Our Women and Children
Conducted by Lucille Skaggs Edwards.
THE STREAK OF GOOD.
Haven’t you known individuals who
being almost overcome by the evil,
would suddenly let the stifled streak
of good within them begin to grow
and would determine to start life over
again? Then, haven’t you heard oth
ers say: “Ah, there’s nothing to it."
Haven’t you heard them say that all
men or that all women were bad?
Haven’t you heard parents say to the
careless boy or girl: “You’re not go
ing to amount to a thing”? The
amount of discouragement dealt out
after this manner sums itself into a
tragedy.
“Tolstoi,’’ says one writer, “saw
in woman's ornament, graces, and
accomplishments, her song and her
wit, nothing but universal and con
tinual invitation to amours. The great
design of Him who made woman a
helpmate to man was forgotten. The
ennobling influence of pure, intelli
gent women was lost upon him."
Those who see evil in everybody
are usually looking through their own
soul mirrors. “As a man thinketh in
his heart, so is he.” Two sides there
are to the gilded shield, then let us
look only on the golden one. Good
and bad everywhere? To be sure,
choose the good and leave the bad
to whom it suits. Pick out the streak
of good in every man, women and
child; speak of it, encourage it. Were
we in others’ places we might not do
half so well.
One of the secrets of being our best
is steadily seeing the best. If you
would realize your ideals, keep in
the presence of these ideals. High
thoughts come from high thinking.
Go about looking for the streak of
good in everyone and you will be hap
py and loved and welcomed; for ev
erybody wants the good in them rec
ognized and wants to be as good as
we think them to be.
THE FALSE MODESTY
OF MOTHERS
(By Mrs. Mary E. Teats.)
I wish that the mothers of this
broad land could go with me to some
of our insane asylums, and see there
the wrecked manhood—and woman
hood as well; that they could look
into those faces that do not posses a
mark of intelligence, with pallid,
pinched features, wasted frames, with
starved brains—physical and mental
wrecks.
Most of fhcse unfortunates were en
dowed at birth with average ability
to think, reason, learn and love; but
these God-given faculties have in the
main disappeared. There has never
been a result without a cause. I ask
the attending physician the cause of
all these commitments, and he replies,
that many of them are there as vic
tims of the “personal vice.”
Is this the first cause? No! Back
of this soui and body destroying habit
.a ignorance. Is ignorance the first
rause? No! Back of the ignorance
of the child is the false delicacy and
false modesty of the parents, especial
ly the mothers. When from whatever
source it is borne in upon the mind of
a mother that she ought not to delay
the giving of such instruction to her
< hild as will keep him from taking the
first wrong step, she is apt to say, “I
< annot talk to my child about these
things, I do not know what to say."
I wish I might sound the alarm into
every loving mother’s ear, and tell her
what her timidity and false modesty
is almost sure to cost her.
Oh, that mothers would give more
time, thought and effort to the person
al morals of their children and less to
fashion and pleasure.
LITTLE MOTHER OF MINE.
(By Walter H. Brown.)
Sometimes in the hush of the evening
hour,
When the shadows creep from the
west,
1 think of the twilight songs you sang
And the boy you lulled to rest;
The wee little boy with the tousled
head,
That long, long ago was thine;
I wonder if sometimes you long for
that boy,
O little mother of mine!
And now he has come to man’s estate,
Grown stalwart in body and strong,
And you’d hardly know that he was
the lad
Whom you lulled with your slum
ber song.
The years have altered the form and
the life,
But his heart is unchanged by time,
And still he is only thy boy as of old,
O little mother of mine.
WHERE ARE THEY?
(By Grace Sorenson.)
I’ve looked in ev’ry flower,
I’ve searched through e’ry nook,
I’ve hunted in the meadow
And waited by the brook;
I’ve risen in the morning,
Before the sun was high,
When all the world seemed pausing
To let the dawn pass by;
And all alone I’ve wandered
Through grass still wet with dew,
Where buttercups and daisies
And wildest roses grew;
And then again at twilight,
When frogs and crickets sing
And flowers close their petals
And birds all homeward wing,
With silent feet I’ve lingered
To watch each misty shade
And see the sun’s last ember
In folds of darkness fade;
And still I can’t discover—
Although some time I may—
Where all the sprites and goblins
And dainty fairies stay.
Satan has a great many servants,
busy and active. But these four are
his best workers:
1. There’s no danger.
2. Only this once.
3. Everybody does it.
4. By and by.
All four are cheats and liars, full
of deception. When any one of them
approaches you there is only one safe
answer: “Get thee behind me, Satan."
HIS EXCUSE.
They are telling the story of an
artist of some reputation who was re
proached by a volunteer for not en
listing. He gazed a while at the
younger man with impenetrable calm;
then, slowly and with grave dignity,
he said:
“I am that civilization you are fight
ing for."—The New Age.
“When you are right you can afford
to keep your temper. When you are
wrong you can’t afford to lose it."
Letters From Our
Readers
Elrona Cottage,
Richards- Landing,
Ontario, Canada.
My Dear John Albert:
I am much pleased with your new
venture, ‘‘The Monitor.” Its tone and
policy cannot fail to he of great in
fluence in its chosen field, and I wish
for it abundant success.
Affectionately yours,
ARTHUR L. WILLIAMS.
Omaha, Neb., Aug. 4, 1915.
Rev. John A. Williams,
Editor Monitor,
Omaha, Neb.
My Dear Mr. Williams:
May I congratulate you upon the
appearance of The Monitor. In pass
ing judgment a newspaper man al
ways casts his eye over the adver
tising, editorial and general makeup,
and I think your newspaper will pass
muster upon all these points.
I have always been interested in
the colored race. As a boy I knew
something of the “Underground Rail
way” during the days of slavery and
later the civil war, and the dawning
of the star of freedom. When the pen
of the great emancipator, Abraham
Lincoln (of my native state), set tne
colored race free, there was a serious
question in the minds of many as to
whether the race would make good.
It was a great problem, and is still
unsolved. It is up to the colored
people of this generation to solve it.
In this I see The Monitor, so ably
edited, can do a great work. Per
sonally, I am familiar with some of
the splendid services you have given
your congregation, but I think you
can very materially supplement that
work in the newspaper columns de
voted to your race, where you can
reach a much larger number of peo
ple.
You may remember Hubbard, a
prominent colored man who died
some years ago in Omaha. He was
formerly superintendent of a colored
school, I think, in St. Louis. He made
a remark to me one day that made
such an impression that I have never
forgotten it. He said:
"Mr. Taylor y,ou white people spoil
our young colored girls and boys.
You open your high school to them,
educate them for various vocations in
life where the doors are closed to
our race. Neither you nor 1 can
open those doors. What ought to
be done is to introduce in the public
schools a system of education and
manual training where our colored
boys and girls can step right into the
jobs that are waiting for them when
they leave school. As it is, you turn
them out with an equipment they can
not use in every-day life, and as a
rule they become dissatisfied, and
what is the result? It is not neces
sary to mention it; you know as well
as I do.”
Possibly our public schools are cov
ering the point made by Hubbard.
If not, I hope they will, for I think
for all races the education should be
to equip the boy or girl for the every
day work of life, in which they in
tend to engage.
Wiphing you every success, I am,
Yours truly,
CADET TAYLOR.
If you have anything to dispose of,
a Want Ad in The Monitor will sell it.
Thomas
Kilpatrick & Co.
sell
Good Dry Goods
and
Ready-to-wear Clothes
priced according
to quality
Courteous Service
Always
EMERSON LAUNDRY
F. S. MOREY, Proprietor
1303-05 North 24th Street
Phone Webster 820
CHAS. EDERER
FLORIST
Plants, Cut Flowers, Designs,
Decorations
Greenhouses, 30th and Bristol Sts.
Phone Webster 1795
COMBS’
JEWELRY STORE
is just the
Right Kind
of a Jewelry Store for
Merchandise or Repairs of
any kind
1520 Douglas Street
YES—ICE CREAM
any style, for any occasion
I. A. DALZELL
Quality First
1824 Cumino St. Tel. Boug. 616
H. GROSS
Lumber and
Wrecking
21st and Paul Streets
1. A. Edholm E. VV. Sherman
Standard Laundry
24th, Near Lake Street
Phone Webster 130