Explore "The Woman of to-Morrow" by Helen M. Winslow on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Who shall estimate the value of a cheery, breezy, hopeful friend? Nobody can get along without her. She keeps us in good humor, she switches off the bores, she lights us up and keeps things in motion; in her company our spirits rise, our wits grow bright and our tongues loosen, so that we really believe after half an hour's contact with her that we are in ourselves as brilliant and as happy as she makes us. A friend that can raise everybody around her from a state of practical imbecility to that of a brilliant and beautiful song bird is a being we may all envy. If we would be such a friend ourselves, there is but one way: we must be agreeable at all times, kindly serviceable to every outward call, never see a slight or notice a snub, and never allow ourselves to get into the dumps. "To be warped unconsciously under the magnetic influence of all around is the destiny to a certain extent of even the greatest souls. " We cannot be too careful of our friendships, nor value too highly the love of the good women whom we meet in life.
The late "Jennie June," Mrs. Croly, said at one of the celebrations in honor of her seventieth birthday: "I am glad to have lived so many years because I have come to know that most beautiful thing on earth, the love of one woman for another-the love of good women for one another. " And truly, if any woman on earth has reason to know it, this "mother of clubs," who did more than any other one woman to introduce women to one another, ought to from long and intimate experience. Through her pen, that of the first regular, trained woman-journalist in the world, and through her long, active experience as president of the foremost woman's club in the country, Mrs. Croly did more, perhaps, for the emancipation of women in a social way than almost any other woman of her age, and we may well pause to consider her words for a moment.