Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1878-01-09
A Good Word for Romping Girls.

Most women have a dread Of these.
Mothers would rather their little
daughters were called anything else
than romps. They say to them, "be
very quiet now. my dears, don't run or
jump, try and be little ladies'" Asifa
healthy child could be still; as if it
could take time to walk, or step over
what came in its way; as if it could
fold its hands in its lap when its little
heart is so brimful oftickle. 1t is alb
surd and wrong, becase it is unnatural.
Children, girls as well as boys need ex-
percise; indeed, they must have it to be
kept in healthy condition. They need
it to expand their chests, strengthen
their muscles, tone their nerves, devel-
op themselves generally.
And this exercise must be out of
doors, too. 1t is not enough to have
calisthenics in the nursery or parlor.
They need to be out in the sunshine,
out in the wind, out in the grass, out
in the woods, out OF doors somewhere.
if it be no bigger place than the COM
mon or park. Suppose they do tan
their pretty faces. Better be as brown
as berry, and have the pul g quick
and strong, than white as lily and
complain of cold feet and heaoache.
Suppose they do tear their clothes;
it don't try mothers patience and
strength half so much to patch and
mend rs it does to watch night after
night a querulous sick child, and it don't
drain n fathers pocket-book half rs
quick to buy shoes as it does to pay
doctors bills.
Indeed, we don't believe there is
prettier picture in all the wide world
than that Of little girl balancing her
self on the topmost rail of an old zig-zag
fence, her bonnet on one arm and a
basket of blackberries or the other, her
curls streaming out in the wind, or rip
pling over her flushed cheeks, her
apron half torn from her waist, and
dangling to her feet, her fingers stained
with the berries she had picked, and
her lips with those she had eaten.
Mother, mother, dent scold that little
creature when she comes and puts her
basket on the table and looks rucfully
at the rent in the new gingham apron,
and ut the little bare toes sticking out
of the last pair of shoes. Wash off her
hot face and soiled hands, and give her
bowl of cool milk and light bread, and
when she has eaten her fill and got
rested, make her sit down beside you
and tell what she has seen off in those
meadows and woods.
Her heart will be full Of beautiful
things-the sound Of the wind, the fall
of the leaves, the music of the wild
birds and the laugh of wild flowers, the
rippling of streams and the color Of
pebbles, the shade of the clouds and
the hue of the sunbeams---all those
will have woven their spell over her in
nocent thoughts, and made her a poet
in feeling if not in expression.
No, mothers, don't nurse up your
little girls like house-plants. The daugh-
tiers Of this generation are to be the
mothers of the next, and if you would
have them healthy in body and gentle
in temper, free from nervous affections,
fidgets and blues; if you would fit them
for life-its joys, its cares, and its trials
let them have good romp every day
while they are growing. 1t is natures
own specific, and, if taken in season,
warranted to cure ais of the girl and
the wOmen.-1nOn.