Morning journal and courier., 1885-09-07
COMMUNICATIONS
ssOur Gfrls.,,

To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER: A communication signed "Pater" appeared in your issue of August 31 on the above subject. Will you publish another article which may throw some light on the ques- tion?
 The solution herewith presented is not a new one, yet it has received but too little thought.
 The character, habits and tastes of the
 girls of any age is subject which is of the
 | utmost importance, and yet how compara- lively little attention it receives from parents
 and others having young persons under their
 care. We find in most cases that girls after reaching the age of fourteen fifteen are left almost entirely to their own inclinations and discretion as to what books they shall read, what companionships they shall form,
 how they shall spend their time generally, and are allowed to grow up about as they please.
 My first suggestion is, therefore, that girls do not receive the parental advice and train ing that they need. I do not mean that
 parents ara wilfully negligent, but they
 make the mistake of thinking that their chil-
 dren arc wise enough to take care of them
 l selves, when such is not the case. My sec
 ond thought is that 'our girls"read too many
 of the light popular novels of the present
 day; it is unnecessary to name books belong
 ! ing to this class, they well known,
 alas, that to mention titles would be super
 fuous. A generation ago books of this stamp were comparatively unknown, bat now the country is flooded with them, hun dreds are published every year and nearly every young girl has number at her com mand.
 Perhaps but few are positively immoral, (some are certainly sol but they nearly all present life in a distorted and untrue man ner, the plots are often of the most exciting character and the pictures presented are over drawn and unreal The influence of books of this nature on uniformed characters is tre- mendous.
 What is the result?' ''Our girls" get false ideas of life and it's responsibilities and be- come restless and uneasy because their ex- periences are not so exciting or romantic as those with which they are familiar in novels; they do not themselves often realize that this is the cause of their unhappiness, but such is the fact; also their minds are filled with thoughts of fashions, parties, gentlemen, so- ciety and matrimony at an age when they should know little and think less on such themes.
 "Pater' asks where the responsibility restsa It certainly rests on the parents who thus neglect their children, letting them fol low their own bent; they to blame; their children do not mean to act unwisely, but do so through ignorance.
 Occasionally we meet true, noble girls
 Qike oases in the desert), who seem to realize that life is something more than butterfly existence, girls who by right use of books, l studies, companions and home life are pre- | pairing for real usefulness in life. The pa-
 rents of the present day must awake and give their daughters that advice and training which they so much need. It should not be tyranical treatment, for ''the best govern ment is often that which governs the least, J but by kind, loving admonitions and right examples, our girls will grow into noble women. OBSERVER.