The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1896-11-27
THE CHARM OF RESERVE.
nothing More Becoming In . Young Cir
Than This Quality.


There Is 4 great amount of small talk
indulged in concerning the modern girl.
She is supposed to be an entirely novel
type of womanhood. Old-fashiored
mothers look askance at the greater
freedom allowed To the girl of to-day.
They predict all manner of harm To
come, just as the oId-fashioned moth
crs of their girlhood predicted when
they were departing from tb. ways of
previous times. These latest mentors
forget they themselves cast aside the
stately fashions of the days of the min
net and the heightened, stilted phrase
ology in which well-bred danes were
then wont to express their simplest
thoughts These sentimental, stately
ladies who wept over the sorrows of
Alonzo and Melissa could see nothing
but n revolt against the social order in
the freedom of the girl who read George
Eliot and thought for herself Yet the
women of that generation have grown
mp and reared their daughters, who are
reaching forward TO a still broader life
and greater opportunities of useful
ness Who dare say that the genera
ton of our grandmothers OF great
great-grandmothers was more moral
far more sentimental, and this NAV lzish
sentimentality no doubt weakened the
morals more than the coarser realism
of the modern novels Runaway
matches among well-bred young pco-
pie were much more frequent than to-
day, and no special odium seemed to
bC attached Ia them. CIaudestine en-
gagements We're common Certain sec
.
which were in dispute between two
states There were the Gretna Greens of
whole territory. where justices con-
/ sidered people amenable to no law,
because they were in doubt to which
state law they should give allegiance
! Hurried ceremonies of ofmarriae,e could t.s
performed there without the necas-
sity of publishing banns. and before the
irate parents of the contracting parties
could prevent it.
We live to-day in a blaze of publicity.
| The presence of a local paper. eager per
haps for a sentimental paragraph, re-
strains many a foolish maiden to-day
from an elopement which her grand
mother would have looked upon as a
sentimental episode. Our girls of to-
day are not given up as the girls of a
| few generations ago were to the allah
sorbing pursuit of husbands" They
are not engaged in the unwomanly task
| Of setting their caps as the old phrase
goes for every handsome stranger"
| that appears. They must be wooed and
won by some more sterling quality than
a handsome face and fine clothes 1t
is great mistake to think that pretty
girl arrays herself in dainty gown and
fetching" eolors merely to attract
suitorS- She dresses in pretty color. and
/ graceful. attractive fashion because she
Is attracted to such surroundings. She
arrays her room and fits out all her sur
roundings in the same way, because
she enloys beauty She II gay, because
she is young. Somber thoughts belong
to experience. The danger is that the
modern girl. with all her exuberance
of animal spirits. may be misunderstood.
She viii be wise and she will be doubly
attractive if through all her gayety,
her natural flow of spirits. there be
thrown a certain reserve. Let her tel
lets be as dainty and beautiful as she
can obtain. Let her remember To mod
crate the tone of her voice. Let her
cultivate a certain repose of manner
which need not interfere with the most
| graceful dancing football OF the airiest
i,otions.
An obiection to the old-time maiden
undoubtedly was that she was too anX
ious to he sought Her future depend
ed upon a successful marriage Is this
the reason why those by-gOne loves
were 80 frequently. If we must believe
story books. untrue. and the unhappy
maiden left as a '-blighted being" tC
drag out hong years of Purposeless spin
sterhood2 Sensible girls and sensibl,
young men sometimes find they haS'
made mistakes, and engagements ar
broken. in a sensible manner withOu
either party considering IL necessaIy
To pose as heart-broken- Such a mat
ter is always to be regretted, and n'
self-respecting girl should enter Oh
such an engagement ightly.-N- Y
Tribune.