The broad ax. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1895-19??, 1905-09-02
BY MARGARET E. sANGsTER.

Copyright. 1906. BY Joseph B. Bowles)
Some girls dislike all lessons. They
would shed no tears If they never
again had to memorize or recite; II
lessons were left wholly out of their
calendar from this time onward.
hope you do not belong to their COM
pany, or that II you do, you will make
haste to leave 1t.
There was Molly Sue. a girl knew
when she was is. pretty. soft-man-
nered. sweet-voiced. but, oh! so lazy!
She drifted through successive schools
without learning anything. always
playing the role OF a good natured.
irresponsible shirk. Her kittenish
ways and dainty sweetness won her
far too many excuses from her teach
ers, and among her friends the feel
ing was well expressed by an artist
who said: Molly Sue does not need
to know anything. 1t is quite enough
to look at her, as one looks at a per-
feet flower"
But Molly Sue did not stay 16I She
grew out of girlhood as you will. too,
and after awhile people forgot to no
tice her when she was in the room
with those who had brains and idaas.
The perfect beauty faded. She be-
came a withered rose The vacant
mind was like a dusty lumber-room
full of rubbish. II was all the great
er pity, for IL somebody had taken
Molly Sue by the shoulders and
shaken her out of her Incidence when
she was a schoolgirl. she might have
grown up an interesting woman.
1t is your positive duty. dear girl.
to so train mind. heart. will and dis
position that you shall be neither
stupid. silly. insipid nor tedious when
you are older An interesting woman,
clever. enthusiastic. keen and respOn-
sive, is more TO be desired than a beau
tiful woman; and is more attractive
In her home. She will more deeply
impress society.
OF course this Girl was an excep-
ton. Most girls conquer their in
ertia and study after a fashion; for
tunately most girls have a share of
common sense. Even reluctantly &C
luired knowledge is better than none
II all.
What | want to urge upon you is to
put the emphasis Of your efforts on
he studies you don't like. We all
have studies we love. and II is easy
% pursue them. For instance. Dor
'thy, who en- oyS her Engl sh work, |
inds no difficulty in keeping at the
lead of her class. but when the ques-
ion is OF mathematics she gropes |
Lbout in the dark. If you will glance |
'yer your classmates, you Will have /
10 trouble in picking out a half dozen |
)orothys. Some Of them come out |
plendidly in history and are dull in |
physics; some shine in Latin. and |
.annOt tackle the simplest algebraic |
The point for every such ,
'irl, don't you think. is to spend /
Tength and time and really hard j
york on the book. the subject. the |
ituation. that she has no particular |
ptitude for? The things one likes
me acquires without painstaking. but
is painstaking that rewards one in
he end.
l don't think there is a pleasure in
he world that can be compared with
n honest joy in conquering a diff
ult task. Ii is by hard work over
THAT one does not enjoy that one
aims that mastery of the will and
AGILITY Of the mind that make the
rue distinction between the educated
nd the uneducated person. Natural
leverness is a good quality. But a
etter enc is downright. sturdy. dog
ed perseverance, that never lets 20,
nee it has started on any line OF
FORK.
A schoolgirl should take stock of
er own capacity. There is an old
tory of a preceptress who wrote TO
be rich parent of a very dull pupil,
nat his daughter lacked capacity.
Buy her one Immediately" tele-
raphed the man of affairs. Alasi
old cannot buy capacity. No outsider
an give it you. But you can buy it
,r yourself.
You, Edith, who complain that you
annot remember, that what you learn
)-day is forgotten tomorrow, may
hange all that, If you will give your
ttention to one thing at a time, and
It nobody disturb you. Some girls
re scatter-brained. Don't be like
lem. Fix your mind on a single
ord, single sentence, a single para
raph, and compel 1t to understand
lat, and to remember it. Memory is
slave to those who know how to
1t and make 1t obey.
You, Rosamond, who have no trou-
e about memorizing, but whose hard ,
Zip is that you cannot reason, that
ou do not see into things clearly, ,
ust take the same prescription. Be ,
IL you do not make very ,
Lpid progress, but concentrate your ,
loughts on the thing in hand. Moth
g can stand before the days work"
i'd a great teacher. Each days
ork, carefully done, tells wonderful
IN the xu0rlr ~, q month ~ q fa-r,