Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-08-04
THE AMERICAN GIRL.
WHAT SHE HAS BEEN, WHAT SHE Is
AND WHAT SHE WILL BE.
Many Maids of Many Minds Pen-Pictured
by Miss Carol CONSIDERATIONS
Types of Girls.
Written for the SUNDAY UNION, /

Written for the SUNDAY UNION
Beauty, thou wild fantastic ape
Who dost in every country change thy shape;
Here black, here brown, there tawny and there
white;
Thou fiatterer, who compliest with every sight,
Thou hast no certain what nor where.
The first distinctively American girl
type is one that cannot be comprehended
by this generation, because she was born of
conditions which are out of existence. In
her day men and women did the work of
modern machinery, and her time was so
engaged in household pursuits she had lit
tie chance to acquire accomplishments.
She rose at five o'clock to prepare break
fast, and generally, while the family ate it,
would milk several cows The dairy work
was then to look after the making of both
butter and cheese. The usual bed making,
sweeping, ETC., was expected to be done by
$50, and cold lunch, with bucket of
homemade root beer, sent out to the field
hands. From 10 to II o'clock she would
spin or weave, either of them harder work
than any done by women. in these times,
and at ii cook dinner for twenty or more
workmen, blowing long tin horn at noon
time. She made big patches of bread and
pies to bake in a brick oven, which was at
proper temperature when she could hold
her hand In the oven and count twenty.
The washing of clothes all on a wash
board was a hard days work out of each
week. Ofafternoons she spun more again,
making blankets, bed-spreads of gay colors
from yarn spun and dyed by herself, cloth
for mems wear and "linsey" and mixed
wool and flax goods for herself On
Wednesday her "young man" came on
horseback to take her to singing-school
His own sister MIXED the cows in his
home, SO he went early and helped his
sweetheart, taking supper with her fam
lily. She wore her best dress then-a
calico-which she had paid for at the set
tlement store with feathers from her own
geese or butter from her own pet COW. Her
young mans saddle had an extension
called a pillion. He mounted first, took
one of her hands, she set one foot on his
in the stirrup, and up she went on the
pillion, keeping her seat by holding on to
his waist On Sunday this experience
was repeated for church, always held then
in the afternoon so the hard workers might
traverse new roads by daylight and have
time to visit with acquaintance.
The old-time girl had little education,
and her sweethearts first gift was usually
a New Testament, next q locket, with
sample of his hair Merrymakings con-
sisted of quilting bees, corn huskings and
apple parings in the fall, candy-pullings
in spring at close of maple sugar making.
Her accomplishments were considered the
amount of work she could do particularly
the fineness of her spun yarn, which re-
quired long, swift run of twenty feet and
a steady pull on the roll of WOOL
"No mortal tongue can half their beauty tell,
For none but hands divine could work so we'll"
As the forests gave way to well-kept
farms, increasing commerce put cloths
within easy reach, immigration consumed
country supplies and enabled farmers TO
buy many things they had heretofore been
compelled to make at home.
THE DELICATE GIRL.
Women had become disgusted with so
much hard work, and with mothers in
stinct to spare their offspring, decided that
the daughters should never work as they
had done. The daughter grew up to think
housework vulgar, and went to the most
distant extreme in trying to attain a re-
hnement toward which the instinct of all
women leads them. Her idea was false,
inasmuch as idleness and ignorance were
her models of gentility. 1t was fashion
able tor girls to be ethereal in body and
brain, dainty unto sickness. To be pale,
languid, idiotic, was ne Plus ultra. This
sentimental creature wore thin slippers
(no heels), and white cotton "store" hose
indoors and out at all seasons no fannels
OF any kind, considered shawl i'll bred,
and answered 10 as polysylabled name as
her mother could find. According to
books of etiquette in her time, "no lady
should be seen to eat more at a time than
one egg, a cookey and cup of green tea.
More is vulgar" She cherished a cough.
and if possible died young. Upon her
tombstone was writ:
ANGELICA EUPHEMIA,
Aetat H.
Daughter of Samuel and Hannah ScToggins.
Thy will be DONE"
Or
CRYsTELLA SoPHRoNsBY BUBBs,
In her 10th yesr
The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away"
Or it might be-
HoRTEssrA CLENENTrNA MUpp,
Aged is.
Beware fthe follies and trifies of earth
That Satan spreads out to eniice thee from birth;
But think o, the joys that are waiting on high, ,
Nor call me below with tear or a sigh"
Composed by herself.
THE LEARNED GIRL.
Strange woman she, beyond my ken;
Returns no love nor asks for help of men.
Parents concluded something must be
done TO preserve the race, so 'female col
leges' took boom. They sprang up thick
LII raH ont Il CO
erudite that people of ordinary education
paled in her presence. An austere man
ner, with conversation confined TO techni-
cal topics, metaphysics and ologies too deep
for common peoples ken was considered
Gu tda. This one lived among clouds and
was not of earth earthly. To quality of
food she was quite Indifferent, but looked
out for eating enough to keep herself
healthy. She INDUCED in no such frivolous
pastimes as walking young men into that
street where her favorite ice-cream grew,
nor took moonlight rows on the river, nor
danced, nor slept Her nights were
passed in contemplating the influences of
Andromedian Nebula upon Isothermal
Antipodes and her days in studying Greek
textbooks on Anthropology of the Prehis-
toric Plesiosaurus. The learned girl did
not approve of tatling on her clothes She
wore Eyeglasses and was not given to smiles,
but she gained the long time fancy offashion.
THE GUSHING GIRL.
BY and by the merry maids grew tired
of being stuffed with educational chestnuts
and men wearied of women who wouldn't
iirt and knew more than they did. The
American girl was equal to any 'tflop," F"
so il was a la mode. Seminaries took a
hack seat. She attended the common
schools while the boys did, and when went
off to college she quit and took in sea-
side or mountain resorts. She might know
little about everything or great deal
.about nothing, for she eifused over any
thing. from a baby in Boston TO the Holy
Cross mountain in Colorado-no one could
tell from her talk what she meant. She
fitted here, there and everywhere, a
charming Observation-Disclosures. One day
came along zephyr which this gushing
creature thought just too awfully sweet
and lovely for anything. SO she mounted
its yapors and was waited away into the
,l,,,,,.,,as- Of tho whifherWard