Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1899-09-21
PORTALS LETTER.

the alert, for there is no knowing when
she may start without warning to
new move that will take all our energies
TO keep up with. She is standing still,
and standing in very tight skirts. So
tight, IN fact, that / doubt il she can
sit down. The sheath skirts with no
fulness from waist to knee, the long
tight sleeves, the high collars, make the
up. TO- date girl look like dinner bell
with long HANDLE
But / am not going to talk of
fashions today, but of the young gradu-
ate of whom / have been thinking
much lately. When we watched that
long row of pretty girls on class day,
I was wondering "My dears, what is
going to become of you?' And now
that she hos rolled up her ribbon-ti
diploma and laid aside the crisp white
organdie gown, and is home from her
outing, bringing back a coat of tan,
few freckles, a summer hotel experience
and a few feeting friends, what is she
going to do?
The day that a girl leaves school,
finishes her education, as it is often
enormously termed, is one of the
greatest Importance to her. 1t is the
dividing line between two periods.
Her character for life will largely de-
pend upon the course she pursues dur
Ing the next few years. Many hundreds
of girls at the present time are simply
being ruined for the want of something
to do. This is by no means entirely
their own fault. They have not been
rut to anything by their friends, and
they have not sufficient energy and de-
termination to make beginning for
themselves. If when they leave school
they have no particular object in life,
Of course their character suffers They
grow small and narrow minded. But
when once a girl comes to feel that
Others are depending upon her for
happiness or comfort, that she is doing
a work that no one else can do, she
begins to respect herself and to act as
If she did. Her powers grow with use
OF them and her nature expands. There
is q sort of girl whose key ring and
watch fob punctuate her thoughtful
silences with an occasional metallic
click. They mark the tone of her talk.
They measure her tread when she walks
about with her English boots. They
form her badge Of power, her medal Of
the. newly emancipated. This young
woman is supposed by great many
people to be a type of the average girl
OF today. For my own part, however,
| am very much inclined to question
whether there are very many of her
kind. She is supposed to be the sort
of woman who goes out into the world
and works, but it need not be thus. /
know many woman who is Joy to
her family and who makes home bright
and friends happy by her work in this
world, and yet she is OF the eternal
feminine. What to do, each girl must
decide for herself. No one can take
the responsibility for her. 1t is a
matter of experience for all of us to
find out the particular career that is
suited for u.s. Most likely we shall
make many mistakes before we settle
down, and then We shall have to try
again. But OF this we may be sure,
that there is work for us to do; thai
there is place for us to fill, and We
must not be content until we have
found it.
OF late years great many opening.
have been made for girls who wish tc
make their own livelihood, but not al
my readers need this. 1t is not tn,
girls that have their own livelihood tt
make to whom / am speaking exclu
siyely. The fact that they must worl
in order to live does way with all fea
that they will idle away their lives
The girls who are in the greatest dan
ger of being ruined for want of pur
pose in life are the daughters of ricl
parents. What ought to do with Nd,
life, is most difficult question for u
to answer. And 1t is temptation Il
leave it unanswered. AS to the di
rection that our work should take, as
have already said must be matter @
individual taste. Everyone has at leas
one gift. There is something we ca
do more easily, more naturally, tina
anything else This is our talent.
girl is not gifted in one way she
in another. Only let us make up on
mind to one thing concerning her. Sh
will never succeed SO we'll in that j
which we force her, or in that in who
she forces herself, as she will in tina
which gives her pleasure. But wor
the character. 1t is like rust to iror
like canker to growth, like decay to lif,
This may sound very lectury, my dea
but have seen so many life failure
here can't hclp but write of what
feel. When we are very young scho
girls our duties are chosen for US. b.
now when we step from the classroo
into the wide world, we must learn
choose for ourselves. Looking bac
into the crisis which comes to most
US at some periods of our lives, we 8,
how IN the past we have blindly above
ourselves to be ruled by circumstanc
and we realize that the conflict wi
become long and serious before we CO
become masters of our own fate. "Ho
easy it would have been,o we say, g
accomplish our purpose years ago,
we had known what we know today.
But today--how hard!
Any life problem, no matter he
hard, has some solution which can
found. Does not that truth impre
itself upon our mind when we look ba,
to see how simple would have been o
particular problem in the. old time
we had only risen little higher
look at it in better lightf The dai
questions on problems of everyday Ii
are like the thick underground and Il
clinging vines through which we mu
travel, forcing our way, and MAXI
the road which must lead us to t
goal we have selected for our ow
Now, there is one way to make I'll
path easier, and in some quiet nome
wemust sit down, as it were, on
height and overlook the problems al
mentally untangle the thicket. III
the young woman just starting fro
the forest of life must learn to do /
herself. Let her take as her compass
clean heart whose needle is stro
will. enoased in box of good fait
She can't go far wrong, but she m
become discouraged. However, i
youthful heart will help her to fore
this and to start anew.
r. 1000 - - -.