The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1870-11-09
An Extinct Race.

~. - p,
Girls, as race, are extinct. A
genuine girl will soon be sufficiently a
curiosity to be put in glass case and
exhibited at museum, along with
the giants and fat women, not but
that real girl is worth all the giants
and adipose women ever dreamed of
by showmen, but because of their
scarcity.
BY the term eegir1s" we mean girls;
not 'told girls who wrinkle their no.
seswhen other people talk about get
ting married, and indulge in stage
whispers of the bondage and slavery
endured by patient, loving wives; nor
those who fear younger than them
selves liable at any moment to commit
matrimony, and are naturally touch
me-nots, flowers already selected for
choice bouquets. but those darling,
delightful, romping, registering Great
ures who used to make up the short
dress brigade, and thought it awful
fun to go out into the country, climb
fences, chase birds and butterflies,
regardless of the fate of their lacing
strings, if they were silly enough to
invest in them, and do girlish things
generally, to the intensified delight of
big and little boys-things that show
ed they were full of life, health and
happiness. a o7a .-sau..sh sraa
But they are gone like the
amethyst dews of a summer morn
(here permit Us to heave q sigh)-
and men of thirty begin to talk about
the delightful joys of the olden time !
''The olden time" when boys did not
90 to the bad at fifteen, and girls of
twelve marched around like French
soldiers on dress parade. .A
How much more than simpering
compliments and screeching operas,
was the full toned laughter of the
"gir1s we once knew which bubbled
and gushed up from their happy, pure
hearts, ringing out clear and silvery,
till it made the robins and goldfinches
skip out of their nests to the topmost
branches, and starting the magpies
and thrushes gabbling like echoes.
Talk about your gilded drawing
rooms, pianos and organs; frosted
confects, overtopping the silver ware
of salon-like dining rooms, in oonnec-
ton witha children's party. It is like
playing the "Dead March in Saul"
for galop, or cold Hundred" for the
lancier's.
Boys and girls parties used to be
like the revelry of the gods. where
nature is all, and art nothing; where
they kissed for Iove-the purest, holi-
est ever breathed from human lips
from the happiest hearts that ever
throbbed and thrilled under gingham
belts and velvet waistcoats when the
girls didn't simper, and pant, and CO.
quette. and act the hypocrite, but were
frank and outspoken. If Matilda
Smith thought George Jones was a
rude boy. and Shouldn't hold her hand
and put his arm around her waist, nc
not for anything in the world, she told
him so, and there the matter ended
They had faith in clocks and almanaes
those days; knew nothing about
fashionable hours, and looked upon o
good jolly time as one or iife's sweet
est boons.
But jolly partners are not the style
now. They wonld not suit for the
laces and furbefows of the girls
With all the glitter and glare of lat
ter day parties, they are melancholy
affairs. Every thing Is prim and
solemn. There is perfume of flowers
and glimmer Of gas-light reflected
from polished mirrors throughout the
rooms, and chairs, sofas, and tables
are arranged with the utmost pre-
cisioni bouquets in elaborate vases sit
gingerly on spider-legged marble
stands. ready to be destroyed in the
first romp; consequently the romp
never comes in. rr.,z 49,, b......s.., o.
And what solemn concourse of
unhappy little manikins are the guests.
The girls dressed in the height of
fashion. bedizened with silks, satins,
laces and pearls; their bright, shin
ing hair, crimped, 'crumpled and MUIR
dered by the hands of an artist laced
till they gasp for breath. with tiny
boots tormenting their pretty feet =
While all this is. going on. young
gentlemen of fourteen adjust their
neck-ties, scan their polished boots,
pull on their spotless kids with the
care and Importance of french dan
cling master, and hand their partners
10 seats according to the strictest rules
Of etiquette. ;~5rg EeaifsfI ~
And when they dance, what q sol
smn mockery it is upon good cheer.
hey go at it with such severe po-
iteness, dignity and precision, that
,ne would think platoon of inexora-