Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-03-19
NATURE OFFERS
WOMEN BIG WORK
Human Nature Broadened and
Brutality Eliminated by Study
of Woods and Fields
BY Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Copyright, 1915, star Company.
A young woman from Brooklyn, who
has Sunday School class of little
boys, writes enthusiastically on the
subject of the Nature Sunday School
Idea, discussed in this column some
weeks ago.
She says: 1--WE have a way oi
lauding human motherhood, but why
not mediate sometimes on those lit.
tie mothers of earth and air? Dc
women realize that the agony of the
human mother upon beholding hel
death-robbed cradle is relatively nc
more poignant than that of the hen.
robin who, returning with food fol
her babies, finds them stoned tc
death and the little home she was
weeks in preparing for them ruth
lessly destroyed by the thoughtless
hand of some offspring of Gods
highest expression?
Before we women push ourselves
into politics with the expectation oi
uplifting them, it seems to me we
would do well to learn a few lessons
still from our Original Mother and
develop more of the Infinite within
us.
''In our foolish, feverish eagerness
to mimic our brothers we seem to
have lost sight of the fact that we
have mission of our own which, il
we fulfill it, will place us on a higher
plane than any we can ever manufac-
ture for ourselves! Naturehood-
Motherhood! Crowd out Nature and
you kill the maternal; kill the ma
ternal and where will our world be?
"All possible success to the Nature
Sunday School! 1t will develop the
children physically, mentally and
spiritually, eliminate aimless torture,
awaken women to finer sense of
their peculiar responsibility and
please the Creator.
Very careful attention should be
given to the selection OF teachers.
There are skilled naturalists Q have
met them) who go into the study
quite without sentiment-merely as
profession. To them the woods
and fields represent little more than
places wherein to delve for speci-
MEMS and they even cultivate an in
clination to dissect every unusual
creature that comes within their
reach.
Nov, however much scientific
knowledge these may possess they
NOuiU hSNSl w SltIS VI the
Creators schemes to children's s
hearts. To my mind, women are
best fitted for this work, owing to
the inherent maternal instinct
which would be broadened and deep
ened by .the association. What they
lack in actual knowledge could be
easily made up by little effort, and
the results would be of great benefit
to themselves, to the little ones and
also to numerous winged and furred
creatures that suffer unjustly for our
lack of conscience regarding their
rights to life and protection"
The enthusiasm of this young
woman is pleasing and her ideas
worth while, with the ex option of
what, perhaps, might seem to be an
Anti-Equal Franchise tendency.
There is no earthly reason why a
woman cannot develop the infinite
within her and study everything
which leads to great and good moth
erhood, and, at the same time, know
enough of political conditions to cast
an intelligent vote.
Wherever woman has the franchise
there is marked decrease in drunk
enness. The writer was told few
years ago by resident of New Zea-
land, a man, that alcoholism de-
creased 60 per cent. in that land after
women went into politics.
Surely this thought is worth dwell
ling upon.