The Tupelo journal., 1905-07-28
BY MARGARETE sANGsTER.

B1 LEN.
Copyright. 1906. by Joseph B. BowTes.)
This talk is for you, Doxothy, or
Eleanor, or Katherine. 1t is not meant
for you older sister who goes to col
lege, .lor for your cousin Jean, who
came out Just after Easter, and goes
to parties. You are a school girl, and
you are told every day by grown peo-
pie that you are living your happiest
days. Father and mother say SO, and
OF course they must be right; they al
ways are, but you have doubts. There
are times when you would very gladly
change places with girls who don't
go to school, If only you could.
For school life has its shadow, as
well as it's sunshine.
In your school there are cliques.
There are girls who get together and
keep together, and shut others out.
You eanno define or explain it, but
1t is as if a magic circle were drawn
around a particular set, and the girls
within it were divided by an immense
distance from the other girls. Often
there is one girl who is your admira-
ton, whom you prefer to every one
else, a girl SO pretty, so loyable, that
you are contented to be near her, and
breathe the same air, but she never
sees you; she is not in your set at all.
Girls may recite in the same classes,
have the same teachers; if at board
ing school occupy adjoining rooms.
,,At ovrn rN~ +hn nncnnn aud ina o.
mary line that separates II set from
another.
Teachers disapprove of cliques and
try to break them up, and mothers pro-
test against them, but every school
has one or more, with the ms n the
Outs at silent warfare, or haughtily in
different to each other. The situation
is a trying one, and the tendency to
cliques a great pity. 1t promotes envy
and jealousy, both bad traits in char
acter.
Wherever there is a girl who is a
born leader, she las her followers.
She has her caprices, too. Like a
queen she condescends or she stands
aloof. If you love the tones of her
voice, and like the way her hair curls,
and admire her dimples, and think her
hats and boots perfect, you are hurt
hat she never sees you. and thai you
are not one of those who compose her
little court. | know about this, girls.
! have beheld the little drama enacted
many a time, and | am sorry for poor
Bessie who longs in vain that Queen
Isabel should notice her, so sorry that
there have been days when | would
have been glad to shake Miss Isabel
and set her free from her proud com
placency. Queens should not trample
on their subjects.
Another reason for uneasiness at
school may be summed UP in a single
word-cIothes. School girls should
dress very simply. l am not sure that
Il uniform would not be a good solu-
ton of some school problems; just c.
blouse and a skirt, with gymnasium
shoes and cap. There ought tosbe no
great difference in the dress of girls
who are about on a plane in their
IL DuL OhtC L IL VII d BILL .
mother has fads, or is eccentric, and
sends her little daughter to school
dressed in an odd or conspicuous fash
ion which is torture to a sensitive dis.
position.
Sometimes a girls poverty inter
feres with her comfort. She cannot
dress as well as others do, and at Ger
tain times, commencement for in
stance, she must either look inferior
30 the rest or stay away from the pub
tic exercise.
Girls are apt to be over-dressed at
graduation from the grammar school.
There is no fitness in anything except
great simplicity when a winsome little
maiden passes from one graded school
to another. Decked out like little
brides, with tucks and 1ounces, frills,
puffs and embroidery, with white
gloves, white slippers, white ribbons.
and an amount of costly elegance, that
makes needful a carriage, the daughter
of the banker may go to her gradua-
ton, and no one at home suffer a
pang.
Side by side with her in class may
be the bright little daughter of a clerk
on a small salary, or of a day laborer.
The pride and ambition of the latter
will deprive his home of necessaries, Z
and saddle him with debt, but his Flor
ence shall sit by his employers Irno-
gene, and the one shall be dressed IS
extensively as the other. | have
known school girls to forego the grad
uating honors because their parents
could not compete with others in the
dress that custom has enjoined. A
diploma costs too much for a scanty
purse.
The question of dress should never
be a question of perplexity to the
schoolgirl, yet it far too often crops
up and makes trouble. Really. a school,
girl should have no bother about her
dress. Any plain neat stuff that viii
do her good service is the right thing.
She requires no ornaments. Her orna-
ments are the roses in her cheeks, the
brightness in her eyes.
But girlies, you do have good times
at school, don't you? School is a world
of its own. The new scholar feels this,
and it takes her some little time to
find out the laws and regulations that
govern it. Always take pains to set
her at ease. You were there first, and
you know the code.
| was very much vexed when | was
rnvcalf o sch0o1pirl when an older