The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1915-06-08
OF Interest to Women
BY wInona Evans Reeves.

-
/ There is no month in the calendar
which brings so much of human SYM
pathy and interest as June, because
with that month come the June bride
and the sweet girl graduate. The in
/ terest in weddings never wanes, even
though they are old as human expert
ence. There is too. that same heart
interest in graduation and in the
| sweet girl graduate, radiant and loVe-
| ly as the June roses she wears on her
breast. | wonder if commencement
| means as much to the girls today as
| 1t did to those of a generation ago, TO
whom the day stands out with rad1-
ance only second to her wedding day
in Importance. With the cap and
gown and the one address by
stranger imported for the occasion,
much of the personal element OF grad
uatlng day is gone. Can you remem-
Der when all over the country during
the last two weeks of June, there
stood on the platform and of the vii
lage high schools and colleges,
bevses of young girls, clad in snowy
garments and kid slippers? How de-
lightfully they talked in their essays
of the exalted nature of the duties OF
life before them With gentle in
Election and with an occasional ges- |
ture, raising an arm from which a i
lace sleeve fell away to reveal the |
roundness and whiteness, they spoke /
of the good. the true and the beauti- /
full. With what interest their Ia
theirs, mothers and teachers listened
to their words of wisdom, and with
what pride they counted the bouquets
and the baskets of flowers heaped
about their feet. 1t is quite as old
fashioned now to have flowers at
graduation as it is to read az essay
or wear a white dress. but to folks
with old-fashioned notions, it seems
loss to the day. To some who gradu-
ate this week, the reality of life Will
not prove as rosy as their vision
pictures it, and with the passing years
the school days which now seem
prosy and matter of fact, will linger
in memory as LIES happiest days.
On North Fifth street there are
two signs near the Garfield school
building, Drive Slow. Public School
In Council Bluffs they have these
same signs but with these words adj
ditional. What sort OF father are
you?" 1t is safe guess that no au-
.omobile party will go through Coun-
ell Bluffs this summer and read those
signs without stopping long enough
% inquire how that question came to
De placed on an automobile sign. The
signs were placed there by the
Fathers clubs of Council Bluffs and
heir slogan is What Sort of Faith
sr are you" The history of the or
saniZation of this first Fathers club
IN the world is told in bulletin re-
Gently published by the United States
bureau of education and briefly, is {.
his: Stymset Stevenson, iumDer
of Council Bluffs, had ten
mis- court, a croquet ground AMI pas
ket ball outfit installed on some va I.
can't lots near his home, for the use
Of his two children and of the other
children of the neishborhood He be- I
came interested in the children and
zane to realization of how little he !
'eally knew abo;.t children. LooS.lS
about. he discovered that the men [
about him knew still less than he did. |
One evening in May, 1913, he per-
suadcd about thirty of his personal
riends TO spend an evening with him
n the LEGAL school building. Many of !
&c men hadn't been in a school house
since they were boys. That particu- ,
ar building in which they met had /
10 lights and they were incensed to :
earn that it was with the greatest :
difficulty that the board of education !
lad been prevailed upon to let them +
Use the building for an evening meet 9
ng. Mr.. Stevenson gave a plain talk G
about schools and asked them what f
hey knew about the building in which :
heir children went to school or about .
he teacher, and closed with this: 9
Men don't think of themselves as | r
athers. They think of themselves as \
or business men, or voters. | +
)ut almost never as fathers. Think e
Jack to your own boyhood. What kind 4
If father did you have, how did he 6
compare, not as a personality. but as 6
/ parent, with our mother? What sort v
e