Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1893-02-22
SOMETHING OF A WOMAN.
By JAMES CLEMENT AMBROSE.

man. in the caption, of course the
brotherhood will not miss this.
What should q woman be? The best
she knows how, and a student of the
hotO. Opportunities are not accidents;
but, like the fruit of the vine, hang be-
meath foliage-need looking for, feel
ing after. Mono so frail or poor she
may not have chance for excellence
unto others made to order-made to fit
her hand; however small. And what
q woman can do. the good man can try.
And what makes woman good
boxing? The cosmetics dashed upon
the surface by soul too large for
self-too large to be Gagged. The hand
of kind act is an artists in fresh tints;
and the foreign memory of it sees no
wrinkles. Recognized sympathy with
human sorrow took off the mask of
piainness from the toughest features of
the century, disclosing there the
beauty of nobility.
Senator 'sIhad' Stevens onco con-
ducted to the White House an old
German woman seeking reprieve for
her soldier boy, court-martialed to be
shot. Mr.. Lincoln said: Army Off
GERS complain that / am interfering
with discipline" The senator said
nothing, and MIR. Lincoln sat a mo-
ment looking at the old mother, then
turned and wrote the reprieve. Pass
ing out behind the senator, the woman
muttered to herself, and he asked:
whats the matter, madam"
"Oh, sor, folks did big lie so bout
Lr. Linakum; they tole me he were
homely like old hedge fence, when he
are the most handsomest man 1 ever
seen"
Yes, kindness is the most fiattering
artist we can sit for picture to. Our
memory of mothers face is full of
tender words, little pats of kindness,
nightly vigils round our measled couch,
great reprieves from punishment de-
served: and we think not on her trem-
bling hand in age, her feeble footstep
and wrinked brow at her last visit
home-only remember the handsomest
woman we ever saw. Perhaps the old
rabbi was right, that "Ciod could not
be everywhere, and SO made mothers. 1"
At any rate, not one that secondeth his
motion weareth an ugly look.
Form, the soft outline in flesh, is not
eyes. indeed, there is no finer physi-
we'll ewed lamb in green pastures, the
blooded colt whose dam gives ell sum-
mer to his toilet, We call them "beau-
ties" but We mean they are fine an
imals. And the girl whose only ambi-
ton is to be faultlessly 'groomed" will
hardly come to be worth moro.
Why, you never know whether fac
is hands ONE till you've read the story
tall
whether it is out of the nickel library
or the hand book of the best home and
the only heaven. Babes are "pretty"
when their habitat borders on the
washbowl, with pink and pinafore
their annex; but they do not belong to
the fora of beauty. Charles Augustus,
in the green stage, thinks-if he thinks
at all-that Clara Bell is almost divine;
but commonly it is "divine foolish
ress" which only the sun of experience
will tan to common sense. Girls are
morally nice. fair, attractive-many of
them especially if studying to cultI-
vate all their gifts; their mother
should be beautiful
Beauty takes time-time with a
beautiful purpose attached. The fad
of the press is to say things by courtesy
summers" though less perhaps now
that the maidens are eliminating from
editorial inkstands so many masculine
minds that have worked themselves
empty; object lessons are the best
school-masters against prejudice.
Why, know lots of sold maids" his
tory will fall in love with; class in
creasing by choice, additionally
welded to good purpose, the honey
moon never setting, and their brains
adding mental base and hope to the
world, even coaching posterity better
than some mothers. A symptom of
higher social life it is, that sono wo-
men help themselves. not let out the
job to a wooden man or the leather
punch-bowl.
To have companioned with man Is
not always the sign royal of woman s
good luck or great wisdom. Man,
however, is good companion, when a
good man-and the woman is good.
But the spirit on guard at the portals
TO Happy Land will not ask the
womauly soul whether she had hus-
band, though he may admit some be-
cause they had, reciting that "these
are they which have come out of great
tribulation." No man, and fewer
women, will be saved by the grace of
wedding day.
There is woman worth a second
look; 1 sometimes politely turn and
take it, and would circuit tho square to
get her 'good- rIlng"-somethi1g
to flavor all the day snd live an aroma
in men ory. She is neither gay nor
gloomy; never distant, never familiar,
yet always GpProachable; never loud
of speech nor afraid to speak, always q
timely word; never dressy, never
dowdy-you don't remember what she
had on; not what fashion calls "a
beauty, vet beautiful face, an Inspira-
iion to purest respect for womankind;
not young, not old, yet the morning
light in her home, the evening star in
her community; the prond are humble
before her, and the humble proudly
look up to her; she reigns by the divine
right of helping others TO reign, and
her subjects rover ask why they
obey.
Now, hers is beauty the brush can
not copy; Il has ripcned amid the vines
OF derotIoD to redeeming purpose,
touching homo with heaven, bringing
buck the wandering, kindling the cold
hearth, feeding the hungry, visiting
the sick never vIs1tod woli, cooking tho
careless to do likewise, breathing gos-
pei into government-in a word, fol-
lowing Christ. This is why the soul
within halos the outer woman with the
fnce of glad tidings and the alteration
of good men.
My friend, go bow where none other
but the fever bows; pass tho cup of
cold water where tho eYil cup hath
pawncd every homo comfort, weed out
The corrupting book with the Book Of
the New Testament, wait your follow
snip unto hearts called hoSthen, lead
woundoi virtue under shelter of rurity,
and awaken GOOD, easy souls to serve