The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1891-05-07
THE GIRL OF FOURTEEN =.
Margaret +. Sangster, in Congrega-
tiOnalist.

tionalst.
Fourteen is apt to be trying age to
a girl herself, and it is often period
full of puzzles and problems to girls
mother. Childhood is left behl2d,
womandood is not yet here. Too old
for dolls and romps, and the unchecked
freedom which she had the other day
too young for the company Of the old
er girls to which she aspires, feeling
strangely enough as if she were tel:
wears her own senior, at once timid
and bold, restive under restraint, and
dependent upon wife guidance, the lit
tie maid of fourteen needs, as she never
before, very loving, very patient, and
very sympathetic treatment. The tides
of her life being are rushing in upon
her: she does not understand her own
moods; she can not account for her
own capl.ces; 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 because of the issues in
volved, our girl Of fourteen is happy if
her mother is her dearest and her safest
confidant. No other can be so safe,
and no other ought to be so dear.
"What shall do for my daughter at
this most troublesome age?" writes one
overburened woman. "Can you tell
ME of q good school for her, where she
will have the best care, be under the
best influences, and wholly guarded
from the very thought Of beaux:'
The latter consideration seems to many
parents important beyond every other,
where their young daughters are con-
cerned, and it not infrequently hap
pens that the sedulous anxiety Of
mothers and teachers to shut out the
other sex, to seclude the growing girl,
or so regulate her intercourse with boys
of her own age that it is to the last de-
gree formal and occasional, brings
about the very state of things most
dreaded.
A girl to whom the idea of boys as
beauX would never have occurred,
brides, looks blushingly conscious Of
their presence, assumes airs and graces,
and laughs in an unnatural falsetto
when they appear 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 of silly SELL
timent, there would never be the an
noyapce and the irritation which
spring from the placing Of these young
people in false positions.
But dear mother, if the mischief has
been done, and your little maiden 0
fourteen can not meet with boys with
out behavior that will cause her to be
ashamed and regretful when she shall
be older, don't think to cure this by
sending her away 70 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 antagorism. Keep her rather
at home, lovingly, mind you, under
your own eye, and if you have no al
ternate, let school have the go by for a
year or two. She will not acquire the
less readily, nor develop the less
charmingly, for an interval spent in
studying domestic lore, in learning to
be womanly, by being made her moth
er's companion, friend, and daily assis-
tant. The girl who is fully and happi-
ly employed in work that occupies the
hands, as well as brain, 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, COM
rades, and companions, if their fathers
and mothers have not made the thing
impossible.
Indeed, a somewhat extended OBJ
servation Of boys, and very pleasant
acquaintance with many of them, leads
me to the conclusion that they care
very little about posing in the role of
''beaux." 1t bores them and its only
attractiveress comes to them by the
rule Of coltraries. Being prohibited,
it naturally becomes desirable.
At fourteen a girl has her fit offs gig
Cling at trifles, and the sound other
bubbling and irrepressive laughter
seems now and then to severe taste
like "the cracking of thorns under a
pot" spoken of by the psalmist. But
were you not once fourteen, and have
you forgotten how little it took to make
y Ou ILo" y W. "SiS S<'A-N NSNN
and diverted? Life has taken so much
out of you that your laughter is often
neighbor to your tears, in these graver
years. Yet you can not but be toler-
ant, if you pause to think Of the mirth
which is so innocent, so good humored,
50 signifcan. of high health and hope.
Besides, the dear child will never be
fourteen again.
Let the little maiden by all means
have room of her very own, if you
can, or, if this be impossible, give her
half a room, dividing her share of it by |
q screen from that of her sister Or little |
brother. \ separate bed should be ar
ranged for each child in the family,
and, as you value her future vigor, do
not let your girl of fourteen sleep with
her grandmother, or with an invalid
aunt or cousin. Let her have her own
little withdrawn spot where she may