School Post 1 July 1949 [antikvár]

your Letter from the Editor vDeor aJ. (xúríz, Many of you may feel that you are too old to rend stori.es liké Tom Thumb, although I confess that in spite of my greying hairs, I still enjoy them. But I expect you do read them. even if you will not admit it, so perhaps I had better explain that the Court of King Arthur in which Tom Thumb ended his days, is more than a piece of imagination. King Arthur is thought to have been a king of England who lived in Tintagel, Cornwall, during the Dark Ages. The remains of a castle have been found there recently, in which somé people think he and his knigh.ts may have lived. Others think that they never lived at alt and that King Arthur and his Court are only legendary figures. But real or legendary, English children never tire of listening to the tales of their chivalrous deeds. Somé of you will know of King Arthur already and will have seen his bronzé figure among the stately company standing around the tomb of the emperor Maximilian in the Hofkirche at Innsbruck. I have often seen boys — yes, and girls too, standing on the railings of a bridge and looking down intő the swift river below. Do they ask themselves, as I used to do, hoiv the piers were built intő the river bed. beneath that. immen.se quantity of water? Are they fillecl with wonder at the long, graceful sweep of the arches and do they ask themselves how they were built right out into space? I hope you are not in the habit of standing on the railings — you might fali into the river! — but you may have asked yourselves those questions too, and if so, I hope that the article on bridges in this number will help to answer at least somé of the points which may have puzzled you. In spite of the cleverness of our enqineers, however, there is a tiny creature who outdoes them. It is the spider! Engineers say that if they could only discover the rüles spiders apply ívhen they build their ivebs, they could build a bridge across the English Channel! So the next time your sister screams when she sees a spider in her room, I hope you will take the opportunity of imvressing upon her, that she should be honoured by the presence of so distinguished an engineer! This is my last letter to you before you break up for the holidays. I can imagine you pulting away your books and saying to yourselves "hurrah! no more lessons for six tvhole iveeks!" There will be only one number of "School Post" during the holidays. You shoidd look out for its gay coloured cover on the lst August. I am remembering that you will not want to read anythinq that is very serious or seems at áll liké lessons and I am busy looking for holiday pictures and amusing articles that you will liké to read in the shade of a tree when it is very hot, or while you are sunbathing after a swim. But I am including a puzzle to give a little pleasant exercise to your minds so that they will not go to sleep altogether! I am having a holiday too, and, when we return to our desks, whirh is a very long way ahead, I am. looking forward to exchanging accnnnia of all we have seen and done. Best wishes for happy holidays with heaps of fun and sunshine. [u. BJJUtt 6ur readm ötttp Kathleen Késmárky (10 years) — Szolnok "How I should like a pen-friend in England! "I am only a little Hungárián girl of ten and I do not speak English very well, but I can speak Germán quite well. Mother is teaching me English now and I like it very much. I play the piano and I like to sing too. I know many English songs. "Mother reads her English news-paper "Woman" which she gets every Sunday and "School Post" töo and she telis me about Roger and Mary and the Mackie family." Rosemarie Nitsch (19 years) — Vienna. "As I am a student of the English language I am greatly inter-ested in England and its people. 'School Post' is a great help to me in becoming acquainted with it. The articles are very interesting; above all those dealing with the different districts and the manners and customs of English people. I alsó like the extracts from English books. At the university we often have talks about books. Now we are dealing with modern novel-writers, and it is very interesting, when I have heard about a book, to read afterwards an extract from the same book in somé number of 'School Post'." Charlotte Wieser, of Bad Voeslau near Vienna, wants to correspond with an Austrian boy or girl in English or Germán. She is 16, ancl her interests are reading and swimming. (Will Mrs. Mopils of Vienna, who asked for a pen-friend an the llth April, please send me her full address in order that 1 may reply. Ed.)