Omaha daily bee., 1893-10-08
WHAT GIRLS SHOULD NOT READ
Are Not 0verdrawn Love Stories RESPONSE
bic for Many False Steps Tsken7
WAIT UNTIL THE CHILD IS DEVELOPED
Row to Get Up a Dlnner-Anecdoto OF
an Actress All the Latest
styles and other Matters of
Interest to Women.

The announcement In the Chicago pa
pers of a young lady committing suicide
there q few days ago because She fancied
life was not worth living, as her lover"
had played her false, brings forCibly to
mind the similar sad occurrence "hich
took place recently in Omaha and makes
one think, "Oh, the pity of it all"
Young lives ended in such n harsh man
ner before the girls had realized in any
sense what life really is, and with the
pathetic mistake in their minds that
they had met with any loss in thc trans
ference OF the so-called love of such
men, II girls could only be brought to
look al things as they are they would
soon realize that such a loss is nothing
IL not a great blessing to themselves.
But all the morali2ing in the world will
not bring back one such and will prOba-
bly, not put a stop to it before it hap
pens"
The pertinent question In this~r relation
Is who or what is to blame for thclun-
healthy state of mind which admits the
harburing Of thoughts of suicide and the
hopclessncss of love and all that sorrow
ful fOolishness in so many young persons.
young girls especially, these days. One
apparent cause is the sort of trash, in
the way OF reading matter, with which
the country is flooded, and which Is read
and reread by romantic young ladies,
"l'GC 'lI'NlVllul IbluIc - III w I'Ic
veloped Il state to stand the strain, and
who soon get to imagining that they,
toe, are "herOincs" and every man they
meet, or more likely, one particular
man, is a real live hero" for whom
they would be willing to die on occa-
sion, rs a very reasonable sacrifice.
They forget in their extreme youth and
ineXperiencc that there is only one real
test ''of love and leather'-common
everyday wear unlpr GOOD and had con-
ditions sure to come.
The important question for the young
these times is not what to read so much
as what to avoid reading. No girl un-
der the age of Is years should ever be
permitted to read any book not selected
by some friend competent to judge of it's
possible influence. The idea of a child
of ID years reading "Ouida'' and other
French villains and villainesses of her
class. These writer's would never dream
of expecting the youth of their own
land where children are children until
they are grown to read their vile stuff,
but look to fools in America" for pat
rOnage and support, and they get it, too,
that is the worst of it.
But, after all, the books that do the
most harm really are the ones which are
said to contain nothing positively bad,
and are supposed by older people to be
only foolish. These are the ones that
play sad havoc with the girls. They
read The Duchess and Bertha NJ.
Clay until they have an idea that real
life is a very tame, commonplace affair
and not worth bothering much about uu-
til their hero comes on the scene of
action; hen if things happen to go
wrong or the hero happens to be a
scoundrel the girl is ready to die as the
only possible resource.
The taste for reading may be Guilt
waited in the right direction bv a little
judicious care. If mothers and friends
would unite in selecting and rccom-
mending books which are only mildly
O~verdrawn and somewhere within the
bounds of common sense at least, SC
many ''romances in real life" would not
Occul. One Of the saddest features in
the whole scheme is the wasted time,
worse wasted. One so often hears
a mother say, We'll, want my daughter
to read something, she had better read
novels than nothing" OF course. there
are novels and novels. A girl is much
better off and will have much safer and
truer ideas of life If she never reads a
word outside of her school books than il
she pores over the vile slush called
love stories until her nerves culver
and her heart beats with unnatural ex.
citement. For, like all other abnormal
cravings, the desire for more, more be.
N''''NS - 'NhA'h''AN' "iA' plIS ~ lItI
care for nothing else.
Sir Herbert Maxwell, upon 1.-The
Craving for Fiction gives incidentally
the following advice: IF any young
person of leisure were so much ut II los,
as to ask advice rs to what he should
read mine should be exceedingly simple
Ready anything bearing on a definite
object. Let him take upany imaginable
subject to which he feels attracted, be
IL the procession of the equinoXes on
postage stamps, the Athenian drama on
London street cries; let him follow il
from book to book and unconsciously his
knowledge, not of that subject only, bu,
: of many subjects, will be Increased, fol
the departments Of the realm of knowl
edge are divided by no octroi. He ma
abandon the first object of his pursuit.
for another; ii does not matter, one sub
ject leads to another; he will have ac
CURED the habit of acquisition; he vii.
have gained that conviction of tn,
pricelessness of time which makes it in
tolerable for a man TO lie abed of &
morning"
Ii young girls and those who are re
sponsible for the making or marring o.
their lives would heed the good advic,
and insist that reading De done Will
some other object in view than KILLING
time we would hear less of broker
hearts, suicides and all such ~ineXpres
slDly sorroWlul happenings.
~
Kate Epson Clarke once made a re
mark which will be keenly appreciate,
by all women who have tried the beauti
full rules for economical living which ar
so often unfolded. 1t was in a CLUB meet
ing, and housekeeping was the subjec
under discussion.
Mrs. Clarke got up to ask a question
We'll" she said, II can never max
these beautiful plans for living on /
cents a day, or something like that
work. Now, there's Mrs, Herrick
book. II tells you how to get up a din
ner, and then it says to use what is LEI
OF the roast, or whatever it is, for ere
quettes or something. But there ism
anything left! If you make the Dime
as She directs, it's SO good that IN
family eats every morscl of it and Their
aren't any scraps, That throws tn
whole program out of order
Alas it isn't always because thing
are toe good that these l5-cent dinner
and l-,aauf S1IlapS ,4n ma Ia. nl, 800.