The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1888-03-30
A GIRLS EDUCATION.
l.. @. Moulton Thinks It's Object Should
Be to Make an Earnest Woman.

Be to Make an Earnest Woman.
think girls education begins at the
cradle, writes Louise Chandler Moulton.
Who can say how early she discerns what
she has no speech to utter-sees, for in
stance, whether the persons around heI
are self-controlled, patient and sweet, OF
the sad reversed wonder how many
months old n girl must be before she
would know whether or not she was treat
cd capriciously whether she was refused
a thing when mamma was in one humoI
and granted the same thing when mamma
was in another humor. Do you think q
little maid of three or four fails to notice
what are your chief interests in life,
whether you are most eager about your
clothes, or your books or your housekeep-
ing. Does she not perceive whether the
poor relation who comes to visit you Is
welcomed as warmly rs Mrs. Crnsus, who
drives TO your door in well appointed
carriage2 In short, though this little dam
sci has no power TO reason she has keen
eyes TO see, and your own attitude toward
life and liie's demands will be educating
her, whether you are aware OF it or not,
even from her cradle.
We cannot veil our insinccrities from
these clear, young eyes. They will know
no one whether we are serving
God or mammon. No matter what We
preach, il is our practice which Is our gos-
pei. The responsibility, when we stop to
think Of it, is terrible.
II seems TO me that to make our girls
sincere Is, TO begin with, the very best
thing we can do for them. know certain
people so thoroughly addicted to posing
that they actually lose sight OF their own
true selves. How startled would they be
II, as in the old legend, they should meet
their unclothed souls face 10 face and see
how cramped and delormed they were!
The world il full OF insinceuty and afiec-
taiion. People are seldom so frank rs was
Darwin when lac wrote, in the latter part
OF his life, that poetry, even Shakespeare,
bored him intolerably, and that he had no
longer any pleasure in music. Most peo-
pie follow the mode OF the time, even in
their enthusiasts. They like what IL is
the fashion TO like, and applaud what is
foreign 10 their taste or beyond their com
prehension just az rapturously ~ il It's
every shade OF meaning were intimate to
them would not have our daughters
brought up 10 pay any such tribute money
to the world. Why should they waste
time in pretending TO interests they do not
feel when life is all too short in which 10
cultivate the interests which are genuine.
let us try 30 make our daughters not
only sincere, but thorough. have known
such tragic instances Of girls who have
been what II IL the fashion TO call well
educated, who-bcing suddenly thrown on
their own resources discovered that they
did not know a single branch OF study
thoroughly enough TO teach il; q single &c.
complshment well enough TO earn an
honest penny by means Of IL. The abso-
lutte hclplessness Of so-called well educated
girls Is something pathetic. A friend OF
mine wrote 10 me the other day concern
ing the three daughters OF a well known
woman novelist, whose pen Is her fortune.
"What will these girls do, she said,
when their mother dies? They have no
Inheritance 10 depend upon, nothing laid
up, and when that busy brain stops, what
is 10 become Of these three, who don't
know n single thing well enough 10 get a
living by H. and yet arc accustomed TO
living 40 well?'
II seems 10 me that the possible need TO
be sclfsupporiing should enter into the
scheme OF every girls education7 The
wheel OF fortune turns remorsclessly, and
II Is not alone in the wonderful picture OF
Burne Jones that IL arrives to the bcggar
TO set his foot upon the head Of the King.
II Is part OF that sincerity in which /
desire that our daughters should be
brought up that they should be taught 10
regard the real values Of life rather than lis
artificial standards. There is honor and
not dishonor in making our lives useful 10
the world. II Is on idlcneS. rather than
on industry, that one should look down"