148 
THE GUIDE TO NATURE 
mal. Only a little more than a half 
century ago in the editor’s boyhood 
the country people referred, half in 
fancy and half in credulous belief in 
the unknown, to all sorts of nonexistent 
animals. 
“Old Grimes” was evidently a parody 
of people who make “much ado about 
nothing,” or who spend their time 
“chasing rainbows” and non-existent 
things. Other stanzas more directly 
convey that impression. The nick- 
name of the ant therefore really meant 
a big unknown (nature faking, if you 
please) animal in parallel of the big 
fool things that human beings do. 
Perhaps those old-timers in the 
earliest days of New England used that 
term “anty-mire” as generally descrip- 
tive or as an imitation of the manner 
in which old Grimes and all his ilk, to- 
gether with his little dog, shared in the 
characteristics of his master and chased 
bugaboos of their own imagining. They 
were fond of that kind of amusement 
as exemplified in the rather rough yet 
expressive old-time saying, “Great cry 
and little wool like the devil shaving a 
hog.” 
“Just Because I Want to Play.” 
Mr. Edward Bok, who a few months 
ago resigned his position as editor of 
“The Ladies’ Home Journal, has a re- 
markably interesting article in the 
September number of “The Atlantic 
Monthly,” in which he gives his rea- 
sons for leaving business and wanting 
to play. His manner of writing is partly 
jocose and partly philosophic. We rec- 
ommend the article to our readers, and 
herewith cpiote for their pleasure a few 
of Mr. Bok’s remarks : 
“The American has still to grasp the 
truth that the great adventure of life 
is something more than work — and 
money.” 
“The real trouble with the American 
business man is that in many instances 
he is actually afraid to let go because, 
out of business, he would not know 
what to do. For years he has so im- 
mersed himself in business, to the ex- 
clusion of all other interests, that at 
fifty or seventy he finds himself a slave 
to his business, with positively no inner 
resources. Retirement from the one 
thing that he does know would nat- 
urally leave such a man useless to him- 
self, his family, and his community : 
worse than useless, as a matter of fact, 
for he would become a burden to him- 
self and a nuisance to his family. You 
rarely ever find a European or English 
business man reaching a mature age 
devoid of outside interests : he always 
lets the breezes of other worlds blow 
over his mentality when he is in affairs, 
with the result that, when he is ready 
to retire from business, he has other 
interests to fall back upon. This is 
rarely the case with the American busi- 
ness man. It is becoming more fre- 
quent that we see American men retir- 
ing from business and devoting them- 
selves to other interests, and their num- 
ber will undoubtedly increase as time 
goes on and we learn the lessons of life 
with a richer background. But one 
cannot help feeling regretful that the 
number is not growing larger more 
rapidly.” 
“The American business man has 
still to learn : that he is not living a 
four-squared life if he concentrates 
every waking thought on his material 
affairs. He has still to learn that man 
cannot live by bread alone. The mak- 
ing of money, the accumulation of ma- 
terial power, is not all there is to liv- 
ing. Life is something more than those 
two things, and the man who misses 
this truth misses the greatest joy and 
satisfaction that can come into his life 
— that is, from service to others. 
“I would not for a moment belittle 
the giving of contributions, but it is a 
poor nature that can satisfy itself that 
it is serving humanity by the mere sign- 
ing of a check. There is no form of 
service so easy and so cheap as to give 
a check to an object with the interest 
stopping there. Real service is where 
a man gives himself with his check, 
and that the average business man can- 
not do if he remains in affairs. 
“No man has a right to leave the 
world as he found it. He must add 
something to it : either he must make 
its people better or happier, or he must 
make the face of the world more beau- 
tiful or fairer to look at. And the one 
reallv means the other.” 
