Floyd's Flowers Or Duty and Beauty For Colored Children Being One Hundred Short Stories Gleaned from the Storehouse of Human Knowledge and Experience Simple Amusing Elevating

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Truly the boys and girls of to-day ought to be thankful that they are alive. There never was such a golden age for childhood and youth as the present. To say nothing of the rich opportunities for mental and spiritual development, what a multitude of things have been provided for the innocent pleasure, the wholesome recreation of the young people of to-day; inventions that remind one of the magic of the “Arabian Nights”; tools of sport so perfect that one cannot imagine how they could be bettered; fascinating games, all unknown in the days gone by; books and papers upon which science, art and literary skill have lavished modern resources—all these and many other wonderful things have fallen to the lot of the favored boys and girls of to-day. And now enterprising publishers of our grand country are going to put the boys and girls of America—and especially the colored boys and girls of America—under obligation to them, because they have decided to add to the list of good books for children and youths already on the market. I use the word “good” advisedly; for from the day that I was engaged to write this book I have had in mind constantly the thought of making it such a book as would tell for good. It is an old saying that “evil communications corrupt good manners,” but evil reading does more than this: for evil reading corrupts good morals. I have endeavored to put into this book of stories for children only such things as might be freely admitted into the best homes of the land, and I have written with the hope that many young minds may be elevated by means of these stories and many hearts filled with high and holy aspirations. Our nation has a right to expect that our boys and girls shall turn out to be good men and good women, and this book is meant to help in this process. (Summary by Silas X. Floyd)