Leo Nickolaevich Tolstoy would say that if a man has not in all his life made any-body happy, such a man should not have been born, for he has occupied in vain a place upon this earth. It would have been better if he had never lived at all. These words of the great writer and philosopher should set every one of us thinking. We should look back on the road that already lies behind us and recall whether there is anybody in this world whom we personally have made happy, and whether perhaps we occupy in vain places upon this earth.

It is difficult to make a grown man happy, a man who has undergone the trials of life, but it is easy to make a child happy and to bring it joy. The Russian colony in Chicago includes many bachelors and some married men who 2live here without their families and lead a very lonesome life. Each one of these single persons might assume the care of rearing at least one Russian child and of rearing it in the Russian spirit, placing the child in school, paying its tuition fee, and continuing its education till the charge becomes of age. There are many almost homeless Russian children in Chicago; there are many orphans, and there are still more families with five, six, or even eight children whose parents are not in a position to take proper care of them or to give them any kind of education. Of such children the single Russian men could take care.

On our page [the R. I. M. A. S. page in Rassviet] we have more than once said that poor parents could save a little money for their children's education by taking out for them policies in R. I. M. A. S. and thus insuring them for a certain amount. Russian bachelors could do the same for strangers' children or for the children of their friends. After taking charge of a child the guardian 3could see to it that it attended school regularly, that it went through grammar school and high school, and most important of all, the guardian should take out a policy for the child--a twenty-year endowment policy, for instance--so that his ward on becoming of age might receive a thousand dollars or more and be able to continue his education.

The life of many Russians in America is lonesome and monotonous, and worse than that, it is useless. Some Russians have no relatives or anybody to love and take care of. "Make some one happy on this earth, and then you will not have lived your life in vain." Tolstoy firmly believed that a man is happier if he does some good in his life, if he creates something, not simply taking everything from life and caring only for himself.

In the Russian colony in Chicago, as we know, there are many needy children with good hereditary inclinations. Such children could be made happy by the Russian bachelors. With the help of the Russian Independent Mutual 4Aid Society [R. I. M. A. S.] they could put these children on their feet, rear them in the Russian spirit, and make their lives in general happier than their own lives have been. Nothing good is done in vain, and we are certain that these children would never forget the good that had been done to them by some "strange" men. All their lives they would be thankful and carry the memories of their benefactors to their graves.

Now, in these balmy spring days and with the Easter holidays approaching, let Russian bachelors remember their native land, recall their childhood, and think how different their lives would have been if then, in their infancy, men had appeared and made it possible for them to go to school and acquire knowledge. Let us then ourselves become such generous men for the sake of other perhaps still more unfortunate Russian children in a strange land.

Old Russian bachelors should take care of Russian youth, of the new generation 5that is going to take their places in this world. That which they cannot complete themselves will be taken up by the Russian youth, and the work begun by the old bachelors will be continued without interruption. R. I. M. A. S. is always ready to help others in every good endeavor. In its schools children are taught to love the country of their fathers. Its [insurance] policies are the most beneficial for the young. All Russian people should unite around R. I. M. A. S., and the more youths it is able to attract, the greater will be the benefits that accrue to the entire Russian colony.