The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-12-18
BY r. L. GRAY.

that such women are necessary. They
stir up ana make inevitable the WORK
of stronger hands. They get in me
way till their purpose is done by others
to be rid of them. They are abnormal
ly outside the line of both their duty
and their destiny but they make for
good. Occasionally they do things that
are great and they make their own
lives tolerabIe when they make than
void of disappointment or regret
1t would be interesting to know how
much the churches are indebted to the
women of the type I have attempted
to describe above. While 1T is true
that neither their religion nor Their
faith can be questioned. how much OF
their church work is the product or
their loneliness, the means Of forget
| fulness of things which are but hair
OWNED?
While it is a high thought to heaven
and conservation touches on belier
in nobility it would be more pleasant
if they did not, as in the case 1 write
of, cost so much flesh. broad
brimmed hat i'll becomes a hatcher
faced individual and it requires
breadth of feature to wear a halo be-
cOmingly. There are, too, many de-
voted Christians who are fat. The
asceticism of the soul does not require
a fifteen inch waist learned that at
| the conference the other day. And l
feel that ! understand my little woman
who is straining her wings for the
| Sky-Ward flight she is wearing out
| but not in good works, but for the
want of what she does not suspect
the lover that perhaps, she had ana
| lost, or that she never had at all.
Ten years more-if she Iives-and
| the suggestion of VOntn Will have
passed as quickly and as completely
as the after-gloW that seems the more
distinct after the sun has gone than
was the light of the setting ray. My
| little woman then will look more than
her years instead of owning up TO
| them in appearance only to deny their
! existence with a glance She will have
come at last, through some convenient
grief to steady black and white ana
the distinctive bonnet of her kind.
She will be smiled at on the stree,
and humOred in church where she Will
nave a special seat which lao one else
will dare to NIL. Her power for hard
work being gone, she will be excused
! as a good woman" And, at the end,
her funeral will be attended by hun
dreds some of them to reproach
| themselves at their relief. ana others
out of respect for a name that her
activities had made old in the COM
ever her life may or may not have
meant, will have started on the journ
ey for which in her pain and illogical
happiness she had so long prepared
will have come at last to the turn pt
the die on which she had seemed 10
stake her all, but which in reality
was an incident in the reason of her
life.
Whereas-but a lover for the
Church Saint would have been too alb
surd!
The Normal and Industrial College
at Greensboro. where J spent recently
a happy day, is a place as full of fine
women as the mythical college in Ten
nyson's princess There flows from
it what has developed into almost Il
distinct type OF Womanhood, that
strong and sweet and potent is baCOm-
ing the less distinctive as it's influence
lcavens and elevates the lump. 1t as
the exposition of the type that is the
chief value of the Normal College,
thu inspiration afforded other schools
and parents and young women sener-
ally in matters of woman's education.
But there is this that the Normal girl
should remember along with the con-
sciousness of her ability to be inde-
pendent, that the best form of woman
IL independence is not isolation but
helpfulne SIS. And the value of wo-
mans intelligence is, L believe, the
greater when it is exerted in a small
circle than when diffused over
the mass. Educated woman should
be universal but she should
let her influence at large permeate
the world from the citadel
of the home. That is old-fashioned,
but it viii not hurt 1t is by
concentrated effort that the highest
development is produced and the Nor
NAL girl can in the end exert greater
influence in the world and a greater
good to her own sex If she pours out
Ter knowledge and her training with
out stint in her own home, than II she
iabors never So faithfully and SO bril-
liantly in Il wider circle. The ripples
are always deeper and more active at
the center than the shore.
Tie above was suggested by what
was said TO me by Andrew Joyper, OF
Greensboro, who is an up-to-date
newspaper man and an old fashioned !
gentleman. He spoke of the college /
with queer mixture of pride ana irri- |
taton.
They are the finest women in the !
world" said he, magnificent women. |
Itt--dog-g one-it-tkey are SO blamed |
educated that. the men are afraid to
court en- Boys don't take to intel |
lectuality like girls and the girls are
gong jnGdQ so last lflcIL There is a real |
danger that they Will distance the men |
who would like TO be their husbands -
Ii they only had the nerve TO ask them, !
and the sense to work up an interest
before they put the question:
/ do not believe tllat JOINER is right |
or that his fears are we'll grounded, /
bUt there is a thought III his express |
sion. Matrimony has always been Il !
STOPPING process on the part OF the |
women but that has been true only as
to the brain of the world and not as
to its heart. Woman is great at con
structing an ideal out Of the sorry !
stuff of masculnity and even the most |
stupid of men is a master at assum- |
ing a modest virtue in the eyes Of the |
one woman. Both parties love the SEN |
timental deception-the woman to be |
fooled and the man TO deceive. And |
there is little danger that education |
and the ability for Independence will |
change the old order Of things. The |
Normal girl ma have to stoop from
an intellectual as we'll as moral |
height, but she will continue as her
mother before her to reach down |
tlnlSff1II hands IN the in fp, ior bpioo