The Tupelo journal., 1906-05-11
FALSE VALUES
SCHOOLGIRLS SHOULD KEEP
LIVES WELL BALANCED.
The Girl Who Was Too F~astidfous
About Her Clothes-System, an
Excellent Servant, But a Tyranni-
cal Master-Overdoing in the Mat
ter Of Telling the Truth-Setting
Too High a Value on Manners
Foolish Notions About Friendship.
ny MARGARET .. sANGsTER.

BY MARGARET z. SANGSTER.
/ hope you won't be frightened or
fancy that it isn't Of Importance to
schoolgirls when | ask you to talk
| with me about a sense OF proportion.
very few of us have just that right
idea OF the real value of things that
makes us keep our lives well balanced.
Most of us run to extremes. Fol In
stance, there is Annie who feels that
nothing is SO needful as to be always
tidy and well dressed; from her head
to her feet Annie is SO trim and shin
ing that it is a positive delight to look
at her. She boasts that she never
wears the same white shirt waist two
| days in succession, that her frocks and
| her petticoats are always fresh from
| the laundry and that she never has SO
| much as a hair ribbon out OF place.
hold rather rigid views about neat
| ness myself, and | think it inexcusa-
BILE in a girl to have boot u down
| at the heels and lacking buttons, or
| to wear gloves that should be mended,
but when l remember that Armies
| mother keeps only n maid, n that
her father is a clerk on a small salary,
| and there are four other children in
| the family, | am driven to the con-
| clusion hat the number OF shirt
waists in the wash every week convlcts
| Annie of extreme selfishness. She pur-
| chases her immaculate appearance al
too great a cost, since she IS far too
busy with high school work to do her
own washing and ironing. When a
girl exalts one good quality at the ex-
pense of others, and gratifies her taste
| through the self-denial of a hard
worked mother, she shows very plain
ly that she has no of proportion.
could tell you of women, not school
| girls. who having failed to secure a
true feeling for harmony when they
were young, have made life a burden
for everybody belonging to them ever
since they grew up. They have made
a fetish of system; having determined
| to nave breakfast at a fixed hour, they
have been wretched themselves and
made everybody else so, if a single
person in the family came down a few
minutes after the clock had struck sew
en- or eight, as the case might be.
| Their homework had to be done on
| certain days, at any cost. There was
no freedom or elasticity in their re-
| gime; they lacked a sense OF proper
| ton. System is an excellent servant,
| but when it is made a master it be-
| comes the worst of tyrants. l want
you to do your work according to
method, but occasionally put the meth
| cd aside if the interruption will tend
to the general well-being of the day.
In one of Dickens novels he intro
| duces us to a character whose name is
| Mrs. Jellyby. This lady is very chart
table and spends her time in doing
| good works. She writes innumerable
| letters and sends them to the ends OF
| the earth. She carries on societies that
| make flannel skirts for children in
| Africa and send leaflets in IN un-
known tongue to people who cannot
read. OF course, there is extravaganza
in this description, and yet there are
| women of the Jellyby type in the world.
| Their missionary effort is not practical,
nor sensible. They intrude into homes
| where they are not wanted, and ask
| impertinent questions of the poor, and
| bestow aims where almsgiving is SUI
perfluous. Very likely al the time they
| are neglecting home duties. doe We
next thyng," Is a good motto for most
| of us. The Jellyby children were fall
| ing down stairs and crying for bread,
| their father and their eldest sister were
remained absorbed in her several
| schemes of b~enevolence.
She was a person who had no sense
| OF proportion.
Helen, who used to be my neighbor,
so worshipped truth-telling that it was
difficult to carry on an ordinary con-
| versation, if she were in the company.
| Sne utterly refused to be accurate or
| definite about anything lest by chance
| she should say what was not literally
true. You could never bring her to a
| positive statement. She always hedged
| with Il think" Il fancy" or st is my
| impression" And more times than
can tell you, she came back after a
| call to correct what she feared might
have been too highly colored. Having
no Imagination herself, she could not
| make allowances for it in her friends.
| The worst of the matter was that Hell
| ems truth-telling laid a burden not on
herself alone but on the rest Of us.
| If anyone related an incident in her
hearing and varied the telling in some
| trifiing detail, Helen was On the alert
to set the narrator right and rectify
| the mistake. 1t was maddening to have
her rush in when you mentioned that
| you had gone to town en- Friday at
| noon, with the correction 1T was II
| O'Clock, auntie, dear, not IL, when you
| took the train" We must tell the
truth, girls, according to the highest
| standards of ethics, and we must never
| deliberately stain our souls with false
| hood, but a martinez like Helen mis-
takes the husk for the kernel and is
likely to be persona o grata in so
| ciety to the end Of her days.
& Equally unfortunate is Marcia, who
Is SO resolved on saying nothing TN
| kind about anybody that she, at times
| preserves a silence which can be easily
misunderstood, and which is much
more hurtful to her neighbors than an
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