The Washington herald., 1911-03-26
And in the Doing Grow in
Strength.
CARE WILL DEVELOP ABILITY
The Erratic, Inefficient Girl Will
Become Se1f-reIiant and Well
Poised If Thrown on Her Own Re-
sources-Efort Calls Ont Powers.
Lesson for Mothers.
By RUTH CAMERON.
All that ought to be done can be dcne-kant

All that ought to be done can be dcDe-kant
! ought ! can. will-Eincent-
Let me tell you a little story Of a
great change. The change is in a
woman's personality, and the story of it
has impressed me anew with the tre-
rIendous power of the - will on char
acter forming.
The young women in question took the
training for a convalescent nurse a
couple of years ago.
When she made up her mind to do this,
everybody prophesied failure, because she
did not seem at all the kind of person
for this sort of work. She was i'm
patient and nervous, inclined to quick
temper. and had a rather loud. un-
pleasant voice.
The other day 1 heard some one speak
of her, and asked how she had sue
Ceeded.
''Wonderfully, Miss Cameron said my
Informant. And you never saw such
an improvement in any one in all your
life She visited me a few days last
week and really, she's q changed
woman.
Nervous and Impatient.
You know how nervous she used to
be, and how impatient il things didn't
60 just as she wanted them to? Well.
now she is as we'll poised and self-con-
trolled as can be.
And, her voice-why, you'd scarcely
know it was the same person speaking
it is so pleasant and we'll modulated.
What has happened to her? Well,
complimented her on hrr Improvement
and asked her how she did it, and she
just said, Because I had to. I realized
that when l took my first position. So
l did -
You see, this woman was A living
example Of kant's and Vincents doc
trine. and We who would have discour-
aged her were altogether in the wrong.
Lesson for Mothers.
I wonder if there isn't 4 lesson in this
for the mothers who refuse to put some
responsibility upon, or require some task
FROM a child. because Margaret is so
impatient with the younger children or
because John is so apt 70 forget things
VIXEN / send him on errandS."
! happen to know two mothers, one
OF whom refused to send her daughter
away to college because the girl was so
helpless about taking care of herself and
often showed such errat:c judgment: the
other who sent her daughter to college
for just the same reason.
The first girl, at thirty, is the same
erratic, inefficient person she was at
eighteen.
In the other girl, the clarion call of
II must brought out the 81 can." and
she came back from college a weIl-poised
woman
Effort Calls Out Powers.
l have read somewhere that the reason
a man sometimes surprises himself by
doing unusually brilliant work when he
* half sick. is that he is making a tre-
mendous effort and calling out all of his
powers. The article states that under
ordinary conditions, we only use about
one-quarter of our powers, and that
when any obstacle like illness causes us
to exert our full powers, we surprise
ourselves by what we can do.
Doubtless, other obstacles besides ILL
ness produce the same results.
All that ought to re done can be done
and in the doing the ability will be
created.
Just as exercise and the lifting of
heavy weights develop muscle, so re-
sponSibility develops ability.
1t seems to me Phillips Brooks must
have been feeling the power of Vincent's
motto, when he said:
"Oh, do not pray for easy lives. Pray
to be stronger men. Do not pray for
tasks equal to your powers. Pray for
lowers equal to your tasks. Then the
doing of your work shall be no miracle
But you shall be a miracle. Every day
you shall wonder at yourself, at the
richness OF life which has come to you
by the grace Of God"