JAMES FENIMORE COOPER

American Pioneer Prose Writers

Monograph Number Six in The Mentor Reading Course

James Fenimore Cooper was one of the most popular writers that ever lived. Almost every American has read some or all of Cooper’s books, and his stories have been translated into nearly all the languages of Europe, and indeed into some of Asia. Balzac, the French novelist, admired him greatly. Victor Hugo, another famous French writer, said that Cooper was greater than any novelist living at that time. Many of Cooper’s readers gave him the title of “The American Walter Scott.”

Cooper was born at Burlington, New Jersey, September 15, 1789. His boyhood was spent in the wild country around Otsego Lake, New York. His father was a judge and a member of Congress. Cooper entered Yale at the early age of fourteen, and was the youngest student on the rolls.

At college he did not pay much attention to his studies, and in fact was rather wayward. Before he had even completed his junior year, his resignation was requested. His father interceded for him; but it was useless. The young man then entered the United States navy; but, after becoming a midshipman, he resigned to marry. He then settled down in Westchester County, New York. His home life proved to be most happy.

He published his first book, “Precaution,” anonymously. Then came “The Spy,” in 1821, a success from the very first. Many novels followed in rapid succession. In 1826 he went to Paris, where he published “The Prairie,” which many consider the best of all his books. He became very popular abroad. The most distinguished people of Europe felt honored to entertain him.

In 1833 he returned to America, where he discovered that his popularity was declining, as American critics did not believe that his later books were measuring up to his earlier standard. He resented the sharp criticism of several of his writings, and much ill feeling grew up between the novelist and the public.

In particular he was on bad terms with his neighbors in the village of Cooperstown, New York, where he lived. This came to a climax in a fierce quarrel over the ownership of a bit of woodland which extended into the lake near his home, Otsego Hall. Cooper won in the courts;—but the villagers evened things up with him by personal attacks. Law-suits followed one after another. Although Cooper pretended indifference to public opinion, nevertheless he suffered under the abusive attacks.

Cooper was not on intimate terms with the prominent literary men of his day. Toward the end of his life he loved his home more and more. He was fond of walking in the woods and fields, and, as he himself said, he had “an old man’s yearning for the solemn shadows of the trees.” On September 14, 1851, he died peacefully in his home at Cooperstown, surrounded by members of his family.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATIONILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 4, No. 6, SERIAL No. 106COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

By HAMILTON W. MABIE

Author and Critic

FRANKLININ1784MODELEDBYGIUSEPPECENACHI

FRANKLININ1784

MODELEDBYGIUSEPPECENACHI

THE MENTOR

MAY 1, 1916 · DEPARTMENT OF LITERATURE

MENTOR GRAVURESJONATHAN EDWARDSBENJAMIN FRANKLINCHARLES BROCKDEN BROWNWASHINGTON IRVINGJAMES KIRKE PAULDINGJAMES FENIMORE COOPER

MENTOR GRAVURES

JONATHAN EDWARDS’ MEETING HOUSEBuilt 1737—Torn down 1812

JONATHAN EDWARDS’ MEETING HOUSE

Built 1737—Torn down 1812

The literatures of the great nations have begun with the childhood of those nations; that is to say, with fairy tales and legends and songs of heroism; with Homer’s “Iliad” and “Odyssey,” the Song of Beowulf (bay´-o-wulf), to name a few among many of the great beginnings of writing. In this country the pioneer writers shared the conditions of the pioneer builders of homes and communities. They were not, however, a people in their intellectual infancy. The country was new; but the people were old. They had all left literature of a high order behind them. Many of them must have been familiar with poetry and prose in English, French, and German, to say nothing of the classic literature which the scholars knew; and there were many scholars, north and south, among the early settlers.

The exploration and settlement of the country was a great adventure, which involved not only peril, but very hard work. In every colony people had to begin at the beginning,—to get roofs over their heads to protect them from the climate, to raise the things they were to eat, to protect themselves from the Indians,—to do a thousand things of which people of our day are unconscious because they were done so long ago. The distances between the colonies were great, the means of communication were slow and infrequent, and the colonists knew very little of one another. They were isolated communities, not in any sense a nation. And so the early writing was the expression of the experiences and convictions of small communities. There cannot be a national literature until there is a national consciousness; and in the early days in America there was not even a sectional consciousness. There was only local consciousness.

THE JONATHAN EDWARDS ELM, Northampton, Mass.Set by Jonathan Edwards in 1730—The house of Josiah D. Whitney stands on the right of Edwards’ house

THE JONATHAN EDWARDS ELM, Northampton, Mass.

Set by Jonathan Edwards in 1730—The house of Josiah D. Whitney stands on the right of Edwards’ house

The first book written on the continent was by that flamboyant, but very versatile Virginia colonist, Captain John Smith; a brave soldier, with a very warm and highly inventive imagination, whose habit of boasting has robbed him of a great deal of credit which really belonged to him. He wrote an account of adventures in Virginia, which may be taken as the beginning of American writing, and still has value. There was a long interval during which the writing of the colonists was devoted to theological discussion, or to accounts of the new world in which they were living.

A large part of the early writings of New England was more or less theological; but none of this writing rose to the rank of literature until Jonathan Edwards appeared in the first half of the eighteenth century.

The son of a minister who was a lover of learning as well as of religion, like a great many other ministers of his time in New England, who prepared young men for college, and gave his daughters the same kind of instruction in the same subjects. Edwards was also the grandson of a minister on his mother’s side; and his ancestry, like his descendants, was notable for intellectual vigor. He graduated from Yale College at the age of thirteen,—not an uncommon happening in that day of few entrance requirements,—and the qualities of his mind and the direction of his taste are indicated by the fact that he was already making notes on the mind and on natural philosophy. He studied for the ministry, and when he was twenty-four years old settled at Northampton, Massachusetts, where he was fortunate enough to marry a woman as remarkable as himself, of whom he wrote a description which has become a classic in the literature of love. Edwards was pursued by a haunting sense of sinfulness, and the depravity of the world often weighed heavily upon him. Mrs. Edwards happily combined a piety equal to that of her husband with great cheerfulness of disposition.

HOUSE IN BOSTON IN WHICH FRANKLIN WAS BORN, 1706MEDALLION OF FRANKLIN, Age 72By Jean Baptiste NiniFRANKLIN’S GRAVEFifth and Arch Sts., Philadelphia

HOUSE IN BOSTON IN WHICH FRANKLIN WAS BORN, 1706

MEDALLION OF FRANKLIN, Age 72By Jean Baptiste Nini

MEDALLION OF FRANKLIN, Age 72

By Jean Baptiste Nini

FRANKLIN’S GRAVEFifth and Arch Sts., Philadelphia

FRANKLIN’S GRAVE

Fifth and Arch Sts., Philadelphia

A man of his intensity was certain to come into collision with some of the ideas held by his contemporaries and with much of their practice; and Edwards finally antagonized his congregation to such a degree that at the age of fifty-six he preached his farewell sermon. Several avenues of work were open to him, for he had become a man of wide reputation; but he settled at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and wrote in the quiet of what was then a wilderness his famous treatise on “The Freedom of the Will,” which is probably the most important American contribution to philosophy. It is his sermons, however, rather than his treatises, which entitle his work to a place in the history of American literature. Between eleven and twelve hundred of these sermons are preserved in Yale University Library. They are characterized by great vigor of thought, intensity of feeling, and often impressive power of statement. One of them, more famous, though in some respects not so true a piece of literature as others, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” created great commotion in its time, and the glow of the fire which possessed the preacher has not yet wholly faded from its pages.

FRANKLIN, from a painting by D. Martin

As the War of the Revolution approached the colonists began to have hopes and fears in common, and the war was preceded by a war of words. The grievances of the colonists were stated many times, sometimes with great force of reasoning and clearness; and a literature of discussion and debate, which reached the public largely through pamphlets, came into existence. Samuel Adams of Massachusetts wrote a stirring defense of the rights of the colonists. James Adams, James Otis, and Thomas Jefferson came to the front in this discussion; and their writing took on the dignity of literature.

FRANKLIN

One of the most vigorous contributors to this discussion was Thomas Paine, an Englishman by birth, whose ability as a writer attracted the attention of Benjamin Franklin, then in London, at whose suggestion Paine came to America. He had already made himself somewhat noted as a radical critic of the English government and political system, and within a year of his arrival in this country became editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine. His “Common Sense,” a pamphlet published in 1776, was a very vigorous argument in favor of severing all ties with the mother country. The argument was put so strongly, and at the same time with such simplicity, that it made a great impression on all kinds of people, and the Pennsylvania legislature, in recognition of the services he had rendered to the American cause, made him a gift of five hundred pounds. This pamphlet was immediately translated into various European languages. His “Crisis,” which was published from time to time during the war, was also of great importance to the Americans, and the first number was read by order of Washington to every regiment in the colonial army. This was in the terrible winter of 1776, and the spirit and courage expressed in these papers did much to relieve the despondency of the time. The “Age of Reason,” an attack on the Bible, published in 1794, shocked the world, and so beclouded Paine’s reputation that his great service to the country has been largely overlooked.

CHARLES BROCKDEN BROWNBy Wm. Dunlap—1806

CHARLES BROCKDEN BROWN

By Wm. Dunlap—1806

If one wanted to name three men who are in a supreme degree representative of three leading American types, he would not go far astray if he named Franklin, Emerson, and Lincoln. Several years before the Revolution Hume described Franklin as “The First and indeed the first great Man of Letters in America”; and Dr. Johnson, in that most delightful exploitation of ignorance and eloquence, “Taxation No Tyranny,” described him as “a master of mischief.” Franklin was then one of the foremost representatives of the colonists, and one of the most ardent advocates of their claims. For thirty years Europe knew more about him than any other man in America, not excepting Washington. He was a Bostonian by birth, the son of a tallow chandler. He had a casual contact with the Boston Latin School; but his formal education was finished in his eleventh year, when he began to work as a general utility boy in his father’s shop. He was fond of reading, and was fortunate enough to possess Bunyan’s works, and a little later he was reading Robinson Crusoe and other works by Defoe, who undoubtedly had great influence on his style. His love of books inclined him to the printer’s trade, and his self-education went on rapidly. Another piece of good fortune was finding a volume of the Spectator. He has given a very interesting account of his use of this classic of sound, clear English prose, and has described its influence on his language and style. Then he read Xenophon’s “Memorabilia,” which gave him a clear idea of the Socratic method of discussion. At the age of fifteen he was already writing for the colonial press, contributing essays notable for their very sensible moralizing and their practical wisdom; for Franklin was, and still is, the representative of American practical sagacity and commonsense.

Fame and fortune came to him with the publication of Poor Richard’s Almanac, which began in 1732 and was continued for a quarter of a century. These almanacs went into almost every house in America, and served not only as calendars, lists of events, warnings about the weather, with doggerel verses, but furnished proverbs of a very practical character, and also margins on which all sorts of notes could be written. “Keep thy shop and thy shop will keep thee,” is a good example of “Poor Richard’s” practical wisdom. His personal experience at home and abroad made Franklin in many ways the most conspicuous American of his time. His industry is shown by the fact that his work fills a hundred and seven volumes. In this mass of writing, of greatest importance is his Autobiography, which told the story of his life from his childhood to his arrival in London in 1757. It is a straight, clear, unpretentious piece of writing, and, all things considered, must be considered one of the most important original contributions to American literature.

MATILDA HOFFMANBy MalboneWASHINGTON IRVINGFrom the painting by Gilbert Stuart NewtonBUST OF IRVING IN BRYANT PARK, NEW YORK CITY

MATILDA HOFFMANBy Malbone

MATILDA HOFFMAN

By Malbone

WASHINGTON IRVINGFrom the painting by Gilbert Stuart Newton

WASHINGTON IRVING

From the painting by Gilbert Stuart Newton

BUST OF IRVING IN BRYANT PARK, NEW YORK CITY

SUNNYSIDE, IRVING’S HOME NEAR TARRYTOWN, N. Y.

TABLET BY V. D. BRENNER, ON WASHINGTON IRVING HIGH SCHOOL, NEW YORK CITY

If John Woolman’s work had borne any resemblance to that of Jonathan Edwards, Charles Lamb would never have said of it, “Learn Woolman’s work by heart.” It was as far as possible removed from the Dantesque vigor of the Puritan preacher. Woolman was a Quaker, born in New Jersey, with very few educational opportunities, but of a naturally religious nature, and seemed early, though in a perfectly normal way, to have thought of the world as the creation of a great and benignant God. Like many other naturally serious youths of his time, as of Bunyan’s time, he was sorely beset by a consciousness of sinfulness, which he expressed in terms that today seem morbid in their intensity. He accused himself of offenses of which it is quite certain that he was innocent; but he began very early to understand the gospel of love and to desire above everything else to live in complete harmony with the will of God. He was not satisfied, however, to do this by simply obeying the law of righteousness or acquiescing in a will which he could not oppose. He was eager to make his obedience positive and active; so he became one of the earliest antislavery men in the country, and one of the most ardent. His genius saved him from fanaticism; while his simple earnestness and his effective appeal to the higher ideals of his auditors made him a persuasive speaker. He hated slavery; but he never attacked the slaveholder. His nature was one of singular purity and harmony; and as he had no self-consciousness and no ambition, and writing was simply a means of expression, his nature got into his style. Although an illiterate Quaker, an English critic declared that “He writes in a style of the most exquisite purity and grace.” His Journal, which is considered one of the classics of early American literature, is an unaffected and intimate record of his thoughts, feelings, and experiences. It was begun in his thirty-seventh year. It is not in any sense great literature; but it is real literature, and as contrasted with all the colonial writing, save that of Edwards and Franklin, it stands out by reason of the purity of its style and the beauty of its feeling and thought.

JAMES K. PAULDING, by Jarvis

The note of mystery was struck early in American writing, “Peter Rugg,” by William Austin, appearing in the New England Galaxy in 1824-1826.

Charles Brockden Brown’s stories were published still earlier; and he is often spoken of as the predecessor of Hawthorne. Like Francis Hopkinson, he was a Philadelphian, who studied law and made literature his profession. His first novel, “Wieland, or The Transformation,” was a story of ventriloquism, very artificial, but skilful and interesting. This was followed by a much more striking tale, “Edgar Huntley,” a tale of terror, which seemed to predict Poe, and this in turn by three or four other novels. Brown was an industrious man, and his activity extended into other fields. He published a number of pamphlets and semiscientific treatises. His work had little permanent value. It was sentimental and unreal, and lacked art; but its morbid psychology and a certain kind of intensity gave it popularity at the time.

PAULDING’S HOME AT PLEASANT VALLEY, N. Y.

American literature in the strictest sense of the word really began in the city of New York with the publication of Washington Irving’s Knickerbocker History of New York. New York was then the most cosmopolitan of all cities of the New World, as it was the largest. It was a pleasant town of twenty-five thousand people, and it had picturesque traditions; for it was first settled by the Dutch, who had, in a way, taken possession of the Hudson River. They were followed in turn by the English, and still later there was a large influx of French Huguenots. When the Revolution broke out eighteen languages were already spoken in the city of New York. It was natural, therefore, that the literature of imagination, of humor, and of sentiment should find a soil in the cosmopolitan society of the town; and Irving, who was born in the year in which the British troops embarked for England, who declined to go to college, as his brothers had gone, but read law and, probably with greater avidity, books of general literature, and was a lover of nature, had both the temperament and the taste to write gentle satire. He was a born observer and loiterer, a man who saw and felt and meditated. He had the high spirit of youth, and when he returned in 1806 from Europe he was still a young man, and there were some other gifted young men in New York to keep him company. They published anonymously a series of semi-humorous, satirical comments on men, women, and things social, dramatic, and literary, under the title “Salmagundi,” and in these papers Irving’s humor, sentiment, and delightful style were conspicuous. They were followed by the Knickerbocker History of New York, in which the audacious young man broadly burlesqued the ancestors of some of the foremost people in New York. It was good-natured; but it gave great offense. It was, however, the first book of quality and feeling written by an American. In 1815 Irving went to Europe a second time, and did not return until 1832. During that interval he published two books, which made a reputation for him on both sides of the Atlantic, “Bracebridge Hall” and “The Sketch-Book.” These books made the colonists, irritated by their long discussion with England, more tolerant of the mother country, because they recalled places and customs that had been dear to their ancestors, or to their own youth. Thackeray called Irving “the first ambassador whom the new world of letters sent to the old.”

BIRTHPLACE OF COOPER, Burlington, N. J.The center house is the home of Capt. James LawrenceOTSEGO HALL, COOPERSTOWN, N. Y.Cooper’s boyhood home

BIRTHPLACE OF COOPER, Burlington, N. J.The center house is the home of Capt. James Lawrence

BIRTHPLACE OF COOPER, Burlington, N. J.

The center house is the home of Capt. James Lawrence

OTSEGO HALL, COOPERSTOWN, N. Y.Cooper’s boyhood home

OTSEGO HALL, COOPERSTOWN, N. Y.

Cooper’s boyhood home

COOPER IN 1822, painted by J. W. Jarvis

One of the most prominent members of the little company of young men subsequently known as the Knickerbocker writers, who were all friends of Irving, was James K. Paulding, whose youth fell in the period of the Revolutionary War. In consequence he received very little education, but had great vigor of mind and energy of character. He early became acquainted with Washington Irving, and a strong friendship grew up between them. Paulding was one of the contributors to the Salmagundi papers, and began early to write for various periodicals. His diverting history of “John Bull and Brother Jonathan” passed through many editions, and his satirical tendency made him popular at a time when the feeling in this country against Great Britain was very strong. A pamphlet entitled “The United States and England,” which appeared in 1814, secured political preferment for Paulding, and he was made secretary to the first board of navy commissioners. A story published in 1831, “The Dutchman’s Fireside,” founded on an earlier description of the manners of the early Dutch settlers, was his most successful production, passing through six editions in a year, and being republished abroad and translated into several languages. Paulding’s talent, although genuine, was not distinctive enough to secure his permanent reputation; but he remains a very interesting figure in a group of delightful writers, and his early skits, if they may be so called, were very keen satirical comments on some offensive British traits and qualities.

BUST OF COOPERDavid d’Angers—1828

BUST OF COOPER

David d’Angers—1828

LEATHER STOCKING MONUMENT AT COOPERSTOWN

Cooper, who was also a New Yorker, published “The Spy” in 1821. “Precaution,” his first effort in fiction, which had already appeared, was a study of English society life, about which Cooper knew very little, and it was a failure. In “The Spy,” Cooper knew his ground and his people. He had spent much of his boyhood at Cooperstown, in central New York, near the scene of much of the Indian fighting. He had heard stories of adventure from Indian fighters and trappers. Many of the men who had fought in the American ranks during the War of the Revolution were still living. “The Spy” was instantly popular, because it was the first really American novel written by an American. It dealt with a very interesting character, Harvey Birch; and it appealed alike to the men who knew of the war from experience, and to those who had been brought up to revere the veterans of the Revolution. Europe, too, was intensely curious about the Indian, and the stories that followed, especially those in the Leather Stocking Tales, were translated into almost every European tongue, and are still read in all parts of the Old World. Boys in remote German villages are still playing Cooper’s Indians.

Cooper was a very uneven writer, careless, and indifferent about artistic effects. He was often diffuse and often commonplace, and he had not much skill in drawing portraits of men and women; but he could tell a story rapidly and dramatically. He knew how to keep his readers in suspense, and he knew nature, both on land and at sea.

THE OPEN LETTER

Why The Mentor? What’s in the name? We might have chosen any one of fifty names beside The Mentor. We had a list of fully 100 names before we made our selection. And the material that we have supplied under the name of “Mentor” would have served its purpose as well under another name. But we chose our name very carefully. There’s a reason for “Mentor.” And yet, although we are now a little over three years old and number nearly 100,000 in membership, no one has asked the reason—at least until a few weeks ago. Then one of our earliest members put the question, “What or who is The Mentor?” The question was slow in coming, but I am glad it is here, because the answer is worth while.

Mentor was a very worthy individual of ancient Greece. You can read about him in Homer’s “Odyssey.” He was the son of Alcimus and the faithful friend of Ulysses (Odysseus). When Ulysses set forth on his long wanderings, he consigned his household and his family, including his son Telemachus to the care of his friend Mentor. So faithful was Mentor in his attention to Telemachus and so serviceable to him in precept and example that his name has now come to be used in the sense of a wise and trustworthy advisor—“a wise and faithful guide and friend” as a modern dictionary phrases it.

The name of Mentor was brought down nearer to our time by the eminent French writer, philosopher, and churchman, Fenelon, archbishop of Cambria. He lived in the time of the Grand Monarch, Louis XIV, and so wise and cultivated was he that the king made him tutor to his grandson, the Duke of Burgundy, eldest son of the dauphin, and eventual heir to the throne. In the course of his tutorship, and for purposes of instruction, Fenelon wrote several remarkable books—prose poems, in their way, but each having a distinct moral purpose either religious or political. In one of these, published in 1699, and entitled “Telemaque,” Fenelon recounts the adventures of the son of Ulysses in search of his father. It is a Utopian novel dealing with conditions of life in an idealistic way, and hovering between dreams and realities. Its object was to educate the young Duke of Burgundy’s mind to the highest purposes of life as they should be regarded by royalty—to keep before his eyes the “great and holy maxim that kings exist for the sake of their subjects, not subjects for the sake of kings.” In this book the character of “Mentor” figures prominently. His aims are educational in a gentle, lofty way, his hope being, as he puts it himself, “to change the tastes and habits of the people.”

It was more due to Fenelon’s employment of the character of “Mentor” than to that of Homer, that the name “Mentor” came into use as a modern word. “Mentor” now stands for a wise instructor and a guide, but, first and foremost, a friend. The underlying principle of “Mentor” is an interest in the welfare and improvement of others, and the dominating purpose of his life isserviceto others.

So for that reason we selected the name. And when we made the selection we thought that we were the first to use the name in the field of periodical publication. We lived in that illusion but a short time. Scarcely six months had gone by before we learned anew the old lesson that the world is small and that there are many active minds in it. One morning a plain, unpretentious periodical came into our office bearing on its front the title “The Mentor,” and with it came a friendly letter of greeting from its editor. The place of publication was the Charlestown Jail, and the object of the periodical was to reflect in prose and verse the daily life of the occupants of that quiet and secure retreat. The editor extended his greetings to me and asked me if I would exchange with him—not positions, but periodicals. The request was readily granted, and, as a result, we are now thoroughly informed of the affairs of that substantial institution of Charlestown, and we are carrying our message of information twice a month to the members of the exclusive community located there.

(signature)W. D. MoffatEditor

W. D. MoffatEditor

The Mentor AssociationESTABLISHED FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A POPULAR INTEREST IN ART, LITERATURE, SCIENCE, HISTORY, NATURE, AND TRAVELTHE ADVISORY BOARDJOHN G. HIBBEN,President of Princeton UniversityHAMILTON W. MABIE,Author and EditorJOHN C. VAN DYKE,Professor of the History of Art, Rutgers CollegeALBERT BUSHNELL HART,Professor of Government, Harvard UniversityWILLIAM T. HORNADAY,Director New York Zoological ParkDWIGHT L. ELMENDORF,Lecturer and TravelerTHE MENTOR IS PUBLISHED TWICE A MONTHSUBSCRIPTION, THREE DOLLARS A YEAR. FOREIGN POSTAGE 75 CENTS EXTRA. CANADIAN POSTAGE 50 CENTS EXTRA. SINGLE COPIES FIFTEEN CENTS. PRESIDENT, THOMAS H. BECK; VICE-PRESIDENT, WALTER P. TEN EYCK; SECRETARY, W. D. MOFFAT; TREASURER, ROBERT M. DONALDSON; ASST. TREASURER AND ASST. SECRETARY, J. S. CAMPBELLCOMPLETE YOUR MENTOR LIBRARYSubscriptions always begin with the current issue. The following numbers of The Mentor Course, already issued, will be sent postpaid at the rate of fifteen cents each.Serial No.1. Beautiful Children in Art2. Makers of American Poetry3. Washington, the Capital4. Beautiful Women in Art5. Romantic Ireland6. Masters of Music7. Natural Wonders of America8. Pictures We Love to Live With9. The Conquest of the Peaks10. Scotland, the Land of Song and Scenery11. Cherubs in Art12. Statues With a Story13. Story of America in Pictures: The Discoverers14. London15. The Story of Panama16. American Birds of Beauty17. Dutch Masterpieces18. Paris, the Incomparable19. Flowers of Decoration20. Makers of American Humor21. American Sea Painters22. Story of America in Pictures: The Explorers23. Sporting Vacations24. Switzerland: The Land of Scenic Splendors25. American Novelists26. American Landscape Painters27. Venice, the Island City28. The Wife in Art29. Great American Inventors30. Furniture and Its Makers31. Spain and Gibraltar32. Historic Spots of America33. Beautiful Buildings of the World34. Game Birds of America35. Story of America in Pictures: The Contest for North America36. Famous American Sculptors37. The Conquest of the Poles38. Napoleon39. The Mediterranean40. Angels in Art41. Famous Composers42. Egypt, the Land of Mystery43. Story of America in Pictures: The Revolution44. Famous English Poets45. Makers of American Art46. The Ruins of Rome47. Makers of Modern Opera48. Dürer and Holbein49. Vienna, the Queen City50. Ancient Athens51. The Barbizon Painters52. Abraham LincolnVolume 253. George Washington54. Mexico55. Famous American Women Painters56. The Conquest of the Air57. Court Painters of France58. Holland59. Our Feathered Friends60. Glacier National Park61. Michelangelo62. American Colonial Furniture63. American Wild Flowers64. Gothic Architecture65. The Story of the Rhine66. Shakespeare67. American Mural Painters68. Celebrated Animal Characters69. Japan70. The Story of the French Revolution71. Rugs and Rug Making72. Alaska73. Charles Dickens74. Grecian Masterpieces75. Fathers of the Constitution76. Masters of the PianoVolume 377. American Historic Homes78. Beauty Spots of India79. Etchers and Etching80. Oliver Cromwell81. China82. Favorite Trees83. Yellowstone National Park84. Famous Women Writers of England85. Painters of Western Life86. China and Pottery of Our Forefathers87. The Story of The American Railroad88. Butterflies89. The Philippines90. Great Galleries of The World: The Louvre91. William M. Thackeray92. Grand Canyon of Arizona93. Architecture in American Country Homes94. The Story of The Danube95. Animals in Art96. The Holy Land97. John Milton98. Joan Of Arc99. Furniture of the Revolutionary Period100. The Ring of the NibelungVolume 4101. The Golden Age of Greece102. Chinese Rugs103. The War of 1812104. Great Galleries of the World: The National Gallery, London105. Masters of the ViolinTHE MENTOR ASSOCIATION. Inc., 52 East Nineteenth Street, New York, N. Y.Statement of the ownership, management, circulation, etc., required by the Act of Congress of August 24, 1912, of The Mentor, published semi-monthly at New York. N. Y., for April 1, 1916. State of New York, County of New York. ss. Before me, a Notary Public in and for the State and county aforesaid, personally appeared Thomas H. Beck, who, having been duly sworn according to law, deposes and says that he is the Publisher of The Mentor, and that the following is, to the best of his knowledge and belief, a true statement of the ownership, management, etc., of the aforesaid publication for the date shown in the above caption, required by the Act of August 24, 1912, embodied in section 443, Postal Laws and Regulations, to wit: (1) That the names and addresses of the publisher, editor, managing editor, and business managers are: Publisher, Thomas H. Beck, 52 East 19th Street, New York; Editor, W. D. Moffat, 52 East 19th Street, New York; Managing Editor, W. D. Moffat, 52 East 19th Street, New York; Business Manager, Thomas H. Beck, 52 East 19th Street, New York. (2) That the owners are: American Lithographic Company, 52 East 19th Street, New York; C. Eddy, L. Ettlinger, J. P. Knapp, C. K. Mills, 52 East 19th Street, New York; M. C. Herezog, 28 West 10th Street, New York; William T. Harris, Villa Nova, Pa.; Mrs. M. E. Heppenheimer, 51 East 58th Street, New York: Emilie Schumacher, Executrix for Luise E. Schumacher and Walter L. Schumacher Mount Vernon, N. Y., Samuel Untermyer, 37 Wall Street, New York. (3) That the known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders owning or holding 1 per cent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages, or other securities, are: None. (4) That the two paragraphs next above, giving the names of the owners, stockholders, and security holders, if any, contain not only the list of stockholders and security holders as they appear upon the books of the Company, but also, in cases where the stockholder or security holder appears upon the books of the Company as trustee or in any other fiduciary relation. The name of the person or corporation for whom such trustee is acting, is given; also that the said two paragraphs contain statements embracing affiant’s full knowledge and belief as to the circumstances and conditions under which stockholders and security holders who do not appear upon the books of the Company as trustees, hold stock and securities in a capacity other than that of a bona fide owner; and this affiant has no reason to believe that any other person, association, or corporation has any interest direct or indirect in the said stock, bonds, or other securities than as so stated by him. Thomas H. Beck, Publisher. Sworn to and subscribed before me this twenty-first day of March, 1916. J. S. Campbell, Notary Public, Queens County. Certificate filed in New York County. My commission expires March 30, 1917.

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Statement of the ownership, management, circulation, etc., required by the Act of Congress of August 24, 1912, of The Mentor, published semi-monthly at New York. N. Y., for April 1, 1916. State of New York, County of New York. ss. Before me, a Notary Public in and for the State and county aforesaid, personally appeared Thomas H. Beck, who, having been duly sworn according to law, deposes and says that he is the Publisher of The Mentor, and that the following is, to the best of his knowledge and belief, a true statement of the ownership, management, etc., of the aforesaid publication for the date shown in the above caption, required by the Act of August 24, 1912, embodied in section 443, Postal Laws and Regulations, to wit: (1) That the names and addresses of the publisher, editor, managing editor, and business managers are: Publisher, Thomas H. Beck, 52 East 19th Street, New York; Editor, W. D. Moffat, 52 East 19th Street, New York; Managing Editor, W. D. Moffat, 52 East 19th Street, New York; Business Manager, Thomas H. Beck, 52 East 19th Street, New York. (2) That the owners are: American Lithographic Company, 52 East 19th Street, New York; C. Eddy, L. Ettlinger, J. P. Knapp, C. K. Mills, 52 East 19th Street, New York; M. C. Herezog, 28 West 10th Street, New York; William T. Harris, Villa Nova, Pa.; Mrs. M. E. Heppenheimer, 51 East 58th Street, New York: Emilie Schumacher, Executrix for Luise E. Schumacher and Walter L. Schumacher Mount Vernon, N. Y., Samuel Untermyer, 37 Wall Street, New York. (3) That the known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders owning or holding 1 per cent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages, or other securities, are: None. (4) That the two paragraphs next above, giving the names of the owners, stockholders, and security holders, if any, contain not only the list of stockholders and security holders as they appear upon the books of the Company, but also, in cases where the stockholder or security holder appears upon the books of the Company as trustee or in any other fiduciary relation. The name of the person or corporation for whom such trustee is acting, is given; also that the said two paragraphs contain statements embracing affiant’s full knowledge and belief as to the circumstances and conditions under which stockholders and security holders who do not appear upon the books of the Company as trustees, hold stock and securities in a capacity other than that of a bona fide owner; and this affiant has no reason to believe that any other person, association, or corporation has any interest direct or indirect in the said stock, bonds, or other securities than as so stated by him. Thomas H. Beck, Publisher. Sworn to and subscribed before me this twenty-first day of March, 1916. J. S. Campbell, Notary Public, Queens County. Certificate filed in New York County. My commission expires March 30, 1917.

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