aia co ER
——
Bellefonte, Pa., February 22, 1907.
JACK FROST.
The frost looked forth on a still, clear night,
And whispered, “Now, I shall be out of sight ;
So, through the valley and over the height
In silence I'll take my way.
I will not go on like that blustering train,
The wind and the snow, the hail and the rain,
That make such a bustle and noise in vain,
Bat I'll be as busy as they I"
80 he flew to the mountain and powdered its crest,
He lit on the trees and their boughs he dressed
With diamonds and pearls ; and over the breast
Of the quivering ianke he spread
A coat of mail, that it need not fear
The glittering point of many a spear
Which he hung on its margin, far sad near,
Where a rock could rear its head,
He went to the windows of those who slept,
And over each pane like a fairy crept;
Wherever he breathed, wherever he stepped,
By the light of the morn were seen
Most beautiful things! There were flowers and
trees,
There were bevies of birds, and swarms of bees;
There were cities and temples and towers, and
these
All pictured in silvery sheen!
But he did one thing that was hardly fair,
He peeped in the cupboard and finding there
That all had forgotten for him to prepare ;
“Now, just to sel them a-thinking,
I'll bite this basket of fruit," said he,
““This costly pitcher I'll burst in three!
And the glass of water they've left for me,
Shall "tehick’ to tell them I'm drinking.”
— Hannah Gould,
THE BACKSLIDIN' OF MARTHA
CROCKER.
“Well, Martha Crocker, all I can say is,
you're a fool, a perfect fool. When my
brother Ezra died a month ago and left you
every bit of his money I didn’t begrudge
you a cent of it. Ezra never gave you
much to spend —I always knew that—and
I says: ‘I'm glad Martha has it, to get some
good of it before she dies. She ain’t never
bad any fun, aud I’m glad.’ But now—
well, I wouldn't ’a’ thought you'd be so
foolish.”
Mrs. Dole rocked ropidly to and fro in
the slippery baircloth rocking-chair, and,
as her excitement increased, the vehemence
of her motion so kept pace with is that
she was in constaut peril of precipitating
herself into the arms of her sister-in-law
setting opposite. Nothing but an involun-
tary backward jerk, each time she caught
her breath, kept her in ber seat,
“I've heard all yon say, Mary,”’ answer-
ed Martha Crocker patiently, “and I ain't
mad a mite; but I’ve made up my mind
to bave em, and I'm goin’ to have em!"
Mary Dole rose, completely vexed. Some
are born who through life exact compliance
from others; such was Mary. Others are
born who as unfailingly comply, and such
was Martha. She had never, in all the
history of her seventy-one years, “riz up,”
and her revolt was both a shock aud a
humiliation to Mary Dole. As she swept
disapprovingly out of the gate she encoun-
tered the tall, awkward forw of the minis-
ter just entering.
“Oh, Mr. Perkine,’’ buret ont Mrs. Dole,
“I've just left Martha, and I do hope, if
on can do anything with her, you'll ges
I out of this backslidin’.”
“I'll see what I can do,” said Mr.
Perkins, with assurance.
Mr. Perkins was an earnest and faithfal
laborer in the vineyard. His parish was
scattered and wuch of his work was dis.
couraging; the one prop which upheld him
in bis loug pastorate at Wilson's Crossing
was the fact that bis flock believed utterly
in his infallibility. They were a deeply
religious people, and not one of bis congre-
gation ever questioned his ‘soundness’
or his doctrines,
When he preached on “The Last Jedg-
ment’’ his description was so graphic that
it seemed as if he must have witnessed the
scenes of which he spoke, and Predestina-
tion and Everlasting Punishment were
settled so finally and to such universal
satisfaction that his parishioners would as
soon have dishelieved in the rising of the
sun as to have doubted them. His religion
being a reality and linked with a vivid
imagivation, there was nothing in the
Bible for which he failed to bave a lucid
and exbaustive description. He counld
portray the face form, disposition, thought
and feeling of any character demanded, and
was never at a loss for explicit solutions of
the most puzzling questions.
Wilson's Crossing paid him to expound
the Good Book from cover to cover, and,
like young Lochinvar, ‘“He stayed not for
brake, and he stopped not for stone.”
With absolate concreteness he brought
everything down to the unimaginative
New Eoglaud comprehension, and bis con-
gregation accepted every word he said and
were completely at rest with regard to the
gospel which they received in return for
their money.
Martba Crocker saw him coming and
vpeasd the door, saying, with the shadow
of a #mile and a courage born of her recent
uprising against Mary Dole, “I suppose
the parish sent you to labor with me Mr.
Perkine, but I warn you it won't do any
good.”
M:. Perkins seated himself in the hair-
cloth rocking-chair just vacated by the
irate Mary Dole.
“Well, Mrs. Crocker,” he began, clear-
ing his throat, “Idid come to talk a little
seriously with you about what they ea
you are going to do with your money. Ye
it true about the—the stairs?”’ He hesitat-
ed before the enormity of the sin of extrav-
agance proposed. Not so Martha Crocker.
‘Yes, Mr. Perkins,” she returned, with-
out flinching, ‘it is true.” The thin figure
straightened itscl! for the coming fray and
sat a rigid statue, defiance flashing from
the mild hiue eyes.
‘Yon know, parson,’ she went ou,hard-
ly waiting for breath, ‘‘what my life bere
bas been. Yon know how I married Ezra
Crocker over fifty years ago, and come here
a girl of eighteen to live in this town. You
know how he succeeded in his farming, and
of the money his uncle left him. You
know he got rich, and you know, too, that
he wouldn’t spend a cent of his money if
be could help it. You know how we wor-
ried and pinched on his little bit of a farm
to ‘save.’ We didn’t have one thing we
didn’t have to—we saved and saved, until
I hae the Nery sound of tue oe.
never my way io an i
never had one thing I wanted, never
knew what it was to have one penny with-
out fighting for it. I did so wansa flower
garden, but Ezra said the seed would cost,
Perkins started to interrupt ber, hLut she
gathered her forces in a flash and began
again. She bad much to say, this meek
listle w. man. All she pent-up wrongs and
silenced opinions of years gashed forth.
“Once,” pursued Martha Crocker, *‘I went
to Boston to visit my sister Fannie. Ezra
didn’t want me to go, bat I just bad to.
I'd bave died to stay here forever with no
break in the drudgery of all these years.
Fauunie is married toa rich man, and her
house in the city is just grand. That's
where [ saw the stairs. My, but wasn’t
they splendid! All oak, and carved and
polished «0 you could see your face in "em
anywhere! They were the one thing in the
house | wanted, and I told Fannie then
that if I ever conld get the money together
I'd have some just like 'em; and that's
what I mean to do now!”
Martha Crocker fairly glowed in her en-
thusiasm. *“*A grand staircase,” she went
on, “such as you read about in books—
big posts with beads and flowers carved on
'em—'" She stopped at last and sank hack
in her chair. She bad never enjoyed such
freedom of speech in ber life, and the un-
usual exertion left her quite exbausted.
Mr. Perkins seized the opportanity pre-
sented by the widow's temporary helpless-
ness and dashed rapidly into his argument.
Much as he disliked to lay aside his pro-
found and weighty manner, he beheld in
this a case of necessity and recognized that
it was no time for onlled phrases or forensic
grandeur. He was grappling with worldli-
ness in a most unexpected quarter, and he
saw at once that it was not to be so easily
won a battle as he had expected. At snch
atime even theological dignity was nota
thing to be considered.
“But think of the good you might do
with the money; think, Mrs. Crocker, of
the missionaries working, amid great pri
vations, in the foreign fields; think of the
strugeling churobes, the needy every
where!’”’ He gathered courage aud fell into
bis pompous Sabbath manner: “The land
is fall of! want—want comfronts us on
every hand —"’
*‘I've thought of it,’’ said Martha Crock:
er grimly, cutting him ofl at the introduc-
tion of what promised to be a lengthy dis-
course, ‘yes, I've thought of it all,” she
repeated, ‘‘but I'm goin’ to have ’em just
the same.”
* In vain did the Rev. William Archibald
Perkins struggle to remind ber of her
Christian duty and the sin of setting the
heart on the things of this world. The
little woman was as tirm as the everlasting
hills. At dusk he took up his hat and de-
parted in the bitterness of actual of defeat,
leaving the widow to her “lolly,” as he
expressed it.
In truth Martha Crocker’s ‘folly’? roused
the whole diminutive New Hampshire vil-
lage. She was discussed at the weekly
prayer-meetings, after church on Sanday,
at the sewing-circle and at singing-school.
It Mrs. Gray ran over to Mrs. Brewster's
house for a *‘drawin’ o’ tea’’ the ensuing
chat was sare to end with, ‘‘And what do
you think of Martha Crocker’s goin’s-
on?"
She was a never-ending source of gpecu-
lation at the one store in town where the
*‘men folks’ gathered once a day to see the
mail come in. Silas Bridge ‘‘reckoned”
the stairs would cost a ‘‘sight o’ money,”
and wondered if Martha would have any
left to live oun. Lem Harding observed,
between puffs at his pipe, that he'd like to
kvoow where Martha was ‘‘eal’atin’ ’’ to
put her parlor, kitchen and two hedrooms
when she got in those stairs. All the far-
mers dwelt graphically avd with many ap-
preciative and gleefull chuckles on Ezra’s
state of mind if he could know what was
going on.
Meanwhile loads of oak arrived from the
city. Men and tools followed, and soon
the wonder began to take form. Martha's
face beamed and she seemed to grow young
again; a faint rose color crept into her
faded cheeks, and ber eyes sparkled with
happiness,
She seldom went out of doors, but sat at
home enjoying to the fall every sound
which hrought nearer the gratification of
her ambition,
At length, one December noontide, the
echo of the hammer ceased, the saws and
planes were still, the carpenters packed up
their tools and returved to the city, and
Martha Crocker stood in childish delight
at the foot of the completed staircase.
Her expression was one of perfect satis-
faction. There was no regres at the ex-
penditare of her money, no shade of dis-
appointment in the realization of her
dream. She saw nothing incongruous in
the stateliness of the ball and the humble-
ness of the tiny parlor with its stuff hair-
cloth furniture, wax flowers and faded
carpet. She failed to note the apologetic
air which the entire hoase bad assn to-
ward the magnificent guest in the ball.
She saw only the shadowy reflection of her
own face in the polished surface of the
stairs, and as she la.d ber cheek almoss
caressingly against the carved banister a
sigh of pure happiness escaped her lips.
The stairs had heen finished about a week
aud everyone in the little town who conld
find the ghost of an excuse had been to
call on Martha Crocker. Men came with
errands from their wives, and wives came
to see whether their husbands had remem:
bered to come; children came with every
sort ol reason for coming; the minister
caine; and people whom poor Martha bad
never known io her life now took the op-
portunity to open a longdesired acquain-
tance. e little house was overflowing
with visitors morning, noon and night,and
not one went away without casually re-
marking during the call, “Why, baven’t
you some new stairs, Mrs. Crocker?'’ quite
as 2 he had aver heard of Hem before.
most the only person who possessed
the physical sirsngel to reach Martha
Creeker’s home, bad not bern there,
was Mary Dole. Much as she secretly de-
sired to see the marvel of which she bad
heard so much, she could not bring hercelf
to go to her sister-in-law’s house.
“If she regretted it one bis,” said Mary
to the minister, *‘I'd go; but folks say she’s
as of ’em as she can be, and her
heart ain’t softened one mite about the sin
of havin’ 'em.”
Another week before Mary Dole
conquered h f safficiently to go to
Martha's. Is was late in the afterncon
when she started, and deep twilight when
she reached the low, white house. There
told, for at the foot of the stairs lay Mar-
tha Crocker, white and unconscious, while
around her was scattered the contents of
an overturned workbasket.
“She's slipped and fell down ‘em, true
as I live!” whispered Mary Dole. “Those
stairs was the temptation of Satan and the
devil himself is in ‘em!”
All anger was forgotten as she went hur-
riediy forward and knelt beside the help.
less figure huddied on the floor. She spoke
to Martha in a scared whisper as she ten-
derly bathed her forehead, Lint no answer
came,
“It's a jedument of the Lord upon her,’
said Mary at last in a low tone,
“No, it ain't,” replied Martha Crocker,
slowly opening her eyes, and smiling
whimsizally. “I ain't nsed to coming
downstairs a« if I was Queen Elizabeth —
I'll have to practice a little.”
Mary got her up on her feet, and it aotu-
ally proved that beyond a badly wrenched
ankle there really was nothing the matter
with the plucky little woman. With the
| aid of a cane she was about again in a few
days, much to the chagrin of there who
searched the Scriptures for texts toapply
to the fate which had befallen her,
Of course the ‘haughty spirit’? which is
generally admitted to precede soch a calam-
ity was guoted broadcast, and sympathy
did not inereass when all sort« of queer
packages began to go to the Crocker house,
By mail and by express they came anti
the neighbors were nearly beside them-
selves with curiosity.
“Spendin’ more of her maney on foolish.
ness,” snapped Mary Dole “Well, noth-
in’ ghe cau do will surprise me now, She
may be havin’ royal rohes sent ber forall
I know,”
“It ie wnfortunate and ead.” said My.
Perkins, ‘to see a woman of her sage so
eelf-centered and drawn toward the vani-
tien of this life.”
So the village was uaprepared to have a
neat, white envalope come through the
mail to every child in town, and more un
prepared yee when on opening it they
read:
Martha Crocker requests the pleasure of your
company on her Front Stairs on Christmas
Afternoon at 3 o’eleek.
*“What 18 it goin’ to he? What new thing
is Martha Crocker goin’ to do now?'’ every-
hody asked.
Of course they went, every child,attend-
ed in most cases hy both parents, * just to
see that Johnnie got here safe,”’ they said
apologetically as they came in the back
door. None of them had ever witnessed
such a scene as met their eves. At the foot
of the stairs stood a huge Christmas tree,
laden to the utmoss with sparkling tinsel,
candles and toys, while on the stairs from
top to bottom were tier alter tier of eager,
happy children.
Martha Crocker came modestly ont he-
fore the tree with her face beaming, and,
turning to the many paments and neighbors
crowded into the little parlor, said:
“Of course I know yon didn’t any of yon
approve of my havin’ these stairs. It did
seem foolish and you didn’t understand
what they ment to me—I never can make
you; but the stairs were only half of what
I wanted. I wanted somethin’ else thas
I couldn’t buy with any of my money.
Always when I shuts my eyes and thought
of the stairs it was with children goin’ up
and down em. Ezra and me never had
any children’ —the tears came into her
eyes and she stopped a moment—‘‘and
80,"" she continued, with a nervous little
laugh, “I'm borrowin’ all yours. I want
em to come every Christmas Day just like
this, and I want em to remember the fun
they've had on Martha Crocker’s stairs,
and maybe sometimes they'll want to come
and run about the house if it aint Christ.
mas. And now,” tarning to Mr. Perkins,
who had come in answer to a most uigent
note, “if you will help me, we'll take the
things off this tree.”
Such a fete as it was! At the end there
were ice cream and candy enongh to satisfy
even the most unfillahle small boy in the
village.
As Mr. Perkins turned homeward a
throng of new saggestions and queries as-
sailed his theology. In a subtle eense it
seemed that the very radiance of the win-
ter sunset was a reflestion of Martha Crock-
er's Jlilvsphy.
“I may be backslidin’ myself,”” he mur-
mured, with a grim laugh, “bat I'm glad
she bad ‘em.”’
Meantime. alone in her tiny honse,
Martha Crocker crept happily to bed and
closed her tired eyes upon her first Merry
Christmas.—By Sarah Ware Bassett, in
Watson's Magazine.
To Beautify Atlantic at $5,000,000 Cost.
Experts, retained at a cost of several
thousand dollars, arrived in Atlantic City
early last week to lay out plans for spend-
ing $5,000,000 for beautifying the resort
under direction of a general committee
representing every busivess and civio in-
terest in the city. The action is the first
real result attained by the committee in
the carrying out of what is intended to be
one of the most ambitions municipal
schemes for public improvement ever at-
tempted by an American resort city.
The plans include not only a general
ontline of street improvement, but a filling
of plans for changes in the architectural
appearance of both the beach front and the
main avenues of the city. The experts are
also to be consulted concerning the advis-
ability of rebuilding the Boardwalk with
reinforced concrete, making it a honlevard
ranking with the great sea front drives and
footways of European cities.
Another project already under consid.
eration by officials is the opening of a canal
across the back of the city, affording an in-
side waterway for use of pleasure craft and
flanked by a fine boulevard. This p
alone will cost more than $1,000,000, bug,
it is estimated, would bring in three times
the sum in taxation from increase in values
of land from the ocean to the meadows,
The committee is also considering plans
for a magnificent system of illumination
that will turn tha city into a hlaze of eleo-
tric lights after night fall. Railroads en-
tering the city and corporations owning
street franchises are to be asked to join in
the decoration by electricity and to build
their terminals to conform to the general
scheme of architeotvre.
The work is i $i of soliujthees from
City Council, Hotel Men's League, Busi-
ness Men's Association and Board of Trade
who have selected the central committee
and the Expats who will take over the
Wok Yt ad ising She plans. The work is
expected to take from ten to twenty years
for entire fulfillment,
The Ins And Outs of Life.
Frieod—The office boy was confid.
ing to me that he wanted to the boss
rhe hs fen’t it? I was envying
Pit om ig oy ?
——Even the slow fellow can ges lost
forever in the rapide.
A Joke on China,
I think 'twould be a jolly joke
To plant an acorn upside-down ;
So that some day a great big oak
Wouid sprout io some old China town,
— Housekeeper,
The Farmer's Daughter.
The recent sessions of farwer’s institutes
at Pie Grove, Pleasant Gap and Miles.
barg, proved of unusual interest and no
little part of their success i= aseribable to
the address of Mis. G. G. Pond, wife of
the Dean of the Schoo! of Chemistry at
The Peunsvivania State College. Mrs,
Pond has long been active in elab and eda-
cational extension movements, but her talk
to the womer of the farm carried her into |
an entirely new field, She seems to have
been #0 much at home there that we pub-
lish her excellent widress so that more may
have the opportunity of profiting hy is,
Women are divided into two great classes;
the first class feels loo independent ro be in-
terested in the welfare of man, or to be dis.
posed to help him; the second class is so
independent that she can spend her whole
life studying how she may best be of ser-
vioe to him. I belong to the second class,
I have studied men of all ages and in many
cot dittons and | have failed to find the age
or condition in which he is not really de-
pendent apon the weaker (2) rex,
Let me whisper a secret to yon, every
man deep down in his heart, when he mar- |
ries thinks he has 1escued a woman from
spinsterhood, Ab, yes, hut the woman res.
cnes the wan «he mariies from a much
harder fate, she rescues him from himself,
Thus we see how true it is tha: man needs
onr highest powers and wisest services, and
it is here that I come to my subjees, ‘The
Farmer's Daughter.”
I have thought a great deal about girls
and ther training; indeed I might sav thas
I have thoughe of very listle else for a good
many years. The work of my life has been
to do something for my own girls and I
sprak to you, mothers and daughters, out
ol my own experience, which of course is
nairow as all personal experiences must be,
but for that very reason perhaps it has been
more intense. It is not the city girl I am
interested in, but the country girl. [ was
a country girl, myeell, ‘once upon a time,”
in fact all my life has been spent in the
country.
I am that it has been go arranged for me, I
hope to show hy doing all I can to make
the conntry girl see her opportunities and
seize upon them.
The first question I ask myself is, ‘‘Has
the girl of today everything she would like
to bave ?"’ Of course not, who has ? The
next question is, ‘Has she everything she
oaght to have for her own good and for the
good of the community in which she should
be a powerful influence 2’ Here there is
chance for a difference of opinoin, bat
say emphatioally, “No!” We must all
agree thas the girl of today looks at life
very differently from the way in which her
grandmothers looked at it. Many things
that the woman of 1800 did for herself are
done for her grand-daughter just as cheap-
ly and in much less time.
Our great grandmother, besides uunder-
standing all the kinds of house work which
we still have to do, such a« sweeping, dust.
ing, washing, ironing and cooking, made
all the soap, candles, cheese, wines, and
cordials; she spun yarn from wool and
thread from flax; she could weave and
embroider; she conld shrink eloth or stretch
is to meet the requirments ; she could dye
and bleach cloth; she made all the gar.
ments worn hy the diffrrent members of
the family; she darned and mended every-
thing well; she braided rugs, gathered and
brewed medicinal herbs and knew which
shonld be used for one disease and which
for another.
Let me repeat, she accomplished all these
things in addition to the duties of ordi-
nary housekeeping as you and I know them.
Now then, what have we to show as an
off<et ? The lactories make our cloth, the
sewing machine makes our clothes, we buy
our carpets and we send for the doctor in-
stead of gatherine our own herbs; the
separator takes care of the milk and the
creamery makes the butter, how then do
we use the time saved to us hy thechanges
which come into all lives ? Perhaps that
question is too personal; I will ask instead,
How onght we to use the time thus saved ?
It surely should not be wasted.
The call today to women is to live their
own lives, and to live them more abund-
antly. There are certain natural fanda-
menial laws upon which the lives of each
one of us, man or woman, are based, these
are self-development, industry, temperance
and purity, and it is our duty to live up
to there laws just as faithfully as we are
obliged to do with regard to the laws made
for us hy our goverment.
This law of self-development is the one
which I shall discuss this oveniog I shall
not preach a sermon, hut I would like to
take a text which may be our leading
thought. ‘““Where there is no vision, the
people perish.’”” Education is our vision.
Education in the widest sense is not
simply a matter of getting knowledge. Al-
thongh this is an age of books, the present
tendenoy is noticeably material and prac-
tical; it should therefore be the aim of
every young girl to fis herself for both
sides, that is, to be able to get the best out
of the many hooks which may be hers, and
also to avail herself of the material and
practical aid offered her in all directions.
The wan who plants and sits with folded
hands waiting tor Nature to do all the ress
is not the master of the forces of nature nor
of himself. So too, the young girl who at-
tends school only a few months in the year
for four or five years is a losing investment
in the world’s hauk of economy. She takes
just as much out of the world, but she has
nothing to give back. We all have to work
at something or other, thank Heaven that
we do? What kind of work are our boys
and girls preparing to do? What are hey
preparing themselves to know and to be?
This is the test of the community. The
tastes we develop in them will determine
their manbood and womanhood. We can-
not rise higher than we think, therefore we
need the h education to help us to
think higher. Education helps towards
the enrichment of life; it helps towards
the refinements of wanuers ; is broadens the
range of vision; it sflords a chance for all
that is best in ua to reach out and take to
ourselves all that is best in the world.
Education has not a markets value, it is | echola
priceless ! For who that has is would sell
it at any price ? The real purpose of edu-
cation is not to enable us to ges riches, hat
to enable ns to get the most ous of life
without riches, —and this brings me to the
Sujet of the Tunily income. Ithas been
the fonction of men to earn money, and
they have dove it wonderfull” well
why shou. not do is well? Every
thing has heen to their assistance,
inventions, improved machinery,
g
§
oa ad
kind of school, the trade schools, the tech- |
nical schools, the universities, cverything
bas been hs to the aid of wan to earn
the dollar. And what is the dollar for? Is
is for the home and the maintenance of the
family; however, the use of the dollar isa
more important problem than the earning,
and that is woman's problem. I mean by
that that the man cannot now —never did—
support the family. [It is true that for the
most part he has handled all the money, but
a fair proportion of it has always been
earned by his wife and daoghters ; let me
refer agsin to our grandfathers and grand-
mothers; the man raised the sheep and
sheared the wool, but there he left it and
you can easily see that he might have done
a deal of shivering before the winter was
over if the women in his family had not
carded, spun and knit it for him, and yet,
How I love it and how grateful |
[ presume, even in those days, men labored
under the delusion that they were support.
| ing their women !
Here it may not be out of place to ask
| yon a conundrum; perhaps it is an old one
hat it bas it point. “Why did our grand.
| mothers endnie more than our grand-
| fathers 2’ “Because they endured all that
| our grandfathers endured and they endured
| our grandfathers besides.”
| Seriously, however, homemaking and
| housekeeping constitute a business, more
| difficult and more important than any other
| known to modern times. This business of
organizing a home iz always av individual,
| & personal enterprise, and the one who
| makes the bore, that is, who carries on
| this business, should have the right prepa-
| ration.
Now the home is the most expensive in-
stitution in existence. We hear about city
government expenses and state government
| expenses; we talk about the expenses of
the churches and schools, but they are
nothing compared to the expense of main-
taining homes for individual families. The
cheap way to live is in great communities,
bat we don’t want to live that way. What
then justifies this expense? It is the child.
The home existe for the protection and the
perfection of the child, and the child is the
hope of the race. Now it we are justified
at all in undertaking this expense of main-
taining a home we should see to it that it
is a home of ideals, for no life that bas a
real, a high ideal can be called a failure,
any more truly than that the life of low
standards can be called a success. ‘‘Where
there is no vision the people perish.”
It is at this point I wish to press home
to you a vital question. A:ie we providing
the right kind of education for our girls ?
Has not our vision seen more in the educa-
tion of our boys than io that of our girls ?
In many and many a family, the father and
mother bave denied themselves pleasures
and luxuries, yes, oftentimes, comforts that
a son might be educated, and what is more,
bave been happy in these sell-denials, but
when the son has been educated they have
been content, and have not felt the need of
striving to educate the daughter, and have
done worse, they have taoght the daughter
to be contented without an education, that
is the sad part of it. The girls of Pennsyl-
vania are asleep, that is all, and that is
wherein my bope lies; il they were dead
there would be no excuse for my presence
in this company. What I want to do is to
| take each sleeping gir! by the ear and give
i her a rousing jerk, no matter how rude, so
i that she may open her eyes and ears to all
| the advantages which are bers as soon as
she throws back the covers, jumps ont of
bed and is wide enough awake to seize
hold of them. Opportunities are all about
her, in the louse, and close at hand out of
doors, but if she is too sleepy to see them
she is worse off than the blind mole in the
ground for it makes use of its opportunities
by at least sticking its nose into them.
For u long time the country was prond
of the self-made man, and he bas heen an
important factor in the development of our
country, but Dr. Schaeffer tells us that the
self-made man is on the wane. Why ?
Simply because the opportunities for the
education of young men are so abundant
and so absolntely necessary today, he can-
not afford to be blind to them. Who have
given them these opportunities ? Men the
world over is help to man, that is what Chris-
tianity bas done for the world ; it has taught
that is is useless for a man to live unless he
makes life less difficult for others.
Let us investigate what the men of Penn-
sylvania bave done for the boys and girls
of Pennsylvania. To begin with, the tai-
tion at The Pennsylvania State College is
$100 a year, but that charge is remitted to
all students, men or women, living within
the State. What does this mean ? It means
that the State gives $400 out § to every
young person who simply stepe forward and
says I am ready and glad to accept this
sum. [s there a young woman in this Com-
monwealth who can afford to deliberately
throw away $400.
In addition to this, on July 1st, 1881, the
Board of Trustees of The Pennsylvania
State College established fifty-four scholar-
ships, one for each senatorial district and
four to be awarded by the Governor. These
scholarships entitle the holders to exemp-
tion from the payment of college charges for
incidentals and room-rent, which at the pres-
ent time amounts to $85 a year. The
scholarships are awarded by competitive
examinations that the hestowal them
may be perfectly fair. This means that
the State gives the sum of $185 a year for
four years tc fifty-four studente individual-
ly, ora total of $740 per student. Are
there many young women in the State of
Penvsylvania who can afford to lightly
throw away a chance at $740. Is would
seem 80 for this is what they have been do-
ing for twenty-six years, for in all that
period only two young women have avail-
ed themselves of the sum; two others ob-
taived the scholarship, but did not con-
tinue their studies long. With this record
one might almost say that the young wom-
en of Pennsylvania bave no vision. Flease
don’t misunderstand me. I am not coun-
seling you young women to rush in and
take the scholarships away from the men,
no indeed, leave them the fifty-four. Good-
ness knows they have need of all they can
get, bat I do want you to wake up to your
opportunities and desire another -four
(or more) for yourselves and then I want
to help you get them. Is it not possible
for women to do for women what men have
done for men ?
There is an old saying that com
are odious, I believe it, and that is why I
wish to make some comparisons at this
poles At the present time their are eight
undred men at The Pennsylvania State
College who feel that they cannot afford to
the offer of $400, while are ad-
ing to it the extra sum of from the
rship. How many young women?
I blosh the to tell the number, seven.
Vi 67; in Ohio, 308; in Illinois, 556;
in 3, 524; in Wisconsin, 575, and
80 on. are 13 274 Penneylva-
nia men availing themselves of the oppor-
tunities of education; rd
to women the number is pitifully in
f
A ————————————
comparison, namely 3,147. Put into cold
figores this means that only one young
man in four can hope to have an educated
wile; I am sorry for the other three. You see
my plea for the better education of young
women is made in behalf of the men (and
bere Iget back to my starting point)as
much as for the women themselves, for an
educated wife is after all only half a man.
Of course not every woman marries, bus
if not, then all the more for her own sake
does she need the edncation, that she may
be independent. “Equality is the right of
every man to progress,” how then if she
does not progress, can woman be the equal
of man, either as his wife or his neighbor?
Again, ours isa democracy, demociacy
is opportunity, opportunity is influence
and influence is power, but “Where there
is no vision, the people perish.”
To be educated does not mean that a
woman must leave the country and go to
the city or town for work and happiness,
not at all, it ie education that makes one
appreciate the beauty, the comfort and
healthfuluess of country life. If I had
time I could tell yon of many women who
have made asoccess of the employments
which are to be found only in the country,
such a¢ farming io general, or farming
along particular lines. Ever since the
creation, the garden has been the synonym
of Paradise, and did not the first women
live in a garden, and was she not there to
assist the man? Why should woman to-day
live anywhere else? The variation of the
work in the country is sufficient in itself
to make it attractive; while the limitations
of town life are so narrow that a persn can
rarely do more than one kind of work.
‘Most generous Mother Earth responds
to the demands of her children and a gold-
en harvest awaits those who engage there-
in.
Henry Mills Alden has heautifully said,
‘Life sleeps in the mineral, dreams in the
vegetable, awakes in the animal and speaks
in the man’, and I bave shown you that.
“The woman's cause is man's; they rise or sink
Together, dwarfed or God-like, bond or free;
. * * ® * - -
It she be small, slight-natured, miserable,
How shall men grow?
In the very beginning of my talk I said,
‘‘Man needs our highest powers and wisest
services’. Now [say, young woman, the
world needs your highest powers aod
wisest services; accept nothing less than
that which equips you to meet this high
demand.
“Please” and “Thank You."
There is a word and an expression that
Americans do not use enough and they are
“please” and ‘thank you.” They are
such ehort, really one-syllable affairs, that
any obild might use them, but ead to say,
children are not taught them as often as
might be, and so men and women have not
acquired the habit.
A little politeness is almost as lubricat-
ing in daily life as a little tact, and an or-
der is none the less an order when it is
given with a ‘‘please.’”” Chances are that
the injunction will be far more kindly car-
ried out and better done for the ‘“‘please,’y
and if a “thank you'’ follow, no harm and
much good may be done.
Some women have a ridiculous idea that
to say ‘‘please’ to a servant, a shop girl,or
any one rendering them a paid service, is
not only nnnecessary, but is bad form. On
the face of it that is wrong. To say either
is simple courtesy and good breeding, and
these two are never out of date excepts
through disuse.
The servant and shop girl are both human,
and both bave ideas of politeness from ob-
servation, if not from iuvstinet. It by no
means follows that a chambermaid is oot
a lady in spirit; not the kind of ‘‘lady in
spirit’’ that is ‘‘too good” to do ber work,
but the sort that is quiet, conscientious,
honest and kind. Certainly an employer
is vot hurting herself by assuming at the
beginning that ber maid is such, and ad-
dressing her courteously. If the servant is
the rights kind, she acquires equal conrtesy
by force of example, if she bad not it in-
stinctively, and it is pleasanter to deal with
a polite maid than one who is the con-
trary.
Bat is it within reason that a housemaid
will not herself bave quiet manners and
courtesy if she does nos receive the same.
The woman who is scolded at by an em-
Plover is likely to answer back in kind.
he is only human, you see. If, on the
other baud, she is corrected quietly, she
will hear it in the same way. One may be
quite as stern with quietness of manner as
by raising the voice.
The attitude of the average woman shop-
per toward girls behind the counter is
enough to dub American women as hope-
lessly impolite. One rarely sees courtesy
between them,and the salesgirl, antagoniz-
ed by the dictatorial, ve manner of
the purchaser, becomes in her turn asser-
tive—and unpleasant. But the shop girl
who is not courteous and attractive when
serving a woman who is polite, who puts
a ‘‘please’ into her request and a ‘‘thank
you’ for the service of showing what she
wants is the exception. A shopper need
only try this to be convinced of its truth,
and even if she fails to buy because the
article is not suitable, and puts ‘I am
sorry'’ with her “‘thank you’ the chances
are more than ever that she will receive a
smile and a word of regret from behind the
counter. It is pleasanter to beemiled upon
than frowned at, «nd the momentary cour-
tesy helps the girl with her next customer.
That a shopper sometimes rubs across a
salesgirl who refuses to to polite-
ness with politeness by no means dubs
them all rude. The latter are the excep-
tion.—Shop Talk.
The Care
of The Woman,
Headache increased on reading or sewing
is one of the most common reflex symptoms
of eye-strain.
It is a well-known fact that no musole in
the body can endure continuous contraction
of the ciliary muscle, say for from eight to
twelve hours daily. The result is eye-
strain. \
Persons whose work necessitates much
ocular labor should vary their duties with
intervals of rest. In continued reading or
sewing, it is well to desist at short inter.
vals and fix the on some distant object
a
t v ble
for some deterioration of be Bo partion-
larly it are very thick or dotted. The
best veil the eyes is one with a e
large mesh, either without dots, or
dots so far apart that none shall come over
the eye.—Anna M. Galbraith, M. D. in the
Borel Dilan
The Opening.
a=W is the meaning of ‘aper-
Class (in chorus)—‘‘An 3
Teacher— “Tommy Smith, give asen-
tence Sustaiuiog dhe word m
Tommy—**All the big stores have had
heir fall apertures.”