Louisiana capitolian. (Baton Rouge, La.) 1879-1881, 1881-06-02
THE OLD FASHIONED GIRL.

THE OLD FASHIONED GIRL.
She fourished thirty or forty years
ago She was little girl until she was
fifteen. She used to help her mother
wash the dishes and keep the kitchen
tidy, and she had an ambition to make
pies so nicely that papa could not tell
the difference between them and
mammals, and yet she could fry griddle
cakes at ten years of age, aud darn her
own stockings before she was twelve,
to say nothing of knitting them her
self.
She had her hours Of play and enjoy
ed herself to the fullest extent. She had
no very costly toys to be sure, but her
rag doll and little bureau and chair that
Uncle Tom made were just as valuable
to her as the $50 wax doll and elegant
doll furniture the children have now
a-days.
She never said 81 can't" and 81 don't
want to-" to her mother, when asked to
leave her play, or run up stairs or on an
errand, because she had not been
brought up in that way. Obedience
was q cardinal virtue in the old fashion
ed little girl.
She arose in the morning when she
was called, and went opt in the garden
and saw the dew on the grass, and If
she lived in the country she fed the
chickens and hunted up the eggs for
breakfast.
We do not suppose she had her hair
in curl papers or crimping pins, OF had
it "bangel" over her forehead, aud her
| tlounces were no trouble to her.
She learned to sew by making patch
work, and we dare say she could do an
"over-and-over" seam as well as nine
tenths ofthe grown up women Of now
a-days,
The old-fashioned little girl did not
grow into young lady and talk about
beaux before she was in her teens, and
she did not read dime novels, and was
not tancying hero in every plow-boy
she met.
She learned the solid accomplishments
as she grew up, She was taught the
arts of cooking and housekeeping.
When she got a husband she knew how
| to cook him dinner.
She was not learned in French verbs
or Latin declensions, and her near neigh
bors were spared the agony of hearing
her pound out "The Maiden's Prayer
and "Silver Threads Among the Gold"
twenty times day on the piano, but
we have no doubt she made her compa-
ny quite as comfortable as the modern
young lady does hers.
1t may be vulgar assertion, and we
suppose that we are not exactly up with
the times, but we honestly believe, and
our opinion is based on considerable ex-
perience and no small opportunity tor
observation, that when it comes to keep
ing family happy good cook and
housekeeper is to be greatly preferred
above an accomplished scholar. When
both sets Of qualities are found together,
as they sometimes are, then is the house
hold over which such a woman has con-
troll blessed.
The old fashioned little girl was mod
est in her demeanor, and she never talk
ed slang Or used bywords. She did not
laugh at old people or make fun Of Grip
pies as we saw some modern little girls
doing the other day. She had respect
for her elders and was not above listen
inc to words of counsel from those older
than herself.
She did not think she knew as much
as mother, and that her Judgment was
as good as grandmother's.
She did not go to parties by the time
she was ten, and stay till after midnight
PLAYING euchre and dancing with any
chance young man who happened to be
present. She went to bed ia season and
doubtless said her prayers before she
went, and slept the sleep Of innocence,
and rose up in the morning happy and
capable of giving happiness.
And if there be an old fashioned little
girl in the world to-day, may heaven
bless her and keep her, and raise her up
| like her.
Jay Gould makes on an average Sc, 000,-
600 year. This will see him through