Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-11-12
A School Girls
Minor Morals
BY MARGARET e. sANGsTER.
Copyright, 1905. by Joseph B. Bowles.,

sss & -. -. Z x * ~
Minor morals? What on earth do you
| mean by that phrase? / seem to hear the
/ query from dozen girls, who look at me
/ with reproachful eyes. Have we not been
| taught they say, that right is right, and
wrong is wrong, and there is no middle
path? What are the minor morals? The
/ girls wish TO know Let me explain.
Let me slip into the class room where a
| recitation is going on. Did / see Prudence
/ hesitate for brief second when ques-
ton was asked her, and almost impercep-
t1bly did Agnes move her lips and give her
eiassmate the clew? | wonder. In old days,
when Agnes and Prudence had grandm0th-
/ ers who went to little district school on
| the edge of a prairie the slope of a
mountain there was often more than this
| f1eeting look. There was low whispering
| from one girl to another. or maybe pen
| cfied slip was furtively passed under cover
| of books or states. The clever girl with
| the well-prepared lesson assisted her friend
| who had not studied, and preoccuped
| teacher was none the wiser but the teach
| err had been deceived the unfaithful pupil
| had really suffered wrong still worse. the
| ideal of honor which should float before a
| girls mind had been flawed through false
notion of friendship. Evil had entered the
class room, and the minor morals were vio-
lated.
Human nature does not change very
much W1lil Inc passing years. our mother
ana your grandmother Were girls just like
YOU The school rooms that are closed al
night when you have gone home could tell
many a tale if they chose. Would not you
like to feel that there is nothing Invisible
written on the walls and the desks and the
blackboards that would embarrass you it
suddenly the record should become plain in
the eyes of your little world?
There are girls who never appear to be
properly fitted out with their own school
furniture. They are compelled to borrow
pencils and pads and paste and crayons
and all sorts of things, and they do this
with so charming grace that their COM
panions dislike TO say no, and to seem dis
agreeable by refusing to oblige them But
after awhile. when it is discovered tina;
Gertrude invariably forgets to return what
she has borrowed, that book passing
through the hands of Grace comes back far
the worse for wear, and that in short
neither girl understands the distinction be-
tween mine and thine, Mary and Eliza 4
beth, who are usually very well supplied
with school apparatus, grow tired of being
accomm Oda ting
Other girls there are who borrow small
sums of money, and Immediately let the
transaction slip out of their memory Their
memories are treacherous, and drop finan-
cial obligations as water drops through a
sieve. This is certainly worse than a viola
ton OF minor morality. 1t is a good
zeal more like the breaking of the eighth
commandment.
Good manners let me tell you. are good
morals. Bad manners, such as loud talking
In public places pushing and showing in
cars and on the ferry, emitting thanks for
couftesies received and interrupting CONVEX
satfon, belong distinctly TO the category of
minor immoralities. 1t may easily be that
school girl is the soul of honor that
she would scorn to accept help In anv in
direct way from a schoolmate or a hook
trrISt |, It'll,
gold, but she may have rude and boorish
manners all the same
am>always panied when I hear a Young
girl using slang. Girls pick up exnras
sions from their brothers which are had
enough on boyish lips but are still more
cut Of place when INDUCED in by girls We
nave right TO expect purity and sweetness
from a girl and refinement in speech and
manner.
hardly dare mention such vulgar prac-
tees as the chewing of gum, eating pea
nuts In public or sitting in a car and par
taxing of oranges and bananas when
strangers are about. Every one of these
practices may have something to say for
itself, though | for one would draw the line
at the chewing of gum, but all nibbling.
munching and eating in public out of sea
son is simply vulgar, and vulgarity in a
school girl is abhorrent
Another thing that | beg your pardon for
SO much alluding to is flirting. Have YOUR
boy friends as openly as you choose Just
as you have your girl friends. but don't no.
tiee boys whom you do not know any more
than you notice girls; encourage no famil-
1arlty from pdSSerS on the street and do
not form acquaintance of whom you would
be ashamed should you introduce them to
your father and mother. Anything whatever
which has 10 be kept secret and hidden
away from mothers and teachers has in it
something forbidden, and therefore wholly
reprehensible. Avoid it as you would avoid
the touch of poison ivy. 1t skaters that
code of morality which we must observe
W t1rl fGN~ H.
Among the minor moralities most fire.
quently invaded by young girls is Difference
to older people. You do not dream how
beautiful 1t is, and how well-bred and at
tractive it makes girl appear to pay cour-
teous attention to her elders when thew arc
talking, to listen to their stories. even
though one has heard them before and TO
hasten to the help of those who by rea-
| son of years, have some infirmity A girl
never seems, or indeed is so Iowa hle a
when she puts aside her own wishes that
| she may give pleasure to some one who is
| i'll, feeble or encountered with age or sor-
| row.
When Dorothy rises to give seat to a
| lady with gray hair, or quietly threads a
| needle so that 1t may be ready for the aunt
| or cousin whose eyes are little dim or
llstens respectfully to story that she has
heard before, yet makes no sign of boredom
l know at once that l am In the presence
| of girl whose thinking of others makes us
| think of her.
Pohteness and grace should be automatic
If we have to stop and think about our
manners, they will probably be clumsy. If
we are in the habit of doing small dis
honest things, or telling what people calls
fibs, evasions and the like, we shall one
day be surprised by some great act of dis
honor or find ourselves involved in the
tangled mesheS of some Shameful deceit
1t is well worth while, girls. to look care
fully out for the minor morals. Let us
hold our standards high If we are fastid-
ious in little things, great things will never
give moments uneasiness
YEAR OF THE GTJTrERTNc TAM