Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-08-14
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

The stormy evening comes not in vain
which finds the householder interested
in Nature study.
If rain is merely a nuisance and
growing things Just so much decoration,
then one will find nothing much to do
on such an evening but go out.
He who is interested in the growing
things for themselves, and in the ami
mails of the field and the birds of the
heavens, knows something more to do
with a rainy evening.
Nature study is at once the most
innocent and fascinating occupation OF
the animal called man.
1t requires no laborious study, and
at the end there is no severe teacher
glaring through spectacles while you
writhe over set Of questions you can
not answer.
In this charming study it makes not
the least bit of difference whether you
know anything or not!
Surely that might be taken as a
model in education everywhere. Most
people have had bunch for a long
time that there is too much stress
placed on examinations and the like.
Every one knows that year after
you have taken an exam" of any sort
you have completely forgotten every
thing you knew, anyway.
* X * s.
Nature study is happy study, because
it is q go-as-you-please sort Of thing,
without rules or orders.
And In the end it yields no pay, ex-
cept in isolated instances. Many stu
dents have managed to make it their
life work, and, if so, perhaps have
earned their bread and butter from it,
They are like the earnest young schol-
airs who, taking UP the study Of French
language in college, find themselves just
a bit more proficient at it than the rest
of their comrades. Hence they set
themselves up as assistants" in their
Junior year and help the professor tutor
the remainder.
Much to their own amazement, no
doubt they discover that they have
become experts" at the French lam
guage.
So it must be with such Nature stu
dents who finally become the men and
women who write the bird books, and
the books about bears. and the volumes
on butterflies, trees, flowers, etc.
Mostly they reeite only what every
reader knows beforehand: but If they
do it in capable and interesting way,
throwing in a little new information,
from time to time, so pleasant is the
disposition of Nature students, By ana
large, that they will ind their work &C
cepted with praise.
r &
The rainy evening that beats upon
the windowpanes adds to the interest
which such students take in everyday
happenings
TO them grand moments are not
necessary.
Though in company they may stress
the necessity for another war, in secret
they know their talk is mostly bluff,
that they do not want another war, but
desire only the peaceful occupations OF
the humdrum, as it is called.
What is monotony, after all, but
peace?
War is excitement, and peace is
auietneSs. Peace runs along to the
same old tune-that is why it is peace.
If it becomes tiresome, now and then.
that is the price the human spirit must
pay for it,
The commonplace is lacking in inter-
est only when one permits the purely
physical to overcome botn mind ana
heart. 1t takes the firm commanding
mind to set the muscles III their places,
and say severely, The exercise of war
may be all right, but you can get just
as much exercise out moving that lawn,
even If it isn't as exciting"