The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-01-17
The Girl of Today as She Seems
The Girl of Today as She Is.
BY MARY LOWE DICKINSON.

! Stand here with me this afternoon
and watch the stream of human be-
ings pouring out from that beautiful
theatre on Broadway. Take them all
in all, what a weil-dressed, comfort
able crowd it is. No matter what life
as a whole may mean to them, they
have been taking a bit of holiday
recreation, and one result is, that
marred and anxious faces show le-
| Taxed and softaned lines, and even the
voices we hear as they pass quickly
on have taken a holiday tone.
1t is an exhilarating throng, is it
! not? Notice how largely it is made up
| of girls-young girls, too, most of
/ them-daintily clad, and sweet of face,
! and merry enough TO take light and
! cheer with them wherever they 60
Watch the throng as it divides and
goes tripping up the avenues in scores.
| or overflows the street cars, or waits
at the entrance for its own cou9es.
Multiply its numbers by the number
of matinees held today in all cur
greater or smaller cities, and you VIII
have such a bewildering. bewitchinS
array of grace and beauty as will
make you feel our country is an en-
chanted land.
At the same time, in different art
of the city, another tide goes out.
From the great school building yOnder
it pours a steady stream into The
street. They are all girls this time,
nothing but girls,-younSer, brighter
than the other throng and fresher,
with bound in the step and a light
in the eye that marks that first Yodth
whose charm rarely outlasts the sec
ond year of social life. They are not
arrayed like the matinee girls, but
that does not mean that they do not
expect to be even more gorgeous by
and by. They are only schoolgirls
now. but they bide their time, and
under the tops of their bright hair
there's many a plan of what they viii
wear when the school life is over, and
what seems to them the real life has
begun.
And this day and every day they are
coming forth, not from one institution
in our city alone. but from many
schools in every city and town. Multi
ply by these countless schools and
again by the many cities, and see
what treasure we nave OF glad
young life astir in our midst todlY
and try to realize what this treasure
means of hope and promise Tor the
future DAYS.
Is it not inspiring. this vision OF a
great army of girls already entered
other army rapidly making ready TOT
its good time" and for much that IS
better, we trust? 1t is more than
enough to overwhelm us if we even
family comprehend the full slgnln-
canoe of this great out-pourlng ude
of woman life, freighted with love and
hope and joy or with danger anu
trouble and harm?
It is enough, but it is not all. Come
with me for a moment to any one OF
the down town ferries by which New
York carries its people by tens of thou
sands over the river and into the coun-
try-already so crowded as to seem
but another city-beyond.
1t is evening now. BY charming dln-
ner tables or the centre of lovely home
circles. or in their own luxurious rooms
making ready for the evenings enjoy
ment. we find the girls who are al
ready lin the swim
Studying tomOrrow's lessons. frol-
licking with their brothers or the other
boys, reading by the softly shady
lamps. are the " other girls" not yet
escaped from their studies and their
teens.
But down here at the ferry are girls
as fair of face as the first. as young
and younger than the last, who yet
do not belong with either tide that.
overlooking the land. has filed the
inlets of home and pleasure and peace.
Watch it as it pOurs reSistleSs through
the ferry gate as if the next boat were
the last. These are the girls who have
stood all day behind counters, sewed
all dav in the shops of the dreSsmak-
ers, set type with the printers, made
paper boxes worked in manufactures
of almost every article under the sun
AS they come in swift procession
across the street. and through the gate
Al
as any elsewhere seen today. and
many a face weary for lack of suf-
ficient sleep. and pallid and pasty for
lack of proper food.
This tide will set the other way to-
morrow morning, early, and by day
light we shall see many a sign of
struggle that does not show tonight
as they pass hurriedly out of the fog
and under the yellow electric glare,
and so on to the shadows of the boat
Most are becomingly and even stylish
ly clad, but there's many shabby
gown, too many times repaired. There
are the Well-WOrn shoes and the frayed /
gloves and the last years jacket, the
homemade hats that, in the breadth
of the bows and the naughty toss of
the feathers are not one whit behind
the headgear of the petted uptown
girl. We followed these other girls
home. and found sometimes luxury, |
and almost always comfort and kind |
ness and care. And many of the inlets |
into which this last tide drifts hold
abundant love and the reality and ten
derness of home. But toward so many
other places this tide of girlhood creeps |
sIuggishly, reluctantly. finding little
to which the word home could apply.
The girl as she seems is brave cheer
full, apparently care-free-fOr not for
worlds would she have the other girls
know just what awaits her at the close
of her day of toll The real girl, I'M
consciously trained by the association
with others that her work-life brings,
shrinks from and hides the fact that
home to her holds, perhaps. the in
temperate father, from whose lips the
pipe will not be removed long enough
for a word of greeting, or, perhaps
the feeble invalid mother, who me-
anders helplessly from washtub to
dishpan, whose sleeves are rolled at
the elbows from morning to night
whose efficient life is given to
houseful of brawling children, from
among whom the eldest daughter has
gone forth to add her wages to the
ceaseless demand for fuel and for !
food.
II out of this army of working young
girls, those to whom home means this |
or something like it, those who sit till !
late at night over a kerosene lamp |
making their own clothing or the cloth
ing for younger brothers and sisters, !
would tell us we should be startled and !
shocked at the stories of their real life /
that such confessions would reveal. But /
hopeless struggle will not tell it, or, if |
CHI no in,