Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1858-03-27
Timothy Titcomb's Lectures to
.r.a Young Ladies. ..-


Some person writing for the Spring.
field, Mass. Republican, under the nom
de plume of ''Timothy Titcomb, :"
has given some excellent advice to
young men in series Of lectures to
young folks. The following is his Sec
ond lecture to young women, which we
think will be found worthy of perusal: :
Every young woman who has arrived
at twenty years Of age has passed
through three dispensations: the chaotic,
the transitional and the crystalline -
The chaotic usually terminates with the
adoption Of the long skirt. Then COM
mences the process Of crystalizatlon.
This process may go on feebly for years,
or it may proceed so rapidly that two
years will complete it. In some women
it is never completed, in consequence of
a lack Of inherent vital force, or a GRIM
inal disregard of the reunisite condi-
tions. This transitional dispensation,
which for convenience and character
alization, I will call the silly dispensa-
ton, is SO full of dangers that it calls
for separate letter; and this pro-
pose to write now.
The silly dispensation or stage Of a
young woman's life is marked by many
curious symptoms, some OF them
indicative of disease. AS the cut
ting of the natural teeth is usually ac-
oompanied by various obvious disord-
ers, 50 the cutting Of the spiritual teeth
in woman is aptto exhibit its results in
abnormal manifestations. They some
times eat slate pencils and chalk, and
some have been known to take kindly
to broken bits of plastering. Others
take literary turn, and not content
with any number Of epistles to female
acquaintance, send in contributions to
the press, which the friendly and ap-
preciative editor loses or fails to receive.
Others still take to shopping and david
ling with clerks who have dAwning
boards, red cheeks, and frock coats
with outside pockets from which pro-
trude white handkerchief-tips. Still
others yoke themselves in pairs, drawn
together from sympathetic attraction
and by community Of mental exercise
on the subject of beaux. You shall see
them walking through the streets, lock-
ed armin arm, plunging into the most
charming condolences, or, if you sleep
in the house with them, you shall hear
them talking in their chamber until
at midnight, the monotonous hum OF
their voices has soothed you into sleep,
and the same voices, and the same hum,
shall greet your ears in the morning -
Others take to solitude and long curls.
They walk with their eyes down, mur-
muring to themselves, with the impress
sion that everybody is looking at them.
: If a young woman can be safely car
ried through this dispcnsation, the grea,
step Of life will have been gained
This is the era of hasty marriages
deathless attachments witch last unit
they are superseded, and deliberately
formed determinations to live nader
life, which endure until the reception
Of an offer Of marriage. If, during
this period, a young woman be at home
engaged more or less in the duties O.
the household, or, if she be engaged il
study with the healthful restraints ant
stimulants Of general society about her
it is very we'll for her. But if she b.
anong her mates constantly, with moth
sag to do, or if she be shut up in
boarding school conducted on the higl
pressure principle, where imaginatio,
is stimulated by restraint, and disobe
dience to law is provoked by its unrea
sonableness, it is indead very bad 70