Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1843-03-31
TRUTH ARRAYED IN MERRY GUTsE.

We copy the following seasonable article
from late number of the Savannah Republican |:
BOYS AND GlRLs.-Whe,e are they! What
has become of the juvenile race that used to
make the welkin ring with the frolicsome laugh.
ter. the free, unrestraned sports, the merry, in.
nocent pastimes of happy boyhood and grlhood
What has become of that beautiful race of fair
haired, rosy.cheeked, healthy, wholesome boys,
and the warm radiant sunshine of girlish faces,
with step as elastic and graceful as that of
wood nymph, with laugh sweeter than the mu-
sic OF singing birds, with al their naturalness
their unaffected ease, and the beautiful conf
dence which is the proper heritage Of early
youth
Byron might we'll have sung in his day
"Sweet is the laugh Of girls"
1t was heard then, and now in the screen
lanes OF merry England, on the sunny plains
OF France, along the vine-tlad hills Of Germany
and elsewhere, these -" celestial voices" NAV be
heard, but not in matter. oftact America. No !;
they are not here During the Revolution it
was not thus. When children had to choose a
playground that was secure from shells and
round shot, it was not thus. There is no boy
hood nor grlhood now. There is the birth, the
baby hood, manhood, womanlpod, and death
These are the epochs which divide life that
"-hovers like star
'Twixt night and morn,
Upon the horizons verge"
Our American boys are not we'll grown boys
they are homunculi, as Carlyle would say-min.
iature men, dressed up en- bottles, with long tailed
coats, gloves and canes, and too often brave in c.
gar smoke. Their hair, it is long and manly,
their carriage most particularly erect, and to
stumble against curb stone and roll in little
clean dirt would be calamity. Their faces are
grave and thoughtful with the throes Of nascent
manhood their address profoundly calculating,
and rejecting the wisdom Of the ncpient man
OF the world, as if they knew sorrow, and had ia.
ken deep, very deep, glances into hat wonderful
storehouse of mysteries, which the day Of judg-
ment alone will clear up-the human heart.
The girls !! How many of then are Above
to give forth the impulses of their generous sem
stive natures They, too, are little women.-
They too often do not kiss their manly brothers,
much less are they caressed by them. They are
little women, deep in the mysteries of the toilet,
redolent of cosmetics, perhaps yersed in hem.
stitching and working lace theirvery dolls have
bustles, and they, poor things, with forms cas-,
IN mould of Gods own workmanship, whose
every curve and every development is beauty
and loneliness, must wear bustles too. Hardly
do they darn their brothers. stockings or hem
his handkerchiefs, or delight in the handy.work
OF making his linens.
When half grown they are serious, sober wo.
men. They dance and sing and smile, and sim
per methodically. They walk on stills, or dance
with evident constraint, and by.and-by we ex-
pect they will not dance at all. We expect
soon to see the little beings, with eyes fixed on
their neighbours DEFICIENCIES. All! how wrong
to check the buoyancy, the exhilaration, the joy.
Gus outbreak Of these young creatures. h~ die
H. ue III romping' or running, or dancing, and
whether the dancing be to the music OF their
own voices, of the pianno, of the violin, or the
harp, or the tabret, or of a German band, if prov.
dentially they might pick one up for love or
money.
This is demure, stupid, hypocritical, hum.
bngglng age, and we are going one of these days
to say more about it.