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The Brick-Layer
by R. Flavie Carson
(A.A.P.A. MS. Bureau)
Up-ended brick in even row,
Spaced out at even interval;
The first one’s tipped and down they go,
Each knocks its neighbor in its fall.
And thus it is with every man,
His birth rocks back the first brick laid;
And down the line, the entire span,
Tumbles his life, so quickly played.
But if one brick should fail to knock
Its neighbor, through a careless fall…
What secret dark might be unlocked…
Might man evade Death’s lonesome call?
Man might, perchance, even allay
All fear of Death and smoking wicks;
And should it be his lucky day,
Surprise the Mason of the Bricks!
Editorial…
by Hallock Card
The Armorique Exchange Club (C. E. A.) is an international club with headquarters in France and representatives in many countries of the world because of the difficulty of sending money between countries. You may pay your dues to the representative and he takes care of getting it to headquarters. Although most people do not think of correspondence as exchange, the people of the devastated countries of Europe are much in need of encouragement and here is your chance to spread democracy by means of friendly letters.
Language study, hobby exchange, and correspondence are the aims stated in the circular and we shall talk about the first and last as the second item is sell-explanatory. Foreign correspondence provides an excellent means of learning a foreign language and at the same time helping your friend learn English. With members in over 75 countries you have a wide choice and a code translated into 15 languages provides a means of writing without knowledge of the other’s language.
An AA PA member has brought to my attention a fact I had learned from my mother, a C. E. A. member, That many people in Europe are interested in America and the American way of life. It is by this means that YOU can do much to help spread the American way of living to the strife-torn countries across the seas. I say seas because I have a friend in Japan who is interested in America. A personal letter can do much more than government propaganda as official releases always say the same whether true or not. Personal letters provide background and small incidents that help describe the actual way of living. I have written to a boy in Algeria since long before the war, during the war I corresponded with his sister and feel that I know much about Algeria, most of which I could not learn from books.
I have letter from a man in Fiji and I am sure that no book, magazine or paper would condemn the British policy towards the islands the way he does. But he is correct as you no doubt know. It is a policy of “all for England and none for the colonies.”
The cost is low and the idea of spreading democracy is good. I am the U. S. representative and will be glad to furnish circulars and application blanks. Amateur journalists are sure to find others interested in this field. Foreign correspondence is fun, it’s helpful, and it helps you know our neighbors over the seas.
A. J. Exhibit
Amateur journalism was one of the featured hobby exhibits at the Merit Badge Exposition and Hobby Show sponsored in mid-March by the Eastern Connecticut Council of the Boy Scouts. Co-Editor Mike Phelan, scoutmaster of Phainfield’s Troop 52, secured enough recruiting material from Secretary Vaglienti to make an a. j. display and pass out plenty of data about the AA PA. The display, together with the merit badge portrayal, garnered a red banner, which was the highest award available at the Scout exposition.
Code for Mss.
by Michael Phelan
The preparation of a neat manuscript is not difficult. Its code is based on common sense. Like any other code, it has a second side.
First, neatness counts, as does legibility. Which means that Mss. should be typed on one side only of clean, white 8½ x 11 paper.
Secondly, be considerate of the editor and printer. This means that the typewritten Mss. should be double-spaced, so that the editor may make corrections and (or) insertions, and so that the printer might follow copy more easily. It also means that the first sheet should contain the name and address of the author, preferably in the upper left corner, and each succeeding sheet the title of the article and the sheet number; thus the editor and printer need not be mind-readers. This further means that on the initial sheet of a Mss., the top third should be blank before listing the title, and one-inch margins should be observed on all sides of all sheets: thus is the editor able to place legible markings for the printer to follow in setting the type. For the printer’s sake, do not break words one line to another, even if you scrupulously observe the rules of syllabification; rather, leave a few blank spaces and drop to the next line.
Thirdly, exercise courtesy. If your Mss. is not solicited by the editor, send return postage with your script. Publishers have expenses aplenty with ink and paper. And don’t attempt to cause embarrassment by submitting a 400-line epic poem to a miniature journal whose editor froths at the mouth over amateur poets!
The code also places responsibilities on the editors. If an editor accepts a Mss., it is only just that he so notify the author, and report, if possible, the probable date of publication. If corrections or revisions are to be made, the author should be notified for his permission. When the Mss. finally sees print, the author should be provided with a few copies gratis.
If the Mss. is refused, the editor should return the copy in as neat condition as received, provided postage accompanied the script. If Possible, the editor also should report to the author the reasons for refusal of the Mss.
If this simple code is followed, who shall be disgruntled? None. Except, perhaps, the loving writer who thinks none of his Mss. worth rejection.
* * * *
As an editor and publisher, as well as printer, here are two additional points I wish to add to Phelan’s “Code for Mss.” Don’t send an only copy that must be returned after use. Copy is often a sad sight after the linotype operator finishes with it. I prefer that return postage consist of stamp only as sample copies or gratis copies seldom fit the envelope sent for return of manuscript. – Hallock Card.
As General Washington sat at table after dinner, the fire behind him was too large and too hot. He complained and said he must remove. A gentleman remarked that it behooved a general to stand fire. Washington agreed, but added that it did not look well for a general to receive it from behind.
$2.00 Dues
by Hallock Card
$2.00 dues are a must and we need them now. One important use is to pay for the printing done by members for the association. Sure I sure know they are glad to do it but we need democracy and $2.00 dues will spread the support of the association to inactive members. They will weed out the “Bundle-Getters” and promote activity. There will be no loss of active members as they now contribute several times this extra dollar each year. $2.00 dues will strengthen the association by supporting the mailing bureau and releasing publishers’ contributions for bigger and better journals.
For a bigger and better AAPA support the campaign for $2.00 dues.
Copy To The Printer
by Hallock Card
Phelan’s “Code for Mss.” is an excellent one for AJ members to follow however here are the rules I use for school papers:
1) Always type and double space your copy.
2) Your name in upper left corner of sheet will help if it is necessary to check back on some item.
3) Never divide words at the end of lines, leave line short instead. Some words it is difficult to tell whether you wanted it run together or if it should be hyphenated.
4) Start near top of sheet, and when possible use only one sheet. One or two lines on a single sheet may get lost.
5) Corrections written in by hand should be plain and understandable.
6) Use 8½ x 11 paper and one side only, color and quality are not important if legible.
7) Names make news. Get them right! Don’t say Mr. Bull when you mean Bell or Ball or Buell. Sure, we all hit the wrong key sometimes and you knew him anyway. Your printer sets what is written as he may not know there is a mistake and names can be spell so m-a-n-y ways. Reread what you write.
8) When copy has been held over a weekend or vacation and is returned for checking, dates should be checked carefully. Ofttimes events have happened and should be changed to the past tense.
9) Remember that type is metal and not rubber and although the printer can generally spread it out he can seldom shorten it by more than one line.
10) Cooperate with your printer. He can suggest ways to improve your paper and perhaps, save you money.
Friday Is Lucky
Friday, September 22, 1780, Arnold’s treason was laid bare, which saved us from destruction.
Friday, October 19, 1781, the surrender of Yorktown, the crowning glory of the American army occurred.
Friday, July 7, a motion was made in Congress by John Adams, and seconded by Richard Henry Lee, that the United States colonies were, and of right ought to be, free and independent.
Friday, November 20, 1721, the first Masonic lodge was organized in North America.
The County Fair
by Fred Starr
I went to the county fair;
The birds and the beasts were there –
The old raccoon, by the light of the moon,
Was combing his auburn hair.
To save me the time and place where I first heard that ditty, cannot be recalled. I don’t even remember the author. I do know there is more about the elephant and his trunk, and I do know the guy who penned those quaint lines was human because he went to the county fair. I wonder if he rode on the merry-go-round, chunked at the dolls, ate hamburgers, drank red lemonade, and threw away his loose change in one glorious splurge, and without regret?
May the gods of happy endings never deprive any of our posterity of the annual privilege of going to the county fair where people let down their hair, kick over the social traces, and “bust” all rules of social etiquette into smithereens. There they can kick up their heels at trouble and thumb their noses at the long arm of want that will surely reach out tomorrow and force them back into the groove of making a living.
But most of us being poor devils, just a couple of whoops and a holler ahead of the bill collectors, can savvy why even poor folks have one or rights besides life and liberty. The constitution also gives us the right to pursue happiness. and I’ll guarantee you that you’ll come nearer catching the rascal at a county fair than any place this side the gloryland. Yes sir, most of us hold fast to the right to make a darn fool out of ourselves at least once a year by going to the county fair and spending a few nickels as we darn please without ever stopping to count the cost.
Why does a fellow pack his blue serge suit – the only one he’s had since he took Mollie for better or worse – in moth balls all summer if it ain’t to unpack it and rig up in his Sunday best to go to the county fair?
What other place this side nowheres can the butcher, the baker, with the mayor, the socialite, and them all off silk stocking row, rub elbows and everybody keep his nose from curling up.
Yes sir, at places like the county fair the milk of human kindness just simply flows a little more freely than any place else where people from all walks of life get together. Why, last fall I saw an old feller and his wife come walking up to the gate of the fair. They looked as if they had walked many a weary mile to get there. The old woman was wagging the basket of food they were to eat for dinner, but when they started through the gate her husband says to her, “Maw, you’d best let me carry the basket now; we might get separated in the crowd.”
Going Up
by Vivian Murray
“Everything is going up?”
Well, the rain’s still coming down;
There’s no war tax on sunshine
Or the red and gold and brown
Of autumn leaves, or on the snow
That a mountain’s crown.
“Everything is going up?”
But bird songs cost no more;
No ten per cent for luxury
On the jasmine round my door;
And moonlight in my garden’s
Inexpensive as before.
“Everything is going up?”
But the price of joy’s the same;
It costs no more to work or sing
Or fan the ancient flame
Of love, and to a comrade’s smile
We still may stake our claim.
“Everything is going up?”
Come, come, what’s that you say?
The things that really matter
Cost just the same today.
The broad blue sea, the mountain tops,
The trees, the rain, the sky:
They’re tax-exempt forever –
Oh, lucky YOU and I
The Printing Press
by Robert Hobart Davis (1869-1942)
I am the printing press, born of the mother earth. My heart is of steel, my limbs are of iron, and my fingers are of brass.
I sing the songs of the world, the oratorios of history, the symphonies of all time.
I am the voice of to-day, the herald of to-morrow. I weave into the warp of the past the woof of the future. I tell the stories of peace and war alike.
I make the human heart beat with passion or tenderness. I stir the pulse of nations, and make brave men do better deeds, and soldiers die….
I am the laughter and tears of the world, and I shall never die until all things return to the immutable dust
I am the printing press.
The Bond
Edited and published for the AAPA by
Hallock Card
Otselic
New York
Michael Phelan
Box 467
Plainfield, Connecticut
Class A Charter, No. 68
Printed by The Homestead Press, Otselic, N. Y., U.S.A.