EDITORIAL AND GENERAL. 



45i 



defects so trifling. Affection beautifies 

 everything- to him who sees even the 

 so-called ugly things of nature with 

 the eve of love. "We love things not 

 because they are beautiful but they 

 are beautiful to us because we love 

 them." 



But one wonders why such a condi- 

 tion of the human mind should exist 

 as to make such a labor of love neces- 

 sary. Why has it not been the better 

 appreciated by humanity in general? 

 Why should one go to a news counter 

 and find displayed, with all the excel- 

 lency that liberal patronage can pro- 

 duce, magazines that are devoted to 

 trash, while 'The Mineral Collector" 

 has for fifteen years struggled on, 

 humanity not giving anything to the 

 editor to pay him for his paper and 

 press work? It does seem that the 

 very rocks should their silence break 

 and cry out for better appreciation. 



"IT INTERESTS CHILDREN." 



In the January number of TiiK 

 Guide to Nature was published an 

 interesting article regarding the dog 

 "Owney" that traveled over a large 

 part of the world with mail bags, being- 

 forwarded from place to place by the 

 clerks and royally entertained by per- 

 sons prominent in the government of 

 cities, states and kingdoms. So far 

 as we know the dog was always in 

 association with adults. 



We recently handed a copy of that 

 number to a lady, suggesting that she 

 would be interested in "Owney." She 

 read the article and confessed that she 

 was not at all interested in that nor 

 in any other part of the magazine, but 

 suggested that it might be "all right 

 for children." Now what we want to 

 know is, what is there about a dog that 

 during his entire life was of intense 

 interest to adults but which, as soon 

 as he was dead, became, as this intel- 

 ligent woman remarked, of interest 

 only to children! We take this little 

 incident as a text to say that it is a 

 common remark and apparently a poo- 

 nlar belief that nature study can be 

 interesting only to children. A few 

 months ago we published an article 

 regarding rabbits. A local merchant 

 who subscribes to Tttk Guide to Na- 



TURE remarked to the editor that he 

 supposed such things were of interest 

 to children and had taken the maga- 

 zine home to his little girl. The rab- 

 bits referred to were purchased from 

 an adult breeder, a member of the 

 American Fur Fanciers' Association, 

 and the main purpose of publishing 

 that article was to advance the interest 

 among fanciers, everyone of whom, as 

 far as I know, is a mature man or 

 woman. Can it be possible that when 

 we older ones ,who are interested in 

 rabbits and cavies, write about them 

 that the article and the photographs 

 are regarded as intended solely for 

 children? It must be so for when, in 

 the earl\- numbers of this magazine, 

 we devoted an article to rabbits one 

 of our adult readers took offence and 

 withdrew his patronage because it was 

 "too childish." Another, a scientist 

 for whom we have great respect, 

 bought a copy at a news stand and 

 wrote to tell us that he regarded it as 

 too juvenile. It seems that he desires 

 to devote all his time to Daphnia and 

 Cyclops. 



Why is the study of the relation be- 

 tween Daphnia and Cyclops a proper 

 pursuit for the adult while the study 

 of a larger biological specimen in the 

 form of a rabbit or a cavy is regarded 

 as childish ! 



What is a child's interest and what 

 an adults? We should like to have 

 the subject discussed and we wish, too, 

 that some one would explain why so 

 many persons think an article pertain- 

 ing to any phase of nature must neces- 

 sarily be for children unless it bristles 

 with gigantic words in a dead language. 

 We have been endeavoring in The 

 Guide to Nature to interest adults 

 because our work for boys and girls 

 is limited to "St. Nicholas," but we 

 must confess that when we publish 

 an article on alligators by a learned 

 physician and president of a large 

 society of naturalists, when we publish 

 an article on trees from the germination 

 point of view hoping to advance the 

 interest of forestry, when we publish 

 an article on pet mice written by a 

 noted physician who has devoted a life 

 to that department of biology, when 

 we publish an article on silkworms 



