Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1888-03-15
GIRLS As THEY WERE.
4 Glance Back Over Two or Three Decades
The Books They Once Read.

4 Glance Back over Two or Three Decades
The Books They Once Read.
There was kind of literature much
I'm vogue some two or three decades
ago which seems To have entirely
ceased la be-to have indeed no longer
any reason for being 1t belonged to
She time when there was great faith in
genius, pure aud simple, great pity
for the pseudo miseries Of highly-strmg
sensitive souls: when calm cheerful
Irving even was charmed By tie mus
Teal plants of Margaret and Lucretia
Davidson: when Poe bemoancd "a
radiant maiden whom the angels
named LenOre:' when Mrs. Iemans
asked all manner Of depressing, imam
sworablc questions; Mrs. Sigourney
reused soft gentle pity for q rosebud
which would never be % rose, aud eyes
that to-day read Howells and James
through glasses then were often wet
with tears for soldier Of the Legion
who lay dying in Algiers.
Side by side with this literature Of
sentiment and romance grew up and
flOurished more practical one spec
tally designed for tho young girls Of
the time. The girls for whom those
books were written are many of them
here to-day, and the Easy Chair is
confident that so long as they hold sa-
cred the memories of the givers the
books they gave will not be forgotten.
| They generally bore such titles as
Letters to a Daughter ITO Young
I Lady Leaving School, The Young
Lady Friend, - The Young Lady at
/ Home etc.
They held great deal of good,
/ practical advice on everyday behavior
| and small duties; they were amusingly
realistic in their counsels relative to
the toilet the number Of strokes to be
1 given TO the hair night and morning.;
| the hygienic value of cold bathing,
1 and numerous kindred topics; but the
| gjst of all Of them was i'm the last two
| or three chapters. These always held
an earnest appeal to the Young de-
| butants whether wise or foolish, mcr-
| ~ or pensive, to put aside the all-pre-
yailng fallacy that their educat.ons
were finished. They were admonished
( that though they had left school (tney
| rarely graduated in those days. they
/ had yet much to learn Their deep
\ and varied knowledge was not ques-
tIoued their dancing and music We're
/ admired; but ey were earnestly be-
sought TO remember Lady Jane Grey,
/ to think of the sister of Hcrscacl and
/ kindred lofty souls, and to determine
| not 90 end their studies with their
school life. a course of reading was
mapped out generally one of dreary
intellectually.
They were warned against the read
! ing of novels. advised TO temperance
in poetry; charged not to LET home
! pleasures, or social claims (thcy were
not digniied as society duties theu)
/ interfere Aith or hinder the develop
ment OF their minds. O me! how long
it seems, all this period of delicious
self-cOutdence which awakened the
pity of the wiser, elder souls; that time
of serene abstraction when a warning
word was thought necessary to prove
to a whole generation of maideus the
amazing fact that they had not learned
everything How different the stand
point of to-aay, when every girl seems
to measure her good-for-some-thing-
ness by tie number of classes she be-
longs to. and her right to have Il good
time in the ballroom at night by the
number Of studies she pursues in the
day.
If housekeeping and plain sewing
were thought dangerous rivals TO the
study and pursuit OF knowledge they
must have had attractions then which
dancing, visiting, or tHe opera wholly
lack. To-day it would almost seem
that to the much misrcprescEted So
ciety girl the supreme delight Of each
week is found in her French. her Ger
man, her spelling no. NO, mean her
literature and art classes-o lille all
Der so-cailcd amusemcuts are merely
diversions planned to rest and refresh
her faded mind after the DAYS labor.
Perhaps ii is only fad IKE venture
work, a fashion like decorative art,
and many another fancy which has
ruled and died.
Perhaps very few girls really do
study, or perhaps all the things which
the clever elderly men and women say,
with seeming malice but with real
interest and sympathy, about the
Young people of to-day are true But
the Easy Chair loves to think that the
standards of culture are all higher
than formerly. and that both mothers
and daughters have learnt to oder
their living in ways that admit more
time for study and moro incentive 70
mental progress and intellectual
work than hitherto, and that perhaps
IN some dimly-recoguzed way all this
growth and bIossoming of to-day may
nave terminated in those same old
fashioned books it has been speaking
of.-Neg orleans PjcayuR6.