CHAPTER XXVI

PAGEANTRY AS A COMMUNITY RESOURCE

Truth is eternal, but her effluence,

With endless change, is fitted to the hour;

Her mirror is turned forward, to reflect

The promise of the future, not the past.

--_Lowell._

CHAPTER XXVI

PAGEANTRY AS A COMMUNITY RESOURCE

[Illustration: The swiftly awakening artistic energies of the Country

Girl are finding an outlet in the new national interest in pageantry.

The farm, meadow or field makes an ideal stage.]

The swiftly awakening artistic energies of the Country Girl are finding

still another outlet in the new national interest in pageantry.

Now that we realize our puritanic mistake about the God-given powers for

artistic enjoyment, we are taking to our heart the ravishing delight

that the quick and vivid sense of beauty can yield. The pageant is one

expression of this; along with Old Home week, and other celebrations of

local history, it is also a blossoming of our quickening historic sense.

We see that there is a great deal of education to be found in the

pageant itself, and a great deal of community spirit in the making and

in the representing of this form of dramatic art.

The pageant is a form of drama in which the greatest freedom is allowed

as to the dimensions of the stage, the number of the actors, and all the

provisions of properties and scenery. Instead of a constricted box-like

compartment such as the audience faces in the usual theater, the

hillside or the village green may be the stage. In the place of a few

accurately balanced characters, whole congregations of worshipers,

audiences of citizens, or armies of soldiers, may assemble, flocks of

faeries may fly by, unreal spirits of the winds and very real spinsters

or bachelors may hold conversation with each other, and throughout the

whole structure of the work the fancy may have its way with the actual

and disport itself freely with the romantic.

It is not many years since the pageant began to be taken up in this

country as a form of artistic expression. When we began to realize how

strangely romantic our course of history as an American people had

been, when we viewed our past struggle to subdue the soil and overcome

the difficulties of pioneering as a most tragic story, as a heart-moving

tale fitted for the great epic and for the great tragic drama, then we

felt the impulse to place these tales of old-time heroism in fitting

artistic form before the eyes of the people.

It was not without meaning that the desire to express in dramatic form

the pictures of our historic past had its earliest origins not in the

metropolitan square but on the village green, with a background not of

skyscrapers but of sequoia groves. Again we see rural conditions more

favorable to the budding powers of human genius. There our newly

awakened enthusiasm for community betterment promptly seized the pageant

as a fitting means of expressing its urgent emotion. Looking forward

into the future we desired to express our hopes for enlargement as we

had expressed our vision of the meaning of past struggles.

There are plain reasons why this loose and easy dramatic form is

especially adapted for the use of a town or village when it wishes to

portray dramatically its own historic and community experiences. In

fact, American pageantry has had from the earliest attempts a distinct

reference to the welfare of the community and to the development of the

rich resources of fellowship to be found in concerted action. This was

amply shown at Thetford, Vermont, where one of the earliest and most

successful pageants was given. That was as late as 1911. The author of

the text frankly stated that the pageant seemed to him the expression of

a movement for the general development of the resources of the town,

agricultural, educational and social. The work should become, then, a

study of the rural problem, and a contribution toward the effort to make

the country town fulfil its ideal as a place to live. In this effort the

pageant has been a success; it has proved a molding, unifying and

inspiring influence; it has quickened into life the slumbering

energies of the people. By awakening pride in the characteristics of the

town and the region, interest in the history of their past, and hopes

for the better things of the future, it has created a shoulder to

shoulder feeling and a vivification of energy that have brought new

ideas to life and given courage to try them.

In the pageant reality may be mingled with symbolism--the latter for

passages not susceptible of representation on so large a stage as the

village green, or for certain elements of village life that could not be

put into direct dramatic form. For instance, after some scenes from the

early history of a town have been shown, the conditions of modern times

may be symbolized by embodying the new life in a character to be called

the Spirit of Pageantry or the Spirit of Putting Joy into Work. She will

be radiant with hope and joy, and her motions will be stately and

ritualistic. Prone upon the ground before her may lie a character

representing the Village of Time Past, clothed in a dingy dress and

expressing melancholy in her whole appearance. The Spirit of Pageantry

may lift her up and give her encouraging words. Following this a figure

on a white horse who represents America may enter and the pageant may

close with the orchestra and chorus singing "O say can you see by the

dawn's early light?" Something a little like this was done at Thetford,

Vermont.

The pageant at St. Johnsbury had an advantage in that its name suggested

knightliness and gave opportunity for armor, processions of knights, and

chivalric poems. They had also the Fairbanks' Scales as a motive

suggesting an interesting symbol for their historic treatment. In

Meriden, Vermont, Education for the New Country Life was taken as a

theme and the founding of their Academy was the central feature. The

individuality of every town may be expressed in its pageant. No two

would ever be alike.

How a pageant idea may be used to illuminate a sacred or ecclesiastical

subject may be seen in a masque that was written for the dedication of

a chapel. The plan is very simple. One character represents the church

as a whole, and another, a younger woman, stands for the Spirit of the

Chapel. This character presents a model of the chapel to the Church, who

in stately measures of verse, receives the gift, and asks to know what

the services of the people are to be. A series of scenes are the answer.

Women and children come with their burdens of sickness and poverty and

are helped. A battalion of boys show their drill and receive prizes.

Various clubs offer entertainment. Strangers of different nationalities

are welcomed one after another, and before the evening is over one has

seen an exhibition of model devices for making a church touch every side

of the life in a community. Of course a church that has no benevolent

activities in working order could not hope to provide a pageant that

would have dramatic interest. A dead church could only betray its

poverty. And yet--perhaps it would be salutary for some churches if they

could be stung into such betrayal: it might awaken them to a sense of

their own losses of the joy of giving and of doing.

A story that has been passed down from generation to generation can be

used in a pageant. This is delightfully illustrated in a scene from _The

Mohawk Trail_, a pageant given in the summer of 1914 at North Adams,

Massachusetts, in honor of the re-opening after many centuries of disuse

of an old path over the Hoosac Mountain that used to be the connecting

link between the Iroquois Indians of New York and the tribes of New

England. Eleven hundred persons took part in this great play. There were

Indians, early settlers, Quakers, Revolutionary soldiers, Spirits of the

Pines and Spirits of the Waters, the Little Creatures of the Swamp, and

so on. The inhabitants of several towns took part and the Muse of

Cooperation (a newcomer in that select Greek group!) must have waved

happy wings over the whole mountain region.

The scene referred to was based on the following story: There were many

Quakers among the early settlers in that region and among them was a

pretty young Quaker sister that an English officer fell in love with,

thereupon asking her father to give him her hand in marriage. The old

gentleman said: "If thee will give up thy fighting, thy sword and thy

sinful coat of scarlet, and become a good Quaker gentleman, thee may

have my daughter, sir, for she loves thee." The officer, it is said, did

give up his commission, marry the pretty Quaker and adopt the Quaker

garb and the Quaker principles.

In the pageant this quaint incident appears in this wise: The British

officer alights on the pageant green near the meeting-house and stands

waiting. The young Quakeress comes demurely along, picking flowers as

she approaches. While they are conversing, the people begin to enter the

church. As they pass they look with curiosity upon the two young people,

who when the father and mother come near, show the very picture of woe.

The British officer however steps toward the parents, leading the maiden

by the hand and says: "Friend Bowerman, may I have thy daughter for my

wife? I love her, sir, and will guard her with my life. Do not, I pray

thee, say me nay. My happiness and hers depend upon the decision." Here

the soldier and the maiden kneel before the stern parents. Says Friend

Bowerman: "Rise from thy knees, Friend, kneel only to thy God. Thee may

have my daughter, sir, upon one condition. Thee must give up thy

fighting, thy sword, and thy sinful coat of scarlet and become a good

Quaker gentleman. Think well on this, good friend, before making thy

decision."

Then Friend Bowerman and the mother go toward the meeting-house, leading

the daughter sorrowfully with them. The English officer now seats

himself to think and decide. Immediately thereupon things begin to

happen. Enter Cupid with his little bow and dances about him. Next the

Spirit of War rides across the green; the soldier sees the war-horse and

runs eagerly toward it. He leads it forward as if about to mount, when

presto! Cupid runs forward, and draws his bow. The officer returns to

his seat, drops his face and thinks some more.

Now the people come out of the church and gather in groups shaking hands

with each other. Friend Bowerman comes along with wife and daughter.

Cupid hides in the bushes. The British officer rises from his

meditation, steps forward and says:

"Friend Bowerman, I have made my decision. I lay my sword, my scarlet

coat and my commission at the feet of thy daughter whom I ask to be my

beloved wife."

Friend Bowerman says to Rachel his wife, "What sayest thou, Rachel?" and

she nods acquiescence. Then he says to the officer, "Thee may have her,

Friend, for she loves thee."

Then the people gather around the couple, the wedding ceremony is

performed, the officer and the pretty bride mount and ride away, the

Quakers disperse, and Cupid dances gleefully about the green.

There were ninety Quakers in this scene and nearly all of them were

direct descendants of the true Quakers of the earlier time. This adds,

of course, immensely to the interest of the scenes. To think that one is

enacting a story that our great grandparents lived, making history as

they lived, is a wonderful experience. But we are living too; we are

making history. And perhaps the things we do shall be thought worthy of

remembrance.

The pageant in this country has an opportunity that almost no other land

on the globe can afford. This is illustrated in one of the scenes of the

St. Johnsbury play, a town whose business of scale-making has called to

the town many people of many different nationalities. In one of the

Interludes of their pageant companies of people entered in the costumes

of the countries from which they had come and danced the folk dances of

their various nations. So for instance the French Canadians came in and

danced the old Vintage-dance to the proper folk-music accompaniment.

Following them the Germans danced the German Hopping-dance; then the

Scandinavians gave their Kulldansen, the Scotch the Scotch reel, the

Irish the St. Patrick's jig, the Italians the tarantella. After these

separate dances were finished, all the different companies came in

together across the greensward and marched in and out in interlocking

wheels, until they formed themselves into one large glorious united

wheel together. The beautiful lesson is very plain.

In such scenes as these full opportunity is specially given for the

young people to take part. They can be choruses; they can be pioneers or

fairies; they can be flowers and birds and butterflies; they can be

spirits of waves, of breezes, of leaves and brooklets, all in

appropriate costumes of tissue-paper wings or khaki Indian suits, or

blue denim cloth with patterns cut out and sewed on. This gives every

one a feeling of being a part of the day's great celebration and awakens

the spirit of home and community in the heart.

To represent a pageant with broad historic effects one must have many

characters and a great deal of perspective. But the beauty of it is that

this great piece of work is one that can engage the interest of every

last man, woman or child in the whole town. There are so many parts to

the completed whole, there are so many kinds of ability that can be

brought into play that every member of the community can be given a

portion of the structure for his or her responsibility; and the final

joy of achievement is gained, the sense of being a part of a great

whole, the joy of the community working together.

There must be committees. All the noted and leading people of the town

and county may be made into a Committee of Patrons and Patronesses. To

these may be added the names of any people of note whose interest can be

gained. The honor of heading the committee will perhaps not be declined

by the Governor of the State, and any literary people who may live in

the vicinity will be proud to give their names. The author or authors of

the text, the composer of the music and the Master of the Pageant who

has main charge of the dramatic presentation, will be in a distinctive

group by themselves. There should be a suitable person to see that the

historical matters are correctly used, a historical censor or critic.

There must be a committee to take charge of funds incoming and outgoing,

one for advertising, one for costume, one for properties. Other

committees will have charge of buildings and grounds, of seating and

lighting, and any other matters that are likely to come up, such as care

of horses or oxen; and if there are to be any eagles, ostriches,

rattlesnakes or giraffes--why, safety and agreeableness would seem to

require that there should be a committee for each of these! It is

evident that the pageant will find use for all the tastes and abilities

of the whole village, not to say the entire township. Many and many a

meeting will be held and many a discussion about the olden time and what

the grandparents now have to carry on their various industries and

household and town activities. And every boy and girl who takes part in

those discussions will have a deepened realization of the hardships that

our ancestors went through to prepare the way for the blessings that we

now enjoy.

The pageant not only cultivates the historic sense; it also makes us

better understand ourselves in the present; and it quickens our sense of

living for the things that are to be and that are to be a growth from

the things that are, as what we are now has come up from the past. The

picture of the heroism of our ancestors gives us the enlargement that

always comes from the view of great ideals of courage and nobility. So

our culture and our spiritual height are enlarged, our sense of the

dignity of the human race is heightened, and our determination to live

highly is intensified.

It is a good thing to present any dramatic piece that has been created

by the great minds and poets of earth. This should also be a part of our

endeavor. To do this brings us into a closer touch with the mind of the

great artistic creator than we can come in any other way. We have then

held up before our mind the ideal of great artistic form and the

influence of this model will be incalculable upon our education and

development. But there is a certain spontaneity of self-expression, a

certain arousing of the intellectual powers and of the artistic feeling,

that comes with the making of our own play, that can hardly be otherwise

gained. Both experiences are within the opportunity of any village or

community. Both joyful means of self-expression can be mastered and

experienced. The play and the pageant form the greatest means for the

expression of the artistic energy of a community that can be devised.

The pageant may be the happy means of bringing the whole town together.

It breaks over all dividing lines because every individual in the

community can have at least some part in it. The pride in the success of

the whole can be shared by every least child, by each most important

person, by the rich and the poor, by the wise and by the unlearned; for

there has been a place for each one, according to his ability. The

pageant is democratic; all individuals work for the success of the

whole, not for the glorification of any single one, never for the

glorification of self. It develops a personality of the community

itself.

Above all things it gives the person and the community a chance to gain

the joy that comes from the expression of that creative sense that lies

at the base of all artistic ability, that power in which the human being

is most near to the God-like. Here the poets and dramatic writers of

earth, the great souls of the Greek and of the Elizabethan ages have

been partakers of the fervor that was with God under the symbol of

"Wisdom" as that wonderful poem in the eighth chapter of the Book of

Proverbs, relates, when with joy He created the earth.

Among all the good things that may come in the new upspringing of this

artistic interest, the young women in the rural realm have a distinct

function. In the planning of the play or pageant the young people will

be brought together in social ways that are full of opportunity for

high-toned acquaintanceship and culture under the best auspices. Ladies

and gentlemen, young men and young ladies, will be working together for

an artistic purpose; the result will be not only an enlarged community

spirit among all, but a great number of personal ties that will be of

enduring value. May not this be still another interest that will bind

the younger members of the village life more closely to the home place

so that they cannot be lured away?

There are pageants that may be enacted by young girls alone when fairies

and sylphs and angels hold the stage and delight the eye with their

many-hued robes and their beautiful movements. The Young Women's

Christian Association has given some altogether delightful masques and

pageants; the Camp Fire Girls have done the same. In their societies,

whatever the kind, Country Girls may undertake some of the plays of

smaller scope but quite as beautiful in their way as those in which the

whole community join, and in this way find their hands filled with

pleasing and recompensing labor.

CHAPTER XXVII

ORGANIZATIONS, ESPECIALLY THE YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION

Raise the stone: thou shalt find me there;

Cleave the wood, and there am I.

--_Logia of Jesus._

CHAPTER XXVII

ORGANIZATIONS, ESPECIALLY THE YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION

In a Memoir that belongs to the classic traditions of our country, that

of David Brainerd the Missionary, we read that he besought the Lord that

he might not be too much pleased and amused with dear friends and

acquaintances one place and another. We have now a new and different

ideal of community feeling; we pray that we may be "pleased and amused

with dear friends and acquaintances," for we realize that only by having

ideas together and working together may we reach the highest ideals not

only for the community but for the individual.

Where isolation becomes really intolerable, the Country Girl cannot be

blamed for taking the first means to relieve herself of its dangers. But

where there is a possibility of making a stagnant place become healthily

busy and interesting, she must be blamed for not making an attempt in

that direction.

An association of the girls alone is always possible if there is even

one more than one to start with. Perhaps others will soon join. The most

unpromising material, if it is human material, can be brought into line

and made something of. But there must be a start.

Now and then we know there is a girl found among the good people of a

village who has thoroughly bad inclinations. Such a one, after the case

is made clear, must be put into the hands of some person of trained

experience and mature judgment. This is not to be managed by the girls

themselves. Because of this possibility it is thought best that every

club for girls, especially for the younger girls, should have a guardian

or a secretary of older years. Whatever rules are made, say, for

instance, by the Young Women's Christian Association, in the fundamental

plans for societies of girls, we may be sure they have been devised by

people who are good, and who desire the best for the girls, and who

understand the whole situation and speak and act from this knowledge.

It may be that the girl who will entertain the bold idea of forming a

club or society is not by any means the one who most needs the club. She

thinks of it because some happy circumstance has developed in her a

power of initiative, the courage or instinct for beginning something

new. It takes courage sometimes to undertake an absolutely new work; and

the girl who has been always helped, never told to go ahead and do

things for herself, will not have developed that power. The ability to

start things can be hypnotized out of anybody; the faculty for it, if

once possessed, can be deadened or suppressed beyond the last degree of

vitality. To take the first step is a matter of life or death with such

a long suppressed nature; but that one step over, the crushed vitality

springs strangely to life and then every step is easier. Then the

beautiful experience lies before you of constantly growing life;

faculties that you hardly knew you possessed spring into being. This is

growth, and growth is the only life.

There will sometimes be in the village one girl who cherishes a higher

ideal of conduct than she sees embodied in the life about her. Where did

she get it? Perhaps from a mother who, immersed in her home cares and

burdens, has taken little part in the affairs in the town. She in turn

received from her mother delicate thoughts that have vanished from the

village when a lower standard of manners came in with certain new and

less cultivated people. In this new atmosphere the daughter has tried to

live and has been mostly alone. Lack of companionship has made her

unsocial and somewhat unbending. Her mind lacks swift response because

she has had no chance to practise swiftness of response in conversation

and repartee. Moreover, she has not the influence among the girls that

she ought to have because they take her search for better forms of

conduct for self-conceit; they consider her proud and stiff and

priggish; those touches of ceremoniousness which she chooses because of

her passion for beauty and grace, they consider affectation. There is no

place like the country to put affectation in its place; but it is as

possible there as elsewhere to misjudge the real sources of inspiration

in matters of conduct.

In the hearts of these very girls who look askance at the solitary one

as she passes along the village path and talk among themselves about her

primness and her pride, there may be a great admiration for her after

all, a desire to copy all her little touches of elegance, a swift noting

of her graces and of everything new she adds to her repertoire of

manners. If she keeps her body very straight and holds her chin

correctly, they will be looking in the glass to find out whether their

spinal column can be stiffened to give the same effect. They may laugh

at her but they try to imitate her.

After all, you see, the fundamental standards are the same; the

difference being that one girl comes almost to the point of living up to

them, the other girls have tried and because of ignorance or lack of

opportunity have failed, and have looked upon their failure until they

have despaired of ever succeeding. Fundamentally there is the same

desire at the heart of both the refined recluse girl who longs to have

company among the other girls, and the less agreeable, less refined and

less cultivated girls who secretly envy while they ridicule, and are

waiting only for the open door to enable them to walk in and leave their

coarseness and bungling outside.

The first step for such a girl to take in working out her desire to be

of help to the other girls, is to show them in some way that she really

cares for them and that, as far as her heart goes she is one with them.

If she can only get out of her seeming stiffness for a little while and

get down to the real heart beneath, the other girls will respond, and

pretty soon the happy influence of the spirit of unity will assert

itself and the true basis in desire for better things--whatever they may

turn out to be--will be a bond between the elements. Then some kind of

play or some kind of work may be proposed. It does not matter so much

what is done as it matters that something shall be done and done

together. _Do something together_--that is the main thing. Anything,

anything at all--only that it be _together_! Then after the doing of

something together has begun, the next steps are possible.

The young woman in the rural community may see things that need to be

done and be unable to think of any way to accomplish the reform. Here

comes in the good of an association. For instance, something may be

going wrong in the village. There is a dangerous manure heap by a wall.

On the other side of the wall lives a family with children. The big

black flies are creeping on the heap and then they fly over and light

upon the baby's lips, dropping death-dealing poison as they move along

over the pure skin of the child. What is there that any one girl can do

about such a thing? She may feel that she is not the one to approach the

old gentleman who owns the uncared-for barnyard; he would never listen

to what some chit of a girl would say to him; no, evidently that would

do no good. But if the young girl has some social position and some

popularity among the other girls in the village, she can organize them

into a club or society; she can make out programs for meetings into

which some useful modern subjects are sprinkled; she can in a little

time get the whole village agog about the care of their spotless town,

and at last, the thought will rise to the surface that said neighbor

must do something about the abuse of neighborliness he has committed in

leaving his barnyard untended for so long a time. The club of girls

could take for its motto, "No fly in our village"; and no worthier one

could be found, at least for a time. Other forms of aspiration might

follow. Meantime, perhaps, the baby has died; and this thought may bring

it home to us that the keeping of the village clean is a sort of King's

Business requiring haste.

It is always a good plan to save red tape by taking advantage of any

existing associations that may be made to answer our need. The Country

Girl is happy in having several such societies that she may join. Among

these may be mentioned the Young Women's Christian Association, the

Young Women's Hebrew Association, the Educational Alliance, the Girls'

Friendly Society, the King's Daughters, the Sodality of the Children of

Mary, the Girls' Athletic League, the Girls' Protective League, the Camp

Fire Girls, the Good Templars, and the Grange, a society in which the

women have the same privileges as the men and where young and older

members meet and work together. The International Congress for Farm

Women has a section for young women.

Among all these the one that has the most to give to the young women of

the countryside is the Young Women's Christian Association--an

association that now includes a glorious company of two hundred and

eighty thousand young women. The fundamental thought in their work is

"character-contagion"; first the contagion of the character of Christ as

an influence in the world; second, the contagion of the character of a

Christ-like human being among others. This thought is expressed in their

handbook in these words: "With the contagion of Christian character as a

definite object the very first ideal of the Association is that every

person placed in a position of responsibility for any part of the work

shall embody the spirit of Christ."

Flaming with enthusiasm for this ideal, over a hundred national

secretaries are carrying on the work among nine hundred local societies

in this country, and over thirty are sent to Turkey, Japan, India,

China, and South America, that the girls of other lands also may learn

to know the good that girls can do for girls.

For this association follows the theory that "every girl needs help, and

every girl can give help." The declaration strikes to the bottom of

things psychological in girl-life. Girls need each other. No one can

help a girl like a girl. If there is any trouble with any girl or with

any pair or group of girls, get a girl--the right kind of girl--to come

and redirect the group. If new thoughts, new ideals, new enthusiasms

embodied in a new girl can be brought in, the old thoughts will

disappear themselves. There are trees on which the old leaves hang

withered and dead all winter long: the rains cannot rot them away, the

winds cannot whip them off. But when in the spring the new life begins

to come coursing up the trunk, runs out through the branches, and

presses a new end against the root of the dead stem, it yields at last

and makes way for the leaf and flower and fruit that imperatively insist

upon having more room. Those who wish to redirect young human life may

find a practise lesson in this example of nature. To make faulty habits

or low ideals or dangerous inclinations disappear, bring in new life.

And experience teaches that new life can be imparted in no way more

effectively in the field of girl-life than through good noble girl

associates. To associate girls under some noble banner that will assure

their enthusiasm and loyalty, will therefore be one of the most direct

means of lifting their standard of living.

This Association more than any other has taken to heart the problem of

the Country Girl. Two of the hand bills of the Association show how they

feel about the Country Girl and what she needs and what she may have if

she will take the right means.

THE GIRL IN THE COUNTRY

"_Where the wide earth yields_

_Her beauties of fruit and grain._"

If the country is to continue to produce not only the food but the

hardiest young men and women, and much of the idealism and best

leadership of the nation,

Life MUST be made

_Less Solitary_

_More Comfortable_

_More Attractive_

_Freer from Drudgery_

_Happier and_

_Fuller of Opportunity_

For the 21,000,000 girls and women on the farms and in the villages!

Solving the Rural Problem

Through

The Country Young Women's Christian Association.

It brings to the girls in the country and small towns

The opportunity of self-development and self-expression

The chance to work and play with other girls

Higher social standards

Spiritual growth and Christian ideals

Contact with a world-wide organization

A community consciousness.

These girls give back to their community

Trained leadership

Joyful, rich, vivid lives

Improved economic conditions for women

Consecrated homes

Christian spirit in work and play

Cooperation.

The Young Women's Christian Association feels that it is its "privilege

to reach the Country Girls in terms of their own environment, helping

them to help themselves and to become active social forces in their own

communities."

Pursuing this thought, the wonderful idea was hit upon of using the

available energy of the Country Girl that goes away to college as she

returns to her home full of inspiration for a "career." The career of

being a good angel to her home community is offered to her.

[Illustration: One of the many Eight Weeks' Clubs organized throughout

the country by the Y. W. C. A.]

Carrying out this purpose with energy and great enthusiasm, as they do

everything they take up, the Y. W. C. A. instituted a special section of

their work which they called the "Eight Weeks Club." Under this scheme,

in the late winter or early spring, trained secretaries who are able to

give time and strength to the work and who are touched with the flame of

that character-contagion, are sent out to the colleges. Preparation

classes are formed among these girls, schemes are marked out for the

summer, and a suggested plan of study printed for them in the

Association Monthly is gone over. In the summer of 1914 about nine

hundred names of Country Girls in college who were willing to embark for

the summer's work were received. They came from one hundred and

fifty-eight different colleges. Not all of these were eventually able to

lead clubs; some were prevented by sickness, by family reasons, etc.,

after they got home. But there were one hundred and seventy-two who

reported promptly that they did actually lead Eight Weeks Clubs, and

about 2800 girls were enrolled in these clubs. The clubs represented

thirty-one States, Pennsylvania leading with twenty-two, Iowa having

nineteen, South Dakota ten, Wisconsin twelve.[2]

If you think that there is not much that you, a lone, single girl

without any help can do, listen to this story which one of the Christian

Association secretaries tells of the experience of one college girl who

went to teach in a small town. "The first Sunday I was in town," she

said, "I went to Sunday School. There were eight people there and they

were all old. On the next Sunday there were five and one of them was

blind; and what do you think? They asked me to take the

superintendency." Did she take it? The secretary says she held her

breath for the answer, for on just such a turning-point as this hangs

the solution of the whole country problem. "I did; and when I went away

in the spring, there were ninety-three in that Sunday School and none of

them was blind."

If one lone Country Girl can do so much as that, what might not be

accomplished if all the girls in the community were as one heart and

mind to work together for the Sunday School, for the Church, for the

Christian Endeavor and the Epworth League, and for all the causes that

seek higher things in the community? A young woman may never know what

emergency she may be training for when she begins to teach a Sunday

School class.

It is the hope of the Y. W. C. A. that the Eight Weeks Club for the

summer may ultimately be developed into an all-round-the-year

Y. W. C. A., to go on indefinitely. The desire of the secretaries is to

organize the young women of country and village life on the basis of the

county. A County Secretary, trained for the work, should be placed in

charge and should seek to reach every girl within "team-haul" or

street-car riding distance with the invitation to meetings, where music,

books, and pictures are found, together with wholesome social guidance

and direct religious inspiration, and above all the companionship that

forms a channel for the effectiveness of those good and uplifting

influences. "The County Secretary," says one of their leaflets, "must

not only know country life but student life and city life and industrial

life. She must be an expert in educational, physical, religious and

civic questions and she must be able to lead and to organize so that

clubs and groups may be produced which shall meet needs extending all

the way from athletics and recreation through social and general

community life up to distinctly religious and devotional service. She

must be able to use volunteer leaders and to mold them into a

sympathetic cooperation for the bearing of one another's burdens which

ultimately will lead them to share one another's successes. The County

Young Women's Christian Association ... is bound to come into its

heritage of success and to transform the girlhood of the country and

village life of our land."

If there is no college girl to come "back home" to take the lead in

forming an Eight Weeks Club, and no other means at hand to carry out a

plan for organization in the mind of any young woman in some rural

region, the best thing to do is to write--and get as many other girls as

you can to write also--to the Y. W. C. A., 600 Lexington Avenue, New

York City, and tell them of the desire, and then see what happens. They

will be likely to send in good time a State or County Secretary to come

and look over the field and give advice. She will probably hold a

conference with the leading people of the county, calling together the

pastors and their wives, teachers, bankers, alumnae, and others

interested. There will be parlor conferences, speeches and addresses,

and personal interviews. Giving of the necessary funds will surely

follow all this education of the mind of the community, and a place will

be chosen or built for the home of the new association.

Whatever institutions already exist in the community, either social or

religious, the Y. W. C. A. will not retard them but will give them aid

and new inspiration. By the elastic articulation of its secretaries and

departments, the Young Women's Christian Association cooperates with

many organizations: with the church in training leaders for Bible study

courses and teachers for Sunday Schools, in directing social life, and

in encouraging federation and unity among denominations; with the

school, by athletic leagues, field days, play festivals, contests in

public speaking and choral singing; with teachers and farmers'

institutes, Chautauquas, and the Grange, giving programs for girls and

women; with agricultural extension courses, adapting them to the needs

of girls; with State and County fairs, providing exhibits, contests,

camps, rest rooms; with library commissions, making out reading lists

and using traveling libraries.

There is not an organization for betterment beside which the Young

Women's Christian Association will not stand, taking from it whatever it

can use for the welfare of young women and girls, and putting its own

spiritual meaning into the endeavor.

FOOTNOTES:

[2] If any Country Girl should write to Miss Elizabeth Wilson, Executive

Secretary of the Y. W. C. A., 600 Lexington Avenue, New York City, full

information would be given her about the Eight Weeks Clubs and also as

to any other part of the work of this wonderful, dynamic and constantly

growing Association.

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE CAMP FIRE

RUTH THE TOILER

There is that quiet in her face

That comes to all who toil.

She moves through all the sheaves with grace

A daughter of the soil.

There is that beauty in her hands,

That glory in her hair,

That adds a warmth to sun-brown lands

When Autumn cools the air.

There is that gladness in her eyes,

As one who finds the dust

A lovely path to Paradise,

And common things august

There is that reverence in her mood,

That patience sweet and broad,

As one who in the solitude

Yet walks the fields with God!

--_Edward Wilbur Mason._

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE CAMP FIRE

The Young Women's Christian Association will frequently be found working

in harmony with a sister organization called "The Camp Fire Girls,"

which is also a national association with many local groups called "Camp

Fires."

The purpose of this organization, to quote from one of their booklets,

"is to show that the common things of daily life are the chief means of

beauty, romance and adventure; to aid in the forming of habits making

for health and vigor, the out-of-door habit and the out-of-door spirit;

to devise ways of measuring and creating standards of women's work; to

give girls the opportunity to learn how to 'keep step,' to learn team

work through doing it; to help girls and women to serve the community,

the larger home, in the same ways that they have always served the

individual home; to give status and social recognition to the knowledge

of the mothers and thus restore the intimate relationship of mothers and

daughters to each other."

The field of endeavor in this organization is seen to be a wide one. It

is interesting to learn how they have worked this fine ideal out into

practical form.

In planning and building up this association the picturesque field of

American Indian life has been drawn upon for an elaborate and

fascinating system of ceremonial, that masks some very definite

psychological principles and ideals for future development in character

and customs. What seemed attractive in Indian life to the founders of

this society has evidently been the out-of-doors aspect that our

Amerindian predecessors' way of living always suggests. Then the

primitive industries were taken into account, and perhaps the fact that

the mother was among the Indians the center of the community, the chief

laborer, the owner of all the property and the giver of the family name,

may have had influence in the choice of their thoughts and ways of

symbolism. The picture writing, the delicate craft of bead embroidery

and bead weaving had a strong appeal. There was much about Indian lore

and Indian craft that could beckon modern girls along a path of

adventure, poetry and romance into the realms of industry, service and

patriotism.

Indian symbolisms are used in the prettiest manner. There is a Camp Fire

costume cut and fringed so as to look like that of an Indian maiden.

There are many attractive signs filled with mystic meanings. The

watchword is "Wohelo," a word that sounds like an Indian name, but

really is made out of the first letters of three good American words:

work, health, and love. Each member is expected to choose a name for

herself; it must be something that shall express her own wish and

desire. For instance, the girl whose aspiration was to sing and to grow,

chose for herself the name "Songrow." Then the member is expected to

weave this name into the bead band she is allowed to wear about her

forehead in the supposed fashion of Indian women. Around her throat she

wears a necklace, and on this sacred ornament each bead represents some

achievement she has made, the color of the bead indicating the class of

service that has been performed by her. All this is most fascinating to

the story-book quality in the mind of every young girl.

In order to become a Camp Fire girl the applicant must repeat "The Wood

Gatherer's Desire." In this she testifies to her desire to obey "The Law

of the Camp Fire," which is to

"Seek beauty

Give service

Pursue knowledge

Be trustworthy

Hold on to health

Glorify work

Be happy."

These seven laws of the Camp Fire she promises that she will strive to

follow. Later on she may receive a higher title, that of Fire Maker. To

do this she must learn by heart and repeat "The Fire Maker's Desire."

"As fuel is brought to the fire,

So I purpose to bring

My strength,

My ambition,

My heart's desire,

My joy,

And my sorrow,

To the fire

Of humankind

For I will tend

As my fathers have tended

And my fathers' fathers

Since time began,

The fire that is called

The love of man for man,

The love of man for God."

But in order to win the honor of becoming a Fire Maker, she must do much

more than merely to recite a short poem. She must also perform a service

of a housewifely sort, such as the purchase and preparation of a meal;

must be able to darn stockings, keep her own cash account, tie a square

knot, sleep with open windows, take a half hour's outing daily, refrain

from chewing gum, from candy, sundaes, sodas and commercially

manufactured beverages for at least a month, report on a study of infant

mortality, on the rudiments of first aid, and of personal hygiene,

including the right use of baths, a nice care of the hands and of the

feet, exquisite cleanliness of hair, shiny whiteness of teeth, perfect

sweetness of breath, care in regard to eyesight, sleeping, and exercise;

she must know by heart some one poem twenty-five lines long and the

whole of "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," and the career of some woman who

has done much for the country or State. Besides all this the candidates

must present twenty elective honors; but to learn what these may be a

prospective Fire Maker will have to consult the long and elaborate lists

in the Camp Fire Girls' book of specifications, where she will find them

covering eight pages of fine print, arranged under various heads.

Here is where the brightly colored beads come in. It is no meaningless

honor--that necklace of many-colored beads! Let us briefly run over this

list of possible honors.

[Illustration: This photograph of a Camp Fire Girl shows the opportunity

country life affords for good sport.]

The red beads are for honors in Health Craft; and this represents

attainment in a special knowledge of First Aid to the Injured, in

personal conquest over colds for a certain length of time, regularity in

attendance at school, proper diet, sleeping outdoors or with windows

open wide, a certain time spent in playing games, attainments in

swimming, rowing, canoeing, sailing, skating, coasting, snow-shoeing,

riding, mountain climbing, tramping, bicycling, automobiling or folk

dancing. It is plain to see that the ideal of the Camp Fire Girls in

regard to health and vigor is to be sought with determination and to be

gained specially through the good out-of-doors.

The flame-colored bead represents Home Craft. Here a large variety of

activities are grouped under the heads of cooking, marketing,

laundering, housekeeping, a term used here to include all departments of

scientific house-cleaning, making beds for baby and for grown folks,

care of baby and making toys for the little ones, care of waste and

garbage, washing dishes, storing clothes for the winter, and care of

domestic animals. To this formidable array is added the devising of some

invention that shall be useful in the household. Then comes some

non-professional instruction in the care of the sick; and the wide field

of entertainment follows, such as song, playing some musical instrument,

reciting poetry, getting up a dialogue or play, writing a story or

working out a program of some sort, giving a pantomime, telling stories,

or adapting them to dramatic representation, and giving these forms of

entertainment at some home, hospital, or settlement where there are sick

people to be helped to forget their suffering.

[Illustration: A school garden where the children are taught to love

and understand the growing things as well as to cultivate them.]

Next come the blue honors. The bead of this color is given for

attainments in Nature Lore--knowledge of trees, flowers, ferns, grasses,

mosses, birds, bees, butterflies, moths, stars. If the girl knows the

planets and seven constellations and their stories, she may wear the

blue bead. Also if she does a certain amount of work in a flower or

vegetable garden of her own, raises a crop of something and cans,

pickles or preserves her product, or if she carries on an experimental

garden, planting, for instance, one plot with pedigreed and one with

unpedigreed seeds and recording the results, she wins the blue bead.

This is but a faint sketch, of course, of the interests in this

department.

A wood-brown bead is given for Camp Craft. Here there are tent craft,

wood craft, fire lore, camp cookery, weather lore, camp packing, and all

kinds of knot tying. Added to this is an attractive group called Indian

craft. Under this head the member may win a wood-brown bead if she knows

six Indian legends or twenty-five signs of the Indian sign language, or

six blazes. Is there any one who does not know what the word "blaze"

means? It is the mark you cut on the tree with your hatchet by which

when you are on the trail you may tell your way back home again. The

applicant for this brown bead honor may know three Indian ways of

testing the eyesight, or how to make a totem, an Indian bed, an Indian

tepee, or a bead band eight inches long. Any one of these achievements

wins the wood-brown bead.

Then come the green honors. Here the artist in the young member of the

society has a chance for development. If the girl chooses she may win

this bead by work in clay modeling, or in brass or silver work; in

basketry, wood carving, carpentry, dyeing, leather work, stenciling,

sewing, photography, hat trimming, original designs in embroidering, and

many other kinds of beautiful expression through the arts.

Yellow honors are given for any sort of business positions, earning

certain sums for an accomplishment worthy of the yellow bead, keeping

accurate accounts, saving a definite amount, making budgets for the

family, and so forth.

Then come the red-white-and-blue honors, which includes helping in the

celebration of some historical day, the national birthdays, or some day

connected with the history of the town in which the member lives, like a

pageant or an historical tableau. Knowledge of the customs and laws of

our country come under this head, and service to the community in any

way, helping about keeping the town clean and about making it a better

and more healthful place for all. This bead may be won by a knowledge of

what the great ones of the past have done for the public good, such as

religious leaders, missionaries, educators, great women, statesmen,

scientists. A sketch of the life of that great woman, Harriet Beecher

Stowe, or of that other wonderful woman, Frances E. Willard, would take

this honor; and the ability to repeat from memory a certain number of

verses from the Bible or a number of the world's greatest hymns, would

be equally valued among these achievements.

It would certainly seem as if a girl who could win honor beads enough to

string a necklace for herself might be forgiven for some slight tinge of

vanity. But there is not much excuse for any girl in the land to fail to

be worthy of acceptance in this honorable company, for the requirements

cover so wide a range and the girls of America are so ingenious in

taking hold of new ideas and moreover are already so filled with

activities in all the realms touched by these inspiring suggestions,

that the Camp Fire spirit ought to become a household interest in every

State of the Union.

When a member has gained the precious testimonials of her attainments in

these artistic and household and community services, she procures the

leather cord that is essential in the proper Indian method for stringing

beads, and in some shape that her original fancy shall dictate she

arranges a necklace to suit her own taste. The beads are of good size;

they are colored in delicate, unstaring tints, and the hole in the bead

is large enough for the leather to pass easily through.

More and more honors may be worked for and won as time goes on, and the

bead string may be made more and more beautiful; the wearer may thus

become more of an inspiration to her friends and associates.

There is a still higher rank than Fire Maker; it is that of Torch

Bearer. The one who reaches this rank by special study and work, is an

assistant to the Guardian, who is the leader of the society and is a

person of maturity and of training for the work of guide to the younger

ones. The Camp Fire Girls as an association is especially adapted to

charm and interest the girls of from twelve years old to sixteen, while

it is good also for older girls.

It is evident that the useful activities that lie back of the attainment

of these varied beads in the Camp Fire Girls' necklace will influence

every girl that undertakes them in the direction of the aims and

purposes of the society. The camp craft and wood craft will awaken the

outdoor spirit, and the health craft will help to establish habits

making for health and vigor. The same red bead brings games and

exercises that will teach girls how to do team work, how to work

together to gain the power of quick decision, to take defeat casually,

to acknowledge the rights of others, to perceive justice when its laws

are thrust upon one in fair play. When the red-white-and-blue bead is

gained, a service to the community has been emphasized; and throughout

all the list the emerging standardization of women's work is seen. In

this respect the Camp Fire Girls as an organization joins with many

other movements in working toward placing home economics on a more

respected and honorable platform.

Just how the system of activities is to make a closer and more intimate

relation between daughter and mother is yet to be revealed. The

daughter's appreciation, developed through actual experimentation, of

what the mother has perhaps been doing all alone in carrying household

burdens, will no doubt tend to make a more cordial relation and intimacy

between the house leader that has been and the house leader that is to

be in the home that goes on forever. At all events there is a crying

need just to-day for a closer understanding and sympathy between mothers

and daughters: and if this organization of young women and girls will

help in that phase of our life, it will be performing a great national

service.

A great deal of poetry has been written for and by the Camp Fire Girls

and much fine music has been composed for them to sing in their

ceremonies. What could be more beautiful than this, by Katherine Lee

Bates:

"Burn, fire, burn!

Flicker, flicker, flame!

Whose hand above this flame is lifted

Shall be with magic touch engifted,

To warm the hearts of lonely mortals

Who stand without their open portals.

The torch shall draw them to the fire,

Higher, higher,

By desire.

Whoso shall stand by this hearthstone,

Flame-fanned,

Shall never, never stand alone;

Whose house is dark and bare and cold,

Whose house is cold,

This is his own.

Flicker, flicker, flicker, flame;

Burn, fire, burn!"

The whole ritual is so poetic that it seems to have touched the young

life into creative energy.

The ceremony of receiving a girl into the various honors is altogether

beautiful; but we must leave something for a surprise to the young girl

who is hoping to become some day a member. It must be remembered,

however, that the honors are to be earned. The friend of a member is not

begged to join the Camp Fire Girls; she is allowed to join if she will

enter into the spirit of the society and make herself worthy. To do that

she may have to alter her point of view. If she has been in the habit of

thinking of the humble duties of life as a drudgery, she certainly will

have to change her mind in that respect. To throw romance and beauty and

the spirit of adventure about the common things of life is the avowed

object of the association. And these are the common things of life--dish

washing, house cleaning, first aid to the injured, darning stockings and

keeping accurate accounts. To view these as adventures, as bits of

romance, is what the Camp Fires are aiming toward. And they are

succeeding; for there are hundreds of groups of girls all over the

country who are struggling to win the beads by study and service, that

shall make these prized necklaces represent their endeavors. The mothers

are welcoming this spirit that turns a disliked piece of household work

into an adventure of high emprise. They find themselves rushed away from

a task they were about to begin lest the daughter should fail by chance

to gain a bead she was striving for, and prevented from various branches

of work by the rules the daughter was following. But it is not the

spirit of vanity and self aggrandizement that forms the basis of the

girls' endeavor; it is the love of achievement; it is the game!

If one looks over the books of directions for Camp Fire Girls, one is

delighted and fascinated by the pictures that show the many ways the

girls have to carry out the intention of the society. Here are girls in

the ceremonial costumes, the hair braided Indian fashion, the decorated

band drawn around the forehead and fastened behind at the back of the

head. In one picture the girls are sitting by the tent at camp, sewing

and carving and carpentering for honors. Here they are in a big canoe

with paddles lifted all together; again they are starting out for a

hay-rack ride, or building a gigantic bonfire for Independence Day,

setting up the logs in tepee-shape, while eight girls are bearing the

next log to the pyramid. We see them wading, swimming, and making fire

in antique fashion with bow and drill; they are cooking in house and in

camp; they are washing, they are ironing, they are mending; here they

are serving the community by teaching some little girls to sew, or by

helping to fight a real forest fire; they are holding ceremonial

meetings and conferring honors on those that by hard work have won them.

One can only say: O happy, happy girls in this happiest of countries,

that have so much done for them, that have so great opportunities, that

are so diligently and joyously making the most of their chance in life!

CHAPTER XXIX

THE COUNTRY GIRL'S DUTY TO THE COUNTRY

Are you sheltered, curled up and content by the world's warm fire,

Then I say that your soul is in danger!

The sons of the Light, they are down with God in the mire,

God in the manger.

The old-time heroes you honor, whose banners you bear,

The whole world no longer prohibits;

But if you peer into the past you will find them there,

Swinging on gibbets.

So rouse from your perilous ease: to your sword and your shield!

Your ease is the ease of the cattle!

Hark, hark, the bugles are calling! Out, out to some field--

Out to some battle!

--_Edwin Markham._

CHAPTER XXIX

THE COUNTRY GIRL'S DUTY TO THE COUNTRY

Various societies are now trying to supply one of the greatest needs of

the girls in country life: namely, good times. The young life is doing

the most natural thing possible when it demands recreation, and grave

losses must be sustained if satisfaction is not given to this pure and

normal desire.

The countryside itself seems to be painfully, culpably wanting in the

first efforts for the supply of the need for normal, healthful play

times. If public health is valued, if pure morals are desired, if home

comfort is coveted, not to say if there is a wish that the girls and

boys should remain and sustain the rural commonwealth of the future, the

first thing to do to gain these ends would be to answer their

unconscious outcry for more development of the play instinct. A

wonderful woman of our time has written a book about the spirit of youth

in the city street; some one should write one about the spirit of youth

along the country road. We should awake that spirit and set it to

singing on every road and lane, up hill and down dale, all over the

prairies and all along the canyons.

That this is a very vital matter is shown in a letter from a Country

Girl. She wrote:

"There was one thing I did want to ask you about and that was the

need for social recreation, girlish recreation, wholesome,

whole-hearted recreation. Judging by the girls I have taught both

in country and village schools, it has seemed to me that they need

to be taught to be girls, real girls, more than anything else, and

to cherish that girlhood. There exists such a false relation

between the girls and the boys. They are little stagy grown-ups

playing at life, when they should be natural, wholesome children.

I have wondered whether, if their social entertainments were

different, and, if the true way could be shown them, they wouldn't

leave the false and the sham, and be natural. Often the play ends

in real disaster and young lives full of possibilities go down

into the deeps. It is hard to express this in just these few words

on paper but if you know country life as it still exists I am sure

you will understand."

This wise young woman has here linked the need for recreation and the

dire necessity for moral restraint in a way to appeal to every student

of country life and to every one that desires the well-being of the boys

and girls there.

When the factors in this problem are thus reduced to simple terms, it

seems so easy to manage. The little things to do, the appalling disaster

to be prevented! More recreation in the village--more girls saved from

direst sorrow and downfall! Who would not spring to help? Is not the

duty of the girls who are a little older or who have been away to school

or college perfectly, translucently clear? Can you fail to see and feel

it?

There was a story of lost opportunity unconsciously revealed in the

letter of a college girl, who lives in a long valley between mountains

where the young people come in great numbers to do the hop-picking. The

plan for living included tents and an eating-table in common. There were

dances at night and much drunkenness. The writer added a tragic

description of what happens under these circumstances and of the

terrible results that follow the orgy.

What is that Country Girl thinking of, that she should waste this

opportunity? Why does she not do something for those girls?

What can she do? Organize something! Form some kind of an association.

Get the girls together--but not at just the last moment before the great

wave rises above their heads. We must build up beforehand; we must

start in at foundations; little by little we must undermine wrong

likings and insert slowly in their places better likings. We cannot

force the growth of the better things; they must grow naturally. Working

thus for days and months and years, we may at last cause a better

feeling, a better taste; we may develop greater self-control that will

be permanent because based on higher ideals and nobler desires.

The young woman who wrote that letter was educated in an Eastern college

and went from there to a farm in the West, finding a home at last in

this beautiful valley. Who knows but that her whole life and career was

ordained in this wandering way in order that she might come to that

special valley and seeing the need there, should put her shoulder to the

wheel to make a moral uplift for the whole region! The young woman that

will accept this high education and then neglect such opportunities for

social service has not gained the chief thing--the socialized spirit,

the spirit of social responsibility for the world; no, nor even for the

very town for which she ought to be first to feel it. Surely she could

ask for no better or larger career than to be able to make in her home

town a radiant life for all the young people, full of charm, a

counter-charm against which the lure of the city would have no power,

and thus keep girl life safe and pure, and prevent the sorrowful fate

that would befall her young townswomen if they should yield to the

temptation that knocks at their door.

The seriousness of the situation for those unprotected from such dangers

can scarcely be exaggerated. While the number of native-born American

Country Girls that deliberately choose a low or vicious life is, in the

opinion of experts, comparatively small, still it is not to be tolerated

that any country or village girls should lack safeguarding.

Happily this is the story of an exceptional incident; but how may it be

prevented from becoming common? By making the life about the country

home interesting in the work and in the play; by building up a complex

social structure in every village with music and pageantry, with clubs

and societies, with vigorous religious influence and activity, with

traveling library and magazine exchange. Not one of the possible means

for intellectual and social interchange, however joyous, but is

justified in its philanthropic aim. The farm home, the country village

_must_ be made a happy place for the young folks. It must never for one

instant be dull.

To preach this ideal no one can be so useful as the girls themselves.

Natural hostesses and social leaders, they are adapted to create

wholesome good times in the community. But may we not expect even more?

If among the girls of the village there is one who has been away to

college and has seen anything of the outside world, ought she not to use

her influence among the girls of the village to show them what the real

danger is likely to be to one who goes unprepared by industrial and

social training to cope with the situation in the city? Ought she not to

consider herself to a great degree responsible if any girl from her

village or her country community does go away unequipped into the

struggle and becomes lost in the oubliette of vice? Ought not the girls

with superior knowledge and better outlook not only to do all in their

power to keep the home girl amused and interested in the life of the

village, but to see that in each individual case the better wisdom is at

hand for her as warning and as deterrent? "I should have known better"

is small comfort afterward. When the wrong is done, and the girl is

lost, does the college girl in her home town take it to her own heart as

in part her responsibility? Should she not do so?

In case an inexperienced girl should have occasion to go to the city

alone, she should learn beforehand what are the proper and fit things to

do at railroad stations and in other public places, and what resources

she has at hand there in case of difficulty. The Young Women's Christian

Association announce the following rules for a young girl entering a

strange city:

Do not start to a strange city or town without information about a

safe place to stop.

Do not leave home without money for an emergency and sufficient

for a return ticket.

Do not ask for or take information or direction except from

officials.

Do not accept offers of work either by person or advertisement

without investigation.

The Y. W. C. A. has employment bureaus and boarding-house

directories, and cafeteria lunch-rooms.

Travelers' Aid Secretaries meet all incoming trains.

These appointed systems of relief for girls in difficulty the

girls should understand about, and feel free to take refuge in

them if occasion requires.

Assuredly there are many young women in the country who are fully as

well prepared for the work of revitalizing the life in country and

village community as the college-trained girls are. A number of these

are far more so than some who have had the opportunity for higher

education. It is said that a man can go through college and be a fool

still. The same is no doubt true of a woman. But from those to whom much

has been given, much will be required; and this requirement comes from

all about us as well as from above.

The thing to be done is to cut off this thread of inevitable sequence at

the beginning; to give the girl in the small town the movies and the

other varied amusements that will make it impossible for her to think of

going away; to give her the knowledge of the poisonous results of

vicious contacts and companionships that will make her abhor them with

her very soul and be terrified of them; and to provide her with the

opportunity for earning that will satisfy her self-respect as a unit in

the home industrial community. These things cannot be done by one

person alone; the parents must work at it, the better class of girls in

the community must work for it, using constantly varied tactics to meet

the enemy; and the minister, the teacher, the people all together must

combine to prevent this bitter inroad from entering rural life.

For the Country Girls who by nature, ability, predilection and training,

are endowed for special service, there are attractive fields open. The

work of visiting nurse, of physician, of home economics agent and

demonstrator, of social secretary, of teacher, of minister and pastor,

are available fields for womanly endeavor. No Country Girl need feel

called to go to the other side of the world to fulfil her mission. In

her own valley she can have a life work that will be full of the rich

returns for her well-directed, self-sacrificing service.

CHAPTER XXX

THE COUNTRY GIRL'S SCORE CARD

I am aware

As I go commonly sweeping the stair,

Doing my part of the everyday care--

Human and simple my lot and my share--

I am aware of a marvelous thing:

Voices that murmur and ethers that ring

In the far stellar spaces where cherubim sing.

I am aware of the passion that pours

Down the channels of fire through Infinity's doors;

Forces terrific, with melody shod,

Music that mates with pulses of God.

I am aware of the glory that runs

From the core of myself to the core of the suns.

Bound to the stars by invisible chains,

Blaze of eternity now in my veins,

Seeing the rush of etherial rains,

Here in the midst of the everyday air--

I am aware.

--_Angela Morgan._

CHAPTER XXX

THE COUNTRY GIRL'S SCORE CARD

"Efficiency" is now the watchword in all endeavors, and every man worker

and every woman worker is being put under training to secure the

greatest amount of it. The factory is stretched to the strain. In every

department store there is an efficiency school for the clerks, and every

one has to take this discipline. All large public schools have a score

card for the instructors and every teacher must stand or fall by the

results of the criticisms therein set down.

In the home economics department of various colleges a section of a

course of study is sometimes given to the close examination of the score

card for the housekeeper. The points discussed include not only the

technique of the kitchen, but the character that lies behind all

efficiency and the training for making the most of native endowments.

Why, then, if the Country Girl wishes to become efficient, should she

not have a "score card" of her own? At any rate it may be an incitement

to her conscience, and perhaps it may give some suggestions for her

life-plan.

The Country Girl's Score Card given here is not to be taken as in any

way final. Let it be thought of as suggestive only.

THE COUNTRY GIRL'S SCORE CARD

_Character_

Notable excellencies in character, temperament, or disposition:

integrity, truthfulness, trustworthiness, courage, fortitude,

self-reliance, steadiness, fearlessness, generosity, magnanimity

Notable deficiencies in character, temperament or disposition as

shown by such actions or incidents as these:

inconsiderateness in causing unnecessary trouble to others

carelessness, causing waste or extra work

disorderliness, causing waste or worry or extra work

frequent tardiness at meals

disregarding the rules of the home, thus causing worry

forgetting (which usually means not caring)

losing things (which generally means culpable inattention)

showing a depressed will power (which means not caring enough)

tampering in the least with accurate statement, not rigorously

preserving a habit of accuracy

tampering in the least with exact business relations, borrowing

carelessly; borrowing money when it is not absolutely necessary;

not making payment at the first possible moment

deflecting in the least from generous treatment in speech or act

of companions especially of a rival or foe

_Expression of herself in manners_

Self-control

repose of manner, dignity, gentleness, quietness

Tact

quick perception of people's whims or foibles

avoidance of things that may give offense

ready adaptation to circumstances

Atmosphere

friendliness or cordiality; expressing enough but not too much;

having a manner perfectly adapted to circumstances

cheer; a hopeful, buoyant spirit

Voice

quality, management of voice, sweetness, clearness

carrying power without harshness

Speech

use of English, good grammar, avoidance of crude language

precision in the use of the mother tongue, choice of words, use of

idiom

a clear-cut enunciation

_Philosophy of life_

The will to live, a plucky spirit, a determination to win through,

to succeed, to take the hazard and go ahead

A passion for perfection, for excellence in the result; not to

give up until the end is gained and the product is as good as it

can possibly be made

Artistic passion, the love of seeing things look well, of seeing

harmony and proportion; love of music and pictures and all things

beautiful; love for finding beauty in common things; interest in

making oneself look always as beautiful as possible

Power and habit of reflection, philosophy, reasoning things out;

the power to put two and two together, to see through a matter and

find out why a thing is made in such a way and no other

Passion for truth for its own sake, for finding out what the

underneath processes of nature are, for scientific investigation

in the natural world about us

Power of growth

a teachable spirit, ability to take suggestions, and to act

generously upon them; employment of means to maintain efficiency

and perseverance in these efforts; ability to rise after failures

and to strike in again with better knowledge

_Health_

Enthusiastic and persistent obedience to all the Code given in

Chapter XIV, particularly as to bodily carriage, exercise,

breathing, clothing, food and eating, elimination of waste,

cleanliness, amount of sleep, rest, and prevention of illness

Willingness to make sacrifices in order to gain and to maintain a

high state of bodily strength and efficiency

_Perfect relations with the various members of the family_

Attentive and affectionate relations with the father

Loving and helpful relations with the mother

Amiable and companionable relations with brothers (if nearly her

own age)

Fair, responsive and tender relations with sisters (if nearly her

own age)

Patient and inspirational relations with the younger children

_Community spirit_

Dependable and active relations with the church

Inquiring, critical, responsive relations with the school

Helpful working relations with the community societies and

societies for young people

Cordial furtherance of any public work for betterment

A pure, self-sacrificing and noble influence among the village

young people

_Definite preparation for her home that is to be_

The "hope-box" and what it should contain

A scheme for her house-plan and all its ideal details; the site,

the appliances, the fittings and furniture, the decorations

Training in the business of the home

Training in the business of the farmstead

Training in the knowledge of child-life and child-psychology

Training in the laws governing the property of women

_Qualities for an efficient administrator of a household:_

Knowledge of the business and training for it either at home or in

some school

Power to systematize work, to apportion out labor, and to keep

accounts and make budgets; power to purchase and to save wisely

Ability to carry things through in a business-like way; courage to

undertake things; ability to make both ends meet

Resourcefulness; ability to act promptly when things go wrong, to

adapt oneself to changes, to show reserve in emergencies

Power to save time and avoid dawdling; to avoid unnecessary

motions and waste of energy; to avoid unnecessary waste of

materials

Passion for cleanliness in rooms, furniture, utensils, linen;

passion for personal cleanliness

A real love of the work itself, a love to create good things; a

love to see things done and to do them

If you, dear Country Girl, will take a score card similar to this, go

away by yourself and think it all over, then conscientiously take the

examination, mark yourself on all the points honestly and fairly,

desiring strongly to be just with yourself and to see yourself as you

really are, there will perhaps come to you an illuminated hour when you

will dare to set yourself down in the group called "meritorious" or in

the next group called "not-quite-meritorious-but-almost." Perhaps,

however, you may feel that you ought to descend into the group named

"inferior" or even into the "deficient" class. But this attempt at

self-examination will spur you to greater effort, whatever your

decision. For if you must say "inferior" or "deficient," there is no

doubt some reason for the lacks, and the examination will help you to

find these and to strive earnestly to make up for them. And if you feel

that you can honestly say "meritorious," you must remember that all good

qualities are but the stepping-stones to higher struggle and that life

affords us many more advanced degrees to which we may aspire.

The Country Girl's Score Card may afford an appreciation of how much the

young woman in rural life means to her environment. That appreciation

will only make you see the more clearly the claims that country life has

upon you. For you must realize that there is one link in the chain of

American life that the Country Girl alone can forge. If you fail, the

chain must break; but if you do your allotted part, the chain will be

one of those that Milton loves to sing about, that bind the whole round

earth about the throne of God.

INDEX

A

Abbott, E., 94.

Addams, Jane, 10.

Agricultural Department. See _U. S. Agr. Dep't._

Agricultural College of Conn., 202, 237, 238.

Amusement, recreation, 27, 30, 34, 50, 63, 64, 66, 67, 79, 291-302.

B

Barton, Clara, 10.

Bates, K. L., 338.

Beecher family, 215.

Beecher, Catherine, 292.

Benson, O. H., 189-191.

Bible, 20, 72, 269, 302; source of plots, 302.

Book exchange. See _Clubs_.

Books. See _Reading_.

Brainerd, David, 317.

Breathing, correct, 176.

Bureau of Animal Industry, 250.

Bureau of Chemistry, 250.

Bureau of Plant Industry, 55, 250.

Budget, 186 f, 192, 195-204, 223.

C

Canning in the home, 42.

Camp Fire Girls, 63, 64, 169, 321, 331-340.

Card catalog, 158.

Chase, L. G., 200.

Chemistry in household, 166.

Chicago, University of, 238.

Children in farm home, 38, 39, 56, 184, 214-216.

Christian Endeavor Society, 63, 64, 325.

Church, 3, 65.

Church Periodical Club, 56.

City: precautions, 346, 347; occupations in, 348; exodus to, 20, 66, 80,

81, 181.

Clothing. See _Dress_.

Clubs: canning, 54, 55, 189-191; book exchange, 271. See also

_Organisations_.

College girls, work of, for Country Girl, 324.

Columbia University, 237.

Commission on Country Life, 3, 173.

Community spirit, 30, 43, 51, 56, 65, 67, 118, 119, 129, 216, 313, 354.

Comstock, Sarah, author "The Soddy," 94.

Congress of Farm Women, 321.

Conservation, 188.

Cooperative Agricultural Extension, Bill for, 244.

Cornell University, 187, 236, 238.

Correspondence basis of the work, 26.

Correspondence courses, 238.

Country Girl: as a class, 5; number of, in U. S., 7; wide extent, 9; in

gainful occupations, 10; happiness in rural life, 9, 19, 36; experiences

quoted, 33-82, 87-95, 102, 109, 112-120; as farmer, 9, 111;

distinguished women, 10, 11; as homemaker of future, 25; character, 26,

30, 183; passion for independence, 29, 49; love for country, 26, 61;

needs, 66; inheritance, 85; share in housework, 101, 102; relations with

mother, 103-105; social life on farm, 118, 255 f; magnitude of her task,

150; wage, 181-192; opportunity, 211; barriers to her progress, 211;

place in evolution, 207, 208; duty to country, 216, 343-548; going to

the city, precautions, 346, 347; attitude of family toward, 353;

importance of her status, 4, 17, 20, 87, 355. See also _Earning_,

_Finance_, _Spiritual aspects_.

Country life movement, 3, 15, 16, 224.

Country life in: New England, 61, 200; New Hampshire, 111; New York, 34,

41, 111; South, 46 f, 189, 198, 243; South Dakota, 119; Porto Rico, 263,

264; Philippines, 263, 264; Alaska, 263, 264; western, 65, 109, 196;

Northwest, 33, 37, 65.

Country life, favorable view, 26, 65, 70; influence on health, 28;

misunderstood by urban people, 28; nearness to nature, 29; influence on

poetic genius, 274; opportunities, 243-251; love of animals, 27;

spiritual aspects, 27, 28; influence on home life, 29; an optimistic

report, 37.

Country life, unfavorable view, 49, 61, 66, 75-82, 85, 86, 99, 109, 110.

See also _City, exodus to_.

Crew, H. C., 98, 136, 266, 278.

D

Dishwashing, 151, 152. See _Equipment_.

Dress, 176, 196.

Dress budget, 195-204.

Drama. See _Play_.

E

Earning, 53, 64, 66, 68, 78, 182, 190-192, 195; spending, 68, 183, 187;

bookkeeping, 161; parents' right to child's earnings, 182; wage of

daughter, 181-192; daughter's share in farm, 184. See _Occupations_,

_Budgets_, _Finances_.

Eberstadt, S., 206.

Economic position of farm woman. See _Finances_, _Earning_.

Education, training, 44, 54, 64, 69, 134, 147, 164, 165, 188, 231-239,

243; instruction at farm home, 248; a four years' course, 238; courses

of study, 236-238.

Educational Alliance, 321.

Efficiency, 50, 123 f, 139-142, 147, 151-153, 157 f, 189, 192, 203, 204,

351-354. See _Equipment_.

Eight Weeks Clubs, 324. See _Y. W. C. A._

Epworth League, 325.

Equipment, 66, 126, 129, 131-134, 137-143.

Exercise, 176.

Experiment Stations, 55, 250.

F

Family. See _Children_, _Farm home_, _Family life_.

Family council, 184. See also _Farm home_.

Family life on farm, 33, 38, 39, 160.

Farm Bureau Agent, 249.

Farm home: wife, 79, 87, 91-95, 222; mother, 39, 103-105, 123; children,

214 f; council, 184; family records, 160-163; social life in home, 42;

Sunday in, 40. See also _Efficiency_, _Equipment_, _Children_, _Farm

home work_.

Farm home work: service in farm, 139; housework a wage-earning work,

192; housework as exercise, 170; daughter's share in work, 101, 102;

system in work, 192; optimistic view of, 44; overwork, 37, 78, 80, 81,

91; laundry work on farm, 37. See also _Efficiency_, _Earning_,

_Finances_.

Farm housework, routine of, 12-14, 33-82.

Farmsteads in U. S., number of, 16.

Finances of farm home, 53, 91, 115, 161, 195; training for right use of

money, 54, 181; daughter's share in profits, 183; business of farm, 222;

as farm partner, 221; woman's part essential to farm, 222; house

accounts, 223-226; adaptation for accounting, 227; cost of living, 53.

Fireless cooker, 126.

Fiske, Professor G. W., 100, 254.

Foods, 165, 176.

Foote, Roxana Beecher, 89.

Foote, Abigail, 91.

Freeman, Alice E., 9.

G

Girls' Athletic League, 321.

Girls' Friendly Society, 321.

Girls' Protective League, 321.

Girls' Tomato Club, 55.

Gleason, Miss Caroline, 200.

Goldmark, Miss J., 171.

Good Templars, 321.

Grange, 64, 65, 321.

H

Harden, Miss Myrtle, 190.

Health, 169-177, 212, 353; of city child, 174, 175, 216; code of health

rules, 175 f.

N

National Plant, Flower and Fruit Guild, 55.

Nearing, Professor Scott, 188.

Newspapers. See _Periodicals_.

O

Occupations on farm: old time industries, 91-95; wage-earning pursuits,

68, 189; standardizing woman's labor, 188; chickens, 41, 43; household

industries, 91-95; teaching, 66, 68; nursing and other occupations, 348.

Office of Public Roads, 251.

Orderliness, 157 f.

Organizations, 317-340.

P

Pageantry, 305-313; at Thetford, Vt., 306; at St Johnsbury, Vt., 307; at

North Adams, Mass., 308. See also _Community spirit_.

Parentage. See _Children_.

Pennsylvania State College, 54, 238.

Penny Magazine, 156.

Periodicals, 52, 62, 68.

Pioneering period, 5, 109, 120.

Play, drama, 291-302.

Poetry in country life, 273.

Porter, Mrs. G. S., 279.

Pratt, Miss Caroline, 198, 199.

R

Reading, 34, 36, 38, 43, 49-52, 54, 62, 67, 68, 70, 79, 215, 267-275;

reading aloud, 272.

Records, household, 160-163. See also _Card catalog_.

Rest and health, 177.

Roosevelt, Theodore, 122, 146, 150.

Rural group, 16.

Rural mind, 6, 7.

Rural village defined, 174.

S

Schools, 67.

Scientific management. See _Efficiency_.

Score card for country girl, 351-355.

Shaw, Dr. Albert, 109.

Shaw, Rev. Anna H., 183, 184.

Simmons College, 237, 238.

Smith-Lever Bill, 244 f.

Sodality of the Children of Mary, 321.

Spending and saving. See _Earning_.

Spiritual aspects, 206.

Stewart, Elinore Rupert, 115-117.

Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 10, 280, 336.

Suicide, 259.

T

Temperance, medical, superintendent, 63.

Tomato clubs, 190, 191.

"True Lovers," play by J. C. Horne, 298-301.

U

United Farm Women, 54.

U. S. Department of Agriculture, 54, 55, 189, 191, 243-251.

U. S. Commission on Country Life, 173.

V

Van Rensselaer, Professor Martha, 187, 220.

W

War, moral equivalent for, 99.

Widdemer, Margaret, 2.

Willard, F. E., 2, 10, 242, 336.

Wilson, Elizabeth, 46, 324.

Wilson, President, 232.

W. C. T. U., 64.

Wisconsin, University of, 284.

Y

Y. W. C. A., 172, 318-327, 347.

Y. W. Hebrew Asso., 321.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

THE PROBLEM OF COUNTRY LIFE

ANDERSON, W. L.: The Country Town

BUTTERFIELD, K. L.: Chapters in Rural Progress

EARP, E. L.: The Rural Church Movement

FISKE, G. W.: The Challenge of the Country (_Y. W. C. Asso.

Press_)

GILLETTE, J. W.: Constructive Rural Sociology

HART, J. K., editor: Educational Resources of Village and Rural

Communities

ROOSEVELT, T.: Report of Commission on Country Life, Introduction

by Theodore Roosevelt

STRONG, J.: Our World

THE PROBLEM OF URBAN LIFE

DEVINE, E. T.: Misery and Its Causes

LAUGHLIN, CLARA: The Work-a-Day Girl

RICHARDSON, D.: The Long Day

THE WORLD OF ALL OUTDOORS

BAILEY, L. H.: The Outlook to Nature

BREARLEY, H. C.: Animal Secrets Told

COMSTOCK, ANNA B.: Handbook of Nature Study

DIXON, ROYAL: The Human Side of Plants

GRINNELL, M.: Neighbors of Field, Wood and Stream

KNIGHT, C. R.: Animals of the World for Young People; Birds of the

World for Young People

LOUNSBERRY, A.: The Wild Flower Book for Young People; The Garden

Book for Young People; Frank and Bessie's Forester

DELIGHTFUL BOOKS ABOUT THE COUNTRY

ALBEE, H. R.: Mountain Playmates

BURROUGHS, J.: Wake Robin

ROBERTSON, C. D.: Down the Year

ROGERS, E. W.: Journal of a Country Woman

STEWART, ELINORE RUPERT: Letters of a Woman Homesteader

THOREAU, H. D.: Walden

WHITING, C. G.: Walks in New England

EFFICIENCY IN THE HOUSEHOLD

CHILD, G. B.: The Efficient Kitchen

CURTIS, I. G.: The Making of a Housewife

DODD, H.: The Healthful Farmhouse

FREDERICK, C.: The New Housekeeping

GOLDMARK, J.: Fatigue and Efficiency

GULICK, L. H.: The Efficient Life

LANCASTER, M.: Electric Cooking

MARCHANT, E.: Serving and Waiting

TERRELL, B. M.: Handbook of Housekeeping

WOMAN AMONG THE WORLD'S WORKERS

ABBOTT, E.: Woman in Industry

DORR, R. C.: What Eight Million Women Want

NEARING, S.: Woman and Social Progress

SPENCER, A. G.: Woman's Share in Social Culture

The Woman Citizen's Library, 12 volumes

WILBUR, M. A.: Everyday Business for Women

CRAFTS FOR GIRLS

BAILEY, C. S.: Girls' Make-at-Home Things

BEARD, P.: The Jolly Book of Boxcraft

CANDEE, H. C.: How Women May Earn a Living

KELLEY, L. E.: Three Hundred Things a Bright Girl Can Do

KLICKMAN, F.: The Modern Crochet Book; The Craft of the Crochet

Hook; The Home Art Book of Fancy Stitchery; Home Art Crochet

Book; The Cult of the Needle

LASELLE, M. A. and WILEY, K. E.: Vocations for Girls

MCEWEN, D.: Stenography in Two Weeks, A Text-book for Self-use.

PARET, A. P.: Harpers' Handy Book for Girls

SANFORD, L. G.: Art Crafts for Beginners

WEAVER, E. W.: Vocations for Girls

BOYS' BOOKS THAT GIRLS CAN USE

ADAMS, M.: Boys' Own Book of Pets and Hobbies

BAILEY, C. S. and M. E.: Boys' Make-at-Home Things

BARNARD, J.: Every Man His Own Mechanic

FRASER, C. C.: Every Boy's Book of Handicraft

KELLAND, C. B.: The American Boy's Workshop

GAMES AND RECREATION

BAKER, E. M.: Indoor Games for Children and Young People

BANCROFT, J. H.: Games for the Playground, Home, School and

Gymnasium

BARSE, M. E. S.: Games for all Occasions

BEARD, L. and A. B.: How to Amuse Yourself and Others

CAMPBELL, H. S.: The American Girl's Home Book of Work and Play

CANFIELD, D.: What Shall We Do Now?

CURTIS, H. S.: Play and Recreation for the Open Country

JENKS, T.: Photography for Young People

KINNEY, T. and M. W.: Social Dancing of To-day

PARSONS, B. R.: Plays and Games for Indoors and Outdoors

STERN, R. B.: Neighborhood Entertainments

SOME PROBLEMS OF GIRLHOOD

BURKS, F. W. and J. D.: Health and the School

CABOT, R.: What Men Live By

COE, G. A.: The Spiritual Life

DANIELS, H. MCD.: The Girl and Her Chance

LEARNED, E. C.: Ideals for Girls

SLACK, E. J.: A Little Essay in Friendship (_Y. W. C. Asso.

Press_)

SLATTERY, M.: The Girl in her Teens

A GROUP OF BIOGRAPHIES OF COUNTRY GIRLS WHO BECAME GREAT AND USEFUL

WOMEN

MARY LYON, by B. B. Gilchrist

ALICE FREEMAN PALMER, by G. L. Palmer

ELLEN H. RICHARDS, by Caroline L. Hunt

HARRIET BEECHER STOWE, by Martha Foote Crow

FRANCES E. WILLARD, by Anna A. Gordon

SOME OTHER INSPIRING STORIES

JANE ADDAMS' TWENTY YEARS AT HULL HOUSE

LOUISE MAY ALCOTT, by Belle Moses

Helen Keller's Story of MY LIFE

Lucy Larcom's A NEW ENGLAND GIRLHOOD

Margaret E. Sangster's FROM MY YOUTH UP

N. Hudson Moore's DEEDS OF DARING DONE BY GIRLS

BOOKS OF POETRY COUNTRY GIRLS ENJOY

NOYES, ALFRED: Sherwood--Robin Hood and the Three Kings; Drake, an

English Epic; Tales of the Mermaid Tavern

The Golden Treasury, Series I and II

The Little Book of Modern American Verse

A GROUP OF POEMS TO KNOW AND RECITE IN THE HOME

BATES, KATHERINE LEE: America the Beautiful

BRANCH, ANNA HEMPSTEAD: Songs for My Mother

DAVIS, FANNIE STEARNS: Souls

GARRISON, THEODOSIA: The Daughter

GUINEY, LOUISE IMOGEN: The Kings

KILMER, JOYCE: Trees

LINDSAY, VACHELL: Kansas

MACKAYE, PERCY: Hymn for Equal Suffrage

MARKHAM, EDWIN: To Young America

MORGAN, ANGELA: Battle Cry of the Mothers

End of Project Gutenberg's The American Country Girl, by Martha Foote Crow