ich might inspire her soul with high ideals,
pure, noble thoughts expressed in action which makes life sweeter. Of
nature's beauties, of her countless miracles, of the dramatic acts of
current history, of the lives and needs of other girls she knew almost
nothing. In her pitiful little world she lived, her best self dying for
want of pure air with the oxygen of power in it.

Can she find in the social life and amusements of the day the
inspiration needed to fill her soul with life that it may develop as her
normal healthy body develops? No, the girls of our country do not find
our social life a help to the higher expression of self. Only here and
there do wise parents make social life simple, free from show and sham,
from false standards and appeals to the senses. But few know how to
center the social life in the home, in the out-of-doors, in clean
sports, instead of letting it center about exotic conditions,
unreasonable hours, and deadly refreshments. Only now and then does the
present social life demand any exercise of mental power.

It is wonderfully encouraging to find, here and there, groups of girls
of sixteen and their boy friends having their simple good times in each
other's homes, enjoying the picnic and the skating party; or the girls
by themselves enjoying camp life, the tramp in the woods, the gymnasium
class; or with their parents or chaperones enjoying the moving pictures
of high standard, without vaudeville. These girls are such a contrast to
the usual groups of sophisticated, bored, blase girls who at eighteen
have tired of the ordinary means of recreation and amusement. Our social
life suffers from too rapid growth. It does not offer the tonic for
healthy social nature. It needs pruning. Some of it needs to be torn up
by the roots.

And what of the schools? Can she find there the atmosphere that will
stir her soul to noble, unselfish joyous living? Yes, in some schools.
Many are engaged in merely continuing the "system," following a
curriculum strangely deficient in those things which touch life
directly, to inspire it and kindle it with ambition.

Recently, four names, the names of women, were presented to classes of
girls in the last year of the grammar grades and the four years of the
high school. The girls were asked, "Did you ever hear of Frances
Willard? What do you know about her?" Then followed the names of Mary
Lyon, Clara Barton, Alice Freeman Palmer. The show of hands and the
written re