'A GIRL AND HER COUNTRY'

Evening Star, Issue 17928, 25 March 1922, Page 10

'A GIRL AND HER COUNTRY'

[By Viva.]

If yon smilo in tho morning you’ll smile until night; Smile, and your days will bo smilingly bright; And when tho sides that aro blue turn to grey, Smilo, and you’ll chaso Mr Trouble away. Smilo when it’s cloudy, and don’t mind tho rain, Sunshine will come after a while; Smilo if your clothes aro of silk or of rags. You’ro in style if • you’ro wearing a smile.

Imagine a large hall filled with girls—girls of all ages and stations—led by a choir of some thirty members dressed in white, and an orchestra composed of a pianist and some half-dozen violinists, singing tho above verso as if they meant it, then you know what tho Burns Halt looked like on Tuesday evening, when Miss Jean Stevenson (of whoso career a brief account is given in another column) _ delivered a happy address entitled ‘A Girl and Her Country.’ Dr Whyte (in tho chair) said she was delighted to have tho honor of introducing tho speaker, sketched her life in’a very few words, adding that she "had had such a happy homo life herself that she sot out in tho world to mako other girls’ lives just as hippy as she possibly could.” Miss Stevenson conducted tho community singing, quite a delightful feature of the whole evening's entertainment, and after the presentation of a small scena signifying* the spiritual and mental growth of girlhood she addressed tho girls, her subject being ‘ A Girl and Her Country.’ Sho told of the material and spiritual outlook on life in this last half-decade, its changes and its improvements in so far as it affected girls, tipaco prevents a full report of an excellent and telling address, but for tho benefit of those who were unablo to attend I have culled from it some of the splendid fingerposts towards duty and good citizenship. Refreshingly came tho exhortation that country (loyalty, comradeship, service—tho ymbol of the blue triangle—should be the foremost ideal of the daily round, whether one’s task bo lowly, a profession, or merely that of home-maker. Sho • told of a Y.W.C.A. worker from America who served in Franco during the Great War, who wrote back to her principal about the French women, who one and all turned from what may be termed a comfortable time to meet tho necessity of tho .moment —turned as one hug©, tireless machine to, do their bit “Four la Patric”—and whose six great creeds for service had been adopted as the American slogan ever since. She told of work in the munition and aeroplane works in Aumorica, where women of all nationalities met to work for ono groat cause—their country—and how aho remembered seeing upon a huge placard in one of these wort. s the following counsel: —“A mistake in your work may mean a life.” Then she touched upon similar creeds for all girls—“ that it is not territory, nor power, nor money, but pride in one's country, new ideals, good citizenship, quality of fii'o one leads, health, joy of living, love of art and literature, and above all work, and tho right vision _ towards work, getting a now . understanding and appreciation of one’s task, for tho growing of a perfect lettuce is as essential _to character and the groat whole as tho building of a bridge or the driving of a locomotive.” And as a last word, sho asked the girls to take away with them for their everyday the teaching of tho -Greatest of. Masters, who said: "Love yo ono another,” and who did not ask the station of the ono who sought Hia help. To become living tokens of what the blue triangle stood for, “ Comradeship, service, loyalty, ’ thus pledging themselves to help to make a newer and a hotter kind of world. Miss Stevenson, on resuming her seat, was accorded a hearty round of applause, and the meeting closed with the singing of the club anthem set to the titno of .the National Anthem.