1385 
This seems to be a question that puz¬ 
zles a good many readers, hut there is no 
reason why it should. We have no rules 
or regulations at all except that what¬ 
ever is sent shall be your own work, or 
give full credit to the real author or art¬ 
ist. Every boy and girl of whatever age 
who reads Our Page and likes it “be¬ 
longs” in its circle of friends. When you 
get interested enough to write a letter 
to your editor, or to answer some of the 
puzzles, or to contribute a poem or story 
or drawing or photograph, then you most 
truly “belong.” It is entirely “up to 
you,” but a little secret which some have 
discovered and all may share Is this: As 
soon as you begin to work for Our Page 
you enjoy it more and love it better. 
What You Can Do for Our Page 
No boy or girl need be at a loss for 
something to send in to Our Page that 
may be of use to your editor at some 
time during the year. Here, for example, 
is a list of possible contributions: 
1. A motto or couplet for the Box at 
the head of Our Page. 
2. A memory verse—some good piece 
of poetry. 
3. An original poem. 
4. A short story. 
5. An essay on some special topic. 
C>. A report of some school or com¬ 
munity event. 
7. A good friendly letter on your home 
and school life. 
8. A nature puzzle. 
9. A book puzzle. 
10. A game to play. 
11. A rhyme to draw. 
12. A riddle or enigma or other puzzle. 
13. A drawing for a heading, for a na¬ 
ture puzzle, for a rhyme or for some 
special occasion. 
14. An interesting photograph. 
15. Answers to the puzzles on the last 
page. 
Be Original or Give Credit 
We want nearly everything on Our 
Page to be the original work of our boys 
and girls. The chief exception is in the 
case of the memory verse and some- 
Maryaret Tuttle and Teddy Tuttle 
Margaret is not quite four and a half. 
She sees many interesting drawings and 
pictures on papa’s desk and after a while 
she finds some of them in a paper that 
papa shows her . She doesn’t quite un¬ 
derstand where they come from but she 
greatly enjoys them just the same. 
times other fine poems which we all en¬ 
joy reading over, and sometimes learn¬ 
ing by heart. With these we should al¬ 
ways be sure to give the name of the 
author if we can possibly find it out. 
And whenever we use any idea or sug¬ 
gestion not our own or make a copy of 
some picture or drawing we must give 
credit to the person who made it origin¬ 
ally. It is not right to call something 
our own which is not truly ours. Keep 
this in mind and always tell your editor 
all about everything you send in to him. 
Why Not Print Addresses? 
This question is sometimes asked your 
editor. There are good reasons why it 
is not wise to publish the full name and 
/ 
/ - 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
address of each boy or girl whose work 
is printed on Our Page. The chief one 
is that some unscrupulous person might 
use this information to pester our read¬ 
ers with worthless or dangerous adver¬ 
tising or correspondence on some scheme 
or other. It is never safe to publish 
one’s private address broadcast in a wide¬ 
ly circulated paper, and for boys and 
girls this is especially true. Your editor 
is sure that your fathers and mothers will 
agree with him in this. 
You should always put your complete 
address on your letters to Our Page so 
that your editor may write to you in 
case of need. There have been two or 
three times when old friends have found 
each other through the names of children 
on Our Page, and one case w T here two 
girls with the same name, living in dif¬ 
ferent States, asked to have each other’s 
address, which your editor gladly sup¬ 
plied. But when your work is printed, 
and in the list of contributors each 
month, it is quite sufficient to give your 
name and age and the State in which 
you live to identify you beyond question. 
Is this quite clear to you all? 
The Pay Question 
Our Page hadn’t been in existence 
much over two years when the question 
came up of paying or giving prizes to 
readers whose contributions were printed. 
A girl wrote that her friends told her she 
was wasting time to write to a paper 
where she didn’t get paid for it. Your 
editor published this letter, and soon 
received a number of answers to it. Here 
are the ones that best stated the case for 
us all (reprinted from Our Page of Au¬ 
gust 27, 1921) : 
The first reader said : “I wouldn’t want 
to be paid for any of my efforts because 
I love Our Page better than I do money. 
I really think we want a page full of 
love instead of efforts to be paid for. I 
hope many more will feel the same.” 
The second said: “I think that want¬ 
ing money for writing to Our Page is 
rather a silly idea, don’t you, Mr. Tut¬ 
tle? I never thought of the idea until 
it was mentioned last May. I think 
enough of Our Page to write to it with¬ 
out receiving pay. What do the other 
children think of it?” 
And this is the third: “One does not 
want to acquire the habit of expecting 
something for everything—it makes one 
crabbed in soul and selfish, and it forms 
the wrong opinion in one that others are 
very stingy if no reward is given for 
the thing written. We get your advice, 
too, Mr. Tuttle. It is worth more than 
you might imagine sometimes. And if 
we expected pay for these letters I’m 
afraid there would be a very small check 
sometimes awaiting us. Then, too, we 
like to think we have a free opportunity 
to speak our thoughts—we might not 
have that chance if letters were bought; 
they might have to conform to certain 
lengths and ideas. So I think we are all 
more fortunate that we can do something 
without having to expect pay for it.” 
Surely it is worth while in life to do 
some things for the love of doing them. 
Our Page will be better, truer, friendliex*, 
if it is carried on in this way. Look at 
the fine work that some of “our artists” 
have sent in month after month. Look 
at some of the good photographs that we 
have printed. Isn’t it more inspiring to 
know that these have been sent because 
of a genuine love and interest than to 
know they have been bought. If you 
love Our Page enough to help it grow 
you will find that you have your reward 
in the increased joy you take in it. 
The Nature Puzzles 
One day when Our Page was a little 
more than six months old, as your editor 
was making a journey by train, he looked 
out of the window and saw a patch of 
mullein growing near the track. The 
idea suddenly came to him to write a lit¬ 
tle description of this weed without tell¬ 
ing its name, and to put it on Our Page, 
asking you to guess the answer. He did 
so, calling it a Nature Puzzle, and at the 
same time suggested that you try writing 
Nature Puzzles, too. This was the be¬ 
ginning of what has been the most con¬ 
stant and one of the most interesting 
features of Our Page. Only once since 
the first one has your editor written an¬ 
other (and then because he wanted to, 
not because he had to). You have kept 
him well supplied and the puzzles have 
been very good indeed. Often the an¬ 
swers have been as interesting as the 
puzzles. We have had puzzles on birds, 
insects, animals, trees, weeds, flowers, 
farm crops and other things. The full 
list of them by this time has over 50 
topics in it, but there are still many, 
many more that could be used. It is 
fascinating to take some object that you 
find in the outdoor werld of field, farm 
and forest, and write the best description 
you can of it without actually giving its 
name. Then send it to your editor. It 
may be just the one he will choose to 
publish for all our readers to guess. Be 
sure to tell him privately what your an¬ 
swer is, for he might not know himself. 
These Nature Puzzles are more than a 
game, of course. Through them we often 
learn to know some animal or plant that 
we have never called by name before 
though it may have been near us always. 
As time goes on any boy or girl who 
closely follows the Nature Puzzles month 
by month will build up a fine knowledge 
of outdoor life. 
The Book Puzzles 
These are like the Nature Puzzles in 
their general idea of describing the story 
of a book without telling its name, so 
that others may guess the title and au¬ 
thor. We have carried these along for 
two years now, and many of our readers 
have enjoyed them. Some have been 
easily recognized, others have been more 
difficult, although your editor has tried 
to select from among the many sent in 
those that would be likely to be Avell 
known—good, standard books that every 
boy and girl should read at some time 
or other. 
The fact is that boys and girls on 
farms do not have as many books to read 
as those in towns and cities where there 
are public libraries. Still, schools al¬ 
most always have more or less of a col¬ 
lection of books to which additions are 
made now and then and there are other 
ways in which you do get hold of a good 
many books in the course of a year. It 
is worth while to choose good reading, 
which is just as interesting (more so 
really) and far more valuable than many 
of the trashy books that have been writ¬ 
ten. As you grow older you will find 
that every educated person has read and 
is familiar with certain books—we call 
them classics because they have lived 
long and probably always will live. Such 
are “Mother Goose,” the fairy tales and 
fables; “Arabian Nights,” “Robinson 
Cruso,” “Alice in Wonderland,” “Little 
Lord Fauntleroy,” “Black Beauty,” “Lit¬ 
tle Women,” “Uncle Remus,” the works 
of Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Haw¬ 
thorne, and many others of this class 
and quality. Then there is the field of 
poetry, so full of beautiful things for 
young and old. We can think at once of 
James Whitcomb Riley, Eugene Field, 
Robert Louis Stevenson, Henry Wads¬ 
worth Longfellow and others hardly less 
familiar. All these we ought to come to 
know, and to know them is to love them. 
It may be that we will try something 
else in place of the Book Puzzles next 
year, but your editor will be guided 
largely by your wishes in the matter. If 
we do, we shall come back to them now 
and then, so whenever you read a good 
book take a few minutes to write as in¬ 
teresting a summary of the story as you 
can and send it to Our Page. 
The Drawing Work 
When Our Page was about two and a 
half years old one reader asked whether 
she couldn’t draw a picture to send in 
because she didn’t have a photograph to 
send. This gave us the first idea for the 
drawing work which has been such an im¬ 
portant and interesting feature of Our 
Page ever since. We have had many 
fine heading drawings appropriate to 
each month. We have sometimes had 
drawings illustrating the Nature Puz¬ 
zles, and two or three times for the 
Book Puzzles. We have had special 
drawings for Hallowe’en, Thanksgiving, 
Christmas, Winter sports and other 
things. But the chief interest has been 
in the drawing contests, where all have 
drawn pictures to illustrate the same lit¬ 
tle rhyme. It has been wonderful to see 
what fine work some of our readers can 
do with their pens and pencils. Of 
course we have printed the best that 
have come, considering in each case the 
age of the “artists.” Some boys and 
girls have had their drawings published 
a number of times, and we have learned 
to recognize their names as generous and 
talented contributors. And each month 
there are new names showing that there 
is always a chance for anyone to succeed. 
Drawing work is something that im¬ 
proves most when practiced most. Every 
time we publish a drawing rhyme you 
have the chance to try your skill. When 
you have done your best don’t be afraid 
to send the drawing in to your editor. 
At least you will receive credit for it in 
the list of contributors, and you never 
know when yours may be just the right 
one to fill a place on Our Page. 
Personal Pictures 
Ever since Our Page started readers 
have been asking your editor to print his 
picture for them to see. Now, your edi¬ 
tor is not very keen on his own pictures, 
and perhaps you won’t be nearly so inter¬ 
ested when you see what an ordinary 
kind of fellow he is after all. But as 
long as baby Philip is in this picture to 
help make it worth while I thought we 
might use it on this anniversary page. 
And, of course, it would not be fair to 
print Philip’s picture without also in¬ 
cluding sister Margaret’s—not to men¬ 
tion Teddy Bear’s. We might also have 
added the mother of the family, who is 
its most important member, but she said 
we had gone far enough without that. 
This is your editor and his little son, 
Philip 
You will like to know, however, that she 
is greatly interested in Our Page and 
often helps with it. In fact, it was at 
her suggestion that this special Birthday 
Page has been made. 
Looking Ahead 
So now we start on the sixth year of 
Our Page. We have a good foundation 
and many plans to keep going and to try 
out anew. This page belongs wholly to 
its boy and girl readers. It lies in your 
power to make it better and better, to 
have its influence reach out in strong 
and wholesome way to thousands and 
thousands of homes. You can know fhar 
everything you send in will be received 
by your editor and carefully read. 
Whether it is used or not it will help by 
providing more material to choose from, 
and, of course, the more often you write 
the more chance there is of one of your 
contributions being selected to publish. 
Do not be afraid to write as you really 
feel about any matter that interests or 
puzzles you. You have a friend whose 
address is Edward M. Tuttle, in care 
The Rural New-Yorker, 333 West 30th 
Street, New York City. 
