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THE YOUNG SOUTHERNER All communications and contributions intended for this department should be addressed to Mrs. Louise T. Hodges, 83 East Avenue, Atlanta, Ga. HE interest manifested in small towns and villages and many rural communi ties, in establishing public libraries for the use of both young and old, is a healthful sign of the times. The begin ning in most instances is necessarily small, only a few volumes; but interest is awakened, and when that is done, larger developments are sure to follow. I have received an interesting letter telling of the establishing of a circulating library at Madras. The Library Association was organized in 1901, with a constitution and by-laws for its government, and the library was opened with only about forty vol umes, but has steadily grown and the appreciation of it by the people of the community has increased until now it is recognized as one of the vital forces for moral and intellectual advancement. I quote the closing paragraphs of the letter. 11 As the library has grown new interest has been mani fested in it. The people of the community are be ginning to look upon it as one of the vital factors for the moral and intellectual advancement n f her citizens. Healthy stories of ‘The Young Maroon ers” type are eagerly read by the boys and girls, while ‘Sesame and Lilies’ and ‘Emerson’s Essays’ are at the disposal of more advanced readers. “May your paper be a means of hastening the coming of the golden age.” John W. Goes A-Fishing. Editor Young Southerner: Bob White wants the rest of us boys to help him “beat” the girls. I don’t have any hope of beat ing the girls, but I will write a few lines just to let Bob and the others know that T have enjoyed reading their letters, and I hope they will write again. One of the girls wrote something about the “Song of the Chattahoochee” which the poet Lanier wrote. T hunted up the poem and read it, and I think it is very good. Some Saturday before long I expect to go fish ing in the Chattahoochee, and if I catch any fish, T think that will be more interesting to me than the poetry. I wonder if any of the other boys who read the Golden Age ever go fishing. If they do, T would like to know how they fish and where they find the best ones. I think a trotline is a pretty good way; but it takes a lot of trouble and time to fix it. With best wishes for all the boys and girls and the Golden Age, I am, Your true friend, John W. The great merchant and successful Sunday-school teacher, John Wanamaker, is credited with saying that his biography is comprised in the four words: “Thinking, trying, toiling and trusting.” Such factors could hardly fail to bring success in any line of endeavor, and yet, at first glance, it would seem that if they comprise the whole of one’s biography, the life is incomplete. The first impression is of a life of continuous drudgery— and all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy— but a little closer inspection opens the way for recreation, fun, rest and all the other ingredients as well as work, that go to make the perfectly sym metrical life; for the right kind of play, as well as the right kind of work, requires thinking, try ing and trusting. “Think, try, toil, trust.” Isn’t that a pretty ftnod motto for any boy or jirt to staH In Ufa whh'f again. Conducted by Louise Threete Hodges. Fairy Flight. Under the oaks in the moonless night, I saw the fairies that took their flight, With stars to guide them and shadows to hide them, And lilies for lantern light. Like a flight of leaves that the wild wind reaves From fading boughs in Autumn eves, They fluttered and scattered, they whispered and muttered “Away! holla-ho! away!” And now in my dreams I see them go I hear them rustle, now loud, now low, With shrill triangle, and cymbals that jangle, Like a flight of bees through the darkling trees, That chase and follow a wandering breeze, They scatter and mingle, their bridle-bells jingle “Away! holla-ho! away!” Some day I know I shall hear them call By leaping river or ivied wall, M ith mystic rhyming, like silvery chiming Afar in an elfin hall; Like a flight of doves thro’ the leafy groves I will roam afar with my airy loves, Y ith bugles a-ringing and wee voices singing “Away! halla-ho! away!” —Pall Mall Gazette. 73 March 22, 1906. Dear Editor Young Southerner: The letters in the Young Southerner have been very interesting to me, and I wish to join the band of correspondents. I enjoyed “Bob White’s” let ter most of all, but I think he was mistaken in his idea that girls think they “know a lot more than boys.” That was a good motto that Mr. Upshaw gave the children of the Vienna schools, and it was nice of them to remember it and write to him about it afterwards. I think it would be a good plan for all of us girls and boys to select a motto as a daily re minder of what we ought to do. Let’s all select one and write to the Young Southerner about it. MABEL MAY SPRINGTON. Select a Motto. “To be honest, to be kind, to be brave, to be cheerful; to do always the best I can, to make al ways the best of things, to be glad over the work of those who surpass me, and to help the next fel low along,” this is the “working creed” of a cheery Chicago toiler who finds friends plentiful and life well worth living. “To do the best we can and rejoice with those who can do better,” is the admirable motto of a New York Boys’ Club. “Do your stunt and do not grunt,” is the man ner in which a successful business man in Chicago and New York expresses his own helpful watch word. “Paradise is the believing in it,” is another good motto, pleasantly suggestive of the ends and aims of faith. “To-day,” inscribed upon a large piece of chal cedony, was the motto of Ruskin, always in plain sight on his study table. “Deeds, not words” is the motto of General Neal Dow, who also insists, “Always try to be on the side of right, always against the wrong.” THE AMERICAN BOY. Mr. Andrew Carnegie has taken a cottage at Hot Springs, Ya., where he will remain for two months with his little daughter, Marjorie, in the hcipe of teitering her MaltW The Golden Age for March 29, 1906. With Correspondents. I am sure that all the young readers of the Golden Age will enjoy the letters of Mabel/May and John W. this week. Mabel’s suggestion about selecting a motto is a good one. and I hope the boys and girls -will act upon it. Select a good motto and the effort to live up to it, even if you do not fully succeed, will do much to strengthen your character, and make your life what it ought to be. I hope John W. will enjoy his outing on - the banks of the Chattahoochee, and bring home a good string of fish. I trust that while trying to pull the fish out, John will not himself tumble in. But I suppose he can swim. I hope John will write again and tell us if he caught any fish, and if he saw anything else of in terest in the river or on its banks. A Little Health Sermon. Just a word about breathing. The nose is not so much for use in talking as in breathing. An athlete is taught to breathe through his nostrils. An Indian does not have to be taught so to breathe; he does it naturally, because when a mere infant his mother compelled him to do so, if he was in clined to do otherwise. If an Indian mother finds her baby breathing with its mouth open, she puts a strap of rawhide around his jaws. She thinks that if the baby cannot breathe through its nose it had better die, because it will never be healthy and strong. Another thing to learn is, that one should breathe deep. Do not breathe from the chest, but from the lower ribs. It is said that the whisper of Sarah Bernhardt, the great actress, has wonderful carry ing quality. It is not that her vocal chords are so strong, and her enunciation so clear, but that behind her breathing is a powerful bellows; so that when she whispers, the words come with force that car ries them. The Indian teaches us a lesson, too, in deep breathing. Indians have been known to cover eighty to a hundred miles on foot in a day, and as much as two hundred miles on horseback. Their strength and endurance largely comes from their open-air life, their sturdy habits, their deep breath ing. If you want to live a hundred years, you can not expect to do it if you breathe only from the little space under the upper ribs. One thing, too, about your clothing. If you find that your coat or your vest is tight when buttoned, have the buttons moved over so that there will be sufficient room for deep breathing. Women and girls have much said to them along this line, but men and boys need it as well. Unbutton your vest and coat and see how far apart the buttons are from the buttonholes when you breathe natu rally. You may know then that if you must draw them together in order to button them, you are not giving enough room to your stomach and lungs. Perhaps your mother and father do not appre ciate'what this all means to you. Nevertheless take my word for it; no better advice from the health standpoint can be given you. Appetite of Spiders. The spider has a ravenous appetite, and his gor mandizing defies all human competition. A scien tist who carefully noted a spider’s consumption of food in twenty-four hours concluded that if the spider were built proportionately to the human scale, he would eat at daybreak (approximately) a small alligator, by 7 a. m., a lamb; by 9 a. m., a young camelopard; by 1 p. m., a sheep, and would finish up with a lark pie in which there were one hundred and twenty birds—surely n gnod day’s 11