Disquisition by Scripps, E.W., The American family Robinson, November 19, 1921

              West Ohester. 0.,
November 19th,
1 9 2 1 •
O.hapter I.
fhe family was conq;>osed of Robinson, himself't and his wif'e, four boys
and two girls. fhe eldest boy was fourteen. Later we may give them their names.
Robinson married young and his wife was about his own age. At the time
the Boninsons started on IlJaeir great adventure the father of the family was in his'
i.obinsQn fS Qareet.
He started life on his father's dairy farm near st. LouiS, Mo.
He and his brothers an4 his sisters had,from the age of toddling,been made
use of by their parents. Hia sisters helped the mother wa.sh and cook and mend and
.he and his brothers ted the oatU6. cleaned out the oow stables, spread the straw and
by the time Robinson was twelve years of' age .he became one of the milkers.
The RobinsOll family ft8 thrifty and successful and qui 'lie well to do as
farmers go.
Child labor in the Robinson family then was not the result ot extreme
poverty any more than it was the result of grasping covetousness.
To the Robinsons it seemed perfectly natural that everyone in the family
should do his bit.
!f.be :neighboring sohool was a g'Ood one and a.ll the Robinson a.b.ildren attended
it during the full term, eigllt or nina months ;yearly seSSiOns, and they each, when
they beea.me the proper &BfI and had made sufficient advane8ment, left h.ome to attend
high school in a nes.rbJ' small oit,'.
!he)" wire falr17 well edW'.l&i:ed.
:Jut 8o.h.ool aoura at; their lengest were only a "'t Of the ~ and it
Ohio University Libraries, E.W. Scripps Papers, MSS 117, Series 4, http://bit.ly/scripps_mss117