Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1917-02-08

Anu 80 IL JHlS rural retirement Is
to come it is to come through better
= church. And there is a new deffini-
ton of Church" 1t is not like the
old country church. 1t is all right
that it should die-it ought to die,
because it has done its work. You
know that church is a man-made
institution. And so there is another,
new, finer, a greater church ris-
ing for the country.
And the country school-that has
been changed very much, very much,
indeed, especially in my own State
of Indiana. We have the consolidated
school, which has given a new idea.
And so all along the line there is
wonderful opportunity opening for
this country boy and girl, and be-
lieve when the women in the coun-
try, under the encouragement that is
going to be given to them in the
right administration of the Smith
Lever act, believe that we shall find
women all through the country get
ting together in little clubs to talk it
over, talk about the health and the
recreations of the young people,.
l want to say to you that there is
one way in which 1 believe young
people can enjoy themselves that we
have not half used, and that is the
dramatic instinct. 1 believe we all
like to pretend that we are some
body else. Can't you recall, every
one of you, the little girl three or
four years old that puts on her moth
er's kitchen apron and it trails be-
hind her, and because that kitchen
apron is trailing behind her she thinks
she is lady. And so we begin to play
we are somebody else, and 1 believe
this getting-together OF the young
people to rehearse little plays, moth
ing fine, nothing of great moral ma
ture, but just little comedies, think
the getting-together, If it is nothing
more than a charade, perhaps, for a
church social, that it is the getting
together that is such fun, and the
young people enjoy it so much. The
girl wants to be the princess and the
boy wants to be the prince, no mat
ter how crude it is. And so it comes
to pass, the getting-together and re-
hearsing-take farm choruses, this
singing calls for the getting-together
rehearsing, and so believe if we will
offer to the young people opportuni-
ties to get together, we shall have
solved one of the difficulties in the
country, and that is the recreational
life of the young people.
know many people talk about he
redity today. Say if you are born
with certain heredity, why that set
ties it, 1 do not feel that way. I
used to believe more in heredity than
1 do now.
l believe now in environment. 1
believe it would be to impeach Prov
idence to say because of your birth
you are condemned to certain things.
Not at all. The queen bee is queen,
not because of her heredity. Thous-
ands of bees in the hive are of the
same heredity. She is queen because
she has larger cell, by the food, by
the care, and so can believe that en-
vironment and care will do for any
child the very best that is possible for
that child. l like a good heredity,
but then if we can't have that, then
let us have a good environment. We
can give that to our child in the
country.
And so this woman is going to do
better things in the country. She
will contribute her understanding.
She will go away from the home.
What is it farmers need the moste
say this, to go away from home and
to come back again.
The farmer stays too closely at
home Who is the leading man in
your community? Who is the best
farmer in your community? Who
has the best farm? will venture to
say they are the men that go away
from home and come back. He goes
all sorts of places. He goes to the
State Fair, to the International. He
goes to the Agricultural College of
the State. He meets men in the same
business; he gets a new point of view,
He brings it back to his home. Now,
when the woman does the same thing,
what?
Which is the family in your COM
munity. which is the nearest like
what you would like your family to
beP You will find it is the family
where the woman, too, sometimes
goes away from home. The children,
too, have a little trip. You know it