The Coconino sun. [volume] (Flagstaff, Ariz.) 1891-1891, 1891-08-01
What Girls Most Need.

| UlflS, llke roses, grow DeSJ 1Of JnOSe
who love them. Love, warmth is as
necessary for the budding soul us the
| opening rose and whoever watches
the girl-soul with eyes OF love will
see therein q responsive growth, q
deepened coloring, tender unfold
ing OF the many-petaled heart.
| No crime can be surer of Gods con-
demnation than that OF bringing into
this world an unwelcome life and
then abandoning it to the slow tor
ture of soul starvation. The tender
plantlet that finds the skies OF April
and May drear and chill may cling to
life even though its young leaves are
| frost-bitten, but all its life will be
weakened and its symmetry and
beauty lessened by that early blight.
A little girl of 5 or years came up
the aisle Of a Northwestern train the
other day, and the little old face with
the lines OF pain and anxious thought
already beginning to mar its young
beauty made one feel sad, as il one
were looking upon blighted flower.
But the cause OF it all was only too
evident as we glanced up into the out
of-tune, falsetto face OF the woman
| who jerked her into seat and whom
the little one miscalled by the tender
name Mamma" Maternity and moth
erhood may be terms widely different
In meaning. The maternal parent OF
a child may have no right to the holy
name of mother.
The girls first supreme need is
home sunshine-that is, mother sun
shine. You might as well expect a
rose to grow and bloom in perfect
beauty under the lowering gloom of
perpetual thunderstorm as TO expect
girls to blossom into a b lesson
out into bright lovely girlhood in
u cold, chilling atmosphere OF con-
slant censure and faul t-fnding.
To be welcomed into an atmosphere
full OF soul sunshine is the divine right
Of every young soul. To have that
atmosphere kept warm and sunny
during all the early years OF growth
is a debt owed by parents 10 their
children-a debt for which we can
not but believe they will be held
accountable.
II the atmosphere OF the home is
warm and sunny and pure the young
girl soul may be left to develop in its
own sweet way, and 1t will be found
budding and blossoming at every
happy nod. For it seems to be law
OF nature that children born oil strong,
pure and loving parents, with such a
sunny home atmosphere, instinctively
choose the best elements for their
spiritual growth. In the early years
OF soul growth there is often too much
well-meant but ill-timed solicitude on
the part Of parents and teachers. /
remember, one springtime. to have
had my soul sorely vexed by
precious young botanist OF three
years who insisted upon pull
ing up my tender plantlets
to see how the woots 60" Some
well-intentioned people are perpetual
ly pulling girls up by the roots, to see
how they are growing. To such soul
inquisitors we feel like saying: "Do
let your girls alone" There is d.
vine mystery of growth in every soul,
which even the nearest and dearest
the mother, may not penetrate. 1t is
something too sacred for any other
being to know, save God alone,
and this is the reason, it
may be that In His wis
dom it is forever hidden from any
eye but his. And your duty as
mother seems to be to keep the home
in which "they live and move and
have their being warm, sunny and
wholesome, so that they may reflect
your soul light and absorb its
warmth and quickening power, just
as the planets reflect the sunshine
and are quickened into life and beauty
by their mother sun. r
And this home sunshine, this mother
sunshine. means that home must be
the brightest and sunniest spot upon
earth. 1t means that all the spites,
and envies, and meanness OF the world
shall be kept out OF the home rs sedu-
lousy as you would keep poisonous
weeds out of your garden. 1t means
that there the young girl always feels
the better, nobler side Of her
nature expanding. 1t means that
there the natural language OF
her heart is love, and song, and prayer.
1t means that the whole wide world
can hold no place for her comparable
TO that home, however simple and low
ly, which is warmed and lighted by
her mothers smile. II means that for
her girl-soul, mother, comfort, peace,
sunshine, ana soul rest are synonymous
terms. II means that she can only
think of heaven as longer and
brighter dream Of home.