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PAGE SIX.
THE BANNER, SUNDAY MORNING, JUNE 15, 1913.
“WOMAN AND THE HOME”
Graduating Essay oi Miss Eunice Reed at the Athens High
School Through the High School This Yonng Lady
Stood First Ever) Year in Her Classes.
A race of people is correctly Judged
by the standards of its home life. The
standards of its home life are the
ideals of those who make up the home
circle. Of those who make up the
home circle woman is easily the dom
inant factor in the deevlopment of the
higher and better things of life. Hence
it has been truly said that home Is
the truest, the best, the most useful,
the only real sphere of woman, in
which she may wield tho jeweled
scepter of a queen and mold in beau
ty and In strength the character of
her loyal and affectionate subjects.
When speaking of home one gener
ally thinks of the space within the
four walls of a house. Such an Idea
of a home is pitifully incomplete, and
it is a great mistake to suppose that
woman's sphere of greatest usefulness
can be circumscribed by such narrow
limits. The home, in its truest and
best sense, is rather the atmosphere
engendered by the several personali
ties who are themselves the product
<>f a larger environment. Men and
women and children make up the
home and men and women and chil
dren represent a great variety of
ideas, sentiments, passions, deeds that
in turn are largely the result of envi
roment
With such a definition of the home
as a beglnnig point, a question that at
once arises is this, “to what extent
should a woman seek to affect this en
vironment?”
This question has been answered in
a thousand ways, answered in deeds
and achievements, answered in the
contributions to the literature of the
world, answered in the quietude of
the home circle and amid the noise
and clamor of the multitude, answered
in accomplished reforms and In
dreams of better days to be. The ad
dition of one more answer tonight will
In no way exhaust the subject or re
move the question from the realm of
debate, for the mind of a girl gradu
ate, however excellent the facilities
oi our beloved Institution and how
ever faithful the labors of our be
loved teachers, is not freighted with
the wisdom of the centuries. And yet
none of us can be devoid of interest
in the definite part of woman’s work,
here at home and throughout the
great world.
Unquestionably the true work of
woman begins with the members of
the immediate family circle. It is no
selfishness that causes this, it is Just
ns God intended it should be. The
earliest environment of the child is
bounded by a narrow, but still a beau
tiful and blessed horizon. Every year
that horizon enlarges until it takes In
cities and states and nations and in
many cases encircles the globe. The
environment of the child may be eas
ily touched in itB every phase by the
mother, but the environment of those
who have stepped out of the shining
pathway of childhood on to the broad
avenues of youth, or manhood or worn
anhood is as wide as their associa
tions, physical, mental or moral. Yet
whatever environments may surround
one in life that which most closely,
most intimately, most enduringly
touches him, finds its birth and last
ing nourishment around the fireside.
Without a clean, pure, wholesome,
happy. God-fearing environment at
this point, there can scarcely be such
environment elsewhele. The stream
that is polluted at its source may in a
measure be purified temporarily but
cannot be kept pure. Happy is the
child, the man, the woman whose
home surroundings have been such as
to elevate, ennoble and bless their
lives.
But the woman who folds her hands
in satisfaction over the happy and
pure environment of the inner family
circle and neglects other duties, now-
well defined and thoroughly acknowl
edged. will some day awake to a re
alization of the fact that her work has
been only half completed. We cannot
shut our eyes to the verdict of this
enlightened age which declares that
while woman should always subordin
ate other actions to those required of
her in her own home circle and
around her own fireside, there are
still other demands upon her heart
and intellect, her time and her ener
gy. that cannot be slighted.
A few years pass over the heads of
tho little tots and then the doors of
the school room open to receive them.
From that day until the days of man
hood or womanhood come, the teacher
School, 1913—From her First Grade in Meigs Street ''™ 8 al ™ 8t a8 con8tant a com
’ panion as the mother, frequently a
more constant companion and a con
siderable portion of every day is spent
in company and companionship with
many other children. Every mother,
every elder sister should then become
vitally interested in everything touch
ing the correct management of
schools, the selection of teachers, the
payment of adequate salaries, the
proper equipment of buildings, the
providing of ample play-grounds, the
formulating of proper rules, the bet
tering of conditions among less fa
vored families, the reign of cleanli
ness and sanitation, the solving of all
school problems, for school problems
are necessarily problems of the home,
should become interested not In a cap
tious or critical manner, but in a way
to Improve and build up, not to make
worse or tear down. Much of the ef
ficiency of the schools is lost because
the women of the community fail to
keep in sympathetic touch with the
schools. All this interest properly dis
played makes for a better environ
ment for the child and finds its flower
and fruit in a happier and better
home.
Whether this shall be accomplished
by allowing to women the ballot upon
school questions, as is done in some
states, or by conferring equal rights
of suffrage with those of men, as in
other states, or by the method adopt
ed in our own state of Georgia, by the
exertion of their powers of affection
or persuasion upon the law-making
men of their immediate families or
close acquaintance, I leave for deci
sion to those more learned and better
informed upon a question that of late
has held the attention of many states
and that promises food for discussion
for many years to come.
Woman has a social duty to per
form outside the four walls of home,
which she cannot safely slight, a duty
that plays its part in the making of
the environment of her loved ones
and in turn helps to make up the at
mosphere of home.
People cannot live to themselves.
Every life touches some other life
with influence god or bad. If the at
mosphere of home Is to be pure and
healthful and full of Joy, those who
make up the home must bring from
their contact with the world no smell
of fire upon their garments. It Is.
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\_
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therefore, not only natural but thor
oughly proper, that women should at
all times be vitally concerned with
every movement that looks to the so
cial or moral uplift of the community,
the state or nation. If by her Influ
ence she can bring about the closing
of saloons, as she has done in many
states, if by her advice or caution or
pleading she be able to cause law
makers to enact laws placing the re
straining hands of authority upon all
manner of vice, she has gone far to
wards establishing a better environ
ment for those within her own house
hold, as well as for all others in the
community or state or nation.
Social customs are largely the out
come of woman’s Ideas. That which
women frown upon will not long en
dure socially. Between the sober
vestments and the solemn faces of tho
advocates of the blue laws and the
puady attire and godless carousals of
the advocates of no laws, there lies a
golden medium of common sense that
should mark the pathway of a correct,
satisfactory and sensible society. To
reform well known social abuses, to
skilfully and firmly apply the sur
geon’s knife to cancerous spots on the
social body, to bring about a pleasant,
sweet, wholesome social environment
not only for loved ones and friends
but for all the brotherhood of man is
one of the highest duties of woman.
Such work of woman begins, as 1 have
said before, in her own family circle,
hut it cannot end there if It Is to be
effective, if it is to achieve the high
est and best results. Always bearing
in mind the duties of home, never al
lowing the pleasures of society to
draw her from the chief object of her
existence, the perfecting of the home,
she may yet in a gracious, gentle,
tactful manner carry her social work
and her social Ideals Into a broader
fb-hl, where seed properly sown and
properly nourished will blossom Into
the harvest after a season. The stan
dards of social conduct are as a rule
those raised by woman, and by these
standards the young are wont
measure their lives. Herein woman
owes a duty to those of her own
household, as well as to others, to do
her part In making those standards
correct, lofty, and ennobling.
However pore and holy the sanctu
ary of home may be. Its atmosphere
becomee polluted when any one of Its
inmates strays from the path of recti
tude and mars the Image of his maker
by contact with vice. Woman, her
self the great moral stay of all na
tions, cannot measure up to the full
duty as queen of the fireside unless
she use every effort possible to bring
about moral reforms that will remove
temptation not only from her own
loved ones but also from all the cit
izens of the community. Women have
been criticised for their activity in
“THE MISSION OF UNREST”
The Graduating Oration Delivered by Mr. David Michael at
the Athens High School Commencement Occasion the
First of Last Week. Mr. Michael’s Was the Only Ad
dress by a Male Student on the Program.
Carlyle said, “Universal History is
at bottom the history of the great
men who have worked here.” From
which we may deduce that the -history
of any great people is but the history
of their great men. The crowd is con
tent; the mass sees no visions; they
but follow blindly In the patch of pro
gress blazed by the few, who look to
the far horizon, pressing forward des
pite all obstacles to the goal of their
desires- There can be no progress un
marked by pain; struggle breeds
strength; strength renewed hope and
life; satisfaction is another term for
inertia, and contentment spells fail
ore.
this direction, being told that such re
forms should be handled by the law-
making powers, but they have refused
to calmly suffer while evil sucked in
to its devouring whirlpool their most
beloved treasures, and as a conse
quence hundreds of our best laws are
seen as a direct result of woman’s
work.
It is not necessary that womau
should unsex herself to accomplish all
theso things. In her own gentle and
lovable way she may do all these
things without losing one whit of pol
ish. refinement or gentleness. It is
easy enough for woman to draw the
dividing line between the political ef
fort that is borrn of personal ambition
or nourished on personal vanity and
that which Is put forth in order that
llie atmosphere of home be made pur
er and sweeter and better. Let her
shun the one and gladly make the
other. It is easy enough for woman
to discriminate between a social cus
tom that merely appeases the craving
for worldly pleasure and one that
makes for a better and brighter home.
Let her avoid tho one and embrace
the other. It is easy enough for wom
an to distinguish the effort at moral
reform made for personal notoriety
or distinction from that which com
mands the noblest virtues of her be
ing and is essetnial to the preserva
tion of happiness in the home. Let
her dismiss from her mind the one
end cleave unto the other.
So will she build a home, where
love will sit enthroned as queen, from
which will rise the fragrance of loving
deeds, to which the affections of Its
inmates will ever cling, and in which
the community, the state and the na
tion will posess a treasure whose
price will be far above rubies.
The leaders of men for all times
have been men of restless tempera
ment. These men became great lead
ers because for them there could be
no ease, no contentment, that is
bought at the price of progress. Mov
ing ever before them was the guiding
star, the visions of "things perfected."
that the world cannot see. The great
Napoleon was a man of very discon
tented nature (a man who refused to
be satisfied with a small success).
“His gaze was ever on the far hori
ton, where lay the goal of his ambi
tion." What is true in the world ol
warfare and politics is equally true
in the domain of art, and the domain
nf science, and the domain of reli
gion. Let us recall the life of Dante:
an outcast, friendless and homeless.
His thoughts, ever growing with the
(rained in that state of coma? Why
cannot they burst forth from the-
wilds and proclaim to the whole world
“We are men! Wo have profited by
every advantage that man has ac
quired”? It Is because they are of
that great class of "pulseless men,”’
content to crawl, without thoughts of
rising. Having food and raiment,
they are content.
If this be true, we may surely say
that peoples have progressed or dete
riorated according to the light in
which they held their conditions.
What better example of the curse of
contentment could we find that the
terrible story of the "fall of the Rom
an empire”: a people who had be
come conquerors of the world; their
country was cultivated and adorned
like an immense garden; a people
whose influence had united the most
savage barbarians by an equal gov
ernment and a common language. And
jet. a long peace had let a surest poi
son into the vitals of the Empire.
Their greatest men had unconsciously
sunk into the languid indifference of
private life. And so, the empire
changed "from a land of giants to one
peopled by pigmies.” On the other
hand, let us recall the meteoric rise
of the American colonies from a de
realization of the hitter struggle
the soul, finally burst forth into his i pendent people to the foremost nation
“mystic unfathomable song,” his "dl- | of the world! Why were these Amer-
vine Comedy." Of Luther, the “break (can colonists discontent with their
er of Idols." there is need for little to condition? They were not treated so
lie said; his whole life was a series of ’ very cruelly. They held many prtvi-
siifft rings and heartaches, but ho
bravely struggled for the sake of his
own convictions. His accomplish
ments as a result were the marking?
of a rise in civilization. But why wan
der into long-past history? Surely,
there are men today standing forth as
great leaders. What better example
of the value of a restless tempera
ment. of discontentment, and of vis
ions may we find than the life of our
president, Woodrow Wilson? And
there are numberless lives standing
forth among men in all ages, that are
monuments to this truth. We find
that In these minds there was that
smoldering coal of unrest, ever eager
to burst into flame and to inspire men
to greater, nobler, higher ideals.
Throughout the pages of history wo
find the path of civilzation has been
burned by unrest. At the beginning
of the Grecian state, there waB a form
of civilization that had sufficed for
many ages. If the men of Greece had
been of the Indifferent kind, this form
would have sufficed them also. But
through the veins of her sons coursed
that pure Hellenic blood, firing their
souls with the Same of ambition;
making them unwilling to be content
with today's triumph. And that same
flame lighted a way to civilization
that even to the present day, some
claim, has never been equaeld! Why
have the tribes of darkest Africa re-
leges that were not granted to many
colonies. It was that something Id
man that distinguished him from the
brute; that spark of unrest that urges
him on toward freedom of mind and-
soul.
And so, let us guard against lower
ing ourselves to the brute by not
striving to better our conditions, and
by being satisfied with today's out
come. For, “What is he but a brute,
w-hose flesh has soul to suit, whose
spirit works lest arms and legs want
play.” And, let us always “strive to
ward making.” and not “respose on
aught found made.”
"Then welcome each rebufT
That turns earth's smoothness rough,'
Each sting, that bids nor sit, nor
stand, but go.
Be our Joys three parts pain!
Strive, and hold cheap the strain;
Learn, nor account the pang; dare?
never grudge the throe.”
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