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can be brought in to ornament window gardens.
Hoping some of the humorous, spicy writers of
the Sunny South Household may return to enliven
us old folks, I will retire for the present. My hand
is rather stiff from cold, M. E. 8., but I hope you
can read this letter. MUDA HETNUR.
*
AMATEUR JOURNALISM.
A Fascinating Pastime and a Profitable School.
The junior world of letters known as
journalism is in most aspects a counterpart of the
professional literary world. A desire to see their
thoughts in print comes to many young people, and
the easiest practical way of attaining this desire is
to enter the field of the amateur writer as a con
tributor to some of the amateur papers or by start
ing a publication of one’s own. Amateur journalism
is a home school, where the young person learns
to write, to appreciate good manuscripts, and de
tect errors in those poorly prepared, and last not
least to put his own thoughts into the best and most
effective words. This amateur work is highly inter
esting and fascinating as well as beneficial, not
only to one expecting to make literature or jour
nalism a profession, but to those who wish simply
to improve themselves in the art of expression and
to have the cultivating and inspiring experience of
being brought in contact with other young people
of different traits and degrees of mental ability. It
•awakens interest in writers and authors, gives one
an insight into the art and mechanism of book and
newspaper making and teaches habits of thought
and industry that are of benefit in after years.
Amateur journalism has also a social and frater
nal side which some consider its most interesting
feature.
Amateur journalism has existed in organized form
since 1876, there being now two principal and na
tional associations, and a number of minor or local
societies. It may be divided into these classes —
the author, the editor and publisher, the politician
and the collector. Os these the author, or contrib
utor to amateur periodicals, composes the largest
class. The junior world of letters has essayists,
poets, story writers and humorists. Each associa
tion is controlled by a board of officers, annually
elected by the members, political campaigns are car
ried on with much vim, and when the battle of
words is fast and furious, the amateur politician is
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The Golden Age for February 27, 1908.
in his glory. The work of collector in this associa
tion is the gathering together of papers, photo
graphs, postal autographs, etc. The editor and pub
lisher is the most potent factor in this junior world
of letters, since he furnishes the medium through
which the writers utter their thoughts and opinions.
Many editors have their papers published. Some own
their own printing outfits and do their own work,
thus being able to turn out a better and larger paper
at a smaller cost and to learn the mechanical part
of the printer’s art, so that he is enabled to do job
work for his friends and neighbors. In this way
many young amateurs earn considerable money and
prepare themselves to be professional editors and
publishers. . Some of our young printer publishers
turn out excellent typographical work with an insig
nificant equipment. The favorite size for an ama?
teur paper is 5x7 inches, known as the half century
size, because it is half the size of the Century Maga
zine, but there are a number of amateur publications
of regular magazine size and of real literary merit.
The amateur publisher does not go in for graft or
greed. He has no subscription list, no advertising
agent; he merrily mails his paper to his “own folks,”
his contributors, exchanges, and members of the as
sociation.
The representative of the amateur organization in
this section is the Southern Amateur Journalist As
ciation. It has quite a large membership and on the
list are several valued writers for the dear departed
Sunnv South Household. I would like to have the
friends of The Golden Age join this entertaining and
improving club, which may be a hoboy, as some claim,
but so is the work of the stamp or curio collector,
the amateur photographer, baseball or tennis player.
Profitable amusement, you say? Well, we claim that
amateur journalism is the most profitable amuse
ment of all. I believe there are many young per
sons who would enjoy an experience in this train
ing school for writers, which is also social in its
nature; and I will take pleasure in giving such per
sons full information as to the club’s methods.
There is no membership fee, but the annual dues is
fifty cents, and to secure membership one has only
to send his application together with a piece of his
writing or a copy of his paper and the first year’s
dues. This money goes to publishing the organ of
the association, which is sent free to all members.
These are invited to contribute to the paper, and the
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member sending the best essay, story or poem is
awarded the title of laureate for a year. I will mail a
copy of the amateur paper to any one sending five
cents in stamps. I will answer the letters of those
who really wish to join the association and of those
who wish to start an amateur paper. I will render
all the aid of which I am capable. There is no age
limit in amateur journalism. We have active ama
teur journalists from sixteen to forty years of age.
LOUIS M. STARRING.
Grand View, Tenn.
WE ARE THREE IN ONE.
Mother Nature loves a trinity, and the highest
type of her threefold creation is man and woman.
She has endowed them with a soul, or mind, a heart
and a body. Only by cultivating each of these na
tures —the intellectual, spiritual and corporeal—in
proportion to the others can the human being reach
the highest symmetrical perfection.
The history of the world is rich with the tales
of famous women who would have been beyond cavil
had they but remembered that a woman to realize
the highest must cultivate harmoniously her three
fold being. Queen Elizabeth of England reigned, and
died in honor. She who was rich in mind and estate,
but who lacked the gentler side, whose heart was
not to love, and whose life missed those sweet
chords in its music which only a fond affection can
bring. Cleopatra, who could charm the colossus
Caesar, whose intellect was broad and great, whose
beautiful body was a fit temple for a noble soul, but
alas! the casket was empty of the jewel, else the
world’s story had been nobler. Madame Recamier,
whose gracious heart and lovely spirit made all men
her knights, but who failed in that mental force
which should have thrown her power into the world’s
work and aided its upward and onward march. Mad
ame do Maintenon’s piety, though deep and sincere,
was marred by an intolerance which impelled her to
influence King Loiys to revoke the edict of Nantes
thereby causing the exile or imprisonment of eight
thousand faithful subjects—the Huguenots. George
Eliot, the brightness of whose descriptive pen we
may never see surpassed, but whose intellectual
faculties were allowed to exhaust and warp her na
ture so that her days were largely those of an un
happy invalid, and discord rang within them.
ADELYN SMITH.
11
