The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1870-06-09
From the Technologist.
THE GIRL OF THE PERIOD.
The sex mot Degemerafed from tine
sSG:OOd old Times"
IT'S AZ OLD sfoRr.

1T Is AN OLD sfoRT.
The cry that earnest and noble women are
dailv becoming more rare; that the places
If the brave-hearted and gentle are usurpeu
nv the frivolous and dissipated, IS one that
Is by no means new. Two hundred years
400 the wits of England INDUCED in the
same cant, and said the smart things in re-
gard to the same matter; and long before
that time the prophet had asked the people
of his day why they said that "the former
DAYS were better than these" and re uke1
them roundly by telling them that they ~olG
NOT consider wisely concerning this matter
We have heard many reverend grannles,
both with and without Iettlcoatss dWeiilhg
at length upon the degeneracy OF the men men
and women of the present day-no DAY ike
fine old DAYS: no such wise men as those
that laid sage hands upon their young heads;
no such mothers as their mothers. and lnfe-
rentiaIly. no such young men and women
now as they were in their prime.
AWAY WITH SUCH CANT!
The skies are as bright to-day as they
ever were since human history began TO re-
cord the changes OF the years; statistics
show that the men OF to-day are larger,
stronger, longer-lived and less vicious than
those who lived fived hundred years ago,
and amongst the women there are hearts as
brave and true, natures as warm and alice
tionate, minds as intelligent and souls as no
BILE as ever existed amongst our grandmoth-
ers of either sex.
A PLEA FOR THE GIRLS
Our girls may dress more gaily, and, per-
haps, they enjoy amusements more keenly
than did the women of the last century
but what of that !? If the chemist of the pc
Rod Is able to produce aniline colors so brill
liant as almost to rival the famed Tyrian
purple, shall his sister-the girl of the peri
od-be condemned to wear dingy madden
And If better education and wider opportu-
mites have enabled her to enjoy Chicken
ing or a Steinway piano, is it TO be supposed
that she will remain content to listen to q
shepherds read or cornstalk fiddle!
THE CRoAKERs AT FAULT.
Thege old croakers forget two things: In
the first place, that the grandmothers of the
period were once girls, as wild as any girls
that we have now; and, secondly, that the
greater refinement. the higher education,
and the nebler views of the modern girls
are things that the old fogies who have de-
sceuded to US from former generation are
totally unable to understand. That the girl
OF the period is perfectly able to rough it,
perfectly able to live in log house, milk
the cows, and tend the babies, we have no
doubt, for we have seen her do it on more
than one occasion, when necessity required.
But il she should prefer the course associa-
tions that accompany life of what is called
roughing it to the refined and elevating in
fluences that in the nineteenth century have
our christian homes the nurseries of modern
CIVILIZATION. she WOulu ucHy neT
and prove false to the intellectual oppoTtu-
mites with which she has been so marvel
ously blessed.
NO USE FOR THE STOWE MODELS.
When Mrs. Stowe and her sister hold up
for admiration and imitation the women of
her young days-days when "a bride was
married with sheets and table-cloths of her
own weaving, with counterpanes and toilet
covers wrought in divers embroidery by her
own and her sisters hands"-they seek to re-
call times that have passed away, we hope
never to return. As these ladies well OBJ
serve. "those remarkable women of old WEI G
made by circumstances; ;" we can only add
hope that neither the woman nor the cir
cumstances will ever be reproduced on this
planet. In their own departments, for the
tired muscles of the weary worker, men
have substituted muscles of iron, sineWs OF
steel, and nerves of brass. propelled by heart
and lungs that can never tire while the coal
fields of Pennsylvania hold out; and shall
we condemn our wives and daughters to
the hum drum of the spinning-wheel and
distaff? No, indeed. Even the sewing ma
chine is bad enough, and it won't be long
until some of us succeed in Harvesting the
physical force to it, so as to give the tired
limbs of the sewing girl holiday.
REQUIREMENTS OF OUR CIVILIZATION
1t is a singular fact that we often meet
people who, having come down to us from
the days of stage-coaches, two shilling post
age and whale oil lights, are anxious to re.
vive the habits and education of these ole
times in the days of gas, telegraphs light
ming express trains. Their highest ambi
ton is to have clean linen, make good but
ter, and save money-points that arc al
very commendable. but that do not altogeth
err fulfill the requirements of modern civil
cation. These people forget that wide
err civilization involves wider necessities
They tell us to limit our desires, being ig-
norant of the truth, that the extent of oul
desires Is the measures of our culture, an(
that their advice 81 like telling a man to Gu
off his feet when he wants boots. And 81
persistent are these s0i-diSdnt sages in re-
commencing us to restrict our deeires anC
''simplify" our tastes; to confine ourselve,
to the qualification Of homely pleasures
which with them signifies the obtaining o
mere material necessaries (and pork anC
beans at that that we often feel tempted tC
turn from them in disgust, and to exclaim
Give me the luXuries of life, and l will dis
pense with the necessities"
WORTHY woMANHooD WANTED.
These thoughts have been forced upon ui
by the evident changes that must take place
i'll the education of our young women a:
well as of our young men. While we de-
precate any system that would tend to con-
vert the latter into mere tenders of ma
chimes, much more should we condemn any
system, the tendency of which would be t.
degrade the former below even this humble
level and convert them into the machine,
chimes, sewing machines, or knitting ma
chimes for wives; we want women, apG
that all around us.
THERE Is ABUNDANT MATERIAL
for the production of good women, material
which it requires but proper education tC
develope, we feel perfectly satisfied. AL
this twaddle about the degeneracy of mod
ern women is the silliest kind of nonsense.
THE GIRLS AS GOOD AS EVER.
That we are i'm transition state; that In
passing from the rude culture of a forefath-
crs to the higher education that awaits us
we have reached a somewhat anomalous
condition, no one can for a moment doubt
But fault lies with the times, and with the
peculiar conditions of human progress, anC
with the girl of the period. Beneath the
aniline-dyeo garments of to-day there art
hearts as true and warm as ever beat be-
meath the linsey-woolsey of hundred years
ago; the eyes that luxuriate upon the beau
ties that fiji our modern homes are as fond
and bright as those that watched the shad-
ows on the log walls of our ancestors; and
the fingers that draw delicious music from
the modern piano are no less def and gem
tie in the sick room than those that spun the
coarse garments of by-gone years and milk
ed the cows that graZed in long-past mead
owS.