Cooper - A Quartet of Tree Fables from The Argosy of Fables - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

White Lake Township in Michigan is right next to my own township.  I often substitute at their library and there is the huge Pontiac Lake State Recreation Area and the Indian Springs metropark as two major places where I take my malamutt (malamute/husky) for some of our roughly every other day hikes.

Photo by Lukasz Szmigiel on Unsplash

That township is currently trying to get disaster recognition after this past weekend's tornado.  Yes, our area had trees toppled and branches torn off, but it's painful in White Lake.  Traveling through the township through the middle of this past week was an obstacle course as some roads were closed (some still are) and everywhere tried to cope with the damage.  Trees overnight have gone from something that looked like this 

Instead to something a bit closer to these two photos, except both are more orderly.

Photo by Ca Ku on Unsplash

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Those photos may eventually look like the area with a semblance of order, but right now trees are uprooted, laying all over.  

Right now it just hurts to see the randomness of damage that was done with a heavy blow.  It's not like the horrible fires decimating the western U.S. in the sense that it seems so very random.  Scientists have been discussing the consciousness and possible communication of trees in recent years.  A good example is the March 2018 Smithsonian article "Do Trees Talk to Each Other?" I would hate to hear them shouting and crying out right now.  It all seems rather like J.R.R. Tolkien's the Ents.  (If you don't recognize who they are, I strongly recommend learning.  Trees may never seem the same to you.)

From ancient times trees have been with us, so it's no wonder they even are in fables.  I found four in An Argosy of Fable selected and edited by Frederic Taber Cooper.  The book starts with Classical Fables and the ones I've selected are in that section by Aesop and Phaedrus.  Aesop opens and closes this group of four.

Argosy has other less prolific classical fabulists, then continues with "Oriental Fables" (Hindoo [sic], Persian, Chinese, Armenian and Turkish), then goes on to "Modern Fables" (English, French, Spanish, Russian, German, Polish) and finally a section called "Kraal and Wigwam Fables" (African and American Indian).  Some of those have been given here in earlier blogs.  Obviously Cooper not only selected but edited a work that attempts to cover the teachings of a great many cultures.  It's interesting that the Wikipedia article says so little about him personally (although his Latin and Sanskrit professorship gives a hint) and somehow doesn't even list the Argosy.

If the trees have any wisdom or thoughts I suspect these four fables give a hint of their thoughts at this time.  Anthropomorphic?  Perhaps, but it hurts to see their present condition.

I believe the Jewish fable of the old man planting trees he'll never see grow is appropriate here.  His answer is that he's planting them for the next generation.  I've long talked about Arbor Day and the Arbor Day Foundation.  I don't know if baby trees can save the western part of our country, but I certainly hope, here in the middle and beyond, trees continue to provide shade, be useful, and beautiful while adding their necessary oxygen to our planet.

******************

This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories.  

At the same time, my own involvement in storytelling regularly creates projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience.  Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week.  This is a return to my regular posting of a research project here.  (Don't worry, this isn't dry research, my research is always geared towards future storytelling to an audience.)  Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my other postings as often as I can manage it.

Other Public Domain story resources I recommend-

• There are many online resources for Public Domain stories, maybe none for folklore is as ambitious as fellow storyteller, Yoel Perez's database, Yashpeh, the International Folktales Collection.  I have long recommended it and continue to do so.  He has loaded Stith Thompson's Motif Index into his server as a database so you can search the whole 6 volumes for whatever word or expression you like by pressing one key. http://folkmasa.org/motiv/motif.htm

• You may have noticed I'm no longer certain Dr. Perez has the largest database, although his offering the Motif Index certainly qualifies for those of us seeking specific types of stories.  There's another site, FairyTalez claiming to be the largest, with "over 2000 fairy tales, folktales, and fables" and they are "fully optimized for phones, tablets, and PCs", free and presented without ads.
  
  Between those two sites, there is much for story-lovers, but as they say in infomercials, "Wait, there's more!"

The email list for storytellers, Storytell, discussed Online Story Sources and came up with these additional suggestions:            

         - David K. Brown - http://people.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/stories.html

         - Karen Chace - http://karenchace.blogspot.com/search?q=public+domain

         - Richard Martin - http://www.tellatale.eu/tales_page.html

         - Spirit of Trees - http://spiritoftrees.org/featured-folktales

         - Story-Lovers - http://www.story-lovers.com/ is now only accessible through the Wayback Machine, described below, but the late Jackie Baldwin's wonderful site lives on there, fully searchable manually (the Google search doesn't work), at https://archive.org/ .  It's not easy, but go to Story-lovers.com snapshot for October 22 2016  and you can click on SOS: Searching Out Stories to scroll down through the many story topics and click on the story topic that interests you.

       - Tim Sheppard - http://www.timsheppard.co.uk/story/storylinks.html

       - World of Tales - http://www.worldoftales.com/ 
           - Zalka Csenge Virag - http://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com doesn't give the actual stories, but her recommendations, working her way through each country on a continent, give excellent ideas for finding new books and stories to love and tell.

     
You're going to find many of the links on these sites have gone down, BUT go to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to find some of these old links.  Tim's site, for example, is so huge probably updating it would be a full-time job.  In the case of Story-Lovers, it's great that Jackie Baldwin set it up to stay online as long as it did after she could no longer maintain it.  Possibly searches maintained it.  Unfortunately Storytell list member, Papa Joe is on both Tim Sheppard's site and Story-Lovers, but he no longer maintains his old Papa Joe's Traveling Storytelling Show website and his Library (something you want to see!) is now only on the Wayback Machine.  It took some patience working back through claims of snapshots but finally in December of 2006 it appears!

Somebody as of this writing whose stories can still be found by his website is the late Chuck Larkin - http://chucklarkin.com/stories.html.  I prefer to list these sites by their complete address so they can be found by the Wayback Machine, a.k.a. Archive.org, when that becomes the only way to find them.

You can see why I recommend these to you. Have fun discovering even more stories!

Wiggin - The Moon-Cake - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

We've lately been seeing citizen space efforts (as opposed to national), although it has been by billionaires like Richard Branson last week and this week Jeff Bezos. Of course we're a long way from truly making something like this affordable to the average citizen, but it's interesting these came right before or during the same week as National Moon Day. Yes, there are many days of national celebration or remembrance, but this reminds us on July 20, 1969 Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first people to walk on the moon. 

July is probably the easiest time to send a rocket into space, but it's interesting to have all these efforts at space travel take place so close together.  Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora Archibald Smith in Tales of Laughter , published back in 1908, produced a short tale easily done showing the phases of the moon.  It also can give you a sweet treat of a cookie or cupcake if you tell it as if you're the big kid in the story. It's definitely a Trickster Tale.  After the story I will add a few more things if you want to tie it in to the moon. 

From TimeAndDate.com

The Moon-Cake 

A little boy had a cake that a big boy coveted. Designing to get the cake without making the little boy cry so loud as to attract his mother’s attention, the big boy remarked that the cake would be prettier if it were more like the moon. The little boy thought that a cake like the moon must be desirable, and on being assured by the big boy that he had made many such, he handed over his cake for manipulation. The big boy took out a mouthful, leaving a crescent with jagged edge. The little boy was not pleased by the change, and began to whimper; whereupon the big boy pacified him by saying that he would make the cake into a half-moon. So he nibbled off the horns of the crescent, and gnawed the edge smooth; but when the half-moon was made, the little boy perceived that there was hardly any cake left, and he again began to snivel. The big boy again diverted him by telling him that, if he did not like so small a moon, he should have one that was just the size of the real orb. He then took the cake, and explained that, just before the new moon is seen, the old moon disappears. Then he swallowed the rest of the cake and ran off, leaving the little boy waiting for the new moon. 

Told you it was a Trickster Tale!  (It's very much like the tales of deceptive divisions whether by an "umpire" settling the unevenness between two claiming the food OR more directly by the trickster and the one with the food.)

Now no fooling, there's a lot online about the moon, so much so each of these links can end with "and more."  The illustration above is from Time and Date, which has articles explaining the moon phases and also various names for the full moons and more.

The Earth’s Moon page on NASA.gov is a pretty amazing site.  Spin it, light it, or peek at the moon's core. The page also offers links to misconceptions about the moon, pop culture, exploration, galleries, even how to take good pictures of the moon, and more. 

Skywatchers Guide to the Moon: Use their moon map to identify features on the moon. Learn what the light and dark areas are and what created the craters. Find out where the astronauts landed and discover what actually fills the moon's famous "seas". There are links to additional activities including subjects such as moon phases, eclipses, craters, and more.  It comes from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at California Institute of Technology for their Night Sky Network.

“International Observe the Moon Night” (InOMN) is celebrated by StarNet, Night Sky Network and Sky & Telescope and has been held annually since 2010 on Oct 20th.  Watch their YouTube webinar and their slides for programming ideas, find links to customizable event flyers, hands-on activities, and more. 

I'll stop there even though, when it comes to the moon there are plenty of stories and more . . . don't want you calling me a lunatic. 

***************** 

This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories.  

At the same time, my own involvement in storytelling regularly creates projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience.  Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week.  This is a return to my regular posting of a research project here.  (Don't worry, this isn't dry research, my research is always geared towards future storytelling to an audience.)  Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my other postings as often as I can manage it.

Other Public Domain story resources I recommend-

• There are many online resources for Public Domain stories, maybe none for folklore is as ambitious as fellow storyteller, Yoel Perez's database, Yashpeh, the International Folktales Collection.  I have long recommended it and continue to do so.  He has loaded Stith Thompson's Motif Index into his server as a database so you can search the whole 6 volumes for whatever word or expression you like by pressing one key. http://folkmasa.org/motiv/motif.htm

• You may have noticed I'm no longer certain Dr. Perez has the largest database, although his offering the Motif Index certainly qualifies for those of us seeking specific types of stories.  There's another site, FairyTalez claiming to be the largest, with "over 2000 fairy tales, folktales, and fables" and they are "fully optimized for phones, tablets, and PCs", free and presented without ads.
  
  Between those two sites, there is much for story-lovers, but as they say in infomercials, "Wait, there's more!"

The email list for storytellers, Storytell, discussed Online Story Sources and came up with these additional suggestions:            

         - David K. Brown - http://people.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/stories.html

         - Karen Chace - http://karenchace.blogspot.com/search?q=public+domain

         - Richard Martin - http://www.tellatale.eu/tales_page.html

         - Spirit of Trees - http://spiritoftrees.org/featured-folktales

         - Story-Lovers - http://www.story-lovers.com/ is now only accessible through the Wayback Machine, described below, but the late Jackie Baldwin's wonderful site lives on there, fully searchable manually (the Google search doesn't work), at https://archive.org/ .  It's not easy, but go to Story-lovers.com snapshot for October 22 2016  and you can click on SOS: Searching Out Stories to scroll down through the many story topics and click on the story topic that interests you.

       - Tim Sheppard - http://www.timsheppard.co.uk/story/storylinks.html

       - World of Tales - http://www.worldoftales.com/ 
           - Zalka Csenge Virag - http://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com doesn't give the actual stories, but her recommendations, working her way through each country on a continent, give excellent ideas for finding new books and stories to love and tell.

     
You're going to find many of the links on these sites have gone down, BUT go to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to find some of these old links.  Tim's site, for example, is so huge probably updating it would be a full-time job.  In the case of Story-Lovers, it's great that Jackie Baldwin set it up to stay online as long as it did after she could no longer maintain it.  Possibly searches maintained it.  Unfortunately Storytell list member, Papa Joe is on both Tim Sheppard's site and Story-Lovers, but he no longer maintains his old Papa Joe's Traveling Storytelling Show website and his Library (something you want to see!) is now only on the Wayback Machine.  It took some patience working back through claims of snapshots but finally in December of 2006 it appears!

Somebody as of this writing whose stories can still be found by his website is the late Chuck Larkin - http://chucklarkin.com/stories.html.  I prefer to list these sites by their complete address so they can be found by the Wayback Machine, a.k.a. Archive.org, when that becomes the only way to find them.

You can see why I recommend these to you. Have fun discovering even more stories!

Hearn - The Fountain of Youth - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

 

My Prohibition program was just hitting the level I wanted when Covid shut it down!

I'm so relieved to bring it back with Ladies Day at the Ionia Free Fair and am eager to resume this look at how Michigan provided 3/4 of the U.S. smuggled alcohol during Prohibition.

It's a lot of fun with music and even a bit of dancing.

Public domain folklore anthologies don't have Prohibition stories I might post here, but I do have a Japanese tale from Lafcadio Hearn on the dangers of drinking too much water!

I don't have the original book where Hearn published this story in his five volumes translating Japanese Fairy Tales.  This story was published posthumously in Tokyo by T. Hasegawa in 1922.  My copy comes from the version by Peter Pauper Press, Japanese Fairy Tales by Lafcadio Hearn and Others.  

The illustrations are by Ruth McCrea

 

For anybody remembering Peter Pauper Press, I checked to see if the copyright was renewed, it wasn't.  Then I went looking to see if the publisher still is in business.  I found I wasn't the first to wonder.

Is Peter Pauper Press still in business?

Peter Pauper's presses kept running until Edna's death in 1981; after her passing, they almost stopped for good. ... Currently, Evelyn remains Publisher of Peter Pauper Press, Nick has retired, and a third generation is very much involved.

Peter Pauper Press has been in business since 1928, although they are going through some transitions.  This style of book isn't in their backlist, but it's still an interesting source of books, journals, stationery, and other items with a gift focus. 

*******************

This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories.  

At the same time, my own involvement in storytelling regularly creates projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience.  Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week.  This is a return to my regular posting of a research project here.  (Don't worry, this isn't dry research, my research is always geared towards future storytelling to an audience.)  Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my other postings as often as I can manage it.

Other Public Domain story resources I recommend-

• There are many online resources for Public Domain stories, maybe none for folklore is as ambitious as fellow storyteller, Yoel Perez's database, Yashpeh, the International Folktales Collection.  I have long recommended it and continue to do so.  He has loaded Stith Thompson's Motif Index into his server as a database so you can search the whole 6 volumes for whatever word or expression you like by pressing one key. http://folkmasa.org/motiv/motif.htm

• You may have noticed I'm no longer certain Dr. Perez has the largest database, although his offering the Motif Index certainly qualifies for those of us seeking specific types of stories.  There's another site, FairyTalez claiming to be the largest, with "over 2000 fairy tales, folktales, and fables" and they are "fully optimized for phones, tablets, and PCs", free and presented without ads.
  
  Between those two sites, there is much for story-lovers, but as they say in infomercials, "Wait, there's more!"

The email list for storytellers, Storytell, discussed Online Story Sources and came up with these additional suggestions:            

         - David K. Brown - http://people.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/stories.html

         - Karen Chace - http://karenchace.blogspot.com/search?q=public+domain

         - Richard Martin - http://www.tellatale.eu/tales_page.html

         - Spirit of Trees - http://spiritoftrees.org/featured-folktales

         - Story-Lovers - http://www.story-lovers.com/ is now only accessible through the Wayback Machine, described below, but the late Jackie Baldwin's wonderful site lives on there, fully searchable manually (the Google search doesn't work), at https://archive.org/ .  It's not easy, but go to Story-lovers.com snapshot for October 22 2016  and you can click on SOS: Searching Out Stories to scroll down through the many story topics and click on the story topic that interests you.

       - Tim Sheppard - http://www.timsheppard.co.uk/story/storylinks.html

       - World of Tales - http://www.worldoftales.com/ 
           - Zalka Csenge Virag - http://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com doesn't give the actual stories, but her recommendations, working her way through each country on a continent, give excellent ideas for finding new books and stories to love and tell.

     
You're going to find many of the links on these sites have gone down, BUT go to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to find some of these old links.  Tim's site, for example, is so huge probably updating it would be a full-time job.  In the case of Story-Lovers, it's great that Jackie Baldwin set it up to stay online as long as it did after she could no longer maintain it.  Possibly searches maintained it.  Unfortunately Storytell list member, Papa Joe is on both Tim Sheppard's site and Story-Lovers, but he no longer maintains his old Papa Joe's Traveling Storytelling Show website and his Library (something you want to see!) is now only on the Wayback Machine.  It took some patience working back through claims of snapshots but finally in December of 2006 it appears!

Somebody as of this writing whose stories can still be found by his website is the late Chuck Larkin - http://chucklarkin.com/stories.html.  I prefer to list these sites by their complete address so they can be found by the Wayback Machine, a.k.a. Archive.org, when that becomes the only way to find them.

You can see why I recommend these to you. Have fun discovering even more stories!

Eells - The Princess Who Was Dumb - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

Illustration by the Petershams

Words change!  Sometimes before telling a story, a bit of explanation is needed.  A perfect example is the way the word "lame" is now commonly used to mean "weak, unconvincing, or inadequate", but it originally meant a physical disability causing a limp or difficulty walking.  Today's story calls a princess "dumb."  Assuredly her mother-in-law would not only mean the princess is unable to speak -- the original meaning -- but also would consider the current use of it to mean "stupid."  

 Personally the older use of "dumb" bothers me because it has often been applied to the deaf who have difficulty speaking.  "Mute" might be slightly more accurate, but the difficulties involved in speech usually has nothing to do with creating sound.  Rather it's hearing and then reproducing the sound.  With American Sign Language as the third most used language in the United States, such terminology tends to get me started pulling out my soapbox for a rant.

Instead I've pulled out a delightful story from Tales of Enchantment from Spain by Elsie Eells.  As an adult I think the strained relationship with the mother-in-law adds to the enjoyment of this story beyond what a younger audience might miss.  It's rather like Queen Aggravain's dissatisfaction with Princess Dauntless in the musical, "Once Upon a Mattress."  The princess is certainly dauntless in this story, bringing it to a sly end.

Speaking as a storyteller, I daresay there are times my own husband might feel that way!

The last time I posted a story by Eells was in August of 2016.  There's more known about her now.  She's best known for her collections of South American, especially Brazilian folklore.  This book was her final book of half a dozen and the only reason I can safely post it from 1950 is she didn't renew it when the copyright law required.  According to Find A Grave, she died in 1963 at age 82, with her husband, Burr, dying two years later.  No children are listed, so we are able to enjoy her final three books before they might otherwise have been still under copyright.  Wikipedia mentions her travels as a researcher in the 1920s and 1930s  to various countries as a researcher at The Hispanic Society of America in New York, which was unusual then.  

¡Gracias!

Find a Grave mentions her Daughters of the American Revolution lineage and then goes on to give her passport application for those travels.  It's actually a wonderful look back at the then 40 year old writer and her husband.  I enjoyed it so much I'm going to give most of it.

Found a US Passport application for Elsie Spicer Eells giving her birth as Sept 21, 1880 in West Winfield NY, aage 40 on Nov 1, 1920 when they filed for this passport. Husband is Burr Gould Eells who was born in Walton, NY. They were living in Babylon, NY. She is listed as a writer.

She will be away for 6 month to do research in the following places:Portugal, Azores, Spain, Cuba in each of these places she wants to research Spanish _____ (can't read the last word). Aboard the Brittania, having never had a passport before. She is40, 5 foot 6 inches, medium forehead, green eyes, short nose, medium mouth, round chin, brown hair, fair complexion and oval face. Then Burr Gould Eells swears that they live in Babylon, NY and that he has known Elsie for 22 years. He is a teacher for what looks like Commerical High School, Brooklyn, NY. There address is Box 536 Babylon, NY. The picture is from her application. Then is attached a letter who wrote that her research is for literary work for which she has undertaken on behalf of the Hispanic Societyand that she should be granted the passport.

With the chaos of the Covid pandemic, passports are said to take 18 weeks currently (or "only" 12 weeks for a higher priced expedited application).  What storytelling and sharing of folklore might be currently waiting?

In the meantime, travel online through stories.

This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories.  

At the same time, my own involvement in storytelling regularly creates projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience.  Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week.  This is a return to my regular posting of a research project here.  (Don't worry, this isn't dry research, my research is always geared towards future storytelling to an audience.)  Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my other postings as often as I can manage it.

Other Public Domain story resources I recommend-

• There are many online resources for Public Domain stories, maybe none for folklore is as ambitious as fellow storyteller, Yoel Perez's database, Yashpeh, the International Folktales Collection.  I have long recommended it and continue to do so.  He has loaded Stith Thompson's Motif Index into his server as a database so you can search the whole 6 volumes for whatever word or expression you like by pressing one key. http://folkmasa.org/motiv/motif.htm

• You may have noticed I'm no longer certain Dr. Perez has the largest database, although his offering the Motif Index certainly qualifies for those of us seeking specific types of stories.  There's another site, FairyTalez claiming to be the largest, with "over 2000 fairy tales, folktales, and fables" and they are "fully optimized for phones, tablets, and PCs", free and presented without ads.
  
  Between those two sites, there is much for story-lovers, but as they say in infomercials, "Wait, there's more!"

The email list for storytellers, Storytell, discussed Online Story Sources and came up with these additional suggestions:            

         - David K. Brown - http://people.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/stories.html

         - Karen Chace - http://karenchace.blogspot.com/search?q=public+domain

         - Richard Martin - http://www.tellatale.eu/tales_page.html

         - Spirit of Trees - http://spiritoftrees.org/featured-folktales

         - Story-Lovers - http://www.story-lovers.com/ is now only accessible through the Wayback Machine, described below, but the late Jackie Baldwin's wonderful site lives on there, fully searchable manually (the Google search doesn't work), at https://archive.org/ .  It's not easy, but go to Story-lovers.com snapshot for October 22 2016  and you can click on SOS: Searching Out Stories to scroll down through the many story topics and click on the story topic that interests you.

       - Tim Sheppard - http://www.timsheppard.co.uk/story/storylinks.html

       - World of Tales - http://www.worldoftales.com/ 
           - Zalka Csenge Virag - http://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com doesn't give the actual stories, but her recommendations, working her way through each country on a continent, give excellent ideas for finding new books and stories to love and tell.

     
You're going to find many of the links on these sites have gone down, BUT go to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to find some of these old links.  Tim's site, for example, is so huge probably updating it would be a full-time job.  In the case of Story-Lovers, it's great that Jackie Baldwin set it up to stay online as long as it did after she could no longer maintain it.  Possibly searches maintained it.  Unfortunately Storytell list member, Papa Joe is on both Tim Sheppard's site and Story-Lovers, but he no longer maintains his old Papa Joe's Traveling Storytelling Show website and his Library (something you want to see!) is now only on the Wayback Machine.  It took some patience working back through claims of snapshots but finally in December of 2006 it appears!

Somebody as of this writing whose stories can still be found by his website is the late Chuck Larkin - http://chucklarkin.com/stories.html.  I prefer to list these sites by their complete address so they can be found by the Wayback Machine, a.k.a. Archive.org, when that becomes the only way to find them.

You can see why I recommend these to you. Have fun discovering even more stories!

 

 

Deihl - Cornflower's Message; A Fourth of July Story - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

I love wildflowers!  Their cheery color reminds me how in Matthew 6:29 and Luke 12:27 our value is compared with them.  We are told "not Solomon in all his splendor" can compare with the brief glory of wildflowers and yet we are worth more.  That idea and the way "weeds" are anything growing where it's not wanted often cross my mind.  I certainly want them (more than grass which could be considered a weed by that standard).  Checking books that became Public Domain by failing to be renewed, I found a 1930 textbook of stories, Holiday-Time Stories, stamped Property of Jones School, Dist. #1 - Hampton Twp.  The author, Edna Groff Deihl, has nothing online about her, only her books.  Putting her name in as a search label here, I discovered TWO! posts in December of last year and also 2013  and each time it was her New Year's story of "The Three Bells" both times!!  It's a good story, but I'm surprised I missed the double posting.  This weekend is the Fourth of July and Deihl lets the story of the importance of Independence Day be told by wildflowers.  

Before telling it I knew the name "cornflower" wasn't the way I originally knew the flower.  It was delightful to see the alternate name of "Bachelor Button" is also legitimate.  Since wildflowers fascinate me and I often try to identify them, I was surprised it wasn't listed at the wildflower identification tool, MyWildflowers.com.  There was a reason, neither name, nor it's scientific name of Centaurea Cyanus was listed...it is an escapee from being a cultured plant, even though now considered "a weed in arable crops."  Ah, yes, a weed is in the viewpoint.  I'll gladly grow them.

Another plant in the story, the Buttercup, is often talked about, but I wasn't sure if I'd ever seen it.  MyWildflowers gave a variety of pictures.  I was still uncertain.  It's flower is only about an inch in size and 2 or 3 feet tall.  Very similar are Creeping Buttercups and Swamp Buttercups, all with the same flower.  I was still uncertain if I'd seen it, but looked for it and its five petals on yesterday's walk.  Ah ha!  It's easily overlooked as it's so common.

Beyond those flowers, there are two things to mention further before the story.  

Back in 1930 children probably knew of the old-fashioned Chinese hairstyle of the Queue.  It disappeared from fashion in the early 20th century.  Queues,  long associated with Asian men, would now be considered a racist stereotype.  The story compares a firecracker's fuse to what should be described now as reminiscent of that braided hairstyle from long ago in China's early history or you could simply say it looked like a person wearing their hair in a braid.

Beyond that antiquated view, the story gives a still needed reminder, not just for children of nearly a century ago, of the real reason behind Independence Day or the 4th of July.  That meaning goes way beyond a picnic, fireworks, or a holiday.  The explanation of the true meaning of independence and freedom keeps this old story worth our looking back.

I can't help but smile at the crayoned addition to the story.  Some child matched the colors of Genevieve Fusch Samsel's illustrations.  I wonder if that is how the book was no longer "Property of Jones School, Dist. #1 - Hampton Twp" or if the added decoration earned  the child a fine?

                                Flower Flag at the University of Montana in Bozeman

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This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories.  

At the same time, my own involvement in storytelling regularly creates projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience.  Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week.  This is a return to my regular posting of a research project here.  (Don't worry, this isn't dry research, my research is always geared towards future storytelling to an audience.)  Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my other postings as often as I can manage it.

Other Public Domain story resources I recommend-

• There are many online resources for Public Domain stories, maybe none for folklore is as ambitious as fellow storyteller, Yoel Perez's database, Yashpeh, the International Folktales Collection.  I have long recommended it and continue to do so.  He has loaded Stith Thompson's Motif Index into his server as a database so you can search the whole 6 volumes for whatever word or expression you like by pressing one key. http://folkmasa.org/motiv/motif.htm

• You may have noticed I'm no longer certain Dr. Perez has the largest database, although his offering the Motif Index certainly qualifies for those of us seeking specific types of stories.  There's another site, FairyTalez claiming to be the largest, with "over 2000 fairy tales, folktales, and fables" and they are "fully optimized for phones, tablets, and PCs", free and presented without ads.
  
  Between those two sites, there is much for story-lovers, but as they say in infomercials, "Wait, there's more!"

The email list for storytellers, Storytell, discussed Online Story Sources and came up with these additional suggestions:            

         - David K. Brown - http://people.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/stories.html

         - Karen Chace - http://karenchace.blogspot.com/search?q=public+domain

         - Richard Martin - http://www.tellatale.eu/tales_page.html

         - Spirit of Trees - http://spiritoftrees.org/featured-folktales

         - Story-Lovers - http://www.story-lovers.com/ is now only accessible through the Wayback Machine, described below, but the late Jackie Baldwin's wonderful site lives on there, fully searchable manually (the Google search doesn't work), at https://archive.org/ .  It's not easy, but go to Story-lovers.com snapshot for October 22 2016  and you can click on SOS: Searching Out Stories to scroll down through the many story topics and click on the story topic that interests you.

       - Tim Sheppard - http://www.timsheppard.co.uk/story/storylinks.html

       - World of Tales - http://www.worldoftales.com/ 
           - Zalka Csenge Virag - http://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com doesn't give the actual stories, but her recommendations, working her way through each country on a continent, give excellent ideas for finding new books and stories to love and tell.

     
You're going to find many of the links on these sites have gone down, BUT go to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to find some of these old links.  Tim's site, for example, is so huge probably updating it would be a full-time job.  In the case of Story-Lovers, it's great that Jackie Baldwin set it up to stay online as long as it did after she could no longer maintain it.  Possibly searches maintained it.  Unfortunately Storytell list member, Papa Joe is on both Tim Sheppard's site and Story-Lovers, but he no longer maintains his old Papa Joe's Traveling Storytelling Show website and his Library (something you want to see!) is now only on the Wayback Machine.  It took some patience working back through claims of snapshots but finally in December of 2006 it appears!

Somebody as of this writing whose stories can still be found by his website is the late Chuck Larkin - http://chucklarkin.com/stories.html.  I prefer to list these sites by their complete address so they can be found by the Wayback Machine, a.k.a. Archive.org, when that becomes the only way to find them.

You can see why I recommend these to you. Have fun discovering even more stories!