EDITORIAL 



123 



while, even fur a brief space, you want 

 to think and hear about something dif- 

 ferent. 



The; Guide to Nature has this great 

 distinction : it is the only periodical 

 that is not at present filled with war 

 talk. We believe this brief editorial 

 is our only venture into that held. 

 Kindly excuse us for even this. This 

 magazine and ArcAdiA stand for the 

 recess from all forms of strife. Some 

 of my friends who are not readers of 

 this magazine feel disappointed be- 

 cause they think our magazine is not 

 "local" enough. But we have no desire 

 to compete with the local newspapers. 

 We have no desire to chronicle the sad 

 and dreadful things of life. There are 

 plenty of them, but we prefer to go to 

 nature for relief, rest and refreshment. 



Are we less local because we tell of 

 the beauty of a local flower garden, of 

 the life history of some moth that a 

 friend has discovered, or detail an ob- 

 servation in regard to unusual eggs 

 that some one's local hen has laid? Is 

 there not a multiplicity of interesting 

 things in the local nature around us? 

 Can it be possible that so many people 

 think life is all fight, fierceness and 

 food ? 



There should be in every life some 

 respite from the routine, some breath- 

 ing and resting spells, not only for the 

 body but for the mind. The keynote, 

 the sustaining note, the "pedal point" 

 of the little poems that we have pub- 

 lished so freely and frequently from 

 Emma Peirce is that in only a few lines 

 she asks you to leave war-like things 

 for a few minutes and to come to nature 

 for relief and refreshment. She sings 

 you a little song of perhaps only four 

 lines, and vet she makes you think that 

 after all there is something in life 

 worth the living. More and more 

 earnestly are we trying to appreciate 

 this point of view. There was a time 

 when in our own local community it 

 would have been difficult to find a doz- 

 en readers for The Guide to Nature, 

 yet now over all Sound Beach. Stam- 

 ford and Greenwich there are readers 

 by the hundred. The magazine is 

 sought for, read and appreciated. 

 People nowadays are craving what that 

 visitor at ArcAdiA was craving, a re- 

 lief from the presence and the thought 

 of the awful things of life. The success 



of this magazine is due to the fact that 

 we are giving the material of that re- 

 cess. 



But we have not yet got everybody. 

 We admit that. Once in a great while 

 some one says, "Why don't you have 

 something exciting in that magazine? 

 It is too tame. You ought to get up 

 an interesting story." 



A good and well meaning friend re- 

 cently remarked, "Do you not know 

 this is an utilitarian age? Even in 

 your own field you are missing a lot of 

 opportunity. You ought to tell the 

 people how they can make more money 

 by keeping honeybees, how they can 

 raise bigger crops in the garden. The 

 country magazines publish many pa- 

 pers to tell the reader how to keep bull- 

 frogs and skunks and pigeons. Don't 

 you know there is money even in pet 

 mice? I know yon are a naturalist 

 and want to do things right along your 

 own line, but why don't you do these 

 things that people want you to do. and 

 make a big lot of money? In this mod- 

 ern scientific age there is room for a 

 magazine that will tell people how to 

 make money out of nature." 



I have no dispute with this kind 

 friend. Probably money can be made 

 along the lines he mentioned. We do 

 not cover the so-called current events 

 of the day. even locally, but we do give 

 the latest interesting observations of 

 the heavens above, the earth beneath 

 and the waters under the earth. We 

 may not tell how to make money from 

 froQ-s' hind leg's, because there is more 

 to a frog than legs, and even those legs 

 do not exist only to gratify the epicure. 

 We believe in money (the Lord knows 

 we need it badly enough) ; we believe 

 in this just war. Nations must strug- 

 gle and there must be a substantial 

 1)0 sis even for schools, churches and 

 The Agassiz Association. Not for a 

 moment do we decry the times, but 

 along with the times and through the 

 times we try to give you a little relief 

 and rest from the pretty continuous 

 struggle for existence. 



With nature so near, overflowing with cheer. 



Why looking disgruntled and sad? 

 Only give her a chance, and she will en- 

 hance, 



Nay, treble the joys you have had. 



— Emma Peirce. 



