Mexico Missouri message., 1906-05-10
BY MARGARET r. sANcsTER.

BY MARGARET f. sANGsTER.
Copyright, 1906. by Joseph B. Bowles)
have always been Interested In
composite photographs. The view not
30 much of an individual as of a group
merged into an individual, has fea-
lures that awaken thought. Looking
over the classroom and meeting the
bright faces OF 25 girls, each is as diff
ferent from the other as II she be-
longed to another species, and still
each has a likeness to the other as
marked as the likeness Of peas in a
pod.
Josephine, Katherine, Barbara, Ag-
mes, Mary, Evelyn, run through the
catalogue of beautiful names, and
match them with their sweet possess
sors, and you are impressed with the
variations in type. Let composite
photograph of the class present itself
to you, and. you behold a single type.
and that type taken one year win not
be in the least the type of another
year, or of seven years to come.
Girls Of the same general appearance
and age viii be attending school seven
years hence, yet composite photo
graph taken of them will not be a
repetition of the one taken of your
class this year. Shadowy, elusive, fit
ting resemblanees one sees in the
class photograph to this and the other
girl, but on the whole, a new and
charming character attracts you and
you see not single personality, but
the personality Of class.
AS sometimes stand on a school
platform, or behind the desk in
chapel where rows of schoolgirls, OF
college students. make beautiful pic
ture before my eyes, get the thought
Of composite photograph. One Of
the very best things your school life
and work are doing for you, girls, is
not the training OF your minds and
memories, not the giving you ac-
quaintance with facts and theories,
but the formation in you OF a strong
and noble womanhood. Your angles
and roughnesses are being rubbed
away and smoothed by contact with
others. Katherine, for instance,
though charming, is naturally imperi-
Gus and self-absorbed. She is the only
daughter and her parents and bro
theirs have combined to indulge her
caprices and spoil her by their readi-
ness to grant her every wish. She
needs fully as much some lessons In
yielding to others, in accepting now
and then the second place instead OF
the first, and IN gentleness and amia-
bility, as she needs training In aige-
bra and physics.
Agnes is much too unselfsh. She
runs her feet of at home on errands
for everybody. She gives up her own
will so readily that people forget to
thank her for daily sacrifices, and she
is In much danger of being over
looked and taken at her own valuation
In world where most OF us have to
hold our own, or be pushed aside. At
school her teachers appreciate her
true worth and are very ready to see
that others treat her fairly. She is
not permitted to effaee herself on
every possible occasion.
Mary is deficient in sympathy. She
has no art OF putting herself in the
place Of friend. Barbara Is 90 SEN
tImental. She is given to exaggera-
ton and gush, but is extremely super
iciai. Each girl has in herself some
| quality that is very desirable, but nd
girl has all the qualities that go to
make
.'The perfect woman, nobly planned,
TO warn, to comfort and command
For this reason, II FOR no other, II
Is misfortune for most girls TO be
taught at home, as is the fashion IN q
few exclusive families. A governess
IN the house Is q comfort to the moth
or and great help in the training Of
the nursery brood. But when girls
have arrived at their teens, masters
coming and going and teachers who
/ give the mhours Of careful coaching
are not half so good for them as are
the contact and the friction Of the
classroom.
Whether the school be public OF pri-
vata, whether on 9 city stiWet o. i
country road. q not the al important
thing. The essential Is that girIs
shall bs thrown into the Eoclsiy q
their peers and prepared n the school.
room for the Affairs Of the larger
world, into which they must enter be-
fore many years pass.
OF course. Ia the schoolroom you
are taught how 10 study. how to nss
l Fanr powers. how TO appear without
confusion and with credit IN the com.
/ pany Of others. and how 10 bear your-
self as "a unit N the mass composed d
nnits. The power 81 the personal
equation Is not underYalued II thG
schooiro0m. Every unit counts one
Il one girl Is careless, sloyenly 81 bel
work. tardy. Irregular IN attendance
and untrustWorthy, she harms moi
herself cnlg, but brings down the az.
sraga standing 81 her class haal
girls complain Of ihis IS X It were UNI.