A PLEA AND A PROMISE

The Plea is for a purer, more invigorating atmosphere for our girls to breathe—­the Promise, that when it is given to them they will respond, their religious, as well as physical and mental life will be normal and the vitality in it will express itself in action.

Inspiration is a part of a girl’s religion and inspiration means “inhaling—­taking into the life that which creates high and lofty emotions.”

Memory takes me back to school days when with windows wide open, shoulders squared and heads erect, the teacher’s command bade us inhale and we filled our lungs to the full with fresh, life-giving air.  Then came the command to exhale, and we emptied our lungs, that there might be room for more of the clear invigorating air.  In life’s larger school our girls of today are inhaling what?  Is it the fresh, untainted, life-giving air?

The other day on the street I overheard a girl uttering words that made me turn in dismay to look at her.  I saw, not what I expected to see, a coarse, ill-clad, ignorant girl, but a pretty, fashionably dressed girl with high school books under her arm.  Where had she breathed in the sentiments regarding honor which in slangy phrases she breathed out with no hesitation or shame?  There was nothing high or lofty in the emotion enkindled by what she breathed into her soul from her environment, and what she had breathed out into her companion’s ears could not fail to weaken and injure.

I found myself wondering what her environment could be and later when I described her, a girl companion told me her name.  I remembered her then, one of the girls who had grown up quickly, the daughter of a skilled mechanic who made good wages and owned a comfortable home.  She was an only child and her mother was socially ambitious for her.  The mother had done nothing to interest her daughter in the church, only now and then did she attend Sunday-school; friends were entertained Sunday evening, so she had no connection with the young peoples’ societies of the church.  She is a type of a vast number of girls whose religious sense lies dormant.

Knowing now her environment, I asked myself, “Where can she ’breathe in that which will stir her soul to high and lofty emotion,’ and enable her to help and bless her world?” At home?  Can she there breathe in that which will enkindle noble ambition to love and serve in a world which so needs love and service?

Once there were numberless homes and, thank God, there are still many where a girl can breathe in deep draughts of the fresh, sweet, wholesome atmosphere in which the family lives.  But knowing something of that mother, I knew she discussed with her daughter, dress and parties, her future at college, her music, her marks, and laid wisely and well her plans for the forming of friendships which she considered “an advantage.”  In her presence she criticized friends and neighbors and related bits of gossip.