336 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



door and up to the stairs that lead to 

 his business office and I heard him say, 

 "I don't believe I shall be able to break 



aw a\ s* i 1( mg as I li\ »." 



"Nateral Siens" Not Needed. 



The Josh Billing's method of spelling 

 may be desired by Andrew Carnegie and 

 some others, but naturalists have no 

 use for it. So far as we know, the edi- 

 tor of "The Condor," a small ornitholo- 

 gical magazine of I alifornia, is the only 

 periodical afflicted by this verbal pa- 

 ralysis. Frank M. Chapman, editor of 

 "Bird-Lore" has so "thoroly," shown its 

 awfulness that there isn't much more to 

 be said. In reply to the editor of "The 

 Condor," Mr. Chapman writes : — 



"While therefore, we must deny be- 

 ing so astonishingly ignorant as to have 

 believed that 'The Condor' was the 

 originator of what Dr. Palmer has called 

 "bob-tailed" spelling, we believe that 

 we can accuse it of being the first scien- 

 tific journal to apply this spelling to the 

 names of animals. It is no concern of 

 ours if the editor of 'The Condor' 

 wishes to mar his pages with such 

 peculiar verbal forms as "peekt," "bilt," 

 "thoroly," "gard," "thru," etc., but 

 when, in his zeal for spelling reform, he 

 alters the names of birds, for the spell- 

 ing of which there is higher authority 

 than the Simplified Spelling Board, and 

 gives us, for example, "Olive-backt 

 Thrush," "Ruft Grouse," and "Fesant," 

 we feel as though he had taken unwar- 

 ranted liberty with the spelling of the 

 names of friends, and w r e protest against 

 these disguising changes, just as the 

 editor of 'The Condor' would protest if 

 we spelled his name Josef Grinel. 



the value of a gift is of more impor- 

 tance these days than the love that goes 

 with it, while the Christmas spirit of 

 charity is losl in the dissatisfaction 

 Mich a system naturally causes. 



Since charity is love, the Christmas 

 spirit should be one of love and not of 

 commercialism. < ienerous impulses 

 and good acts should rule the season of 

 ( hristmas. Then the New Year would 

 dawn with happy homes instead of ner- 

 vous prostration. 



"Holidays are such a nuisance," one 

 pale woman is heard to say, and of 

 course, by Christmas Day all of her 

 Christmas spirit is dulled if not actu- 

 ally dead. Her spirit reflects on the 

 children. The mother, irritated, spoils 

 their illusion by telling them there is 

 no Santa Claus. The child ot to-day 

 seldom believes in "Santy" and the 

 reindeers. What a heart-breaking pity 

 this is. Let the children believe in the 

 world of fairyland as long as possible. 

 All too soon they will aw^aken to real- 

 ities. Let the mother who has the bur- 

 den of Christmas in her heart make it 

 lighter by saving the children's sweet 

 and early illusions. 



It is only through childhood that we 

 can hope to retain the true Christmas 

 spirit, for Christ loved the little ones, 

 and His spirit should be felt through 

 their joy. 



The True Christmas Spirit. 



BY CAROLINE CLARK HINTON, NEW YORK 

 CITY. 



The Christmas season should be to 

 us a period of happiness and rejoicing. 

 To many, it has become merely a bur- 

 den. After the New Year, we see many 

 women in a nervous, exhausted condi- 

 tion — the result of this period of worry, 

 discontent and actual unhappiness. 

 They are the victims of the modern 

 system of "give and take." To many 



Scientific Training to Think. 



There is an absurd notion that 

 ability to think is a gift of heaven the 

 same as the gift of the artist, the 

 violinist, or the organist. This is 

 little less than a popular superstition; 

 indeed, it is almost an educational 

 superstition. 



Have you ever tried to combat an 

 intelligent man's superstition that it 

 rains toads and earthworms, that the 

 change of the moon changes the weath- 

 er, that there is a line storm on March 

 21 and September 21? Or even an 

 intelligent woman's suoerstition about 

 a bird's flying into the window, or 

 about a dog's barking at night, or 

 about the breaking of a looking _lass, 

 about seeing the tuw moon over the 

 right shoulder, or the more senseless 

 thirteen or Friday superstition? If you 



