The Greenville enterprise. [volume] (Greenville, S.C.) 1870-1873, 1870-09-14

A vast amount Of poetry has al.
ways been thrown around that
special ti.me of a woman's life
when, '''''' ~
Standing with reluctant feet
Where the brook aud river meet,
she is no longer a child, and yet
not quite woman-that transi
tion time between the closed bud
and the full blown flower, which
the people of England express by
the term, among others, of sweet
seventeen. Without meaning to
be sentimental, or to envelope
things in golden haze, wrought
by the imagination only, and no
where to be found in fact, VIC can
not deny the peculiar charm which
belongs TO a girl of this age, if she
is at all nice, and neither pert nor
silly. Besides, it is not only what
she is that interests us, but what
she will be; for this is the time
when the character is settling into
its permanent form, so that the
great thought of every one con.
nccted with her is, how will she
turn ont into what kind of wo-
man will the girl develops and
what kind of life will she make for
herselfs Certainly Sweet Seven.
teen may be most unlovely crea-
ture and, in fact, she often is a
creature hard and forwar d, having
lost the innocence and obedience
of childhood, and having gained
nothing yet of the tact aud grace
OF womanhood a creature whose
hopes aud thoughts are all center
ed ou the time when she shall be
brought out, and have her fling of
flirting and fine dresses with the
rest. Or she may be only a gay
and giggling schoolgirl, with a
mind as harrow as her life, given
up to the small intrignes and scan.
dals of the dormitory and the
playground, a girl who scamps her
lessons and cheats her mastere ::
whose highest efforts in intellect
are shown in the cleverness with
which she can break the rules of
the establishment without being
found out: who thinks talking at
forbidden times, eeping through
forbidden windows, giving silly
nicknamcs to her companions and
the teachers. and telling silly Sc.
crets with les' truth than incenui.
ty in the,n, the greatest fon imag.
Unable, and all the greater because
of the spice of rebellion and per-
versity with which it is dashed
Or she may be a mere tomboy, re.
GREETING her sex and despising its
restraints cnltivating school boy
habits; ridiculing her sisters, aud
disliked by her companions, while
thinking girlhood a bore and wo.
manhood a mistake, in exact pro
portion to it's fernininalitv. -.
Or she may be a budding miss,
shy and awkward, with no harm
in her, and as little good--a mere
sketch of.a girl, without line as
yet made out, or tho dominant col.
or SO much as indicated. Some.
times she is awkward in another
way, being studious and preoccu.
pied, when she passes for old and
original, and is partly feared, part.
ly disliked, and wholly misunder-
stood by her own young world {;
and sometimes she has q cynical
contempt for men, and beauty, and
pleasure, and dress, when she will
make herself ridiculous by her re
volt against all the canoBs, OF good
taste and cOnventionality. But af.
ter her'debut in tattered garments
OF several colors and nHgaiBly cut,
she will probably end her days as
frantic fashionable, the salvation
ct whose sonl depends on the fank.
lees proprie:y of her wardrobe
The eccentricities of Sweet Seven.
teen not unfrequenly reyenee
Themselves by an exactly OBJ
p"site mature ex:ravaeance.-
But thongh there are enough and
to spare Of girls according to all
these patterns, the Sweet Seven
teen OF ones affections is none OF
them. And yet she is not ALWAYS
The same, but hue her different
presentations, her wary ing faces,
which give her variety of charm
and beanty. sf :
Married men are alwavs so.rod
to Sweet Seventeen when che is n
good girl; so are engaged men,
For the matter Of that. she be-
lievcs that nothing could Induce
her to marry either a widower or
one who had been already engag
cl- ~ nnfhinn cn,,lI indnao