The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-09-20

rule is a good one:-"Every day to
| take a long walk, read a good book
| and make a new friend
The tragedy of lost youth is pene-
tratingly put, in a recent poem in
Lippincott's Magazine, by Margaret
| Widdemer:-
Il can remember, once. ere 1 was
The sorrow and the prayer and bit
| ter cry,
When they that loved me stood
around the bed,
Knowing that 1 should die.
They need not so have grieved their
souls for me,
| Grouped statue-like to count my
failing breath;
Only one thought strove family, bit
| terly,
With the kind drug of Death:
How once upon a time. unwept, un-
known,
Unhelped by plying sigh or muir
| INJURED prayer,
! My youth died in slow agony alone,
| With none to watch or care
| A few days ago 1 was standing by
| the newsstand in a railway station,
a refined face, and correctly gowned
| in quiet taste, came up and bought a
certain magazine, known for the vul-
garity and even immortality of its
fiction. The manner in which she
went directly to that one publication,
and took it up without glancing at
the table of contents showed that she
was accustomed to reading it, and
knew exactly what she wanted. The
action betrayed her as truly as if she
had sworn OF chewed tobacco. Any
sophisticated person, seeing the in
cident. would have written down that
young woman as essentially unrefined
in her mind. No woman of genuine
culture would be seen reading such a
magazine. All of which leads to the
rather obvious remark that education
reveals itself in all the affairs of life;
and the world does not have to look
at a persons diploma to judge of his
cultivation.
Most alert persons are aware of the
new trend of education to relate itself
to present life. 1t teaches children
history with respect to the welfare
and progress of the people, rather
than as a string of useless dates. Pa
triOtiSm is shown to be less a matter
of battles in the past than of loyalty
to the common welfare in the pres
ent. The sacredness of every life,
right here and now, is written large.
Living issues of our own day are Civ
en- rank ahead of the wars of Greece
and Rome. All of which but recalls
when he asked, Can We not discern
the signs of the times?'
Brains that are fed but not exer-
cised, like horses in similar con-
dition, are unable to bear their share
of life's load.
There are myriads of educated per-
sons who have never seen the inside
of a college; and thousands of fools
who own sheepskins. Sometimes we
make a fetch of schoolroom training.
Life has many teachers and many
classrooms. The person whose capaci-
ties are trained and under control who
knows the sphere in which he lives, and
who can successfully relate his powers
to present conditions, is an educated
man.
+ + T.
Religion educates. That is tre-
mendous truth. Culture and refine
ment, in idealism, in unselfshness, in
service, in relative values and in the
eternal relationships, comes through
the knowledge and worship of God, and
through study of His word. Over and
over it has been remarked that saints
whom the world calls peasants have
been examples of perfect gentility.
They whose own abilities are led out
and that is what "education' means
themselves become leaders of their
fellows