The Press., 1897-09-23
w. C. T. U.
The Atom and the Mass. BY ERANNRl R WIIIa

When in New York recently we had a talk with an editor, who Is, perhaps more successful than most others in se- curing great clientele for his really praiseworthy paper. As he is genius in his way, some of the things he said were jotted down afterwards, and they may prove suggestive of larger charity to some of our good folks who think 1t is all wrong to "have one's name in the news- paper" The editor said in effect There is n beautiful and pathetic instinct in every human soul, away down deep, that makes 1t desire to know and be known by every other. Perhaps thls Is prophecy of the time when there will be no more isolation for anybody, and that would go long way toward making the world 8 paradise. Human nature can not deny irself, and think it is very surface view that sees no good in the desire to be correlated in one's life and work with other people. wish those who make jokes at the expense of the lonely ones who would like to catch on,' could look over the letters that receive by thousands every day. One is from an old lady who lives in a log-house away in the Adir on- dacks, and she has picked berries enough to pay the subscription price of our paper for year She says in closing, I hope you will put my name and this letter in the paper.' Now that Is not because that women expects to be famous or to gain notoriety, but because she leads life so lonesome, and she knows there Is a great, musical, changing, talkative world far away that she will never see. She would like to get the tip of her finger just some- where on the edge of things. AS you white-ribbon women say, She wants to belong So print a sentence from her letter, and she will keep that and read it over, and be hardly able to believe her eyes when she sees that thought of hers has passed through the magical second birth of types and paper. Many kindly thought will flash along the invisible line between her log-house and my great, whirring offices In the heart of New York city, and thus my paper will become a factor in building up that solidarity of mankind which every generous heart has predicted and desired since thought be- gan Besides all this, 1t does the people in cities good to know that there is such an old woman who cared enough for a good paper (of course my paper Is the very best ) to go out into the thicket and prick her fingers and not mind 1t, as she heard the ripe black-berries falling into her little tin basin. It helps the mutual comprehension of widely different classes of people, and spreads abroad the light of the better time to come. You do not know how many of these poor people in the woods and on the far of prairies have I sentslss httle money for the Armenians and do not not know any single expense connected with the paper that I have paid soswilingly as the extra that it costs to print their names." There was ring oi
 brotherly good-willing in the editors
 voice as he told these things, and they touched my heart deeply, perhaps the more because was once one of the
 loneliest of little girls. We lived twelve
 yearS on Wisconsin farm, going there
 when that now prosperous state was a
 mere territory with a handful of popula
 ton! do not not know the year in which
 ''Graoe Greenwood" announced in .hel
 lovely child's paper, entitled, The Little Pilgrims (25 cents year), which my mother got for me out of her "buttel money" that every boy or girl who sent
 her seven new subscribers should have
 his or her name printed in the paper. Al
 once confided to my mother that I was going to try for that prize. She en couraged me to do SO, and would stand in the road, watching me as I oareerec over the prairie on the back of" Old Gray, 'Ior rl<~1 for fo, oha might fall. (Oh, loving, ,watchful nother'i
 eyes the most steadfast in the world
 the most like Gods And yet they clos et
 upon the world, and with them ceased
 that sense of steadfast security that thu
 heart had always known until her hear was stilD.
 | We'll, I got the names, and with mucl ado the little letter was composed anc l rewritten several times before we con sidered it worthy to go to "Grace Green wood"l A month later the little pape } came, and among other names I soor :, spied mine, but behold Frances was spel with an i, and after the impetuous fashion !, of that early age, 1t was flung on tn , floor with the impatient exclamation That's boys name! I've lost tn ? prizel"
 The world is now under shrinking
 process 1t will hardly be bigger thai
 an orange after while. Inventors tel us that if will. be possible at any time t
 see as we'll as hear any person on it's sur
 face with whom we may wish to communi ! cate. Toward thatsublime event we nov , fasser than moves the chariot of the sun bn& to millions of us 1t will always b "the gay, fascinating, the far-off world, : and we should like to know more abou !, Lit, to be more thoroughly 8 part of it, t 8 anticipate the time when i've shall knoy 8 as we are known" If our instinctive wis 5 for this involves "good uses," as tn r Swedenborgians say, 1. G., If our name 8 Iand work, whether through the press o
 borne on by the humau voice, carry tn
 tfdings of heart within and God o'erheaG I then let them go whithersoever they will 9 and wherever they go, they shall help t 3 please and brighten this great world tru to its law, that the atom must ever b . drawn toward the mass by and irratabl I attraction, according to the laws ( rnrHa lAA l ~