The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1875-07-29
For our Girls.
ByJ. H. Acton.-No. 1.

Girls don't be foolish, for Solomon
says foolishness belongs to children.
Decorate your persons, curl your hair, !
preserve your compilations, and look
your prettiest, for there is open to you
all beautiful pathway into the highest
culture and most charming graces, but 1t
is not over the shrine of a simpering
pride, nor through the groves dedicated
to the idol worship of Baal.
There is place for you and the world
to-day calls you to fill it. No demand in
this age is greater than for women; beau
tiful, refined, strong women; and women
can be made only from girls. A femi-
nine man is a monstrosity and mascu-
may bear with feminine man while he
remains the exception to the rule,
though this will be with many groans
and under a general protest, but it will
never tolerate a masculine woman. Ma
ture herself comes to the rescue and pro-
tests against this class. Don't try to
look and act like boys, for you will find
it hard enough to fill the sphere allotted
you where most helps and encourage
ments are provided, and be assured, no
machinery is yet invented which will
successfully make boy out of girl
Never forget, while the ripple you are to
create in the great ocean of time may be
less boisterous and at present less no.
ticeable than that of your big brother, it
will yet catch more silvery sunshine and
reach farther into the future. God made
you for higher purpose than he did our
boys. Good women can never be the
mudsills of society, they may be its cap
stones. Adam might have loved his gar
den alone all the same, but the flowers
and vines needed the tender care of
more delicate fingers He was sent a
help-meet for the same reason that the
oak. and maple, and poplar, are not left
alone. These are provided with leaves
and blossoms as well as sturdy trunk,
and it is through these leaves and bios
SONS that the golden fruit is given to the
world. The great moral fruits of life
grow nowhere without the pressure of
good women. Your life is the highest
earthly life, and the loftiest ornaments
on the great temple of human society can
be placed only by your hand Every
great reform must hold the name of
woman. Her work crowns all the great
forests of art and literature and mechan-
les grown by the steady stroke of mems
genius, and like beautiful leaves and
buds and blossoms it adorns the whole
with that luxuriance and wealth of good
which the world admires, and without
which all the great achievements of men
become useless as the Pyramids, and
voiceless as the tombs of ancient princes.
If you fail to. fill your place there is
no other for you. Men may recede from
stage to stage downward, and yet seem
for time to have an honorable place
among life's actors, but woman, once los
ing her footing on the pinnacle of the
temple is dashed upon the stones of the
gutter. Ceasing to be an angel of light,
she can become only fiend of darkness.
You can never crowd out of your sphere
without losing that polish which has
fitted you for it, and taking on that
roughness which units for every other
Nature will never abandon her claim up
on you, and her cry everywhere is,
woman or nothing
Your peace can be won by brain and
soul wealth but not bought. You may
weigh great deal in your own estima-
ton, but your estimation is not the crl-
terra of human judgment abroad. Life
has her own balances. AS sheep, sooner
scales and weighed for the market. A
few men may seek in this mart ribbons
and founees, but the speculation is a
dangerous one, and attracts no capital.
The majority will bid for character only.
Bad men never admire bad women any
more than good men do. Speculation in
a lady's wardrobe must always be on
margin so small, that the great majority
of such risks will utterly fail. Wooden
women can be seen nicely dressed at the
shops free of cost, and without license.
Sheep are sometimes sold for their fine
coverings, but women seldom, save to
such as are themselves bankrupt in
clothing decency, and brains. Men
know this, and while this class may be
their choice for picnic Irritation or a
dance, they generally seek
quite different class when they choose
a companion for the great tread-mill of
life. The wings of butterflies rub off,
and wasps carry an ugly sting.
Your place is conditional 1t is so
now and will be more hereafter. You
should not be blamed for wanting to
marry, but don't deny it. 1t is not rea-
sonable any one should believe it, and it |
will save breath. You will have none to |
spare; life is a race and grows swifter
with the years. Your husbands level |
must become yours. If he is to be q
gambler, you are only gamblers wife.
If he is a drunkard, you are only a |
wife. You cannot plead your
early home, and education, and assooia-
TONS in the ears of the heartless mass. |