The Palatka news and advertiser., 1916-12-08
women have lost honor, self-respect

women have lost honor, self-respect
and hope"
1t is possible that if Mrs. Penny
hackers dream Of bringing comfort
to the -troddcn women of South
and Central America is realized, she
will find her most enthusiastic help
ers among the Texas club women,
whose Spanish-spcaking neighbors
have given them experience in dealing
with, and in understanding the many
phases Of the Latin temperament.
| talk so much about public libra
ries that you may get tired of hear
ing about them every month, yet
cannot do justice to the work of the
Texas federation without telling you
that public libraries all over the
Southwest owe their very existence to
the efforts of the club woman. have
to tell it, for as a club woman I'm
mighty p. oud of it!
The State Library Association of
Texas was organized by women. They
also initiated the State Library Com
mission, and inaugurated the excellent
system of travelling libraries that at
present is being so successfully op-
Grated. Equally valuable in the Tex
as woman's estimation is the good
that can be done by the scholarship
endowment plan. There are forty
seven of these scholarships filled and
preparing, and twenty-seven loans
have been made for the higher edu-
cation of worthy girls. The Texas
Federation boasts that it never loses a
penny of the money that it lends to
these girls, and it is very proud of its
girls, too.
1t is hard to grasp the fact that
Texas is larger than either France or
Germany, and that its area is larger
than the thirteen New England and
Middle Atlantic states put together.
We realize that it's cities are far
apart, and that in the northern and
western parts cattle ranches of vast
area cover the plains with only here
and there little town. We think Of
its bigness and of its freedom, we con-
slider the blue, blue Texas sky and
the exhilarating altitude, thousands of
feet above the level of the sea, and
the glory of color that such clear dis
tances reveal, but do we realize that
for the women on these isolated
ranches these beauties may grow
stale, that life there has little to vary
its monotony? One cannot sit in the
saddle always, nor pass ones days
with nothing to feed the spirit but
great round breastfuls of oxygen! |
wonder if women in crowded cities ev-
er know what it is to yearn for just
a little human contact.
Clubs mean more to the women on |
a Texas ranch than to her city sister.
They are something to look forward |
to, to build upon, something from
whence may come the inspiration to
accomplish a fortnight's weary du-
ties.
The district meeting forms an i'm
portant spoke in the well-oiled machi-
merry of the Texas federation. Its i'm
portance has not been minimized nor
overlooked And the club women not
only do their own work, but commu-
nifty work as well. The highest state
endorse the work of the
Social Service Department of the
Texas federation. The Governor him.
self ISSUES statewide cleanup proc
amationS. In the small towns much
good work is, carried on jointly be-
,ween the club women and the local
educators. There is not a summer
nor a teachers school in
Texas, but the club women of the
have assisted in its main
enance or in its entertaining.
Mrs. Florence Floore, the State
Chairman Of Civics for Texas, is a