4. We would remind the reader again of the necessity of giving attention to the development of an attractive personality in the growing girl. Pleasing manners, refined expressions, neat and attractive apparel, kindliness and sympathy, frankness and straightforwardness—all these should enter into her make-up and be thought of as parts of her permanent character. They will also go far toward winning to her side a suitable life companion.
5. The young girl on the farm should have much advice in respect to the nature and character of men. This will be achieved partly through her well-ordered social life and partly through specific talks from thoughtful parents. Country girls are probably less informed in respect to the natures of men than are city girls. Many beautiful and innocent young women are led astray either before or after marriage by evil and designing men; many of them consummate marriages with men who have an outer appearance of trustworthiness, but who harbor within some most serious and insurmountable evil and disease. Although she may not for a time be conscious of what her parents are doing, the latter should be for years purposely engaged in preparing their daughter to know at sight a good man.
Finally, it may be said that there is no greater charm or thing of more superior beauty in this good world of ours than the character of a woman who has been well-born and well-reared, and who has been safely guided into the home of her own wherein she reigns as mistress supreme. In this ideal home the love and sympathy and the kindly deeds of the true home-maker will reveal themselves permanently in the lives of her children and her husband and the many others who come into contact with her constructive personality.
REFERENCES
Women’s Ways of Earning Money. Cynthia Westover Alden. A. S. Barnes & Co.
The Home Builder. Dr. Lyman Abbott. Houghton, Mifflin Company. Sympathetic and cheering.
Almost a Woman. Mary Wood Allen, M.D. Crist, Scott & Parshall, Coopertown, N.Y. A plain talk to the young woman about her sex nature.
The Problem of Vocational Education. David Snedden, Ph.D. Chapter XII, “The Problem of Women in Industry.” Houghton, Mifflin Company.
The Vocational Guidance of Youth. Meyer Bloomfield. Chapter I, “The Choice of Life Work and its Difficulties.” Houghton, Mifflin Company.
Parenthood and Race Culture. Charles W. Saleeby M.D. Chapter X, “Marriage and Maternalism.” Moffat, Yard & Co., New York.
Should Women work for their Living? M. Yates. Westminster Review, October, 1910.
Social Diseases and Marriage. Educational Pamphlet, No. 3. American Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, New York. 10 cents. Every parent should read this booklet.
Vocational Training for Girls. Isabelle McGlaufin. Education, April, 1911.
A Healthy Race; Woman’s Vocation. C. M. Hill. Westminster Review, January, 1910.
Social Adjustment. S. Nearing. Pages 128-148, “Dependence of Women.” Macmillan.
Purposes of Women. F. W. Saleeby, M.D. Forum, January, 1911.
Does the College rob the Cradle? H. Boice. Delineator, March, 1911.
The College Woman as a Home Maker. M. E. Wooley. Ladies’ Home Journal, Oct. 1, 1910.
The American Woman and her Home. Symposium. Outlook, April 17, 1910.
Teaching the Girl to Save. Home-Training Bulletin No. 7. 2 cents. Wm. A. McKeever, Manhattan, Kan.
CHAPTER XX
CONCLUSION, AND FUTURE OUTLOOK
In concluding this volume we wish again to remind parents of the necessity of working for specific results in the rearing of their children. Modern man, unlike his ancestor, who roamed over the earth, is a creature of complex and highly refined make-up which no primitive or natural environment could possibly produce. The forces that work upon his character development are so radically different from those which formed the life of his remote forbears as possibly to account for the contrasts in the two forms of finished personality.
Although there is evidence to support the theory that man belongs to the general evolutionary scheme of animal life, the progress of the race has been so very slow that a thousand years of time can show no very distinct improvement either in physical form or mental quality. While the human young is exceedingly plastic as an individual,—yielding easily from one side of his inherent activities to another,—the race is relatively fixed and stable.