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Show I i I HI SOCIAL AMENITIES FOR M. f j;1 CM THE .SCHOOL GIRL H i ( TT T a woman's congress held reccntlylj ! f li point was brought out that the modern girl and woman have been given a good four or five hours a day in I j . comparison with the free time which their i grandmothers and great-grandmothers cn-j cn-j i joyed, Thotc girls of a previous generals genera-ls I i tion not only had far more necessary per- Bonal suprvision of their households as part of their daily taskn, but many hours Ij j each day of all the women In' the home ! I had to be given up to weaving, knitting i ! the stockings for the men to wear and nil I the other time-taking sewing which now i has passed beyond the realm of home man-; man-; , ufacture. 'ij Through the invention of the sewing mall ma-ll chine and through the medium of the great EM 1 department stores, whero most articles KM j can be bought at lower cost than they can (nj be made one piece at a time, this sort of F'ljj sewing would nowadajs be mere waste of i time. Then, too, there was the prejen- f in ' J ill ing to be done and a thousand other duties hl to bo attended to bv the women of the' -S household, now entirely managed by maids k f j ' paid for the work that tho mistress may jM have time for higher things. CiJ Con.itantly, too, we are being given more fjj time in our day. Every invention is 13 either an increased speed in a method of LJ locomotion or it is a labor saving device, fa' j , which means that somo article which for- j'li mcrly one had to make for one's self can lb j now be bought better done for less oioney. 18 What Is the result of all th'is extra time j which the twentieth century girl has been given? Is she any happier, any better, any cleverer, any more charming and gracious? Naturally it is -expected that she should be every one of these, for she must surely have employed some of these hundreds of hours a jear in reading and study, for which her great-grandmother had no time. She must spend some of it, too, in doing for others, for she could not be so selfish as to keep all of her gift for herself, and then because she has so much time to spare surely she is courteous, gracious and sweet mannered on all occasion.. Surely this cannot be too much to expect ex-pect from the girl endowed with practically prac-tically a tthole day more in the week tl was allotted to her great-graudmothcr, who, one can sec easily from the portrait' which hangs there on the wall, was ever! thoughtful of others, gentle and charming in her manner, and never nervous or too' hurried to say a kind word. And great-1 grandmother was all ibis, in spite of her short day and the manifold duties that had ' to be crowded into it. And yet and yet has the piodcrn girl' all or any of these attributes? She is jdever or at any rate she is well edu-- catcd that is to say. she has a vague Idea in her mind of mostv topics that uta brought up in conversation and she can generally ask an intelligent question which sounds as if her knowledge of the subject were considerably deeper than' i apt to bo the case. But is she really well read? Ik she not, rather. idl ' jread has she not peDt many invaluable an hour in perusing the light, unprofitable novels which modern inventions iu the printing press have made it possible to turn out in vast quajititlen at little ex-pcuse ex-pcuse to the publisher? How many girls nowadays keep even half an hour a duy out of the precious extra time that they have been given in reading books thnt will put elevating thoughts into their heart? To fit one's belf for social intercourse no btudy will achieve so good results as a knowledge of books, for with this knowledge the conversation can always be turned in the direction of the latest work that has been studied, and a dinner that started off unpropitiously can thus be made to turn out thoroughly enjoyable Taken for granted that been use she has so much more in her life she is happier hap-pier than the girl of a former generation, is she any better? She .should be, of course. She should give bonfc of her moments to make happiness for those near and those she can help at a distance. dis-tance. But, after nil, in spite of all tltfj I have, girls to-day have to try just as hard as ever in order to make themselves liked. ! How about the manners of the modern girl with ajl her extra timo to be gracious? Here, sad to relateit does not seem ns though all these nfcw 'hours had! been of much avail. Indeed, it would: appear that she were so greedy that shej is trying to steal timo oven beyond whatj has bi-en so generously given to her1 judging by the curtness of BpeK;b and the lack of repose iu the nmrtDcr of the girl who li being presented to an older perxou The girl's whole attitude bespeaks be-speaks n desire to be rid of the interruption interrup-tion which the introduction Iu causing, .cud there is about as much graciouancss I'm manner as there is in that of a conductor con-ductor in a street cur aa.he collects his fare. "Do hurry and get this over with, can't you see there are otherH waiting to be attended to before I can be free?" She might just ns well say this as the "How do yon do?" which does not ask, nay, actually repels response. |