The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-10-14
Tho Girl Of Fourteen.

fOurteen ii apt 10 DC trylnS age 10 d
girl herself, and it is often a period Of
puzzles and problems to girls mother
Childhood is left behind, womanhood is
not yet here. Too old for doll and romps
and the unchecked freedom which. she
had the other day; too young for the
company of the older girls to which she
aspirea, feeling strangely enough if she
were ten years her own senior, at once
timid and bold, restive under restraint,
and dependent upon wife guidance, the
little maid of fourteen needs, as she nev-
er before, very loving, very patient, and
very sympathetic treatment. The tides
other life being are rushing in upon her !;
she does not understand her own moods,
she cannot account for her own caprices;
she has her little gusts and storms, as
we'll as her hours of sunshine, and in
this time of ferment, of revolt, yet of
real sweetness, and of peril, chiefly be-
cause of the issues involved, our girl of
fourteen is happy if her mother is her
dearest and her safest confdant. No
other can be so safe, and no other ought
to be so dear.
"What shall 1 do for my daughter at
this most troublesome age?" writes one
overburdened woman. Can you tell me
of good school for her, where she will
have the best care, be under the best in.
fluences, and wholly guarded from the
very thought of beaux2" The latter
consideration seems to many parents i'm
portant beyond every other, where their
young daughters are concerned. and it
not infequently happens that the sedu-
lous anxiety of mothers and teachers to
shut out the other sex, to seclude the
growing girl, or 80 regulate her inter
course with boys of her own age that is
to the last degree formal and occasional,
brings about the state of things most
dreaded.
A girl to whom the idea of boys as
beaux would never have occurred, brides,
looks blushiugly conscious of their pres-
ence, assumes airs and graces, and laughs
in an unnatural fslsetto when they ap-
pear on the scene, and all because nature
and good breeding were forgotten in the
first place. If only girls and boys could
be permitted to meet and associate on
the footing common to friends and
playmates, with no thought OF sex or sil.
ly sentiment, there would never be the
annoyance and irritation which spring
from the placing of these young people
in false positions.
But, dear mother, if the mischief has
been doue, and your little maiden of
fourteen cannot meet with boys without
behavior that will cause her 10 be
ashamed and forgetful when she shall be
older, don't think to cure this by sending
her away to a boarding school. The
perhaps necessary, yet, to her view'
rigid and arbitrary, restrictions which
she will encounter there will only con-
firm her in obstinacy, or arouse an un-
fortunate antagonism. Keep her rather
at home, lovingly, mind you, under
your own eye, and if you have no alter.
nate, let school have the 60 by for year
or two. She will not acquire the less
readily, nor develop the less charmipgly
for an interval spent in studying domes.
tic lore, in learning to be womauly, by
being made her mothers companion,
friend, and daily assistant The girl who
is fully and happily employed in work
that occupies the hands, as we'll as the
mind, will generally pass easily and
gracefully through the critical period
when she is in danger of doing or saying
stupid things in regard to boys, who,
dear, honest fellows, are perfectly ready
to be her friends, comrades, and compan.
ions, if their fathers and mothers have
not made that impossible.
Indeed, q somewhat extended observa'
ton of boys, and very pleasant ac.
quaintance with many of them, leads me
to the. conclusion that they care very
little about posing in the role OF Deaux.
1t bores them and its only attrsctiveness
comes to them by the rule of contraries.
Being prohibited, it naturally becomes
desirable.
At fourteen girl has her fit for gig.
Cling at triaes, and the sound of her bub-
ling and irrepressi!e laugh'er seems
now and then to severe taste like the
cracking of thorps under pot spoken