Eagle River Democrat. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1893-1896, 1896-06-15
qrhe Growing Girl.

One aE the sad experiences i@ every
mothers life comes when she realizes
for the first time that her ysoMEeg daush-
ter hass grown away from her. that she
is ne longer necessary to hez; THAT !the
little feet have already STARTED eon THAT
path of life where not even THE closest
companionship can follow
1t seems such little wSUile since SHE
was ia baby. Why only yesterday she
knelt ;at your knee and a1Sped, Nov l
Law me" and you were bdtsy with her
ninnfnres. and school lunches, and now
already she is woman. Mott quite of
course, but she is putting her hair up,
andsShy boys walk home with lher in the
afternoons and hang Sfsmefacedly eovef
the-gate, and it comes to YOU with a pang
that your little girl is almost grown.
You bitterly resent it. You want her
all ITO yourself. You had planned she
was to study this and that, and neverlo
alta man until she was 20, at least. She
was TO profit by your worldly experience
and learn that all the Time spent in idle
!flirtations-you shudder AT the Word-is
time worse than wasted. But here is
Dolly, with her head fNll s0f football
heroes and athletic sports and the front
of her bodice a perfect arsenal of fra
ternity pins and college 0oldrs, and she
-giggling and laughing jGlst like you used
to do, dear madame, tive and twenty
years ago.
What are you going to do about it?
Nothing. Your mother had the, same ex-
,perience herself, and felt just as YOU
do for the world is mlade ;afreSh for
every human being WHO is born into it.
You must have the Same frantic and irra-
1tional friendships as g school girl; you
must be willing to die for the sake ,of
that impossible heroine; you must weep
over sentimental poetry and dream of
princes that come a-W@Omg, and feel the
bitter despair that you are certain moth
ing can ever tighten because you did not
get to go to ball, or somebody danced
with somebody else. 1t is all a part of
Joys and sorrows that makes youth see
life like rainbow through it's tears
In many lives this is the crucial time
when mother and daughters grow. away
from each other. TIE tender +tie thai
binds them together is snapped, and II
ever mended always shows Che tungainly
knot that marks the break. All the fool.
ish little affairs, the silly conversation OF
immature girls and boys, the fam with
its lists of names, the pGIntless Jokes
that provoke such amending fmirfh may
be sore trial to the woman of culture.
She is in danger of ridicMling them, and
so of alternating the little sensitive heart
that has turned naturally to her for sym
pathy. 1t is a fatal mistake that many
a mother has spent IifetiEMe in pegret-
ing.
1t is not given to youth to be wise
That is a blessing we purchase with bit
ter experience as we go along. and IT.
track is marked with broken Friendships
and blasted loves, and a hard won
knowledge of the receptions of life. The
wise mother remembering this, will try
to go back herself in feeling ito the Yn,inl-
rose time of life, and be her Young
daughters best friend and confident
One who is interested in all the little
happenings of her life, who believes that
the heroes of old were no such remark
able personages as the center rush of a
football team, and that the wearing of a
fraternity pin or military button is ONE
mother will keep her daughters heart
and in after years they viii grow into
the perfect friendship that can only come
to those whose love is the slow growth
of lifetime. Orleans Picayune.