JOY ALONG THE WAY: ONWARD AND UPWARD OR JUST ADRIFT?

"I's get weary and tired of readin' 'Bout nation's troublins, That jest keep doublins."

When I catch myself muttering such an attempt at parody, I turn to my little stack of old magazines to read snippets here and there to reassure myself that we've been moving steadily onward toward the better and the good.

In a February 1913 edition of McCalls magazine I read this: "Knife Sharpener: Get a piece of wood ten inches long and three inches wide, six tacks and a sheet of No. O emery paper. Cut the paper in three pieces lengthwise; place these sheets, in three layers, upon the board, turning their ends over its edges and tacking to the back to hold them securely. Any blade from a carver to a small pocket-knife may be given a sharp edge by drawing it over this board a few times. When one layer of paper has lost its usefulness, slice it off with a knife and there in another one ready. When all are used, buy a new sheet of paper and tack on as before."

I look at my electric knife sharpener and say to myself, "Yes, we have progressed."

Another hint in the same issue of McCalls reads: "When the lamp wick is short, and the oil has burned low, a little water poured into the lamp bowl will raise the oil, causing the lamp to burn as brightly as if newly filled."

On the cover of the Feb. 20, 1913, issue of Life magazine there is a picture of angry women, marching with frowns, placards and determination, demanding the right to vote. Inside the magazine is a notice that an upcoming issue will be devoted entirely to the suffrage movement.

Seven years later (Seven!) women got the right to vote. I think of all the time I've walked over to the Arena Building to vote and I whisper to myself, "Yes, we have progressed."

In the February 1936 edition of Cosmopolitan, Stephen Vincent Benet has a piece of fiction depicting, among other things, the chivalry of southern gentlemen. One paragraph reads: "Under the lash of Sarah's scorn because he had wished the downfall of the Yankee Republic, Hector would do naught but bow and exit like a true gentleman of the South."

Oh, oh! Progression? Would that the cadets at the Citadel had only bowed gentlemanly at the exit of Shannon Faulkner instead of dancing and cavorting around.

Then, in the same issue of the above mentioned Life magazine there is this bit of what I supposed to be meant as humorous:

"I see that President-elect Wilson hasn't made up his mind about his cabinet, yet."

"Dear me," she sighed, "I do hope he'll decide to select one of those new fashioned ones, that are easy to sweep under."

Was this an attempt to show that the mind of a woman in 1913 hardly ever strayed from the kitchen, that she didn't know what a president's cabinet was? Well, fair enough; a play on words. Today the minds of both sexes would zero in on political innuendoes about the ease with which cabinet members can be "swept under."

Lloyd C. Douglas, in his book, "The Green Light," speaks of mankind climbing upward and onward in the march of civilization. At certain periods all the marchers reach a plateau. There is another mountain before them to climb, but for long years of time they are content to mill around on the plateau, eventually growing so weary of it they grow cynical, scared, confused, murderous. Some even drift back down the mountain they've just climbed. Eventually someone finds the passageway up the next mountain and all sweep upward and onward to the next plateau.

"I's get weary of wonderin' if We're goin' on upward, Or just adrift."

REJOICE!

~Jean Bell Mosley is an author and longtime columnist for the Southeast Missourian.