THE MOTHERS' CORNER In this Department will be found articles of various kinds that give helpful suggestions to mothers.-Editors. THE YOUNG MOTHER AND THE CHILD'S WORLD. The young mother and her child have this in common: they enter together into a new world of experience. The young woman, in passing into the world of motherhood, undergoes a transition quite as great as that through which the young child passes in his new world of objects and persons. To both mother and child the new world is wonderfully strange, but extremely interesting. She finds it necessary to develop new modes of living. Higher and broader interests, ideals, hopes, ambitions, come into her life. She must readjust her life to rapidly changing conditions and demands. The child, too, lives in a novel world of change, and is every moment made to feel new needs, new interests, new life. But to both mother and child there is a real joy in living; new channels for expression, new avenues for action are opened up every day to both of them. Parenthood brings to a woman sentiments which she had never experienced before, just as life brings to the child a world of new interests, which stimulate to action his many native powers. It is not strange, therefore, that the sympathies between mother and child are so deep. They live intimately together in a new world of wonderful experience. Whatever else may be expected of a young mother, three things are essential if she is to be successful as a mother: first, she must think in terms of children's experience; sec ond, she must feel children's sentiments; and third, she must enter int the children's world of action. In short, she must live in the world of her children. And this does not imply that she become childlike in an undesirable sense; she can enter the child's world and experience his life without sacrificing in the least degree the dignity and the influence of motherhood. It is a false notion, altogether too common among both parents and teachers, that children lose respect for the adult persons who join them in their play, their jokes, and their conversations. On the contrary, the child judges the parent and teacher by a standard which he has himself created out of his own world of interests. On the basis of the child's standard of values, a good parent or teacher is one who can get his ideas, feel his sentiments, do the things which the child thinks are worth doing. THE CHILD'S WORLD OF IDEAS The young mother must think the thoughts of her child; she must live in his world of ideas. What are these? In psychology we call these concrete ideas, but let us call them ideas of simple things. When I was a little boy, a neighbor of ours (a man) used to sing a song, the only part of which I well remember is the question, "What are little boys made out of?" and the answer, "Scissors and snails and puppy dogs' tails. That's what little boys are made out of;" and, in answer to the same question concerning little girls, the more desirable reply, "Sugar and spice and everything nice. That's what little girls are made out of." Now I clearly remember my reac tion. I agreed with him that little boys had scissors and nails and puppy-dog's tails in their minds, but I was also sure that little girls had likewise, and that the things which made up the life of the little girls were not entirely strange to me as a boy. I liked sugar and spice and things nice. The world of boys and of girls is quite similar. They love to fill their pockets with rocks, candy, snails, flowers, raisins, and crayon; the greater the mixture the happier the child. It is not for the mother to ridicule the child for his foolish ideas of value. If she does, she immediately closes the door to the child's world. What she can do and what the child will permit her to do is to tell him what use he can make of these interesting things. She is a good mother in so far as she can enrich this world of his by pointing out more things about the objects of nature than the child is at first able to see. She must be ready to answer these questions: "What is this for?" "What can I do now?" "What do dogs do when they sleep?" "What is on the mountains?" These are not foolish questions; there is not such a great difference between some of them and the questions that are asked by the scientist about nature. Both children and scientists are stimulated by the instinct of curi osity. Sometimes a child's questions are even more sensible and practical and more deserving of answers than the questions which the scientist puts to nature. It is through just such questions that the child becomes acquainted with nature, and conse quently these questions should be answered. And, in order to answer them, the mother need not have scientific insight; what she needs is interest in common things and a good supply of common sense. THE CHILD'S WORLD OF FEELINGS But besides the world of ideas, the child has a world of feelings quite peculiar to himself and one into which his mother must also enter. It is not so difficult to discover the child's world of emotions and sentiments as it is to ascertain the feelings of some adult men and women. The child is frank and honest. He reveals in his gesture, his cries, the expressions of his face, nearly every change of feeling that enters his life. The mother fully compre hends the child's feelings, because of her keen sympathy with all his little joys and sorrows, and because she is ever conscious of his welfare. Only she is capable of taking great flights with him into the seventh heaven of happiness and of descending with him into the depth of depression and sadness. More difficult than discovering and sympathizing with the child's changing feelings and emotions is the task of making proper use of these feelings when they are experienced by the child. Just as the world of objects supplies for him the raw material out of which he builds his world of ideas, the concepts of classes, and the laws of nature, so these feelings and emotions constitute the material out of which the permanent sentiments and attributes of character are made. The child must be taught not only to know the meaning and use of dogs, cats, birds, flowers, trees, and mountains, but we want him to develop a certain permanent feeling or attitude toward them. We want children to have the sentiments of kindness and protective interest in dogs and cats; we want them to love flowers, trees, and mountains. If the mother succeeds in establishing these feelings in her children, she must have them herself; she must express them in the presence of the children; she must be quick to encourage children in the feeling attitudes that are good, and she must discourage those that are undesirable. Some of the sentiments that mothers should encourage in children are reverence for sacred things, respect for older people, a love of the beauties of nature, loyalty to our flag and country, love of parents, and sympathy toward brothers and sisters. The feelings that she must hold in check are jealousy of the attainment made by associates, feelings of revenge toward persons who may have injured them, feelings of conceit over one's own attainments, morbid pleasure in being cruel to animals or smaller children. Good sentiments may be made to grow, and undesirable sentiments may be held in check with the same facility that true ideas may be made to develop and false ideas to disappear. This is the task of mothers, and especially mothers of young children whose sentiments and habits are easily es tablished and retained. THE CHILD'S WORLD OF ACTION But the dominant factor in the child's life is activity. During the entire time that the child is awake, he is actively engaged with something. Because of this tendency in the child, to be doing something all the time, many young mothers have acquired certain language habits in dealing with the child: "Don't do that," "Stop it, I tell you," "Can't you be quiet?" and a hundred other negative commandments. We have all heard of the incident of the young mother who said, "Mary, go out and see what Johnnie is doing and tell him to quit." Poor Johnnie, even if he were doing the wrong thing, could not quit unless something else were suggested for him to do. The successful young mother is one who can always find something for her children to do something that is interesting, educative, and useful. Shc must have ready at hand a number of tasks, games, activities, to suggest, so that when one process will no longer hold the attention of the child, another one may take its place. A mother who understands the child's nature and sympathizes with his unceasing activities can easily reduce by one-half the frequency of the word "don't." But even in using the positive method, that of giving direction to the child's activities, two common mistakes are made. In the first place, the parent may tell the child. too much and not show him just how to do things; the parent can do more real directing of children's activity on the floor than in the chair. In the second place, the parents must not do too much for the child; the mother must help the child to help himself. She shows the little girl how to make a rag doll, but is careful not to do all the work herself: she starts the boy out in the manufacture of a kite, but he finishes the job himself. Too often mother be comes a servant to her children. child of four years should be able to put on his own coat and rubbers, to open the door, to get himself a drink of water. If these simple tasks are constantly done by the mother, the child is rendered dependent. He should be encouraged to help hinself-to solve his own problems as A All girls love to paint and powder, young men are highly entertained by trying on wigs and false beards; nevertheless it is well nigh impossible to get amateurs to take make-up seriously. They are so sure that they know all about the art of make-up that they leave this import ant item of the production of their play until the opening night of their performance, and then after a long, hard struggle, delay the rise of the curtain and find themselves before their audience uncomfortable and ill at ease because of their painful and pitiful result in paint and powder. During the play, friends rush frantically back and forth from the auditorium suggesting "a little more rouge on Jane,' "a little less on Mary," that that "John's wig isn't straight," "Jane's eyebrows don't match," "the make-up is too heavy" or "not heavy enough," until by the end of the play director and company are distracted and exhausted. Only the friends soothing commendations at the end, "That it was so lovely!" "The best thing we ever had in the town!" "Everyone looked so sweet!" etc, etc.—make us forget and the next time the same experience is repeated. NECESSITY. All actors even after years of experience spend a great deal of time on their make-ups, trying and practicing each character over and over again. Richard Mansfield, the greatest of all American actors, would be. gin his makeup even before he began the rehearsals for the part and he changed and modified it to conform more clearly with his vizualizations of the character until when the first night came his face and figure were the embodiment of his conception. Why is it necessary for the actor to make up? He depends upon facial expressions to make his story clear so it is most necessary that the face be seen. As he is from fifteen to a hundred feet away from the audience this distance makes his features look significant and indistinct. So it becomes necessary to accentuate the features that they may be seen from all parts of the building, i.e. that the face may carry over. Besides, the actor plays in the direct But There are two big divisions in characterization and make-up. When we are playing a character of our own age and experience, a character such as we might be were our circumstances and environment those of the play-such a characterization is called a "straight" one and the makeup designated as "straight." when we make ourselves into another being, differing entirely from our own personality in form, face, and age, the part is termed a "character" one and the make-up is one of "character type." Both character and "straight" parts may be humorous or serious. These distinctions should be kept in mind. MATERIAL. Every amateur actor should own his own make-up-box, for the same sanitary and hygienic reasons that each person should own his own tooth and hair brush. Do not buy the filled make up boxes advertised for amateurs. The material in them is inferior and never exactly what is needed; while at the same time a large proportion of the make-up probably will not be used. So it is much more economical to buy as needed for each part and add to your stock when necessary. The initial expenditures for the make-up will then be small and may be kept for an indefinite time as the material will not deteriorate. Provide yourself with plenty of soft old cloths to blend and take off make-up. Take good care to have a large jar of good cold cream; bad cold cream may ruin your complextion which should be very carefully preserved. Schramm-Johnson of Salt Lake makes a very excellent theatrical cold cream and there are many others on the market. A cold cream with a lanolene base is the most satisfactory. Buy a package of daubers-paper stumps -used by artists for shading. If you can't get them round tooth picks or orange stick will answer. Small tin covers for beading the eyes and for mixing colors, a candle and a box of matches and a swan's down powder puff and a baby hair brush. These items are the necessary general materials which will be used by everybody, on all occasions. Stein M. Cosmetic Company put up the best make-up material which can be easily procured, As all makeup material is apt to injure the skin unless very carefully used, it is very important to secure the best. The numbers used are Stein's. For "straight" blond woman - juvenile make-up, buy number 1 grease paint, number 2 Powder, number 18, 11, and 7 Lining colors and Brown Cosmetic with Melting Pan. wish, light moist rouge may be used for the lips but number 18, lining color will do just as well. For "straight"-brunette, juvenile women, buy number 3, Grease Paint, number 3, Face Powder, number 14, 7, 10, Liners, Brown Cosmetic with Melting Pan and medium Moist Rouge for lips. If you For blond-man-juvenile make-up buy number 4, Grease Paint, number 5, Powder, number 18, 9, and 7, Lining Color, Brown Cosmetic with Melting Pan and medium Moist Rouge for lips. For dark-man-juvenile use number 5, or 9, Grease |