692 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



of her reform the establishment of Girls'Schools in may of the large cities 

 of that great country. The Chinese say "Just wait a few years and see 

 what place we take in the family of nations when our educated girls grow 

 up and become mothers." It appears that the inquisitive Chinese have dis- 

 covered one of the secrets of Western civilization which the European 

 and American too often overlook — possibly because the public speaking 

 and public writing is done by men. 



All honor to motherhood! to motherhood of all kinds! There is one 

 class of mothers to whom more honor is due than to any other. That 

 is consecrated motherhood, be it educated or uneducated. Let me give 

 you an example of consecrated motherhood, or rather of fatherhood and 

 motherhood. 



You Iowa farmers are justly proud of the fertility of your soil. I 

 want to tell you of the products of a 40 acre farm in South central Illinois. 

 The farm house was merely a shack, boards set on end and the interstices 

 covered with lath, and contained one room, an attic, and a lean to used 

 as a kitchen and dining room. On this clay soil forty, in this small 

 habitation were born and reared ten children. The parents were from 

 the "Auld Sod" and were extremely ignorant in the wisdom of books 

 and were correspondingly anxious that their children should be edu- 

 cated. By the . hardest and closest economy these children were kept 

 sufficiently well dressed and sent every day to the district school. The 

 little Wabash river flowed between home and school and many a morn- 

 ing did the good father lead the older children across the foot log — 

 the only available means of crossing — when the water ran over the 

 log and then returning carry the younger ones across so that all could 

 be at school. Day in, day out, term in, term out, year in, year out, did 

 these faithful parents toil and contrive to keep their children in school. 

 The children studied and acquired all the district school could give 

 them, then taught district schools, saved their money, went away to 

 higher schools of le'arning, the older helping the younger ones until 

 from this humble home there went forth into the world's work ten 

 able bodied, clean, pure minded, well educated specimens of Irish- 

 American manhood and womanhood. Today ten refined, cultured homes 

 with happy families capable of enjoying the finer things of life have 

 been established by the children of that clap-board shack on that clay 

 soil forty. Estimate the value of your home and family, multiply that 

 amount by ten and you'll have an approximate value of the products 

 of that little farm — the result of consecrated parenthood. I knew the 

 father and mother. I am proud to number them among the great men 

 and women of earth. They have gone to their reward and their children 

 call them blessed. 



Poverty is a great incentive to study. The south half of the great 

 state of Illinois, before the owners woke up to the value of the land for 

 fruit culture, was very unproductive and with difficulty could a living 

 be wrested from the soil. Boys and girls growing up in this region 

 saw no chance on the farm, so they crowded the schools, often making 

 their own way through, but getting through creditably. Soon Egypt 



