The Colored Girl Beautiful Part 7

She will do her part of the school work cheerfully and thoroughly, that she may know how work should be done, and how to train others--her children, perhaps, if so favored.

The colored girl beautiful will be taught the value and use of money, and the relative value of character, education, and other things, which money cannot buy. She will be taught the care and cleanliness of the body, simplicity of wearing apparel and appropriate becoming inconspicuous costumes for church, school, street and home.

She will be taught that fine clothes can not cover up bad manners, nor take the place of good character; that it is foolish to buy what one can not afford; that the expenditure for clothes especially should be gauged by one's salary and should be appropriate for her particular plane of life.

The laws of proportion in the scheme of life must be the hobby of the school for the colored girl beautiful.

She will be taught that it is unforgivable not to walk erect, to talk in good English and in a soft tone of voice.

As many girls fall into book ignorance after graduation she will be taught that the aim of education is to give good habits of reading along with book-knowledge--or else the school has failed to educate a colored girl beautiful.

The colored girl beautiful will not aim for book education alone. She will select a school which will fit her to grace her home from parlor to kitchen, a school which has thoroughness for its motto.

She will be taught how to make her dresses and hats, to prepare for the time when perhaps her allowance for clothes must be divided among several. Dressmaking is a science as well as an art and enough can be learned, by those not apt, to save many dollars--especially in the home that fate favors with children.

She will be taught a trade, or some means of earning a livelihood, that she may be prepared, if circ.u.mstances should force her into the business arena.

The school of the colored girl beautiful will so educate her that motherhood will be her highest ideal in life, the glory of colored womanhood.

The Home of the Colored Girl Beautiful.

The Home of the Colored Girl Beautiful will reflect her. She will help her parents to buy a home that it may give her family more standing in the civic community. Taste and simplicity will rule, for the home will harmonize with the girl. If her parents are not particular about the trifles in the way of curtains, fences, and yards, then it must be her special task to make the home represent the beautiful in her, the G.o.d, for all that is beautiful and good comes from G.o.d.

Windows generally express the character of the occupants of a house. The day has pa.s.sed when soiled or ragged lace curtains are tolerated. The cheaper simpler scrims and cheese cloths which are easily laundered are now used by the best people.

The Colored Girl Beautiful, will study the possibilities of her home and will attempt to secure the restful effects for the eye. Too much furniture is bad taste. The less one has, the cleaner houses may be kept.

The ornate heavy furniture and the upholstered parlor sets are pa.s.sing away because they are no longer considered good taste, besides they are too heavy for cleanliness and are harmful to the health of women who do their own work.

Furniture of less expensive model, with simple lines and of less weight are being selected. These may be paid for cash instead of "on time," as has been the custom of many people in smaller towns and in the country districts.

The furniture sold by the payment houses always shows its source in its heaviness and s.h.i.+niness.

The wall paper should be selected as one would select a color for clothes, to harmonize with the color of the skin in all lights, and, for service Color schemes in decoration are being followed and we have no more stuffy parlors, often closed for days. Instead we have living rooms, with cleanable furniture, strong but light, entirely suitable for winter, and cool in summer. No one has a parlor now-a-days. The best room is generally a living room for the whole family. No more do we see enlarged pictures which good taste demands should be placed in bed rooms and private sitting rooms. The ten cent stores have done a great deal of good in educating the poor white and black alike. These stores have every where sold small brown art prints of many of the great paintings, to take the place of the gaudy dust ladened chromos and family pictures.

Pictures are hung low that they may be thoroughly dusted, as well as to give a near view of the subject.

Expensive carpets are also things of the past. Painted and stained floors with light weight rugs are more generally used. These may be cleaned and handled without giving the backache to women. Many colored girls boast of having painted their own floors and woodwork. Much of this has been learned in the boarding school.

A tawdry home expresses its mistress as do her clothes.

Next to the kitchen a fully equipped bath room is now the most important room in the house. Health and sanitation are the topics of the hour and a colored girl should know how to put a washer on a faucet as well as her father or brother.

A house without books is indeed an unfurnished home. Good books are the fad now. They are everywhere in evidence in the up-to-date colored home.

They are exhibited almost as hand painted china was. In every inventory or collection one finds a Bible, a dictionary, and an atlas.

The times are changing and the colored people are changing with the times. Cleanliness and health are the watchwords, and "Order" is Heaven's first law.

The Colored Working Girl Beautiful.

No one should ever scorn a colored working woman. She has been the bone and sinew of the race. She has built the churches, helped the schools and has made the race what it is. The pioneer colored woman in most instances has helped to make the wealth that many colored families enjoy, today.

In my travels, on entering Southern towns early in the morning, colored women are the only women seen on the streets, and sometimes the only persons. They hurry along often with insufficient clothing in cold and rain.

One thinks of the little ones at home who dress themselves and perhaps, younger children, all without a mother's care, until night when the tired woman's return to her home to cook, to wash and to iron for her family after a hard day's work, in service.

In the antebellum days some of the Negro working women may have been lazy but their descendants of today are not lazy--only fifty years after. Statistics prove how many homes have been bought through their labor, how many children are sent to school. Working women pay the family doctor bills, and support the churches and charities.

"Every person should work or else she will need a doctor." Habits affect looks. If one is energetic and happy in doing her work, her face will reflect the contentment. If one hates work, the face will reflect discontent, the vital organs will grow flabby and affect the health, and looks will suffer. Enthusiasm in work stimulates the vital organs, causes circulation of the blood and makes the eye bright and the skin to take on a more healthy hue.

If a girl is obliged to work in a kitchen she should respect her work and dignify her position. She may be a "Somebody" was.h.i.+ng dishes or scrubbing a floor, if she does not depreciate her work and if she will give it status instead of half doing it and complaining about it.

Only a somebody "can" work well. We cannot get blood out of a turnip, and neither can a n.o.body "do" things. A slip-shod, half-hearted working woman is a curse to the race, because she gives it a bad reputation. She should put the "somebody" stamp on every portion of daily work and do the work as if she expected to get a diploma for it each night. She should not work mechanically or it will be drudgery. She should put pride and enthusiasm in her work, and let it reflect her inner self.

It is the duty of every working girl to make her employer adore her for her personal value and her word. "Do so much better work than you are paid to do that not only your employers, but their friends will take note and soon you will be paid for more than you do."

Be ready for the opportunity or crisis which is bound to come in a change for the better. Stick to a position like a leach. Make it a bigger and better one than you found it and it will prepare you for greater openings. Somebody is always watching good workers.

In her relations.h.i.+p with men the colored working girl beautiful will put a higher apprais.e.m.e.nt on herself than may be necessary in the case of the more fate-favored colored girl who stays under her parents' roof.

Because she works is no reason why she should be cheap, easily attained, or easily pleased as far as men are concerned.

She will demand much instead of little from men, that they will offer more for the privilege of her society. Unless she is engaged she will be wise to permit no caresses and will try to conquer the tendency towards accepting "petting."

She will bide her time for the recognition of her worth. Many a servant girl has seen her posterity lead a town, socially.

To know how to wait is a great secret; to patiently bide the time when one may step into the niche that right living and preparation has made possible. She will try to be contented and will strive for power to conquer her work, and herself to be ready for the day when opportunity will open her door to a larger and more responsible life. The beautiful part about this is that she will be ready to fit into this new condition of life.

She should observe, listen and imitate the good when at work. Contact is often worth more than money. Many valuable lessons have been learned while "in service." While alone working one has opportunity to "think"

and Thought rules the world.

A colored working girl is a racial trust. Her race burden is a heavy one. Her speech, actions and diligence const.i.tute the measure by which the whole race is judged.

One need not permit previous family conditions or disadvantages of birth to hamper her progress in life. No matter what one's people have been or are, one is not to blame providing she rises above all of it.

She must "get up" and pull her family up after her, if she can. If this can not be done she can pull herself up--up--up and be the "somebody" in the family. She may grow in character, influence and reputation, until people will forget her ancestry and any objectionable relations as well as all former environment.

The Colored Working Girl Beautiful should not fear or worry about what people may think. She should save her money. A bank account is always the most respected thing in the struggle of life.

Even if some single black deed threatens to blot out the whole of a good life (in one's own case or in the estimate of the world) she should be brave enough to live it down. One should put her personality into everything she does and "do" things worth while. The world moves on so fast that even the bad is forgotten soon. One may live anything down nowadays if one tries.

If she may not go with good people socially, she should stay alone. In time she will make herself and others believe that this is her preference.