Samuel D Hanson School - Crescent Yearbook (Buxton, ME)

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-1-1-v-F 18 Qibe Erescent Short skirts shocked some persons at first, now they are generally regarded as objectionable only when they are unduly abbreviated. When any style is carried to an extreme it offends taste. That is hardly a reason for condemning it alto- gether. Nor is it easy to believe that pub- lic morals suffer greatly by any fashion in dress. Women have been freed from the bond- age of garments that trail. envelop and clog. If the Women of Turkey have aban- doned the veil, the women of India the purdah, the women of the west will be argued with in vain to retrace their steps. VV hen fashion speaks, economic forces, social forces, psychological forces, eman- cipation, progress and all the rest mean nothing. The dressmaker breathes upon them and they are not. ' Bishop Hughes, a Methodist minister, defends the modern youngster. He says of the modern girl, We criticize their hair, their skin, their stockings, their shoes, their cosmetics, their manners, but we never had a finer set of young people in the Methodist church than we have to- day. As between the old hoop skirt and the present styles give me the short skirts of today. Remember those balloon skirts when two women met on the sidewalk, one had to step aside to let the other pass P When you are inclined to criticize the modern youngster get out the old family album and take a look. It will drive away your fears and reassure you in the full. If every American girl could be given the advantages of school until twenty-one and then enter upon the duties of home- making, business or industry, trained and fitted to meet them, America would soon be a paradise. The trained mind has re- sources, the developed body has reserves. which give a spiritual poise and balance that mean power. Only a very small percentage of Amer- ican girlhood continues school beyond the grades, a still smaller proportion beyond the high school. As long -as this statement remains a fact there will be dangerous and regrettable clearages in society. How the school years of every American girl may be prolonged is a question worthy the study of the keenest and most far- seeing minds, as Well as of the most patriotic. The next generation will need more than any other for centuries has needed, strong, earnest, Christian womanhood. On a thousand hills, hidden in countless valleys, on the edges of great forests, and on wide prairies, that womanhood is now being marred or made. It is for the think- ing American man made and woman of today to decide which. The nineteenth amendment to the con- stitution of the United States gives to woman the right to vote. May the girl of today so live and conduct herself that when the time comes for her to have a part in the voice of the people'-' she can hold her head aloft and proudly acclaim that she was reared in the Home of the Free and the Land of the Brave. MABEL G. HARMON, '2'7.

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WL Eb: Crescent 17 There was a time in literature when girlhood was an unknown quantity. The child appeared occasionally in the back- ground, the woman in the foreground, the girl was lost in the shadow. Today she is a revelation of the standards and characteristics of which she is a part. She makes the present, determines the future: as she lives, plays, works, dreams, thinks and acts so does the race. Man cannot rise above her standards, nor go far beyond her morals, nor can he fully escape from the religion she teaches. When she awakens, nations stir in their sleep and ask in troubled tones, What is the matter ? When she is quiet and fully content they sleep on. The American girl present and future is the American prob- lem and it is the part of wisdom for all who hear to lend their influence to those who are giving time and thought to her. The helpless, clinging vine type of girl has gone out of style. Perhaps when many of our elders were young it was considered unnecessary. and probably un- ladylike, to try to swim. If you were in a boat that capsized you were supposed to drown calmly or to be rescued by some gallant man. Nowadays learning to swim is a part of a girl's education. Several colleges will not graduate voung women who do not know how to conduct them- selves in water. The Camp Fire organ- ization deserves credit for urging its members to learn how to care for them- selves in the woods, on the streets, in the home, and in the water, as well as to en- joy every-clay social life. When a youth is in danger of a watery grave nowadays we are told he is liable to owe his life to the gallantry of some lovely girl or woman. Let a woman who has a knowl- edge of life-saving be at a swimming pool or a bathing beach and she is a security to everyone within her sight. The skill that young women show in driving a car is almost miraculous. It has been proved under scientific observation that women are as competent, if not more competent, than men. One need only skill with the sewing ma- niention their chine, on rifie teams, and with the tele- graph to show the inherent aptitude that is theirs. Many argue not efficient in that the girl of today is cooking and sewing, but just look up the statistics of the work done by the girls' clubs in the United States. Their exhibits of bread. cake. canned fruits and vegetables, their speci- mens of sewing, are surprising and un- excelled. The present day American woman under thirty is unquestionably better developed than the young woman of any previous generation. Much has been said and written on the dress and morals of the present day girl. Everywhere we go we see the older ones look askance at our bobbed hair and our short skirts, but should they? Who can deny that bobbed hair is not a great im- provement over the long braided locks of the past? Think of the enormous rolls worn in the hair not so very long ago, of the innumerable hair pins needed to keep the hair in place and compare it with the neat and sanitary bob of the present day.

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The Creszmt 19 JANE'S CREED I hope that Jane isn't at the party to- night, said Elizabeth. It makes me tired the way she gets all of the girls to follow her. If she comes to Mary's party tonight I am going to make it as unpleas- ant as I can for her. I wouldn't do that, said Dorothy. I like her, and besides I think that she de- serves to have the girls like her. Did you know that she helped two of the girls make their new dresses for tonight P Elizabeth and Dorothy were on their way to the birthday party of one of their classmates. The girl under discussion was a poor girl who was working her way through school. She had many friends because she was always ready to help any- one in need. Elizabeth envied her because of her friends. Mary, Jane's friend, had invited all the girls in her class at school to her home for a party. All of the thirty girls were coming. Mary lived in a comfortable apartment on the third floor. jane had stayed at Mary's house after school and helped decorate. When Elizabeth and Dorothy arrived at the party Elizabeth's hopes were crushed for the girl under discussion was there leading in the games. When jane saw Elizabeth and Dorothy standing apart and not interested in the games she went up to them and greeted them. Dor- othy was soon playing with the rest, but Elizabeth was searching for a way to humiliate Jane. If Jane had been an ordinary girl she would have had a very unpleasant time. But she was a girl who was always trying to make others happy and of course she had a good time herself. When they sat down to the table, Elizabeth took special pains to sit beside Jane. Then, accident- ally, on purpose, spilt her ice cream into Jane's lap. This was intended to embar- rass Jane. With the carefree words, It will all come out in the wash, .lane put on a white apron and sat down to finish her supper. Elizabeth could find no fault with -lane's manners, but turning to Dorothy, who sat beside her, she said -in a loud whisper, Aren't her manners awful ? Jane's face turned red, but she went on as if nothing had been said. After supper the girls were playing games when Mary called Jane to her and told her that the house was on fire. With just a warning to Mary not to tell the girls, Jane mounted a chair and laughing told them that they were now to play a new game, everyone was to race putting on their coats and hats, because they were going outdoors. All hastened to put on their wraps ex- cept Elizabeth, who didn't want to soil her new white coat. Jane told Mary to lead them down the back stairs: she knew the front stairs were now in flames. , She then rushed for her own wraps, but as she did so she saw Elizabeth. Without a moment's hesitation, jane told her to put on her coat and follow. She realized that if Elizabeth knew the house was on fire she might be hysterical. The girl still held back, but Jane seemed so