The Portland daily press., 1896-10-16

other vital questions pertaining to venti-
| lation anu sanitary conditions. A man
builds house and he t0onsults his wife
in every particular. He is commissioned
| she Is never asked for an opinion al
though her children are to spend more
waking hours in the school room than in
her own home.
The average rural school house is cheer
less and uninviting. Any child with
love Of beauty can get no inspiration
from the dingy walls, broken seats,
rough floor and ceiling half fallen down.
school lite Is drudgery and he longs to
be free from it.
What can club women do to improve
these deplorable conditions?
That this educational question has an
important place on the programme Of
this the annual meeting, shows the prac-
| tical trend of the club idea. Organized
effort should ever seek the betterment of
human conditions be 1t along reforma-
tory, social or educational lines and as
tho Woman's Federation of Literary
Clubs exists primarily to spread knowl
edge among all classes in no better way
can this be done than through the
schools.
From this standpoint therefore, the
standpoint of a woman's organization,
| the first important step is to secure the
| election of woman on the school board.
A radical woman should not be selected,
for volcanic outbreaks bury cities, not
build them; if there ID any trouble .on
the. school board and a woman ia in it
work of womankind outside the kitchen
in that town forever more
The keynote of this question as to how
women can help to better the conditions
of the rural school is found in the words,
club extension. The club, with its little
library of books and magazines is of in
esbimable value in the small towns and
country neiqhborhoods.
BENZ. Franklin gave to America the
thought Of the first circulating library
and out of this grew the American
public library system. Chancell or
Vincent brought to the home circle the
idea that education did not cease when
Chautauqua movement has come
university extension.
In a smaller, but in no sense narrow
er way, we can all be Frsnklins and
Vinoents; smaller because of our limita-
tions, but any movement that sincerely
seeks the uplifting of single soul can
never be a narrow one.
The mission of women's clubs, If true
to womanhool is to elevate and enrich
the home. When mothers can BIZ set to
thinking in an intelligent way upon
these topics that per tain to the require
ments OF II good education better teachers
will be demanded, predjudices will be
disarmed and Ignorance gradually give
place to knowledge. The children will
be kept longer and more continually in
the school and, as consequence of the
stimulus in the home, encouraged to pur-
! sue their studies with diligence that
will give far more satisfactory results
than any we are accomplishing at the
present time. Therefore to the mothers
| lrf hiu 1I,a 1cnb 1nr oIvy
than to any other GLASS for the solution
of the rural school problem.
Miss Snow introduced Miss Nc
Skimmon of Brookline. who was to read a
paper on "Sohool Room Decoration" Miss
MoSkimmon, one of our ex-Maine women,
gave most able paper on this subject, and
We wish all might have heard the speak
ers behind the words OF this much talked
of round table. This particular paper of
Miss MoSkimmon 's..was made real object
lesson by the showing of photograph OF
one of Raphael's beautiful faces one OF
the sweet state boys of Beilini, and the
dear little Dutch face by Van Dyke, also
several examples Of the beautiful work OF
some of her Brookline pupils, and she
Criticisms" of these photos. ''They
make the room pretty, and make me
happy. and when l am happy, am
good Others, "They make me rested
when am tired
Miss McSkimmon's paper as follows;
MRS. M'sKIMMoN's PA PER.
To me the school room decoration
stands for one thing only, another meauf
for the development of noble characters.
They shall consist OF the masterpieces
of art, reproduced either in plaster casts
or photographs. engraving or solar print
carefully executed and simply framed Il
possible against tinted wall.
One rightly arranged school room
with works Of art adapted to the age and
attainnents OF the children, against
walls harmoniously tinted, and huns
with a nice regard to light and shade
would be a training in culture aud re.
f1nement of taste that can hardly be.over
estimated, but 1t is the greatest good te
the greatest number that the public
: schools as a whole must try to give, and
one fine work of art In every school room
against a properly tinted wall, awaken
in the mind Of the children that appre
citation of beauty that fellowship witt
nobility of life in which every soul feeli
stir of might. An instinct within Il
i. that reaches and towers and cropping
, blindly above it for light climbs to
, soul.
The best things in art belong to th,
children as much as the air and sun
shine. We want our boys and girls t,
feel what the artist felt who executed
the picture. Through the drinking in tn
inspiration of the artist be knows tina
all manking are brothers. SO will b.
find the thread of gold that runs through
all and doth all unite.
For years we kept our best poems an,
noblest masterpieces for the grown III
people. Those whose lives had bsoon
so full of the things that move rount
and round that they had no time fo
those that 60 on and up, and we starve,
the oh ildren on chaff till they. had neith
! er appetite, digestion, or the power o
assimilation for real literature.
They left school With inspiration nj
nobler than we who had preceded them
: We draw a long breath of relief whe
: we think of the happy little lad of toda
! with his Hawai- ha or Snow Bound
and the shining delight in the eide
boys eyes as we mention Ivanhoe.
7 The thought that comforts us as teach