The Washington herald., 1912-04-02
WOMAN'S SIDE Or
THE "IF". QUESTION
Frances Garside Might Give Point
ers to Kipling.

4 YOU can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
II you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubling. too;
n you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or. being lied about, don't deal in lies;
On. being hated don't give way TO hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise.
you can drtam-and not make dreams your mas
If you can think-snd not make thoughts your
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat these two impostors Just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaVcs 70 make trap for fools.
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken.
And stOop TO build them up with wornout tools;
And rsk it tum Of pitch and toss.
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
a And never breathe void about your loss;
II You can force your heart and nerve and snew
To serve yosIr turn long after they are gone.
And so hold on when there is nothing in you,
Except the will which says to them: Hold on
II you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue.
Or walk with hngs-not lose the common touch;
II neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you.
If all men count with you. but none too much;
II you can hll the unforgiyng minute
With sixty seconds worth Of distance run.
Yours is the earth and everything that's in it,
And-Which is mOre-yOun be a man, my son.
BY Rudyard kipling.
If you can cheer all about you though
your own spirit be dropping;
If you love thinking there is no fault
and can love more when you find It;
If you can counsel wisely and forbear
TO say Il told you so" when disaster re-
suits from refusing your suggestion;
If you can restrain from cheering eX-
sept for man when he wins on your ad-
vice, letting him think he pointed the
way;
If you patiently bow under the charge
that you are the mother OF failure, and
ne is the father of success;
If you can work such a wonder with
a dollar, in providing for your family,
hat the miracle of the Ioaves and the
ishes fades by comparison;
If you can be a tender and skilfuI
nurse without training or salary:
If you can watch man boastfuIIy climb
TO the heights of one specialization and
refrain from calling his attention to your
occupation which is to specialize in many;
II you can make optimism brighten and
broaden the limited and depressing view
from your kitchen window;
II you can hear, as Eve of old heard,
She did it," and cherish no resentment:
If you can work hard all day and sit up
till three in the morning to let in the
Lord Of Creation. and help him TO bed,
and make no moan;
II the god you put on a pedestal tum-
bles, and YOU can hold your head high
among friends and family as though he
had not fallen, but had climbed TO
greater heights;
If you need sympathy as no creature
on Gods earth needs it, and conceal that
need under a smiling countenance:
If you can bring forth children in pain
and agony, in patience, and raise them to
be good men and women under condi-
tions of injustice and oppression:
If you can hide your grieving when
death invades your little fold because
man does not like to be tormented by
grief, but wants the company of those
who help him forget:
II no demand on your patience can
show diminutiOn of your stock;
If you can work like an ant for a man
all day and transform yourself into a
butterfly for his amusement at night:
If you can be fOrgetful of his waste OF
money and time and give a straight ac-
counting of your own;
If you can accept in patience the de-
cisions of the weak. arrogant, pompous
selfish male the law has set above you;
II you can see That Thing which sits
at the head of your table as he really is,
with your eyes open, and continue to
honor and respect and love him as you
did in the days when your eyes were
smut:
If you can take that which you pur-
chased in the glamor Of the moonlight
of love into the merciless rays of noon
day and examine it and waste no time in
self-recriminatiOns, nor accusations OF
fraud;
If you can forgive and forget always
-eady to start on a fresh page and cher
.sh no memory of the pages that have
1een wasted
If you can love when there's naught
left to love but a memory of what he
lsed to be; If you can hope for him when
I'll hope is gone; if you can wait, always
n faith and hope and love.
Then some day you'll be a woman, my
girl FRANCES L. GARSIDE.