Rip Van Winkle: Fit the Picture to the Story
Stampkraft Poster Stamp Art Books were a novel new idea in the 1910s that combined reading and art for young children. The Rip Van Winkle version was published in 1916.
Published by the United Art Publishing Company in New York, the Stampkraft books were marketed with a tagline of “fit the picture to the story.” The pages of the book contained a quotation or a summary of a section of the original story. Each book also included an envelope with “poster stamps” that would then be placed within the book on the page opposite the corresponding section of the story. When you were finished, you had a complete, illustrated story.
The Rip Van Winkle story had 12 poster stamps, but other stories were sometimes larger in size, with either 24 stamps, 72 stamps or 168 stamps.
Other Stampkraft books included Robinson Crusoe, Jack and the Bean-Stalk, Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Three Bears, Story of Peter Rabbit, Joseph and His Brethren, Mother Goose Rhymes and many more.
Rip and the children. Many years ago, while this country was still under the rule of England, there lived in a village near the Hudson River, a good-natured, simple man named Rip Van Winkle. He was exceedingly lazy and disliked all kinds of work, but on account of his kind heart and good disposition, all the children in the village loved him. He taught them all sorts of games, made toys for them, told them stories, and was always surrounded by a crowd of them wherever he went.
Rip’s cow destroys the cabbages. Owing to his shiftless and lazy ways, Rip had great difficulty in keeping his farm in order, and in making it produce crops. He could not keep the weeds from growing in his garden and choking out the vegetables, and the fences that he built were so badly put together that they always fell to pieces, so that the cow would wander around among the cabbages and destroy them. Thus the large estate that had been his grew smaller and smaller, till there was only a small potato-patch left.
Rip at the Village Inn. Poor Rip was cursed with a sharp-tongued, ill-tempered wife, who made life a burden to him, by constantly scolding and finding fault with his laziness and idleness. From morning until night she complained and quarreled, so that Rip, in order to have peace, was forced to leave the house. With his dog Wolf he would go to the village inn, and sitting on a bench before the door with his friends, would discuss the affairs of the day or listen while the schoolmaster read some interesting bit of news from the paper.
Rip’s wife upbraids him. One fine day, after a particularly severe scolding from his wife, Rip felt he could not stand this sort of life any longer, so taking his gun under his arm and calling his dog, he set off to go squirrel-shooting in the mountains. Even as he left the house, his wife came to the door and called after him that he was an idle good-for-nothing, and had better keep out of her sight. He could hear her voice at the very end of the village street, and was glad to get out of sound of it for a while.
Rip hunting in the mountains. Happy to be free from his nagging wife, Rip and his dog Wolf wandered ever farther up into the mountains. The grass was soft and green, the trees waved to him in welcome, and even the little brook seemed to tinkle a musical greeting to him. Wolf frolicked and romped at his heels as though he, too, were glad to be out in the open with his master, and many a squirrel fell that afternoon, a prey to Rip’s trusty shot-gun.
Rip sees a strange figure. Tired from his long tramp, Rip threw himself down to rest in the shade of a tree, and as he sat there gazing down into the valley, he thought he heard his name called several times. He peered in the direction from which the sound seemed to come, but at first he could see nothing. Looking more closely, however, he could just distinguish in the failing light (for the sun was setting) a strange figure dressed in the old Dutch style, with a high-peaked hat and long beard, carrying a keg of liquor up the mountain-side.
Rip helps the dwarf to carry the keg. Looking curiously at the strange little man with the heavy load, Rip saw him beckon to him to come and help him carry the keg up the mountain. At first he was rather afraid to go, for the stranger’s appearance was certainly peculiar, but he overcame his fear, and Rip and the dwarf took turns at carrying the keg up the steep hill. Every once in a while during the climb Rip would hear peals of what he took to be thunder, and expected to see a heavy storm at any minute. But he said nothing to his companion and they made the ascent in complete silence.
The dwarfs playing nine-pins. At the end of the climb, Rip and his guide entered a small hollow, where he found a company of men playing at nine-pins. They were dressed in the old fashion of a by-gone day and wore tall sugar-loaf hats. They were a most solemn assembly, who never spoke or smiled, but only stopped their game long enough to stare at Rip. His companion opened the keg of liquor and motioned to Rip to serve the company. This he did, and upon tasting the contents himself, found it to be so good that he drank of it several times.
Rip falls asleep. The liquor in the keg, which Rip had found to taste so good, must have been very strong and fiery, for soon afterwards he could feel himself getting drowsy. His eyes refused to stay open, hid head fell on his breast, and finding it useless to try to keep awake any longer, he threw himself down on a soft patch of turf under a tree, and with his dog and gun beside him, he soon fell fast asleep.
Rip’s awakening. When Rip awoke from his sleep, he found himself in the same place where he had seen the dwarfs playing nine-pins. His dog was gone, and beside him lay his gun, now rusty and broken. Although he whistled for Wolf, the latter did not come, so Rip decided to look for him. Upon trying to walk, he found his joints very stiff and concluded he must be rheumatic from sleeping out of doors. With great difficulty he succeeded in making his way down the mountain, but much to his disappointment he did not meet wolf on the road.
Rip’s return to the village. When Rip reached the village, he saw many people, but none whom he knew. The dogs barked at him, the children did not recognize him, and his old home, which had always been so neat, was now in ruins. Looking down at his chest, he found to his surprise that his beard had grown long and gray and that his clothes were in rags. Much disturbed by this and the numerous changes in the village, he wandered on, asking various people whom he met about his old friends, but all those about whom he inquired had been dead for many years.
Rip meets his daughter. At last Rip turned to a young woman in the curious crowd which had gathered around him. Her face and voice were familiar to him, and upon asking her name, he found her to be his own daughter. She was married now although she had been but a little girl when last he saw her. From her, he learned that his wife was dead, and that he, too, had been given up for dead when he disappeared twenty years ago. She was very glad to see her dear father again and took him home to live with her husband and children. There he spent his old age in peace and contentment and never again visited Hendrick Hudson and his band who played nine-pins in the mountains.
