The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1916-06-10

to the call of the soil. Why, every
thing that the human hand combines
into forms of use and beauty comes
up from the soil. For nature is our
elder brother, and the bonds of kin
ship are strong; and it is no mere
moonbeam of poetic fancy that now
and then carries us back TO the time
when we truly lived when life rang
as clear as the killdee's call, and the
spirits were charged with the purple
of autumn afternoons and the bloom
of April mornings. These lives of
ours are SO singularly knit UP with
nature, SO buoyed in it's air, SO fbred
in its frame. 80 rooted in its soil,
that no matter how we are cased
matter how adroitly we have been
macy and the cold courtesies Of So
ciety, no matter no matter: there
are moments OF soulintegrity when
these things lose their hold over us
and Just breath of forest flower
will draw our vagrant lives like wan
derers-home.
THE life of youth answers back to
nature. There is something in It's
life that has river willows and syca-
mores in it. Will any of as ever for
get that time? Will l ever forget
the time first found the winter red
birds. the cardinal grosbeaks? Red
all over; beautiful! and was con-
scious of something red in my soul
that answered back their red, just as
surely as my whistle answered back
theirs. And there was som ethfng in
my soul that went back yellow to the
yellow of the meadowlarks breast
and the yellow-hammer's wing; some
thing that flew high and cold with
the wild geese and the ducks; some
thing that scared with the hawk in
the upper air: something that wanted
to just run wild to red and yellow
feathers, and wings in high air, and
wet leaves, and sassafras, and paw
paws and wood smells. And just as
surely there is something In the life
of the young that answers back to
the thrill of the effort of honest
work; something that jubilantly an.
swers back the rafting Of the ham.
mers and the throbbing of the en-
gines; something that tightens to the
tense strain of the business of bart 'c
and exchange. 1t is the eager ard:
of
fathers field,
And at night along the dusky high
way, near and nearer drawn,
Sees in heaven the lights of London
fiaring like drear dawn;
And his heart leaps forth within him
to be gone before him then,
In among the lights he looks at, in
among the throngs of men,
r
Poise and Assurance.
THE work of the hand gives physi-
cal poise and assurance. l knew "a
boy who during his seventeenth and
eighteenth years had to leave school
and go out to work at the hardest
part of the carpenters apprentice
ship 1t was work that tried strength
and endurance. 1t meant the loading
and unloading of heavy timbers.
using the rear wheel of the wagon
for lever and swinging them into
place; it meant the shouldering of
heavy punches of shingles, and the
carrying of them with sure step up
quivering ladders; and, what tasked
the endurance more, 1t meant long,
monotonous ten-hour days under
blistering sun where the pine roof
boards gathered the heat and swell
tered back like the sand of a hot
desert. But the young man counts
that experience today among the
most valued items Of his training. 1t
tried him out. 1t gave him physi-
cal constitution and a physical hardi-
hood that has been. as a bedrock
when later tests have tried his endur-
ance And the learning OF the sure,
strong stroke that pushed the rfp-saw
straight to the mark of the chalk
line; the clean shove of the joiner
plane that cut the shaving close to
the gauge mark; and the more deli
cate touch that held the fine-toothed
back-saw to the knife Hne-ail this
has given him sureness of grasp,
certainty Of touch, positiveness of
action and Judgment even, that has
made him far more efficient both for
service and enjoym ent.
Present economic conditions are
all kinds of practical SER
vice as they never did before. The
first question that is asked today is,
What can you do?' The watch-word
today Is service deficiency. The call
for practical service is strong. And
the fact cannot be escaped that the
call is for young women as well as
for young men. Votes for women is
no mere idle slogan. The ballot of
the woman is at hand. Approve it or
not, it is a fact that must be reck-
oned with 1t means far more than
that she is going to hare an equal
vote with men. 1t means that she
is going to. be an active participant
in the work of efficient service, and
it means that the young woman is
expected to be prepared. 1t means
that she must be prepared In some
thing more than mere fneness of
mind. I believe that today every
young woman, no matter what her
prospects are, ought to be equipped
with some independent possibility of
seIf-support ] would advise it If her
father is a millionaire I would ad-
wise II even If she is going to marry
a royal duke of the old world"
The speaker here referred to the
misunderstanding that has existed be-
tween the man of business and the
college graduate. The graduate has
-