Free press., 1907-01-26
ALaay Delighted with Hays City.

State President of the Ladies Clubs of
Kansas visited our city, and thus writes
of US in the Topeka Journal:
IF memory serves me, the last in
ssallment of this serial left the hero
ine-not suspended over an abyss by a
single tress of hair-but just alighting
from daybreak train at Hays. There
was no one to meet her, and from that
moment of indecision which ends in
quest for a telephone, she was rescued
by Mrs j. H. Ward, slowed away in
carriage and driven to the most COM
Portable of homesteads, where in
great bow-window full of greenery =
was an inviting arm chair which had
apparently waited since the beginning
of things for this very visitor.
Now, it was Mrs. Ward who Grrang-
ed this series of visits, and had start
ed out with the intention of giving her
''piece of my mind''. For two rea-
sons this did not occur. In the first
place, by the time / reached Hays 1
was so delighted with my experiences
that was only sorry the trip was not
to last longer, and in the second place,
although Mrs. Ward is ''unco' little,
(as the Scotch would say she is mighty
and there is look of decision about
her. AS the president of the Saturday
Afternoon Club, she is a force in her
own town, and as an officer of the 9Th
district, she has been force abroad,
while it is not wild guess to prophe
cy that she will come to be force to
reckon with in the state work. And
with it all, her husband and sons and
daughters, all of whom overtop her in
size, gravitate about her, as the CEN
tire of their world.
It is a musical family, and I have
heard from the concert stage, profes-
sional music much less pleasing to the
ear than that / heard from the quar-
tette, busying themselves about the
household tasks at this home with the
mothers voice leading.
In the afternoon pleasant gathering
at the home of Mrs. Geo. Philip to hear
Shakespearian readings.
Friday a visit to their State Normal
School. Foggy outside, but inside the
warmth and light and cheer made out
side dreariness far away. found two
large buildings of substantial limestone
of architecture most satisfying, and
look as much part of the landscape
as the winding creek and the stretches
of wild grass But better than every
thing else were the students, fine, clean
Young men and women, erect and vigo-
rous, with eyes that meet yours evenly
and clearly, and the breath and free
dom of the open tablelands in their bear
ing. Search as you may, you cannot
find in the length and breadth of this
land as many young people who are
leading more sane and wholesome lives
than these.
And why shouldn't they? With we'll
equipped teachers, whose methods are
up-to-date, and with all out of doors for
their own. AS we drove over the ath-
letic grounds, where are separate aliot-
| ments for basketball, baseball and ten
mis-. looked across the golf course and
down the windings of the creek which
furnishes skating in the winter and boat
ing, bathing and fishing in the summer,
I read reason for the bright eyes and
rosy cheeks of the students.
Within the last year 800 have been
enrolled at this school, but they are not
allowed to keep their students-teach-
ers who have attended here are in such
demand that school-boards from all
over the western part of the state car
ry them off to captivity in the district
schools, where they command the high
est salaries that are paid.
It was a morning all too short, yet
| long enough to create in me an immense
admiration for Prof & Mrs. Picken and
their assistants, and feeling that
whatever the Western Kansas Normal
school asks of the state of Kansas ought
to be granted, for the possibilities OF
the institution are almost incalculable.
And back to town in time for a lunch
con in the artistic home of Mrs. Crit
| fith-a home i'll which the smiling,
blue-eyed hostess seems to belong as
| Jewell in its setting. Covers were laid
for 12; the table decorated with gold &
brown, club and federation colors, the
favors being little sketches in water
color, illustrating quotations from Mac
beth and GAS You Like 1t.
Then delightful dinner at the home
of Mrs. Ward, with Mrs. Jas. Reeder
and Mrs. Alex Philip as fellow7guests.
And then, in the evening, came the
gathering of the clans for which Mrs
Ward had planned this visit, when she
entertained the old and ever progress
sive Saturday Afternoon Club and the
New Cuftus Club, which she has just
organized. The house was decorated IN
yellow with white carnations; about so
were present, and again 1 had the op-
portunity of speaking about our work
to an audience of rare intelligence.
| fTSLoro x.,oc= considerable more of this