FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 135 



And what of the men and women who live in such age — what is ex- 

 pected of them; what must they be and what must they do to fulfill their 

 allotted tasks under such conditions? Conditions constantly change, 

 and we must be prepared to meet the demands. Life is a great big 

 glorious thing, if we know how to cope with its problems and are 

 possessed with sufficient wholesome energy. There is little room for the 

 narrow, bigoted mind today. Such a life sums up little to its credit 

 when the final balance is struck. 



I plead for a practical education which thoroughly equips the boy 

 and girl with the possibility of doing for himself or herself the develop- 

 ment into a well-balanced and independent man or woman. 



How can this be best brought about? I firmly believe that manual 

 training in connection with general school work has now become a neces- 

 sity in the general school system. Develop a child's hand and eye to- 

 gether with the power to control certain muscles ; does that development 

 stop there? No, indeed; it affects the whole general judgment and ex- 

 tends into every part of its little life. Then measure the progress of 

 this work, if you can, as it extends through the grades and on into the 

 college course. The results are wonderful. All this develops self-re- 

 liance, judgment, self-activity, adaptability and independence of thought, 

 qualities which we are needing more and more as time passes, and the 

 demands upon us become greater. Not infrequently, too, is one's natural 

 ability found, and this is of no small consequence in a life. 



Bring about this development by the use of common, every-day ma- 

 terials — the absolute necessities of every-day life — and what have you 

 as compensation for your work : — a practical young man or young 

 woman ; one who has an altogether different opinion of so called labor. 

 The girl can think ; she can feel ; she can also sew and cook, and she 

 has, in addition, a good, wholesome opinion of the every-day duties of 

 life. Their importance is brought home to her as they could not be under 

 less favorable conditions. Such women will solve the servant girl prob- 

 lem if nothing else will. A woman of this kind will have two weapons 

 at hand : — first, an appreciation of the maid's duties ; and, secondly, the 

 independence which enables her to perform these duties herself. We 

 are learning to thoroughly admire the woman who can do things, who 

 can feel, who can sympathize as well as pose. 



We do not educate our girls today in order that they may merely 

 develop into ''society women." The "society woman," in the narrow 

 sense of the term, is not the popular woman of the present time. Not 

 that I would undertake to belittle the social side of life by any means. 

 It is a highly important element in our lives and without it we cannot 

 grow, but it is not the sole object of life. We want our girls to be 

 practical ornaments in the kitchen as well as in the drawing-room. We 

 want them to be proud of the fact that they can fit in anywhere where 

 occasion requires. We want to make noble wifehood and motherhood 

 possible to them — homekeepers in every sense of the term. In this hur- 

 ried life of ours too little time is given to small details, so essential in 

 developing a good homekeeper. Too often we lack neatness, order, in 

 the value of doing little things and doing them well. There is a crying 

 demand for the good housekeeper — something that every woman should 

 be, whether she performs the actual manual part of it or not. If there 

 is anything that can be introduced into our school system that will aid 



