Letters to the Joneses - Josiah Gilbert Holland

We watch our news and live our lives and see many things wrong with society today. It is easy for us to claim that things were better in "The Good Old Days." It appears Solomon was correct when he said, "There is nothing new under the Sun," because Timothy Titcomb tackles many of the same societal ills in 1863 that we do today. In Letters to the Joneses, we are privy to "letters" that a former Schoolmaster writes to various citizens of Jonesville. Each one deals with his pithy response to a fabricated individual who acts as a model of a type of person who is troubling himself and much of the town. In his letters, we can find many of our own acquaintances and even ourselves. This would be fantasitc reading for young people today to learn what traits to avoid to help their own Jonesville to function as well as possible. (Summary by Keith Salis)