Bassetts Scrap Book, Vol 3, No 7
Articles in this issue
- p. 2
An opening poem defending women from the ageist adage 'a man is as old as he feels, a woman as old as she looks', arguing that the heart of a woman who gives her youth and strength in love never truly grows old.
- p. 4
A note celebrating September as a birth month of the great, listing warriors from Augustus Caesar to Lafayette, statesmen from Queen Elizabeth to Richelieu, poets from Ariosto to Dr. Johnson, and scientists from Humboldt to Faraday.
- p. 3
A poem by J.W. Foley from a small boy's perspective arguing that a whipping is far preferable to a scolding — because a whipping brings pie, kisses, and forgiveness, while a scolding makes mother cry and leaves the boy terrified alone in the dark.
- p. 6
A satirical vision in which a visitor from Mars is taken to meet the ambassadors of the world's great powers, and each nation cheerfully recounts the territory it has seized from its neighbours while condemning the theft of everyone else.
- p. 4
A note marking Switzerland's celebration of the founding of its Federal Government in 1291, when the three cantons of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden formed a defensive league that over centuries expanded into the modern Swiss Confederation.
- p. 4
A traveller's account of a daily ceremony on the East Coast of Africa where a tribal chief advances with pomp, waves his hand toward the horizon, and formally gives the sun royal permission to descend — though the sun is under no obligation to wait for permission to rise.
- p. 3
A reflective poem contrasting the small things that brought joy in youth — flowers, sunsets, a friend — with the equally small things that sustain happiness in old age, finding that between them lie whole worlds of feeling and spiritual depth.