6 4 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



fore, criticising the editor nor humanity 

 for holding the Ptolemaic idea ; I am 

 lamenting the fact, emphasised more 

 strongly perhaps than the editor real- 

 ized, that the millennium of the altruis- 

 tic is, alas, not yet felt by many of us. 

 This pest-imistic point of view is more 

 annoying to me than house flies and 

 chestnut weevils are to humanity, or 

 house fly crabs to the house fly. 



"Because I Killed His Pig." 



A nature missionary, as well as any 

 other should be eager to distribute 

 literature pertaining to the Cause. 

 Tracts pertaining to the Works are as 

 important as those pertaining to the 

 World. Of straight roads converging 

 to the same point it makes little dif- 

 ference which you take, except as a 

 matter of individual preference and 

 thereby of efficiency. To that end I 

 have always been ready to distribute 

 copies of this magazine among friends 

 and acquaintances. And I have always 

 had my reward, not alone in the fur- 

 thering of the business interests of The 

 Agassiz Association, nor in the good 

 The AA may do, nor even in my pleas- 

 ure in receiving the personal gratitude 

 of friends and acquaintances in ex- 

 change for ''something for nothing — 

 than you ;" but it has chiefly been in 

 personally noting the variety of idio- 

 syncrasies and points of view that its 

 recipients have of a nature magazine. 

 A hundred copies of the magazine pass- 

 ed out of an afternoon bring in every- 

 thing in the series from comedy to 

 pathos. 



"Have a copy, Mr. ?" 



"Y-y-yes — I'll take one, and take it 



home for the children and Mrs. ; 



they'll like it — said the last one was 

 'great.' ' (Curious, isn't it, how wife 

 and children only are interested in 

 "such things?") 



Then as your conversation continues, 

 he idly, with indifferent expression, 

 turns the pages, glancing at the pic- 

 tures, until suddenly he exclaims joy- 

 ously, "Oh, ho ! You've got a 'write- 

 up' about Mr. . Why I butchered 



his pig!" 



Then the ice is broken. All one has 



to do is to listen. You get the whole 

 history of that family and especially 

 of Mr. 's interest in pigs, and inci- 

 dentally one learns that Mr. is not 



only a good raiser of pigs and has a 

 fine estate, but has good judgment in 

 securing the proper person to kill his 

 pigs. 



But it is not always killing pigs, in 

 actual words, but other expressions 

 that mean the same thing. It may be 

 "doctored his son," "goes to my 

 church," "I won his case for him in 



court," "I sew for Mrs. ," or "Why, 



his children go to my school," but in 

 all there are only different words for 

 the same idea — "because I killed his 

 pig-" 



The point is that even a slight bond 

 of sympathy or of knowledge adds to 

 the interest. How could one be in- 

 terested in a man, however famous, 

 however interesting, however good, 

 true and commendable, of whom he has 

 no knowledge? But once you have 

 killed his pigs, how all changes ! 



Now why are we and hundreds of 

 other naturalists so intensely interested 

 in every household in nature's domain ? 

 Because with some we have had long 

 acquaintance, some we meet only occa- 

 sionally, and of others we have only 

 "killed his pigs." 



Even wireless telegraphy requires 

 the bond of ether, or "electrical strata," 

 — of something to make the connection. 

 Postulate or produce the invisible con- 

 nection and all else of personal interest 

 may follow — one should at least "kill 

 his pigs." 



Blankness and ignorance bring no 

 results. But once establish even a 

 slight personal acquaintance and how 

 anything further brings forth joyous 

 expressions and exclamations, and pre- 

 paration for full information. We 

 want to read ; we want to know ail 

 about it, if — if only — "because I killed 

 his pig." 



I have enjoyed the magaine very 

 much. It takes me out of myself into 

 the "big, wide world" for rest and en- 

 joyment. — /. W. Strassell, Rockport, 

 Indiana. 



