Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-05-19
A GOOD WORD FOR ROMPING
GIRLS

Most women have a dread or these.
Mothers would rather their little daughters
were called anything than romps. They
say to them, "Be very quiet now, my dears
don't run or jump, try and be little la
dies" As if a healthy child could be still. |
as if it could take time to walk or step over |
what came in its way; as fit could fold its |
little hands in its lap, when its little heart
is so brimful Of tickle. 1t is absurd and
wrong for mothers to talk so; absurd and
wrong because it is unnatural. Children,
Girl as well as boys, need exercise, indeed
they must have it to be kept in healthy
condition. They need it to expand their
chests. strengthen their muscles, tone their
nerves, and develop themselves generally.
And this exercise must be out of doors too.
1t is not enough to have cailsthenics IN the
nursery or parlor. They need to be out in
the sunshine, out in the wind, out on the
grass. out in the woods, out of doors some
| where, fit be no bigger place than the COM
mon or park. They need romp every day
of their lives. Suppose they do tan their
| nrettv faces, Better be as brown as ber-
nv and have the pulse quick and strong,
than white as lily and complain of cold
feet and headache. Suppose they do tear
their clothes, tear them ''every which way"
sunnose they do wear out the shoes, a pair
a month, even; it don't try a mothers
patience and strength half so much to patch
and mend as it does 10 watch night after
night querulous sick child; and it don't
drain a fathers pocket-book half as quick
70 buy shoes as it does to pay doctors
hills. The odds are all on the side of the
/ romps. Indeed, we don't believe there is a
nretfier picture in all the wide world than
that of a little girl balancing herself on the
tonmost rail of an old zigzag fence, her
bonnet on one arm and basket OF black
berries on the other, her curls streaming out
T in the wind or ripping over her flushed
cheeks. her apron half torn from its waist,
and dangling to her feet, her fingers stained
f with the berries she has picked, and her
Inns with those she has eaten. Mother,
, mother. don't scold that little creature when
she comes in and puts her basket on the
t table, and look ruefully at the rent in the
: new bingham apron, and at the little bare
D toes sticking out of the last pair of shoes.
r Wash off her hot face and soiled hands, and
g give her bowl of cool milk and light bread,
f and when she has eaten her fill and got
T rested, make her sit down beside you and
r tell YOU about what she has seen off in
d those meadows and woods. Her heart will
e be full of beautiful things-the sound Of
the wind, the talk of the leaves, the music
II of the wild birds and the laugh of wild
v flowers, the ripping of streams and the
n color of pebbles, the shade of the clouds
le and the hue of the sunbeams-all thost
Of will have woven their spell over innocen
N thoughts, and made her poet in feeling,
ct not in expression.
No, mothers, don't nurse up your It'll
RI girls like house-plants. The daughters c
tx this generation are to be the mothers of tn
next, and if you would have them health
u in body and genial in temper, free troI
al nervous affections, fidgets and blues; If 20
lat would fit them for life, its joys its cares an
its trials, let them have good romp ever
day while they are growing. 1t is nature
is own specific, and, if taken in season, wa
he ranted to cure all the, ills OF the girl an
the woman.