Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1877-07-05
Helena, Montana, Thursday, July 5, 1877.
Our Girls the Salvation Of society.
From the Toledo Commercial ]

OuE CIAflS the O01V0t1On Oh society,"
From the Toledo Commercial.]
This title probably suggests to the reader q
discourse on the frivolous character, vani
ties eXtravagances and follies of our young
women; but we know too much of oul
young men and all other men for that To
use the phraseology of one of the frivolous
sports in which our men spend great deal
of money, our young men can ''discount "
our young women in frivolities and extrava.
gance. And the male extravaganza is much
more in the line of personal and mere ami
NAL indulgence, and in the greater part has
not the defense that can be given for what is
called extravaganza in female dress. This
in large degree is for the qualification Of her
friends; is desired by her family, and is re-
quired by the custom of the society in which
she moves; but the man can make no such
plea for his indulgence in cigars, drinks,
extra suppers, billiards, fast horses, sprees
and so on.
The cost of all these mere animal indul-
gences to the average young man and mar
ried man of the same society is very much
greater than the cost of female dress. And
this is qualification of taste for the beauti-
full, which gives pleasure not only to the
wearer, but to all. On the other land, what
is there that is beautiful in these masculine
indulgences. How many of them are not
positively offensive? Some of them, instead
of making the man a thing of beauty, and a
pleasing object to look upon, make him
nasty, give him dirty mouth. diffuse bad
around him wherever he goes.
| We do not start in to give lecture on mas
culine habits or vices, but these few obser-
vations seem necessary to meet the hack
neyed charge of the vanity and extravaganza
of female dress.
Society expects our women to make them
selves beautiful in Dress 1t requires q CO.'S
| tune whose fashion is work of fine art and
much labor, and whose materials are beauti-
full to the eye. And the custom of society
enfOrces form of dress which subjects it to
rapid wear, and imposes much expense to
| keep it clean. And then men. whose expense
in the indulgence of coarse appetite in ex-
tras is more than that of we'll dressed wo-
men for clothes, rail at women for extrava-
gance and vanity in dress.
Our girls are doing more for the improve
ment of society and for the preservation of
all our moralizing influences than our boys.
The daughter is, in general, joy of the
household, while the average son finds most
of his pleasure outside the household, and is
more apt to be cause of parental appre-
hension than joy.
Our girls during school years, are not so
expensive in dress as our boys; and their ex-
emption from expensive !ndulgences enables
them to continue at school after those years
when our boys have acquired such expensive
habits that they have to leave school and go
to business to support them or else their fast
habits that have given them a feeling of
contempt for education. And so our girls
remain at school on the average several years
longer than our boys, and are better educa-
ted, better fitted for society, and better quail
flied to train the future generation. AS
natural sequence to this better education at
school, our girls are they who preserve what
ever means of intellectual cultivation are fol-
lowed after the school years. But for our
girls these would have no existence.
Whatever there are of the so-called accom-
plishments that grace the household and add
to the pleasures of home, such as reading,
music, ornamental and useful work, are &C.
quired only by our girls. Who expects our
boys to acquire any quality to add to the at
fractions of home? The associations of
nearly all kinds for mental improvement and
cultivation of the accomplishments, are kept
Sunday schools, as in the secular schools, the |
greater number in all the advanced classes |
are girls. Our girls naturally grow up to be |
religious, while our boys naturally grow up |
to be the other thing. Our women thus con-
stitute the great part of the church member
ship, while our men have mostly sort of |
left-hand connection with the church, if any
connection at all.
The early emigration to the West on the
parallels of New England brought many
young men of education, just starting out in
life, who came West to grow up with the
country. These, and the wives which they
soon sent back to get, formed cultivated
society in primitive country. The circum-
stances of the country made education less
appreciated by the next generation than it
was in that part from which the parents came.
The pursuit of wealth became the sole idea,
and the indulgence of the appetite was more
thought of than education. The sons of the
next generation did not keep up the educa-
tional standard Of their fathers. The rising
generation of boys of the present times does
not promise to restore that standard. But
our girls are doing it. Their pursuit of edu-
cation is making it to be more appreciated,
and is working up a standard which will in
lime make education requisite to admission
10 good society. Thus our girls are the SAL
Vation of society, as we'll as the joy of the
family.
COnklinE and Eyarts.
(Washingto.s Dispatch to the Ihter-Ocean.]
Senator Conkling, who was lately here for
our days, procured his passport for Europe
through subordinates of the State Department,
IS his relations with Evarts precluded per-