Morning journal and courier., 1891-10-17
FLEETING SHOW.
Some of Its Facts and FancIes. Written for the JOURNAL AND CoURIER.l
 POLISH FROM WITHIN,

lWrltten TOT the JOURNAL AND CoURIER.l
 POLISH FROM WITHIN. r
 Bishop Doane in noble and inspiring address to the graduates of St. Agnes school for girls at Albany, last summer, chose for his theme the Psalmist's prayer: "That our daughters may be as scorner-stones, polished after the similitude of palace"
 He urged that women should be the up- holders of all that stimulates scholarship and the cultivation of intelligence, pro- motors of 8 better tone of thought and in terest in what are we'll called "beautiful letters," and uplifting the conversation of home and society out of the miasmatic and malarial atmosphere of slang and small talk into the purer air of English undefiled -"defled neither by carelessness of ex- precision nor by commences of voice; de- filed neither by the vices nor the vulgari- ties of what we call conversation now"
 The polish of womanhood, he maintains, is not that of veneer or varnish, the hard brightness of extraneous application, for the polish of character must come from within. Yet polish means also good man. ners. Awkwardness, inexpressiveness, rudeness self consciousness are not essen tial features of thoughtfulness and study, and attention to outward forms not seldom deepens the inward sentiment But the polish of the corners of the temple of God is something more than can be learned be- fore mirror or in dancing school; it is not that which is passing and superficial it is simply the woman's self, with all the strength and substance of her nature, as discipline and duty and devotion bring out what always was and what is within and under all, the instinctive and inher- ent beauty of womanhood.
 The Bishop then made this fine distinc- tion between the words "1ady" and ':wo- man," terms often interchanged, and robbed of their definite meaning by care less misuse. To deprive word of its ex- plicit import, because of human idleness, argues lack of that very polish which en- sures refinement of speech, and with genu- spect to which it's history and derivation entitle it. A lady, remember, is nothing in the world but woman polished No polish makes the lady, in whom the wo man was not, and is not It is not question of clothes, and airs, and graces, and social place and wealth. The woman is the first and the higher thing always. Where that is not the lady is impossible; for mud cannot be polished, although marble may be in the rough. But given the basis of full woman hoo&, dho llo outCOIc, III every lnSCduC6, where education and discipline and prayer and patience and the grace of God have done their work, is the polished corner, ''the elect lady whom we love in the truth"
 Good words are these, so clear and sim pie that they may be readily stored in the mind. To recall them will be an in spiration to those who covet the true "polish" which is the outward sign of strong, sincere, reverent and loyal womanliness, not the mere surface glazing produced by the friction of etiquette, conventionalism and the demands of society. Small children, by continued pattings with their little shoes succeed in producing a smooth surface even upon mud, but it is easily disturbed and de- stroyed, and the observer never, by any chance, mistakes it's lustre for that of a precious stonea
 "HER LADYsHIP."
 A lady to whom the word belongs not merely as a mark of class distinction, though she is called 'the daughter of an hundred earls," but as descriptive of her true nobility, worth and good works, is Lady Meath, founder. of the 'tMinistering Children's League"
 This league, which doubtless took its first inspiration and its name from that delightful English story, "Ministering children" already numbers thirty-fve thousand members and associates in Eng land and America. Its object is the en- couragement of kindness and unselfshness among children, it's one rule being that each membef shall do at least one deed of kindness for some one else every day. Lady Meath is also identified with the pauper employment scheme, and with the establishment of refuges for the aged poor on the principle of the cottage system, and homes of rest for the Girls Friendly society. She has four sons and two daugh- ters, yet her mother-heaIt reaches out with affectionate interest to children the world over, and takes an anxious thought for the welfare of the poor and struggling, and the story of her devoted life is written in deeds of quiet ministration and public usefulness.
 THE BETTER WAY.
 Methinks there's blindness in the way we seek To make each other happy, here on earth Too oft the poor conforming word we speak, Too much we praise the partial work and worth. o, for that courage and that better love- Which so applies truths clear and wholesome That men are helped to rise themselves above, And thus by steps ascendant reach their bestl Leave feeble charities of praise unsaid, To please thy toiliug brother, as he climbs; But rather kind stars above his head,
 And wake in him loftier zeal betimes. -JAhEs BUcKHAM. ARTIST AND REFoRMKR.
 A remarkable woman, of whose life her friend Madame Parkes Beliic, furnished 6