Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1891-06-10
THE YOUNG GIRL.

THE YOUNG GIRL.
l do not mean the seIf-possessed and
self-centered young woman whose equi-
poise equals that Of the matron; who
looks askance at people, places and
things, and who may be the embryonic
angel of some mans heart and home,
but most frequently is Macchisvelli
in petticeats (or bIfurcations); l re-
fer to the "girly" girl at the period
midway between twelve and twenty,
whose school days have just ended, and
for whom that grimmest Of all teachers,
experience, now begins to set harder
tasks than any she ever conned from
books. and whose imprint will be upon
heart and soul as well as upon the
mind.
The sorry spinster and the overbur-
dened wife and mother look upon the
blooming creature and eigh for their
halcyon DAYS long gone by; while she,
with unquestioning confidence and the
sweet and newly-awakened conscious
ness of individuality, rejoices in her
youth, perhaps beauty, and trims her
sails with light heart.
Well, IN many respects she is an OBJ
ject of envy. Life opens before her
eager anticipatIons fowery vistas Of
present gaieties and future blisses, and
what wonder that the coleur de rose
gets into her eyes and 30 blinds them
that when the skies grow gray above
her, the scales fall and she sees exist
ence IN its true lights and shadows, she
feels herself stranded upon the cold
and rock-bound shore Of aotualityi
Unless she belongs to the class Of
daily wage-workers, she takes little
thought Tor the morrow, beyond the
projection of its pleasures. She laughs
and sings and dances in the abandon
of exuberance, decks her pretty person
and worships her ideal. Too young
yet to indulge, fad or take up q
''cult, to pretend cordiality she does
not feel, or to do homage at the shrine
of other peoples pet hobbies, she is
very apt to make enemies of touchy
folks who do not allow for her tender
years or her vagaries; for, strangely, ii
is the thoughtless, often unconscious
affront which is hardest to forgive.
Were sha older she would tactfully
slide around all such angles; but, be-
Ing needless young person whose
penetration mot yet sufficiently sharp
ened by varied contacts), fails to pierce
through stone wall, the mischief is
done and forever past reparation; for
no arts of speech, open or occult, can
explain away such errors, and enemies
gather around her out-posts.
Then we assume that she is not only
well favored but magnetic as well, and
attracts many admirers whose palpable
lV,1n 4. a
nature; and her little conquests, be
they for day, an hour, or an eternity,
are an offense to other girls and other
women. She becomes a target for the
spite of erst friendly companions; and
being not yet case-hardened begins to
see through glass darkly," the arid
stretches her tender feet must travel,
stsrtlingly contradistinct to her cher
ished visions of green fields and fertile
valleys. But she lives more zestfully,
if possible, within the scope of to-day
-coquets little, falls into sentimental
habits of thought, can
Love Ike mad while the fever's on
And hate like mad when the feyer's done;
Is the Joy OF every loust and looks upon
her beaux as the handspring of her
life perhaps because they teach her to
know the real lover when he comes.
There are other "perIls in Ivytown"
for my virginia. heroine. Every old
maid within her sunny radius delights
in casting her horoscope, sub rosa, and
predicting for her destiny so horrible,
so tragic, that did she. impressionable
and sensitive to censure, know it, sleep
would be forever banished from her
eyelldsl Because she is charming and,
little witchl-begins to know her
power-she is bold" forward, and
everything else populsrly supposed to
have place In the category OF lawful -
Her irrepressible love of fun, and high
2 iiits, her dimpIes, her grace, herself
in sooth, they would, with malice Dre-
peHSc, annihilate, if only many and
frequent showers of disparaging rhet-
oric could dash her into the dark
abysm of everlasting oblivion.
And if she runs her career as straight
as the crow flies, they dodge behind
generalitIes. que rouiez UOus? The
gentleman in red protects his own!
Yet, the soured and pessimistic ''un-
appropriateds' are mildly denunciative
compared to she mothers of unsought
Bitls Nlo ItSuIu lier as the hrcn enemy
of their loveriess darlings. They are,
in reality, her greatest traducers. The
shrugs of dozen pairs of masculine
shoulders count rs naught compared to
the venom of a mortified matron's
tongue; and she so cleverly sweetens
her poison into the semblance of the
very nectar of good feeling that the
harm she does is all the more deadly.
Thus when the young girl enters
upon her momen ous journey through
the world, believing that all women are
angels and all men god; in the full
flush of maidenly ingenuousness she
comes face to face with facts unsoften-
ed by romance, thorns devoid of roses,
and snarcs and pitfalls everywherei
She is not envIable from ali stand
points, is she? She hopes for so mush +,
she fears so little; rushes into situa-
tions, that, verify. "angels would fear
to tread" rails against small trials and
pretty defeats rs she will not rebel
against the most devastating dispensa-
tions OF Providence in days TO come;
and is altogether a reposeless mortal,
subject to instantaneous ebullitions and
depress;ons, and sometimes unmauase-