It is right that a girl should enjoy pretty clothes and desire them.  It is right that she should spend a fair part of her income on the necessary gowns for parties and pleasures.  It is right that girls should seek pleasure and enjoy life to the full.  It is right that young mothers keep their youth and enjoy the society of their friends.  But when girlhood erects an altar and in the presence of Fashion and Pleasure sacrifices time and strength, money, honesty, thrift and virtue, then it is sin and the individual and society must suffer.  At this present moment in our country, as in the ages past in nations and with peoples that are now being forgotten, girlhood is worshiping the Twin Idols and one is compelled to ask himself if the final result will be the same.

It is not alone the rich girl who bows the knee in the presence of Fashion and offers her best to Pleasure, the poor girl also worships.  In the multitude that bow are all sorts and conditions of girls.

We wait for a prophet.  A prophet that shall awaken womanhood and girlhood and show them that to be well dressed means to be appropriately dressed, that extravagant overdressing is clear evidence of the lack of good breeding and good taste; that those who indulge in clothes which they cannot afford and those who make of themselves living models for the exhibition of the latest extravagances, both proclaim the unworthy station in life where they truly belong.

We need a prophet who shall awaken womanhood and girlhood to see that the wild rush for sensational and unhealthful pleasures has always meant one thing—­final inability to enjoy, the day when all pleasures pall.

Would that the prophet might come, and speedily, that our girls might stand up on their feet free, no more slaves to Fashion or servants of Pleasure.  Free—­their faces clear, tinted and rosy with the keen joy of living.  Free—­their eyes bright with health and energy.  Free from the lines of worry that stamp the faces of all those who yield to the demands of the Twin Idols.

It will be a great day when the leaders and worshipers of Fashion and the devotees of Pleasure blow the trumpets and cry aloud, “Bow down,” and the mass of girlhood and womanhood, beautiful, strong, healthful, loving life, answer and say, “We will not bow down, nor worship.”  When that day comes—­and it will come—­the reign of the Twin Idols shall cease.

VIII

THE GIRL WHO DRIFTS

More than two years have passed since I met one of the girls returning from a girls’ conference where the depths of her nature, unstirred before had been touched and quickened into life.  A passion to serve had been awakened in her and as she told me of her new visions and desires I confess that I feared for her.  Here she was, the embodiment of all the charm and power of youth with a soul on fire to accomplish great things, and the temperament which