The Rev. T.W. Stout had some (mostly) good advice for the girls of Calvary Methodist Church in Minneapolis. Tribune editors published the list the next day so that girls of every faith might benefit.

Pastor Gives Ten “Dont’s”
To Guide Lives of Girls

 

Rev. T. W. Stout Gives Sequel to Last Week’s Talk to Boys and Young Men.

Tells Fair Sex to Think, Stop Nagging and Shun Late Hours.
 
Rev. T. W. Stout of Calvary Methodist church gave a sequel to last week’s talk to boys when he spoke last night to young women on “Ten Don’ts for Girls.” His advices follow:
 
1. Don’t fail to think. A thoughtless woman is like a lunatic at the wheel of a ship; they affect the lives of many, but heaven only knows where the trip will end. Study. Get ideas. Think.
 
2. Don’t forget that beauty is from within. Good blood, good ideas, a good heart; these only can make beauty. A scratch may mar a painted doll, but smallpox itself can’t efface real beauty.
 
3. Don’t be too sure you are in love. It is probably only a spell of something else. Try absent treatments. If you can’t stand a year of separation, don’t marry. Better a sensible old maid than a broken-hearted wife.
 
4. Don’t go to work unless you have to. Your presence in the office keeps someone else out and lowers wages. Maybe that other person has a family to support. Low wages makes a good market for virtue.
 
Like Bargain Counter Goods.
 
5. Don’t permit familiarity by men. Some girls are like bargain-counter goods; of good quality and at a fair price, but they have been pawed over by so many vulgar hands they have lost their value. There is a place for the icy stare as well as for girlish glee.
 
6. Don’t be a nagger. Find out what “nagging” means; then don’t. Homemaking is better than housekeeping.
Homemakers don’t nag. Nagging is sending scores of boys and men to destruction.
 
7. Don’t make appointments that your folks don’t know about. They never pay except in novels, and novels lie. It won’t hurt to tell mother, and may save you a world of trouble. When you cease to be modest you cease to be a lady.
 
8. Don’t disregard your health. Late hours, scanty clothing, dissipation and stimulants will do more to make you homely and unhappy than all the work you can do.
 
9. Don’t be idle. There is plenty to do. Help folks. Scores of politicians would covet your chance to make yourself popular by helpful kindness. That old widow in the next block is a gold mine for you if you only knew it.
 
10. Don’t forget Christ. You would probably be a slave or a chattel but for him. Don’t fail to show your gratitude in appropriate ways.
 
Calvary Methodist Church, Penn Avenue North and Oak Park Avenue, Minneapolis, in about 1915. (Image courtesy of mnhs.org)

 

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