Report of Missouri Farmers' Week. 161 



hold on a solid moral basis," which requires the unremitting mental 

 toil of mothers. Every member must be taught the importance 

 of performing a special part in the duties of home and life; the 

 training and education of the girls, with their quick discernment 

 and natural adaptation, must be linked to its daily demands, for in 

 the efficiency and success of her children the mother finds her own 

 reflected strength. High standards of health and morals must be 

 instilled in girls and boys alike, and the sense of judging things 

 by their real value developed. In this way the citizens of tomor- 

 row, with their great possibilities for healthy national growth, will 

 be developed in the home. Some women, like some men, must 

 have a broader field in which to express their inner life. Thus the 

 social interests, which had their origin in the family circle, are 

 gradually extended outward until they embrace the community, 

 and from this new influence voluntary associations have resulted in 

 the progressive movements of the world. 



After the well systematized mechanical habits of home making 

 have been established, we suddenly begin to realize that our suc- 

 cess is not yielding the happiness of which we dreamed, that the 

 call of the material world has so absorbed us that we have ceased to 

 listen for an inner voice that was our stimulant in years gone by. 

 It is the deadening of the spirit worn threadbare. 



No greater joy ever comes to us than the satisfaction after work 

 well done, and the daily routine of home making is not such a 

 burden provided it is performed in the proper spirit, which makes 

 it possible to derive even pleasure from seeming drudgery, besides 

 offering so many opportunities for a broader spirit — if we but seek 

 to find. 



The buoyancy of youth is possible to be ours at every stage of 

 life, regardless of the duties that may fall to our lot. You may ask 

 how one can infuse any buoyancy of spirits into so commonplace a 

 duty as dishwashing. The answer is, put your head and heart into 

 it. The head will suggest plenty of hot water, which means quicker 

 and better results; or a change of dishes, which will relieve the 

 monotony of shape, size and color. Even these little things will 

 brighten the operation far more than you realize, and though it 

 may mean the using of your best company china, so much the better, 

 for the extra care will bring into play another set of brain cells, 

 thus relieving the old worn ones. Every woman present will bear 

 testimony to the fact that no duty of home making offers such a 

 rich opportunity for inspiration as the mechanical one of dishwash- 



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