Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1886-03-13
A Word in Behalf of the Little Girls.
Lucy White Palmer, in Babyhood
WMamma. can't I do this 9N


mamma, can't | do this?"
ooh no, DEAR" in Mortified ac-
cents.
"But, mamma, Tom does, and /
want to. Why can't | mammal"
"Why, my dear, Tom is Il boy.
Little boys can do lots Of things that
it isn't nice for little girls to do, you
4. know"
And this system, often begun in
very infancy, is followed out till the
girl grows up into womanhood, either
accepting her trammels as matter
of course, or chatting vainly all the
way along, envying her brothers,
cherishing a deep-seated grudge
against old Dame Nature, and having
the thought which one girl at 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 en-
lightened 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
desire to, it is also equally true with
the exceptions admitted to all rules
that little girl can doalmost exactly
what little boy can, and she usual
ly wants to; and, further, if allowed
to, she generally will do it. If moth
ers will guide instead of thwart this
tendency, it will be vastly to the ben.
eft of their girls, and not at all to the
injury 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 identi,
cal up to certain age. Be not in toe
great hurry to impose upon you
little girl the burden of her sex. She
comes into the world a little, happy
free human being, caring not at al
whether she is a boy or girl, so Ions
as her divine and inalienable rights
of food, love, and good time gener
ally are not denied to her. God give
her life; do not you, because she is {
girl, curtail her liberty or forbid he
the pursuit of happiness in her owl
and Natures way. Things that ar,
mice" for a boy are mice" for hi
sister while both are little children
Thingsthatar "proper" fora healthy
active girlare usually justas proper
for healthy, active boy. 1t is mis-
taken notion that certain roughness
certain disregard of the proprieties
certain boisterous liberty, may b
allowed to our boys, because they ar
boys, when they are not permissibl
to our girls.
Would we have our girls rough an,
boisterous, then? BY no means. An
just as little should we have our boy
so. But we would have our boy
strong, athletic, fond of exercise; W
would let them run and climb, an
even shout, if circumference of the
spirits demanded it-all in the propt
time and place. We should not den
the same privileges to our girls, S
far as their strength allows them
take them. Some forms of exercis,
to be sure, such as jumping rope, rul
ming up and down stairs, and the lik,
are to be deprecated for girls. Man
mothers and physicians think thel
not desirable for boys. But if gi
goes fishing with her brother; if 81
can walk unweariedly; if she ca
climb a tree with as monkey-like f;
, cility; if she can drive nail straigl
: without detriment to her fingers, an
has a Yankee dexterity with a jacl
, knife; if in shooting she does NJ
have to aim behind her to hit som
thing in front of her-then she is bot
useful and happy girl. She is la,
ing up strength against the evil da.
. to come when so many women he'll
lessly capitulate to their "nerves
She is keeping her brother in pu
and more refining companionsh
- than any afforded by the rough vi
~ lage boys.