The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-10-18

once household economics;' the high
 cost of living, or the cost of high living
 as someone pertinently phrases if; tho race question, by which I do not mean
 the free-for-a1l scramble for the pnos- idle ntial chair; equal suffrage: the tsT-
 fir, which We have always with us the rescue of the submerged tenth; the feeding and care of infants (though Mir Holt has exhausted the subjectD the enlightenment of children of larger
 gi owth-everything. in short, from in ternational marriages to the burning question of whether Birmingham shall have zoo, and wherel
 These are indeed present day prob lems, and there are scores of others of interest to each of us, and where else can they be dwelt on with a hap pier prospect of elucidation than in our clubs-composed of bright, up-to- date women, who are training them selves, and being trained, by the at tention of club life to large minded, reasoning and logical deduction? Certainly, if we can do anything to hasten the march of progress in this far from perfect old world of ours, we should not begrudge the time 1t takes from lighter and perhaps more con genial tasks.
 Thoughts are things, we are told, and the "expulsive power of new idea is too well known to require any in sistence of it's verity
 The annual or semi-annual bugbear of house cleaning in our homes Is, dare affirm, no more of grim neces- sity than is the mental house cleaning and readjusting of ideas and prejudices, and even convictions, that all must un- dergo If they keep abreast of the times, and become fitted in some measure for
 lending a hand"
 Life, says recent writer. will never have It's fuller meanings for you until you learn to appreciate the poten- tialities, as well as the present actuali- ties of the people you meet The diff ference between the whining cynic and the constructive humanitarian, is large ly difference of interpretation of peo- ple;' and it seems to me we get a bet ter idea of each other in discussion of live questions than in all the glitter Ing seneralities," of the by-gone ages
 AS matter of fact, your opinion of ''The Ring and the Book" no mat ter how brilliant and exhaustive 1t may be- is of less coneern to me in an estf- mate of your value as a woman than what you have to say on the servant question, or Texas legislation as it re- lates to women, or even the present inadequacy of our local telephone sys- teml
 Mrs. Elliott. at the conclusion of her beautifully phrased presentation of the negative side of the argument summed up with this lovely thought: So, my friends, let us not tear down. put build up; let us have more united effort, more social service clubs for solving present day problems. But let us also have larger ground for cul- tivation in our literary and cultural clubs; so that the sowing of seed in the SDrinQ 11n in the other, in flowers of hope and faith and love for humanity.
 But all the time let us keep the
 tares from choking the fragrance from
 one little garden plot
 The principle of the affirmative car
 ried through life would rob 1t of the
 ideal, the spiritual; and what would
 be left?
 The primitive man at the blow: Mill
 let's man with the hoe. Both are work CTS. But alasl for the ignorance and
 hopelessness written upon their facesl Isn't 1t just the pity of it all. we're trying by the best means to overcome?
 So. worthy judges. we ask of you: Give us the song and the story, rob
 not life of It's right to the esthetic,
 the spiritual, the divine.
 Help us to turn away from the ruins
 of Babylon and upbuild the walls of
 new Jerusalem; help us to found the city beautiful, not alone along the highways but in the hearts of peo~ pie.
 Then shall the wilderness blossom
 as the rose" and man shall have such
 full conception of the ideal: such a
 conception of the true that his life shall grow to be part of 1t: and
 he shall bear upon his countenance the image of that One who Is alto gether lovely.