Page:Mennonite Handbook of Information 1925.djvu/35

 process of learning the letters, then to spell words, and still later to read and write in both forms became one of the accomplishments of childhood in every Mennonite home. In the early days silent reading was not generally the custom, but the rule was for some member of the home to read aloud for the entertainment of the others. The instrument used in writing was the common goose quill pen that was dipped in yellowish black ink made from charcoal or the well known ink-ball of those times that grew on the outer branches of the black oak.

At a very early period the calendar Almanac found a ready place in every pioneer home. There were also medical hand-books teaching how to treat diseases both in man and beast, while there were extant among many German readers of those times copies of the One Hundred Years Planetary Almanac.

With these some English publications were in circulation, such as Capt. John Smith's history of Virginia, issued in 1624, Missionary John Eliot's translation of the Bible into the Indian language in 1663, the New England Primer with Mather's Catechism first printed in 1690, with also the Boston News Letter, the first newspaper printed in America, and which first appeared in 1711. The Virginia Gazette, made its first appearance in 1736, and last but not least, there was Dr. Benjamin Franklin's "Poor Richard's Almanack," first published at Philadelphia in 1732, and of which its circulation in the American colonies was ten thousand copies annually. In this almanac the month of 1 March was called "First Month," and marked the beginning of each year, while February was