Thursday, March 24, 1927.__________ (Ebe Hcnumiu Saglr Issued every Thursday $2 per year in Advance Entered as Second Class Matter, August 4, 1922 at the Post Office at Vernonia, Oregon, under the Act of March 3, 1879 MARK E. MOE, Editor CALL TO PRAYER The Easter season is one of more than usual saciedness to the adherents of the Christian religion. Easter marks the close of the Lenten season, the period of self­ denial practiced generally by the Catholic bodies and partly by some Protestant de­ nominations. It recalls the recorded events accompanying the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The time has passed when men may scoff at the effectiveness of prayer in the national and individual life and at the same time maintain a reputation for sound judgment. Whatever may be the explan- aton for prayer, whether it be the res­ ponse of a supreme being to the requests of men or whether the effect is purely psychological, results of unequivocal char­ acter are seen in the lives of men. All the sin and injustice in the world is the result of selfishness in the hearts of men. No individual can enter sincerely into the practice of prayer without the surrender of the mind and disposition that would prompt the doing of things that would work harm in the lives of others. Prayer as it is revealed in the Holy Scriptures, makes for a serenity of mind and a fixedness of purpose to do right­ eously that can not be easily destroyed by the ordinary experiences of life. The most outstanding men and women in his­ tory have practiced prayer for themselves and for the interests to which they gave themselves. MARBLES AND SPRING There is a time for all things, and this happens to be the time for marbles. une of the positive signs of spring is the advent of the marble season. No soon­ er does the warm spring sun melt late winter’s snow from pavements and side­ walks than there appears on them mystic chalk marks around which squat boys like Indians about a camp fire “Knuckle down,” “Trade you two shoot­ ers for a glassy,” and “Your shoot” now become the language of youth, and the tell-tale signs of the season are bulging pockets, cardboard boxes filled with some­ thing that rattles suspiciously and having a hole in the top through which a marble might be dropped, and the clatter and roll of marbles on schoolroom floors as solely stiained pants pockets let go. In his games is the boy “the father of the man.” The marbles of youth prepare the way for the tennis, billiards, golf and other sports and pastimes of maturity. Marbles is the kindergarden of good sport­ smanship. One wonders if there is a normal boy today who does not feel the ii resistible urge to play marbles dr a normal man who did not as a boy “shoot” the little spheres of colored glass and clay. So in­ separable is the boy from the marble one sometimes thinks to deprive the boy of his marbles would work an irreparable loss. ROVINCE OF A NEWSPAPER It would be comical, were it not some­ what pathetic, the way newspaper of­ fices are besieged every day by their friends, urging them to “roast” this and that; to “see to it” that this and that is corrected; to have this and that done in the city or county; to start this and that kind of movement to correct evils in the state government. These friends actually appear to believe that it is the newspaper’s business to handle all these affairs. But a self-respecting newspaper, though ready and willing to carry all reasonable responsibility, must remind its readers that they, the people, are the authority upon whom rests the responsibility for the pres­ ent state of affairs local, state and nation­ al. A self-respecting newspaper tries to re­ port the news of what actually happens, not what it might wish had happened. The relat’on of a self-respecting newspaper to the general public is not always under- stood. It is the duty of a newspaper to be in a position to support anv good act an