The Library of Work and Play: Guide and Index

by Cheshire Lowton Boone

All Children Love to Play at Being "Grown Up," even Beyond the Time of Childhood. These Girls will make Real Women, because They are Normal and Happy

Girls must sometime Learn of the Conventions and Customs of Domestic Arrangement, and too often Their Only Opportunity Lies in such Classes as These

There is a good bit of psychology behind the suggestions offered, and the reasoning is simple. All our ideas, our plans, and conceptions are just ideas and nothing more until they have been worked up into concrete form—put to test. There is nothing tangible about an idea. But living is real; hence all the details which comprise living are real too and mere thinking about them without action is futile. One must execute, arrange, and experiment with the raw materials of everyday use. The result is either pleasant or otherwise; if otherwise, the effort has somehow failed, and one should do it again and learn thereby; if pleasant, one is the richer and happier for a bit of success, and is warmed by the presence of mere accomplishment.

This last phrase reveals the nub of the whole question—accomplishment. Material surroundings and comforts of course go far to make one happy, and they are the evidence of success, but the ideal home is also composed of people each of whom is or should be a contributor to the work of the world. The ideal home contains no drones, and therefore no discontent. Now the girl cannot plunge headfirst into the maelstrom of domestic management. She must learn her strength and acquire confidence, and there are simple occupations for early years, occupations which train the muscles, sharpen the wits; occupations which through suggestion gradually lead to a wider and wider intellectual horizon, and which, by a cumulation of information and experience, mature both judgment and taste. These occupations form, as it were, some chapters in the unwritten grammar of culture and efficiency whereby the girl grows in self-reliance and maturity.

There are, for instance, a number of crafts which, in their delicacy of technique and the artistic worth of the finished product, are splendid occupations for girls, and some few of which every girl should know. The girl who cannot sew is an object for sympathy; it is the typical feminine craft for the reason heretofore named—that one cannot know how things should be unless one is familiar with the process involved. Gowns are manufactured of pieces of cloth cut in proper shape and sewn together in some, to the male, occult fashion, and this complex operation only explains itself even to a woman by going through the experience. One has always been accustomed to think that the accomplished mistress is also an expert needle-woman or skilled worker in textiles of some kind. Products of the needle and loom have always been her intimate, personal possessions, and the charm of old hangings, lace, needlecraft of all kinds, rests in the main on this personal quality. Without a doubt the most precious belongings of the young girl are her own room with its contents of decorations and furnishing, and the garments which emphasize her inherent feminine charm. It is not only a girl's right, but her duty, to maintain her place as the embodiment of all that is fresh, cleanly and attractive. To this end clothes and the various other products of the needle contribute not a little; a clean-cut, thorough experience in manufacturing things for herself is the best assurance of future taste, which will spread out and envelop everything she touches. It is much the same with clothes and furnishings as with other matters, what one makes is one's own, characteristic, appropriate, adequate, with the touch of enjoyment in it; the purchased article is devoid of sentiment, it is a makeshift and substitute.

Then by all means let the girl learn to sew, learn to do for herself, to study her own needs and desires, to find as she progresses, ways to master the details of woman's own craft, and it is hoped, lay up a store of just the sort of experience which will enable her to supervise the work of others in her behalf when the time comes. But sewing, valuable as it is in connection with the young girl's problems, is not the only craft at hand. In recent years craftworkers have revived a number of old methods of using or preparing textiles for decorative purposes, and some of these have proven increasingly worth while in the household. Stenciling, block-printing, dyeing, decorative darning, and even weaving itself, since they have been remodeled and brought out in simple form, offer opportunities to the wideawake girl. The results in each case may be very beautiful, and perhaps more in harmony with the individual taste and scheme of living of the particular girl than any materials she could buy, because they may be designed and executed for a specific place. Few people, least of all a child, work just to be busy; there is always a motive. With the girl it is a scarf, a belt, collar, curtain, or sofa pillow; is it not well worth while if she can make these for herself or her room, in her chosen design motif, (as rose, bird, tree, etc.) and color? It may be an ordinary design, peculiar color, but they satisfy a personal sentiment which, by the way, can be modified and improved as time goes on. One must needs allow children to begin with the bizarre, distorted, seemingly unreasonable, archaic desires they have and cross-fertilize these with better ones in the hope of producing a fine, wholesome, sturdy attitude of mind.