Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1913-12-25
BY AMEL BRYAN MCCALL.


1t may safely be said, l believe, that
there is hardly woman Of twenty-five
who has not either loved and married,
or admitted to herself in earnest mo.
ments that love and marriage are de.
sirable.
Yet thought it may be said that
every normal girl either marries or de.
sires at one time or another this so.
called richer life, yet there are, as
everyone knows, many who for one
reason or another have not married and
in all likelihood will not. We look on
marriage and motherhood as the "des.
tiny of woman yet to many this
destiny shall not fall
We plan to live our lives in this
or that manner. We know that others
have made blunders or mistakes but
we mean to avoid them ourselves. Per-
haps we even fit ourselves as best we
can for motherhood, meaning some day
to have home and children Of our
own. Others have been the sport Of
chance, but our own hopes are bouy-
ant things Yet, for all our planning,
opportunities slip past us without our
knowing it, duty detains us, fate or
circumstance steps in, or some unhappy
chance bars the way to our happiness;
and our lives do not fall out as we
planned, but quite, quite often differ
emily.
The Girl Who Adapts Herself
But this tenth girll Fortunately
there is tenthl She is like, yet un.
like, the rest. She loves children, too,
She admits, too, that marriage is the
richer life and would have chosen il
for herself. Yet we do not think her
life incomplete, There goes with her
sense Of warmth and riches, yet
riches, and the feeling Of life well.
lived and boutiful. She would make
a wonderful mother, it seems, this
girl; yet we attach no pity to that
thought and there is nothing wistful
about her, She seems TO be one Of
the mothers.of the.world, with a kind
Of deep and fundamental motherhood
Of the heart; and of this motherhood
Of the heart l want to speak later.
And how it is that this girl differs
50 from the more average type' She,
too, had dreams, no doubt that had to
be relinquished. How was this grac.
iousness wont How has she con.
trived to make Of her life thing more
helpful, more complete than that of
many u married woman9
The temptation sto be selfish is,
believe, stronger for the unmarried
girl than for the one who is married.
Many of you will not agree with me
in this. You will point out to me
many unmarried girls who are dovout'
ing themselves to someone else, TO m
aged parent, n sister, brother, or
brothers. or sisters children. Yet
have you never noticed that where the
unmarried girl devotes herself mar
rowly to some one service, her own
life is apt to become in time a mar
row things and true unselfishness
never yet made any life narrow, ! am
sure; so | take IL such duty is not
wholly unselfish or II would not bring
about narrowness "a IL too often des.
Very generally though very gener'
ally too, she does not recognize the
fact, that unmarried girl is apt to take
up her unselfishness and her duties
with Il kind Of personal intensity.
This is her work. her duty, her ser
vice or, II II is a trivial matter this
Is her fad. She wants 70 make her
life felt; she wants TO have her gifts
used. Her personality is everywhere
evident. She becomes more and more
strong character, her iuviduality
les more and more evident, her per
sonal ways Of doing things, her "pe'
cuIarities" we call them, are more
and more marked as time goes on.
Her life does not merge In with other
lives, az odes the life Of her married
sister She is possessed by sense
Of duty which often when you look
at IL closely, seems to be a kind of
masked ogotism.
Yet this very thing that appears to
be and is indeed selfishness is, like
many another selfisbness, rooted IN
some longing which, Il rightly used,
could he made a power to bless This
egotism this desire 20 express one q
self In ones own manner, IL really
at heart onthing else but a kind OF
! Fundamental womanhoOd desire