write, for he was full of Messages, and he wished for Parchment. Had he lived in the days of Paper, how his fingers would have itched to get at it. Therefore do I thank God for White Paper; and I seek to write nothing that would shame me if I should see it posted upon the Bulletin Board in the town where I reside. For White Paper is a Peril as well as a Blessing; and the Letter Killeth. CLASS ACTIVITIES 1. What is the author's main reason for liking white paper? Does the white paper itself perform all the services named? What story have you read recently that made you thankful for white paper? 2. Make a list of other writing materials of which you have read or heard. Make a class list on the blackboard, including all the materials you place in your individual lists. 3. Why does this selection have so many capital letters? 4. Exercise for the composition class: Copy the first or the last paragraph, changing to small letters all the capitals which would not appear in correct writing or printing to-day. 5. Volunteer work: Make reports to the class. a. Find without help and read the part of Paul's letter to Timothy asking for the cloak. Tell by what device for locating passages in the Bible you were helped and explain how to use it. b. Write three sentences that might have been included in the third paragraph, following the style of "A Parable of White Paper." c. Use the encyclopedia or other reference books to find information about one of these topics and report to the class: 1. How paper is made to-day. 2. The difference between brown and white paper. 3. Early methods of paper-making. 4. The use of parchment in early days. 5. Early printing-presses. 3. INSCRIPTIONS ON THE POST-OFFICE BUILDING CHARLES WILLIAM ELIOT AND WOODROW WILSON Eliot to write inscrip- President Woodrow Wilson asked Charles W. tions for the Post-Office Building in Washington. Doctor Eliot wrote inscriptions about the work of pavilion, inscriptions about home and social life. vised Doctor Eliot's suggestions, and in the revised form they now appear upon the Post-Office Building. Notice carefully the changes made by President Wilson. INSCRIPTIONS ON THE FEDERAL POST-OFFICE EAST PAVILION As written by Charles William Eliot CARRIER OF NEWS AND KNOWLEDGE As revised by Woodrow Wilson CARRIER OF NEWS AND KNOWLEDGE WEST PAVILION As written by Charles William Eliot CARRIER OF LOVE AND SYMPATHY CONSOLER OF THE LONELY BOND OF THE SCATTERED FAMILY As revised by Woodrow Wilson MESSENGER OF SYMPATHY AND LOVE BOND OF THE SCATTERED FAMILY ENLARGER OF THE COMMON LIFE CLASS ACTIVITIES 1. Decide by class discussion whether Mr. Wilson or Mr. Eliot was more largely responsible for the final inscriptions. Which of the two had the harder task? Is the first draft of one of your own compositions, in which you are thinking of the meaning, more difficult than the second draft, in which you revise and improve the meaning? Explain. 2. What did Robert Burns mean when he said: "All my poetry is the effect of easy composition, but of laborious correction"? 3. Tell which of the services named in the inscription is most important for the business of your city. 4. What services named in the inscriptions are included in "I Like Postmen"? 5. What activities of every-day life are named in the inscription on the east pavilion? What activities are named in the inscription on the west pavilion? What central idea or main thought did Mr. Eliot express in each of the inscriptions? Why is one appropriate for the direction of the rising sun, and the other for the direction of the setting sun? 6. How is the thought changed by substituting the word industry for commerce in the second line of the first inscription? Explain the change of carrier to messenger and of public to common in the second inscription. Discuss the other changes. 7. Volunteer work: a. Bring copies of inscriptions upon any of the public buildings of your city. Discuss their fitness for the buildings. b. Write an inscription for your school; for your classroom; for the public library; for your home. C. When you have your next compositions ready to hand in, try to find three places at which, by changing certain words or phrases, you can improve your work. d. Find out how many letters a day come to your city or leave it. What proportion of these are business letters? Secure this information at the post office. e. Find and bring to class pictures of famous public buildings in Washington, D. C. f. Interview one of the post-office officials of your city, asking how boys and girls can co-operate to help improve the postal service. g. In the preceding selection, p. 353, Paul is described as being "full of messages." Decide which of the lines in the inscriptions would most probably express the purpose of the messages the Apostle wanted to write. 4. POSTMEN OF THE SKIES HARRY A. STEWART Reading aim: Find the most important items of information given by the writer concerning the present state of the federal mail service by air routes. Rain was falling in the Alleghany Mountains of Pennsylvania. Low-hanging clouds clung to the flanks of the hills, and gust after gust of wind-driven vapor marched up the passes. In a little village, lying in a deep valley like a penny at the bottom of a crack, a man was making a dash through the rain from the kitchen door to the woodshed. Half way across the yard he halted, listened, and then looked up at the dripping, lead-colored firmament. There he saw a lone airplane. Even while he looked, it grew larger, seemed to hover for a moment overhead, and then vanished as the pilot deftly rounded a shoulder of the mountain and disappeared from view. The man glanced at his watch with a satisfied air, and resumed his dash to the woodshed. The Air Mail was on time! Along the great Air Route, all the way from New York to San Francisco, people say that they can set their alarm clocks by the mail plane. Probably this is not strictly true. When I asked one of the pilots about it, he laughed and said: "Yes, I've heard some of the folks on my division say that. But, of course, if they did try to set their clocks by my trips, their time would be off a little. You can't fly that close to schedule. I suppose it's just — well, you might call it friendship." "Friendship!" I exclaimed. “Do you mean to say you know the people you fly over?" Somehow his suggestion seemed as unnatural as friendship between a hawk and a mole, this idea of acquaintance between the flyer, roaring along maybe a mile up in the air, and the prosaic, everyday toilers down below. The pilot laughed again. "Well, not all of them; but there's one little girl, about twelve years old, who lives on a farm the other side of Lofty Mountain who'd be mighty disappointed if I didn't wave at her when I fly over!" That little incident brought the Air Mail into focus for me. I had known there was such a service. But I didn't realize how little was really known about it generally until I tried to find out whether a special stamp is needed to send a letter by the air mail. None of my acquaintances knew; I decided to find out. I discovered much about the air mail that surprised and interested me; but I think the most surprising thing of the lot was that the air mail is a part of the lives of many people who live in the inaccessible parts of the country. At the flying field at Mineola, New York, I stood talking with the superintendent of the Eastern Division, while we waited the arrival of the mail from Cleveland. Out on the field, in the bright sunshine, airplanes took off and landed. Flying in wide circles overhead was a big Martin bomber, undergoing a test. Back of us, in the shadowy depths of the big hangar, mechanics worked on the spare planes. While we talked, a speck appeared in the western sky accompanied by a drowsy humming, such as a bumblebee in a blossom might make. Then the hum increased to a roar, the pilot circled the field to head up into the wind, and came down on a long, graceful glide. The great biplane, skillfully directed by its rider, rolled across the grass into the door of the hangar. While the propeller was still whirling, a truck was backed up to the machine. Men climbed upon the wings, unlocked the mail compartment, and began to check out the pouches. By the time the pilot had "run out" the gas in his carburetor and shut off the Liberty motor, the truck was loaded and on its way to New York with its sacks of letters. "If you want to know how the mail is carried," said the superintendent, "that chap can tell you." He nodded toward the pilot, who, dressed in his clumsy, fur-lined flying suit, was clambering out of the cockpit of the airplane. That was my introduction to Wesley L. Smith, one of the oldest pilots in the Air Mail Service (he stands fifth on the seniority list) and the dean of the pilots on the Eastern Division. He is twenty-nine years of age. Wesley L. Smith is the pilot who, on August 25th, 1923, broke |