ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3352, 12 June 1918, Page 50

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

TO DARKEN THE'EYEBROWS (L.?l.).—There is no dye which I could recommend as "safe," but if ycu rub a little mennaline into the eyebrows and at the roots of the eyelashes, regularly every night, it will darken chm naturally and will also «iore"ase the growth of the eyelashes. TO REDUCE WEIGHT (SADIE).—Yes, your visjight and measurements are certainly more than they should bo [or your height, and I quite agree that being so stout makes you look old. I am pleased to be able to tell you of a quick, easy, and pleasant way to reduce both. n *ek a small quantity of cl/nol berries from the chemist's and take one after each meal, three times a day. Weigh yourself after one month's treatment, and you will be delighted with the result. TO KEEP THE HAIR PAIR (DORIS).—If yon jhampoo your hair regularly with stallax granules it will prevent it from turning dark. One teaspoon of stallax is sufficient for -a shampoo, and an t.iginal packet will make from twenty-five to thirty shampoos, bfcallax keeps indefinitely. To IMPROVE A DULL, MUDDY, COMPLEXION (TJ.8..1. —Your complexion is dull and muddy- .

formed any definite idea of what their future fill be; they aro a groundwork of a general nowledgo. Onco a boy or girl shows any tuarked preference or any natural ability for * oextain occupation or hobby in life, I

looking because it needs thorough cleansing and renewing of the outer cuticle. To do this, get a tin of inercolised wax, and with the tips of the fingers rub a little gently into the skin, going o. er the entire face and neck. Leave the wax on all night, and in the morning wash it off with a good soap (you will find Pilenta excellent). In a month's time you will notice a most surprising improvement. (2) Liquid pergol will prevent the excessive perspiration of whioh you complain. (3) Nothing can be done. TO ARREST GREYNESS (FLO).—You are indeed far too young to go grey yet. Get about two ounces of concentrate of tammalite and mix it with three ounces of bay rum. Dab this on the hair and amongst the roots. It will soon make matters all right. TO WHITEN A BROWN NECK (W. K.).—To —hiten your neck use jottaline. Get a tube of this from the chemist's, and rub a little well into the skin of the neck; leave it on till next morning. Do this regularly every night for three or four weeks, and ycu will find that the skin will become beautifully clear and white.

would endeavour to place in their reach all i lie books possible that would help them, and also press on them the value of a thorough knowledge on any given subject. Nowadays books aro so cheap that it is not beyond

any of ua to buiii up a child's library. There are works like those of Dickens, Scott, and Thackeray that are known to us all; but light liter vture should only form port of q child's rending. Wo spend time and money in having our child-ci; educated and in le&rning music; and on hew many bookshelves the great mo s.era lire neve;- openedS We forgot that the taste for good reading' can only be brought to perfection by cultivating it, and it is a taste that will stand by a person always. Foremost among all books comes the- Bible; and, apart from all" other considera.ions, for dignity of language and beauty of etxpiession iti takes the foremost placo in our literature. A constant student oi tho Bible becomes a master of expression and beauty of phrase. If the tas.e for good reading were more widely cultivated, if parents endeavoured to find suitable books for their children and placed them in their hands in their younger days, I think that it would go a very long way in solving the problems for after years. Already we find a mutual pleasure in discussing tho books we have read, and in comparing our ideas. In every home a good magazine should be taken in re_u'..rly; this helps to keep both parents and children abreast of the times, and in this respect My Magazine fills a very wide gap. ELSIE. Congratulations on the opening meeting. The papers were splendid, and we were pleased to learn that Emmeline had been heard of, and thank Elizabeth for passing on word, even though it was indirect word. Your paper is full of valuable sugges ions, Elsie, and you are quite right in urging that tho Bible should be studied for the sake of i's literary beauty even if it had no other claim upon us. The Authorised Version of the English Bible will stand for all time as a monument to Hebrew literature and" the English language.

Dear Elizabeth, —From the time of a child smarts school till he becomes a youth of 20 school lessons take up a lot of his time, so that when term holidays come he prefors any sort of light reading. As there are as many bad as good books to choose from, it is the .duty of everyone interested in yomg people to help them to cul'dvate -a taste for the best literature. It is the tas es and habits formed during childhood's impressionable period that makes or mars 'heir future. Perhaps many of our New Zealand soldiers owe their pleasure while on leave in visiting old places in Egypt, the Holy Land, Prance, and England because of what they read about those places in their story-books of boyhood days. History, science, Nature, travel, biography, fairy tales, school life, and hysriene should all b"S represented in a children's library. Many boys and girls have counted <heir blessings after reading nbout Hellen Kellar and R. L. S A evenson. Prank Bullen, R. M. Ballantyne, and Fenimore Cooper are favourites amongst the boys for their tales of adventure. Children of all ages like fairy tales. After reading "Legends of Greece and Rome," bv Grace Kuffer, the s 4 udy of astronomy would he more interesting. Pot the little ones ''The Cradle Ship" end + he "Water-babies" are good. "Parables o.f Natnre," by Mrs Gattv. is to be recommended too. "Nat the Naturalist" helps a boy to understand Nature life in the hot couii + ries. Talbot Baines Reid is a good writer of school stories. Lilian Davidson, Evelyn E. Green, Rosa Carey, and Jennie Chapnell wrre fine stories for girls. "Tales of a Grandfather," "The Children of the New Forest," and "Benhur" deal with past history. "Stories of Inventions" will tell how the sewmg machine and telephone were invented, and how the fas + -going railwav drains and ocean "greyhounds" were only' brought up to present B*ate of perfection through the self-d»nial and perseverance of the invents of the first models. The works of Tennyson and Longfellow must not be left ou f . "Broken Ear'henware" deals wi'h refovm work amon<?>st *he poor of London. "Minis+ering Children" and its sequel should no+ be lef f out. To suit the tas'es of all children one could not do be + t°r than choose such magazines as the "G.0.P.," "8.0. P.," and "The Red Book" for boys. In +he Boy's and Girl's Own Papers are articles conc*rnin<r + heir hobbies, =nch as tennis, hockey, football, etc. If a girl's idea is to toke up a career, such as nursing, when she leaves school, the "G.0.P." fives her many tips in the form of stories. The harmful influence of Na* Gould and Charles Garvice "■•ould be quickly overcome if the children wre encouraged to read the right kind of books. INVERCAULD. Your list is a fairly comprehensive one, Invercauld, and you mention some favouri'es of long ago, such as "Children of the New Pores*" and R. M. Bnl!an + vne'.o hooks, which T often wonder whether children r««d now. They have such a much larger choice of books than previous generations had. Dear Elizabeth—Have you watched a childi wi*h a Hnok? How easerly h/» scans *lv3 ■ How anxiously he the pictures. W ; th what, natieure he tries to read it, | naying boldly 'be worde he knows, labor-'ously spelling, sometmios guessing, with help f-om <he pictures, the ones he no* know. How those pictures s'Mr 4 he chi'd'" tion! How they rouse his curiosity! What eager questions he has + o ask his bis- brother or sister. a-"d wi*h what sichs pnd frowns the book is put away when "b-dfime" comos, and he has to n i s sea t; OTI +},„ ru „ before the cheerful fire to- tro to "bye bye." Have you peep him when he is about 14? The lav'shlv books hsve b°en discarded. He reads with breathless interest 4 he wonderful adven'ures of "Robinson Crusoe," or "Swiss Family, Rob'nson." He sympathise with poor, lonely little Oliver Twist; wonders and puzzles over "Rarnaby Rud.<?e" thrills over "Treasure lauens over the escapades of "HuckVberry Finn." Hi's sister, probably, is laughing and sighing by turns over the s : mple homelv pp : sodes of Women" and "Good Wives." or is anxiously following th« trials and disappointments of Augusta Wilson's

super-human heroines. whoso beauty is | always unusual, and whose intellect of tho highest type. Who: we see how eagerly j children read anything that comes into their j hand.', wo realise how great a power literature | can and does wield. But it is a power that I car. be used for evil as well as for good. | Therefore, when wo make a collection of I books we must choose only these books which i are likely to prove an influence for good. It does not necessarily follow that the stories of an impossible little boy, "who never told a lie," and an equally impossible little girl, "who always did what she was told," . must form a large part of the library. Those stories satisfied the chi'dTen of early-Victorian age. The child of to-day scorns them. Tho j children who read such stories have no | patience with the faithful little hero j and the obedient little heroine. We j must choose such bcoks as will satisfy | the child's love of incident and excitement, ; while imparting information so subtly that ! the young reader is being both amused and j instructed. Some books of travel, several j biographies, wholesome school stories, all j Dicken's works should certainly be in the | child's book shelf along with Sir Walter I Scott's, and our boy's friend, Mark Twain. ! We must not forget our poets, and so we j will include volumes containing the simpler I poems of Lorgfellow. Wordsworth, and ihat ' children's friend, John Riley, whose "Littlo Orphan t Annie" is loved by so many wee folk; and, of course, the popular poems of oti" present friends, Ella Wilcox, Rudyard Kiphnsc, and John Oxenham must all ba included. We must encourage the children in their reading and help to develop a love for good liters ure. This can hi done by asking the children to give their opinions on the books, and encourage them to "read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest" those portions which most impress them, and to write summaries or essays on the books. Interest in an author's work is always increased when we are familiar with his life; hence short biographies of famous autnors should! be included in our iisi of books. Following is a short list of books which I think should be in every child's library. Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress,' 1 Lamb's "Tales from Shakespeare, "John Halifax, Gentleman," "Huckleberry Finn," "Treasure Island," »'From Log Cabin to White House" John Oxenharn's "Bees in Amber," and of course ail works by Scott, Kin.gsiey and Dickens. . LADi ARBUTHNOT. Your suggestion that children should learn portions of the books they like or write essays on them is a good one to somo extent, Lady Arbuthnot, bin I would not carry it too far. With many children to connect any idea of a task with a book is to spoil it for them. Dear Elizabeth, —In building up a library for a small family of children we will need to take the ages of the children into . >nsideration, and provide suitable reading matter accordingly. When children are able to master small words and sentences, there are many books beautifully illustrated that may be go.. See that the coloring is good andi true to life in those illustrations, as they are of great educational value. They afford training for the artistic as well as for the observational faculties. Books dealing wi'h birds and animals, also trees and flowers, especially if ! bese depict everyday life in our own land, are most interesting to children. From our own land we can extend these studi.es to these of other countr.es. Nature study artd \he love of the brauiful may thus be begun at the earliest possible age. Books of short s ories and travels, also adlventures, can hs well chosen from the numbers of the books on th? market Stories embodying moral training are interesting to most children. If the reading mat'er be a li't.e beyond the capaci y of the children, the little ones enjoy hearing them read aloud, and have you ever noticed how keen the children are to sit. and listen to the stories tha' mo'her tells them. I renieniber, in the days gone by, how we —there were many of us—used to sit round a big fire that blazed up the great open chimney, and listen "with eager eyes" to the tale 3 our mother told, as she sat knitting or sewing, of the fairy tales and the folk-lore of -he old Home-land. Bo do not forget the fairy tales and 'he folk-lore for our children. Some people strongly object to fairy 'ales for the children, but I say let 'he little ones have their dreams and their fairy tales, and their make-believe. The materialism of life comes soon enourh, —often too s'-on —' for some of them. Ev-ry children's library should have some simple Bible stories in it. They can be got to suit all as;es and all tas'es. The o'der children, especially boys, like books of games or occupations and how to make things, and girls like fancy work, and as these 'hings alter it would be money well spent to re' a cheap monthly magazine that would ' 'fil _ these requirements and lend an added interest to the little library. VAL. You are an advoca+e for fairy tales, VaJ. I am not. altogether sure that I agra- with you, but it is a somewhat _ d'fficu.lt question, and there is much to be said on both sidirs. Dear Elizabeth,— "Books we know, Aro a substantial world botli pure and good; Round which, with tendrils strong 33 flesh and blood, Our pastime and our happiness will grow." —Wordsworth. Those lines from Words fovih I have quoted before in papers I have written up for the meetings of club; they are quite a favourite quotation with me in regard to the love of books. I 'lr'nk. *a. foster a love of reading in the children by building up a small library is a mos* desirable thing indeed, and it should be looked upon as part of the education of tho child either to have a small lot of books or to have access to a children's library, such as the children's library at the Carnegie Library, which, I think, is very creditable to Dun-

i edm. Soma of the books I would like to > suggest to build up a small library m the homo are these:—"Uncle Tom's Cabin," "Swiss Family Robinson," and "Pollyanna," i which I think a most delightful book for children. It deals with a child who had been adopted by an aunt, and this child sot about to spread all ihe beauty ;.nd sunshin© in life she could find among thosewho were unhappy or had a hard life. Every child should read this book, which has h-rlped to make the author, Mrs Porter, quite famous. Another book by the same writer is also a good one —namely, "Just David." Bunycm's "Pilgrim's Progress," "LittleWomen," by Louisa Alcott (a hook for the childror, tLrt -made her quite famous the world over), "Tom Brown's School Days" (a took that every schoolboy should read, as it has a fine manly ring about it and shows the building up of a fine character) There are quite a number of others—their name is legim,—ard, as tastes differ, some of the other members of the club will very likely suggest a number of others, so Ihat the children will have quit© a variety in taste to choose from. I am keeping a small space in this paper to recommend to the children an author whom I greatly love and admire — love that a pupil has for a good mas'.er who has assisted him in his studies, that is my feeling to Robert Louis Stevenson, whom I ihink one of <he best of modern authors. "The Letters from Samoa to Young People" are choice reading. A. lady in England wrote him asking him for letters about his "boys" for the sake of little girls in a home for 6ick children. The letters ar© mode's of child-work—tales and descriptions told by one child to other children. They centre round tho personality and adventures of "the learnod man" who writes them. Every figure is alive, and every sentence tells its tale. Along with these are some letters to Austin Strong, as vivid and as fascinat ng as the rest. There is no laughing at the children. He takes them and their affairs seriously, thinks what would appeal to them, and, by admitting them, as it were, into partnership of interests with himself, offers them ihe only kind of flattery tint is either decent or helpful. To read the "Child's Garden of Verses," or any of the writings in which 1 he early days are still alive, is to receive ourselves back again for a moment from the dead. The Child'3 Garden" is full of power. Mr Buildon's selection of the verses on the Cow could not, perhaps, be surpassed. There is auntie's skirts, too: "Whenever auntie moves around Her dresses make a curious sound, They trail behind her up the floor, And trundle after through the door." To children upon whom ihe splendour of an aunt shone, representing for them their share in the brightly-coloured life of some other town, and telling of the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, these details are irresistible. Equally exact, from the child's point of view, is The Gardener. 'The Gardiner does not love to talk, He makes me keep the gravel walk ; He digs the flowers, green, red, and blue, Nor wishes to be spoken to; He digs the flowers and cuff the hay, And never seems to want to play." That is all there is to know about tho gardener as the child sees him. One more verse refuses to be passed by. It is the aspect of the day's routine. "Every night my prayers I say And get my dinner ©very day, And every day that I've been good I get an orange after food. The child that is no' clean and neat, With lots of toys and things to eat, Must be a naughty child, I'm sure, Or ebe- his dear papa is poor." Every child is more or less devout in early childhood. It needs but a touch to awaken the responso'to 'God, whose heaven lies about us all in our infancy. It would seem that Robert Louis Stevenson's childhood was more than usually religious, and his ideas were to a great extent tho thoughts and ideals of his nurse, Alison Cunningham, a Christian boliever of ' the older Scottish school, to whom he always wrote .letters long af'er ho had become world-farned. Yet they w r ere his own also, and long -af'er he had passed out of the influence of her creed he retained much that he had learned from her". "Tho vivid memory of one's former simplicity of faith is to all true-men an irresistible appeal for reverence. ' In tho words of Rossetti, 'Though I loved not holy things, To hear them mocked brought pain: They were my childhood.' Beneath all Ihe complex play of thought and feeling upon the varied experiences of the life of Robert Louis S'even6on there remained the feeling that is possible only to 'he childlike. It means wonder and humility and responsiveness—the straight gaze- of childhood past convcn'ionalities, the simplicity of a mind o»en to any truth, and a heart with love alive in it." LEX. Many thanks for your appreciation of R. L. S+evcnson. Lex. His courage in the face of adverse circumstances, his sympathy with others, his froshnosc and originality make him a snlcndid frk-ncl for boys and girls, both in his poems, his essays, and hio books of travel. Dear Elizabeth, —Mr Just, in the course of his addrecs, mentioned the fact that the period of adolescence, the period between ochool days and early manhood, is the most critical time in young life. Yet at that most critical time the young person is often left to hi 3 own devices or cast adrift where many are waiting to welcome him to their own careless ways. Don't shut Ihe boys up away from all temptation, but teach them to look each temptation full in the face and manfully overcome. Paren's will be at pains to furnish the rooms where they receive and impress their visitors; how often they leave bare and empty those priceless rooms, the minds of their offspring, the _ gateways to the eternal souls whose destinies they may shape. The awful stress through which our

race is fussing leases worn-out and obsolete so much ohat seemed permanent but a few years ag<;, and it is hard to suggest what a boy should s* udy to fit him for the battle of life on the material plane. To teach the boy that work is a divine duty, to discover his natural bent, and to develop his abilities where he is likely to be of greatest use should be the father's care. Every handicraft, calling, and profession has a literature of ite own. See how out of date is the dairy farmer, the agriculturalist, the pastoralist, or the orchardist who has not a scientific grounding. See how delicate and intricate i 3 much of the machinery in common use. Scientific men tell us that the dormant and unharnessed forces of Nature about us could do the greater part of our daily labours, and set us free to study our origin and our eternal destinies, and to introduce our children to the great spiritual storehouse of our English literature. We must brgin with the Bible, as Burns's "cottar" did, "Choosing a portion with judicious care," for so much of the Scripture is but the history of a semi-barbarous people, though chosen to survive and shape our human destinies long after the passing of Assyria, Greece, Rome, and Carthage, and so much the wrapt imaginings of majestic poets that the child is thrilled or terrified instead of being carefully led to the greatest book of all time, and to the greatest, albeit lowliest, of otu- race —the Holy Jesus. Every master of our language has studied the Bible, and our literature is divine because of Scriptural inspiration. In the domain of verse and, later, of poetry—the deeper, the truer, the divine verse—wo may start with the school books and go on with Aytoun, Macaulay, Newbolt, Walter Scott, and Goldsmith. The poetical works of Longfellow are a library •in themselves. Still choosing our portions, we may take Campbell, James Thompson, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Alfred Tennyson, and Shakespeare. Not to recite or gabble off a screed of verses, but to feel the thrill of rhythm and high melodious thought, and to come into the wondrous heritage of the English is the privilege of all who have the poetic faculty. An average cycloptedia of our literature should contain the poetical masterpieces, but the popular poets are beautifully bound and illustrated at moderate prices. Don't think that a fine display 'on a bookshelf is a library, any more than a lot of tools on the wall is a journeyman's shop. Our books should be procured one or two at a time, endured, mastered, enjoyed, and loved, then placed on the shelves to become life-long friends. When we come to prove we are on surer ground, for here are books that appeal to every age and fancy. Hislory, geography, travel, and adventure — these are necessary for every lad who is to be a citizen of Empire. Astronomy, geology, anthropology—these are needed for every boy who is to understand his place in God's universe. We must have "Robinson Crusoe," Cook's Voyages, Mungo Park's and Livingstone's Travels. Enter the great realm of notion cautiously. Don't resort to these high-s.xuxig books whose flushed and fevered writers are on the eve of nervous breakdown—so tense, while passed by the superficial critics as intense. The older school may be heavy, but they have delighted and ennobled generations of boyhood. Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield," Walter Scott's "Ivanhoe," "Peveril of the Peak," "Woodstock," etc., Dickens's ".David Copperfield, "Pickwick Papers, "A Tale of Two Cities," and "Martin ChtiKzelwit"; Charles Kingsley's "Hereward the Wake," Water-babies," "Yeast," "Alton Locke," and " Two Years Ago"; Bulwer Lytfcon's "Harold" and "The Last Days of Pompeii"; Fitchett's " Deeds That Won tho Empire"; Dugald Ferguson's "Bush Life" and his story of the Scottish wars of independence, obscurely titled "The King's Friend." It should have been called "With Wallace and Bruce." Fenimore Cooper is an authority with Redskin and tomahawk, as witness "The Last of the Mohicans." He also vies with Captain Marrayat when he go.s to sea. If the boy is tired, let him relax with "Treasure Island"; if he is philoBophic, let him enjoy George Eliot's books. But we have already run over years of quiet reading. The evening hours about the winter fire should be quiet and restful. A good lamp should burn in the centre of or above the table. No lying abed reading until all hours, mind. Let the readers read in peace during prescribed hours; or if one' — father, mother, or child—will read aloud all may enjoy. Or if several will read in turn so much the better. Authors and historians have their prejudices. Teach your children to put two and two together, and sift the truth from all information they may attain on any subjeot. Add a little to your bookshelf year by year, substantially bound, that, once procured, it may be always used. One bad book ha 9 wrecked many a young life. A good book is a life-long friend. With kind regards to Elizabeth and comrades all. OSCAR. Many thanks, indeed, for your paper, Oscar. You go straight to the point time and again, as when you urge father to "teaoh fhe boy that work is a divine duty, to discover his natural bent, and to develop his abilities where he is likely to be of greatest use." Again, you point out that the human individual has to fit himself for his relations both to his fellow-men and tho universe of God. And your words "Our books should bo procured one or two at a time, endured, mastered, enjoyed, and loved, then placed on the shelves to become lifelong friends" might be written upon the wall of every library. July 17: " South Africa."—Papers to be in by July 6. I hope those members who have turn, vt 1 ] read up something about South Africa, because I do think that the more iho different parts of the Empire know about each other the better. I want brief descriptions of the country or of incidents in its history, or an account of any book (novel or otherwise) or poem written about it.