The Washington herald., 1907-02-11

Old Words and Their Meaning.
The duties and privileges OF clubwomen
Is the subject which Edward Everett
Hale who celebrates his eighty-ffth
birthday on April , OF this year. has
taken up. in the February number OF the
Woman's Home Companion He says;
"To speak Of the wide range OF work
Of the clubs would be to discuss sub
iects which may be CLASSIFIED thus
"One. of the historical duty and priyl-
lege Of women's clubs. Two, their benev-
olent duty and privilege. Three their
vorI, IN matters Of amusement. -Four.
their work in sociological or political af-
fairs. Five, their studies IN literature
Six. and in general, the wish which ev-
cry decent club has to enlarge and I'M
prove the life Of the Immediate communi-
" in which Il is boTn-the wish TO bring
in what the New Testament calls the
Reign of God in that community.
"T'he classification is not very important.
For myself. ! like to know that club
has a subcommittee which can take ~
hand each one Of these subjects and
make at least a report on II at each
meeting. But il is none Of my business
to advise as to such details as that. J
shall try, and I shall begin to-day, TO
give suggestions. which viii be Of use
as to the six heads which I have enum-
Grated.
what RusI<in Wrote
To-day I will speak especially Of the
historical section. If in your club
library. or in the public library, or
on your own book shelves. you have
Ruskin's book. The Seven Lamps of
Architecture. take it down and read
what he calls the Lamp Of Memory.
When Ruskln wrote this chapter and all
young people were Wild about Ruskin,
We paused a little bitterly perhaps to
read what he said OF the contrast be
tween ones thoughts In a Swiss valley
and what he suppOses would be his
thoughts were ne in the valley Of Amer
lea, where there were no old castles. 40
Roman remains, no signs of the Druids
or Cave Dwellers or other prehistoric
people. For one I know / did my share
iu singing in contrast the glories Of the
Lamp Of Hope and explaining to Mr..
Ruskin or al other critics what advdn-
taEes We Americans have IN the pros
poets which are before us. And / believe
gladly that the disposition 20 look for
ward hopefully is innate In the makeup
of the true American. and that the read
CT Of these lines. whoever she Is, VIII
understand what our American feeling
of exultution in the future means. TO
look forward and not back is a good
working motto for the detail OF practical
life.
sir Francis Drake.
'Thirty-eight years after. Francis Drake
landed in brakes Bay. The Spaniards
called him a dragon and a pirate. while
Queen Elizabeth knighted him and called
him an admiral. He discovered Ore
gou He put Up a cross somewhere and
put an English shilling at the bottom
Of the cross And he took possession
OF that land in the name Of Queen
Elizabeth. I think. If you care about
me. that san Francisco owes its name
to some rather stupid person who on
some dirty map read san Francisco where
somebody bad written s Francis
That is. ] think that Sir Francis Drake Of
Che Golden Hind. and s.. Francis the god
father of the city are one and the same
But this is aU by tie way. and this IS
simply to show the clubs IN our newer
Statcs-that nice clubs TN Portland 81 Ore
COu. for instance-that the Gulf States
and Texas and New Mexico and Arizona,
and on the Pacific side. the States whose
rivers flow westward. are. as far as the
United States is concerned. the oldest
States OF all Sir Francis Drake took
possession Of California for Queen Eliza
beth five years before Sir Walter Raleigh
took possession" OF Roanoke Island.
Interesting People.
Now Mr. Ruskin may say what he
likes. but here are between three and
four hundred years of the most inter
esting period Of the history of the world
in which people as interesting as Sir
Francis Drake. Charles the Fifth. and
Ponce de Leon. and Sir Walter Raleigh
have 20 do; and you and I have that
history TO study. VIII some club in
Nebraska, for instance. tell me whether
somebody did find in the Ia Platte River
or near ii, something which was left
by one OF COTonado's men in 1892
or has some nice Maud. or Felecic. OF
Dorcas, in her cabinet "A silver shilling
which Michael picked UP in blowing
which is the shilling which Francis Drake
buried there in the year Of 1872
And We need not think we are only
flying for such game as this. Very
likely your grandmother sang to YOU
when you were a child that old ballad
that Mir Duyckinck hunted after and
could not find He knew one or tWo
verses of il. but he did not know the
whole. Do you perhaps know the rest
Il is the ballad nearly three hundred
years old which says of the Pilgrim
Fathers. We had pumpkins at morning
and pumpkins at noon. II il were not
for pumpkins We had been undone.
Should Keep Memoirs.
Now, l wish to say very earnestly TO
the ladies in o, i56 clubs. where this letter
will be read. that it is not as n matter
of amusement but as matter Of his
tory that they ought TO put on record and
keep the memoirs for the service of his
tory in the century which is before US
The Presidents messages will be printed.
and let Us say in whisper that nobody
will read them. The daily newspapers
viii be bound; let us say with private re
joicing that they are all printed on pulp
paper and viii be iIlegibie in the wear
200s. But the nice quartO manuscript
book. half bound In good Russia leather
which the club i'm New Padua or little
Crawford has for its records, viii exist
in 2006. And If the secretary, when she
reads this paper, viii buy some good
black ink. such as is legible after q cen
fury. and will keep in that book the
records Of this time as from month 10
month she is able 10 put them on paper
that secretary will be blessed by men and
women yet unborn. We of to-day know
Of one little speech which Lafayette made
In Baltimore about the shirts which the
Baltimore ladies were making for one
regiment Of the American army in ISL