The San Francisco call., 1905-08-13
III MARGARET E. SANGSTER'S TALKS
School Girls Magnify
Their Troubles

A year does not look very long TO
your father and mother. because as
people grow older the years seem fair
ly TO rush along like waves in a mill
race. but 1T seems a tremendous thing
TO a girl of II. 1t looks to her like
long level stretch of eternity. If we
fail in anything Wen we are young
we are tempted to fancy that we never
can make up our loss. That Is one
reason why young people are blue
when they ought TO see everything IN
roSe-color. Once we allow ourselves to
be discouraged we are handicapped.
We are very apt in such moods TO dis
courage others. If girl in Elizabeth's
position happens to be preparing TO
teach, or has in mind n determination
to be an artist, or a journalist. she says
to herself. Il may as we'll give II up.
There is no use in keeping, on. i shall
never attain what 1 wish
Never" is word one hears on the
lips of schoolgirls much oftener than
one ought.
Looking over a closet one day in
which a middle-aged woman had
packed away many treasures of her
girlhood. / came upon a lot OF old
school books. In one of them 1 found
written in very black letters, under
scored. too, on the margin of several
pages the word Despair" Have you
any idea" / said to the owner OF the
books, why or when you wrote this
word on these pages?"
oh" she said, with a laugh. When
L was IA I had moods. I often used to
think that 1 had almost reached the
jumping-off place of the world, and if
L failed in a lesson L. felt as If the dis
grace were inscribed upon me in letters
so large that everybody could sec them.
1 suppose / scribbled that one day when
1 was blue"
Occasionally it becomes necessary
wholly TO change the plans for ones
life. A girl may be compelled by loss
of health or financial trouble in the
family to do something quite different
from that which she had anticipated.
This is such a bright and CHEEKY
world In which we live. and there are
so many reasons for being happy, that
ii is a positive sin for anybody ever to
be blue. When a girl let's herself drift
into a habit of self-pity she becomes
morbid and miserable, makes herself
wretched and perhaps loses the power
of controlling her nerves. She wants
TO scream. l wish you and I could un
derstand as we ought that, however we
may feel inside, we never have right
to show our friends anything except
brightness and sympathy.
To let ourselves huddle up in fearful
heaps, to be damp. moist and unpleas-
ant, ana nave mysteries over any tnlnS
whatever is absurd and shameful. The
worst failure any one can have Is a
failure to rule ones own spirit and be-
havior.
In the Life of Burne-Jones.'' a book
that is full of glorious courage. there
are continual proofs of the great art
lists heroism. When you see his lovely
pictures i want you TO remember that
the loveliest thing about him was his
refusal ever TO be discouraged. He
made his friends stronger by his habit
of constant cheerfulness. We ought TO
make stepping stones of our failures.
II we happen not to succeed to-day. let
us start right over and succeed Io-mor-
row. One learns more by failing than
by gaining easy honors in the early
struggles OF this strenuous time. The
one who fails and tries again will win
at last.