ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION, THREE DOLLARS. SINGLE COPIES FIFTEEN
CENTS. FOREIGN POSTAGE, 75 CENTS EXTRA. CANADIAN POSTAGE,
50 CENTS EXTRA. ENTERED AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y.,
AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER. COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR
ASSOCIATION, INC. PRESIDENT AND TREASURER, R. M. DONALDSON;
VICE-PRESIDENT, W. M. SANFORD; SECRETARY, L. D. GARDNER.
_Editorial_
This week’s issue of The Mentor and that of last week are so
distinguished in authority that we ask special attention to them.
An interesting article on the Conquest of the Poles could have been
prepared by any good writer. The Mentor article was written by the
supreme authority on the subject, Rear Admiral Robert E. Peary. The
article on “Famous American Sculptors,” published last week, was
written by Mr. Lorado Taft, one of the best-known sculptors in America.
When Mr. Taft writes about Barnard, French, Bartlett and the other
American sculptors he is giving an account of his fellows in art. It
is fortunate that so able and so interesting a critical writer on
sculpture as Mr. Taft could be found among sculptors. He has given to
us in The Mentor just what we want--information imparted in a simple,
interesting way, and with authority.
* * * * *
It is worth a great deal to us to read what others have to say about
The Mentor. It is a genuine satisfaction to receive from far-off
California a message of “surprise and great delight over this ‘wise
and faithful guide and friend,’ which surely fills a need in the lives
of busy people.” A friend nearer by, in Brooklyn, offers thanks for
our “wonderful weekly. The pictures are lovely,” she says. “Already I
have shown it to many of my friends, and they are just as interested
and pleased as I am. You most certainly deserve a vote of thanks from
the people for placing this beautiful educational magazine within easy
reach of everyone.”
* * * * *
The thanks we appreciate, but what we value most is that our Brooklyn
correspondent showed The Mentor to many of her friends and that they
were just as pleased and interested as she was. A letter like that
from every reader of The Mentor would mean an aggregate membership for
The Mentor Association that would make it unique among the educational
institutions of the world. There is a prospect that we hold fondly
before us--that of every reader showing The Mentor to every friend that
might be interested.
* * * * *
And then, when all of these friends have seen The Mentor, they will
want the numbers from the beginning. We say they “will want” them,
for that is what most of our subscribers demand. A teacher in Kansas
writes, “The Mentor is a delight, and its value is beyond expression.
I feel that I cannot miss a single issue, so please send me the
numbers from the beginning.” A teacher from Pittsburgh, immediately on
receiving the first copy of the magazine, asks for all previous issues.
An agent in insurance writes from Arkansas for the preceding numbers,
adding, “I cannot afford to lose one copy.”
* * * * *
So from St. Louis we hear, “Send me all preceding issues,” and from
New Haven a college student writes, “I like the publication so much
that I do not wish to miss even one number.” We lack space to cite all
cases of this kind, but as we turn over the mail we find here a request
from Toronto for “all numbers, beginning with the first,” another from
Charleston, and a third from Hyannis, Massachusetts, demanding “all
preceding numbers.”
* * * * *
It has become a regular daily incident, and it shows the unique
character of The Mentor publication. It is not simply a magazine.
Subscribers do not send for all back numbers of the ordinary magazine
from the beginning of its existence. Every number of The Mentor is
part of an interesting educational plan. The members of The Mentor
Association want _all_ parts of that plan.
[Illustration: FRIDTJOF NANSEN]
_Fridtjof Nansen_