New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-02-04
WICKED, SILLY INSECTS.
Kate Epson Clark Applies Term to
Women zcith Wasp Waists.

q Mother. won't New-York ever be fnishedT
little boy asked who had been visiting the city
wtile the subway excavations made yawning
chasm after another.
Probably not. No more will life. We always
pulling down and building up. What used TO be
essential is longer So and things that used to
be tres have become vital Still. amid the eternal
hux there certain fixed elements. certain es-
sentials " that they7"
Mrs. Kate Epson Clark told the New-York
League of Unitarian Women. which yesterday
in the Church of the Saviour Brooklyn, that in
order to find out what the essentials and what
the non-essentsis of life she had had recourse to
her friends.
The first friend 1 consulted . clergyman.
ana he replied:
"A broad charity is the great essential OF
course. that only another way of putting
Drummonds greatest thing in llfe'-love
"A clever and good woman. when asked her
said Sincerity ard she went I could bear
almost anything from sincere person, while no
number Of graces AMI charms would be toleraoIe
in who lacked it
Then I remembered that our Saviour denounced
only two sins explicitly and that insincerity,
hypocrisy, was one Of them.
+" Pluck the OF the third friend,
pluck being only another word for courage hope
It's the antiseptic that keeps life sweet. Many
ife has failed of nobility for lack CT it, the truth
being that we all need the perennial, upspringing
force of courage within
"A fourth said Friends a fifth 'Cheerfuuess and
gratitude a sixth, Bread and water and religion
AS there were several deeply religious persons
among the others whom I had asked. it seemed
strange that none had laid stress on religion be-
fore
"a cynical friend made this answer: Well, for
women, the essentials are beauty and good clothes
"'Oh, come nowr protested: be serious
81 serious she retorted Don't all the
women you know prove by their conduct that these
are the essentials to them? Aren't they willing
to sacrifice their very families for them?
Honesty and good digestion Doing the duty
that lies nearest one Contertment'-these were
the essentials OF life to others whom questioned
Money and health the desiderata OF another,
and 'UuseIashness' was desired by the last person
I asked.
Having finished with her friends collection OF "es-
sentials" Mrs Clark proceeded to give her own
ideas on the subject. using the figure of palace
to typify the individual life ana the component
parts Of the structure the essentials OF that hfe
"Of course, our palace must have a fine. broad
foundation, and without hesitation | should say
that that foundation must be health. No person
can be happy efficient or agreeable without health
The persons who are continually ailing so that
they have to break their engagements and drop
out Of everything. might as well fall from down
right immortality, so far es the dead loss to the
world although the evil effects would not or
course be so great So much illness is wiful-
about rs per cent believe Surely, by the time a
person gets TO be thirty-or at least forty-she
should know what agrees with her and what
doesn't. and be strong enough to take the one and
'T1hs sounds elementary. but it needs repetition.
Children should be taught that every action even
eating. has moral significance. .
"Often, you hear people say: oh, IN all Tlght;
I never have to have the doctor.
But health is a great deal more than merely not
having TO have the doctor. Health is something
positive. 1t means a webbing so Astounding that
we shall never have a strong, virile race till
our women get over trying TO resemble fashloIl
at them' Mrs Clark spoke in derisive tones and
the women before her rustled consciously
Those butterfly figures, cut in two-l thought
they a joke at first Just made for people to
laugh at But find they're not Look at the girls
on the street-theyre all trying to copy those
1T is curious to see many of my friends
essentials are coulprehended In health. Benevo-
lence, for instance. Isn't every one mere kindly
disposed to others for feeling well and being well?
You do sometimes meet cross people VINO in
perfect health, but much of rritabillty is due
to poor health
Il know aInabtlity is commonly associated with
poor brains. ana it is the fashion speak of anna
bic people with sort of plying contempt. as if
they could not help being sweet in disposition,
nature not having given them much in the way of
But oh all Won genuses in nv audience sai d
Mrs Clark abandoni4g her rnanlIscTipt aud facing
her hearers with quizzical smile playing over her
face, won't you try TO be amiable?"
Health being the foundation of the palace, the
primary essential Of life the walls must be built
of convictions and into the walls must be put clear
Let your food be love-, said Mrs Clark There
was once mother whose little boy had to say a
am the Light of the world
She had him repeat it again and again. till she
called upon, he stepped out on the platform and
said. My mother is the light Of the world In
more than one way the mother is the light of love
in the home. She sets the pattern OF love
And nd we must heat our palace with enthusiasm
conclusion. Our palace may be equipped with all
the virtues. but If there is fire under the en-
to believe in purity and honesty but to believe in
them passonately. enthusiastically"