The Pensacola journal., 1914-12-20

In America, you will need no introduc.
| ton to Miss Ernestine Noa, even it i
| has been your misfortune to have
missed meeting this delightful yount
woman, and listening to her perfectly
good reasons why you should be a suf-
| fragist, and other equally good reasons
I why you should be interested in rura
credits or the lack of rural credits II
i this country
/ Miss Noa is charming. Who's Who
does not tell you that because its bust
ness is to give out only dry details
, But If you have heard Miss Noa tall
| you do not need to be told.
And the greatest charm Of this won
| derfuI young woman is her modesty
Unless it be her splendid common
sense.
She talked very hard and quite fast
| for there was a bare twenty minutes
) to get the story, and there was lun-
cheon at one.
But what she did tell about her worl;
was intensely interesting, and between
| the names and dates and places that
| were given in response to a rapid fire
questioning, there were delightful
! glimpses into a most varied expert
ence and a most inspirational work.
Miss Noa does things. That is the
reason she has received an ovation in
Pensacola. Here we want people who
know things and do things and believe
in things. Miss Noa believes in her
work intensely. It was easy to see
this on Wednesday evening when she
spoke under the auspices Of the Pen
sacola Equal Suffrage Association at
the San Carlos auditorium 1t was
plainly manifested at the other i'm
promptu talks given subsequently in
the same auditorium. But perhaps on
Friday evening was it most clearly
demonstrated when, at their own in
vitation, she spoke to the men Of Pen
saco1a, having remained over at per-
sonal sacrifice, to accede to the re-
quest of a number of the Chamber Of
Commerce and other business men
that she might tell them more of the
need for the extension of rural credit
and rural work in this country.
Seated in her cozy room at the San
Carlos hotel, Miss Noa spoke Of her
work without emphasizing in any way
the Importance Of the young woman
who had accomplished this work. But
she could not hide her personality un
der any statistics, for it shines out as
brightly and humorously as the smile
To tell the story just as she told it,
simply and directly-she has always
been interested in club work and edu-
cationaI matters. At the luncheon
twenty minutes later she said that the
first public speech she ever made was
at the age Of nine, and the only thing
that she remembers about it very
clearly was that she wore white silk
stockings and white silk shoes with
tassels. Which proves that Miss Noa
is intensely feminine well as in
tenseIy enthusiastic. And if for one
minute you think chickens and pigs
and hay and fodder and corn and cows
and silk stockings and tassled shoes
do not go together, you must meet
Miss Noa, and then you will know that
they do. For that is just exactly what
she is working for. She is not in the
least satisfied to have all the silk
stockings and the tassels herself. In
deed, after one has talked to her bit |
one feels very sure that she does not |
want them SO very badly and that she |
could go without them altogether her |
self, If she might bring into the lives
of the farmers wives Of this country |
something of that satisfaction that |
luxury sometimes brings. Not the |
luxury of having the things you do not !
really want, but of enjoying those |
things that you really do need and |
which soften life so tremendously for |
US all.
Miss Noa is the founder of the Ten
nessee Press and Authors Club. She |
is also one Of the women members Of
the Tennessee Highway Commission,
the only other woman member being
DR.. Lillian Wyckoff Johnson OF Ten
nessee, with whom Miss Noa has been
associated in her work for some time.
Several years ago Miss Noa and her +
mother went abroad, intending to re- Il
main in Europe for a long time, and
as Miss Noa loves to be ousy, she
carried with her letters from the Com
missioner of Education of the United
States to every European country, re-
Iuesting that she might be allowed to
make school investigations in those
countries.
Previous to this time. Miss Noa had
Interested herself in some of the won
lerful work in her own country, vis-
ting the schools at Rochester, New
York, Baltimore, Washington and 9TH
r institutions of learning
Miss Noa was at this time chairman
# the Industrial Educational depart
nent Of the Tennessee Federation Of
Vomen's Clubs, and it was while in
london, making some Investigations
nto English methods, that Miss Noa
vas Joined by DR.. Johnson, of Ten
lessee, formerly president of the
Western College at Oxford Ohio. Dr.
ohnson was in Europe for a long
eeded rest, but previous to her de-
she had attended the South
rn Educational Conference in Nash
lille and had been much impressed
y the rural survey made by Walter
lines Page, Editor Of The Worlds
York, and now ambassador to Eng
and. Mr.. Page had so clearly shown !
that might be done along these lines
4 the United States At this same / |
TOr Tohpco1 ba6 y,,o+ Do1,;s