FOR OUR BOYS & GIRLS To the Little Folks

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 415, 30 October 1889, Page 3

FOR OUR BOYS & GIRLS

To the Little Folks

My Dear Children : Some time ago X was ni.ide very glad and proud by receiving" a letter from the Philadelphia ' Times' telling me that your vote had decided that you liksd 'Little 1 Lord Fauntleroy' better than any of, the many stories you had read. Thure are so many beautiful stories Written for you now that to have written the one which pleases so many children more than all the reat is to have reason to be happy and 'proud. * There was^tfnoe a niah who said, ' Let me make the songs of the people and who will may mate their laws.' Sometimes I think, 'Let .me make stories for the children and who will may write for the older ones.' So you see, when I was asked to edit this department for you I could not say ' No.' Perhaps it will interest you to know that but for a little boy I knew and loved I should never have thought of writing 'Fauntleroy. 1 This little boy and his brother, with whom I have been the most intimate friend ever since they were born, have taught me a great deal. I think I may say they have educated me and that if I write stories children love it is because I have so much loved two children and have told them so many. When 1 wrote 'Lord Fauntleroy' these two little boys heard it all read aloud as it was written, and if they had criticised any part ot it I am sure I should have felt it my dufcy to cut that part out, but fortunately they were kind enough to approve of it all, and so I allowed it to be published. During ray acquaintance with these boys there is one thing I have specially noticed, and that is that no subject is uninteresting to them if it is'talked or written about well and clearly. They like to hearof arc, science, mechanism, politics, literature, everything, so long as it is thoroughly explained by some one who understands the subject himself. This.is the case, lam sure with all other children who think and read, and as now the people who are the cleverest are willing to help the children by writing for them of the things they know best themselves, there seems scarcely any limit to what children may learn and enjoy. Nothing that is information is useless. Each time you learn a new thing you are the gainer, if it is only through having exercised your intelligence and your power of observation Every bit of added knowledge makes your minds broader, and the broader your minds are the kinder and more generous your spirits will be. The boy or girl who knows and is interested only in one thing will be less likely to have sympathy for those who only know something else. And lam sure the way to make the big world better and happier and wiser is that each boy and girl shall feel interest in and sympathy for the rest — because it is the boys and girls who are learning and enjoying their youth today who will be the men and women who will make all the changes for the better or for "the worse that the world will know during their generation. If there is a great new law to be created •which will make America a stronger and more perfect Republic, it is some boy who is playing baseball or tennis or riding a bicycle to-day who will be the man who j leads'tbe way to the making of it. 1 confess, I like to think of that boy. He probably has his pockets full of all sorts of things ; I know the kind of thing?. He j doubtless can make a good deal of noise if >{ it istseriously required of him. It ia not unlikely that he prefers not to wash his hands too frequently. It is just possible that he;has a. magnificent, muscular appetite ; indeed, I sincerely hope he has. He may not be considered anything particular in the way of a boy, and yet in a certain number of years from now — and years pass quickly— he will stand in the House oj Senate at Washington and he will say honest, eloquent, logical, glowing words that will right some great wrong or give aid at some great crisis, and long after his life is ended men and women will say that the world was better for his having been born. It seems to me that is a splendid thing for all the boys to think of, for who knows which boy it may be of all the thousands who are only honest, manly little fellows to-day? for of course it will be a manly fellow. And if a number of boys in wishing they might each have this great thing to do tried a little to make themselves ready and worthy to do ib, then there would be so many more men, strong and alert-minded and generous, and ready to follow the leader like splendid soldiers when the great time came, or perhaps to lead others to things quite as great, though in other paths. And I speak not only of the boys, but of the girls who are their sisters and friends, who have quite as much to do in the world as they. Those who first and best can prepare these boys and girls for doing great and sweet, generous and useful things are those who make their homes. Those who come next in power are those who make their literature— the books they read, the stories or poems or essays that suggest new thoughts to them. lam sure no boy ever read the history of a fine deed without a glow at his heart and a wish that he might be allowed to do something like it. And the boy or girl who constantly reads what brings beautiful thoughts to him or her cannot long have a narrow and agly mind ; the beautiful thoughts will shine in it like the sun and make bright all the dark places. In these days among the moat beautiful magazines are those for children. In this page for young people we shall try to add to their good fortune in literature, to help each to learn what he or she thinks will be most useful in the future and what will give the most intelligent pleasure in the present. If one wishes to read a story we shall try to give him one of the best and most inspiring that can be written j if oihers wish to hear of pictures, of iiistory, of mechanics, science, arbor politics, we hope to induce the persons who know tnorb of such subjects to write about them in ■such a way as can be most clearly understood. In this manner we hope to reach so many of those who are young that scarcely

any boy or girl can fail to have what he or she desires and needs. If in doing this the child whose fortune it is to do the great things is even indirectly helped to do them more perfectly, and if the child whose fortune it ia to do the small ones is helped to feel that the smallest thing is worth doing well and with a sweet and brave spirit, then the Young People's page will have been a success. This success, above all others, I, who love children, wish for it. Frances Hodgson Burnett.