The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1913-06-15
The Web of Life
BY MARIE HAYES.

Welcome! for the last time We have
the pleasure of extending this greet
ing to friends gathered in ST. Peters
hall, but we do it with sincere and
unalloyed satisfaction, for the pres
ence of SO many assembled to wish
us "God-speed" is a great encourage
ment
In the old Latin myths we read OF
the god Janus, who was the pos
SCISSOR of two faces, looking in oppo-
site directions; with the one set to-
ward the past he could at the same
time look into the future. The class
of 1918 are Janus-faced today-we
gaze longingly back into our school
life and say with the poet:
Visions of childhood! Stay, stay.
Ye We're SO sweet and wild,
And distant voices seem to say,
1t cannot be they pass away!
Thou are no more child"
A learned author has embodied
these significant words in the litera-
ture of the times: Life is the warp;
time the shuttle, our deeds the wool
which we weave day by day into a
web of grotesque design" Thus far
our lives have been wove- of threads
of gold, into the most beautiful fan
cies of happiness and truth-but now,
we stand, shuttle in hand, waiting.
fearing, hoping, with eager, tremulous
hearts. peering into the yelled future.
What shall be the next tracery,
shall it be woven of bright roseate
we look at ourselves in the light Of
thought we discover that our life 70
embosomed in beauty. Behind, all
things assume pleasing forms, before,
the distant prospect. though yelled, is
one of enchantment. I'VE see our
way as birds their trackless course.
We shall arrive! What time, what
circuit first we know moi"
The boys of course will, emulated
by the example of previous classes,
dart boldly forward, and like Sir Gala
had, the purest and bravest knight of
the fabulous round table, perform
great deeds for God and country, they
will weave webs of noble actions in
either the professional or business
life. But we, the so-called weaker
sex. the silent workers in the moral
and social world, are at the present
era, the theme of every pen and
tongue.
From the dawn of history, woman
has been the great prisoner of faith,
hope and love. In ancient times she
thing of man, to minister to Lis wants
or pander to his caprice. T. was chris
tianity that placed Ter on her proper
plane. the companion of man, the
queen of the household
From the time when the Virgin
mother in the midnight silence Of
Bethlehem. clasped the God made
man to her heart,--woman has been
the silent influence in the world
since the day when with broken heart
Mary stood under the blood-stained
cross of Calvary has been to
man as the tender vine that binds UP
the weary heart,-since the time
when the child Jesus learned from
her lips, to lisp the words of earth
woman has been the teacher of the
young Wordsworth characterizes her
AS a spirit still and bright,
With something of an angel light
Woman's intellectual awakening IL
as dream. She has gained admis
sion to professional life; in the bust
ness world her competition with mar
is more and more felt; in literature
her performances are not inferior tt
the masculine development; in al
things but politics, she copes valiantl!
with the sterner sex, but there tht
noble, modest woman, draws the line
and confines her influence to thu
magic circle of Home, where she Il
by unanimous vote, president, sena
tor, cabinet minister and chief jus
tice, for "the hand that rocks tht
cradle is the hand that rules the
world"
It is not the number of great daz
zling and affecting events which
trace the most pleasing designs OF
the web we weave; but the delicate
unseen, quiet, and ordinary comforts
of social and domestic life, for thu
loss of which no political fame o
power could ever compensate.
Catholic womanhood has Away
been the glory of the church; Mar.
is the ideal to which they ever look
She is the perfect woman-"Ou
tainted natures solitary boast, an,
IL we trace her beautiful example II
our web of life. the design will be o
fair and noble proportions. True a
our teachers and parents daily war
us. woman can lose her natural sens
of religion and virtue, and when sh
does, she goes faster and deeper il
evil than man, for the greater the ele
walton, the more disastrous the fall
Life may not yield to us all tn
happiness, or success We desire, We
If we make use Of the advantages 81