The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-01-07

In every one of us there is best
and worst" We have cream and
skim milk, silk and fustian in our
makeup. 1t is test question. What
do you do with the best that is IN
you?"
Some men give the best that is in
them to their business. If there is
justification for any error, it is for
this one. Business is terribly exact
ing. Competition was never so fierce.
money getting. Others are putting
their noblest powers into rival enter
prises, and If we do not follow their
example we shall get lost in the
shuttle.
Some men give their best to their
lunch or at the evening banquet or at
the union or the league" that you
see the full display of their mental re-
sources. All their powers are saved
UP to be consecrated upon these affairs.
1t is there that their wit, their grace,
their energy are all consumed.
AS for the women, many devote
their supreme talents to society. It is
for the afternoon tea, the evening re-
ception, the card party that they nurse
their strength. Thither they bring
their sweetest smiles and their most
captivating manners: There they
wear their brightest jewels and their
daintiest gowns.
Many lavish their greatest gifts
upon the Club" TO that Unsuitable
shrine they carry offerings Of intellec-
tual, moral and spiritual graces Of
which their husbands and their child
rem never dreamed. Nothing is too
good for the club! Time, money,
strength, cheerfulness, courage, pur-
pose, life itself are thrown into that
bottomless pit with all the abandon Of
devoteeism. And how is your mother
getting along?" asked her teacher of a
little girl who had just told Of the ar
rival of a baby sister. "Oh, mother
wasn't there-she was at the club"
the child replied.
1t is to none Of these objects, how
ever good (and not even to the
church. nor to the community, nor
to philanthropy that we ought to
give our best; but to our homes. 1t
is in our homes that we ought to
wear our best clothes and our rich
est jewels. Put them on, now and
then, just for your husband and your
children Don't you think it would
do them good to see you in all your
loveliness? 1t is in our homes that
we ought also to put on our best
manners; there we ought to wear our
most smiling faces; there we ought
to display our richest mental re-
sources.
But what are the facts? People
give to their homes the frazzed ends
of their time, their strength and their
talents. There is something both pite-
Gus and mOnstrous about the niggard-
illness Of our life at home. Men
come back to it wrung out like
sponges and squeezed out like oranges.
They say they cannot help it. Well,
give them the hannfit nf a ia III
there is. The exactions of the out
side world are terrible. But, after
all, it is not so much necessity as
lack Of correct ideas that accounts
for most men bringing home nothing
but the dregs of their best selves.
Women pour their strength into the
toll of mere housekeeping with the
nothing left but quivering nerves and
exasperated tempers for the evening
hour at the fireside. They exonerate
themselves by describing the tyranny
of cooking and cleaning and mending
But who does not know that a higher
conception Of domestic life and no.
bier ideals of motherhood and wife
hood would make them save up the
best of all their fund of energy for
the contact with children and hus-
band?
The fundamental and objectionable
error always and everywhere is the
failure to perceive the relative values
of things. 1t is the creation of q
true home atmosphere that is the
first business Of all married people
Every power of body, mind and spirit
Is primarily indebted to this great
end and its achievement is worthy OF
the exercise of your highest talents
Ofeyour highest talents, say!
And right here, believe me, we shall
find the almost universal trouble. II
is because most people do not like tc
play their "best parts to such "smal
audiences" that you see so little high
art on the diminutive domestic stage
WHAT" we say, away down out OF
hearing in our souls, you don't thinl,
can put forth my best efforts tc