Is it true that as a person gets older, they get interested in older things? Old buildings, old photographs, and old books?
On my bookshelf is an 1899 copy of Brumbaugh’s Standard Reader. The book’s pages are yellow and the front pages are filled with the lavish handwriting in pencil with names of children that go back a century. The stories inside are rich in culture and quite advanced for students of the fifth grade.
Chapter LXXXII is called “The White Man’s Book.” It tells of how, in 1832 four Native Americans (called Indians in the book) of the Flathead tribe in Oregon came all the way to Saint Louis to get a copy of a book which the missionaries had told them would show the way to heaven. The story explains how, when the Native Americans reached a fort in Saint Louis there was not a single copy of the Bible in the place.
The Native Americans were greatly disappointed. One of them, Hee-oh’ks-te-kin, delivered an address in which he said,
“I came to you over a trail of many moons from the setting sun…. My people sent me to get the white man’s book of heaven. You took me where you allow your women to dance as we do not ours and the book was not there. You took me where they worshipped the great spirit with candles, and the book was not there. You showed me the images of good spirits and pictures of the good land beyond, but the book was not among them to tell us the way.”
Went away unhappy
He continues his sad tale,
“I am going back the long, sad trail to my people of the dark land. You make my feet heavy with burdens of gifts, and my moccasins will grow old in carrying them, but the book is not among them.”
We might find it odd with our modern minds to find Christianity favored in this way in a book that was, I assume, used widely in public schools. We are advised today, with today’s cultural redefinition, that the white man’s religion was just another form of oppression that went along with the slavery of indigenous people and socially-transmitted diseases.
And yet this tribe sent out a delegation to recover something that was very valuable – something that they could not find in their own religion or culture. Their wise men held out hope of something true and beautiful that they found in the promise of Christianity that was a beam of light in their world of darkness.
Still Holding Sway
Copies of this old book can be found on Amazon and other sites. Its interest is holding steady. The reprinted book has also been made available by WalMart, in leatherbound edition. Curiously the ad copy states, “NO changes have been made to the original text. This is NOT a retyped or an ocr’d reprint.”
Walmart knows that its customers are sensitive to modern editorial changes that would excise the eloquence, style and values promoted in 19th century writing. There is a segment of modern parents who treasure the values found in the culture and public education of so many years ago, and yet is spurned today by our educational experts.
Parents yearn for the ancient Book, and other books. They know that they can find the pearl of great price within their yellowed pages.