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VOL. 29, NO. 1 Lessons for April JANUARY, 1942
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THE COVER
K^entenmal 1 1 iemonal (^ampanue
X HE cover picture is a photograph of the proposed me- morial campanile to be erected on Temple Square as a feature of the Relief Society centennial observance. In this bell tower will hang the famous Nauvoo Temple bell.
The structure, designed by Lorenzo Young, Salt Lake architect, is to have a black granite base and terrazzo ter- race, with the upper part of the campanile of cast bronze. At the top of the granite base an urn containing a light will illuminate the bell at night. The height of the struc- ture is to be thirty-five feet. Four plaques for the base are being designed by Avard Fairbanks, Utah-born sculptor.
While it was originally planned that bronze be used in combination with other materials in the erection of this campanile, the war situation makes it necessary for the Government to restrict the use of certain metals for pur- poses such as this. Accordingly, the erection of the struc- ture will proceed as planned using permanent materials in so far as they are available, and where necessary sub- stitute materials will be used temporarily.
The General Board of Relief Society accepts voluntary contributions toward the erection of this permanent me- morial. For particulars see page 39.
Arrangements for this month's cover design are by Evan Jensen.
RELIEF SOCIETY CEOTEMIAL SDUVEMIHS
TLow Ch}ailablsL fo^. ffljuAchasJL
OFnCIAL CENTENNIAL SEAL
The oiiicial centennial insignia has been beautifully reproduced in the Relief Society colors, blue and gold, on gummed seals the same size as the reproduction above. These are suitable for use on programs, booklets, letterheads, invitations, placecards, and for similar purposes in connection with centennial celebrations, or fsr other purposes during the centennial year. Price, 10c per 100, postpaid. Not available in lots of less than 100.
OmCIAL RELIEF SOCIETY PIN
No. 1 Pin of blue baked French hard enamel and 24 carat gold-plated, price $1.10, postpaid.
No. 2 Pin of blue baked French hard enamel and 10 carat solid-gold front (gold-filled), with 24 carat gold-plated back, price $1.80, postpaid.
Both pins are identical as to design, size, and coloring. Although issued as a feature of the centennial year, this pin bears only the organization date, 1842, and will therefore be appropriate for use after the centennial. These prices include Federal excise tax.
OUR LEGACY
RELIEF SOCETY CENTENNIAL ANTHOLOGY OF VERSE -
This 329-page book contains poems selected from the writings of Latter-day Saint women from 1835 to 1942, including all the prize poems designated in the annual Eliza Roxey Snow Memorial Poem Cont.est. The relatives of those whose poems are included in this anthology will be especially interested. Price $1.50. postpaid.
CENTENNIAL COMMEMORATIVE PLATE
This pottery plate, IOV2 inches in diameter depicts the first Relief Society meeting held in Nauvoo, March 17, 1842. Brown is the predominating color of the design on this beautiful ivory plate, with costumes in a variety of colors. The plate is bordered v/ith gold-colored 'wheat heads. The inscription on the back gives information as to the organization, scope, and purposes of Relief Society. Price $1.50, postpaid.
CENTENNIAL SONGS
A SONG OF TRIUMPH, words and music by the late Beatrice F. Stevens, 2 pages, 5c per copy, postpaid.
IN THY FORM, words by Dr. Carlton Culmsee, music by Dr. Florence Jepperson Madsen, 7 pages, 10c per copy, postpaid.
These two songs are punched to fit the loose-leaf RELIEF SOCIETY SONG BOOK.
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All articles listed above are obtainable only from General Board of Relief Society, 28 Bishop's Building, Salt Lake City.
The Relief Society Magazine
Monthly Publication of the Rehef Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Vol. 29 JANUARY, 1942 No. 1
Qordjuniii.
Special Features
Greetings — Rehef Society Executive Officers i
General Board of Rehef Society — Frontispiece 2
A Tribute to the Rehef Society President Rudger Clawson 3
In Retrospect — Chapter I President Amy Brown Lyman 5
A Monument With a Message Mary Grant Judd 11
Prize-Winning Poems — Ehza Roxey Snow Memorial Poem Contest 13
Prize- Winning Story — Rehef Society Centennial Short Story Contest 17
Women and the Church (Rehef Society General Conference Address)
Elder Stephen L Richards 24
The Great Fig Tree (Play, Relief Society General Conference) Joseph J. Cannon 47
Children's Books 52
Fiction
The Wilderness Alice Morrey Bailey 17
There's Always a New Beginning Mary Ek Knowles -28
The Merry-Go-Round — Chapter Ten Ahce Morrey Bailey 41
General Features
Fashions of Yesterday 35
Happenings Annie Wells Cannon 36
Editorial: Our Centennial 37
Notes to the Field:
Participation of Relief Society in Red Cross Work 39
Contributions for Relief Society Centennial Memorial Campanile 39
Gospel Standards, by President Heber J. Grant 40
Bound Volumes 40
Home Accident Prevention — No. IV 51
Lessons
Theology and Testimony— Articles of Faith, by James E. Talmage, Chapter 7 54
Visiting Teachers' — Sabbath Day Observance as an Expression of Faith 56
Work-and-Business — Children's Clothing 57
Literature — Humor About and For Children 59
Social Science — Economic Aspects of Family Life 63
Mission — "True to the Faith" 69
Poetry
To a Pioneer Lady Grace Zenor Pratt 4
Sanctuary Ahce L. Eddy 10
Snow Dott J. Sartori 12
Brave Privileged Feet Eva Willes Wangsgaard 13
Spacious Century — 1842-1942 Vesta Pierce Crawford 14
Centennial Zella A. Johnson 15
The Rhythm of the Band Marjorie Rust 23
The Second Mile Gertrude Perry Stanton 34
And Tell of Time Mabel Jones Gabbott 38
To Zaidee Judith 46
Pioneers of Women Elsie F. Parton 74
PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE GENERAL BOARD OF RELIEF SOCIETY
Editorial and Business Offices: 28 Bishop's Building, Salt Lake City, Utah, Fhone 3-2741, Ex. 243. Subscription Price: $1.00 a year; foreign, $1.00 a year; payable in advance. Single copy, 10c. The Magazine is not sent after subscription expires. Renew promptly so that no copies will be missed. Report change of address at once, giving both old and new address. Entered as second-class matter February 18, 1914, at the Post Office, Salt Lake City, Utah, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of October 8, 1917, authorized June 29, 1918. Stamps should accompany manu- scripts for their return.
(greetings
ViriTH the dawning of the New Year— our centennial year— the General Board extends affectionate greetings to Relief Society women throughout the Church.
How happy and blessed we are in our membership in an organization which for one hundred years has been devoted to the cause of humanity and the glory of God— a mission for which it was organized and set apart by its Prophet-founder.
As we look back over the long road which has been traveled, we can visualize the brave women of each period who have made their contri- bution and passed the work on to others, leaving their memories and inspiration as a precious heritage to those who have followed.
As we review the work of the past year, which is typical of that of other years, the feeling uppermost in our hearts is one of sincere thanksgiving and gratitude to you dear sisters of today for your earnest labors and notable achievements, and to our Heavenly Father for the manifold blessings and mercies He has be- stowed upon us and upon our organ- ization.
While we have cause for rejoicing in our growth, development, and ac- complishments, we are not unmind- ful of the sorrows and suffering in many lands today, of the unrest which is spreading over the whole face of the earth, and of the tendency to destroy instead of to build. And we wonder what the New Year will bring. Our constant prayer is that in this New Year which is especially
Vera W. Pohlman, General Secretary-Treasurer.
sacred to us, and which is our most important milepost, the forces of evil may be destroyed, that misun- derstanding, selfishness, and hate may be removed from the hearts of men, and that sympathy, under- standing, and reason, and the spirit of the Master may enter therein; that war may cease and peace be established in the earth.
It is the plain teaching of history that there is only one way to avoid war, and that is to remove the causes of war. We believe it is within the power of men to put into operation those forces that would bring this about, and that this could be done if they would carefully study and be willing to apply in their daily lives the teachings of the Savior. Jesus said:
. . . Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. (Matthew 22:37-39)
Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them : for this is the law and the prophets. (Matthew 7:12)
If the abiding aim of all the people of the world could be the promotion and practice of these divine teach- ings, which foster love for, and faith in, all mankind, it would be the greatest step that could be taken to bring about permanent peace.
That we may in our own lives re- dedicate ourselves to the way of life proposed by the Master is our earnest prayer.
Amy Brown Lyman, Marcia K. Howells, Donna D. Sorensen, General Presidency.
The
Relief Society Magazine
Vol. 29
JANUARY, 1942
No. 1
A Tribute To The Relief Society
Elder Rudger Clawson
President, Council of the Twelve Apostles
TN August 1919, I was appointed by President Heber J. Grant as special adviser to the General Board of Relief Society, and was commis- sioned to assist in consolidating the accounts of all the departments of the general office and to set up a system of bookkeeping adapted to
PRESIDENT RUDGER CLAWSON
needs of the Society. I did that, and since that time I have supervised the yearly audit of the business and the accounts. I have frequently coun- seled with the officers of the Society and advised them on the various problems that arise almost daily. I am, therefore, familiar with the de- tails of their work and am in a posi- tion to know what they are actually doing.
I should like to most warmly com- mend Sister Lyman and her asso- ciates, her predecessors and their as- sociates, for the efficient manner in which they have carried on the great volume of business necessary in such an important organization. The service which the Relief Society renders to the Church is great in- deed. Few, I fear, understand the magnitude and the importance of this work. These sisters carry for- ward a program second only to that of the Priesthood. It is both tem- poral and spiritual. Relief Society women minister to the needs of those in distress. They plant faith and hope in the hearts of the sorrowing and disconsolate. The Relief Society in all its work reflects the true spirit of the Gos- pel. The membership of the or-
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RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY, 1942
ganization is made up of women of experience, of faith and under- standing. This enables them to per- form the dehcate and important tasks that go with the charity service of the Church in a manner unparal- leled in other organizations. In a spirit of true Christianity they go about doing good.
In addition to all of the assist- ance which the Society gives to those who are in need, it has a great educational program that builds faith, inspires a love for learn- ing and culture, and that brightens the lives and improves the homes of
all its members. I have had great pleasure in my extensive travels among the Saints in encouraging the sisters to join the Society, and I have encouraged Priesthood members everywhere to support and help it. While it is an auxiliary organization, it is a great help and a great support to the bishops in their arduous la- bors.
At the beginning of a New Year it gives me real pleasure to extend to the members of this great Society every good wish and blessing during this centennial year and for the fu- ture.
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TO A PIONEER LADY
Grace Zenor Piatt
Dear pioneer lady, my thoughts go back through the years To you in your crude little house with its scanty fare, Making the most of that little you had till it seemed a feast, And the one small room became home and a haven To those whom you loved and who loved you there. Pioneer lady, I'm sure that your heart often craved Music and beauty and laughter, as well as the trivial things, Infinitely dear, that all women crave. When all that you had was the laughter- Laughter which kept you brave.
There were no moments to waste, dear lady, over trivial things;
No time for envy, no fretting for this and that;
No time for jealousy, no moments for vain regret;
There were the tasks, the children, the weaving, the toil
From daylight till night.
Subduing the wilderness, taming the soil. . . .
Yet your soul caught glimpses of beauty, culture, and highest art-
For always the truest culture springs from the patient heart.
O pioneer lady, brave of spirit and true.
We who are only women today offer our praise to you,
In Retrospect
President Amy Biown Lyman Chapter I
AT the request of the General teresting country town, which to me
Board that I write a series is a sacred place and will always be
of autobiographical articles home,
for the Relief Society Magazine, In those days of slow transporta-
I have consented to do so. I tion and limited communication,
assume this task with a deep country children in America lived a
sense of humility and with the hope more or less lonely and detached life
that this brief chronicle of some of on isolated farms. This, however,
the events of my life will be of suf- was not the case in Utah, where the
ficient interest to justify publication, farm-village type of community
Pleasant Grove, the small village which we now know so well, but located at the foot of famous Mt. which was unique at that time, Timpanogos in Utah County, was was established at the outset, my birthplace. I arrived on a cold, There was no village life among brisk February 7 morning in 1872, American farmers anywhere else, just twenty-five years after the settle- Here the farmers lived together ment of Utah and twenty-two years and in closely-knit units surround- after the settlement of Pleasant ed by the areas which they cul- Grove. Coming at this time, I missed tivated. They went out to their the real hardships of earlier days and farms to work during the day and re- enjoyed such advantages as living on turned in the evening. In the be- a railroad. When I was one year old, ginning, it had been quite necessary in 1873, the Utah Central, the first for them to settle together on the railroad in Utah, was extended streams which furnished their water through Pleasant Grove and as far supply, and it had been very impor- south as Provo. It had been in- tant for their safety that they live corporated in 1869 and reached Lehi close enough together to protect Junction in 1871. themselves from the Indians. This
If I could go back to the time of type of country life, thus early adopt- my birth and could choose my own ed, proved so satisfactory that it be- birthplace, I am sure it would be came the pattern wherever Mormons Pleasant Grove. As I think of it colonized. It was advantageous today, there could have been for me economically, socially, and religious- no more desirable place in which to ly. It provided many types of profit- be born and no other place which able cooperation; made good schools could have given me the environ- and recreational facilities possible, ment and the particular experiences which in those days were almost im- I had there, and which I now prize possible among greatly scattered ag- so dearly. Everything connected ricultural settlers; and it also made with my life up to my seventeenth church-going easy and desirable, year was centered in this simall, in- The story is told that in thqse early
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RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY, 1942
days of isolated living on farms and wooded lands a certain farm woman became mentally ill, and her husband said he couldn't understand how she ever caught such a malady as she hadn't been away from the farm once in seventeen years.
In the early Utah towns there were many features which contributed to healthy, normal life. The climate was especially good. The people were sturdy and industrious, and they lived in their own homes. Then, there were always the meetinghouses or churches, which were real communi- ty centers, and the schools with their recreational facilities. There were also music, dramatic and literary so- cieties, and community dances. There was a friendliness and socia- bility difficult to provide where people live in scattered conditions or even in large cities. Thus, the chil- dren were protected from many of the temptations and evils of city life.
In the beginning the settlers in Utah were mostly converts to the Latter-day Saint Church, from vari- ous states of the Union and from foreign countries. Among these converts were educators, musicians, tradesmen, factory workers, crafts- men, farmers, dairymen, et cetera. This variety in citizenship was an important factor in the development of the communities and in the cul- ture of the people.
In Pleasant Grove in my childhood there were a number of the original Utah pioneers, also members of the Mormon Battalion and of Zion's Camp. These persons had all lived in Nauvoo and had experienced the per- secutions there and also the persecu- tions in Missouri. There were Indian war veterans and western explorers. There were many interesting foreign-
ers—Scandinavians, Englishmen, Ir- ishmen, Welshmen, Scots, and Ger- mans. These foreign-born citizens made us acquainted with the old world, and they, together with the pioneers and returned missionaries, thrilled us with recitals of their ex- periences. Could one find a more interesting environment in which to live?
One of the rare occasions in our town was when Brother Philo Dib- ble, of Springville, came on his peri- odic visits to present his illustrated lecture on early Mormon history. He had great canvasses ten feet or more high, as I remember them, upon which were painted thrilling scenes with almost life-size figures. These, together with his dramatic descrip- tions and narratives, held us children spellbound. The scene of the mar- tyrdom at Carthage Jail was so real and was so vividly stamped upon my mind, that whenever I have since visited this historic place I have in my imagination visualized the whole sad episode in all its details. For footlights Brother Dibble used to place a row of tallow candles, which were set up on a plank, at the base of the pictures, and these were light- ed as the lecture was about to begin. In addition to the pictures, plaster of Paris busts of the Prophet and the Patriarch were displayed. These he carefully wrapped in cotton batting while traveling.
Other outstanding events in the community were the celebrations held on July 4 and 24, when inter- esting street parades were featured and programs given.
There was no evidence of wealth in our community, nor were there any elegant homes, but we had high educational, moral, and spiritual
IN RETROSPECT
standards. We had plain living, but high thinking. Next in importance to the earning of a livelihood was the proper rearing of children. Provid- ing educational opportunities for children was regarded as highly im- portant. A school was opened the same year the village was founded. The first settlers arrived in Septem- ber, 1850, and located in a grove of Cottonwood trees on Battle Creek. There were seven families in the com- pany, and that first winter they all went to school— men, women, and children. In the group was a team- ster, fairly well-educated for that period, who had been hired by a widow lady to drive her teams across the plains. Arriving late in the fall, he decided to spend the winter in the valley and was engaged to teach the school.
In my childhood and youth we had a good elementary school, but no high school. In fact, at that time, there were no high schools in Utah, and after finishing the elementary schools, in order to get more educa- tion children had to be sent away to the Brigham Young Academy at Provo or to the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, both of which gave advanced educational courses includ- ing normal training. All of my fa- ther's children who lived beyond childhood (sixteen in number) had the opportunity of attending school at the Brigham Young Academy, as did those of many other families. I have heard both Dr. Karl G. Maeser and Dr. George H. Brimhall say that in those early days Pleasant Grove sent more young people to the Brig- ham Young Academy than did any other town of its size in Utah.
lyt Y father, John Brown, born in 1820, was one of the original pioneers of Utah. He was captain of the thirteenth ten in Brigham Young's company, and, with this first group of pioneers, arrived in Salt Lake Valley July 24, 1847. He was but twenty-seven years of age at that time, and had already crossed the plains as far west as Pueblo the year before (1846) as one of the leaders of the 'Mississippi Saints. These southern Saints from Monroe County had been directed by Presi- dent Brigham Young to start west in that year with the understanding that they would meet his company of pioneers on the plains. Brigham Young's company, however, was de- layed in Missouri due to the Mexican war and other unforseen events and, therefore, did not begin its famous journey until the next year.
When the Mississippi expedition learned from mountaineers and travelers at Pueblo that Brigham Young's company had not yet left the Missouri River, and that 500 members of the company had joined the army, forming the Mormon Bat- talion, and were now on their way to New Mexico, they decided to spend the winter in Pueblo. Father and seven of his companions, how- ever, returned to the East in the fall of 1846, and the next year he came with the pioneers to Salt Lake Val- ley. In the fall of 1847 ^^^ returned East again with Brigham Young and others, the main company remaining in Salt Lake Valley. This was his fourth trip across the country. As pioneer, Church emigration agent, and missionary, he crossed the plains thirteen times with oxen and mule teams, and in 1867 and also in 1869 he made the same trip by rail.
d RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY, 1942
His best-loved animal was a mule balanced, and had excellent poise. I
named ''Zeek." In his journal dated never saw him angry. He could be-
January, 1854, ^^ records: ''On come indignant at injustice and
Christmas night my black mule, wrongdoing, and did not hesitate to
'Zeek,' died. He had taken me across let this be known, but he believed
the plains seven times and was the that emotional upsets and temper
most faithful animal I ever owned." tantrums were infantile reactions.
As emigration agent for the Church, most unbecoming, later regretted,
father, during one season alone— the and always to be avoided. We were
summer of 1853— met in relays at taught as children to try always to
New Orleans 2,548 Latter-day Saints, control ourselves and be masters of
took them up the Mississippi in river unpleasant situations,
boats to St. Louis, and there out- On my visit to the commence-
fitted them with oxen and wagons ment exercises of the University of
for the journey across the plains. Michigan a few years ago, I was asked
He served as bishop in Pleasant by one of my husband's classmates
Grove for twenty-eight years, as about the type of men the Mormon
mayor of the city for twenty years, pioneers were. She had been reading
and as state legislator for nineteen some books which had made her very
years. curious about Brigham Young and
Tennessee was his birthplace. He his early associates. I told her that
was the twelfth child in a family of in my early life I had met a number
fourteen. He was brought up in II- of these men and admired them, but
linois, where at the age of twenty he that there was one with whom I was
began teaching school with the view especially well acquainted, and that
of earning money with which to fin- was my own father. I told her he
ish his education. After he joined was one of the cleanest, sweetest,
the Mormon Church, however, his and most righteous men I had ever
schoolhouse was burned. He later seen— a man with no bad habits,
located in Nauvoo, where he worked one whose personal standard of liv-
on both the Nauvoo House and the ing was of the highest order; that he
Nauvoo Temple. From here he was would not indulge in anything of a
sent on two separate missions to the low or degrading nature, nor would
Southern States. he associate with those who did.
Father was deeply religious. To My mother, Margaret Zimmerman
the end of his days he was devoted to Brown, was born in Pennsylvania of
the Church and to its leaders. No German parents who had emigrated
child of his was ever permitted, in his to this country from Wurtemburg,-
presence, to criticize the leaders of Germany. Her father, George G.
the Church. He was a loyal and Zimmerman, was educated in a Ger-
patriotic citizen of Revolutionary man university, and was a teacher of
stock on both sides. His forebears languages. He served in the German
thus helped to establish the Gov- Army in the Napoleonic wars and
ernment of the United States. He was taken a prisoner by the French,
had a fine intellect and was unusual- After returning to Germany, and
ly well-read. He was a man of rare while he was still in the army, he
judgment. He was gentle, well made up his mind that he would
IN RETROSPECT 9
leave the country at the first oppor- many to visit the schools and to
tunity because he was opposed to study the activities of the various
compulsory military training and states in the training of teachers. He
hated war. He was determined not was president of the Folk School
to rear his children in war-ridden Teachers' Association, and editor of
Europe. After coming to America, the Folk School Teachers' Maga-
he taught languages in high schools zine. In the Wurtemburg parliament
and academies in Maryland and he was chairman of the committee
Pennsylvania. . appointed to study and revise the
My mother's mother was descend- school laws,
ed from the Hartman-Hoke families. After my mother's family joined
The Hokes were from the middle the Church they left Pennsylvania
class. The Hartmans were well-to- and moved to Illinois, later coming
do and were prominent in the aris- to Utah where they arrived in May,
tocratic circles of Wurtemburg, 1851. My dear old grandfather, who
where many of them held important spoke fluently German, French, and
positions. Among them were writers, English, was also a Latin scholar,
and leaders in political, professional. He loved learning and education and
and educational fields. I shall men- often said to his children, ''While
tion several of them who lived be- you children have been deprived of
tween 1750 and 1890: John George educational opportunities in this far-
Hartman was court counselor and away western land where there are
secretary of the treasury to the Duke no high schools or colleges, you
of Wurtemburg, and was said to be must see to it that your children do
one of the most influential men in have these opportunities." This ideal
the Duke's service. Michael Hart- of my grandfather's was always held
man and John Frederick Hartman by my mother as a goal for us chil-
were city mayors. Eberhard Fried- dren.
rich Hartman, my mother's great- My mother was a partial invalid
grandfather, was a widely-known for a number of years, and during
educator. that time she directed the affairs of
His grandson, Karl Hartman, who her household and in addition help- came from this family of teachers ed to solve the social and economic which for 120 years without a break problems of many of her friends. She taught in one and the same com- was forceful, dynamic, and efficient, munity, was honored and beloved yet she was tender and sympathetic, by all folk school teachers through- A strict disciplinarian, she kept both out Wurtemburg both for his knowl- her children and her house ''in or- edge and for his great activity in der." Some might have thought that trying to improve the conditions of she dominated the lives of her chil- the teaching profession. In 1850 dren and required too much of them, he was chosen to travel throughout and probably this was the case, but Wurtemburg to study the proposi- she was so wise and farseeing, and tion of advancing bright students by her judgment was so good, that we giving them special attention. As had more confidence in her ideas head of a normal training school he than we had in our own, and usually was sent in 1856 on a tour of Ger- were willing to accept any plan she
10
RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY, 1942
had for us without much argument. She was a woman's woman and al- ways maintained that girls should have equal opportunities and priv- ileges with boys. Mother was one of twelve children, and herself gave birth to ten children. She was born in 1836 and lived exactly ninety- three years.
Following is an extract from a trib- ute paid to my mother at her funeral by Miss Alice L. Reynolds: ''When the day came that I was asked to spend the weekend in the Brown home, I shall never forget the wel- come I received when I met Sister
Brown. It was hospitality of the highest order. She took me in as a daughter, and from that first meet- ing to the last time that I ever saw her, it was always sympathetic un- derstanding. And today I stand here before you as a representative of a host of young men and young wo- men in Israel who have shared her home and know of her loving and helpful interest that all who shared it will treasure throughout their lives. We, with her own children, will call her name blessed to the very last generation."
{To he continued)
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SANCTUARY
AJice L. Eddy
I will come back to this blue, mountain fastness, And I will return to this green, leafy bower. Here to find balm when my wounds cry for healing, Here to find solace for sorrow's black hour.
I will remember the delicate tracing
And patterns of pine bough against the deep blue.
I will take with me the clarion of bird song
To rally my spirit for what I must do.
ril not be deafened by heartbreak's harsh wailing If song of white water my inner ear fills. I will not flinch in the furnace of testing If I take with me the strength of the hills.
I will have need of these calm, purple shadows To muffle the agonized dying of pride. . I will return when the ordeal is over. Here with the trees and the streams to abide.
A Monument With A Message
Mary Grant Judd
Relief Society General Board Member
T^HE Latter-day Saints are a prac- pearance on the American con-
tical people, and their rehgion is tinent, and the inspirational piece
a practical religion; yet, when it of sculpture placed at the old Mor-
comes to places or events of signifi- mon cemetery at Winter Quarters
cance in their past, there is no peo- which proclaims the message that
pie with more sentiment. We rejoice the faith of Mormonism turns dis-
when we learn that the Church has aster and what might otherwise be
purchased some spot memorable in defeat into victory,
its early history, and thrill to the And now another monument with
impressions we receive when we are a message is planned, to be placed on
privileged to stand upon one of Temple Square. At our forthcom-
these sacred spots. ing centennial celebration it is the
A few of the places with a pull plan of the Relief Society to present
of sentiment that have come into to the Church a campanile, or bell
possession of the Church are: the tower. Besides marking the turn of
birthplace of our Prophet in Ver- a century, this monument will house
mont, where a granite shaft magni- in a permanent and beautiful setting
ficently pierces the blue; and the the historic Nauvoo Temple bell,
farm in New York State where Jos- This priceless relic played an im-
eph Smith labored as a youth, and portant part in early Church history,
near which is the Sacred Grove with Cast in bronze, it was brought by the
its glorious, majestic trees in all their way of sailing vessel from England
pristine beauty. The Church owns as a gift from the British converts.
Liberty Jail in Missouri, in which It hung in the Temple before that
once stood "majesty in chains," as edifice was completed and remained
Joseph rebuked the uncouth guards there until, following the evacuation
whose foul language he could no of the Saints, it was rescued from a
longer endure. Later, in this same ruthless mob who were about to
jail, he was given consolation from make away with it. David Burlock
his Father in heaven in language Lamoreaux drove his wagon under-
as sublime as any to be found in the neath the bell, lowered it and de-
Doctrine and Covenants. livered it to the Church, its right-
The Latter-day Saints believe in ful owner. It was the Lamoreaux
building monuments on significant family who hauled it in their wagon
spots; they believe that they breathe the long distance across the plains,
a message to the beholder that could and they willingly walked much of
not be accomplished so well through the way to do so.
any other medium. Two such mon- In the huge volumes designated
uments are the monument of the as Journal History, now in the
Angel Moroni atop the Hill Cum- Church Historian's Office, the day-
orah which testifies to Christ's ap- by-day history of the trek is re- Page 1 1
12
RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY, 1942
corded. Occasional reference is made to the bell, showing that dur- ing the trek it had practical use. It awakened the herdsmen at dawn and reminded them to turn out their cattle to water. It tolled to call the people from their wagons to bow in morning prayer. It rang again when the time for starting the day's march arrived. It rang in the night to let the Indians understand that thie sentry was at his post.
After the arrival of the pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley, the bell was used at the old bowery, predecessor of the Tabernacle, calling the Saints to religious worship. It rang at dawn to announce that the dangers of the night had passed and that cattle could be turned out to graze with- out fear of marauding Indians.
For some time past, the First Presidency of the Church has felt that this valuable relic should be given more prominence, but no de- finite decision had been reached concerning the project. Without knowing this, the Relief Society General Board asked permission to place the bell in a tower as a contri- bution to the Church, commemor- ating the one hundredth anniversary
of the Society and honoring the thousands of unsung Relief Society heroines who over this period of one hundred years have exhibited such unselfish service to humanity and wonderful devotion to a cause. Without thought of honor accruing to themselves or financial reward in even the smallest measure. Relief Society women have nursed the sick, comforted the bereaved, buoyed up the discouraged and disconsolate, nourished the hungry, clothed the naked, and even tenderly prepared the dead for burial.
But there is even greater signifi- cance attached to the proposed Re- lief Society memorial. We believe that in the near future thousands of visitors who come to Temple Square will pause before this tie between the past and the present and, as they view this old bell which has been in our midst longer than the memory of any living man, they will be im- pressed as the guide recites the early history of the Church. Thus, this priceless possession will continue to play well its part. And, since the story of our organization will be in- cluded, our influence for good will extend on and on in ever-widening circles.
^
SNOW
Dott J. Saitoii
This white peace silencing the hills Is to heal the scars of parting On mother hearts and mountains Until a new spring's starting.
[Prize- vi/ifining Lroems
sbliza uioxeii onow 1 1 iemonal [Poem Lyontest
EVA WILLES WANGSGAARD
iurave, Lrnvilegea CJeet
Eva. Willes Wangsgaard First Prize
When I remember that a century
Has gone as wind-caught apple blossoms go Since Joseph said, 'To you I turn the key.
From this time forth intelligence shall flow, And womanly, united hearts be bent
Toward charity. Let mercy be your shield In bringing pain relief, the poor content;
And keep all doings in your bosoms sealed." I feel the magnitude of this great plan
For human betterment— sense growth and scope. To know of unpaid legions serving man
Sans thought of birth or creed gives me new hope For this sad world by force and ignorance rocked—
Brave, privileged feet on paths that Jesus walked!
Page 13
14
RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY, 1942
VESTA PIERCE CRAWFORD
ZELLA A. JOHNSON
Spacious (^entur^, f 5^2 -794 2
Vesta Pierce Ciawioid Second Prize
Wait but a moment in the sun of time Before the portals of the past are furled, While eager eyes appraise thy girth of years— O spacious century that changed the world.
Thy rhythm has been phrased to liberty With an insistent echo like a bell That strikes a measured music in the heart, With only wide and lumined words to tell.
There is no border to a dream— no end. It was for land beyond the silver dawn That questing wagons braved the barrier plain And found uncharted space to build upon.
Thy reaching freedom was a voice so strong It swept the strength of racial bonds away And gave the spirit greater latitude To rear the structure of a better day.
PRIZE WINNING POEMS 15
And yet the social dream— the great ideal- Could find no gentle shaping of its goal Until the hands of women molded time To give the swiftly changing world a soul!
O spacious century that now must pass And yield the tide into another year, Thy boundaries are like a heritage — A wider challenge on the new frontier.
Only faith can beckon to a clearer path, And only love can loom against the night; The shining ways of peace can still be found To move our shadowed orbit into light.
We who wait tomorrow's dawn must see The law of brotherhood and liberty!
^
L^entenmal
Zelh A. Johnson Third Prize
The Master paused, as time rolled back the ages. To choose a gift, a blessing for the earth.
He marked a golden sheet in history's pages:
'This shall record a boon of greatest worth.
For womankind the world is dark and dreary,
But dawning of a brighter day appears.
The night shall end; this day shall mark for women.
The opening of a glorious hundred years."
One hundred years of light and hope and duty, One hundred years of giving and of love. One hundred years of filling life with beauty. One hundred years of blessing from above. That was the gift God chose from all his treasures To cheer the earth and give it life anew; The key was turned, and blessings without measure Have flowed to prove a prophet's words are true.
A hundred years He gave to us, my sisters; But they are gone, and now our prayer He hears. "O Father, in thy mercy, look upon us. Help us be worthy of our hundred years.
\6 ftlLllF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY, ml
Teach us, O God, the law of love and patience, The law of faith and sorrow for our sin; An understanding heart we crave, our Father, To help the needy and their friendship win." The blessing is for all; we are but chosen To serve the world, to guide and point the way. Reflect the light which comes to us from heaven. The dawning of the great Millennial Day. Teach us the ''charity which never faileth". The love which to our Saviour's heart endears. Our gratitude we offer for this blessing. The opening of another hundred years.
Your Power
N
OTHING will sustain you more potently than the power to recognize in your humdrum routine, as perhaps it may be thought, the true poetry of life—the poetry of the commonplace, of the ordinary man, of the plain toilworn woman, with their loves and their joys, their sorrows and their griefs.— Sir William Osilei
The Praise and Properties of a Good Wife
CTRENGTH and honor are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time
to come.
She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.
She lookcth well to the ways of her household; and eateth not the bread of idleness. (Proverbs 31:25-27)— King Lemuel
nPHE path of a good woman is indeed strewn with flowers; but they rise behind her steps, not before them.— Ruskin
^
The Noblest Life
'T^HE noblest life is the life that loves, that gives, that loses itself, that overflows, as it were, irrigates the great fields of human anxiety and toil; the warm, hearty, social, helpful life; the life that cheers and comforts, and sustains by its serenity and patience and gratitude.— Anon.
[Prize- vUinmng Story
[rielief Societif (^entenniai Snort Story (contest
ALICE MORREY BAILEY
cJhe vi/ilaerness
Alice Money Bziley First Prize
KATHRYN CLAYTON kept her eyes on the gold-colored draperies of the Relief So- ciety room while the class progressed about her, only dimly aware that the subject was ''Neighborliness."
''My neighbors and me/' Sister Meade was saying— and Kathryn turned to look at her, a lumpy little woman whose hair was pulled back to an unbeautiful knot on the back of her head— "we are just like one
big, happy family. If it's joy or sorrow, we share it."
Kathryn averted her eyes from the woman, and her mind drew fastidi- ously from this distasteful doctrine.
''When my boy " Mrs. Meade
was saying, but she couldn't go on. After a minute of embarrassing si- lence she sat down, fumbling for her handkerchief. Everyone knew about her boy— a big hulk of a man, with a little boy's mind; silly from
Page 17
18 RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY, 1942
a fall, some said. He was harmless have kept still and let the class go
enough, but Kathryn thought he on, all of one opinion, in sisterly
should have been in an institution love and kindness,
long since. It wasn't as if she wanted to come
''Sister Clayton, how do you feel to Relief Society meeting, but there
about neighbors?" said the class had been nothing else to do, the way
leader with uncanny perception. the president. Sister Beckwith, had
Kathryn started, but her confu- approached her: 'Tou are the only
sion was only momentary; she got to one in the ward that can do it. Sister
her feet. Clayton. We need your lovely
''I don't care for neighbors," she voice and your training as a chorister,
said, and was aware of a shocked Our music department was a failure
silence in the classroom. 'That is," last year."
she amended hastily, "it depends on 'p^at had been in September; now who you consider neighbors. Crowd- ^^ was April, and she had done a ed together as houses necessarily are, g^^d job of her little group of "Sing- one can t choose who lives next i^g Mothers," now outstanding in ^^^' the stake, but she still resented the
One or two nodded agreement, time it took. It wasn't as if she'd
and the rest sat lookmg at her un- rather play bridge or do some other
comprehendingly. thing, useless, or even wicked. It was
I am a busy woman," she went j^st that she loved her home and
on. She was, too, with SIX children, her family-every minute of the
one of them a year-old baby. Think- routine, the busy mornings, the af-
mg of her baby, Sara Lea, her heart ternoons at her desk, the evenings
gave a leap of pure joy, so that she ^ith Thomas reading under a spot
forgot her surroundings momentar- of light in the living room; the girls
ily. Sara Lea, so deliciously dim- pitying their quiet games, the boys
pled, her b ue eyes like larkspur, her downstairs in the rumpus room; Sara
Id b b ^"^ ^^"^ ^"^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^'*^^^ ^'^^'^ "^^* "^^
gold baby. ^t home in dreamless baby sleep.
"I am a busy woman," she repeat- ,^ ,. r o • . i i ♦. i - .^
ed, recalling herself. "I haven't time , ^^]'^^ ^V^^ l"^^ '*' P^^^^ '"^ ^^^
to gossip over back fences, waste ^^^. ^f^^ .^^^" ^^'^ ^/l "^ ^"^^*
my own time and that of my neigh- socially-in the days of Nauvoo, m
bors." the days of the pioneer wilderness.
She caught sight of Mrs. Meade's Kathryn knew all about the back- face, pink with chagrin, and remem- ground and it was a splendid one bered suddenly that Mrs. Meade '^^ ^'^^^y admitted-black-eyed Em- lived just two doors from her in their "^^ S"^\*^^ *"™"g ^^\ ]^^"^^ ^"^ fairly new neighborhood. dooryard into a hospital for victims
"Now I've done it," she thought. ^^ ^^^ .^g"^,/" Nauvoo, equal to en-
"And I wouldn't hurt anyone's feel- tertaining the promment visitors o
ings willingly. Perhaps I might have the Prophet or to conducting Relief
expressed myself better; but, then. Society meetings along pariiament-
they shouldn't have asked me." She ary lines; Eliza R. Snow, intelligent,
thought that maybe she should brilliant, guarding, preserving and
PRIZE WINNING STORY
bringing the records of the infant Society across the plains; the estab- Hshment anew of the Society in the mountains; lovable Aunt Zina D. Young, who could mother and nurse all the world, traveling through the raw country to organize new branches and to teach the sisters the silk industry from cocoon to the making of a silk lace collar for the wife of the President of the United States.
There was Aunt Bathsheba W. Smith, undaunted in her efforts to build the Society; there was ''Aunt Em'' and the saving of thousands of bushels of grain (her own mother had helped do that). There was the wonderful work of the women in connection with child welfare, nurs- ing, suffrage, and with building a hospital. There were the mammoth relief programs and the recognition that had been gained in the large women's councils of the world. There was the launching of a maga- zine in a literary wilderness. Much had been accomplished— all of value then.
But now it was different. There were endless contacts, the best of earth at one's fiingertips, so much of richness that there was not time to assimilate it. There was no need for people to be dependent upon each other for anything. There were specialists for your baby, hospitals for the sick, and culture from its original sources in such abundance that selection was necessary. And Relief Society, Kathryn reflected, looking at the assembled women, was far from being exclusive. None of them, she thought, had anything of value to offer her.
The discussion was considerably
19
livelier; hands were popping up, cheeks flushed with debate. One woman sat in the back saying inter- mittently: "My neighbor ..." try- ing to insert a story that was per- petually interrupted.
After the closing prayer, Sister Beckwith and the class leader ap- proached Kathryn, and she thought, "Now I'm in for it."
''We couldn't do without you. Sister Clayton," the president said warmly. "The Singing Mothers were wonderful at April Conference. Now the stake board wants the chorus to begin on a pageant for the centennial. Can you meet Friday as usual?"
The class leader beamed and said, "Thanks for the lift; the lesson was about to die." Kathryn perceived that the woman was sincerely grate- ful. She went home feeling some- what abashed. "Maybe I'm the one who is out of step," she thought.
^^liTE broke our bean bag," Iris greeted her. "Mother, will you fix it? We picked up all the beans."
"Yes, darling. Are the boys home from school, and how are the ba- bies?"
In three minutes Kathryn had picked up the threads of her house- keeping. The boys were in the base- ment and Dickie was in the bath- room. Sara Lea was waking up, and she gurgled happily as Kathryn picked her up. She patted her moth- er with soft little palms and planted big, wet kisses on her cheek.
"Don't put her in her play pen," begged Iris and Dot. "Let us have her in the living room to walk be- tween us."
Kathryn watched a moment as
20
RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY, 1942
the girls, their arms outstretched, en- couraged Sara Lea to take her un- steady httle steps between them. Her heart swelled with deep content. Sara Lea was enchanting in her baby triumph, turning from one to the other. Sara Lea was an enchanting child— her last. Dr. Chalmars had said.
Kathryn looked at the clock. Din- ner would be late because of meet- ing. Thomas would be home in less than an hour. She must hurry. . . .
"Mother! Mother! O Mother!'' Kathryn had just finished peeling the potatoes when Iris began to scream. ''Quick! The baby!" Dot was wailing in frightened panic, but there was no sound from Sara Lea. Fear gripped Kathryn, weighted her movements.
Sara Lea, stiff in Iris' arms, was fighting for breath. Kathryn swept her up, shaking her frantically, pumping her arms.
''A bean, Mother!" Iris was pant- ing. ''She got one of my beans in her mouth!"
"Iris, call Dr. Chalmars quickly and tell him the baby's choking. The number. ..." But there was no time. Sara Lea's face was grow- ing progressively blacker, and Kath- ryn felt that she too would suffocate in her effort to help the baby. She rushed out into the street, alternate- ly pounding the baby's back and reaching into her throat with her finger, searching for the bean. "O dear God! Babies die like this!" she cried. "Help me! Oh, help me!" A car slid in front of her. Sister Beckwith, who took in the scene at a glance, swung open the car door and commanded: "Get in."
Without a word she shifted gears and put her hand on the horn, shoot-
ing her car into instant speed. Kath- ryn knew the woman was driving with the facility of an expert, that she was passing all cars, that they were going at high speed, but it seemed as if they were creeping.
"Dr. Chalmars?" asked Sister Beckwith, not looking aside nor taking her hand from the horn.
"Yes. Medical Building. Hurry! Please hurry!"
"You bet I will! Keep fighting."
"I think she's . . . dying." Kath- ryn's voice failed on the last word. ' "We'll get there."
And, amazingly, they did. Kath- ryn didn't question it that Dr. Chal- mars was on the sidewalk, that he snatched the baby from her and rushed into the elevator, working with her as he did so.
"Express!" he commanded of the operator, and the elevator shot to his floor, ignoring all signals.
Then, suddenly, miraculously, Sara Lea's face was clearing.
"She's breathing," said Dr. Chal- mars laconically, and Kathryn al- most worshipped him. What a won- derful creation a doctor was! Sister Beckwith slipped a chair under Kathryn's bending knees. A nurse was holding a fluff of cotton under her nose, and the sharp smell of ammonia cleared her head. She must have tried to faint!
"Your neighbor, Mrs. Meade, saw the commotion and ran into your house," Dr. Chalmars was saying in a matter-of-fact way. "She gave me the whole picture over the tele- phone. That's why I was waiting for you. That extra minute saved your baby's life."
Sara Lea began to cough queerly, and Dr. Chalmars bent over her, ex-
PRIZE WINNING STORY
21
amining her intently. Kathryn searched his eyes.
'Tom!" said Kathryn to no one. "I want Tom."
"ril get him. I guess there's noth- ing more I can do here/' said Sister Beckwith.
'Tou saved my baby's Hfe/' Kath- ryn told her. 'T\\ love you— and Mrs. Meade— as long as there is so much of me as a breath."
Sister Beckwith didn't answer, ex- cept to grip Kathryn's hand; and Kathryn, looking into her eyes, saw there an understanding, a kinship as deep as eternity. She wondered how it had escaped her before, how she had ever thought this woman commonplace.
Thomas came, and the doctor, busy with his stethoscope, listening first to one side of Sara Lea's chest, then to the other, barely glanced at him.
"I met Sister Beckwith down- stairs," Thomas explained. "Sister Meade telephoned me at the office. Fd have been gone in another five minutes."
Dr. Chalmars straightened and removed the stethoscope from his ears.
''The bean," he said, "has appar- ently gone on down past the trachea and lodged in the bronchial tube, closing off the left chest. "We'll have to do a bronchoscopy."
A bean in Sara Lea's lung! One read of such things in the newspa- pers—of babies in Tennessee or North Dakota getting safety pins, of swift airplane rides and emergency operations. But such things didn't happen here — not to one's own baby! Kathryn looked at Dr. Chal- mars in horror.
"There's only one man here who
can do it. Dr. Howard — very com petent."
"When should it be done?" Thomas asked, his face white.
"The sooner, the better!" Dr. Chalmars was already dialing Dr. Howard's number, already making arrangements at the hospital for an "emergency operation — broncho- scopy."
TT was a nightmare of time, wait- ing outside the operating room while the smell of ether pervaded the corridors, jumping up every time a nurse whipped briskly through the swinging doors — time that swam, that seemed to have no end, to have had no begininng. Sara Lea was back in the room, though, moaning with returning consciousness before Kathryn thought of the children at home.
"Tom! The children! It's past
their bedtime, and I forgot dinner."
"The boys. ..." Tom began
vaguely. But the boys had never
had to get a meal in their lives.
"I'd better telephone," said Kath- ryn.
A woman's voice answered, the voice of her visiting teacher. Sister Andrews, serene and heart warming.
"I fed them all," she said. "And they are all asleep. Sister Beckwith sent me. I told them stories and kept them from being frightened. I can stay all night if you want me to, and I'll get them off to school in the morning."
"Bless you!" said Kathryn from the bottom of her heart. "If you only would."
"Don't worry about a thing here," said the woman. "Sister Beckwith said she could get you a good woman
22 RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY, 1942
to come in, if you want one, through ryn, answering her look of inquiry, the Rehef Society agency/' could not speak, but swiftly and Kathryn hadn't thought of that, suddenly wept in this kind woman's ''We'll see," she said. "They got arms, while the worn, old phrases the bean, and Dr. Chalmars says that fell like petals about her head — Sara Lea will have a quick recovery." ''keep up your faith", "we're all pray- But Sara Lea didn't have a quick ing for you"; "have faith"; "have recovery. It was on the third day faith!"
that she developed pneumonia, that Kathryn went back into the room
her fever was soaring dangerously, without any light of faith in this
hour by hour, until her short breath- wilderness of fear. Doubt rose about
ing filled the room, and she moaned her like tall trees. Fear tore at her
in coma. It was clear that nothing feet like tangled vines, pressed down
was helping her, none of the fine ^ke fog, shrieked at her like savages,
care, none of the magic science. I" that little room her baby fought
Kathryn was filled with the slow ^ losing battle with death, and Tom
grip of fear, crystallizing into a looked at her through haggard eyes,
knowledge that Sara Lea, so precious hopeless in his own wilderness of
and beautiful, was going to die. f^^^-
Kathryn left the hospital for only But suddenly the bishop was
necessary and flying trips home, and there, and his counselors. Kind,
on these occasions it was always the sweet men, whose faces seemed to
same. Though the woman sent by shine with an inner strength, alien
the Society agency was installed, to this room.
there were endless messages, endless ''Sister Beckwith thought you
gifts— cakes, flowers, salads — mute needed us to administer to your
wishes for good. There were loaves baby."
of bread, fragrant and fat, ftesh eggs "We do! We do!"
—all poured from a bounty of love, They went through the ritual in
brought by the Relief Society sisters! ^^^^^^ positive tones. Tom's hand
People she scarcely knew were Snpped hers as they listened to the
concerned about Sara Lea. Even P!;^^^'- * : * ^"^'^^ ^^^ ^'^^ *^'
Mrs. Meade's poor, big boy brought ""'[ '' ''^^""^^ ^^'' .^'f^'^ ' ' ' "^^^^
flowers he had wandered iii the hills ^^^^^ ^" ^^^'^ particular . . . that she
to pick "because you sing so pretty," T^ ^'^^ to young womanhood, '
he said. Kathryn was amazed and Phrase upon phrase, build^^^^
touched that all the love, the good ""^-I^'^t- ^^*T ' ^r'? 'T^"^
wishes, the faith fused into a very f •'^''''^'^ ^'^^ ?/ ^T' ^r^'^
real power, almost a tangible force, ^^^ ^'.' §^1"^ K^^\T L T i ^^
o cii^^^rf 4-1.04- i.« 4- 1. J rr was gomg to get well! She looked
a support that kept her and Tom ^^ r^^^J^^ ^^ ^^^^ . ^^^ r^^^
gomg through the awful days-kept ,oom was suddenly bright, suddenly
them ashamed to admit defeat. sa^e.
On the day that even the doctors That night Sara Lea slept, her
shook their heads in scientific de- baby skin cooling in fine dew. The
spair, Sister Beckwith came to Kath- doctors, coming in the morning,
ryn in the hospital corridor. Kath- looked at her in surprised wonder.
PRIZE WINNING STORY 23
npHE first Tuesday after the baby their faith had reached out to her
■'' was pronounced out of danger when she was in it, but she couldn't
was testimony day, and Kathryn go on, nor had she need. Every
gjose. woman there knew what she meant.
,, , . . , ''What I could never under-
''My dear sisters, she began, look- ^^^^^,. ^^^ ^^-^ ^^ ^-^^^^ Beckwith
ing about at them, their dear, plain afterward, 'was how you came to be faces, so beautiful in indiyidua ^^ ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ j ^^^^^^ strength. I thought that Relief >. ^ Society had been only useful in the .j^^^. j^. confessed Sister Beck- days when our country was raw and ^-^^ .j ^ . ^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^ new, and people were dependent on ^^^- g^^.^ ^^^ I ^^^ ^^^^ each other for soap and candles and ^ ^^^^- ^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^ I ^,^^ fire but there s a different kind of • ^^ ^ell you not to bother with wilderness. When my baby. . . . ^^at pageant. I thought we must
She stopped, and tears blurred have been overworking you."
her vision, pain thickened her throat. "Next September," promised
She wanted to go on, to tell them of Kathryn, "Fll be back, and don't you
the wilderness of fear, and how leave me out of anything!"
^
THE RHYTHM OF THE BAND
Mar/on'e Ru5t
There's a murmur in the distance like the sound of marching feet
That strikes a chord within my soul in answer to each beat.
And my heart pounds out the rhythm, and I'm swaying where I stand
Before I'm even conscious it's the rhythm of the band.
And I watch to see them coming, fearful lest I lose a sound
Or fail to catch each movement of their feet along the ground.
Men in uniforms pass by me, shoulders back, and heads held high—
A unity of color and of rhythm passing by.
From the shrilling of the flutes to the droning of the bass
I eagerly await each note, scarce moving from my place.
While through the melody of clarinets, the trombone's joyous hum,
I listen for the tempo set by cymbal and by drum;
And I want to follow after, heed the call of each glad strain,
But something seems to hold me back— I know I must remain.
Yet never moving, never stirring, dazed as in a dream I stand.
Till distance swallows up both form and rhythm of the band ,
Women And The Church
Elder Stephen L Richards
Member of the Council oi the Twelve Apostles (Condensed Address, Relief Society Conference, October 2, 1941)
T AM taking the hberty of again Utopia of safety, peace, progress and calHng attention to the task be- achievement which they sought to fore us of making proper prepar- estabhsh. And a real Zion it was to ation for the Utah State Centen- the thousands of sincere and ardent nial in 1947. ^ ^"^ beginning to men and women who gathered here fear that the good resolutions form- from many nations to find* expres- ed in the well-conceived plan set sion for the loftiest ideals and no- forth a couple of years ago have to blest purposes ever to be found in some extent been sidetracked by war the human soul, talk and defense considerations and This country was beg^utiful when other matters. Of course, the na- the Pioneers first came. It was vir- tional emergency must have the gin territory. The hills, the streams, right-of-way, but I think it is a mis- the forests and the plains were love- take at this stage to drop the plan ly, just as nature always is until for beautification of our country marred by the hand of man. It has which gave such promise a little taken nearly a century to demon- while ago. I think, too, that no group strate the natural beauty of the coun- of our citizenry or our Church mem- try which the Pioneers chose. It may bership can and will do more to fur- be that they themselves did not real- ther this worthy cause than the ize that it was possessed of so many women. This is so because the chief marvelous scenic attractions which aspect of beautification centers have come in for appreciation in re- around the home. The women are cent years. It is doubtful that the the chief homemakers, and I believe variety, the grandeur and the novelty they have the highest and best de- of our natural scenery can be dupli- veloped sense of artistic apprecia- cated within equal space anywhere tion. This theme will also afford me in the entire world, some latitude to say something about What a strange paradox it seems the home, which, I confess, is a that civilization should be unbeauti- favorite subject. ful. To the lover of nature, every I can scarcely think of anything landscape, even the desert and waste more appropriate than the beauti- places, has charm and attraction un- fication plan sponsored by our til man digs a hole, builds a shack. Church and the Centennial Com- erects a telegraph pole or a smoke- mission as a tribute to the Pioneers stack. But civilization need not and and their heroic struggle. They should not be ugly. Man's construc- loved this land. It was at once their tion can beautify rather than deface refuge, their home and their destiny, nature if there is the will, the energy They called it Zion because that and the art to make it so. word most neady characterized the Even commercial and industrial
Page 24
WOMEN AND THE CHURCH 25
structures and appliances can be all the people are beneficiaries of the made good looking. It is noticeable wide advertising and the increased that railroad stations, once grimy tourist travel which such exploita- and unsightly affairs, are now fre- tion brings. From a purely moneta- quently embellished with bits of ry standpoint, it is the poorest kind lawn, shrubs, flowers, trees and some- of business to spoil the landscape times with pleasing architecture in that we are trying so hard to sell, elaborate settings. Factories, power Every dirty, unkept, unpainted, and houses and other plants, once bare shabby home;' every unsightly out- and forbidding, are now covered building; every old corral and fallen with vines set in pleasant landscapes, fence; every scraggly, dead tree; every with adequate exposure to light, air barren and forbidding schoolhouse and sunshine. These transforma- and church and courthouse with tions in the commercial world give broken windows, curled shingles and warrant to the hope that some day other evidences of neglect; every we shall have beauty in business littered and weedy vacant lot, street and that it will be a disgrace for any and highway is a definite liability enterprise to be conducted in ugly against the credit asset of this pro- surroundings, ductive tourist traffic we are striving
so hard to get. Chambers of Com- T^HE chief consideration and the merce, civic clubs, and other agencies problems, however, in this beau- engaged in its promotion need, tification program probably lie with more than anything else, cooper- homes, churches, schools and other ation.
public properties. In the interest of Now this is the business side of
competition, business institutions the question. I want to present an-
may be pretty well relied upon to other aspect of equal, if not superior,
go forward with artistic improve- importance— the aesthetic. I be-
ments, but what can be relied upon lieve that all people are by nature
to move the home owners, the endowed with something of a love
churchgoers and the school patrons for the beautiful in their hearts, and
to do their part in this worthy en- it needs but cultivation and encour-
deavor? agement to develop it into one of
I believe that nothing but a the loveliest aspects of living. Almost
wholesome, individual and com- all are sensitive to color, to form
munity pride will accomplish the and symmetry, so that good archi-
task. To stimulate that pride, it is tecture and good landscaping with
necessary to understand and appre- trees, flowers, shrubs and lawns have
ciate the real values involved. I wish a very appreciable effect, even though
I could say something to enhance sometimes unconsciously, upon all
that understanding and appreciation, persons.
I revert to the first item which I The love of home is one of the
mentioned— we live in a remarkably great virtues of the race, and un-
beautiful country. Our scenery is doubtedly the beauty of home has
now being exploited. It is true that done much to stimulate that love,
in the main this is done for com- It's very fortunate that it doesn't
mercial reasons, but, nevertheless, take much money to indulge aes-
26 BELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY, 1942
thetic tastes, particularly in the care suffer in comparison with their
of a home. Cleanliness and neat- homes.
ness are the chief requirements, and Here a little cooperation will bring
personal energy, ambition and pride the desired results. The contribu-
can supply these. The humblest tion of a few hours of labor with per-
cottage can be a lovely place, a haven haps a little cash will landscape the
of refuge and a constant delight if it meetinghouse and transform it from
is but kept neat and tidy and clean, a bleak and barren structure into a
I think of all implements that beautiful and inviting edifice nestled make for homely beauty there is among trees, shrubs and lawns. The none that compares with the broom same may be said of the school- and the rake. Well-swept floors and house except that the school author- porches and well-raked yards never ities are chiefly responsible, and yet failed to bring their thrill of sat- their responsibility for an ill-kept, isfaction and pride. forbidding and ugly schoolhouse is
Next in importance to a neat yard not so much to the town or com-
is a green and colorful one. Any munity whose civic pride is hurt,
house, great or small, attains its real as to the children, the boys and girls,
attraction and beauty in a setting who all through their lives will car-
which nature, with a little human ry the impressions of ugliness which
effort, provides. What a pity it is their surroundings inflict upon them.
not to take advantage of this kindly The converse of what I have said
provision of nature when it costs so is also true; namely, that beautifully
Httle and means so much. What a landscaped and attractive churches,
marvelous boon is mother earth! schools and other public buildings
How abundantly she yields of her will do much to stimulate better care
hidden chemicals and nutriments of homes and all private property,
to make the verdure and the vegeta- In fact, nothing can be done to stir
tion that gladden and support the and encourage the aesthetic sense in
race. Oh, for just a little labor and any aspect of our surroundings and
not much money to make the soil our living without promoting gen-
that we have taken from nature's erally a more beautiful world, domain and enclosed around our
houses, beautiful and attractive! T WILL turn your attention to an-
I have said this much about aes- other aspect of this subject. 1 am
thetic considerations in the hope of sure that beauty is intimately associ-
encouraging our home people to ated with pure religion. I believe
make the most of their opportuni- that our Father in Heaven is a God
ties. If every man and woman who of order and of beauty. I doubt if
lives in a home would embellish it any rational being ever entertained
to the best of his or her ability I a concept of God, that is, as a per-
should feel little concerned about sonal Being, except in surroundings
public buildings and property, of beauty and exquisite loveliness.
There would be such pride engender- We so envisage heaven,
ed by these home-loving people that We, as a church, believe and so
they would not permit the meet- declare that in the end the earth will
inghouse and the schoolhouse to be renewed and receive its paradisiac-
WOMEN AND THE CHURCH 27
al glory. When this is done it will What if our great and wise pio- be beautiful and glorious beyond neer leader, Brigham Young, should finite conception. This being our return on the hundreth anniversary doctrine, do you think it becoming of his entrance into this the Salt in God's children to deface the Lake Valley? How it would please earth while we sojourn here? Being him and thrill his noble soul to find the stewards and custodians of the the cities, the towns and villages resources which are committed to which he planned so well and strove us, have we not an obligation to use so diligently and courageously to them, preserve them, and return found, all in the bloom of midsum- them in the best possible condition mer, with farms and fields laden with of which our circumstances will maturing crops, with pastures and permit? I think upon reflection you hills dotted with flocks and herds, will say that we have such an obliga- with factories, business blocks, pub- tion and that it is very definitely our lie buildings, schools and churches task to make God's footstool as beau- reflecting the vast development in tiful as we may. For ''the earth is the enterprise, culture and religion Lord's and the fullness thereof," which he so earnestly advocated, and the righteous "and their genera- Then, too, most thrilling of all, tions shall inherit the earth from if he could find thousands of con- generation to generation forever and tented homes, nestled in the shade forever." of myriads of trees growing out of
What a delightful abode this good lawns, shrubs and fragrant flowers, earth could be if we would but make all neat and clean, the habitation of it so! If neighbors all had flower an honest, thrifty, God-loving, joy- gardens and gossip centered around ous people— and all this in the des- daffodils, lilacs and petunias, there ert valleys which he first saw, now would be far more kindliness and transformed and beautified by the sympathy in the world. Even the enterprise and the idealism of the thorns of roses do not irritate the generations that followed him! soul. Surely the cup of his gratitude would
Need I say more to persuade us be running over, that every consideration-business, ^j, j^ ^^^ ^ 5^, ^^^^
aesthetic and rehg.ous-constrams ^^^^ ^^^^. ^^^ ^^^- ^^-^^^^^
our people to take the lead in this ^^^j^ ^^ ^^'^^ ^^ ^j^^^^ l^- ^^
worthy cause of beautifying the ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ ^j^^^^ ^^^^
land? 1 understand that expert ad- , • . n- j i
•n 1 J 111- .1 ase, whose mtelheence and whose
vice will be made available in the , i , , .i i . .i
laying out of grounds, in planting ^^^^^, ^^\^ bequeathed to us the
and in other features calculated to pnceless heritage we now enjoy? reach the objectives of the program. ^o^ grant that our love, our grati-
With this aid, our efforts will be tude and our veneration may find
successful if only our interest and tangible expression in beauty— beau-
our energy are sufficient. ty of life and surroundings.
There's Always A New Beginning
Mary Ek Knowles
CLARA showed Henry the fur hands in his pockets, his shoulders
coat as he was getting ready hunched up and close together as
to leave for work. She took if to conserve the heat of his body,
it out of the silver box beneath the Clara's conscience pricked her.
bed, slipped it over her flowered She should not have insisted on
housecoat and posed in the doorway keeping the car today. There was
of the large old-fashioned kitchen, nothing she really needed it for. The
her hands held out, her blond hair walk to the Amalgamated Factory
golden above the shiny black fur. where Henry worked was a long one,
''Well," she said, ''do you like the weather was bitter cold, and
it?'' There was defiance in her tone Henry's breakfast had been very
as she consciously braced herself for light. He would be thoroughly
the outburst that was sure to follow; chilled by the time he reached work,
and there were carefully-thought-out As Henry reached the gate, Clara
arguments on the tip of her tongue, held the gloves up, expecting him
But there was no outburst. Henry to turn and wave to her. But he did
Jones stopped in the act of zipping not look back smiling, and suddenly
up his woolen jacket, and his brown Clara realized, with a bit of a shock,
eyes looked at the coat and then at that it had been a long time since
Clara. He was standing by the win- Henry had kissed her good-by, a very
dow, and in the cold light of the long time since they had gone
winter morning his face looked through the little morning ritual of
weary, lined. Henry waving good-by to her and
"So you got it after all," he said she blowing a kiss to him.
in a quiet voice, then he put on his She felt a sudden, crazy impulse
hat, picked up his lunch bucket and to open the door, call Henry back
went out. The closing of the door and feel his strong arms about her.
had a final muffled sound to it. Then Overman's house next door
Clara's hands dropped to her side, blocked out Henry's solid frame, and
Her look of antagonism gave way the shrill whistle of a freight engine
to one of perplexity. He hadn't cut the winter stillness, and the im-
even waited for her to tell him how pulse passed.
they could make the payments! In She tossed the gloves back on the
fact, he hadn't even seemed inter- cupboard and sat down at the small
ested. kitchen table. She was a young
Henry's fur-lined, leather gloves woman— not young in the glowing
lying on the cupboard caught her wide-eyed way that twenty is young,
attention. She picked them up and but still young. Her hair shown like
hurried to the window. molten gold in the light; her skin
Henry had almost reached the was firm and smooth; her dark lashes
front gate. He walked slowly down were long. In fact she would have
the neatly-shoveled path, his head been a very pretty woman were it
bowed to the stiff winter wind, his not for the tight, nervous look in
Page 28
THERE'S ALWAYS A NEW BEGINNING ^
her face, the discontented droop of left to them by Henry's father, was
her red mouth. in the wrong part of town. It was
She returned to her breakfast, old-fashioned with big, high-ceil-
Henry might have said something inged rooms. Her dining room set
more than just, "So you got it after was cheap, veneered wood ^and her
all." True they had threshed the living room set was shabby before
matter out last Saturday night, and it had been paid for. The silver in
Henry had shown her— all the while the buffet drawer was inexpensive
making neat little columns of figures plateware. All were imitations of
on the back of an envelope— that the real thing. But this fur coat was
they could not afford a fur coat, any real. It was not dyed rabbit, but
kind of a fur coat. But that was the real thing, as good or better than
before she had talked to Mr. Solo- the other women's coats,
mon. He had made the terms so The jingle of the telephone in the
easy— no money down, just three kitchen cut into her thoughts, and
dollars a month until May. By that she hurried through the hallway,
time the living room set would be picked up the receiver and said,
paid for, and they could increase the ''Hello!"
payments on the coat. A man's heavy voice answered. "Is
Clara pushed her breakfast aside this the Henry Jones residence?" and got up. One thing she knew: 'Tes. This is Mrs. Jones." She would not take the coat back "Does your husband work for the —no matter what Henry said: no Amalgamated Factory?" matter if it took the rest of their Cold apprehension clutched at lives to pay for it! Clara's heart. "Yes," she answered. She walked into the bedroom and 'This is Officer Pliny, Mrs. stood before her dressing table mir- Jones." The heavy voice almost ror. Her slim hands caressed the fur. seemed to soften. "Your husband A fur coat was not a luxury; it was has been seriously injured in a traffic an investment. One shouldn't fig- accident, and the ambulance has ure the initial cost only, but the taken him to the Mercy Hospital." many years of service the coat would For a stunned moment Clara did give, she told herself neatly, system- not speak, but just stood there by atically, in the very words that Mr. the door, the receiver held tightly Solomon had used in selling the coat in her hand, her blue eyes looking to her. around the room, seeing nothing Her mind shied away from the until they came to rest on Henry's stark truth. Tomorrow was Vida leather gloves on the cupboard. King's swanky tea, and she, Clara They were old gloves— shabby Jones, had reached a point where gloves. Henry had bought them the she could no longer bear the sight winter after they were married. She of her drab, black-and-white tweed recalled one cold night walking coat lying among the glistening fur home from a double feature at "The ones. Star"; she had put her hand in Hen- Through the open bedroom door, ry's big overcoat pocket, and his she could see the living room and gloved hand had closed protectingly the dining room beyond. Her house, and warmly over her cold one. The
30
RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY, 1942
seam of the first finger in the left glove had come unsewed. Henry had asked her to fix it, but somehow she had never found the time.
"Mrs. Jones! Mrs. Jones!" The insistent voice at the other end of the line brought her back to the present. ''Are you still there? Do you hear me?"
"Yes." It seemed to Clara that she shouted the word. Yet her voice, when it squeezed past the lump in lier throat, was scarcely more than a whisper. "Yes, Fm coming right away."
nPHERE was a waiting room next to "Emergency." It was a small room with white, bare walls. There was a narrow table, a straight-backed bench, a brown rocking chair, an un- curtained window against which the wind blew icy sleet with a sharp, stinging sound.
Clara sat on the edge of the bench, every nerve taut, her head to one side, a listening look on her face. Once she got up quickly and hur- ried to the door of the operating room, her gloved hands held out in front of her as if to push the white, swinging door open. But when she reached the door, her hands dropped to her side. The closed doors, the quiet sounds coming from the room beyond, told her that here drama was being enacted in which she could play no part.
She turned and walked back to the bare, white-walled room and sank down on the hard bench. In that moment she felt old and beaten; the warm blood of life seemed drained from her limbs, her lips were dry and parched.
There was nothing, the nurse at the desk had told her, that she could
do, but wait. The doctor was per- forming an emergency operation. All that could be done was being done. Her gray eyes had told Clara more. Henry was badly injured.
Wait and think and wonder — wonder at the change that had come over her and Henry. Now it seemed almost unbelievable that Henry had left for work without so much as a backward glance, and that she hadn't even cared.
Time was when she had walked to the gate with Henry, and he had kissed her frankly and unashamedly before the eyes of all who cared to look; and she had run back to the house, her step light, her heart sing- ing.
The memory was so poignant that Clara knew a pain so keen that she put her gloved hand to her lips to keep from crying out.
What then had happened to their marriage?
Somehow it all seemed to date back to that summer afternoon when she met Vida King— who had been Vida Smogg— on the street in town. Clara and Vida had been chums in their Westford High School days. Then Vida had mar- ried Paul King, moved away, and Clara had lost track of her. Now Vida was back in Westford and was very glad to meet Clara.
They had had lunch at "The Pen- guin" — tall, cool drinks and crisp leafy sandwiches. They had talked and laughed over old times. It was all so luxurious, so cool and restful, such fun. Vida King was still Vida Smogg who had lived on Appleton Street, despite the flashing dinner ring on her right hand, the white tailored suit and straw hat that looked like somethink out of Vanitv
THERE'S ALWAYS A NEW BEGINNING 31
Fair. Paul was doing splendidly, matinees, theater parties, teas, had
Vida had said. He was manager of followed; then, ''It's my turn to en-
the Alexander Advertising Agency tertain next week, Vida. ..." That
now. And what was Henry doing? had meant new furniture to dress
Suddenly Clara had been a little up the old house, new clothes, the
frightened by it all— the purr of the bill from Carters,
air conditioner; the string quartet That bill had been the cause of
playing heavenly background music; her first real quarrel with Henry.
Vida across the table from her, crisp Standing now by the window, Clara
and cool and confident. She became remembered that quarrel. Henry had
painfully conscious of her white hat looked at the bill and given a long,
and bag— 98c each in Barnfield's low whistle.
basement— her green and white ''$17.50 for a hat, Clara!'' he had
polka-dotted dress— $1.98, guaran- exclaimed. "What's it made of,
teed washable. spun gold?"
"Henry is Sales Manager for the "No, silly! It's an original Carrol Amalgamated Factory," she lied. model," she had shot back, a sharp Clara got up now and walked edge to her voice, "and that isn't over to the window. Henry a sales so much to pay. Vida King never manager! Henry who walked to pays less than $25 for a hat!" work, his lunch bucket under his Henry's quiet look had been keen arm! Henry who entered the side and searching. "Phil King makes door of the factory and became sud- at least four times the salary I do, denly just another worker among Clara. Better stay in your own back the thousands of other workers! O yard, honey." Henry, my dear, forgive me. Clara buried her face in her cold She pressed her burning cheek hands as if to shut out the memories, against the cold window pane. She but they came crowding in upon needn't have lied. Vida wouldn't her, vivid, real. The day they had have cared. She could have said, quarreled over the hat, a slow burn- "You and Paul have been very sue- ing resentment had started. The cessful, Vee! You're way out of our rest was forgivable— a woman's fool- class. We still live across the rail- ishness, a childish desire to "be road tracks on Wichita Street." somebody"— but not the resent- But she couldn't go back and live ment. Resentment against easy- the afternoon over. The words had going, good-natured Henry, the di- been spoken, never to be recalled. lapidated secondhand car that had Clara closed her eyes. That chance to be humored into starting, the old meeting had led to other meetings, house with its wooden front porch, Her head spun, remembering. The its ornate fireplace, its dark pantry thing had been like a snowball roll- —this was the thing that could not ing downhill, sweeping everything be forgiven.
before it: first, lunching informally Clara lifted her face and looked
with Vida in her new home on out into the winter day. Had Henry
Gramercy Heights; then, "Come felt her resentment and been hurt
over next Wednesday, Clara, I want by it? She remembered one eve-
you to meet the girls"; luncheons, ning not long ago when she had
32
RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY, 1942
looked up from a novel to find Hen- ry watching her. At the time, the look of sadness in his face had irri- tated her. Now it haunted her. She remembered Henry as he walked down the neatly-shoveled path that morning. His step had been that of a condemned man. A man who had just been condemned to three years of hard labor— to pay for a fur coat.
There was a sound of doors open- ing, of rubber-soled shoes on smooth floors. Clara turned, her hands clenched tightly together. If only Henry could live long enough for her to tell him how much she loved him, to beg his forgiveness!
There were four nurses in the hallway outside the operating room; there were two doctors, a tall one with glasses, and a short, heavy-set one. And there was Henry lying very still on the long, white cart, his body covered with a white sheet, his head swathed in bandages.
Clara said, 'Tm Mrs. Henry Jones." She felt like a child speak- ing a piece.
The tall doctor with the glasses nodded. 'The patient is not out of the anesthetic yet." There was no lifting note of encouragement in his voice.
The pitiful moans and mum- blings of the ether-dazed, half-con- scious man wrung Clara's heart. She wanted to cry, ''O Henry, Henry, my own darling!" She wanted to run to him, take him in her arms and pil- low his head against her breast. In- stead she stood for a tense little mo- ment off by herself before she walked to Henry's side.
As she looked closely at him, an icy sensation of shock, as if someone had dashed cold water in her face,
raced up her spine. She looked up quickly, bewilderment clouding her face, her blue eyes questioning.
''This man is not my husband!" she cried.
The doctors and nurses looked from one to the other.
"Not your husband?" someone said.
Clara shook her head. Her "no" was scarcely more than a whisper.
Then the doctors and nurses were all talking at once, but quietly.
"But his identification card read, 'Henry Jones, Amalgamated Fac- tory,' " the short doctor told her.
"Oh, don't you see!" Clara's hands held tight to the side of the cart, and she was both laughing and cry- ing at the same time. "It's a case of mistaken identity. The Amal- gamated Factory employs thousands of men. There could be a dozen named Henry Jones. It's quite a common name. This is not my Henry."
She turned suddenly and almost ran down the long hall to the stair- way at the end, only to sink down on the second step, all strength gone from her body, her cheek pressed against the cold, smooth wall. Tears ran unchecked down her face. It wasn't Henry Jones. Her Henry was well and strong. He would come walking up the path tonight just as the 6:15 express blew its whistle, and he'd open the back door and call, "Hi, Clara!" and life would go on as before.
But no— not as before! The tears stopped, and Clara became very quiet and solemn inside. They couldn't go back and live life over, correct all the mistakes that had been made. But they could go forward. There was always a new beginning!
THERE'S ALWAYS A NEW BEGINNING
33
Warmth flowed back into Clara's body, and she got to her feet. Fate had given her marirage a new lease, and she would make the most of it! Clara's hands were steady as she returned the fur coat to its tissue bed and tied the cord in a tight knot on the silver, oblong box. There was no regret, no sadness in her heart as she returned the coat simply but very firmly to Mr. Solomon. There was only eagerness— eagerness to get back to the house on Wichita Street.
nPHE red brick house on Wichita Street had never been more than that to Clara— just a house. Now it suddenly became a home— their home, Henry's and hers, the home in which they would rear a family. Now she saw the wooden front porch in terms of restful shade on sultry summer afternoons where she could sit with her mending while Henry puttered around in the garden. She saw the pantry in terms of shelf after shelf of carefully bottled fruit and glasses of sparkling clear jams and jellies.
For dinner she prepared a meal she knew Henry liked, a dinner she ''hadn't had time to fix" for ever so long— roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, buttered peas, fruit salad, and apple pie. She pushed the din- ing-room table close to the fireplace set it carefully with her best linen and silver, then she built a fire in the fireplace and stood back with a feel- ing of pride. It was, she decided, a grand fireplace with a proper, well- built flue that sent the flames roaring up the chimney and warmth to e\'ery corner of the room.
Henry's words, spoken so often that Clara had ceased to hear them.
came back to her now with new meaning. 'There's nothing fancy about the place, Clara. It's just an ordinary home, but it is well built. The walls are three bricks thick, the stone foundation is firm and solid. They don't build houses like this anymore, honey."
Clara sat down in the big armchair and gazed reflectively into the flames. The house was like Henry— old- fashioned, dependable, blessedly substantial.
She admitted to herself now what she had always known— that Henry would never be a great financial suc- cess. Some men were destined to rise to spectacular success with the speed of a shooting star, others to slow, quiet, uneventful lives. Henry was like that. And she was glad.
Wearily, Clara leaned back and closed her eyes and a great peace, a great quiet filled her heart. It was as if she had been climbing a steep hill with a heavy burden on her back, and now the burden was gone, and she could rest by the roadside. No more need to keep up pretense. From now on she was Mrs. Henry Jones who lived on Wichita Street. There was dignity and quiet pride in being just what you were.
The sound of footsteps on the porch and the opening of the front door roused Clara. She arose to her feet as Henry walked into the living room.
A moment he hesitated, and his quick glance took in the table set before the fireplace, the sparkle of silver and glass. His tired shoulders lifted.
It is little that a man like Henrv asks, Clara thought — a good meal at the end of the day, a smile, a tender
34 RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY, 1942
kiss. Only these, and he will serve tightened. ''Clara, Clara, what's the his love to the end of his days. matter, honey?" Then his hold re- Henry looked toward the kitchen laxed, and there was a little eternity and sniffed the tempting aroma of before he spoke again, and all the roast beef, then his dark eyes held gladness was gone from his voice. Clara's eyes for a long hushed mo- -jf ^^'s the fur coat, Clara, I can
''Hi, Clara," he said.
"Hi, Henry, my dear." And sud- "O Henry, I don't want the coat,
denly she was in Henry's arms crying I took it back. I just want you and
against his woolen jacket. the life you can give me. Hold me
Henry's strong arms about her tight, Henry, and never let me go."
THE SECOND MILE
Gertrude Perry Stanton
The first mile was not easy, Lord. The man
Who asked that I should bear him company
To share his burden, speed him on his way,
Dealt not in kindly speech or friendly smile.
No vestige of appreciation showed.
His churlish manner, habit of complaint,
Made long the way. Although my tasks I left,
He claimed the helpful service as his due;
So when the mile was past, I almost turned.
Relieved, to journey home.
Then came the thought
Of Thy great love and sacrifice for me;
Freely I had received, and thus should give.
Who gives to others only what he must.
Gives not at all.
So I went on again;
And something sweet awakening in me stirred
As if it were a song within my heart;
The load no longer seemed a drudgery.
And now I thank Thee, Lord, that I have learned
The blessedness that lights the second mile.
Fashions Of Yesterday
pASHION notes of the nineteenth century have become of particu- lar interest to ReHef Society wom- en in planning for the approach- ing centennial. The following is a digest of fashion notes of yesterday taken from The American Costume Book by Frances H. Haire:
Fashions of the middle nineteenth century (1840-1870) were many and varied. The century started gaily, with skirts measuring from five to eight yards in circumference. These were worn with a tight-fitted basque which was usually separate from the skirt. The basque buttoned or hooked up the entire front or back with the closing decorated by but- tons or braid loops. Basques usual- ly dipped in front, but were some- times made to dip to a point in the back.
Sleeves either puffed at the top and ended in a bell-shaped flare, with tight, fitted undersleeves, or they re- versed the process and started sleek and close fitting and flared out to a bell-shape finish with undersleeves in the form of a puff secured at the wrist with a tight-fitting band.
Hoops were extensively worn dur- ing the first half of the period.
Hats were poke bonnets, either large or small, made of quilted silk, usually of the same material as the dress, or of leghorn straw decorated with plumes, flowers, and ribbons.
Jewelry was very popular. This was the day of black onyx jewelry pieces, and ''sets" consisting of earrings, brooch, and bracelets won popular acclaim. Jewelry was apt to be massive and heavy, but pleasing to the eye because of its beautiful de-
sign. Cameos were numerous, and the locket whose hinged door opened upon the tintype picture of some beloved face was a general favorite.
Shoes were not high heeled; an inch was the proper height, al- though some party slippers had the heel curved similar to the more re- cent ''baby French heel." Foot- wear was usually of black leather ex- cept for party use, when silk slip- pers of light shades were highly prized.
Shawls were very popular for out- door wear, as were capes and semi- fitted cloaks with sleeves. Tiny sun- shades or parasols also won favor.
TN the latter nineteenth century the small head and shoulder sil- houette became the fashion order of the day. Flares and decorations therefore came below the elbow on all fashionable garments. Skirts were made longer in the back to serve both as a train and to accom- modate the bustle. The fullness of the skirt cascaded over the bustle, leaving the straight front so popular during this period. Large jet but- tons were generously used as decora- tive features.
Gloves and shoes were snug fit- ting. Black kid gloves and black patent leather shoes with cloth tops, either laced or in the newer button style, became ultrafashionable.
The hair during this period was dressed away from the ears, making some sort of ear decoration appear necessary. Earrings and eardrops therefore became popular. Little (Continued on page 73)
Page 35
HAPPENINGS
Annie Wells Cannon
To love the Lord and have faith in His infinite mercy gives one courage to
meet any emergency.
T ADY LOUISE MONTAGU, beautiful daughter of the Duke of Manchester, along with a num- ber of other titled ladies, has been working for months in a London tool factory. She says, 'There is no reason for titled women to expect praise or favors; all should serve alike in times like these."
¥ OTTIE LEHMANN, Metropol- itan soprano, often called "The first lady of song," said when taking out her American citizenship papers, "America is the only soil on which art can thrive." Lily Pons, French- born artist, and Olivia De Havilland, also foreign-born, seemingly have the same opinion, as they, too, have become American citizens.
lyrARY LEILA BAELS, when she became the wife of Leopold III, King of the Belgians, was given to understand that only the children of Atrid, Leopold's first wife, could succeed to the throne. That should be the least of her worries.
TVY LOW LITVINOV, wife of the new Soviet ambassador to the United States, is an English-born aristocrat and a woman of distin- guished literary attainments. As of- ficial hostess at the "Red Embassy" she has one of the most attractive and interesting homes in Washing- ton.
CAROLINE HASLETT, special
advisor to Lord Benim and one
of England's most important wom-
Page 36
en, is director and organizer of Eng- land's Electrical Association. She lectured in the United States this winter on the wartime industrial ef- fort of 4,000,000 British women.
jyrRS. D. D. RICHARDS, 84, a wheelchair invalid, industrious- ly knits sweaters for the soldier boys; while Sarah Chapel Bennett, 97, Jane T. Bleak, 96, and Julia D. Raw- lins, 90, remarkable for their long- evity and activity, received honors recently on their respective birth- days.
ISABEL WHITNEY SEARS, 93, who died last month, was born in a covered wagon on the bank of City Creek. She was a charter member and past president of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers. Another prom- inent daughter of Utah pioneers who died recently was Maud Rosalie Driggs Christensen, 64, an ardent worker in Church and civic affairs. Minnie Home James, another pio- neer daughter and Relief Society worker, also died last month.
A NNE PARISH'S new book Pray ioT Tomonow, and Windswept by Mary Ellen Chase are two of the best books from a literary standpoint published last year, while Boot-Heel Doctor by Fannie Cook is an inter- esting sociological novel. EJIen Spring by Elizabeth Marion and Women in Crime by Florence Mon- ohan, prison warden, are well worth while.
THE RELIEF SOCIETY OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS
Motto — Charity Never Faileth
THE GENERAL BOARD Amy Brown Lyman Marcia K. Howells Donna D. Sorensen Vera W. Pohlman
Belle S. Spafford Anna S. Barlow
Vivian R. McConkie Achsa E. Paxman
Leda T. Jensen Mary G. Judd
Rae B. Barker Luella N. Adams
Nellie O. Parker Marianne C. Sharp
First Second Secretary
Anna B. Hart Ethel B. Andrew- Gertrude R. Garff Leona F. Wintch Edith S. Elliott
RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE
Editor
Acting Business Manager
President Counselor Counselor
Treasurer
Pauline T. Pingree Alice B. Castleton Priscilla L. Evans Florence J. Madsen Ann P. Nibley
Belle S. Spafford Amy Brown Lyman
Vol. 29
JANUARY, 1942
No. 1
EDITORIAL
(yar Lyentenniai
npHE year 1942, long awaited as Relief Society centennial year, is now with us. One hundred thou- sand Relief Society women greet the New Year in readiness for a glo- rious centennial observance, grate- ful in their hearts for this Society and their membership in it. For one hundred years this organization has been growing in strength and influ- ence. Today we are reaping a rich harvest from the efforts of the past. Divine inspiration, the far-seeing genius of leading women, the wise counsel of men holding the Priest- hood of God, the intelligent devo- tion and tireless efforts of thousands of Relief Society members have given us a Relief Society structure worthy of recognition. The Society today is strong— strong in numbers, strong in faith, strong in courage, strong in its devotion to the ideal of service to God and man. Backed by a century rich in experience, its power of accomplishment is inestim- able.
To be identified with Relief So- ciety in this its centennial year is a privilege, a blessing, and an oppor-
tunity. All of the accumulated strength of one hundred years is ours to benefit from and to direct. The world today is in need of such an organization as Relief Society— not only for its humanitarian min- istrations, but for the spirit that emanates from it. The spirit and character of Relief Society are the spirit and character which if allowed to penetrate the earth would dispel hate and eliminate war. What a privilege it is to be associated with such an organization and to aid in maintaining this character and ex- tending this influence! The person- al benefits derived from membership in the Society are inestimable. In a . world at war, with its attendant evils, women who are actively iden- tified with Relief Society find it to be a wellspring of strength, a wise director of activities, a tranquilizer of overwrought nerves, and a solvent of despair. They find it a sustaining, guiding, comforting power.
We are grateful this new year for the inspiration that brought about our Relief Society membership- building program. Thousands of
Page 37
38 RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY, 1942
women have been enlisted as mem- with this organization in any way—
bers of the Soeiety during the past as member or as officer— would take
four years. Their lives will be time this centennial year to count
strengthened by this membership, the blessings that accrue to her as
and they in turn will lend their in- an individual from this Society, if
dividual strength to the important she would meditate upon the impor-
work of the organization. tance of the work of the Society, if
As we view Relief Society from she would see the relationship of
the vantage point of its centennial her individual contribution to the
year, we acknowledge its greatness, success of the work as a whole, she
We recognize its history has been would honestly and sincerely resolve
one of struggle, but it has also been to put forth greater effort in the
one of mastery. As we contemplate interest of the organization; she
the past and consider the accom- would rededicate herself to the pro-
plishments of this Society and the motion of its well-being; criticism,
contributions which the past has faultfinding, and complaining would made to us today, we feel an indebt- ' give way to appreciation, loyalty,
edness that can only be repaid by and whole-hearted support. Then
making our contribution a worthy the present would in no way detract
one. The future lies ahead of us— from the past, but would play its
great in its need and great in its part well in helping the Society to
promise. If every woman identified go steadily and gloriously forward.
^
AND TELL OF TIME
Mabel Jones Gahhott
Were you not born within this span of time, These hurried years that mark our life's estate, Had I not too been chosen for this clime. Had I been born a century too late, Had we not each in our own plan and way Walked at some time the path that led us here. Had we not met and known at once that day That we at last had found each other, dear. ...
Had we not met, how bleak the world would be! How drear and meaningless this life of mine. Yet it is rich and full of ecstasy, A thing of beauty, sweet and true and fine. IVe lived and loved and learned to feel and see Because you made your life a part of mine.
O^icA. TO THE FIELD
[Participation of uielief Society in Uxed (^ross Vi/ork
npHE policy of the General Board be done in the regular monthly work with respect to participation of meeting of the Relief Society in ad- the Relief Society in Red Cross work dition to the sewing done for the was printed in the Ktliei Society Church welfare program or for the Magazine for July, 1940, page 470, needs of dependent families in the from which the following excerpts wards. The general increase in mem- are quoted: bership in Relief Society through-
'The policy of the General out the Church makes it possible for
Board, approved by the First Presi- most local Relief Societies to have
dency, with respect to Red Cross part of the group sew for the Church
calls for funds is to give publicity to welfare program or for the needs of
them and to encourage members of the wards, and for others of the
the Relief Society to respond to such group to sew or knit for the Red
calls, as individuals. This means Cross.
that the Relief Society would not be u^^j^r this plan, women may sew
used as an agency for the actual col- f^, ^he Red Cross without missing
lection of funds. Rdid Society meeting, and a record
'With respect to sewing m Re- ^..^y ^^ j^^pt of the articles made for
hef Society meetings for the Red ^he Red Cross in Relief Society
Cross, the present attitude of the meetings Board is that the Relief Society
might sew for the Red Cross at the ^^''^ "^^ ward record books con- regular monthly work meeting, pro- ^^^^ ^P^^^ "^ t^^e minutes for each vided the Society has no sewing to "monthly work meeting for a record do for the Church welfare program ^^ ^^^^ number and kinds of articles or for the needs of dependent fam- completed at each month's work ilies under the care of the bishop or n^eeting. All articles completed for ward Relief Societv " *^^^ ^^^ Cross at Relief Society work
Now that the United States is ac- meetings should be carefully re-
tually at war, the General Board corded in the column headed ''All
recommends that Red Cross sewing ^ther.
K^ontrioutions for iKeiief Society Lyentenniai
1 1 iemorial (^ampanile
npHE proposed memorial of the ment is quoted from the announce-
Relief Society centennial to be ment at the October conference:
erected on Temple Square in Salt "The erection of this tower will cost
Lake Cit)^ was first announced at the a considerable sum, and all members
general conference of Relief Society of the organization will be given an
in October, 1941 (see Reiki Society opportunity to make contributions.
Magazine, November, 1941, pages From 10 cents to 25 cents has been
753 and 769). The following state- suggested as a schedule for contribu-
Page 39
40 RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY, 1942
tions, which is within the reach of panile. Those wishing to make con- many of us. Some may desire to tributions will therefore please hand give less, and others more. Let it be the amount which they desire to understood that making donations ^^^ ^o the ward Relief Society see- to this project, however, is an en- ,etary-treasurer, who will enter in the tirely voluntary and personal mat- : i ^. . m j i . ,/ ^ ^ special section ot the ward record
^ The new ward Relief Society rec- ^^^^ ^^^ "^"^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^'^ ^^^ ^^^e,
ord books contain pages for record- ^"^ ^^^ amount of the contribution,
ing the individual contributions of This special record of donors to the
Relief Society members and others campanile will be retained in the
for this centennial memorial cam- ward as a permanent record.
(gospel Stanaaras, Oi/ IPresiaent criever y. Q^rant
nPHIS valuable book was compiled Mr. Durham, in his introduction by Dr. G. Homer Durham un- to the book, states: ''President der the direction of John A. Widt- Grant has been allowed, as is his soe and Richard L. Evans and pub- frank and honest characteristic, to lished by the Improvement Era. It speak for himself.'' is a companion volume to Gospel This book brings to us in perma- Doctrine by President Joseph F. nent form and in a way that makes Smith, and to Brigham Young's Dis- easily accessible the wisdom, experi- couTses. With painstaking care and ence, and inspiration of one of the discriminating judgment this ma- most impressive and inspiring lead- terial has been selected from the ers in the history of the Church- writings and discourses of President President Heber J. Grant. Every Grant. It is arranged into four di- page is both instructive and interest- visions, or books: Book One, ''Re- ing, but the last one hundred pages ligion for the Modern World''; devoted to his stories and personal Book Two, "The Church and So- experiences will be read and reread, ciety"; Book Three, "The Ministry told and retold for the interest of Heber J. Grant"; Book Four, which they hold and for the great "Stories from Life." lessons which they teach.
yoouna Volumes
npHOSE desiring to have their 1941 issues of the Relief Society Magazine bound, •■• may do so through the office of the General Board. If Magazines are furnished with the order, the cost of cloth binding, including index, is $1.50, and the cost of leather binding, including index, is $2.00. There will be an additional charge of $1.00 if Magazines are furnished by this office.
Those desiring to bind Magazines themselves may purchase materials through this office. A package containing enough material to bind 12 books sells for $3.50; these packages will not be broken in order to sell smaller amounts. Indexes will be furnished free of charge upon request.
The blue Fabricoid binder, into which a total of twehe issues of the Magazine may be inserted or removed at will, is still a\'ailable at 75 cents, postpaid. Those desiring to use the binder in heu of permanent binding may obtain an index upon request for insertion in the binder.
Address all orders to Relief Society General Board, 28 Bishop's Building, Salt Lake City, Utah.
The Merry-Go-Round
Alice Money Bailey CHAPTER TEN
IT was five o'clock in the after- stretches exactly like a kitten. I
noon. Alyn paced up and down asked at the office how long they will
the living room, not able to take keep him. Three more weeks, they
her eyes from the clock. Any min- say— that's five weeks in all. John,
ute now she would hear the elevator we haven't much time. We don't
close and John's key in the lock— want another living soul to get him
John could be depended upon for from the hospital but us. What
punctuality. She was there to open happened today?"
the door for him when he came. ''I had a talk with Tory. He can't
''John, did you see Tory Meade? get over the fact that we want to
Did anything happen?" she asked adopt a child. He says that child-
instantly. placing agency is a good one, and
''Nothing very definite," admitted that once we get our baby we can
John reluctantly, "but Tory's a smart be certain that everything will be
lawyer. I think he'll get us through, all right. Alyn, they check both
It seems almost as hard to acquire sides of the baby's family for every-
a baby by adoption as by the normal thing, even insanity. The fact that
procedure," he finished, raising a Theo and Judith have no living rela-
quizzical eyebrow. "So Jiiuch red tives makes it very difficult, but it
tape. . . . Are you going out?" doesn't stop them. They check us
"I just got home from the hos- as thoroughly, too. If we have any
pital; forgot to remove my hat and family skeletons they're doomed to
coat. John, every time I sec that come out now."
baby I want him twice as much as "Well, thank goodness we have
I did before. They wouldn't let me nothing to hide, neither on the Mer-
go into the room with him, of course, ri weather side nor the Fordyce."
but I stood the whole two hours and "The agency is sending a woman
watched him through the glass. Isn't to interview you tomorrow."
it lucky that his crib is so close to "Oh John! What shall I tell
the window? And John, it's against her?"
the rules for them to tell me how "I don't know what she'll ask;
much he weights, but he's gaining; tell her nothing but the truth, of
I can see it, and he's a perfect. ..." course."
Alyn stopped for want of adequate "Of course," agreed Alyn.
words to tell how dear, how precious "Alyn," said John seriously,
the baby was. "There are some things we must
"Yes, he's definitely gaining. It discuss. Sit down, dear."
seems I can notice a difference every John's old habit— sitting down to
day. He almost never cries, they discuss serious things— didn't annoy
say. His sleep is so angelic, and Alyn now. She was quite as anxious
every once in awhile he squirms and to discuss things as John, quite as
Page 41
42
RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY, 1942
desirous of sitting down. It put one on solid ground, psychologically.
"Alyn, there are many things to be considered in adopting a baby. Those questions we had to answer on the application blank are well enough thought out. For instance, you will be forty in two more years, and I will be forty-five. Had you thought that when he is grown we will be in our sixties?"
'Tes, John. But many women have babies of their own at my age, even older."
''And there's my income," remind- ed John wryly. 'Tm still making only $150 a month, you know."
'1 can learn to manage. Cecile Borden did, and they have four chil- dren. I can certainly do it if Cecile did. Fve been studying budgets. I learned a good deal about money while I was with Lottie. By the way, John, Lottie called me this morning and wanted to know if I hadn't stayed away long enough. The new girl isn't doing very well." ''What did you tell her?" "I told hei I wasn't going to work any more, that you needed me at home. John, I could never go back with Judith gone, even if we don't get the baby."
"You told her the right thing, my darling. Having you at home has been perfectly wonderful. I'm glad it is to be permanent."
"Maybe, before Lottie finds some- one else, that poor girl will catch on and not have to lose her job."
"I hope you have taken into con- sideration that where there is a baby there is extra work and such a thing as croup," John continued. "You will be tied at home; there are many things that a baby interferes with." "I've thought of all that, and I
don't mind." It seemed remarkable to Alyn that John had gone into the unfamiliar subject so thoroughly. "John, I am surprised at your think- ing of all these things."
John flashed her a smile. "Don't flatter me, my good woman. Educa- tion, religious training, character building, health habits — many things must be considered."
A horrible thought assailed Alyn. "John, you want him, don't you? It isn't that you don't want. ..."
"Want him? Of course I want him. I haven't wanted you to know, over the years, just how much I would have liked children of our own. This little fellow has a peculiar appeal to me. I don't know just what it is. I had no idea a new-bom baby had a distinct personality, but this one has."
"He has, hasn't he, John?" agreed Alyn. "Do you notice the distinc- tion in the shape of his head? His forehead is so intellectual, and his hands. ..."
"You'll do all right, Alyn," John broke in, laughing. "No real mother could sound more enthusiastic. Do you remember when Mary declared that her three-weeks'-old baby could understand what she said?"
"I don't know how a mother could feel any nearer to a baby than I do to this one. ... I guess it was being so much with Judith, helping her to choose his layette, going to the hospital with her— most of all, being the first one to hold him."
"Don't leave me out of this. Didn't I pace the hallway in a true fatherly fashion when. ..."
They both fell silent, remember- ing that hour of inferno— its tragic end.
THE MERRY-GO-ROUND
''Jotin, let's call him Richard/' Alyn finally said.
''Richard ..." said John thought- fully. ''Well, Richard is a good name, a strong name — a man's name. It seems to fit him."
"We'll get him, won't we, John? It would be awful to count so much on having him, and. ..."
"Tory says he will do all he can to help us, but the agency must take every precaution for the baby's sake as well as for our sake. He says that if Judith had only given you some written word before she. ..."
"If " said Alyn. "We seem
walled in by 'ifs.' I know as well as I live that Judith would have wanted us to have him. She talked of my being like a sister to her a number of times; she approved of you completely and said our home life was like she and Theo had plan- ned for themselves. Of course, she didn't know that I. . . . " Alyn stopped, aware that she had just about opened a subject that would be better not discussed— her earlier animosity toward John. Oh, what would John think?
John gave her a clairvoyant look, but instead of the rancor she half expected, he reached over and patted her reassuringly. "That's behind us now, honey," he said.
TF Alyn had any qualms about the investigator, they were all con- firmed when the worker arrived. The woman was as formal as her costume, precise, careful, even judicial in her search for facts. Her questions were courteously plied, but one sensed an indefinable air of suspicion; a sort of warning that the least equivoca- tion would be discovered. Pier eyes were keenly observant;
43
they seemed to evaluate the articles of furniture and the character of the persons using them; the woman was a thorough investigator whose ques- tions Alyn answered with an almost childlike obedience. If she had had any desire to temper the truth it wouldn't have been in her to do it.
"Why do you want this baby?" the woman asked.
Alyn opened her mouth, wishing for words to convey what the baby meant to her.
"Are you and your husband on good terms?" the woman went on, without waiting for Alyn's reply.
"Yes. Oh, yes."
"You don't want him for the pur- pose of drawing you closer together, then," she said, almost as an after- thought.
However neady it might have been the truth six months ago, it was not so now. No, she wanted Richard for himself; she wanted to do for him what a mother would do; her desire was that he be not cheated of a good mother which is the right- ful heritage of every child. How to convey her feelings was not easy for Alyn, who was in deeper water than she had ever been in before.
"How much does your husband earn?"
"One hundred and fifty dollars a month," Alyn told her fearfully. The woman caught the inflection immediately.
"That's an adequate amount. Many of our babies go to homes with that amount of income. What is your rent?"
"Eighty-five dollars," Alyn admit- ted, realizing fully for the first time that it was much too high for their income if she did not return to work. "We are planning to move," she
44 RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY, 1942
offered. "My husband and I have The things you mention seemed to
talked of it." count against me. When I told of
The woman listened intently as Mother having a nurse for me, she
Alyn told her of her own back- seemed to think that unnecessary,
ground and upbringing, of the Mer- On the other hand, she was not dis-
riweather and Fordyce families, and pleased when I told her the amount
the things of which she had always of your income."
been so proud. 'Tou'll see, darling. Our fears
''Motherhood, natural or foster, are pronounced in unfamiliar situa-
demands that one be ready at all tions. Things come right when you
times to adapt one's program to the least expect them."
best interests of the child, regardless John was so comforting. Alyn
of the past," was the cryptic remark felt better immediately,
of the worker as she closed her note- '7^^"/' she said, "I don't often
book. Then the interview was over, say things like this, but I think you
What an inquisition it had been! are a wonderful man, and you'll
After she had gone, Alyn sat on make a wonderful father."
the edge of the needlepoint chair ''Well," said John, pleased. "Now
and had a nervous chill. isn't that something for a man to
"If only we had moved from this strut about?" and he poked out his
terrifically expensive apartment," chest. It was pathetic to see how
she summed up to John later. "I such a little praise pleased him.
telephoned to Rufus Randolph "I mean it. I've been too self-
about a house the minute she left, centered, thinking only of my own
He said he had exactly what we happiness. John, I never thought
wanted, and said that the crowd was I'd tell you this, but . . . but right
buzzing like a beehive over our after you lost your position I ... I
adopting a baby." thought of leaving you. John, per-
"I can well imagine." haps I shouldn't have told you. Per-
"John, I felt apologetic for every- haps you will never forgive me."
thing I have ever valued." "Honey, I knew that all along."
John, to her relief, looked dis- "How?" asked Alyn, astounded,
pleased. "The woman had no right "Well, I met Judge Oldham on
to be so severe. They said at the the street one day, and he said you
agency that she was very capable." had called for an appointment which
"That exactly describes her," Alyn you didn't keep, though the secre-
admitted. "O John, I'm positive tary swore you had come for it. He
they'll refuse us." wondered what it was all about.
"Nonsense," said John. "If the 'She's not getting a divorce from
woman is capable she couldn't help you, is she John?' he asked. He was
seeing what an intelligent person joking me, of course; but I knew
you are; how well-kept and tasteful then, in some unaccountable way,
your house is. There is every evi- that that had been your plan.*'
dence of breeding and background. "Oh!" said Alyn. "All these
All these things count." months. ..."
"I'm afraid I didn't sound intelli- "Forget it," said John easily. "Not
gent, John. I felt so inadequate, an uncommon thing, I guess, in a
THE MERRY-GO-ROUND
world full of divorces. It worried me greatly for awhile. I was staking our future on the change I had made in my employment. I had thought things out pretty well, even then, and I knew it was a real test for us both, but I was sure that our only hope for happiness was a sure foun- dation for myself. I had confidence in you, of that you may be sure. I have always thought of you as a thoroughbred."
"And all the time you were the best friend I had, and you still are," said Alyn.
"Come now. You're promoting me, aren't you? After being your husband all these years, at last we have become friends."
"Well, not all people are friends, John— husbands and wives, I mean. These months have brought us closer together. I have had some business experience — learned the working person's point of view. I have learned that your getting a job as you did was a real achievement. I have learned about people, life and death from Judith and little Rich- ard. Hard as it is, you never really live until you touch some of those fundamental things. And now I love you, John, more than I ever ' have."
"Alyn," said John, deeply moved, "you've never said a nicer thing to me in your life."
"I fought you so hard on the apri- cot business. I didn't try to under- stand. I might have helped you more. I might have managed better the night that orchard man came for dinner— that Mr. Moyle. I could have been a better hostess, helped you more to sell it. I didn't realize until after he'd gone just how much it meant to you. John, you haven't
45
become discouraged about it, have you? You never talk of it any more."
"Oh no. No, I haven't become discouraged. I'm planning to bud it in the spring. No sir! That limb of apricots .... You see! You shouldn't ask me— it gets me off on a lecture tour. I decided I was bor- ing everyone with the details; that I'd better try and talk less and wait | until I had accomplished more. . . ."
"Oh! John."
"Of course, I was disappointed when Mr. Moyle didn't see anything so unusual about it, and wondered for awhile if I had been overopti- mistic; but that time passed, and my faith in the sport came back. I'll go ahead and bud it. My chance will come. It wasn't your fault, though, dearest. You did very well that night; you gave us a wonderful dinner and listened eloquently— an unwomanly trait, I assure you."
I
T was an interminable week before they heard anything more about the baby. Alyn had been to the hos- pital, and John picked her up on his way from work. The telephone was ringing when they came in. John answered, his voice rising in excite- ment as he talked.
"It was Tory Meade," he said in such a strained voice that Alyn be- gan to tremble. John gripped her hand.
"Darling," he said, "Tory says that the agency report is unfavorable to us. They are going to recom- mend to the court that little Richard be placed elsewhere."
Alyn crumpled on the lounge. "John, we can't have him?" she whispered.
46 RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY, 1942
John paced up and down the months. Maybe I haven't changed
floor, his mind intent upon this un- enough."
expected blow, his eyes on the floor. *'God expects us to work for the
"Isn't there something we can things we should have, dear. Those
do?" she appealed to him. People at the agency do a wonderful
-Yes," said John grimly, ''there )^^' Y ^^7 -^'^ "f^ ^T^"' T^
is something else we can do." must base their judgment on exter-
«Ti >> 11 1 Ai «T 1 nal things. 1 hey have no power to
John, sobbed Alyn I prayed ^^^^ j^^^ jj^^ ^uman heart. There
as I never have prayed before. I ^^^ jg ^j^^ ^jjj j^gj ^^^ f^jg^^j^
asked God to help me get that baby. ^^^ influences-not to be used
Maybe this is His answer— maybe ^rong]y_to make them see as we
I m not a fit mother for the baby. ^^ pj, ^ j^^ Qldham to help
Ive been spoiled and selfish. I ve Tory-the old and the new-they'll
looked at things and people in the ^e a strong team. We're going to
wrong light but I thought I d g ^t for that baby."
changed, John, in the last few (To be continued)
^^
TO ZAIDEE JUDITH
(By an Adoptive Parent)
I had always wanted In my backyard
A line of baby things Softly billowing
In the wind Like angel wings.
And now that
Tiny clothing float Upon the gust
And ebb of air, A welling, tightening
In my throat Denotes the joy
That parents share.
The Great Fig Tree
A Play in One Act
Joseph /. Cannon
(Presented at Relief Society General Conference, Visiting Teachers' Department,
October i, 1941)
Cast of Characters
Thomas Atwood, an English stranger....
Pershing Howe
Mrs. Sarah Atwood, his wiie
Miss Beinice Park
Mrs. Hardy, a neighbor
Miss Margaret GledhiU Larson
Scene: A poorly furnished room in a country town in Utah.
Time: About 1918.
Foreword
(To be read before the play begins) A few years ago in the city of Burnley, Lancashire, England, the elders were speaking before a club of thoughtful men. Naturally, there was considerable opposi- tion. Toward the end of the discussion,' a white-haired man arose and asked to be heard as a matter of personal privilege. The following play, without holding too closely to detail, is suggested by his story.
Curtain
Sarah, very paie, discovered seated in dis- couraged attitude, rises, goes left to door, opens ity stands listening, then hears foot- steps, rises nervously and steps toward door at right. Door opens. Thomas; enters in dejected mood. Sarah (tensely); You didn't find a nurse,
did you? I can see you didn't. Thomas: No. Sarah {sits down) : They think we can't pay
them? Thomas: Partly that, maybe. But there's
a lot of sickness around, and they all
seem to be engaged. Sarah (desperately) : I can't believe there
isn't someone. Thomas: They're afraid, too. Sarah: Oh, you can't blame them much
for that. Thomas: Some of them have families, Sarah: Yes, diphtheria is so infectious.
Grown people can get it as well as chil- dren, (hesitates) Thomas . . . Thomas: What dear? Sarah: They're not refusing to come . . . because we're not Mormons, are they? Thomas (looks up and away for a mo- ment) : I hadn't thought of that. Sarah: They know we're poor; . . . they know this is catching; . . . but maybe they hate us, because . . . because . . . Thomas: Because we hate them . . . Sarah: I don't hate them, Thomas. . . . We've been here such a httle time. . . . I don't even know them. . . . Thomas: But you hate their rehgion . . . and so do I. . . . What a misfortune! To have our children fall sick before we got through this country to the coast.
Sarah: Thomas . . .
Thomas: Yes, Sarah.
Sarah: You remember when that Mor- mon home was broken into by the mob at Birmingham, and the man was badly hurt?
Thomas (soberly) : Yes. . . . Sarah: The man died, didn't he? Thomas: Yes, some time later. Sarah (very gently): How did it . . . happen? . . .
Thomas (walking up and down): They were enticing some of our young mem- bers to their doctrines. Our men gath- ered one Sunday afternoon and crowded into the house where they were holding their meeting. One of the preachers, the owner of the home, got pushed be- hind a door. . . . Our fellows jammed themselves against it . . . and crushed the poor wretch pretty badly. ... He never got over it, and probably died because of his injuries.
Sarah (in slow agonized tone) : Thomas
Thomas (stops; answers after a pause as
though anticipating the question): Yes.
Sarah (slowly and painfully) : Were . . .
Page 47
48
RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY, 1942
you . . . one of the men . . . who . . . pushed against that door?
Thomas: No, Sarah.
Sarah (impulsively) : Oh, I'm so glad. . . . I've been thinking of it. . . . I was afraid this was a judgment on us. . . .
Thomas ( slow Jy) : Maybe it is at that.
Sarah (alarmed, rises) : Why do you say so?
Thomas (continues walking) : Because 1 was there and didn't interfere. ... I saw them break up the furniture of the home and drag the mother through the streets by her arms and by her hair. ... I could have protected and fought for them . . . but I didn't. ... I sup- pose I consented ... to that terrible thing, and in my heart I thought it served them jolly well right to be roughed up a bit and scared, scared out of their skins.
Sarah: You're bitter, Thomas.
Thomas {stops and puts emphasis into his words) : Why shouldn't I be? . . . When you touch a man's religion, you touch something closer to him than anything else . . . except his family.
• • •
(Sarah shows faintness. Thomas gets her a diink of water.) Are you feeling better, dear?
Sarah (weakly) : Yes, Thomas. Thank you.
Thomas (tenderly) : How have the chil- dren been while I was away?
Sarah {slowly) : Not much change. The doctor left soon after you did. He's going to have the flag put up. Thomas, you went to every nurse he told you about?
Thomas: Yes, every one.
(Sarah rises. Goes to other door^ looks in as though observing children and sits down.)
Sarah: A couple of women came about an hour ago. They said they were Mormon teachers.
Thomas (indignant) : My soul, can't they leave us alone even under these cir- cumstances?
Sarah: I told them our children were down with diphtheria, and we couldn't receive visitors, and I closed the door. They looked as though their feelings were "hurt.
Thomas: If they're so anxious to convert people, why don't they go to the heath-
en? There are over a billion of them who never heard of Christ.
Sarah: Maybe they think it's easier to convert us.
Thomas (indignantly) : A man may have been a churchgoer all his Hfe, but he has to accept their doctrines and their prophet to be saved. Once I cornered one of their missionaries at a street meet- ing and made him admit — admit openly — that he believed all churches are wrong but his.
Sarah: With all the evil that's about them, think of their saying that!
Thomas: Can you blame honest men for being indignant or being violent even? (He goes to window and looks out.) Sagebrush on every hillside. This is a country God forgot. Think of dear old England, with her mantle of green the year round!
Sarah: As soon as we can get the money, let's go back. Since your father died, your mother's alone. She needs us.
Thomas: Money, huh! We've rent to pay and food to buy, not to speak of doctor's bills.
Sarah (anxiously) : That job you got yesterday '11 hold out, won't it?
Thomas: I must stay with you. . . .
Sarah (almost weeping) : Oh, you don't know how to take care of the children. . . . They're terribly sick, Thomas.
Thomas: And you're too weak to do it. Sarah, you should be in bed yourself.
Sarah (desperately) : Alone in a strange land.
Thomas: Among a strange and wicked people.
Sarah [almost defiantly) : He has deserted us.
(Knock comes at door. They remain motionless a moment, then Thomas goes and opens it.)
Thomas (severely) : We have diphtheria in * this house. You had better stay away.
(Mrs. Hardy comes into doorway, carry- ing hag in her hand. )
Mrs. Hardy (cheerfully) : That's why I came.
Thomas (in changed tone) : Oh, are you a nurse?
Mrs. Hardy: No, not a nurse, but I've been around the sick a good deal.
Thomas: Well, you're better than noth- ing. Come in. . . . if you dare.
tHE GREAT FIG TREE
49
(Mrs. Hardy comes in.) This is my wife, Mrs. Atwood.
Mrs. Hardy (advances and acknowledges the intioduction) : I'm glad to meet you, Mrs. Atwood, I'm Mrs. Hardy.
Sarah: We're glad to get help, Mrs. Hardy. Won't you sit down? Two of our three children are sick, and the other has been exposed. {Thomas goes over to Sarah's hit and sits down.)
Mrs. Hardy: Yes, Doctor Evans told me.
Sarah: He looked you up?
Mrs. Hardy: No, I looked him up. I heard you had sickness here. He's my neighbor. He told me how serious it is.
Thomas (rises, speaks huskily) : How seri- ous is it?
Mrs. Hardy (her pleasant expression he- comes grave) : He said that by the time night comes someone will have to be swabbing out the oldest girl's throat constantly to keep her from choking to death.
Thomas (in despair) : As you see, my wife is ill — not with diphtheria. She's been ailing for months. . . . I'm afraid she can't go through with this night work.
Sarah (desperately): Yes I can, Thomas. I must.
Mrs. Hardy (cheerily) : We don't want another patient to take care of, do we?
Thomas: I'll stay right here and help.
Mrs. Hardy (pleasantly): Men are us- ually poor hands in the sickroom. Is he the exception, Mrs. Atwood?
Sarah {smiling wanly) : I'm afraid not.
Mrs. Hardy (begins to rise as she speaks) : They'll be here any time now and put us under quarantine. (Turning to Thomas) You've got a job, haven't you?
Thomas: Yes, but the children come first.
Mrs. Hardy: Certainly they do if 'you could help. But probably you'd be in the way. It's better for you to get out and keep your job. As soon as the doctor fumigates you, or whatever he wants to do, you can go to my house and stay. My husband and boys are go- ing to batch it while I'm here. We've got plenty of room. It isn't far. You can come over and inquire as often as you want.
Thomas; That's mighty kind of you. But
you can't do this job here alone night and day.
Mrs. Hardy: I think maybe I can. I've sat up a lot with the sick at nights and got my sleep in cat naps during the day. But if I can't, if the two younger chil- dren get worse, I know where I can get help.
Sarah (gratefully) : Oh, that's good.
Thomas {devoutly) : Well, Mrs. Hardy, you came like a good angel. We felt as though we had been abandoned by the Lord. . . . That was sinful of us. He never forgets those who love Him.
Mrs. Hardy (sincerely) : You're right, Mr. Atwood. He is a very constant friend. . . . And He's closest to us when our troubles are worst. ... At least that's been my experience.
Sarah (almost joyfully): Isn't it good, Thomas, to find a real Christian soul at a time like this? (Turns to Mrs. Hardy): I feel much better now that I know you are a be- liever.
Thomas (devoutly) : God knows His faith- ful ones, and He moves them by His spirit to go where they are needed, (repeating as if in prayer) : "The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want." I wonder . . . perhaps there's an affinitv' between souls who have found Jesus and been saved by His grace. Maybe that is what brought you here to us, Mrs. Hardy, to help us and to comfort us. You came at a moment when the sin of doubt was about to overwhelm us, but the Lord sent you, I truly beheve, be- cause He knows we love Him and have been saved by His blood.
Mrs. Hardy {slightly nonplussed. Sits down): I don't know. We go where we're needed, whether people believe or not. It's good though to come into a home where there is faith . . . where in circumstances like these you can pray together. You see, Doctor Evans is a good man in his profession, but there's many a case of sickness that was beyond his help that I've seen pull through. Just last week he said a neighbor boy of ours couldn't live, but they sent for my husband. He got his counselors, and they administered to the lad, and he's getting better now. My husband gets called out frequently, being bishop of the ward. . . .
50
RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY, 1942
Sarah (surprised) : A bishop?
Thomas (astonished) : A bishop in this town?
Mrs. Hardy: Yes, there are two bishops since they divided the ward.
Thomas (confused) : Two bishops!
(Then in startled voice as the iTnth dawns on him) Then they're not onr kind of bishops. They must be Mor- mon priests.
Mrs. Hardy: Why, yes, of course, they're Mormons. My husband's bishop of the First Ward.
Sarah (shocked) : Then . . . you're a . . . Mormon?
Mrs. Hardy: Yes, indeed ... a Mormon to the core.
Sarah: Were you born that way?
Mrs. Hardy: No, I joined the Church as a girl back East. The missionaries brought the Gospel to us, and our whole family accepted it.
(Proudly) But we've done our part. Four of us have been on missions.
Thomas (almost horrified): Your broth- ers?
Mrs. Hardy: Three brothers and myself.
Thomas (slowly) : You've been a . . . Mormon missionary?
Mrs. Hardy (proudly) : I spent two lovely years in Canada.
Thomas: Did you . . . make any . . . converts?
Mrs. Hardy: I am glad to say that several people who first heard the Gospel through my work joined the Church. (Laughing) I hope though that the Lord converted them.
Sarah: Were they Christians ... be- lievers . . . before they joined?
Mrs. Hardy: Yes, most of them felt they had been saved — until they heard our message.
Thomas: Do they feel they are saved now?
Mrs. Hardy (laughing) : They're not so sure of it now. They'll have to wait and see.
Thomas (scornfully) : Then your con- verting them brought them from cer- tainty to . . . uncertainty . . . from faith to doubt. ... Is that the way it happened when the apostles of old' preached the word, Mrs. Hardy?
Mrs. Hardy: Their doubt is not of the work. Oh, no. The thing they're not so sure about is whether they them- selves will be faithful — that's all. I
guess every one of us can have a whole- some uncertainty on that score.
Thomas (stiffly) : Well, it's something of a shock to have a Mormon in the house, but I suppose they have to earn a living like everybody else. You may have to wait for your pay a little, but I'll get it to you, and I'll pay you well.
Mrs. Hardy (rises, laughing) : Pay? I don't want any pay.
Thomas (suspiciously) : Why not? Why did you come then?
(Almost angrily) Did you find your way into our house in our extremity. . . . (Sarah seems to want to restrain him ) to try to convert us? If you did, we'd rather not have your help. Death isn't so serious to people who truly be- lieve in Jesus.
Mrs. Hardy (gravely) : No. Mr. Atwood, I didn't come here to convert you or your wife. Our visiting teachers re- ported that you had serious sickness here. Doctor Evans said it was a des- perate case. He knew that nurses are scarce and that the girl would die with- out one. I offered to come, because my children are grown, and the president of our Rehef Society has a young baby . . . I'm her counselor. It will cost you nothing for my work or for you to live at our house until your children are well. The Lord has blessed us with all we need, and you are welcome to what we can do. You are strangers, and you are in trouble. We don't care what you believe; and seeing that you feel as you do, I promise that all you learn about Mormonism is just what you'll find out for yourselves. You can leave here as ignorant as you came if you want to.
Thomas (confused) : You mean . . . you have no . . . motives. (As he speaks he crosses behind Sarah and to her left.)
Mrs. Hardy: Of course we have motives. We're organized to give relief — to our own, principally, but to any of God's children who come our way. We've done it to thousands like you, and it doesn't matter whether we ever sec them again or not. Our motive is to be kind. When we serve you, we are serving the Lord, that's all. (Mrs, Hardy sits down.)
(Continued on page 72)
Home Accident Prevention
No. IV
MISCELLANEOUS ACCIDENTS
POISONS, ANIMALS, FIREARMS, ET CETERA
The American National Red Cross, in its publication Home and Farm Accident Pievention, states that the number of accidents and deaths due to the misuse of poisons, the mishandling of firearms and fireworks, and to venomous or dangerous animals as well as the number of accidents and deaths due to bicycle and sled crashes, justify careful consideration being given to their prevention. The publication presents the following cautions:
I. Poisons
Some dry cleaning fluids are toxic, poisoning the system either through absorption through the skin or in- halation. If they are used, be sure the room is well ventilated. Many poisonings occur in the bath- room. If poisons must be kept on hand, the bottle should be plainly marked. To eliminate the danger of mistaking a bottle at night, pins may be stuck in the cork or otherwise clearly identified. Poisons should never be within reach of children. Insecticides should never be stored in or near the kitchen. Be careful of the poisons used for extermination of rats and mice.
Avoidable contaminations and im- proper refrigeration are usually be- hind each case of illness from food poisoning. Therefore, food to be eaten raw should be fresh, clean, free from abnormal odors and rotting areas and from mold, and should be washed in clean water. Cooked foods should be heated to the boiling point, kept free from contamination, and if to be held more than a few hours, subjected to refrigeration. If canned goods are held more than a few hours after opening the can, the same pre- cautions as to refrigeration and re- cooking should be observed as in the case of freshly-prepared foods. Dis- card any discolored food and any having unusual odor. Destroy con- tents of any swollen can. Where there is a reason to doubt foods, they should not be tasted. II. Animals
Dispose of cross household pets.
Chain up dogs that are unfriendlv to strangers.
See that all doors, gates, hinges, latches, stalls, and fences confining farm animals are absolutely secure.
III. Firearms
Keep guns where the children can't reach them, and take shells out of the guns before putting them away. Carry a gun with the muzzle pointed to the ground. Don't carry a cocked gun. Never point a gun at anyone. Teach children not to threaten others with toy guns in play. Never joke with guns.
IV. Fireworks — Fourth of July Celebra-
tion
There is no such thing as safe fire- works. Deaths have been caused by so-called harmless sparklers and by other harmless fireworks. V. Coasting and Skating
These are sports widely engaged in and are not free from accidents. For coasting, hills should be selected which are removed from main arteries of traffic. Children should be cau- tioned against "hitching" on to auto- mobiles and trucks. No one should attempt to skate on ice only an inch or so thick. Firm, sound ice four inches thick may us- ually be considered all right.
VI. Mental Hazards
Worry is a contributing cause of ac- cidents in the home. Anxiety and haste are often the cause of physical injuries.
Physical fatigue makes us more liable to accidents in the home, the same as in busy traffic on city streets.
Page 51
Children's Books
A NUMBER of requests have been received by the General Board for a list of books suitable for children of different age groups. The fol- lowing list of excellent books is therefore submitted:
AGES ONE TO FOUR
Aldis, Dorothy, Here, There, and Every- where (Illus. by Marjorie Flack), Minton, Balch and Co., New York, 1928; Eveiything and Anything, Minton, Balch and Co., New York, 1929.
Bertail, Inez, Time ioi Bed (Illus. by Ninon MacKnight), Doubleday, Dor- an and Co., New York, 1939, 50 cents.
D'Aulaire, Ingri and Edgar Parin, Animals Everywhere, Doubleday, Doran and Co., New York.
Fox, Frances Margaret, The Little Cat That Could Not Sleep, E. P. Dutton and Co., New York.
Fyleman, Rose, Fairies and Chimneys Doubleday, Doran and Co., New York, 1931.
Harrington, Mildred P., Ring-A-Round (Anthology with illus. by Cory don Bell), Macmillan Co., New York, 1930, $3.
Higgins, Alice, Runaway Rhymes (Illus.
by Tom Lamb), P. F. Volland Co.,
Joliet, Illinois, 1931, $1. Lenski, Lois, Animals ioi Me, Oxford
Book Co., New York.
Moffet, A. E., Our Old Nmseiy Rhymes (Illus. by Willebeek Le Mair), David McKay Co., New York;
Little Songs of Long Ago, David McKay Co., New York.
Thompson, Blanche Jennings, More Sil- ver Pennies (Illus. by Pelagic Doane), Macmillan Co., New York, 1938, $1.
AGES FOUR TO EIGHT
Beskow, Aru Elsa, Aunt Green, Aunt Blown and Aunt Lavender (Words and illus. by the author, trans, from Swedish by Siri Andrews), Harper and Bros., New York, 1928, $2.50; The Adventures oi Peter and Lotta (Illus. by the author), Harper and Bros., New York, 1931, $2.50; Eli Children of the Woods (Tr. from Swedish by Zita Beskow), Harper and Bros., New York, 1932, $2.
Beim, Lorraine and Jerrold, The Burro that had a Name, Harcourt Brace and Co., New York, 1939.
Barrie, Sir James M., Peter Pan and Wendy (Illus. by M. L. Attwell), University of London Press, Scribner Pubhshers, New York, 1935, $1.50.
Commins, Dorothy Berhner, Lullabies oi Many Lands (Illus. by Nellie Farn- am), Harper and Bros., New York, 1941, $1.50.
Collodi, Carlo, The Adventures oi Pinoc- chio (Illus. by Esther Friend), Rand, McNally Co., New York, 1939, $1.
Page 52
D'Aulaire, Ingri and Edgar Parin, Ola and Blakken, Doubleday, Doran and Co., New York, 1936, $1.75;
George Washington, Doubleday, Doran and Co., New York, 1936, $2;
Abraham Lincoln, Doubleday, Doran and Co., New York, 1939, $2;
Liei the Lucky, Doubleday, Doran and Co., New York. Hader, Berta and Elmer, Little Town (Illus. by authors), Macmillan Co., New York, 1939;
Spunky (Illus. by authors), Macmillan Co., New York, 1933, $2.50;
Cock-A-Doodle-Doo (Illus. by authors), Macmillan Co., New York, 1939, $2;
The Farmer in the Dell (Illus. by au- thors), Macmillan Co., New York. Hoke, Helen, and Teichner, Miriam, The Fuzzy Kitten, Messner Publishers, New York, 1941, $1. Kipling, Rudyard, Just So Stories, Double- day, Doran and Co., New York, 1935,
$1. Leaf, Munro, Wee Gillis (Illus. by Robert
CHILDREN'S BOOKS
53
Lawson), Viking Press, New York, 1938;
More Watchbirds, Frederick A. Stokes Co., New York, 1940, $1;
Simpson and Sampson, Stokes Pub. Co., New York;
Fun Book, Stokes Publishing Co., New York, 1941, $1.50. (This book con- tains three favorite books: "Manners Can Be Fun," "Grammar Can Be Fun," and "Safety Can Be Fun.") Milne, A. A., When We Were Very Young (Illus. by Ernest H. Shepard), E. P. Dutton and Co., New York,
1935' $1; Now We Are Six, E. P. Dutton and Co.,
New York, 1935, $1.
Myers, Helen E., Noah's Ark, Garden
City Pub. Co., New York, 1941, 75
cents.
Petersham, Maud and Miska, The Christ Child (Illustrated), Doubleday, Dor- an and Co., New York, 1931, $2;
Auntie and Ceiia Jane and Miki, Dou- bleday, Doran and Co., New York, 1936;
Stones horn the Old Testament (Illus- trated), John C. Winston Co., Phil- adelphia, 1938, $2.75;
Get-A-Way and Hary Janos, Macmillan Co., New York;
An American ABC (Illus. by the au- thors), Macmillan Co., New York.
Salway, Cecile and Billie, Children on the Map (Illus. by the authors). Garden City Pub. Co., Inc., New York, 1938, $1.
Shaw, Charles G., The Guess Book, Scott Pubhshers, Inc., New York, 1941, $1.
AGES EIGHT TO TWELVE
Anderson, C. W., High Courage, Mac- millan Co., New York, 1941, $1.75.
Bannon, Laura, Manuela's Birthday (In Old Mexico), Albert Whitman and Co., Chicago, 1939, $2.
Bolton, Sarah K., Lives of Girls Who Be- came Famous, Thomas Y. Crowell Co., New York, 1938; Lives of Poor Boys Who Became Fa- mous, Thomas Y. Crowell Co., New York, 1939.
Clark, Ann Nolan, In My Mother's House (Illus. by Velina Herrera), Viking Press, New York, 1941, $2.50.
Colum, Padraic, Odvsseus and the Tale of Troy, Macmillan Co., New York.
Davis, Lavinia R., and Fischer, Marjorie, Grab Bag: Stories for Each and Everyone, Doubleday, Doran and Co., New York, 1941, $2,
Frasier, George W., Dolman, Helen, and Van Noy, Kathryne, The Scientific Living Series or The How and Why Science Books, (Illus. by Guy B. Wiser), W. L. Singer Co., New- York, 1939, Vol. I, 72 cents; Vol. II. 84 cents; Vol. Ill, 96 cents; Vol. IV, $1.04; Vol. V, $1.16.
Gill, Richard C, and Hoke, Helen, The Story of the Other America (Illus. by Manuel Rivera Regalado), Hough- ton Mifflin Co., New York, 1941, $2.25.
Holbrook, Stewart H., Tall Timber (Illus. by Armstrong Sperry), Macmillan Co., New York, 1941, $1.75.
Leeming, Joseph, Fun With Boxes (Illus. by Charles E. Pont), Frederick A. Stokes Co., New York, 1937, $2.
Meadowcroft, Enid LaMonte, Benjamin Franklin, True American (Illus. by Donald McKay), Thomas Y. Cro- well Co., New York.
Sondergaard, Arensa, A History of the United States for Young People (Illus. by the author), Randon House, Inc., New York.
Note: Two groups of children's books that will be found very helpful and inclusive are:
"500 Books for Children," United States Office of Education, Wash- ington, D. C, 15 cents. "Children's Book Parade," R. R. Bow- ker Co., New York, 1941, available in many libraries.
LESSON
DEPARTMENT
oJheologyi and cJestifnontji
Articles of Faith, By James E. Talmage
Chapter 7, Baptism— Continued
Lesson 7
Article 4: *'We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: ... thirds Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; ..."
(Tuesday, April 7, 1942)
I. Lesson Aim
To develop an understanding of the importance of proper baptism for both the living and the dead. II. Divisions of the Subject Matter
A. The mode of baptism. (Ar- ticles of Faithy pp. 137-142,
484-485)
1. Importance of the mode of administering bap- tism. (Articles of Faith^
P- 137)
2. Meaning and symbolism
of the baptismal rite. (Articles of Faith, pp.
133-139)
3. Scriptural and historical
backgrounds of baptism. {AiticJes of Faith, pp. 139-142, 485-486)
B. The true interpretation of the doctrine of baptism. (Articles of Faith, pp. 142-
145)
1. Conditions under which
baptism may be repeat- ed.
C. Baptism for the dead. (Ar- ticles of Faithy pp. 145-153)
Page 54
III,
1. Baptism and those who die outside of the Gos- pel fold. {Articles of Faith, pp. 145-147)
2. Christ and the unregen- erated dead. (Articles of Faith, pp. 147-149)
3. Vicarious Gospel ordi- nances for the dead. (Ar- ticles of Faith, pp. 149-
. 151)
4. Mutual dependence of ancestors and posterity in the Gospel plan. (Ar- ticles of Faith, pp. 151- 153,486)
D. Significance of temples in the Gospel plan. (Articles of Faith, pp. 153-155)
1. Ancient temples as the sanctuaries of God. {Ar- ticles of Faith, pp. 153- 154,486-487)
2. Temples of the new dis- pensation. (Articles of Faith, pp. 154-155)
Teaching Suggestions
A. Preparation
As the contents of this les- son are miscellaneous, it is
LESSON DEPARTMENT
55
suggested that a modified form of the lecture method be employed, consisting of part lecture plus several topical reports from class members. Class leaders are referred to the excellent instructions concerning the use of the lecture method contained in the first lesson of this course, and also to Teaching as the Direction of Activities, Chapter IV, pp. 54-61, by John T. Wahlquist. Class leaders should remember that in lecturing there must be a thorough mastery of sub- ject matter and a wise choice of portions that will be of interest to the class.
The following topics are suggested for assignments to class members in order to enrich the lecture and add variety to the class pe-. riod:
1. A report on the major items of interest in C. Douglas Barnes' article, "A Brief His- tory of Baptism," Improve- ment Era, October, 1935.
2. A review of the essentials in James E. Talmage's House of the Lord, pp. 89-109.
B. Presentation
As suggested, the class pres- entation will rest largely upon the teacher. She should prepare her lecture so well that she can give the substance of the lesson in brief form, allowing time for the assigned reports,
and for discussion at the end of the class period. If the discussion is directed with wisdom, it should lead to testimony bearing in which thanks will be ex- pressed for the privilege we enjoy of having baptism by immersion, and for the many blessings resulting from temple and genealogi- cal work.
Questions and Piohlems
1. How do you account for the fact that the word ''baptism" has come to have a different meaning among modern Chris- tian sects than it had among early Chris- tians?
2. Why do the Latter-day Saints attach such great importance to the mode of baptism?
3. What symbolism is present in the mode of baptism?
4. What evidence is there to prove that baptism was used as a religious rite among the Israelites before the advent of John the Baptist?
5. What justification is there for bap- tizing eight-year-old children? (See Doc- trine and Covenants, 68:25)
6. In what respect does a temple differ from a cathedral; a chapel; or a meeting house?
7. What appear to have been the func- tions of such famous Jerusalem temples as those of Solomon, Zerubbabel, and Herod?
References
Talmage, Articles oi Faith, Chapter 7, pp. 137-156,484-487.
Talmage, The House of the Lord, pp. 89-93.
Talmage, The Great Apostasy, pp. 117- 126.
Talmage, Jesus the Christ, pp. 121-127.
Roberts, The Falling Away, pp. 55-56.
Barnes, C. Douglas, "A Brief History of the Practice of Baptism," Improvement Era, October, 1935.
56 RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY, 1942
[/iSiting cJeachers
Messages To The Home
Lesson 7
Sabbath Day Observance As An Expression Of Faith
(Tuesday, April 7, 1942)
CINCE the time of the Creation dent Joseph F. Smith said: 'The
^ one day in the week has been Sabbath is appointed unto you to
set aside as a day of rest and wor- rest from your labors. It is a special
ship. The wisdom of setting apart day for you to worship and pray, to
one day in seven for rest and wor- show zeal and ardor in your religious
ship has been demonstrated in those faith and duty, to pay devotions to
countries where this practice has the Most High. The Sabbath is a
been temporarily eliminated. It was day when you are required to offer
found that man deteriorated in his your time and attention in worship
morale and his ability to work. The of the Lord, whether in meeting, in
law of the Sabbath, like all the laws the home, or wherever you may be
of God that have been revealed to —that is the thought that should oc-
us, is grounded in human nature cupy your mind." He suggests that
and was given for man's benefit, a weekday be set aside for recrea-
(The word "sabbath" is Hebrew and tion, so that Sunday might not be
means "repose.") used for that purpose, but be left
Jesus broadened the Jewish appli- ^'^^ ^^^, '^'^^""^ ^^^s^iP; ^^ ^"g-
cation of the Sabbath. On one oc- ^^'^' ^\^^ *^f ^^^ o"g|^t not to
casion when he was criticized by the ^^f ^j^^^ on Saturday or be out late
Jews for healing on the Sabbath, he l^^^^^^Y "ight, as this causes one to
replied: "The Sabbath was made for ^^ Physically worn out on the fol-
man." He taught that it is lawful lowmg day and unfit to properly ob-
to do good on the Sabbath. '^'^^ ^^^ ^^^^^th.
In this dispensation our Lord Discussion
says:
1. Why is the observance or the Sab-
And that thou mayest more fully keep bath an expression of faith? thyself unspotted from the world, thou 2. What benefits are derived from the
shalt go to the house of prayer and offer proper observance of this day? up thy sacraments on my holy day; 3. What does the Church consider a
For „verily' this is a day appointed unto proper observance of the Sabbath? you to rest from your labors, and pay thy 4. From vi'hat point of view would you
devotions unto the Most High; open the discussion of this subject in the
Nevertheless, thy vows shall be offered home? up in righteousness on all days and at all Read "Picture Shows on the Sabbath
times. (Doctrine and Covenants, 59:9-11) Day," Piogiess of the Church, January,
i- i. 1. 1. 1941 ' P^g^ 50; also Morris, George Q.,
In answer to a question as to what -^hy the Sabbath," Relief Society Maga- may be done on the Sabbath, Presi- zfne, September, 1941, p. 589.
LESSON bEr>ARtMlNt $t
Wori.ancl-(Bus,„e3s
Better Buymanship
Lesson 7
Children's Clothing
(Tuesday, April 14, 1942)
npODAY it is recognized that chil- because the child has outgrown it, dren are living in an environ- will cramp his activity and spoil his ment separate from grownups. This disposition. Clothing and patterns recognition has led to the adoption should be selected by measurements of styles for children's clothing that rather than by size or age labels, as are suitable to their particular needs, children of the same age differ wide- The clothing of the infant, for ex- ly in body build. Also articles do ample, is planned for his health and not conform to any rigid standards comfort. This means that his cloth- in relation to sizes indicated. They ing is simple, readily cleaned, and may vary considerably, hee from unessential trimmings. j^ ^ cooperative research Tlie design is such that garments ^q. ^^ ^^^ undertaken under the ma- be put on the child quickly and fe^dership of the Bureau of Home with little handling. Economics, with eighteen colleges, The present-day trend is also to- ^diversities, and other educational ward lighter clothing for children institutions participating. Measure- It is recognized that the weight of ^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ of 88 chil- the clothing worn may affect both ^^^^ ^^^^-^^ in age from four to the health and comfort of the child, seventeen years. Age was found to Apparel that is too light will not ^^ ^ ^^3^3 on which body meas- effechvely aid in the maintenance of urements can be predicted. It was the body temperature in cold weath- ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^Yi body length and er, and a great deniand may be made -^^i should be considered. When for body heat thus speeding up ^ ^^-^^^^ ^-^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^ l^i3 other metabolism. Clothing that is too ^^^^^ measurements, such as arm heavy may cause perspiration and ^^^^^^ ^^uld be predicted fairly ac- chilling which lead to colds. Bulky ^^^^^. j^ ^^3 found that the hip- clothmg often hampers bodily move- ^^^^ measurement was more de- ments and may lead to apathy and ndable as an indext to the child's a disinclination to physical en- other measurements than was his
Ti_°'' r i^-ij . , .!,• • chest-girth. The cut of children s clothing is
as important as its weight. Because When making or buying chil- of the great and varied activities of dren's clothing, the cut of the gar- the child, plenty of room, yet not ment should be carefully considered, too much, must be allowed in his One should make sure that the gar- clothing. Clothing that is too ment is not short from waist to small, either from shrinking or be- crotch and that there is plenty of cause it was selected too small, or spread in the seat. Armseyes should
58 RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY, 1942
be large; raglan sleeves are better girth. Pockets are desirable and
than set-in sleeves and short sleeves should be placed at the hand level,
are best, except in winter. Tight Seams should be durable and flat
bands and cuffs any place on a gar- to withstand the strain to which
ment may cause pinching and dis- they will be subjected,
comfort. Clothes worn in winter should
Lately the self-help feature has not vary greatly from those worn in
been emphasized in children's cloth- summer except that when children
ing. This has come from a desire are outside additional outer gar-
to develop in children the quality ments should be added which will
of independence. To facilitate self- shed moisture and keep out the
help, clothing should be reduced to wind and cold. Soft, closely-woven,
a minimum number of pieces, sim- fuzzy, and water-repellent materials
pie in construction, with openings do this. The type of clothing worn
and plackets long enough to be ser- indoors is determined by the heat
viceable and so located as to be easily maintained in the house,
closed or opened. Fasteners should Home construction of children's
be few in number and easily han- clothing probably brings greater sav-
dled. Buttons should be medium ings than any other sewing done in
sized, round, and flat, with a slight the home. Many coats, dresses,
groove that keeps fingers from slip- trousers, and other articles can be
ping off. Buttonholes need to be made from those discarded or out-
firmly made. Slide fasteners, if well grown by older family members,
placed, are an aid. One point must be remembered in
The material used in children's remodeling clothing, however: The clothing should facilitate the main- emotional satisfactions that come to tenance of body temperature, absorb children from being like the group body moisture readily, give up the are important. Clothes should be body moisture to the air, and also colorful, gay, and pretty. They be durable and readily cleaned. Col- should suit the child's age and fit ors should be fast to light and wash- properly. This may require com- ing. Sanforizing of both piece goods plete remodeling, dyeing and retrim- and ready-to-wear articles helps to ming. Personalities are in the mak- prevent waste of garments due to ing, and children should not be shrinking. placed in a trying situation by mak-
Knitted materials have air space ing them wear castoffs that appear as and act as nonconductors of heat. such. Clothes should be so re- Clothing made from knitted ma- modeled that they cannot be re- terials keeps the body heat in during cognized as those which belonged cold weather and protects the body to another person, from the heat during warm weather.
It also has elasticity that aids free- Suggested Activities
dom of movement. ^ ^^-^^ t^ ^^^^^^ 3^^^^^! ^^^^^ ^f
As much as possible, children's children's clothes and discuss their good
clothing should be supported from ^^^ P^^^ qualities,
the shoulder. Hems can well be . '• Bring samples of self-help clothes and
discuss tneir advantaffes from six to eight inches deep since 3. Bring to meeting examples of re- growth in height is faster than in modeled articles of children's clothes.
LESSON DEPARTMENT
59
JLiterature
Humor In Life And Literature
Lesson 7
Humor About and For Children
(Tuesday, April 21, 1942)
Their little language the children have, as on the knee they sit; And only those who love them can find the key to it.
— F. T. PaJgrave
A little fun to match the sorrow of each day's growing.
— Du Maurier
Lesson Topics
Review of last lesson
Need for humor in the lives of
children Types of humor children enjoy Humor about children for adults Children's unconscious humor Humor as a bond between parents
and children
Review oi Last Lesson
Lesson Six discussed the distinc- tions made by critics between wit and humor. It was pointed out that wit is more artificial than humor, less kindly, more likely to hurt. In this comparative sense humor results within the object which calls it forth, whereas wit arises within the mind of the one who expresses it.
A division of wit into "harmless wit" and ''tendency wit" was made by some authorities. According to these classifications, some satires would come under the latter— those with a sting, directed definitely at groups or individuals. Also it was pointed out that sometimes wit is not akin to humor. It is merely a concise, apt way of stating facts or observations.
The latter part of the lesson was devoted to humor which arises from incongruities in life itself. This was
designated as the highest type of humor. Those writers who have discussed this type show it to be a mingling of pathos with humor, and they illustrate that the lauglvter which it evokes is mingled with tears. Illustrations from artists who have achieved this highest type, not- ably Dickens, Twain, and O. Henry, were presented.
Need foi Humor in the Lives oi ChildTen
We have discussed the point that humor is needed in the life of the individual for the pleasure it brings, for the deep understanding of life and of character it gives, and for the enrichment of personality it brings. Since the ''child is father of the man," then, if humor is good for the man, it is good, too, for the child. He will likely not be able to appreciate humor when he is an adult if he has not learned to do so as a child. That we learn to do by doing is true in more phases of life than our mere physical activities. Just as we learn to write on a type- writer or to play a piano by perform- ing those activities, so we learn to be cheerful by being cheerful, to love by loving, to see the incongruities about us and extract fun from them
60
RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY, 1942
by looking for them and laughing at them.
Adults are inclined to regard the child's world as always carefree and happy. In reality, childhood trou- bles, as the old poem says, "are big- ger'n meetin' houses." We need only to recall our own childhood to realize the stark tragedy of a broken doll or a lost pet. One of the reasons for this course in humor at the pres- ent time is to distract attention from too much trouble and sorrow. If a child is crying, what does the mother do? She tries to make him laugh. So humor serves as a salve and a medicine for the child's in- jury or disappointment, as it does for the trials and sorrows of matur- ity.
Youth, then, is the natural time for laying the foundation for a later evaluation of humor and for devel- oping an appreciation of all it can give to life. Youth, too, is the time for the cultivation of a sense of hu- mor.
Types oi Humor Children Enjoy
Psychologists have written learn- edly, after careful observation, upon the laughter of infants. We are in- formed of the age when they begin to laugh, of the age when they laugh. Very early, these studies dis- close, babies laugh at antics of older children. As the psychologist. Sully, in his Studies oi Childhood says:
So far as I could judge, little sister served as a kind of jester to the baby monarch. He would take just that distant, good- natured interest in her foolings that Shake- speare's sovereigns took in the eccentric and unpredictable ways of their jesters. The sense of the droll became still more distinctly marked at six months. Among other provocations of laughter at this time were a rapid succession of sharp staccato
sounds from one's vocal organs; and, of course, the sudden reappearing of one's head as in playing peek-a-boo.
As children grow older, they con- tinue to laugh at grotesqueness in appearance and in action. That is why they like Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs, Pinnochio, Punch and Judy. They like pantomimes and cartoons, which are other forms of grotesqueness.
Children even find meaningless combinations of words laughable. After a child has learned to talk, he will often repeat silly lingoes and laugh delightedly over them. Chil- dren love jingles— the Mother Goose rhymes with humorous turns; pic- ture books with funny pictures. All too soon, they devote themselves to the "funny papers/' which unfor- tunately are rapidly ceasing to be "funny."
Mrs. May C. Hammond, teacher of the first grade in the Brigham Young University Training School, has made, with the help of students who are training to become teach- ers, a study of what little children laugh at. The following four things lead as laugh makers, according to the study:
1. Misfortune to others, such as when a chair is pulled out from under someone. Both the victim and the practical joker laugh.
2. The grotesque, such as when someone mixes up a nursery rhyme; when someone calls out a wrong word when words are being matched; when someone suggests a foolish reason for being thankful; when someone makes such a statement as, "the pilgrims ate corn flakes."
3. Unexpected happeriings, such as when the teacher was telling the children what not to do when telHng a story. She said, "Don't pull on suspenders as Henry did — like this." As she illustrated, the suspender broke, and the children laughed.
LESSON DEPARTMENT
4. Strange words and sounds, such as unusual names. The children laughed at such names as Mcintosh, Marchant.
Mrs. Hammond lists the follow- ing humorous books among those enjoyed by children: The Story oi Feidinandj Epaminondas, Wiggles, and Dutch Twins.
Most children love humorous verse that consists of extravagance and whimsicality of thought and expression. A Child's Garden of Verse by R. L. Stevenson is a favor- ite with most children; it contains quiet roguery and humorous con- ceits. A few examples follow:
The lovely cow, all red and white,
I love with all my heart; She gives me milk with all her might
To eat with apple tart.
When I am grown to man's estate I shall be very proud and great,
And tell the other girls and boys Not to meddle with my toys.
A favorite is ''My Shadow/' be- ginning:
I have a little shadow that goes in and out
with me. And what can be the use of him is more
than I can see. He is very, very like me from the heels up
to my head; And I see him jump before me, when I
jump into my bed. The funniest thing about him is the way
he likes to grow, . . , etc.
They enjoy Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and Through the Looking Glass, by Lewis Carroll, with their Tweedledum and Twee- dledee, the white rabbit with his spectacles, and the Cheshire cat that can go away and leave its grin.
Older children enjoy John Gip-
61
Jin's Ride, by William Cowper, and The Adventure of Tarn OShantei, by Robert Burns.
They, and their parents as well, laugh at Christopher Robin's adven- tures with Pooh and Tigger and Pig- let, as presented in the delightful Christopher Robin series by A. A. Milne. It is a question as to who gets more amusement, the grand- mother who reads A. A. Milne's delightful books to her four-year-old grandchild or the child to whom the story is read. The following is one of the songs:
The more it SNOWS-tiddely-pom, The more it GOES-tiddely-pom, The more it GOES-tiddely-pom,
On
Snowing.
And nobody KNOWS-tiddely-pom, How cold my TOES-tiddely-pom, How cold my TOES-tiddely-pom,
Are Growing.
HumoT About Children for Adults
Besides the Milne books, there are many others supposedly written for the child's level, but which are enjoyed perhaps even more by older people.
The books by the Abbe children are full of humor which only adults can fully enjoy. When Patience makes allusions to her parents there is usually a thrust of sly satire be- yond a child's comprehension. Light verse of certain types appeals to old and young alike, such as the quotations which follow:
62
RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY, 1942
I never knew a purple cow; I never hope to see one. But I can tell you anyhow, I'd rather see than be one.
I wish I was a little rock,
A-sittin' on a hill,
A-doin' nothin' all day long
But just a-sittin' still.
I wouldn't eat; I wouldn't sleep;
I wouldn't even wash —
I'd sit and sit a thousand years
And rest myself b'gosh!
— Fiedeiick P. Latimer
Uncle Simon he
Climb up a tree
To see
What he could see.
When presently
Uncle Jim
Clumb up beside of him
And squatted down by he.
— ^Artemus Ward.
Small boy, Pair of skates; Hole in ice. Heavenly gates.
Mothers can do a great deal to develop a sense of humor in their children and an appreciation for the right kind of humor, that which has kindliness as its essence.
Childiens Unconscious Humor
In expressing themselves, chil- dren, like poets, use similarities v^hich escape most of us. These expressions are often so quaint and whimsical that they border on the humorous. A little girl living for the first time in an apartment house came to the door and said: ''Mother, the lady living in the sheU above wants to speak to you." A small boy speaking of a picnic said: 'T would have eaten more, but I ran out of stomach.''
Children often use striking si- miles and metaphors to express what
they see. A litde girl came in with a bleeding heart blossom, exclaim- ing: ''See our valentine bush is in bloom!" Upon another occasion, she asked for an iron to press her doll's "withered clothes."
Humoi as a Bond Between Parents and Children
Laughter and tears are cement which bind hearts together. When people suffer together, they are drawn together in a close bond that seldom ever breaks. Parents who share their children's sorrows and disappointments are close to them. It is the same with laughter. It is a human characteristic to want to share pleasurable experiences with loved ones. The more mothers and children together see the hu- morous in things about them, the more they laugh together over what they read, the closer they will be to each other.
A woman who had felt a strong aversion to the comic strips in the newspapers discovered that her chil- dren and their father had a little world of their own from which she was shut out. They would talk about Worry Wart, Uncle Walt, Jiggs, Skeezix, and other characters of the "funnies" as if they were friends, and laugh together about things that meant nothing to her. Finally, she began to read the "fun- nies" for the added companionship it would give her with her family. It also helped her to better under- stand what amused her children. And that is very important. People can be judged by what they laugh at. It is important for mothers to know what their children find amus- ing; it is important for them to help their children to laugh at the right
LESSON DEPARTMENT
things — good, clean, wholesome humor. In the formative years of childhood, the tastes of the later years which have so much to do with the plane of individual culture, are formed. More important than most mothers realize is the cultural value of a wholesome discrimination be- tween coarse and sound humor. That discrimination is at the very core of a child's character.
Greatest of all of O. Henry's character- istics is the power of bringing good out of evil, of finding a place for love and laughter, where all around seems misery and sin.
Genuine humor is replete with wisdom. . . . Humor is the good-natured side of any truth. . . . Humor is the sudden light on the funny side of things that often keeps o«ie from saying or doing something foolish. — Opie Read
63
Piohlems and Projects
1. Discuss the importance of humor in the lives of children.
2. From your observation of your own and other children, what conclusion can you draw as to the kinds of humor chil- dren enjoy?
3. Read passages from Around the World With the Abbe Childien or some other such book to illustrate humor about children suitable for adults.
4. Give illustrations of "unconscious" humor of children.
5. Relate incidents to show how humor serves as a family bond.
6. Can parents do anything to improve the type of comic strips appearing today?
Supplementary Reading
Around the World with the Abbe Chil- dren.
Stevenson, A Child's Garden of Verse. Milne, A. A., Christopher Robin. Milne, A. A., Winnie, the Pooh. Leaf, Munroe, Ferdinand the Bull. Day, Clarence, Life with Mother.
-^-
Sociai Science
Foundations Of Successful Marriage
Lesson 6
Economic Aspects Of Family Life
(Tuesday, April 28, 1942)
Lesson Aim: To show how the foundations for successful marriage might be enlarged and strengthened through successful adjustment in the economic aspects of family life.
CTUDENTS of the family quite universally recognize the impor- tance of money matters in marital happiness. Modern life is so per- meated by the economic structure in which man lives that the satisfac- tions and joys v^hich he is able to extract from life cannot help being colored or conditioned by this struc- ture; and since marriage is such an
important segment of total life, the success or failure of it also depends to a large degree upon the w^ay in which family members are able to solve their economic problems. While we certainly don't want to infer that economic problems are all-important or even the most im- portant things to consider, we do want to emphasize their fundamen-
64
RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY, 1942
tal connection with the problem of successful marriage.
Adequacy oi Income
Conditions of poverty are alto- gether too common in this land of opportunity. The National Re- sources Committee, in its study of American families for the years 1935- 1936, found that about fourteen per cent of these families received a total annual income (including the value of goods produced for home use) of less than $500; twenty- seven per cent received less than $750; forty-two percent, or nearly one-half, received less than $1,000; sixty-five per cent received less than $1,500; and eighty per cent received less than $2,500.^ Only about thir- teen per cent of the families of the nation receive a yearly income of more than $2,500. It is evident, then, that a great many in this coun- try are living under conditions of severe economic strain; certainly this can be said of about four million families whose annual income is less than $500.
Adequacy of income is one factor in marital success. Love may par- tially compensate for poverty, but despite any effect it has in alleviating the strain, there is evidence that long-continued worry over money matters is not conducive to happi- ness in the home. Insufficient in- come, along with feelings of inse- curity which often accompany a low economic status, set up psychologi- cal tensions in the minds of family members — tensions which make them irritable and quick tempered; tensions which result in conflict.
^National Resources Committee, Con- sumer Incomes in the United States, Wash- ington, D. C, 1938.
The deep-rooted strain which comes from worry over finance cannot help but result in personality disorganiza- tion and perhaps end eventually in open conflict. Poverty alone is not usually a cause of marriage failure; often men and women are big enough to overcome the handicap and to make their marriages succeed in spite of it; but often, too, the continual worry and strain wears them down until they break. In- adequate income is a very definite hindrance to successful marriage.
Adequacy of income, however, certainly isn't everything. Marriages often fail where there is plenty of inoney. In fact, a surplus of in- come may be the very reason for marriage breakdown; where money makes people lazy, selfish, and ir- responsible, as it often does,^it may be the cause of failure, just as may inadequate income. The ideal situa- tion is somewhere between the two extremes. A modest income, not too low, and yet not too high, has some very definite advantages in that it will usually permit one to avoid the worries and the anxieties that accompany the lower income levels and at the same time to retain the qualities of humility, coopera- tion, and industry which are so often lost where incomes are on the upper levels.
Furthermore, money itself is only a part of the problem; a will to do is the other part. There are dozens of ways to be happy and to make others happy without a heavy pock- etbook. Everyone needs some money, to be sure— enough for the necessities of life. But beyond that, there is much that each of us can do to compensate for what is lack- ing in the monetary field. Homes
LESSON DEPARTMENT 65
can be beautified; gardens can be very likely that the present number planted and cared for; latent talents is even larger than that. It is not can be cultivated; entertainments for us to say v^hether married women can be improvised; et cetera. The should ever seek employment out- trouble today is that too many peo- side the home or not; but w^hat we pie feel that money is at the root can say is that her first duty is in the of all that is worth while. What is home. There are undoubtedly a needed is a little more willingness to number of justifiable cases of wife work and to sacrifice, to do without employment— cases in which the some of the monetary pleasures, if family income needs to be aug- necessary, in order to reach the mented or in which the wife has a deeper joys which lie beyond the real social contribution to make, and reach of money; what is needed is a cases where this can be done before determination to make marriage sue- the children come, or after they have cessful regardless of income. married and left the home nest, or The amount of income the fam- while they are properly taken care ily enjoys is only one aspect of the of. But where there is one case economic status of the family. Let that is justifiable, there are likely us look briefly at other problems of dozens of cases that are not. Wom- family finance which demand atten- an's greatest contribution can be tion. niade in the home; husband and
children need her there. Control of the Family Purse
nrn. f 1 . J £ T£ V j^4-« But this is not to say that she
The family s mode of lite IS deter- i i-, - r • 1 1 ,
. J ^ ( i. 1. 1. I.T, should remain financially embar-
mmed to a large extent by the way .^^^ed all her life. Just as there is in which its income is spent; and , . . , ^ ^ ■ -, ■,
hence, the problem of who shall '^I'^f ^" too much financial inde-
^ \ .1 ^ .1 4. • o V pendence on the part of the wife, as
control the family purse strings is ^^ ^ed in the above Dara^nh
full of potential and actual conflict, l^f^ ■, ^ ! ^^^^^ paragraph,
Ti. J 1. 1. i-T, 1- i-T. 1, T. J SO there is also daneer in too much
It used to be that the husband was r„^„^. i -, , ^ ^ ^,
.!_ 1 u J • J -u' hnancial dependence. Both ex-
the sole breadwinner, and his au- ^.^^..^^ i j . • j , ,.
., .. .1 r 1 c tremes lead to misunderstandings
thority over the family finance was ^^j ^^ n- . .i • ^. , P
1 1 r n J n 4- !-• ^"^ conflicts within the home; in-
almost unchallenged. But times i^_^ -, r ^ n .
1 1 J 4.1, • i.- £ dependence forestalls cooperation,
have changed; the emancipation of „if-i^ j j • i ^\. .
1, I. 1 J I, while dependence is humiliating woman has not only made her more , r^ j ^ .- ^ ■ ... ^
.1 J 1.-U J aiid otten destructive to initiative,
restless under the economic dom- rr, .-■ , ,i /
ination of her husband, but in many T^he wife who manages well her
cases it has given her a separate ''°'"^, ""'^ ^'^'y Pf Tl' '^u^
r ' ^ TTH T, 11 equally as great as the husband who
source of income. Wlio shall con- .^ £ i • i • .. ,
trol the family purse, then, is now \ successful m h.s occupation and
influenced to a great extent by the .^^e should be equally rewarded by
source of the family income. '^"^'"^ ' '"^ '" ^^^ '^°"t'^°l °^ f^-^'ly
T-T, -u c 'A finances.
Ihe number ot married women
in gainful employment in this coun- There are many methods of con- try has been rising rapidly. The 1930 trofling the family purse, but we will census revealed over three million have space here to mention only gainfully employed wives, and it is three. In the first method, the hus-
66
RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY, 1942
band handles all of the money and gives it out to family members upon request, or as he sees fit. There is little to be said in favor of this meth- od. In the second method, the wife has an allowance. This has a lot more to be said for it than the first, for it gives the wife some of the free- dom and responsibility she deserves, and it usually requires some degree of budgeting. But on the other hand, it also often leads to misunderstand- ings and conflicts; the wife may somewhat selfishly scrimp on the food she buys in order to have more for her personal share, or the hus- band may unjustly accuse the wife of poor management. The third method is that of setting up a joint banking account to which husband and v^fe have equally free access after the more or less regular and fixed monthly expenses are taken care of. This system is becoming more common among the young people of today. It avoids the some- what questionable assumption of the first two methods—the assump- tion that the husband will spend money more wisely than the wife— and it thereby closely approaches the goal of complete equality in money matters. It has much to be said in its favor, and for those who are responsible enough to make it work, it is probably the most satis- factory arrangement of all; but it calls for moderation, self-restraint, and mutual confidence.
The control of the family purse should be as democratic as the ma- turity and responsible natures of family members will permit. Hus- band, wife, and children alike should be given opportunity to develop the qualities of responsible action and
mutual trust. The entire family should counsel together on the mon- ey matters which concern it.
Wisdom in Buying
Another common source of fail- ure in the home is lack of good judgment on what to buy and when to buy it. Commercial interests have become extremely artful and persistent in techniques of sales pressure, and the family purse is thereby often made to suffer. Se- ductive advertising and unethical salesmanship are daily used in the spirit of bigger profits regardless of public good. The public is alto- gether too gullible; it needs to de- velop a stronger resistance to sales pressure. But sales resistance is a matter of education. Consumer's education is a crying need of the day.
It is the housewife who makes most of the purchases for family consumption; hence, it is she who should be most concerned with de- veloping the power of wisdom in buying. In this age of diets and vitamins, it is particularly important that she inform herself in a manner that will permit wise purchases and healthy family living. There are a number of ways to do this. Home economics courses in the schools and ample reading material in the public libraries and on the news- stands make education along this line entirely possible for the woman who is willing to put forth effort. Organizations such as Consumer's Research and Consumer's Union are also very much worth while. Their work is to carry on research to determine the relative merits of the various products, and then to make recommendations for the pur-
LESSON DEPARTMENT ^^
pose of guiding consumers into wise should never borrow money; loans purchases. Even without these va- and credits certainly have a place rious aids, however, the woman who in the business world. But what will, can learn much from experi- we do want to emphasize is that too ence, and can not only save money many people borrow foolishly, over- for the family, but through sensible invest, live beyond their means; too buying can build better health and many people fail to consider the harmony in the home. future. If loans must be procured, Along with the problem of know- the soundness of the institution of- ing what to buy is the problem of fering the loan should be investi- knowing when to buy. Installment gated and the rate of interest purchasing has become altogether charged should be thoroughly under- too common in this country. Its stood by the individual. If the re- chief disadvantages lie in the fact lationship between family debt and that it encourages people to live be- marriage failure could be more clear- yond their means and that its rates ^Y seen, it is likely there would be of interest are usually exorbitant, much less debt. This is not to say that installment Insurance and savings are other buying is never justified; sometimes, matters that need to be carefully as in the case of a family with good considered. There are too many financial prospects but little cash families in America without savings on hand, buying a house on install- accounts or insurance policies; too ments may be entirely unobjection- many families living merely for the able. But it is to say that in a great present, spending all that they earn many cases, the majority perhaps, and often more than they earn, installment buying is the cause of There are too many widows left perpetual economic bondage; bond- with a family of boys and girls with age which means worry and tension nothing to fall back upon for their and possibly marital conflict. support. It is reahzed, of course,
Phnning for the Future ^hat where income is low it is often
.„ ° , . ,, r extremely ditricult to lay anythmp
All of the economic problems of ^^j^^ ^ J ^ ^^j , g^^ ^^^^_
family life don t center around the ^^- ^-^^^^^ ^^ '^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^-^^
present by any means. The sue- ^^^^^ -^^^ ^^^ uncertainties of
cessful family is the one that plans ^-^^ f^^^f ^^^ ^i^l^ ^1,^ ^j^-.
and works for the future; and eco- ^^^^ ^^^ ^j,j ^^^^ something can
nomic plannmg is just as important i done as any other kind. , ,' . , , -i t r .i
Debt is a matter that needs to be ^ I" Plan">"g ^"^ ^uilding for the
given a little more careful considera- future grea care should be taken
tion. People who mortgage their t^at the children are considered for
future lives for the sake of immedi- 'hey are the future. We have fre-
ate satisfactions are very often the ?"ently stated that the habits and
people who some day wake up to '^^als of early childhood are the
find their load too heavy to bear and ones that carry with a person
who often break under the strain, throughout life. Money and work
We are not saying that people habits are no exception. Children
68
RELIEF SOCIETY MAGAZINE— JANUARY, 1942
should be given little jobs and re- sponsibilities in the home so that they will learn the dignity of labor and the meaning of money. They should be taught to share in both the responsibilities and the benefits of home life, and they should be made to feel that they are an essen- tial part of it. Attitudes of work avoidance and unwise spending habits, which are all too common in our modern society, can usually be traced to early home training. Children should be taught to work, to save and to spend wisely; they should learn the thrill of a job well done. Vocational guidance is an- other fundamental aspect of child training, of preparing for the future. Parents are wise who understand this and who assist and guide in every way possible, so that the child becomes adequately prepared in some line of work, thus insuring him against being found eventually among the unemployed or the oc- cupational misfits.
Planning must be systematic to be successful. Budgets should be made and followed, and accounts should be kept of expenditures. At periodic intervals parents and older children alike should sit together in a sort of a family council to talk over past mistakes and to plan for the future. This will give each member a chance to see his own needs and demands in relation to the larger whole. The spirit of plan- ning is the spirit of cooperation and democratic participation. The de- tail of budgets and accounts can be varied according to the apparent needs and desires of the family; some prefer great detail and ac- curacy while others get along all
right with a more general and broad blocking off of items. But detailed or not, certainly every family to be successful must plan, and plan sys- tematically with budgets and records and family councils.
Piohhms and Piojects
1. Review the findings of the National Resources Committee on family incomes. How much income do you feel that an average-sized family should have for a fair and just standard of living? How can a family compensate in a nonmonetary way for inadequate income? Can attitudes or expectations be changed? Give a number of suggestions for making family life suc- cessful on a small income,
2. Why is consumers' education so im- portant today? Why is it particularly im- portant for the housewife? How can she develop sales resistance and the power of good judgment in buying? When is in- stallment buying justified and when is it not? Why? Why will marriages be hap- pier if families live more within their means?
3. Discuss the following from the stand- point of future happiness in family life:
a. Debt
b. Savings
c. Insurance
d. Training of children in money mat- ters
e. Budgets and records of expenditures
f. Family planning councils
References
Anonymous, "Orchids are Perishable: A Problem of Matrimony," Reader's Digest, August, 1936, pp. 92-94.
Baber, Ray E., Marriage and the Family, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1939, pp. 254- 263; 291-294.
Bfgelow, W. F. (editor), Good House- keeping Marriage Book, Prentice-Hall Inc., New York, 1938, pp. 66-79.
Bussing, Elizabeth, "Marriage Makes the Money Go," Good Housekeeping, Febru- ary, 1938, pp. 76-77.
Folsom, J. K., Plan For Marriage, Harp- ers, New York, 1938, pp. 167-194.
Groves, Ernest R., Marriage, Henry Holt and Co., New York, 1933, pp. 2S(^--^i\,
LESSON DEPARTMENT
69
Hart, Ilornell, Personality and the Fam- ily, D. C. Heath and Co., New York, 1935, pp. 299-301.
Jung, Moses (editor). Modern Marriage, F. S. Croft and Co., New York, 1940,
pp. 99-139.
Mott, B. O., "Marriage and Money, Good Housekeeping, January, 1940, p. 35.
Parkhurst, C, "Shall Marriage be Sub- sidized?", Harpers, November, 1937, pp. 570-579.
Washburn, H. P., "We Got