RANA GERUMP SAYS 



XI 



the little ponds ; the trees ; the attrac- 

 tive fields, meadows, ravines, swamps, 

 endless attractions. I asked myself re- 

 peatedly if l, I Believe in Stamford." Of 

 course, I believe in all these things be- 

 cause they are a part of Stamford, and 

 if I did not believe in everything" in 

 Stamford I would throw away that 

 badge, and get another which should 

 read, "I believe in a few things per- 

 taining to the business interests of 

 Stamford." The question in my mind 

 is, how many of the members of the 

 Board of Trade believe all that that 

 slogan connotes. Not merely to preach 

 a sermon from the standpoint and the 

 text of the naturalist, my contention is 

 to take the thing literally. Every one 

 who believes in Stamford should ex- 

 ploit Stamford in its entirety, and 1 

 know of nothing that can do that bet- 

 ter than Tiik Guide; to Nature. It has 

 been doing it, and means to keep on 

 doing it. We have heard that faith 

 without works is dead. That saying 

 is as good to-day as it was when it was 

 written many hundreds of years ago, 

 and it applies to matters of business, 

 to exploiting a city, and to living in this 

 world as well as to preparing for the 

 other. If "I Believe in Stamford," then 

 I believe in all of it. When the Board 

 of Trade presents the attractions of 

 Stamford to other people, I sincerely 

 hope it will speak of the beauties of the 

 wilds, of the picturesque features and 

 attractions in the suburbs, as well as 

 of harbor facilities and manufacturing 

 sites. I make no reservation. "I Be- 

 lieve in Stamford," every bit of it, and 

 I should like to tell everybody far and 

 near of many of the commonly over- 

 looked attractions of Stamford. If you 

 do not believe in all of Stamford, take 

 off that attractive badge. If you do 

 not wear the badge, every one will 

 know that you believe in none of Stam- 

 ford. You cannot escape one or the 

 other horn of the dilemma. "I believe 

 in all of Stamford." 



Increasing One's Pleasure. 



The most interesting periodical that 

 comes to my reading chair is our local 

 daily, "The Stamford Advocate." Every 

 evening my family and I have the 

 pleasure of reading that interesting pa- 

 per, and if by chance it is delaved or 

 fails to come, we, for that evening, feel 



lost, — there is something of happiness 

 gone out of our lives. 



But I recall that some sixteen years 

 ago I thought "The Stamford Advo- 

 cate" the dullest and driest publication 

 that I had ever seen, but I now know 

 that it was not because of its lack of 

 good qualities, but because I was a 

 stranger in this vicinity. I knew no 

 one and the local paper therefore had 

 no interest for me. But later I made 

 acquaintances, and the people about 

 whom the paper tells are my friends. 

 I know of them and I want to know 

 more about them, more of what they 

 are doing, more of their daily lives and 

 transactions. I had a similar, though 

 not quite so decided an experience 

 several years ago when as a young boy 

 I, for the first time, visited New York. 

 I saw everybody in the street cars and 

 railroad trains reading the New York- 

 City paoers. I proceeded at once to 

 indulge in what seemed to me a great 

 luxury, and bought half a dozen of 

 the dailies. I then sought a good set- 

 tee in one of the parks, and under the 

 trees I thought I won Id enjoy myself as 

 the other people were enjoying them- 

 selves. I began to ootir over those 

 paoers, expecting to find the same joy 

 and interest that were apparent on the 

 part of the other readers. But imagine 

 my astonishment and disgust when 1 

 discovered that they were the least 

 interesting of all the combinations of 

 words that I had ever seen. There 

 was hardly a thing in them that ap- 

 pealed to me. 



The trouble in each of these experi- 

 ences is that I knew nothing about the 

 subjects treated by the papers. 



I believe that the explanation of the 

 lack of interest shown by some persons 

 in Ttik Guide to Nature, and the de- 

 votion of others, is that every one of 

 us who are interested in this magazine 

 are so because we are acquainted with 

 the things of which it tells, and are 

 vitally interested in them, the woods, 

 the fields, the ravines, whose denizens 

 are friends which we have known for 

 many years and of which we like to 

 hear frequently. The moral is evident. 

 If you want to enjoy a daily newspa- 

 per you must get acquainted with the 

 things whereof it treats. Get a speak- 

 ing acquaintance with Mother Nature, 

 and a magazine that tells of her doings 



