Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-02-25

needed pair of shoes, but had 10 have
a diamond ring
A whole parish criticised the minister's
wife who walked into china shop with
the money which her husband had given
her to buy new coat spent the whole sum
in beautiful plates and cups, and returned
on the evening train smilingly happy IN
her old coat of "worn-to-t he-skin' SEAL
What the unitarian forgets Is that the
china did the minister's wife more good
than a thousand neat and fashionable coats.
After all. ii is the serenity and heart of
courage" that we get for work and useful
ness in which lies the true strength of
money, and this comes to all in different
ways. according to the individual.
If 1t Were Not
For women there would be no need to
preach the simple life. 1t is "the sex who
sets the standards for living. and the simple
life apostle may preach all day and well
into the night without results if he can't
get a glimmering of his idea into the fem
mime strongholds of everyday routine.
Just at the present stage of her evolution
the average woman is developed to the
point where she would give her life for COM
plexity. and her talk and her reading along
the lines which will show her new ways of
doing il.
How many of us are there who do not
read the message of the simple life apostle
as so much simple recrea ton, and then turn
to the woman's page and get down to the
business of the day by scanning every re-
cipe for new and complex programs for en-
tertainment new garnishes for dishes, new
intricacies for desserts new penances which
we can hopefully go through for beauty
making?
And it is not only the pretty sister who
can afford to have her hair waved and live
In tha Ia n 0f lxurV The woman who makes
a fetish of wanting to be known as an
adept in all the little feminine standards
and ideals is more often than not the wo-
man who does her own work and who puts
the best part of her life into carrying out
the pretty faneies which beset womankind
The pity OF this is that here there Is no
proportion between efforts and results. 1t
is in the parlor which is elaborate with
three-decker curtains and bric-a-brac, half
of it misplaced and swearing at the other
half, and none of 1t worth cent artistic
ally in which there is uncomplainingy
spent more energy in sweeping and busting
than have been going to waste for years in
Niagara.
Take the craze for handwork Letting
alone ali the elaboration of stitches which
the Fashionable embroideress puts on her
clothes-which may, after all, give the pleas
ure of resulting in something beautiful
what and where Is the god which women
follow when they put tiny hand stitches
into their supplies of house linen?
1t may be loyalty to the ideals of
mother. but it is not that of getting the
most of pleasure or experience out of the
shortness of life. And 1t isn't that Of the
utilitarian who will declare that the ma
chine-hemmed things have twice the resist
ing qualities when it comes to whipping
out in the wind.
And yet 1t is a brave woman who will
confess to this to many another little
time-saving way-such. for instance, as
leaving her table set occasionally from one
meal to another. These things are not APP
proved of by q ridiculous system of femi-
nine ethics. and the woman who does them
is pretty sure not to say ANYTHING about II
to her more faStidiouS sister.
It is the woman who can calmly look
her more fashionable neighbor In the eye
and admit unblushingly If tactfully, your
standards are not my standards" who will
be the true apostle of the simple life.
AS Much
AS the interest In the general In ones life
outweighs the personal point of view, just
that much farther is the person developed
in his course of evolution. Just In the
amount that one can apply other than the
personal view to his everyday life and af-
fairs is it possible for him to rise above the
small cares and annoyances which lead to
WEAKNESS and pettiness.
The mother who throws her heart and en-
ergies into her childrens studies. helps them
to find the references they need, and sup
plies the motive power which insists upon
passing over nothing and looking up this
word and that. instead of giving never end
ing heed to her own social campaign or
financial problem, raises the tone of her
home out of all proportion to the amount
of information which she adds to it.
1t is in the detachment from self because
of the identification for a time with the
workers of the world which is the real
source of the great inspiration of work.
Self is for the time effaced, and with 1t all
of &C "a n1iST n / m hA a
failure personally as to my own standards.
but there need not necessarily be failure in
some part l have to perform in the world )
work. To the extent that / understand that
my work, whatever it is. is important, to
just that extent do l have hand in The
great success. l am in touch with the
worlds greatest and best workers, which is
joy enough for any woman or man.
This IS the attitude which comes from
learning to understand and value the gen
eral over the personal.
Maetterlnck shows the power Of It when
he makes II this knowledge which sends
a woman, voluntarily and alone as q hos
tage to the enemy. She puts the universal
welfare over her own. and she also knows
that II Is time and crisis where the
great and the general will rule, and in this
she will find personal safety
So far from being a handicap In personal
affairs from the smallest beginnings this
habit becomes power. A member of the
family who has the habit of reading In the
late hours comes IN at the breakf table
babbling OF the affairs OF queens and the
everyday doings of her book friends as IL
they lived across the street
1t is matter of wonder to the more prac-
teal Of the family. but the most obtuse rec
ogniZe that IT Is better than discussion of
The good luck which has passed us by and
fallen TO our neighbour. There Is not one
who does not go out from the atmosphere
OF this kind of talk as If having had a
tonic for the days work.
GRACE RILEY CLARKE.