AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
“* Harvest” —by Vincent Aderente. 
Prosperity 
There has been a bumper crop. 
This is because the tillers of the soil 
have been industrious, and the rain and the 
sun have favored their plantings. 
There has been industrial activity. 
The makers of things in factories have 
been busy. They have had work to do 
and pay for doing it. 
There has been commercial success. 
The people who buy and sell and fetch 
and carry have been doing a lot of business 
and they have been paid for doing it. 
The country is prosperous because all 
the people have been busy. 
Good crops and good times can be en- 
joyed only when the Government main- 
tains peace and harmony. 
This task of the Government is made 
comparatively easy because the American 
people have been enabled to become so 
well acquainted with each other. They 
know and understand one another. They 
are like one family. 
The producer and consumer, no matter 
where they live, are close together. 
This is largely due to our wonderful 
facilities for intercommunication. We ex- 
cel in our railways, our mails and our tele- 
graphs, and, most ofall, in our telephones. 
The Bell System has fourteen million 
miles of wire spread over all parts of 
the country. Each day there are twenty- 
five million telephone talks all the way from 
twenty feet to two thousand miles long. 
The raiser of crops, the maker of things, 
and the man of commerce, all are helped 
to co-operate and work together for peace 
and prosperity by means of the Universal 
telephone. 
AMERICAN TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH COMPANY 
AND ASSOCIATED COMPANIES 
One System 
Universal Service 
One Policy 
WE wish to call attention to the fact that peer 
we are in a position to render com- 
Wiese services in every branch _ of 
patent or trade-mark work. Our staff is 
composed of mechanical, electrical and 
chemical experts, thoroughly trained to pre- ‘a 
pare and prosecute all patent applications, 
irrespective of the complex nature of the 
subject matter involved, or of the specialized, 
technical, or scientific knowledge required 
therefor. 
We are prepared to render opinions as 
to validity or infringement of patents, or 
with regard to conflicts arising in trade- 
mark and unfair competition matters. 
We also have associates throughout the 
world, who assist in the prosecution of 
patent and trade-mark applications filed 
in all countries foreign to the United 
States. 
MUNN & CO., 
Patent Attorneys, 
361 Broadway, 
New York, N. Y. 
Branch Office: 
625 F Street, N. W. 
Washington, D. C. 
We We we We 
American Homes and Gardens 
and Scientific American sent to 
one address for one year. $ 6 
REGULARLY 
STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT 
of AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS, published monthly at New York, 
N. Y., required by the Act of August 24, 1912. 
. Ballers Gardner C. Teall, post-office address 361 Broadway, New York, 
Managing Editor, Gardner C. Teall, post-office address 361 Broadway, 
New York, N. Y. 
Business Managers, Charles Allen Munn, post-office address, 361 Broad- 
way, New York, N. Y., and Frederick C. Beach, post-office address 361 
Broadway, New York, N. Y. 
Publishers, Munn & Co., Inc., 
York, N. Y. 
Owner: (if a corporation, give names and addresses of stockholders 
holding 1 per cent or more of total amount of stock) Charles A. Munn, 
Orange, N. J.; Frederick C. Beach, Stratford, Conn.; Jennie B. Gasper, 
30 West 53rd Street, New York, N. Y.; Margaret A. Beach, Stratford, 
Conn.; Annie E. Munn, 281 Lexington Avenue, New York, N. Y. (in 
trust); Orson D. Munn, 40 East 62d Street, New York, N. Y. (in trust); 
Augusta Munn Tilney, Orange, N. J. (in trust). 
Known bondholders, mortgages and other security holder, holding 1 per 
cent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages, or other securities: No 
bondholders, mortgages or other security holders. 
(Signed) MUNN & CO., Inc. 
Frederick C. Beach, Treas. 
Sworn to and subscribed before me this first day of October, 1912. 
(Seal) Purzip D. ROLLHAUS, 
Notary Public, Kings County, No. 120. Certificate filed in the Office of the 
Clerk of New York County. (My commission expires March 30, 1913. ) 
post-ofhce address 361 Broadway, New 
December, 1912 
THE CHILD’S WORK 
F parents treated play as they often 
treat work,” says the Youth’s -Compan- 
ion, “children would dislike the play quite 
as much as they seem to dislike the work. 
If at six o’clock in the morning a father 
ordered his ten-year old son ‘to get up 
quickly and come down to his baseball in 
the same tone in which he sometimes calls 
him to work; if he sent him out after break- 
fast to play baseball till noon, and if he kept 
him batting ‘flies’ all the afternoon day after 
day, the boy would soon prefer to dig 
potatoes. 
“Every child is happy at work. This 
does not mean, however, that he is happy at 
work planned for him by some one else, 
especially by an adult who has authority to 
compel him to do it, but it does mean that 
he will work to carry out his own plans 
quite as joyously as he plays. 
““Oh, yes!’ you say. “We admit ‘that if 
you allow: him to do what he likes to do, he 
will not get tired; but he wont stick to one 
kind of work.’ 
“Why should he stick to one kind of work 
when in this wonderful world there are so 
many interesting things to do? He is not 
learning persistence or developing will-pow- 
er now, that child of yours. He is in a 
great, new, marvelous world, and he is 
learning every day new ways to transform 
it to suit his own plans. It is often better, 
therefore, that he should try ten different 
kinds of work in a day than only nine, be- 
cause he would thus respond to ten vital 
interests and perform ten kinds of trans- 
forming, instead of only nine. 
“A lady told of her discouragement: ‘My 
girl is fourteen years old. Her interests 
change too often. She does not finish things. 
This Spring she told me that she intended 
to write a history of the United States dur- 
ing the Summer holidays. She asked me to 
keep her secret from her father, so that she 
might surprise him when her work was 
completed. She worked enthusiastically for 
six weeks, reading several histories that 
were in our town library, and others that 
she asked me to get in New York. She 
wrote a great deal, and then suddenly gave 
up the plan, and I cannot get her to take 
any further interest in it. What should I 
do?’ ‘Let the girl alone,’ was the answer, 
‘and be profoundly thankful that her enthu- 
siasm lasted six weeks. Do you think a 
girl of her age could write a history of any 
real value? When she is forty she may do 
so, and do so because of the interest devel- 
oped by her concentration of six weeks.’ 
“Tt is not the achievement of the child 
that is of value; it is the developing of the 
child’s achieving and transforming and pro- 
ductive tendency. The parent’s duty is to 
provide for the child as many kinds of ma- 
terial adapted to his stage of development as 
possible.” 
THE CARE OF BOOKS 
ERSONS about to install new li- 
braries, or those who find their books 
in bad condition, will be glad of the ad- 
vice offered on this subject by a writer in 
Les Annales. Glass cases should always 
be avoided, except for a few precious vol- 
umes which are specially looked after 
and frequently dusted, since the confined 
atmosphere and lack of air-circulation in 
such bookcases is favorable to the de- 
velopment of germs, insects and mold. 
Secondly, the simple precaution should be 
taken of placing on the shelves behind 
the books strips of cloth or flannel moist- 
ened with benzine, phenol, tobacco juice 
or turpentine. These strips give excellent 
results if renewed from time to time. 
