Rapides gazette. (Alexandria, La.) 1869-187?, 1873-08-30
Advice to Young Ladies'.


Under this interesting and suggestive
title, respectable and influential religious
paper, the Boston CONGREGATIONAL, gives
some wholesome truth, stated in terms
more terse, perhaps, than courteous
First, you are perfect idiots to 90 on In
this way. Your bodies are the most beau
tiful of Gods creation. In the Continen-
tai galleries l always saw groups of peo-
pie gathered about the pictures of women.
1t was not a passion; the gazers were
just as likely to be women as men; 1t was
because Of the wonderful beauty of wo-
mans body. 800 - vio 8
Now, stand with me at my office win
dow, and see lady pass. There goes
one! Now, isn't that pretty looking
object? A big hump, three big humps, a
wilderness of crimps and frills, q hauling
up Of the dress here and there, an enor-
nous, hideous mass of hair or bark piled
on the top Of her head. surmounted by a
little fat, ornamented by, bits Of lace,
BIRDS tails, etc. The, shop windows tell
you all day long of the paddings, whale
bones and steel springs which occupy
most Of the space within the outside rig.
In the name of all the simple, sweet SEN
timents which cluster about home, i
| would ask, how is a man to fall in love
K
twisted, touch-me-not artificiality as you
see in that wriggling curiosity? II -,
Secondly, with the wasp-waist sQueez-
ing your lungs, stomach, liver, and other
vital organs into one-half their natural
size, how can any man of sense, who
knows that life is made up of use, Of sense,
of service, of work, take to such part
ner? He must be desperate, indeed, to
unite himself for life to such fettered,
half-breathing ornament.
Thirdly, your bad dress and lack of ex-
ercise lead to bad health, and men wisely
fear that, instead of helpmate, they
would get an invalid to take care of.
This bad health in you, just as in men,
makes the mind as well as the body fad.
died and effeminate. You have no power,
and use big adjectives, such as .'splen-
did," No magnetism l know you gig
gle freely, "awful," but then this don't
deceive us; we can see through it all.
You are superficial, affected, silly; you
have none of that womanly strength and
warmth which are so assuring and at
tractive to man. Why, you become so
childish and weak-minded that you re-
fuse to wear decent names even, and in
sist upon baby names. Instead of Helen,
Margaret and Elizabeth, you affect Mel.
lie, Maggie and Lizzie. When your broth
ers were babies you called them Bobby,
Dickey and Johnnie, but when they
grow up to manhood, no more of that
silly trash, If you please. Bat know a
woman of twenty-five years, and she is as
big as both my grandmOthers put to.
gether, who insists upon being called
Kitty, and her real name is Catharine !;
and although her brain is big enough TO
conduct affairs Of State, she does nothing
but giggle, cover up her face with her
fan, and exclaim once In four minutes,
"Don't now. you are real mean."
How can man propose life-partner-
ship to such silly goose? My dear girls,
you must, II you get husbands, and de-
cent ones, dress in plain, neat, becoming
garments, and talk like sensible, earnest
sisters. ..
You say that the most sensible men
are crazy after these butterflies of fashion.
Ibeg your pardon, it Is not SO. Occa-
sionally man of brilliant successes may
marry silly, weak woman; but, as /
have heard women say hundred times,
that the most sensible men choose women
without sense, is simply absurd. Nine
teen times in twenty sensible men choose
sensible women. l grant you that, In
company, they are very likely to chat and
toy with these overdressed and forward
creatures, but they don't ask them to 60
to the altar with them. 8ag II
FOurthly, among young men in the
matrimonial market, only q small number
are independently rich, and in Americs
!, such very rarely make good husbands,
But the number of those who are just be-
ginning in life, who are filed with noble
ambition, who have future, Is very
lsrge. These are worth having. But
such will not, they dare not, ask you tt
join them while they see you SO idle, silly
and so gorgeously attired. Let them set
; that you are industrious, economical
with habits that secure your health and
! strength, that your life is earnest and real
that you would be willing to begin at tn,
!, beginning in life with the man you woult
. consent to marry, then marriage Will be
come therule, and not as now, the excep
ton.