Smyrna times., 1882-07-19
Our Girls.
BY MARION HARLAND.

This sentence lies uppermost in al
open letter upon my table: "Oul
daughter is in her eighteenth year
She has been delicate until within ;
few months but seems at present quite
strong. Her i'll health has interfereC
seriously with her studies. OF course
at her age, it is impossible to send hel
to school. Her manifest destiny is tc
marry early and make some man a
capital wife and hOusekeeper."
A petted, siekly, ignorant child. who
has not resolution enough at seventeen
to repair defects in her scholastic train.
ing good for nothing but marriage
This is the translation of the above.
Heaven help the men tonight p
says Lady Betty, smirking at hel
image in the mirror, bedight for the
evening foray.
l take up the words solemnly and
sadly. Heaven help the men and ma
ton, when of such material, and OF
stuff even more flimsy, are to be made
the wives of the rising race-the moth
ers of the next!
The proposition that she is best able
to live alone, to control herself and
mold circumstances to work together
for her good, is also-other things
being equal-best fitted for happy.
beneficent wifehood, appears simple
enough to be grasped by the average
intellect. 1t is my conviction, founded
upon years of critical observation, that
she who thinks of love as the business
OF girl-life, and of marriage as its aim
and end; whose intercourse with the
other sex is cOlored by those views
and expectations; is the last woman
any rational man should we'd. Join
to this belief that the prevalence of
this habit of thought and purpose de-
bases the standard of both womanhood
and manhood in our country. From
honest intolerance with 1t are born the
eccentricities in the language and con-
duct of many pure, noble women stig-
matized as strong minded" for the
lack of more apt classification.
" ] am aweer, my dear boy" says
Magwitch to Pip in Great Expecta-
tiOns," THAT on that occasion I was
IOaC ?"
The coarse triumph of g vulgar
nature merited the epithet less decid-
edly than does the attitude our bows.
our young women, occupy with respect
to one another. We have not time
now for the analytical consideration of
the question as to the part the impulse
of selfprotection plays in inducing the
" herding" treated of in a former paper.
Every sportsman knows that over
much and untimely hunting makes
game shy and wild.
Who wants to make game Ofthem?"
breaks in a fresh young VOICE at my
elbow. q" Look now at me-personally
and individually-myself! am not
husband-hunter, do not care to get
married for ages! But l do like to
converse with sensible men, and to
have a good time with the boys. It
may sound frivolous, but | relish inpo-
cent frolic. Sleighing and lawn tennis
and boating parties and the like. If 1.
smile twice at the same man he thinks
l want to "catch him ~ The code of
the parloF is no higher IN this respect
than that of the kitchen. Bridget does
not "belave in followers without they
name business"
Accepting this very personal myself
as the mouthpiece of a class who have
o right to a hearing, ! say first No
of misoonoeption of your mo-
tives alters the truth that our social as
our domestic atmosphere is what
women make it. And If our best
women give over the attempt to refine
and reform men, they will become
Turks and Yahoos. Next: Respect
yourself-body and spirit. There is
untold might of influence in the fear
less purity of a nature that, having no
affinity for evil, passes it unconsciously
by. Smile as brightly as you please;
enjoy sensible talk and harmless fun,
and be as happy with the boys as the
Lord meant you and them to be
together. But, from first to last, never
forget that your duty to them and to
yourself demands that both shall be
better for the association. If mans
work is like that of the more majestic
forces of nature-tides and glaciers
and stormy winds fulfilling His word,
yours is the gradual but potent minis
try of dews and showers and sunlight,
Regard and regulate the dFift Of little
things, the thistledown of thought and
action. Go to your needle and knit