The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1905-12-15
BY MARGARET E. .sANGsrER.

BY MARGARET e. .SANGSTER
copyright, 1905, by JosephB Bowles.)
Amy is president of her class! Amy
isn't the oldest girl in it, nor the pref
test, nor the best dressed, nor even
the one of best scholarship. Ruth has
higher marks, Edith has finer clothes,
Florence is the class beauty, and
Phebe is probably the girl with the.
largest number of birthdays. While
we are young we esteem it a cause
Tor congratulation, that we are nearer
20 than somebody who is only Is.
If We are Is we are proud of the dis.
tinction. Only as Time, the thief of
so many happy things, steals away
our pride in our years, do we try to
hide them. You girls at school are all
beautifully and blissfully young, bless
your dear hearts, and you need not
try to conceal the fact.
A girl I knew once happened by
chance to- see sentence about her,
in a letter not meant for her eyes.
The letter said: "Theodora is very
young, and her appearance indicates
it." Though Theodore had apple
brown in her cheeks, and eyes like
stars, and mass of chestnut hair
with glints of sunshine threading it,
she cried when she found that people
thought she looked young. She want
ed to look old! Poor little Theodore!
Why is a girl chosen as class pres
fdent, why Amy rather than Sue, or
Rachel?
Well, girls, probably for two or
three reasons. A girl who is thus
honored by the SURFACES of her mates,
is popular person. She has not gone
around with chip on her shoulder.
She has never made enemies by un-
lucky speeches. She does not make
fun of her friends, nor indulge in wit
at their expense. This is on the
negative side OF the question.
On the affirmative side the popular
girl has lost no opportunity to do
little kindnesses at the right moment
She speaks cordially of the absent
She performs graceful services gra-
ciously. She is in the public eye,
more or less, and people know where
they can find her. If asked to do any
thing oblfging, she does it without q
fuss.
The popular girl has troop of
friends, because she is friendly.
Every one can depend on her not to
make stupid mistake, and to say the
proper word in the proper place. She
possesses tact.
To the average girl, tact is better
gift than good looks, or great learn
ing. 1t makes girl quick to under
stand people, and it makes them like
her. A girl who has tact always helps
other people to be at their best, and
that is much finer than to be brilliant
and snowy in ones own character. ',ss
s. ~.~
The president of the class gener-
ally is girl with charm. Amy has
had charm from her cradle. What is
it? How shall it be explained?
Dear girl, it is impossible to define
charm in set terms. 1t is the perfume
of flower, it is the sweetness of the
violin, it is the soft simmer of the
moon, it is the sigh of the surf when
last it breaks upon the shore. A girl
who has charm steals into ones heart.
She may be a gentle mouse of a girl,
demure and quiet, or a merry breeze
like girl, coming indoors with the
swing of the wind, but her charm, if
genuine, will belong to her personality
and be part of her.
City girls have this endowment and
SO have country girls. A good deal of
1t depends on being free from self-ab-
s0rption. No girl who is thinking
much about herself ever has charm.
Homely girls often have it and pref
ty girls miss it, so you see it does
not need to go with roseleaf skin
and dimples. But Amy wouldn't be
chosen as class-president il the other
girls had not been impressed by her
charm.
Still another excellent quality, and
one that leader always has, is force.
Without force nobody can hope to
lead. Most of us are followers. Only
here and there springs up the girl
who leads.
1t is never by buster or vehemence,
by over emphasis and self-assertion, or
by any display of arrogance and bad
manners, that a girl becomes leader.
Force of character is a fame within
the soul, that shines out in daily con:
duct. -. -~~=- r.. .r,z4
A weak girl takes the color Of the
last person who talks with her. Why,
you may often tell with whom a girl
has been associating by her inflec-
tons, her tones, and her pet phrases.
AS for opinions, the weak person may
think she has, them, but in reality
she has only prejudices,s which are
very different.
4
But should you ask me what at
tribute in girl will help her to be
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