Evening star., 1940-06-16
Devoted Homemoker Finds
Time to Keep Scropbook
Mrs. Herbert Powell
Also Has Helped
Ruise 5 Children
BY JESSIE FAINT EVANS.

Who hasn't tucked away in a
crowded desk drawer bundles of
treasured clippings that have yell
lowed with the years, accumulated
their dust and defied one to dig forth
from their unindexed midst the
treasured thought which might have
made some moment sublime?
Mrs. Herbert Powell, ALL Nichol-
son street NV, who has served her
community in various lines of civic
activity in addition to being a de-
voted homemaker, has found time
to paste her clippings into scrap
books, where they are constantly
available.
Nor does she have any particular
system about what she puts into her
scrapbooks, since the range is wide
one from editorials to poems and
homilies clipped from many sources.
AS soon as one scrapbook is COM
pleted she begins upon its successor.
OF the clippings in her scrapbooks
Mrs. Powell says: Many of them
have been real sources and strength
to me during times of stress and
strain in my life, as well as in my
everyday problems"
Book Devoted to Etchings.
An entire scrapbook is devoted to
the reproduction of the etchings of
Mrs. Minnie Briggs which appeared
In successive Sunday editions of
The Star.
Many of her clippings are pasted
under special headings. At random
we noted these: Things you can't
change, make the best Of; Not that
I speak in want, for I have learned
in whatever state I am Herewith to
be content; Il love the door of my
small house, although it's neither
grand nor wide, when things 60
wrong inside its strong enough to
lock the big, strange world outside"
Often other scrapbook collectors
among whom there is sort of un-
organized esprit de corps send her
priced items, as do friends and ac-
quaintances who have become aware
of her scrapbook collecting pro-
clivities.
For the past six or seven years a
frequent attendant at sessions of the
House and Senate. one of her most
cherished scrapbook items is letter
from Representative Mary Norton,
thanking Mrs. Powell for her un-
selfish activities in behalf of her
fellow citizens of the District. In
this communication Representative
Norton tells Mrs. Powell she has
read previous letter from her upon
the floor of the House because of its
constructive nature and helpful sug-
gestions.
Member of Several Clubs.
Mrs. Powell, who has been a resi-
dent of Washington for the past 20
years, is member of the Takoma
Park Club, the Political Study Club
and the Housekeepers' Alliance, and
has repeatedly served terms of jury
service in the courts of the District
since women have been eligible for
this public duty.
She has firm convictions though,
"as to housekeeping being among
the oldest of the professions and the
newest of the arts" and considers
that, many women are tired out
as the result of too many activities
of their homes, rather than
because of those they pursue within
them"
This tendency" she says "is not
only an injustice to themselves, but
an even greater one to their hus-
bands and their children, for their
willingness to oblige others and their
enthusiasm to be Of service, all too
often lead them into vortexes of
club endeavor whose objective is
none too clear or really useful"
Helped to Rear Five Children.
Mrs. Powell has helped rear five
children, two of her own by a for
mer marriage, her first husband
having died Just before the Armis-
tice in the World War, two of her
present husbands, and the fifth, the
son of friends who were i'll and could
not care for him.
From this experience she has
drawn this conclusion, mo woman
need hesitate to take the RESPONSE
bility of children by another mar
riage, if she is willing to give her
self fundamentally to the idea of
their lives as happy and USE
full as she would those of her own
children, for children respond 100
per cent to whatever you do for
them in the right spirit"
One Of the first Of Mrs. Powells
scrapbooks was started for her own
son. Charles Miller, when he was
attending Mckinley High School.
1nterspersed between newspaper and
school bulletin accounts of competi-
tive drills, football and other high
school activities, she pasted bits of
wisdom and philosophy she felt
might interest him. Now, that he
is a grown man. she still keeps it
current for him, and it continues
to hold his interest.
Her husband. who is in the quar-
termaster generals office, has also
become mildly interested in his
wife's hobby and has for his own
diversion started scrapbook, large
ly pictorial in nature, which goes
back to the World War for its ma
terial.
Competing with her scrapbooks as