The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1885-04-11
Our Girls.


Our Girls by saying that it is fact
whether people want to admit it or
not, that children are not as welcome
as they used to be. Too many pa.
rents hayn't the time to care for
them.
You can recall families of your &C.
quaintance where the parents hayn't
time to raise their children properly.
They look after them during their
infancy as a matter of necessity,
clothe them as matter of decency.
and let them run whatsoever they
will as matter of convenience. 1t
may be saying too much that every
one can recall such cases, but almost
every one can who is ordinarily OBJ
servant.
In olden times it was a parents
pride to raiG2 children in such a way
as to make them a credit to their
name and valuable acquisition to
society. The father who left behind
him an honorable and industrious
son left more to the world than he
who built a church or endowed col
lege. The mother who trained and
educated daughter in all that per-
tains to the true woman gave to So
ciety and to civilization far more
than a Rachel, Mrs. Siddons or
Patti.
1t is a bother for a business man
to look after his boys and see that
they are surrounded with proper in
tluenceS. He hasn't time to talk to
them or listen to their talk. His
business requires all his time, so he
bundles them off to a school some
where and pays man to look after
them. He finds he has more comfort
at home without them. Things are
quieter when they are away, for boy
is but another name for noise.
Such men may make money by
sending their boys away, but too of,
ten it proves as curseful as ill-gotten
gain. They forget that there is as
much skill in handling money as in
making it.
The boys, instead of being taught
in the fathers practical school, how
to make and take care ofmoney, only
learned in the theoretical boarding
school how to spend it.
So many men are ambitious to
leave a fortune and a name. The
latter they strive to paint high up on
the political fence or some of the dead
walls of fame, and the former flashes
in the eyes of the groundlings from
every side.
What better name can they leaye
than that borne by son, and what
better fortune than u thriving DusI-
ness .?
Girls are different.
Yes, that's so, but there is, or at
least there used to be way of bring
ing them up so they were profitable
to society and to the world at large.
In other days it was the custom
9or mothers to teach their daughters
the domestic arts and fit them for the
active duti IS of life, There are moth
ers Lying now who considered them
selues untitled to marry until they
had masteredsthe art of spinning,
sewing, cooking and housekeeping.
They would have been ashamed to
have it known among their acquaint-
anc es that they had no bed quilts of
their own quilting, no blankets of
their own spinning and that they
were not competent to make their
own wedding cake and COOK the tur-
key.
So they have, and greatly, too
Whether for the better or not is an.
other matter, yet none the less i'm
portant. That was a practical age.
Then people felt. it a duty to earn
what they got. A man without an
occupation useful to society, or wo-
man who couldn't take a hand in
the household duties as well as at
the piano or -euchre, were regarded
as 'aristOcracy,' and played very
small part in affairs of the day.
In China and other of the old coun-
tries, they kill girl babies or sell them
as slaves, because they can make no
good use of them. Who knows but
this country may have to resort to
this sometims-say few thousand
years hence? Girls say they would
sooner die than live to be old maids,
and young men claim they cannot ar
ford to marry until they get rich, be-
cause wives are such expensive luxu-
ries.
Well, what are you going to do
about it.
Oh, nothing.
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