The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1880-05-27


I can dress her so much finer than Icould
a boy" O woman ! woman to what
depths of degradation you have sunk
when you can look into the face of a
baby lying in your lap,-the face of a
child that God has given you to train for
the service of earth and the glory OF
heaven, and have such thought as that
find moments lodgementin your mind
The pity oft, the pity of it, that children
should ever be given to such women 1t
is one of the inscrutable things of Provi-
dence. What can such woman do but
destroy the souls of her children?
l do not think that the girls, or their
mothers, are wholly to blame for this ab-
sorbing devotion to dress. The vanity
of women is stimulated by the fool
ishness of men. A young woman who
is modestly and plainly clad is much less
likely to attract the notice of young men
than one who is gorgeously arrayed.
From bright, intelligent, finely cultured,
sensible girls, whose chief adorning is not
the adorning of braided hair, or golden or
naments, or of gay clothing, the young
men often turn away in quest of some
creature all glittering in silks and jewel.
ry, with dull mind and selfish heart.
But beseech you 10 remember, girls, that
young man who cares for nothing but
"style" in a woman is young man whose
admiration you can we'll afford TO 90
without. If fthat is all he cares for in
you, YOU cannot trust his fidelity; when
you and your fnery have faded, some bird
in gayer feathers than you are wearing
will easily entice him away from you, and
the sacred ties of marriage and parentage
will prove no barrier to his wayward fan
cies. The girl who catches husband by
fine dress too often finds that the prize
she has won is a broken heart.
Another mistake that many of our girls
are making is in devoting too much of
their time to novel-reading. The reading
of an occasional novel of pure and health
full tone may be not only an innocent di-
version, but good mental stimulant !;
but the reading of the lighter sort of nov
els (Which, if they do not teach bad NOR
ality, do represent life in morbid and
unreal light, and awaken cravings that
never can be satisied), and the reading
of one or two or three of them in week,
as is the common habits of many of our
girls, must prove grievously injurious to
their minds and hearts. 1t is mental dis
sipation of a very dangerous sort; its in
fuence is more insidious than, but I
am not sure that it is not quite as fatal
to character as, the habitua1 use of strong
drink. Certainly the mental dissipation
of novel-reading is vastly more preva-
lent than the other sort Of dissipation,
not only in "the best society,"" but in the
second best, as we'll; and FIVE womens
lives are ruined by the one where one
life is wrecked by the other. Ruined"
do say? Yes; no weaker word tells
the whole truth. This intemperate crav-
ing for sensational fiction weakens the
mental grasp, destroys the love of good
reading and the power of sober and ra-
tional thinking, takes away all relish
from the realities of life, breeds discon-
tent and Incidence and sel6shness, and
makes the one who is addicted to it
weak, frivolous, petulant, miserable be.
ing. I see girls all around me in whom
these results are working themselves out
steadily and fatally.
Another mistake which our girls are
making-or which their parents are
maxim g-is too early initiation into the
excitements and frivolities of what is
called society. 1t was formerly the rule
for girls to wait until their school-days
were over before they made their appear
ance in fashionable society. At what
age, let us inquire, does the average
young lady of our cities now make her
debut? From my observations, I should
answer it at about the age of three. They
are not older than that when they beginto
20 to children's parties, for which
they are dressed as elaborately as
they would be for fancy ball. From
this age onward they are never out of So
ciety; by the time they are six or eight
years old they are members of clubs, and
spend frequent evenings out, and the de-
mands of social diversion and display
multiply with their years.
"It seems to me-" writes another, "that
one prominent defect in our modern
training of girls is undue haste in max
ing them society young ladies, and culti-
waiting fondness for admiration by lav.
ish display of dress. Before leaving the
nursery, many child does penance by
being made figure OH which vain
mamma may crafty her taste in elegant
fabrics and exquisite laces to be exhibi-
ted at fashionable children's party.
This trait easily becomes controlling
one, aud girls scarcely in teens, with the
blaze manner of q woman of the world
will scan lady's dress, tell you at once
the quality of the material, the rarity of
the laces, the value of the jewels-even
venture an opinion whether or not it be
one of Worth's latest designs, showing
what apt scholars they have become"
am sure that the early contact of our
girls with the vanities and the insinceri.
ties and the exctements of social life
is doing a great injury to many Of them.
Girls Of from twelve to sixteen years of
age, who ought to be in bed every night
at nine o'clock, are out at parties till
midnight, and sometimes later, thus de-
stroying their health and keeping their
Young heads filled with thoughts which
are not conducive to healthy mental or
moral growth.
And as tor the children's parties to
which my correspondents apply words OF
such severity, l cannot conceive any
thing more hurtful than they are, in the
way that they are generally managed.
If a little company of children could be
brought together in the afternoon or in
the early evening, all plainly dressed, SO
that they might romp and play to their
hearts content and take no thoug lit for
their raiment-if they could be healthi-
ly fed, and wisely amused, with no resort
to kissing games, and no suggestion of
beaux-that would be innocent enough;
but to dress these children in silks and
laces, in kid gloves and kid slippers with
frizzed hair and jewelry-to parade them
up and down the drawing-rooms for the
foolish mothers who are in attendance to
comment on their dresses in their hearing,
saying, 80, you dear little thing! How