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10 THE YOUNG SOUTHERNER All communications and contributions intended for this department should be addressed to Mrs. Louise T. Hedges, 83 East Avenue, Atlanta, Ga. Oh, sweeter than the marriage feast, ’Tis sweeter far to me To walk together to the kirk With a goodly company! To walk together to the kirk And all together pray, While each to his great Father bends— Old men and babes and loving friends And youths and maidens gay! He prayeth best who loveth best All things both great and small; For the dear God who loveth us, He made and loveth all. —Ancient Mariner. “They helped every one his neighbors, and every one said to his brother, “Be of good courage.” So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer him that smote the anvil.”—lsaiah. Sympathy and encoragement are great factors in alleviating suffering, overcoming difficulties, and stimulating to best endeavor. The knowledge that other hearts share our sorrows and our joys; re joice at our success and grieve at our failures, is a constant inspiration. When the spirit of the Psalmist was overwhelmed on account of his many sorrows, he instinctively craved human sympathy and when he looked about him and found that the refuge of friendship failed him, he cried out in his agony: “No man cared for my soul.” ’ How easy it is to give a look of sympathy or a word of encouragement, yet how often do we, through indifference or thoughtfulness, withhold them. With Correspondents. Dear Mrs. Hodges: In representing the “Golden Age,” I meet a great number of young people who are drifting along with the world and seem not to see the golden opportunities that present themselves each day. I tell them this paper is published to inspire them that they may see the opportunities which are before them. I trust I am representing it right. I would like to see letters each week from some of the young people which tell of their own trials, attempts, pleasures, failures and successes. I think it would be such an inspiration to us to know of each other’s battles and victories. I like to hear, too, of the deeds of great and good men and women. I like pieces that have literary value, including some poetry. I wish this page success and desire to help make it successful. Yours, Gloster, Miss. . Barney Thompson. Dear Editor: We take th j Golden Age, and like it very much, and wish it would come oftener. You asked the children what they would like best on the page, for the Young Southerner. I would like best to read about good Christian men and wo men like Dr. Moody and other good preachers. I wonder if many of the Young Southerners sent for one of Thomas F. Lockhart’s little books. I did. and I like it very much. I mean to send for some more. He said in his book, complaining and faultfinding is such a disagreeable habit, and there is nothing to be gained by it. So, Young Southerners, let’s all try not to complain and find fault with anybody. Conducted by Lo’ufse Three te Hodges. 1 know we will be happier and make other people so, too. I wonder if any of the Young Southerners had “speaking” at the close of their school. I went to the speaking at Wynnton High School. Their subject was “Grasp Opportunities.” That is a grand subject; and to think of the times we have let opportunities slip by! I will close, as my letter is getting long. Your true friend, Columbus, Ga. Pauline Thornton. Dear Editor: I am afraid I cannot write a very interesting let ter, but since the Golden Age is kind enough to give a page, especially to the interest of the chil dren, I think we all ought to show our apprecia tion of it by trying to help make it pleasing and interesting. We should all do our part like the stars shining in the heavens. Os course one star by itself can’t shine very much, but all shining together, make the night beautiful. I think we ought to tell of the many things we have to make us happy. I feel so sorry for those afflicted ones who have writ ten to the Young Southerner. But they seem to try to be contented and happy and I think the rest of us who are not afflicted ought never to com plain even if we can’t have everything we want. I am very glad that I can go to school and to church and to visit my friends. I am glad, too, that I have nice books to read and can see the flow ers and hear the birds. And I am glad that I can help to take care of my little brother, and that he loves me and likes for me to play with him. I hope a great many of the girls will write let ters. I like so much to see their names, and I feel like I am getting acquainted with them. Bessie Ellis Mayne. Do It Now. Don’t live a single hour of your life without doing exactly what is to be done in it, and going straight through it from beginning to end. Work, play, study, whatever it is—take hold at once and finish it up squarely and cleanly; and then to the next thing, without letting any moments drop out between. It is wonderful to see how many hours these prompt people contrive to make of a day. And if ever you find yourself where you have so many things pressing upon you that you hardly know how to begin; let me tell you a secret: take hold of the very first one that comes to hand, and you will find the rest all fall into file and follow after, like a company of well-drilled soldiers; and though work may be hard to meet when if charges in a squad, it is easily vanquished if you can bring it into line. Strengthen the Home Ties. Devotion to business is important; pleasurable recreation is essential to health; but love of home and delight in the friendships of the fireside are the most ennobling and the most precious of all earthly activities and blessings. Hence the impor tance of their being appreciated and fostered. Business should not be permitted to detract from the love of home. Social recreation at the summer resorts should never be allowed to infringe upon the friendships of the fireside. Neglect the home until it is no longer a home, sever the fireside ties until they lose their power to entrance, thrill with joy and satisfy, and then what have you left that makes life worth living? Home, home! sweet, sweet home! Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home. —Religious Telescope. The goose is trained by the inhabitants of Siam to give a hoot like a motor ear horn whenever a stranger approaches. The Golden Age for August 9,1906. The Power of Habit. Carlyle says; “Habit is the deepest law of hu man nature. It is our supreme strength, if also, in certain circumstances, our miserablest weakness. Let me go once, scanning my way with any earnest ness of outlook, and successfully arriving, my footsteps are an invitation to me a second time to go by the same way—it is easier than any other way. Habit is our primal fundamental law—habit and imitation; there is nothing more perennial in us than these two. They are the source of all work ing, and all apprenticeship, of all practice and learning in the world.” Practically every achievement of the human race is but the accomplishment of habit. The habit of industry, at first is very irksome and tedious; but practiced conscientiously and persistently, it be comes natural, and gains a momentum which makes man a marvel of efficiency. A habit of cheerfulness, of always looking on the bright side of things, is, as Sydney Smith said, worth a thousand pounds a year. In fact, the val- Practically, ever yachievement of the human race the best and not the worst, the habit of an optimis tic outlook upon life, as a success factor, cannot be measured by money. It saves an enormous waste of energy which can be utilized to perform the work of life. A habit of happy thought would transform the commonest life into one of harmony and beauty. The Habit of Enjoying. Nothing contributes more to the highest success than the formation of a habit of enjoying things. Whatever your calling in life may be, whatever mis fortune or hardships may come to you, make up your mind resolutely that, come what may, you will get the most possible real enjoyment out of every day; that you will increase your capacity for enjoying life, by trying to find the sunny side of every ex perience of the day. Resolutely determine that yon will see the humorous side of things. No matter how hard or unyielding your environment may seem to be, there is a sunny side if you can only see it. Make up your .mind that you will be an optimist, that there shall be nothing of the pessi mist about you, that you will carry your own sunshine wherever you go. There is longevity in the sunny soul that eases our jolts and makes our sides shake with laugh ter. There is a wonderful medicinal effect in good cheer. Good news and glad tidings have a magic effect even upon invalids. We often see a whole store or factory or home transformed by one sunny soul. On the other hand we have seen them blighted and made dark by a gloomy, morose, fault-finding person.—Success. Associative Memory—“ Tommy, what ancient king was it who played on the fiddle while Rome was burning?” “Hector, ma’am.” “No, no—not Hector.’’ “Then it was Dook.” “Duke? What do you mean, Tommy?” “Well, then it must a’ been Nero. I knowed it wuz somebody with a dog’s name.”—Cleveland Plain Dealer. A Future Orator—Johnny recited one stanza of the “Psalm of Life” to the delight of his proud mamma and amid the plaudits of the company: “Liza Grape men allry mindus Weaken maka Liza Blime, And Parting Lee B. Hindus Footbrin Johnny Sands a time!” ■—Ladies’ Home Journal.