Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1905-07-25
MA'AM
DAY AT
THE FAIR
The Horse Editor Met Them
and Is Just Coming Out
OF His Trance

Gus as the breath of spring. A school
Clark fair will 60 down into history
as "School Ma am" week. 1t was
not advertised as such, but by a con
catenation of fortuitous circumstances
they seemed to gather spontaneously;
and such a galaxy Of bright-minded,
dimpled, Omitted loveliness, from the
temples Of learning Of our great coun-
try, never before shed its combined
and dazzling luminosity in any city on
tho globe There were the damosels
from New England; the sedate of
countenanee, but neverless roguish
bevy from Boston; the New Yorker,
CHS and insouciant; the swarm Of
honey-sweets from the Ohio and Miss
issippi valleys; the willoy graces from
Kentucky and Tennessee; the daugh-
ters of the Sunny South, whose slum-
brous eyes recalled the tales Of Har-
oun AL Raschid the Magnificent; Ma
tive Daughters Of the Golden West,
and those from the Lewis and Clark
domain, all roses from the same parent
bush and all mixed and mingled in
one grand kaleidoscope display, de-
light to the eyes and fragrant and joy
GUS as the breath Of sprin. A school
ma am, individually, is dangerous,
anyhow, anywhere, any time. She has
a trick Of expression, a subtle, all-per-
vading, soul,destroying charm Of man
ner, a naturalness learned perhaps
from those she teaches, that somehow
just gets in on a fellow and leaves him
teetotally nabergasted, out and down
for good, long after the gong sounds
Just turn the bacteria of school
ma 'ams loose in a mining camp and
the whole community will black its in
dividual boots, and shave, and blow
in its money for sky-blue or green
neckties; and the saloon business will
fail, and the roulette wheel rest and
the whole "bilin will be down on
its back, so TO speak, with continent
attack Of school ma 'amites. This she
can do siDglehanded, but when she gath
ers in a herd-well, then IL is all the
same as dark brown epidemic, every
body gets it, and It goes through a
community, leaving a swath Of broken
hearts and signing bachelors as plain
" visible and as sad TO look upon as
the faces Of those who are just let out
Of town quarantined for smallpox.
Individually, she is irresistiblej col
leetively, she is a cyclone, besom Of
destruction TO the peace of bachelor
dom, Johnstown food, Galveston
tidal wave, a Mt. Pelee explosion, a
Republican landslide, an exposition
address Of welcome, an Oregonian edi-
torial, or any other deadly thing.
We all like her sirgly and collectively,
and we send our kids to her whom we
can't control them ourselves, and she
winds them around her fingers, and
hypnotizes them, and sends them home
TO us hundred per cent better every
day for having been in her company.
And in return she gets paid about one
half what she ought to get and one
tenth Of what she earns, and she puts
up with it, and turns last years dress,
and economies, and fights the battle
of life bravely, and If there are tears
in her heart only she and the good
God know it, and neither Of them ever
tell. She is altogether lovely, a
pearl without pricej patient, faith
full, delicious bit Of true wOmanhood-
and, dog gone her, We all like her we
all like her, anyhow.