The record-union., 1896-05-24

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I that come in all departments of life
with the passing years. 1t is not long,
| at least it does not seem long to look
| back upon, since the favorite paStime
| of a young woman was confined to
| crochet embroidery, fine needlework of
| all sorts and tatting. One never sees
| those pretty ivory or gutta percha shut
ties nowadays; they did use to look
f, graceful, flying back and forth in the
| slender white fingers that used often to
WELD them. Her accomplishments
We're ordinarily music and French, as
| they often are now, but her outdoor
| sports embraced grace-hOops and GRO
quet, and for the more ventureSome
| spirits of the Sisterhood, horseback
riding. Verify, this is q generation of
tombOys, but we surely ought to have
no fault to find, so long as girls do not
oyerStep the bounds of mOdesty. Let
them be tomboys as long as they will;
they will be healthier, happier women
for it, as well as better wives and moth
ers, for having had their innocent little
fling before settling down ''for good"
Behold the contrast between 'The days
Of old, when knights were bold" and
the present. Girls of all ages are adopt
ing sports once considered proper only
for boys. The bicycle craze has evolved
into a custom adopted by the whole
world. Matrons and maids alike, in
common with husbands and brothers.
Football for boys has it's first cousin
in basketball for girls, over which
lately many an exciting contest has
been fought in boomers by our college
girls. Tennis has superseded crOquet,
as a general favorite and one often sees
game Of handball played with lively
ZeSt among girls, where the one-time
game of bean-bag used to be in high
favor. Another decided step in pro-
gression is the fashion of developing
the waist. The small wasp-like waist is
decidedly out of favor, and girls are
discarding stays and wearing waists
in which they can breathe freely and
move about more easily and gracefully
in their outdoor games.
viii all this tonboyishness and un-
trammeled action on the part of our
girls develop them into "blue-stock-
ings'' and female suffragists, do you
think? / do not. l have heard, first
and last, many opinions on this sub
ject, and l find that the true woman,
the refined, Whole-hearted mother of
family, who has been allowed to de-
velOp opinions of her own uninfuenced
by prejudice, who is protected by the
love of a faithful husband, as well as
the woman whose father and brothers
have a care for her welfare, has no de-
sire for the rough contact with the
world at large, which she would be
thrust into at the polls. One bright,
energetic little woman, in answer to
my query on this subject, replied: "I
want to be treated as an equal by my
masculine relatives and friends. I don't
want to have my opinions scorned as of
no value. simply because ann woman,
but when it comes to mixing with poll
tics, going to the polls to cast a ballot
among a lot of rough men, I'd rather be
excused. I've no fancy for anything of
that sort. I believe a woman has her
kingdom, over which she holds abso-
lutte sway, right in her own little house
hold. and she should be content to leave
affairs of state to the men, who are bet
ter fitted by nature to contend with
them" And this I find is a general
opinion expressed by the majority of
not feel the least degree of sympathy
with tfe woman's suffrage movement.
A woman on platform spouting poll
ties and bowling about the rights of
women is as utterly out of place as a
woman in pantaloons or a man in the
kitchen. A minister, who, one Sunday
morning, was taking his leisurely way
to church in one of the Yankee States
came across small boy making a
mouse-trap. The lad belonged to his
parish, and the minister, as in duty
bound, paused to demonstrate with
him for desecrating the Sabbath day
The boy replied: Every one to his
calling-some to making mouse traps
and some to preaching" So it is with us
ALL Every one has his calling for
which he is fitted by nature. Let the
women portion of humankind show the
other sex how to live good, pure and un-
sullied lives, and let the men in turn
take the text and preach upon it if they
! will; that is their mission, and exem-
plifcation is ours-they expect it of US.
We should lose our place upon the pc
! Cestal of masculine respect were it
| otherwise. Let us then live up to the
mark, realizing, not destroying, their
ideals of true womanhood.
So much of a girls life is influenced
by what she reads. Do mothers and
| guardians often enough realize the i'm
portance of this and direct the reading
of their young charges personally?
This is a question easily solvable by
noting the sort of books taken from the
| libraries by young children who seem
half the time unaware of the class of
| literature they are choosing. But often
an unwise selection Of a book gives a
child a taste for the improbable, which
soon develops into habit not easy to
| break Fancy a child of twelve de-
| vouring Ouidas novels in a manner
very fiattering, indeed. to the author
| but decidedly unwholesome for the
/ youthful reader, whose inclinations are
| being formed for good or i'll as may be.
| The consumption of fairy tales is an
other item which should be considered
must confess that L like a good fairy
| tale myself to this day, but it is apt to
develop into an abnormal taste hard to
hold in check, and is a whip to the
| imagination which spurs it into an un-
| healthy speed of action.
| Children live in a world of their own
creation half of their time that is filled
| with imaginary persons and things
| quite out of the ordinary. A child /
| once knew had a funny little familiar
spirit who lived in dark closet, which
] she called the "Dramataile'; nobody