BIRTHDAY

The minutissimic editorial and mechanical staff of The Regional Review sat down together this month at a small table to decide whether to eat its cake or just have it. It was a dainty papier mâché affair surmounted by a lonely but somewhat substantial multilithic candle. Immature yet nonetheless unashamed members of America's great Fourth Estate, the staff paused in provident meditation and determined at last to save the cake for those lean days when, sliced with a razor and doled discreetly, it might serve as a welcome safeguard against the stalking heralds of famine.

Despite that hoarding of its provender, however, The Review decided to leave its first birthday candle burning with a hope that, notwithstanding the feeble wattage, it might light our halting steps along the shadowy byways of another editorial year. Whether derived from some horrendous glandular imbalance or from the stream-lined pace of once-a-month performance, The Review does not know; but it feels unquestionably the weight of its one year and can only hope that it wears with jaunty grace and moderate good humor the graying mantle of age.

It now enters its second year with a deep-seated desire to be increasingly serviceable to its readers. It wishes to remind them, too, that they most of all can help The Review along its modest way by volunteering suggestions, criticisms and publishable materials. The general character of the articles which are reproduced is well known now to all who take interest in our monthly journal, and it is emphasized here that contributions always are welcome. A few of them received from time to time do not appear to embody information which, in the opinion of The Review, would attract interest throughout the entire region, but others have proved to be noteworthy additions to the permanent record in widely separated fields. It is hoped that our volunteer writers will walk hand-in-hand with us through the pages of new numbers and new volumes.

WELL-WISHERS

A good many kindly birthday greetings have come to The Review during the month, most of them from non-employees who, upon reading the notice contained in the last issue, requested that their names be retained on the mailing list. Like all who are young enough to welcome anniversary congratulations, we are grateful for these evidences of friendly interest in our unpretentious endeavors. Roundly appreciated among the exhibits which this bulletin will keep under glass in its own little museum of forgivable vanities is the graciously phrased encouragement of the two-sentence letter received from Dr. Douglas Southall Freeman, editor of The Richmond News Leader and author of the monumental biography of Robert E. Lee. Said Dr. Freeman:

"Observing the 'mail notice' on page 10 of your June issue, may I respectfully ask that the undersigned be kept on the mailing list for your admirable publication. I do not know a better document of its kind and I congratulate you on it."