Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1905-09-20
BY MARGARET E. sANGSTER.

BY MARGARET E. SANGSTER.
Copyright, 1905, by Joseph B. Bowles)
Some girls dislike all lessons They
would shed no tears if they never
again had to memorize or recite; if
lessons were left wholly out of their
calendar from this time onward
hope you do not belong to their COM
pany, or that if you do, you will make
haste to leave it.
There was Molly Sue, girl 1 knew
when she was 16, pretty, soft-man-
nersd, sweet-voiced, but, oh! so lazy!
She drifted through successive schools
without learning anything. always
playing the role of a good natured,
irresponsible shirk. Her kittenish
ways and dainty sweetness won her
far too many excuses from her teach
ing was well expressed by an artist,
who said molly Sue does not need
to know anything. 1t is quite enough
to look at her, as one looks at a per-
feet flower
But Molly Sue did not stay 16! She
grew out of girlhood as you will, too
and after awhile people forgot to no.
tice her when she was in the room
with those who had brains and ideas.
The perfect beauty faded. She be-
came withered rose. The vacant
| mind was like dusty lumber-room
full of rubbish. 1t was all the great
er pity, for if somebody had taken
Molly Sue by the shoulders and
| shaken her out of her Incidence when
she was schoolgirl, she might have
grown up an interesting woman
1t is your positive duty, dear girl,
to so train mind, heart, will and dis
position that you shall be neither
stupid, silly, insipid nor tedious when
you are older. An interesting woman,
clever. enthusiastic, keen and respon-
sive, is more to be desired than a beau
| tiful woman; and is more attractive
| in her home. She will more deSply
| impress society.
Of course this girl was an excep-
ton. Most girls conquer their in
ertia and study after a fashion; for
tunately most girls have a share of
| common sense. Even reluctantly &C
quirtd knowledge is better than none
| at all.
|
What l want to urge upon you is to
| put the emphasis of your efforts on
| the studies you don't like We all
| have studies we love, and it is easy
to pursue them. For instance, Dor
| othy, who enjoys her Englsh work,
finds no difficulty in keeping at the
| head of her class, but when the ques-
ton is of mathematics she gropes
about in the dark. If you will glance
| over your classmates, you Will have
no trouble in picking out half dozen
| Dorothys. Some of them come out
splendidly in history and are dull in
physics; some shine in Latin, and
cannot tackle the simplest algebraic
problem. The point for every such
| girl, don't you think, is to spend
| strength and time and really hard
work on the book, the subject, the
| situation, that she has no particular
aptitude for? The things one likes
one acquires without painstaking, but
it is painstaking that rewards one in
the end
| l don't think there is a pleasure in
the world that can be compared with
an honest joy in conquering a diff
cult task. 1t is by hard work over
what one does not enjoy that one
gains that mastery Of the Will and
facilits of the mind that make the
true distinction between the educated
and the uneducated person. Natural
cleverness is good quality. But q
better enc is downright, sturdy. dog
| ged perseverance, that never lets go
once it has started on any lire OF
work.
A schoolgirl should take stock OF
her own capacity. There is an ole
the rich parent of a very dull pupil
that his daughter lacked capacity
BUY her one Immediately tele
graphed the man of affairs Alas!
gold cannot buy capacity. No outsider
can give it you. But you can buy il
for yourself
You, Edith, who complain that yor
4 N0hAAOI lCACnOCl, thdl Wudl YOU l6dTL
to-day is forgotten tomorrow, may
change all that, if you will give your
attention to one thing at a time, and
let nobody disturb you. Some girls
are scatter-brained. Don't be like
them. Fix your mind on a single
word, single sentence, single para.
graph, and compel it to understand
that, and to remember it. Memory il
slave to those who know how t.
command it and make it obey.
You, Rosamond, who have no trou.
BILE about memorioing, but whose hard
ship is that you. cannot reason, thai
you do not see into things clearly
must take the same prescription b
contented If you do not make very
rapid progress. but concentrate your
thoughts on the thing in hand. Moth