Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1871-05-03
Going out of Fashion.

1QGre are certain Olu IaSnlOuS Jlat new
er 90 out. and one of them is the fashion
of loving a real child. Men and women
cut down to small pattern are plenty
enough. but what Is becoming of the chill
dren The spirit of the age Is against
them. Families without them are wanted
by landlords by clearinghouse keepers,
and in hotels families with them are
looked upon with suspicion, as though boys
and girls were contraband goods. Except
in the Sunday-school and day school, they
seem to be considered in the way. and the
mother of many children Is regarded by
her friends with undisguised pity. No
body seems to want them, yet a genuine
child is the JOY Of everybody, and home
uablessed with children is only half home
Missing this wealth. all gold Is but dross.
Many a rich man and woman, turning from
houses overfowing with treasures of lux
ury and art, gives an envious sigh as the
washerwoman ; ragged brood runs out to
meet her. coming tired back to them at
nighttall. Dirty and unwholesome, learned
oaly IN the language of the gutter and
the street, these neglected ones are likely
to be the only children we shall have left
III the ClAlGS. ~ hat VIII AAlOAAll8 dLAAA
training, with dressing and decking, with
crimping and curling. we are doing our
best to destroy our little girls, the while
that we lament in our blindness that our
boys cannot be spoiled. There Is some
thing in boy-nature that survives an Infinite
amount OF Snubbing and downright iDius-
tice, and an equally unaccOuntabIe amount
Of unwise pstung and hattering. Like the
rough burr around the chestnut, the boys
rugged outdoor life comes In to keep the
kernel of his spirit sweet. Too often our
girls are BlGSe before they are in their
teens, too often by far the bloom l. all off
the plum, ere they have exchanged school
for society. Mothers, in their weakness,
dress their little darlings ike dolls, induct
them into panierS. Over-Ski irts. and
sacques, and fashion only knows what,
when they ought to be happy and free, in
loosely fitting ginghams, or warm merInos,
aud the children early learn to measure
themselves and each other by their dress
its beauty; its texture, its cost Though
the lip-teaching Is of course against pomps
and vanities, the life-teaching thrown into
the opposite scale IS heavier, and weighs
1t down. These little misses from ten TO
fourteen, with their airs and graees their
ridiculous small flirting, and the veneering
of that Odious thing, the children's party,
are the saddest sights a thoughtful person
can see. What sort OF women will they
make, of wives, OF mothers, of friends, Of
helpers in the worlds work Who is
of their future Who Is sorry
for their cheated lives cheated out of how
much innocent gladness, and of how many
delightful memories ,
Take but one thing that the Herodian
spirit of the day, wearing the disguise of
an angel Of light, has given US, to help kill
off our little girls. The childrens party,
with its accomplishments of late suppers, its
dancing, its aping of the style of grown-up
people, its making itself to each young /
guest crisis of clothes, only this and /
nothing more, it is hard to overrate the /
evil it does Compare it with the chill /
1rens party Of our childhood, perhaps not /
50 many years ago, for fashion wears seven +
league boots, and goes over the ground at /
4 prodigious rate of speed. After the /
lOOn-day dinner, there having been de- /
ighttul stir and flavor Of preparation in t
he house all the morning, came the hurry /
md hustle of bathing and dressing-a sim
pie affair, when the one best frock came
Town from its peg in the closet, and the
clean white apron from the lavender scent
ID drawer. By three, at the latest, they
,ame, the little apple-cheeked girls and
Boys, and then how roof and rafters rung
With their shouts, how the old games of
1lindman's buff, and hunt the slipper, and
book binder and fox and geese, made the
hours fly, till the bOuntiful early tea was
IN the table. and the afternoon having
seemed all too short, the happy, tired chill
lren went home before dark. One such
gathering is prettier picture to hang in
hall than dozen Of the affairs,
abeled from 6 to 10, will seem in af-
er years
The plan of educating the sexes separ-
ltely, though it has its upholders, has a
rood deal to do with repressing some of
he best traits of both. Let them have
heir honest little love affairs, cropping up
ike croGusses in spring, all along their
mall Whittier 5 poems there
5 no lovelier one than that which the little
maid apologies to the little man for hav-
ng gone above him
g I'm sorry that spelt the worq
hate TO 90 above you,
Beeause-ths brown eyes lower fell
Because, you see love you'll -