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Page 3
KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN.
_In this room was born the first free Kindergarten west of the Rocky
Mountains. Let me have the happiness of looking down upon many
successive groups of children sitting in these same seats._
We are told that the children love that room the best; it is pictured
as a bright, cheery spot, where the children used to gather with "Miss
Kate" in the bygone days. By the window there is a bird-cage; the tiny
occupant bearing the historical name of "Patsy." Connected with this
kindergarten is a training-school, organized by Mrs. Wiggin in 1880,
and conducted by Miss Nora Smith for several years afterward. The two
sisters in collaboration have added much valuable matter to
kindergarten literature, notably the three volumes entitled _The
Republic of Childhood_, _Children's Sights_, and _The Story Hour_.
On her marriage, Mrs. Wiggin gave up teaching, but continued to give
two talks a week to the Training Class. She was also a constant
visitor in the many kindergartens which had sprung up under the impulse
of herself and her associates. She played with the children, sang to
them, told them stories, and thus was all the while not only gathering
material unconsciously, but practicing the art which she was to make
her calling. The dozen years thus spent were her years of training,
and, during this time she wrote and printed _The Story of Patsy_,
merely to raise money for the kindergarten work. Three thousand copies
were sold without the aid of a publisher, and the success was repeated
when, not long after, _The Birds' Christmas Carol_ appeared.
In 1888 Mrs. Wiggin removed to New York, and her friends urged her to
come before the public with a regular issue of the last-named story.
Houghton, Mifflin and Company at once brought out an edition, and the
popularity which the book enjoyed in its first limited circle was now
repeated on a very large scale. The reissue of _The Story of Patsy_
followed at the hands of the same publishers, and they have continued
to bring out the successive volumes of her writing.
It is not necessary to give a formal list of these books. Perhaps _The
Birds' Christmas Carol_, which is so full of that sweet, tender pathos
and wholesome humor which on one page moves us to tears, and the next
sets us shaking with laughter, has been more widely enjoyed and read
than her other stories, at least in America. It has been translated
into Japanese, French, German, and Swedish, and has been put in raised
type for the use of the blind. Patsy is a composite sketch taken from
kindergarten life. For _Timothy's Quest_, one of the brightest and
most cleverly written of character sketches, the author feels an
especially tender sentiment. The story of how the book took form is
old, but will bear repeating; it originated from the casual remark of a
little child who said, regarding a certain house, "I think they need
some babies there." Mrs. Wiggin at once jotted down in her note-book
"needing babies," and from this nucleus the charming story of "Timothy"
was woven into its present form. It is said that Rudyard Kipling
considers Polly Oliver one of the most delightful of all girl-heroines;
and Mrs. Wiggin really hopes some day to see the "Hospital Story Hour"
carried out in real life.
She owns a most interesting collection of her books in several
languages. The illustrations of these are very unique, as most of them
are made to correspond with the life of the country in which they are
published. _Timothy's Quest_ is a favorite in Denmark with its Danish
text and illustrations. It has also found its way into Swedish, and
has appeared in the Tauchnitz edition, as has also _A Cathedral
Courtship_. Her latest book, _The Village Watch Tower_, is composed of
several short stories full of the very breath and air of New England.
They are studies of humble life, interesting oddities and local
customs, and are written in her usual bright vein.
It was not long after her removal to the Atlantic coast that Mrs.
Wiggin, now a widow and separated much of the year from her special
work in California, threw herself eagerly into the kindergarten
movement in New York, and it was in this interest that she was drawn
into the semi-public reading of her own stories. Her interpretation of
them is full of exquisite taste and feeling, but she has declared most
characteristically that she would rather write a story for the love of
doing it, than be paid by the public for reading it; hence her readings
have always been given purely for philanthropic purposes, especially
for the introduction of kindergartens, a cause which she warmly
advocates, and with which she has most generously identified herself.
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