Wilmington daily commercial., 1873-09-19
Our rAmerscan Girls.

Women transplanted from the Old world 10 the
New, our American girls growing up in the free
atmosphere Of America, present type peculiar
" their own. While European nations shut
should be suilied by contact with the world, our
girls walk abroad nor do they lose the purity
OF their own fresh hearts by the knowledge
which they gain Of actual life. We trust them
to form their own acquAintAnces and to enter
tain than and there is nowhere else to be
found the young girl who, while she is free to
receive attention is so well able to repel with
dignity any presumption. She marks out her
own limits. She is left to decide her life for
herself. and is not considered as piece Of prop
eTty to be retained or alienated by her parents.
With a charming freedom she combines
certainly womanly reserve which is not any out
side mannerism but the result OF the inward
conviction. which all American life forces on
her, that she il considered an independent and
responsible agent. II she be unbalanced, the
excess s on the side II liberty, showing to the
educator the tendency which his preventive
measures ought to take. sGch girls we must
rule through winning their conviction on the
side OF right. They will not blindly obey what
seem to them arbitrary rules, or, il they do, the
natural exuberance OF life checked in one direc-
ton will spread itself ont in another, in a law
lessness and foolish brayado which we shall find
1t impossible to control. Any set, formal rules,
any regulations as to uniform dress, are directly
opposed to the spirit OF our institutions, and
can at best secure but a formal compliance for
the time q result which cannot be considered as
any part of real education. The work OF the
teacher must always look beyond the present,
aiming "a it does to permanent and not tempo
rsry results, and must, in America, appeal di-
rectly and indirectly to self-control The edu-
Gator has in his hands, as the result Of our eli
mate, government, and society, an exqisitely
sensitive and nervousy developed organism a
spirit which knows its rights, and will assert aud
maintain them. an.effervescent gir-life which is
to be reduced to a gracious womanhood, but
without impairing it's individuality. Is 1t not
manifest that no system based on European life
can be adequate to the skillful solution Of such
problem Our American girls, il treated in
schools it is perfectly correct to treat French
and German girls, are thwarted and perverted
into something which has all the faults OF the
German and French girl without her excellen-
cies. Our work is for peculiar class. under Pc
culiar circumstances, and We must model it anew
for our necessities.
We have the finest material the world has
ever produced, and the best chances for its de-
velopment. Our girls schools ought to send
forth the finest women that have ever blessed
and beauufed the world the strongest and
truest wives the wisest and tenderest mothers
the most Intelligent aud worthy citizens; and
there ought 20 be no places pure, heathful,
and inspiring 81 the homes presided over by
American women. II we do not find these re-
suits the fault must be that of their education. -
anna q BRAcKErr, in Hdrper's Magazine for
n follet-