Rudyard Kipling

Bagheera would lie out on a branch and call, “Come along, Little Brother,” and at first, Mowgli would cling like the sloth. Sometime later, he would fling himself through the branches almost as boldly as a gray ape. He also took his place at Council Rock when the Pack met. There, he discovered that if he stared hard at any wolf, the wolf would be forced to drop his eyes. So he used to stare for fun. At other times he would pick the long thorns out of the pads of his friends, for wolves suffer terribly from thorns and burrs in their coats. He would go down the hillside into the cultivated lands by night and look very curiously at the villagers in their huts. Still, he had a mistrust of humans because Bagheera showed him a square box with a drop gate so cunningly hidden in the jungle that he nearly walked into it and told him that it was a trap. He loved better than anything else to go with Bagheera into the dark warm heart of the forest, sleep all through the drowsy day, and see how Bagheera did his killing at night. Bagheera killed right and left as he felt hungry, and so did Mowgli—with one exception. As soon as he was old enough to understand things, Bagheera told him that he must never touch cattle because he had been bought into the pack at the price of a bull’s life. “All the jungle is yours,” said Bagheera, “and you can’t kill everything that you are strong enough to kill, but for the sake of the bull that bought you, you must never kill or eat any cattle, young or old. That is the Law of the Jungle.” Mowgli obeyed faithfully.

Rudyard Kipling

All that is told here happened sometime before Mowgli was turned out of the Seeonee Wolf Pack or got revenge on Shere Khan the tiger. It was in the days when Baloo was teaching him the Law of the Jungle. The big, serious, old brown bear was delighted to have so quick a pupil. The young wolves he taught only learned as much of the Law of the Jungle as applied to their own
pack and tribe. They would always run away as soon as they could repeat the Hunting Verse. “Feet that make no noise; eyes that can see in the dark; ears that can hear the winds in their lairs and sharp white teeth. All these things are the marks of our brothers except Tabaqui the Jackal and the Hyaena whom we hate.” But Mowgli, as a man-cub, had to learn a great deal more than this. Sometimes Bagheera
the Black Panther would come lounging through the jungle to see how his pet was getting on and would purr with his head against a tree while Mowgli recited the day’s lesson to Baloo. The boy could climb almost as well as he could swim and swim almost as well as he could run. So Baloo, the Teacher of the Law, taught him the Wood and Water Laws: how to tell a rotten branch from
a sound one; how to speak politely to the wild bees when he came upon a hive of them fifty feet above ground; what to say to Mang the Bat when he disturbed him in the branches at midday; and how to warn the water-snakes in the pools before he splashed down among them. None of the Jungle People like being disturbed, and all are very ready to fly at an intruder.

Rudyard Kipling

All these things happened several years ago at a place called Novastoshnah, or North East Point, on the Island of St. Paul, away and away in the Bering Sea. Limmershin, the Winter Wren, told me the tale when he was blown on to the rigging of a steamer going to Japan, and I took him down into my cabin and warmed and fed him for a couple of days till he was fit to fly
back to St. Paul’s again. Limmershin is a very quaint little bird, but he knows how to tell the truth. Nobody comes to Novastoshnah except on business, and the seals are the only people who have regular business there. They come in the summer months by hundreds and hundreds of thousands out of the cold gray sea. Novastoshnah Beach has the finest accommodation for seals of any place in the world. Sea Catch
knew that, and every spring, would swim from whatever place he happened to be in—would swim like a torpedo-boat straight for Novastoshnah and spend a month fighting with his companions for a good place on the rocks, as close to the sea as possible. Sea Catch was fifteen years old, a huge gray fur seal with almost a mane on his shoulders and long, wicked dog teeth. When he heaved himself up on his
front flippers, he stood more than four feet clear of the ground, and his weight, if anyone had been bold enough to weigh him, was nearly seven hundred pounds. He was scarred with the marks of savage fights, but he was always ready for just one more fight. He would put his head on one side as though he were afraid to look his enemy in the face.

Crime and Punishment

Fyodor Dostoevsky

A few words about Dostoevsky himself may help the English reader to understand his work. Dostoevsky was the son of a doctor. His parents were very hard-working and deeply religious people but so poor that they lived with their five children in only two rooms. The father and mother spent their evenings reading aloud to their children, generally from books of a serious character. Though always sickly and delicate, Dostoevsky came out third in
the final examination of the Petersburg School of Engineering. There he had already begun his first work, “Poor Folk.” Though neither by temperament nor conviction a revolutionist, Dostoevsky was one of a little group of young men who met together to read Fourier and Proudhon. He was accused of “taking part in conversations against the censorship, reading a letter from Byelinsky to Gogol, and knowing of the intention to set up a printing
press.” Under Nicholas I (that “stern and just man,” as Maurice Baring calls him) this was enough, and he was condemned to death. After eight months’ imprisonment, he was with twenty-one others taken out to Semyonovsky Square to be shot. Dostoevsky writes to his brother Mihail: “They snapped words over our heads, and they made us put on the white shirts worn by persons condemned to death. Thereupon we were bound in threes
to stakes, to suffer execution. Being the third in the row, I concluded I had only a few minutes of life before me. I thought of you and your dear ones, and I contrived to kiss Plestcheiev and Dourov, who were next to me, and to bid them farewell. Suddenly, the troops beat a drum and sounded a trumpet, and we were unbound, brought back upon the scaffold, and informed that his Majesty had spared us our lives.” The sentence was commuted to hard labor.

This was the second of two revolutions in the Russian Revolution. The first part was the February Revolution. The second was the October Revolution. Some Russians did not like the previous czarist government. In the 1900s, Russia was poor. It had just lost the Russo-Japanese War. They only recently ended serfdom, where peasants were forced to farm for nobles who owned the land. Since Russia is far north, growing food was not easy, and they were often
hit by famine and food shortages. The government was also corrupt: czar Nicholas did not listen to the parliament, and Rasputin was murdered. They industrialized later than in western Europe and the US. So, when Russia entered World War I, they lost a lot of soldiers fighting Germany, which was more industrialized. For all these reasons, people got angry and blamed the czar. In the February Revolution, some workers and peasants protested. Police shot and
killed some, but more protestors kept coming. Nicholas gave up the throne. This ended centuries of Romanov rule. Alex Kerensky started a new provisional government. It was ruled by the bourgeoisie (the wealthy upper-middle class). The war against the Germans continued. It drained food supplies. In the October Revolution, they overthrew the weak provisional government without killing many people. The leader Lenin wanted a new government ruled by soldiers, peasants,
and workers. Having lost power, the nobles of Alex's government and the previous czar’s government were unhappy. They created the white army and fought Lenin and his red army. This was the Russian Civil War. Lenin won, and so the communist Soviet Union was born. This was the start of communist rule in Russia. It was a model Marxist revolution where the proletariat peasants and workers overthrew the bourgeoisie capitalist nobles. It inspired similar revolutions across Europe and China.

The Russo-Japanese War took place between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire between 1904 and 1905. The Japanese won the war in 1905, and the Russians lost. The war happened because the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan disagreed over who should get parts of Manchuria and Korea. The war was fought mostly on the Liaodong Peninsula and Mukden, the seas around Korea, Japan, and the Yellow Sea. The politics of both
countries in the war were very complicated. Both wanted to gain land and economic benefits. The Chinese Empire of the Qing Dynasty was large but weak. As a result, Japan and Russia saw an opportunity. Both countries wanted and fought over Qing land and possessions. Russia wanted a warm-water port on the Pacific Ocean for its navy and trade. The harbor at Vladivostok freezes over in the winter, but Port Arthur could be used all year round. Russia had already rented the
port from the Qing and had permission to build a Trans-Siberian railway from St Petersburg to Port Arthur. Japan wanted to expand its empire into Korea and China. Japan thought that when Russia completed its railway in 1906, it would be able to beat Japan in a war by being able to supply large numbers of troops there. That obviously made the Japanese nervous, as tensions had been high.
Japan wanted to compromise with Russia to avoid war, even if Russia got the better deal. Japan wanted more of Korea and China than it thought Russia would offer. Japan decided to attack before the railway was complete so that it could do well in a war against Russia. The war started with a Japanese surprise attack on Port Arthur and continued with Japanese victories in Manchuria and elsewhere. The last major battle was at Tsushima Strait, which destroyed the Russian Navy.

Catherine Bordeau

Greek mythology contains stories and legends about their pantheon of gods and goddesses. The stories are diverse in their characters, with monsters and heroes, fools and warriors, as well as gods, goddesses, and regular everyday humans. Some stories focus on full humans whose parents are both humans. Telemachos is the son of Odysseus and Penelope. Many thought Odysseus was dead, so they wanted to marry Penelope. The goddess Athena disguised herself and told Telemachos to look for his father. He set up a search party and ultimately also believed his father was dead. Telemachos organized a competition for potential suitors to win and claim Penelope, and Odysseus arrived secretly to win the competition and rejoin his family. This is a story about the transition to manhood.

Another story about a human is that of Cassandra, Helen of Troy’s twin sister and daughter of the King of Troy. The god Apollo wanted to marry Cassandra, so he gave her the gift of prophecy.

She rejected him. Apollo wanted to take her gift away, but since he couldn’t, he changed her power to only allow her to see bad things. No one would believe her visions. Cassandra foresaw the Trojan Horse trick, but no one believed her. Troy was destroyed. Cassandra became Agamemnon’s slave. She tried to warn him of an assassination attempt, but no one believed her again. He was assassinated, and she was put to death shortly thereafter.

Greek myths are fascinating stories from history that were used by the Greeks to explain the world around them and teach lessons. Many of the myths are impossibly magical or divine, but many–even the fanciful ones–have a basis in historical fact. No one knows who wrote (or told) the original stories. Historians believe the collection originated in oral traditions dating all the way back to the Bronze Age. Over time, the stories were refined and elaborated upon until they became the stories we know today.

Romantic music is music written in the 19th century. This is called the “Romantic period” by musicians. Prior to this, music was written differently. In the Classical period, for example, artists liked to see clear forms. One example is 18th-century architecture, which often featured symmetrical forms. The gardens of the palace at Versailles are a good example of Classical Period preferences.
The gardens have tidy patterns of straight paths, circular ponds, and neatly clipped hedges. Classical composers such as Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert favored music with a clear plan, like the sonata form.

In contrast, Romantic period artists thought that feeling and passion were more important. This can be seen in the gardens designed by Capability Brown at Blenheim Palace in Oxford. The gardens are
designed to blend into nature. Romantic composers still employed the Classical sonata form in their music. However, feelings and passions were equally important. They often wrote what is called program music, which describes something or tells a story. Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, the “Pastoral,” is about how it felt to travel in the countryside. Although Beethoven is usually called a Classical composer, he is also an early Romantic. Later composers
such as Felix Mendelssohn wrote pieces like “Hebrides Overture,” which describes the sea coming into Fingal’s Cave in the Inner Hebrides Islands in Scotland. Hector Berlioz also wrote music that told a story. His “Symphonie Fantastique” is about an artist madly in love. Berlioz’s whole way of life was wild and romantic. He fell in love with an actress he saw on stage playing the part of Juliet. He pursued her until he actually married her.

The four-color theorem is a theorem of mathematics that says that any plane surface with regions in it can be colored with no more than four colors. Two regions that have a common border must not get the same color. A math proof is a list of logical assumptions that make an argument. The four-color theorem was the first theorem to be proved by a computer in a proof by exhaustion. In
proof by exhaustion, the conclusion is established by dividing it into cases and proving each one separately. There may be a lot of cases. For example, the first proof of the four-color theorem was a proof by exhaustion with 1,936 attempts to solve it. This proof was controversial because most of the cases were checked by a computer program, not by hand. The shortest known proof of the four-color theorem today still has over 600 cases.
According to an article by the math historian Kenneth May, “Maps utilizing only four colors are rare, and those that do usually require only three. Books on cartography and the history of map-making do not mention the four-color property.” Many simpler maps can be colored using three colors. The fourth color is needed for some maps, such as one in which one region is surrounded by an odd number of others, which touch each
other in a cycle. The five-color theorem states that five colors are enough to color a map. It has a short, elementary proof and was proven in the late 19th century. Proving that four colors are all that is needed turned out to be much more difficult. Many false proofs and false counterexamples have appeared since the first statement of the four-color theorem in 1852.

A governess is a female person who works for a family, teaching the children in their home. She is not like a nanny who looks after them all day, dressing them etc. The governess's job is to be their teacher. She saw to their discipline and early education. Often girls received all their education from their governess (or sometimes a tutor), though boys usually went away to boarding school before their teen years, and then some went on to college. Very few children nowadays have a governess, but it was quite common in the families of rich people until around the beginning of the 20th century. In England quite a lot of young children who lived in the country, a long way from good schools, had a governess. When the boys were old enough, they were sent away to a boarding school. Governesses taught basic skills such as Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. They may also have taught other skills such as French, piano playing and drawing or painting. A governess was not a household worker, but she was not treated like a member of the family either. This meant that they were often quite lonely, and they usually ate their meals alone. For girls from a middle-class background who were not married it was one of the only ways of earning a living. When the children she taught (her "charges") grew up, she would have to find a new job. Novels of the time were usually about rich families, and a governess often comes into the story, for example, in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre or Anne Brontë's Agnes Grey. Maria, the main character in The Sound of Music, leaves the convent and becomes a governess to the children of the von Trapp family.

N/A with edits by Catherine Bordeau

Sharia law, or Islamic law, is a set of religious principles which form part of religious Islamic culture. The Arabic word sharia refers to Islam’s legal system and originally meant "way" or "path.” People of different religions who speak Arabic use the word sharia to describe a religious tradition derived from the teachings of prophets. Non-Muslim communities living under Islamic rule were allowed to follow their own laws.

For many Muslims, the word "sharia" means simply "justice." They will say that laws that build a more fair and prosperous society are sharia. Most Muslims think that sharia should be interpreted by experts in Islamic law. The rules of behavior created by these scholars trying to understand their holy book are called fiqh. These rules can change. Islamic scholars have often disagreed about them because interpretations vary widely.

Islamic scholars who lived during the first centuries of Islam developed different methods for interpreting sharia. Most of them agree that sharia rules should be derived from four main sources. First, the Muslim holy book called the Qur’an and Muhammad’s actions are both important. Second, consensus and legal reasoning by analogy matter too. There are laws about how to worship god. There are codes on which foods are allowed to be eaten and even how to pray or help the poor.

In the modern era, most parts of the Muslim world came under the influence or control of European powers. This led to major changes in their legal systems. In some cases, this was because Muslim governments wanted to make their states more powerful. Thus, they utilized European states as models of a modern state. In other cases, it was because Europeans who colonized these lands forced them to abandon parts of Islamic law and follow European laws instead.

Catherine Bordeau

In 1984, British scientists cloned the first mammals by splitting a sheep embryo. At the time, no one thought it possible to clone an adult animal, but scientists at the Roslin Institute in Scotland persisted and succeeded. They used an adult sheep’s stem cell, found in bone marrow or mammary glands, and transferred the nucleus to another cell to create the embryo. On July 5, 1996, Dolly was born to a surrogate mother.
The news of her birth thrilled the public and the scientific world. Although many people believe Dolly was the first clone, her birth was exciting because she was cloned from an adult sheep. This opened up the field of stem cell research. Stem cells are our most basic cells that can develop into any other kind of cell—from muscle to brain cells. Scientists are studying how they can heal damaged tissue or organs, perhaps even helping paralyzed people walk again someday.
Dolly’s birth, life, and death also brought ethical issues to the forefront. While stem cell research and cloning technology can and are certainly helping people, some debate whether it's a slippery slope toward radical human genetic engineering. The risks of designer babies or potentially deformed human clones are often mentioned, but the reality is that science is far from able to clone or even elect specific genetic traits. There is still much more to study before humanity is close to that possibility.
Dolly’s life was short; she died at six years old though sheep usually live for twice as long. What scientists realized is that specific proteins in her DNA called telomeres were much shorter than other sheep her age. Telomeres get shorter as we age, and Dolly’s were as short as her clone. This begged the question: when Dolly was born, was her DNA already the “same age” as her clone? Furthermore, what implications did that have for the future study of cloning?

Catherine Bordeau

For decades, people have been taught that Watson and Crick discovered DNA. Unfortunately, that’s not exactly accurate. A British biophysicist named Rosalind Franklin made the discovery first. Her work showed that DNA was built like a double helix. How? She used something called x-ray crystallography, which “takes pictures” at the molecular level. These pictures were then used by Watson and Crick without her permission to claim the discovery of the double helix.
There’s some debate about how it happened. In 1953, Watson and Crick were trying to build a 3D model of what DNA might look like, but they hadn’t seen an image yet. Franklin’s student lab assistant—Raymond Gosling—shared Franklin’s famous Photo 51 with Watson and Crick before she was even able to see it. They used the information to discern the molecular structure of DNA. Two months later, they published their research and got the scoop.
Franklin’s name was left off of the research, as she had left to teach at another university the month before. She died of cancer in 1958, and the Nobel committee nominated Watson and Crick’s research in 1962. Since Nobel prizes cannot be awarded to dead people, Rosalind Franklin’s name was again left out. Watson and Crick won the Nobel Prize that year, and every year since, school children have learned their names as the discoverers of DNA.
As a result, Rosalind Franklin’s important contribution to DNA, which ultimately led to us being able to understand the human genome, was largely forgotten for decades. Recently scholars have recognize that she was a woman working in a male-dominated field and faced discrimination. She contributed scientific research that brought “lasting benefit” to humanity. Even Crick acknowledges her contribution. Rosalind Franklin pursued her science relentlessly, and now her story inspires the next generations.

Catherine Bordeau

Most Americans know that the 19th Amendment granted women the right to vote in 1920. Still, history books often ignore the fact that black women didn’t automatically get the same freedom to head to the polls. Suffrage, or the right to vote, was difficult for African Americans because of hurdles like poll taxes, literacy tests, and even violence. Unfortunately, black men faced the same obstacles despite winning the right to vote with the 15th Amendment fifty years before.
Native Americans who lived on the land long before Europeans arrived were not considered U.S. citizens until 1924. Then, even as citizens, native people faced voter suppression and remained unable to vote because of state laws. Some elected officials wanted to force native tribes to act “more European” before voting. Like many black Americans, indigenous people weren’t guaranteed the right to vote in every state until the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965.
In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act that banned Asian people from immigrating to the US. It also banned Asian people already living in the US from becoming citizens. After World War II, Congress repealed that law. However, Congress limited immigration to a mere 105 Chinese people per year. In addition, Asian Americans were still barred from becoming U.S. citizens until 1952 and also only received the right to vote in 1965.
Voting rights have long been at the center of what it means to be American. “No taxation without representation” was a rallying cry of the revolution. Yet barriers endured for much of society, who were barred from democracy. Votes elect officials who make the laws. Knowing who got the right to vote and when is an opportunity to look at how disenfranchisement shaped our history. It’s also a moment to consider modern debates about voting rights and restrictions.

Catherine Bordeau

Between 1347 and 1400, the worst pandemic in recorded history hit Europe, North Africa, and the Islamic world. Some 75-200 million people were killed by a bacterium called Yersinia pestis, which originated in China and Central Asia. A Mongol military force attacked a Crimean trading port in 1347. They catapulted plague-infested corpses over the town's walls. Trading ships then left port unknowingly carrying the disease via sailors, rodents, and fleas. Overcrowding and poor sanitation were perfect conditions for the disease to spread. The effects of fifty years of plague with such a high death rate impacted the entire region. Military conflicts came to a halt. Trade slowed drastically. So many peasant farmers died that labor shortages resulted in food shortages. City laborers were also hit hard, drastically reducing the workforce. However, as a result, farmers and laborers were able to negotiate an increase in their wages. This resulted in more social mobility for the masses. Serfdom disappeared. Scarce labor led to improvements in technology. Unfortunately, people also wanted someone to blame. Religious beliefs far outpaced the depth of knowledge in science. People resorted to Anti-Semitism and blamed Jewish people. Jewish communities were often attacked and burned. People believed that they had poisoned water wells and caused the illness. Some scholars link the persecution to fears fueled by the church. Prejudicial rumors and religious pretexts were used as evidence. However, historians believe economic and political competition were the likely actual causes. Historians studying this period note that 30-50% of the population in Europe died. There were many social and genetic consequences. Women had more rights after the pandemic—the ability to own land and businesses. They could also choose who they wanted to marry! Genetically, the plague killed some more than others. As a result, the genes of those who lived were more likely to be passed on. The gene that protected medieval ancestors now causes autoimmune diseases in their descendants.

Catherine Bordeau

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara

Born in 1928, Ernesto “Che” Guevara would grow up to be named one of the most influential people of the 20th century. “Guerrillero Heroico,” a picture of him, is called the world’s most famous picture. He was born in Argentina. His views were shaped by his father’s politics and leftist friends from the Spanish Civil War. He read broadly. Che pondered and wrote about the ideas of Buddha, Artistotle, Lenin, and Engels, among many others.
The 1958 CIA personality report on him noted he was “quite well read” and “fairly intellectual for a Latino.” The scholar also traveled by motorcycle throughout South America after graduating from medical school in 1953. During his travels, he witnessed severe “poverty, hunger, and disease." He noted that children were denied medical care because of a lack of money. Guevara cited this trip as prompting him to "help these people." He resolved to enter politics and fight.
In 1954, he saw the CIA-supported coup in Guatemala. They overthrew the government that was making social and economic reforms in support of the people. The American-based United Fruit Company (renamed Chiquita) owned a lot of land and had powerful influence in the banana republic. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles coincidentally was also a stockholder and lawyer for United Fruit. With his influence, the CIA helped topple the elected government to protect the company’s interests and profits.
This ordeal convinced Che that the U.S. was an imperialist power. America opposed and sought to destroy any government that tried to fix economic inequality in developing countries. Che was convinced that armed struggle was the only way to stop them. He went on to lead guerilla fighters in Africa and South America, including the Cuban Revolution. In 1967, Che was killed by the Bolivian army with the help of the CIA.

Catherine Bordeau

For four hundred years, the British built an empire that spanned the globe. It was the largest empire in world history, occupying 25% of Earth’s surface. The monarchs ruled over 458 million people who wanted to be free. After World War II, global powers started the United Nations. One goal of the international organization was to help decolonize the world and help countries gain independence. Since then, sixty-five countries have claimed their independence from Britain. One of those countries is India.
1947 was a watershed year as British control over the subcontinent ended. The area was divided into four countries—India, Burma (now Myanmar), Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and Pakistan (including modern-day Bangladesh). This process is known as the partition. The states of India and Pakistan were created along religious lines. Pakistan was created as a Muslim state. India became mostly Hindu. On paper, the plan seemed to make sense.
In reality, neither government was prepared for 15-60 million people to pick up and move. They migrated to the Muslim or Hindu state, depending on their religion. So many people migrating were vulnerable, and the transit created more tension and violence. Ultimately, there was a complete breakdown of law and order as riots broke out. No one knows precisely how many people died during the migration. Estimates range from 200,000 to two million.
The deaths were senseless, but unfortunately, tensions between religious groups continued. The United Nations promotes the principle of religious freedom, and only a minority of countries restrict religions. India and Pakistan both mandate freedom of religion. So does the United States. Unfortunately, research shows that discrimination against people from different religious groups still happens. It’s good to learn about different cultures and beliefs. It makes sense to understand history and the world around you. Tragedies like partition violence need not happen again.

Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales

Hans Christian Andersen

Far hence, in a country whither the Swallows fly in our winter-time, there dwelt a King who had eleven sons and one daughter, the beautiful Elise. The eleven princes went to school with stars on their breasts and swords by their sides; they wrote on golden tablets with diamond pens and could read either with a book or without one. In short, it was easy to perceive that they were princes–how lucky they were!
Their sister Elise used to sit on a little glass stool and had a picture book that cost half a kingdom. Oh, the children were so happy! But they wouldn’t always be so happy. Their father the King married a very wicked Queen who was not at all kind to the poor children. They found this out on the first day after the marriage when there was a grand gala at the palace.
When the children played and received company, instead of having as many cakes and sweetmeats as they liked, the Queen gave them only some sand in a little dish and told them to imagine something nice. The week after, she sent little Elise to be brought up by some peasants in the country, and not long after, she told the King so many falsehoods about the poor princes that
he would have nothing more to do with them. “Away, out into the world, and take care of yourselves,” said the wicked Queen, “fly away in the form of great speechless birds.” But she could not make their transformation so disagreeable as she wished. The Queen merely transformed the Princes into eleven white swans. Sending forth a strange cry, they flew out of the palace windows, over the park and the wood.

Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales

Hans Christian Andersen

Many years ago, an Emperor was so excessively fond of new clothes that he spent all his money on them. He did not trouble himself in the least about his soldiers, nor did he care to go to the theatre or the horse races, except if the occasions allowed him to show off his new clothes. He had a different suit for each hour of the day. Like any other king or emperor, one is accustomed to saying, “He is sitting in council.”
Instead, his advisors always said, “The Emperor is sitting in his wardrobe.” Time passed away merrily in the large capital city. Strangers arrived every day at the fashionable king’s court. One day, two rogues, calling themselves weavers, made an appearance. They mentioned that they knew how to weave fabrics with the most beautiful colors and elaborate patterns. They claimed that the clothes
had the extraordinary property of remaining invisible to everyone who was unfit for the office he held or was exceedingly simple. “These must indeed be splendid clothes!” thought the Emperor. “Had I such a suit, I might, at once, find out which men in my realms are unfit for their office and I would also be able to distinguish the wise from the foolish! This fine fabric must be woven for me immediately.”
And he ordered large sums of money to be given to both the weavers so they could begin their work immediately. So the two pretending weavers set up two looms and began to work very busily. In reality, they did nothing at all. They asked for the most delicate silk and the purest gold thread but put both into their own knapsacks, and then, they continued pretending to work at the empty looms until late at night.

Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales

Hans Christian Andersen

There was once a merchant so wealthy that he could have paved the whole street with pieces of silver, but he did not squander his money as a matter of parsimony. The miser had other ideas for how to allocate and invest his money, and whenever he spent a shilling, he earned a colossal profit in return. Frugal in life, he died a prosperous man. All his money then went to his only son. But the son lived extravagantly
and spent all his time clowning and carousing. He carelessly spent the wealth on going to masquerades every evening, making money into impractical kites, and skipping gold pieces across the pond instead of stones. As a result, his immense inheritance vanished until he was penniless. In fact, his wardrobe was reduced to a pair of slippers and an old dressing gown. His friends never really cared about him, and now that they could not
spend his money, they abandoned him. One of them, however, was more benevolent (albeit still exasperated) than the rest, and he bequeathed him an old trunk with this advice, “Pack up and be off!” This was all very fine, but he had nothing that he could pack up and simply put himself into the trunk, but little did he know, it was a magical trunk! When the lock was latched, the whole trunk could fly. The merchant’s son closed the lock and up flew the trunk
with him through the chimney, high into the clouds, on and on, higher and higher. The lower part cracked, which frightened him because if it had broken in half, he would have plunged and quickly met his demise! However, it descended safely, and he found himself in Turkey. He hid the trunk under a heap of dry leaves in a forest and walked into the next town, but no one looked twice at his attire, for Turkish people go about in dressing gowns and slippers.

Catherine Bordeau

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_Conservation_Corps

The Great Depression hit hard in 1929 and continued until 1933. Unemployment soared over 25%. President Franklin D. Roosevelt instituted a series of programs called the New Deal. The plan was to provide work through labor, industry, and agricultural reforms. One of the first projects was called the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). It was designed to provide jobs and income while building infrastructure across the United States. Over nine years, three million young men took part in the CCC.
Any unemployed, unmarried man could join the program. The CCC provided shelter, clothing, and food; each laborer was paid $30 per month. That’s about $1,000 today. When they received their paycheck, every man had to send $25 home to their family. Most men who participated had low levels of education and zero options for employment back home. The program thus not only gave them an income but also provided them with valuable work experience and marketable skills.
As the name suggests, the work focused on conservation projects. Throughout its existence, CCC members planted three billion trees. They made structural improvements by building shelters, trails, and roads in state and national parks. Members also fought forest fires and built flood barriers, irrigation canals, drainage routes, and dams. Workers performed mosquito control, stocked lakes with fish, and created public campgrounds and picnic areas. They also received job training and literacy classes.
Only 11% of workers graduated high school, while 38% hadn’t even finished 8th grade. 3% were completely illiterate. 70% of enrollees were malnourished and poorly clothed when they began work. All greatly benefitted from the program. However, after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, men from similar backgrounds were conscripted into the military instead. By 1942, the CCC ceased operations. It was the first program of its kind to bring urban and rural poor together to increase their education, health, and employment opportunities.

Catherine Bordeau

Born in 1925, Medgar Evers grew up under segregation in the deep South. He walked 12 miles daily to get to school, eventually earning his high school diploma. Evers served in the U.S. Army from 1943 to 1945, including as a sergeant at the Battle of Normandy. After the war, he attended and studied business at a historically black college now known as Alcorn State University, and he graduated in 1952 and moved to Mound Bayou, Mississippi—a town developed by African Americans.
As a military veteran who found for his country, Evers expected that he would be able to vote. However, he and five friends were deterred at gunpoint. Racism denied his equal rights. Later, he organized boycotts of gas stations with the slogan “Don’t Buy Gas Where You Can’t Use the Restroom.” To fight state laws that made segregation legal, Evers applied to attend the University of Mississippi Law School, but his application was rejected because of his race.
That same year, Evers was named the NAACP's first field secretary for Mississippi. In this position, he helped organize boycotts and set up new local chapters of the NAACP. He tried to desegregate public beaches, buses, and parks. Evers led voter registration drives, advocated for school integration, and led investigations into the murder of the teenager Emmett Till. Evers was a prominent black voice, and that made him a target.
In the 1960s, civil rights activists lived under constant threat. In May 1963, a bomb was thrown into his garage, and then someone tried to hit him with a car. In June 1963, Evers returned home without his usual FBI or police escort. As he got out of his car, carrying a box of NAACP t-shirts that said “Jim Crow Must Go,” Medger Evers was shot and killed. Mourned nationally, Evers was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, where he received full military honors.

Fairy Tales From Far and Near

There once lived in Korea a rich merchant and his wife who had no children; Still, they greatly desired a child and prayed every day that a child might be granted them. They had been married sixteen years and were no longer young when the wife had a wonderful dream. In her dream, she walked in a garden full of beautiful fruits and flowers and singing birds; as she walked, suddenly a star fell from
the skyinto her bosom. As soon as the wife awoke, she told this dream to her husband. “I feel assured,” said she, “that this dream can mean only one thing, and that is that we are going to have a child who will be as a star for beauty and wonder and grace.” The merchant could hardly believe that this good fortune was really to be theirs. However, it was indeed as the wife had said, and in due time a daughter was born to the couple.
This child was so beautiful that she was the wonder of all who saw her. The husband and wife, who had hoped for a son, were greatly disappointed that the long-wished-for child was only a daughter. Their disappointment was soon forgotten in the joy and pride they felt in her beauty and wit and goodness. Unhappily, while Sim Ching (for so the girl was named) was still a child, her mother died
Her father’s grief over the loss of his wife was so great that he became completely blind. He was now obliged to leave the most of his business affairs in the hands of his servants, and these servants were so dishonest that they either wasted or stole all his money. He became so poor that he could scarcely provide enough food to keep himself and his daughter alive.

In short, Mrs. Pontellier was not a mother-woman. The mother-women seemed to prevail that summer at Grand Isle, but she was not part of that group. It was easy to know them, fluttering about with extended, protecting wings when any real or imaginary harm threatened their precious brood. They were women who idolized their children, worshiped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels.
Many were deliciously content in the role; one was the embodiment of every womanly grace and charm—if her husband did not adore her, he was a brute deserving of death by slow torture. Her name was Adèle Ratignolle. There are no words to describe her save the old ones that have often served to picture the bygone heroine of romance, for she was the picture of perfection.
There was nothing subtle or hidden about her charms. Her beauty was all there, flaming and apparent. She had spun-gold hair that neither comb nor pin could restrain, blue eyes that were like sapphires, and two lips that pouted and were so red one could only think of cherries or some other delicious crimson fruit. She was growing a little stout, but it did not seem to detract an iota from the grace of every step, pose, and gesture.
One would not have wanted her white neck a mite less full or her beautiful arms more slender. No hands were more exquisite than hers, and it was a joy to look at them when she threaded her needle or adjusted her gold thimble as she sewed away. Madame Ratignolle was very fond of Mrs. Pontellier, and often she took her sewing and went over to her in the afternoons. She was sitting there the day the box arrived from New Orleans.

American Fairy Tales

An accomplished wizard once lived on the top floor of a tenement house and passed his time in thoughtful study and intellectual thought. What he didn't know about magic was hardly worth knowing, for he possessed all the books and recipes of all the wizards who had lived before him and had invented several wizardments himself. This admirable person would have been delighted but for the numerous interruptions to his studies caused
by folk who came to consult him about their troubles (in which he was not interested) and by the loud knocks of the iceman, the milkman, the baker's boy, the laundryman, and the peanut woman. He never dealt with any of these people, but they rapped at his door every day to see him about this or that or to try to sell him their wares. Just when he was most deeply interested in his
books or engaged in watching the bubbling of a cauldron, there would come a knock at his door. And after sending the intruder away, he always found he had lost his train of thought or ruined his compound. At length, these interruptions aroused his anger, and he decided he must have a dog to keep people away from his door. He didn't know where to find a dog, but in the next room lived a
poor glass-blower with whom he had a slight acquaintance, so he went into the man's apartment and asked: "Where can I find a dog?" "What sort of a dog?" inquired the glass-blower. The wizard watched him thoughtfully. "Why cannot you blow me a dog out of glass?" he asked. "I can," declared the glass-blower, "but it would not bark at people, you know." This conversation led the glass-blower to create for the wizard a dog.