Douglas Pope, the author of "Now Tm Sixteen," the story of his life from childhood to hís present age, was asked to give his opinion on the question "Have the Country Boy and Girl a Fain Chance?" He finds fault with a system of education which falls to encourage children when at school to find out-their job in life:
.... From fourteen t round' about sixteen' both boys and girls ar uneasy, They have left school with An active mind and find it hard to hold it down. At sixteen, most boys and girls have succeeded in burying Their intelligence. and have accepted thoughts and convictions of the masses. It is easier, in fact it is neccesary, if they are to remain even the book is nature, the out-of.doo; which, even more than the trophies of Salterns, influence that "crystal cabinet" which the author thinks of as "the Me," her mind like a cabinet furnished with shelves and secret cupboards and drawers, "yet still the whole an empty cabinet, a crystal box like the one Blake wanted to live inside and outside of at once."
"Power and Loveliness"
Again and again Miss Butts stresses the importance of a country upbringing, as when she writes:
It is by now my sincerest conviction that. of all the crimes possible against childhood, to deprive them of a country upbringing is the worst Of all. Especially in infancy when Perceptions are awakened; especially in adolescence when values realized and comparisons are equally in childhood when the nat and use of objects are learned and unconsciously related.
The tale runs on through experiences at school and college, leaving off at eighteen with a hint of the romance of the.future, It is an interesting sell-revelation, an effort at absolute truthfulness of expression which mav be of help to parents and educators, Miss Butts, who died suddenly on March 5, 1937, has written short stories, novels, historical works and pamphlets and had achieved a literary
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.