St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1886-03-18
IN BEHALF OF THE LITTLE GIRLS

"Mamma, can't do this 7"
"Oh no, DEAR" in Mortified accents.
"But, mamma, Tom does, and
want to. Why can't |, mamma 2"
"Why, my dear, Tom is a boy. Little
boys can do lots of things that it isn't
nice for little girls to do, you know"
And this system often begun in very
infancy, is followed out till the girl
grows up into wOmanhOOd, either ac-
cepting her trammels as matter of
course, or chatting vainly all the way
along, envying her brothers, cherish
ing a deep-seated grudge against old
Dame Nature, and having the thought
which one girl ut least expressed when
she said 81 fairly hate myself for
having been born a girl !" Girls in
heather lands may well feel this, but
when girls in enlightened Christian
countries feel SO something in their
training is awry.
Now, while it is true that large
girl in many respects cannot do as "a
large boy does, and usually has no de-
sire to, it is also equally true with
the exceptions admitted to all rules)
that little girl can do almost exactly
what a little boy can, and she usually
wants to and, further, if allowed to-,
she generally will do it. If mothers
will guide instead of thwart this ten
dency, it will be vastly to the benefit
of their girls, and not at all to the in
jury of their boys. There would seem
to be no good reason why the training
and education of girls and of boys
should not be essentially identical up
to certain age. Be not in too great
Il hurry to impose upon your little girl
the burdens of her sex. She comes
into the world little happy, free hui
man being, caring not ut all whether
she is boy or girl, so long as her di
vine and inalienable rights of food,
love, and IL good time generally are
not denied to her. God gives her life !;
do not you, because she is a girl, cur
tail her liberty or forbid her the pur-
suit of happiness in her own and ma
lures way. Things that are "nice" for
boy are "nice" for his sister while
both are little children. Things that
are proper for healthy, active girl
are usually just as "prOper" for a
healthy, active boy. 1t is Il mistake
notion that certain roughness, a GER
tain disregard of the prOprieties, GER
tain bOisterOus liberty, may be allow
ed to our boys, because they are boys,
when they are not permissible to our
girls.
Would we have our girls rough and
bOisterOus then? By no means. And
just as little should we have our boys
so. But we would have our boys
strong, athletic, fond of exercise we
would let them run and climb, and
even shout, if the exuberance of their
spirits demanded it-all in the proper
time and place. We should not deny
the same privileges to our girls, so far
as their strength allows them to take
them. Some forms of exercise, to be
sure, such as jumping rope, running
up and down stairs, and the like, are
to be deprecated for girls. Many moth
ers and physicians think them not de-
sirable for boys. But if girl goes
fishing with her brother if she can
walk as unweariedly if she can climb
IA tree with as monlley-like facility; if
she can drive nail straight without
detriment to her fingers, and has a
Yankee dexterity with a .jack-knife; if
in shooting she does not have to aim
behind her to hit something in front
of her-then she is both useful and IL
happy girl. She is laying up strength
against the evil days to come when SO
many women helplessly capitulate to
their "nerves" She is keeping her
brother in purer and more refining
cOmpaniOnship than any afforded by
the rough village boys Lucy White
Palmer, in BabyhOOd.