Chapter 10 THE AVERAGE GIRL

The average girl does not want to be average.

She wants to stand for something, to excel, to be beautiful, to do great good in the world, to sing, to play, to be a social leader, to dress well, to be very popular, to be something, so that people will single her out and say, "That is Charlotte Gray; she is the prettiest girl in town," or "That is Charlotte Gray; she has a most wonderful voice," or "She is the most popular girl in the office," or "She is the finest girl athlete in the city." In her day dreams she pictures herself the center, but in real life she does not find herself there-she is just plain Charlotte Gray.

The average girl has all the elemental powers of the race; there are always undeveloped resources in her, always the possibility that she may bless the world by new ministries, enrich it by the discovery of the art of living nobly amid the common-place, that she may be the mother of the great.

The average girl has some handicaps and some privileges, in some things she is easily led, she is often misunderstood, she has periods of being indifferent, she spends too much time following the dictates of fashion and too much strength endeavoring to have a good time, she means to do things that never get done, she has times of drifting, she has some high ideals to which she clings with more or less tenacity-she is a combination girl.

The average girl is in many ways the most important member of society, for what the average girl is, that society is. Society cannot be more generous-hearted, pure, altruistic, content and happy than its average girl.

I am thinking of two towns whose inhabitants number between three and four thousand. In one, the girls are careless in dress, vulgar in speech, spend their evenings in the two dance halls and the cheap picture shows. While still young girls they marry men who drink and gamble, start homes with practically no money, are poor cooks and housekeepers and know nothing about the care and training of their children when they come.

There are beautiful homes in that town and sweet, fine girls with the highest ideals. There are wretched hovels in that town with wicked and criminal inmates. But neither the girl with the highest ideals, nor the girl with the lowest, can stamp that town; neither the sweet, refined, cultured girl, nor the immoral and vicious one can stamp that town. The average girl determines the character of it.

In the other town the girls impress every stranger with their cleanliness in dress and in speech; the streets are clean, the homes are simple and neat. The girls spend the evenings in their own homes, in "The Center," a house dedicated by one of the churches to the young people of the town for their enjoyment, in the one excellent moving picture establishment. They have a debating society, a dramatic club, and do fine work in the gymnasium. They marry young men of simple tastes like themselves, start their homes with at least the necessities, they know how to keep house and they make good mothers.

There are some girls of culture, some of wealth and fashion in the town, but they do not stamp it. There are some immoral and degenerate girls in that town but they do not stamp it. It is the average girl who leaves her imprint upon it. Neither of these towns can get away from the impress of the average girl.

The first town has the licensed saloon and the factory owners have not the breadth of mental vision to see what good houses, fair wages and common sense treatment can do to build the character of the average girl. The second town has never had a saloon, the owners of its factories and business houses live in the town and they have the keen vision which sees the value of good houses in which to live, fair pay, and opportunity for real recreation. They have been able to raise the standard of the average girl, therefore the enviable record and character of the town.

It is the average girl in college who determines the character and reputation of that college. It is not the brilliant girl, it is not the girl whose earnest plodding barely carries her through, it is not the failure, it is the average girl. If the average girl should leave her college a good athlete, interested in everything athletic, that fact would determine the general character of the college. If the average girl leaves her college with broadened sympathies, good scholarship, intense interest in the affairs of the day, real joy in living and helping; these things determine the reputation and character of the college. If the average girl leaves her college with social ambitions and plunges into the social whirl, giving her time and strength to the race for social prominence and notoriety, these things determine the character and decide the reputation of that college.

The usefulness and character of every church is determined not by the few people who do all that a church member should do, nor by the few who utterly fail to fulfil the mission of the church, but by the attitude, work and conduct of the average member of it.

The average girl in any occupation determines its standing and character. The average girl in the employ of any concern determines not only its value as a public servant but its success.

The average girl holds the key to all situations touching the life of girls. As the average girl becomes more efficient, finer in character, broader in thought, more sound in body, mind and spirit, she raises society with her; as she loses in efficiency, in power of thought and in character, grows weaker in body, mind and spirit, she drags society down with her.

What should she be like, this all-important average girl? What is she in the ideal? I have asked scores of girls the question and the following paragraph is their answer as well as my own.

The ideal average girl is strong in body, is intelligent, believes in God and strives to obey His laws. She is not afraid to work and she has courage to meet hardships and loneliness if they come. She is interested in pretty clothes, she wants them for herself, she has what she can honestly afford and she spends time and takes pains to get the very best she can for the money she has. She refuses to be extreme in style or to make herself ridiculous or conspicuous. She likes fun, she enjoys amusements and good times. She will not indulge in things of which her parents heartily disapprove or which unfit her for work or study, and which her own conscience tells her are doubtful. She loves friends and companions and has as many as she can. She chooses carefully her friends among the boys and men and lets neither word nor act lower in the least degree their respect for her. She looks forward to the day when she shall have a home of her own and fits herself to care for it with intelligence and skill. She is honest, and faithful to the present tasks. She is kindly, generous, helpful, cheerful, just the sort of girl one would like to live with every day.

It is a high average, yes, it is ideal. But the fact that so many girls are seeking that ideal, that so many against fearful odds are pressing toward it, and that so many little by little are achieving it fills one with hope. The fact that so many men and women who but a few years ago were not concerned with either the needs or rights of a girl are bending every energy to the task of setting her free from the things that burden her, hold her back and make her suffer, fills one with anticipation, for the things which touch the average girl are the things which concern all who have great hopes and dreams for the future of our land.

This chapter and all the chapters preceding are an appeal to the average girl and those who love her to summon all their strength and raise the standard of the average.

Let the average girl be the highest possible average, realizing the important place she holds in the working out of all problems of right, justice and public welfare and knowing that God must have had great faith in the power and possibility of the average girl else He would not have trusted so much to her keeping.

The world is grateful for the brilliant girl, for the gifted, the talented, the beautiful; but without the average girl it could not live. God bless her and give us more and better.

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PART II

Her Religion

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