The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1874-02-25
rne Kind Of Girls They Used To Hnv.

II,
been entertaining an aged aunt in the past |
week, and finds himself very much i'm
proved and strengthened by communing |
with her. lie says he is astonished,
though, to find how the world has degener-
ated in the past fifty years. He wouldn't
believe it if this aunt hadn't told him with
her own mouth. And it makes Mr..
O,Clarence trhe uncomfortable. He says
he thought everything necessary to the
success Of the universe was going on swim
mingly. He had no idea that in the last
fifty years the world had gone behind more
than in all the thousands of years that pre-
coded that period. lie says that when his
aunt was a young woman, half century
ago, there was no such gongs-on as char
acterize this unhappy time. Children
were children then, and knew how to
keep their place. Boys went to school or
worked on the farm. and kept steady, and
the girls did the same, and kept by them
selves until they grew up to be old enough
to have sufficient Judgment to take care of
themselves. There was no flirting, nor
simmering, nor bold-facedness, nor pro-
family, nor slang, nor tobacco, nor gam
bling, as there is now, dragging down the
people and making old men and women
of them before they have got then
growth. There was no turning down of
lights, and hugging and kissing in the par
lor until morning, four nights in the
week. There was no gadding about
the streets after dark, staring into the faces
of the men and gigging in the most
shameful manner possible. When they
went to church in those days it was to
hear the preaching, and not to bite hand
kerchiefs at each other, and act like a
''passel" of fools generally. There was
nothing silly, nor improper, nor new-fan-
gled, nor sot-up about the actions of people
then. A young couple in those days were
totally different from young couple
now. lie never thought of coming more
than once week, and that on Sunday
He never came through the week, because
both of them had too much to do to bt
engaged in such tomioolery. He always
accompanied her home from church Of {
Sunday night, and if he went IN the house
at all (Which he rarely did it was simply
TO sit on the extreme edge of chair in
very respectable manner and converse will
her parents. Promptly at ten O'Clock h
went home and she went to bed, respecta
BILE happy. Her folks were always Their
when he was, and there was no squeezing
of hands and soldering and other non
sense. He never thought Of calling he
by her given name nor she him by hi
gwen name. They had too much regar
for each other and their parents to fall int
such levity. When they were marrie
(Which was at q proper age and not Xix
they do now she had plenty of clothes Q
her own spinning and making and man
other things which she did not have t
provide, and did not 60 to her husban
without rag to her back, as is customa
nv for brides to do now, as our reader
well know. Girls are married now VIII
then would be in pinafores, doing chore
about the house, and looking up to the
parents. But now the great, object is t
get nan, and they get him o
soon as they can snap hold {
one. and before they are oil
enough to know anything but ribbons, an
gewgaws, and false hair. Not one in
hundred Of them can bake a loaf of brea
that hog would eat. In those day
every girl could bake to perfection, an
could milk, and spin and churn leverybod
lived on farm then, we nfer) as well @
their mothers. There were no such sick
ness and poverty, and misery as there
now. The men wer'nt weazen-laced an
broken down, and the girls pinch-waste
and weak-backed-as all men and a
girls are to-day. People then took care
themselves, and lived to green old ag
hut now they droop away and die befol
they are forty. Where do you 81
people seventy and eighty years old nov
as they were in those times? Where d
you, to be sure? Nowheres, of cours
All this and much more Mr.. 0'Clarence
aunt told him, and all this and much mo-
Mr.. O'Clarence rehearsed to an attenti'
and admiring auditory, in HOLSTER
store, Saturday night. One among the
was a pale young man Of one-hundrt
and ninety-four pounds burden, fit tyl
Of this degenerate day, and he, with
weakly eye on the fortunate nephew
his aunt, asked:
slow old is your aunt"
Seventy" answered Mr.. O'Clarenc
with exulting pride.
"a fine old age, said the young ma
" Has she any children"
give" said Mr.. 0'Clarence, prompt
" How old Is the eldest.
"Fifty-odd. y
"Fifty-odd, I" repeated the young ma
slowly. How much over fifty? -
.Ie is fifty.two, for certain, said M
0'Clarence in tone that implied he W
imparting some astonishing but gratifyil
information. s 81
A." Fifty-two, ell? and she is seventy
- A H. L.. II.