The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-10-27

more advanced, and those who are older than
| herself are her loves, for whom she has an
] enthusiastic admiration, and whose future she
believes in as something specially brilliant ana
successful If only slightly older or younger
with the sentiment of her superiority, and pat
ronizes them-kindly enough, but she makes
them feel the inefable supremacy OF ner sex,
and how that she by virtue OF her Womannoo91
| Is glorifled creature beside them-an Arlei
to their Caliban. Now too, sne oeglns 10
speak to her mother on more equah h Se,nSI nder ~
criticise her dress, and to make her u9der,
stand that she considers her old-fashioned ana
inclined to he dowdy. She ties her bonnet
strings for her. arranges her cap, smartens up
her old dress and cOmpels her to BUY new
| one and while considering ner lmmeasHIaoly
in her own way beautiful. Sometimes she op-
poses and quarrels with her, If the mother
has less tact than arbitrariness. But
tnis is not her natural state; for one
of the characteristics OF Sweet Seven
teen is her love for her mother, and
the need she feels to have OF Il ner mel Detter
counsel and guidance; so that II she comes
| into opposition with her 1t Is only through ex-
treme pain, and the bitter teaching of tyranny
and Injustice. This is just the age, indeed, when
the mothers influence is everything to girl,
and when silly, an, unjust, or an unprincipled
4
g. low or eVilnatured mother we seldom see
Sweet Seventeen worth the trouble of writing
about; which shows at least one thing-the
importance of the womanly influence at sucn
| q time, and how perhaps 80 much that we
blame in our modern girls lies TO the account
of their mothers.
Great tact is required with Sweet Seventeen
in such society as is aliowed ner; care 70 Isiag
1 making her forward and consequential, and
without attracting too much attention to her.
| She Is no longer child to be shut away In the
nursery, bat she Is not yet entitled to the place
and consideration Of a member OF society. ana
| vet 1t would be cruel to'debar her wholly from
all that is going on in the house. TO De sure
there is the geverness as well as mamma, TO
look after her manners, and'to give her rope
enough and not too much; but by the time
girl Is seventeen goyerness has ceased TO be
| the autocrat er o1ici0, and she oheys her or
not according to their respective strengths
] Still, the governess or mamma Is for the most
part at her elbow; and Sweet Seventeen, If
well brought up, is left very little to her
own guidance, and sees the world only
through halfopened doors. Girls of this age
are often-wonderfully sad, and full of kind OF
i wondering despair at the sin and misery they
are learning to know. They take up extreme
/ views in religion, and talk largely on inc
nothingness of pleasure and the emptiness OF
II
| their elders, laden with sorTowful experience,
think full of hope and Joy, are ready 10 give up
| all the pleasure Of life, and to lay down life
| itself, for very disgust Of that of which they
know nothing. They delight in sorrowful la
fmentations and sentimental regrets put INTO
rhyme, and one of the funniest things in the
world Is to see a 'glri' dancing with the mer-
:riest in the evening, and 10 hear her talking
brokenheartedness In the morning. 1t Is
merely an example of,Hthe Old proverb about
| the meeting Of extremes; vacuity Leading 10
the same results as experience. But, however,
| she takes thls;unknown life, 1t is always In an
unreal and romantic aspect Some Of more
lirobust mind delight in the belder stories OF
Greece and Rome, and wish they had played
part In the sensational heorism OF those grand
old times; while others 60 to Venice, and make
pictures for themselves out Of the gliding gon-
dolas and the mysterious Council OF Ien,
1.-The lovely ladies' with grim old fathers
and grim brothers acting as insufficient gaol-
4 Iers; and the handsome cavaliers serenading
'l!them In the moonlight. That Is their idea OF
love. They have no perception OF anything
4 warmer. II is all romance, and poetry, and
tender glances from alar, and long and patient
wooing under difficulties and a little danger,
with scarce word spoken, and nothing more
expressive than flower furtively given, or
| fieeting pressure of the finger tips. They
know nothing else, and expect nothing else:
| Their cherry is without stone, their bird with
out bone, their orange without rind, as In the
/ old song and they imagine love as unreal as
ali the rest. When thrown into actualities,
though-say when left mOtherless, and the
eldest girl of perhaps q large family with q
father to comfort and a young brood to see
after-Sweet Seventeen Is often very beautiful
1 in her degree, and rises grandly to her posi-
4 ton. Sometimes the burden of her response
I bifftics fs TOO much for her tondcr shottlcers,
and she Is overweighted, and fails. Some
times too she is tyrannical and selfish In such
| q position, and uses her power Ill and some
times she Is careless and good humored,
when they all scramble up together, through
confusion, dirt and disorder, till the close time
| is over and they scatter themselves abroad.
Sometimes she is martyr, and makes herseli
i and every one else uncomfortable by the per-
! petual demonstration OF her martyrdom, and
how she considers herself sacrificed and put
Eupon. Indeed, she is not unfrequently mar
tyr from other causes than heavy duties, being
| fend Of adopting unworkable views which
cannot be got TO run in the family groove any
how. If she falls upon this rock she is In her
glory; youth being mnryellously proud Of this
kind OF voluntary cructhxfon, and thinking
itself especially ill-used because 1t must be
made conformable, and Is prevented from
\ Is intolerant Of all moral differences. What
she holds to be right is the absolute, the one
sole and only Just law; and she thinks 1t tam
pering with SIN to allow that any one else has
an equal right with herself to contrary
opinion. But on the whole she is pleasant,
floveable, interesting creature; and ones great
est regret abeut her is that she is so often In
the hands Of unsuitable guides. and that her
powers and noble impulses get so stunted and
shadoWed blythe commonplace training which
Is her general lot, and the low aims Of life
which are the only ones held out to her.
C0MMERCLAL NEWS.
/ - Exrorfn.