Questions and Answers.
James Nichols asks if we have a story contest open now, and he sends a tale for a prize. We reply, not now, and return his story. Louise Hall, secretary of the Broken Bow Chapter, 216 Thirteenth Street, Oakland, Cal., says members of her society want to hear from persons who can describe famous places and homes of famous men. Kathleen Kent, 1162 Harrison Street, is the member in charge, and she desires pictures of famous men. The Chapter members promise to answer all letters on the subject. Herbert C. Davis, Box 87, Carthage, O., plays chess, and wants to play some games by mail.
Roberta Esther Conley was much interested with that touching letter from Broussa, describing the hardships of Armenians, and she hopes everybody who can will help Miss Barton and others in relief work. The Red Cross Society is an international one, organized some years ago in Geneva, Switzerland. Miss Clara Barton is president of the American branch only. It has special privileges, as that it is, in time of war, to be permitted to go into both armies to do relief work, and that all generals shall recognize its officers and permit them to pass. It does relief work in times other than war, as during floods, famine, hurricanes, etc. "Why does it not go to Cuba?" We do not know.
"J. A. M." writes: 1. How can a boy seventeen years of age obtain a position as cabin-boy or something else on board a sailing vessel to California or thereabouts? 2. What are the duties involved in such a position? 3. How much could he earn that way, and how would it be paid to him? He does not intend to be a sailor, but wishes to regain his health and strength and earn some money to help pay his expenses at a preparatory school, for college, about a year and a half from now. 1. Apply at office on board the ships. There is no general rule. Cases of this kind are not numerous. A friend of the Table, aged 19, applied recently and was promptly taken, mainly because he was big and strong. He was offered $8 per month and board, and was required to ship for a year's cruise. One going for his health would not be likely to get much salary. 2. The duties of cabin-boy are those of a general boy of all work. 3. The pay, even for a well boy, is very small, say from $4 to $6 per month, with board.
J. L. P. and H. E. A.: All readers may send original puzzles for "Kinks." They may also send short stories when competitions are open. Short stories, other than in competition for prizes, are not desired. But the Table wants morsels, descriptive of interesting but not too well known places. Perhaps this latter phrase needs explaining. A morsel about Mt. Auburn, describing the tombs of Sumner, Burlingame, and Longfellow, would be interesting, while one describing Niagara Falls would be too hackneyed to warrant space being given it. Round Table Chapters are societies of young persons, sometimes of schools, often of churches or neighborhoods, organized to study natural history, to make collections, or perhaps merely to have a good time.
This Department is conducted in the interest of Girls and Young Women, and the Editor will be pleased to answer any question on the subject so far as possible. Correspondents should address Editor.
Among the qualities most to be desired in a young girl's character is a high sense of honor. I wish I could impress on every reader the need of being always above everything petty or small, so that one would not for a single moment ever be tempted to do a mean or underhand thing, to speak unkindly of a friend, or to repeat a conversation which was confidential.
It may happen to you, for instance, to be visiting in the home of a relative or friend, where there may be a little friction at the table, or where some anxiety arises about the course of a member of the family. No matter what you see or hear, in such circumstances you are bound, if you are an honorable person, to be silent about it, neither making comments nor looking as if you could tell something if you chose, nor in any way alluding to what is unpleasant, at any future time. A guest in a home cannot be too careful to guard the good name of those under its roof, for it is an honor to be a guest, in the first place, and honor is demanded in return.
Again, a nice sense of honor in matters connected with money is very important. Polly is treasurer of a society, and has the care of the funds. She must never for an instant, or in an emergency, lend these funds to other people, or borrow them for her own use. I knew a girl—Polly was her name, by-the-way—who was induced, being treasurer of a certain guild, to lend her brother, for one day, the money she had in her care. The brother was older than Polly, and a very persuasive person. He said: "Why should you hesitate? I'll bring it back to you to-night, and it will oblige me very much if I can take that fifty dollars and pay a bill I owe before noon to-day." Foolish Polly permitted her scruples to be overruled. The money was not brought back, and but for her father's kindness in making it good she would have been disgraced as a dishonest treasurer. She told me long afterwards that the lesson had been burned in on her mind never to take liberties with money which she held in trust.
A nice sense of honor will keep a girl from making a confidante of her maid or of any person in an inferior situation. One's mother is a girl's natural adviser and her safest intimate friend. A nice sense of honor will hinder all prying into other people's affairs, and will lead one to turn a deaf ear to the gossip of the idle and malicious.
Sometimes one becomes accidentally aware of a state of things which she knows her friend must prefer to keep to herself. The honorable girl will never hesitate here; she will be as thoughtful for her friend's interests as if they were her own.
This little talk may be too old for some of my younger readers, so I will conclude it by telling them a little story. Once upon a time in a small New England village there was a district school. The boys and girls went to this from the country homes for miles, some of them not minding a very long walk over snowy roads in winter, and under the trees in summer. The master was very grave and stern, and if he laughed behind his grizzled beard, the children looking up to him from their benches seldom saw it. A big ruler always lay on his desk, and they were very much afraid of that; so that when one morning at recess, in a game of ball, Charley B—— had the misfortune to break a window in the school-house, it required no little courage in the eight-year-old boy to march straight into the room, up to the desk, and confess that he had been careless and had done the mischief. Mr. True was very kind, and said, consolingly, that the window could be mended. So Charley rushed off with a light heart.
Later in the day a girl, I am ashamed to say, stole up to the desk and told her tale. "Mr. True," said this disagreeable little being, "I can tell you who broke the window! I saw—"
"Hush, Nancy!" said the master, in an awful voice. "I know who did it. An honorable person did it. Which you are not. You may remain after school and write out ten pages of history as a punishment for tale-telling."
Lottie W.—Strawberries served for breakfast need not be hulled. Eat them, instead, one by one, dipping each into powdered sugar.
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