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THE GUIDE TO NATURE- 



School Nature League. 



New York City. ■ 

 To the Editor : 



There used to be flower shows in 

 some of the New York public schools 

 three times a year. Later on to the 

 flower exhibits were added other nature 

 materials such as birds and their nests, 

 shells, minerals, etc. 



The founder of these exhibits was 

 Mrs. Alice R. Northrop, formerly in- 

 structor of botany in Hunter College. 



As the years passed these nature 

 exhibits became more and more popu- 

 lar among the teachers, the school chil- 

 dren and their parents. Nature mate- 

 rials were gathered, not only by the 

 members of the committee but some 

 were sent by the Museum of Natural 

 History, by persons connected with the 

 Bronx Park Botanical Garden and by 

 many outside of New York City who 

 sympathized with this work. 



The success of these nature exhibits 

 gave a new idea to the committee in 

 charge, and the intention now is to 

 make them permanent. These shows 

 were given in the schools of the most 

 crowded sections of New York City, 

 where the children and their parents are 

 too poor and too busy to go to the city 

 parks or to the woods. The members 

 of the new movement want to put these 

 people, especially those of the younger 

 generation, nearer to nature, to teach 

 them to appreciate it, and through the 

 love and understanding of nature to 

 have some higher aims in life, and in 

 this way to become better citizens. 

 Through nature study the children will 

 be brought nearer to the country, and 

 perhaps in the future this organization 

 may be the beginning of a back-to-the- 

 land movement. 



This organization is called the 

 School Nature League. It hopes to 

 secure the cooperation of the Depart- 

 ment of Parks, the Department of Edu- 

 cation, the museums, etc. 



It will maintain a place in which na- 

 ture materials will be kept and will be 

 open during the entire year under the 

 supervision of a curator. 



The members of the League do not 

 expect to concentrate their work on 

 New York City only, but they hope 

 to come in touch with schools outside 

 of this city and to cooperate with them. 



Mary Holtzoff. 



An Appeal to Auto Owners. 



The New York, New Haven and 

 Hartford Railroad Company in its cam- 

 paign to prevent accidents at grade 

 crossings has issued posters urging dri- 

 vers to use extreme caution in crossing 

 railroad tracks. These posters are* 

 being displayed in conspicuous places 

 along the New Haven lines. 



The posters call attention to the fact 

 that over 2,000 persons were killed in 

 1916 in grade crossing accidents. Also 

 that the number of persons killed and 

 injured by these accidents is increas- 

 ing at the rate of 25 per cent, each 

 year. In the first two months of this 

 year, there were 10 accidents of this 

 kind on the New Haven Road, in which 

 6 persons were killed and 13 injured. 



A Prayer for the Boy. 



Captain Scott's last letter to his wife, 

 as he lay awaiting death in the relent- 

 less cold of the Antarctic, contains 

 these words : 



"Make our boy interested in natural 

 history if you can. It is better than 

 games. Keep him in the open air. 

 Above all, you must guard him against 

 indolence. Make him a strenuous man. 

 The great God has called me. Take 

 comfort in that I die in peace with the 

 world and myself, and not afraid." 



R. A. Pearson, brother of the newly 

 elected President of the New York, 

 New Haven and Hartford Railroad, has 

 recently been designated as chief assist- 

 ant to the Secretary of Agriculture at 

 Washington, in the matter of the in- 

 creased food production of the nation. 

 He was former Commissioner of Agri- 

 culture of New York State and is now 

 President of the Iowa State College, 

 having been recently appointed by the 

 Governor in charge of the increased 

 food production of that state. 



There is health of body and of mind 

 in getting into a real relationship with 

 things, because there is a reasonable- 

 ness and a beauty of the nature of 

 things, but such a relationship requires 

 that man shall know himself as man, 

 and shall not lose sight of this obliga- 

 tion as man. — Abram Linwood Ur- 

 ban in "My Garden of Dreams." 



