. Mayne d the Eliot Pleasant Street home was the boyhood Grurch by a representative of the Nadonal home of Horafio Algcr Jr., the famous Park Service at the Chu rch's annual supper to be heH in Memorial Hall on writer. His father, Horatio Alger Sr. was (Photo the minister of the Eliot Cturch from 1860 Saturday evening. bY Joan until l8?4. The church, founded by John Normington) E[ot in 1630, is one of the oHest churches 0n page 3 of this montht" @y., Dr. Max Go1clberg d.etails the proceed.ings leading up to the d.ed.ication of the Alger parson- age as a National Historic Site. (Picture from the Natick. Suburban Press, Oct. 3L, Lsr4) I NE}TSBOY HORATIO ALGER SOCIETY places on its composition, believing it to be perhaps a decade or so later I To further the philosophy of Horatio than the circa 1866 he attributes to f/ i A1ger Jr. and to encourage the spirit of it. Since Alger mentions in the course Strive ancl Succeed that for ha]f a cen- of his narration that Mabelrs grand.- tury guided. Algerts undaunted heroes - father was an adult during the American Iad.s ruhose struggles epitomized the Revolution, I place the time setting of Great American Dream ancl flamed hero the novel two generations 1ater, or ideals in countless millions of young a.bout 1820. Alger also mentions that Ameri cans . the fictional incidents he describes oc- curred about sixty years previous to his I OFFTCER S writing, so a logical date for its com- position rrould be about 1880. Moreover, i LEO (BOB) BENNETT PRESIDENT the fact that the manuscript is in a EVELTN GREBEL VICE-PRES]DENT copyistrs hand suggests to me that Alger CARL T. HARTMANN SECRETARY could afford such a luxur;r as he pre- DALE THOMAS TREAST]RER sumably could not in the apprenticeship- RALPH D. GARDNER DIRECTOR d.ays before @gg| Dick. Nevertheless, LESLIE POSTE DlRECTOR the date the manuscript was vritten is a RICHARD SEDDON DIRECTOR rather inconsequential problem. I have JI]DSON BERBY DIRECTOR no objection to tracing it to about 1866. Certainly the manuscript was @!9y,, the official organ of the found in the archives of Street and Horatio Alger Society, is published Smith, publishers of the New York Sun, monthly and is distributed" free to our for vhom we knov (tnanr<ts-to- Ef t" members. Membership fee for any twelve diligence) ttger wrote in the 1B5O's month period. is $IO.OO. AII membersr ancl r6Ors. inquiries about their subscriptiora ard"f or membership status should be clirected From only one other point in Gil I s v' to the HASrs Secretary, CarL T. Hart- fine essay would I presume to d.issent, mann, 4907 AIIison Dr., Lansing, and it is a bit more basic to my con- Michigan 48910. sid.eration of the novelrs theme. Dick Clarke, though a villain, shoulcl not be Newsbov recognizes Ralph D. Gard.nerrs consiilered a fortune-hunter, for he is Horatio AlAer or. the American Hero Era, willing to sacrifice fortune in order published. by l{ayside Press, L964, as the to obtain, albeit perversely, the hand Iearling authority on the subject. of Mabe1 in marriage. Ind.eed, at one point in the story he tells Squire Manuscripts relating to Horatio Algerrs Parker, from whom he is extorting per- life and r,rorks are solicited by the mission to wed his daughter, rrtf have editor. the good. taste to value youth ancl beauty .x* ,C above the mere dross of gold. rrrx Other- ANOTI{ER LOOK AT MABEL vise, he vould have been content to have by Gary Scharnhorst kept the missing fortune for himself. Gil I{estgardrs article in a recent This concern of such a reprehensible issue of Newsboy_ (January-February, character as Clarke, it seems to me, is Lg75) rru."ffi*me to set pen to ptr.per echoed by the virtuous characters in the also. Since I believe f have the only novel as well, and goes to the heart of copyt besides Gilts, of the original, I a d.istinction I make betrveen Algerrs sense an obligation to provide vhatever juvenile fiction and his atlult fiction. insight I may have concerning it. \rith For example, Mabel claims at one point onl5r tvo minor exceptions, I quite agree that, rtrf eare not for money. To me it with all GiI has written. I tend to is of no value compared with the happi- disagree slightly with the <Iate he ness which I shall enjoy as Henry May NEI,{SBOY [Dr-."rrpo.t]ts vife.rrr)cJ( Tn the world since time immemorial. of Algerrs adult novels, the central characters usually aspire not to I hope all this has not seemed. too Itwealthrr (r^rhich is invariably associ- presumptuousl above all, I hope that Gil ated with the herors personal happiness 't{estgard appreciates my or.m attempt to in the juvenile fiction), but to mar- make sense of Mabel Parker. He was ki_nd riage (vhich in them is associated vith enough to correspond with me several happiness too, ratifying that old. cli- months ago regarcling our opinions of che, trmarital bliss'r ) . ihe manuscript, for vhich f am grateful. In the end, I think our slight differ- To Alger, the juvenile goal of suc- ences are more a product of perspective cess, however that term is clefined, cor- than of temperament. responds to the mature, adult goal of marriage, hearth and home. In other xHoratio Alger, Jr., Mabel Parker; or. words, it seems to me that the adult The Hirlilen Treasure. A Tale of the fiction as a whole anil Mabe1 Parker in Frontier Settlements, unpublishecl novel, particular inform trr" ,t@r'rf[ffi c. 1880, p. 61. From the Street and clarifying beyonrl any doubt that Alger Smith Collection, George Arents Besearch was a moralist, more concerned rrith the Library for Special Collections at moral uses of the money his heroes earn Syracuse University. Quoted by per- or inherit than with the money itself. mission of The Cond.e Nast Publications, His adult novels reveal by inference Inc. that his juvenile novels are American morality fables, not accounts of budd.ing xxlbicl. , p. 93. entrepreneurs on the make. )C )C TIM PARSONAGE AT SOUTH NATICK In my opinion, one of the most salient DECLARED A features of the manuscripted novel is a NATIONAL H]STONICAL LANDMARK thinly disguised similarity to one of the Leatherstocking Tales of James Ded,icated November 2, L974 Fenimore Cooper, entitlecl The Pioneers (which might have been one reason why by Dr. Max Golclberg Street and- Smith declined to issue it). Both novels are set in the lake district Before going into details, I must of Nev York state. Characters are also first thank both Forrest Campbell and d,uplicated, with Elizabeth Temple be- Stewart Mcleish for their endorsements coming Mabel Parker, Eclward Effingham and recommendations to the United States becoming Henry Davenport, Judge Temple Department of the Interior as to my becoming Squire Parker, and Tndian John qualifications. It aIl took three becoming Intlian John, or Logan, or Jack. years, but it was r+orth the corres- ponclence, phone calls anil effort. Similar incidents also appear in them. In both, for example, a rleer is shot On February 3t L97L, the U. S. Depart- simultaneously by two characters who ment of the Interior wrote to Forrest then argue over the carcass, a shooting Campbel}, rrasking for homes that A1ger match is held in which the virtuous occupied in Natick as well as .in other character emerges victorious, and fndian places.rr ft was signed by Robert M. John is cautionecl to abstain from Demon Uttey, Chief Historian Rum. Both also contain scenes of lnti- macy between Elizabeth-Mabel and Edwarcl- 0n February 1I, 197L, Forrest Campbell Henry. It seems, i, other words, that answered Mr. Utley stating, rrI recom- Alger borroved from an earlier r,rork for mend, that you contact Mrax Goldberg, 728 the skeleton of this one, much as he at 1{orcester St., Natick, Massachusetts. '-\- other times rewrote Charles Dickens, and Mr. Goldberg has d.one much historical much as a panoply of writers have done research on the subject of Horatio 1975 NEi.ISBOY Alger home named historic site v The homestead of Horailo .\lser tlon c,f union Street and Rte. 16 Jr., the worlci-iatr,:us authoi lf rvas not constructed 'mHl l82B -- rags -ir-riches bo1,'s' storles, has irs foundatlons, sald the pastor, been .lecia:.ed eligtble to hecome iev. al6n1x5 Mayne, date to John a Naiional Hisioric Landmark. Ellotts time in the mid-seventeen- Graateci il:e tltie is the Eii,rt ih century. Church Parsonage in South Naiirk at iC Pieesa;1s St.r where 1-oung Little Chanse Alger lived as a boy when hli The Rev. Mr ilIalxe conflrmed father was minister of thechurch that the parsonage ts substantlally from 1860 to 18?4. the same as lt was in Alger,s The designation comes from the time. ..The kitchen has been National Park Service, according remodled recentlyr" he s'rid, to Davld Dlmmlck, moderator of ,.and the heating system ls mod- the ehurch, The ehurch, as owner ern, but apart fromthat it ts pretty of the house, must now formally mueh as it was.
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