The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-01-31

boarding school for her to find that girl
comrade, who, once enthroned, dethroneS
for the time being the home loves. biz
and little Lest this seem too sweeping
an assertion, let me ask the middle aged
women to look back to their own nrst
violent friendship for that other older
girl. Notwithstanding this friendship,
parents, brothers and sisters will exist.
Duties are still to be performed. pleas
u-eS still to be enjoyed, but the heart
is waking up The young soul is testing
its capacity for admiration and alteration.
For the time being there is nothing in the
universe like this ''other girf' friend.
The friendship has almost the charm of
a first love, and does no special mischief
If only the first love comes along in its
due and proper time The glamor and
blindness of love is one of its character
sst:cs also | know a girl of 16. the de-
vOt.on of whose whole heart was eX-
pended upon a woman of q. with high
cheek bones. the scar of an accident upon
her chin, a turned uD nose and liquid
blue eyes, both of which We're cross
eyed. But then she had a lily white skin,
-entle voice, a lovely manner: she
played the piano bewitchingly and wore
beautiful clothes, and seemed worlds
ADORE her to that little girl of 10, TO
whom she was very kind.
Parents little imagine the strength and
intensity of these attachments on the
part of girls whose emotional natures are
Just waking into life, and who are
searching for nothing else under the sun
so eagerly as they are searching Tor
something on which they can throw them
selves away. In other words, the con-
Sc!ousneSS of having a great wealth or
devotion to expend somewhere makes the
whole nature alert for something TO Whlch
it may be given. At 43 woman can eX-
pend her affections, having found no use
fo- them before. upon cause with
capital &C" but % or 80 years younger
what can be expected but that the heart
shall find natural outlet in the direction
of some woman friend.
* hDnnU
of this first self-spending. pours IT upon
a girl little wiser, a little older, a 1T
tie more conscientious or religious, or IN
telligent than herself. Then the influence
becomes helpful stimulating and means
blessings to the life. One strong afectlon
of this kind keeps young girl from a
great many foolish intimacies- II she
tells one girl everything she knows she
is much less likely to tell 80 girls almost
everything she knows. The affection be-
comes at once a delight and a safety
valve If the right young people have
come together for them to be very, very
fond of each other is the best thing that
could happen to them during life's form
alive stage. The choice is too often an
unwise one, and then the pity of IT can
be hardly told. These girl friendships
come when the nature is at its most i'm
questionable time. and while il would take
a volume to tell the value and advantage
of good companionship, it would take a
library to follow the effects into the lives
of the women of today of that friendship
and companionship which has not been
good.
In many lives there grows up a noble
sentiment we'll worthy of the name of
friendship between women who have
known each other in youth. a friendship
crowned with all such motives as dignity
life. a friendship that, while 1t may not
be the best that life could have given, is
vet we'll worth having and worth pricing
as a gift of God. But for the majorities
of women these early friendships give
place in due time to that which is really
the love of the lifetime. The ''other girl
whom we adored proves to have a
brother. or our own brother has friend.
or somewhere in some fair day or I1e
we discovery that there is love whose
mastery over the whole being is quite
different thing from the fervid friendships
of our schoolgirl days We know, theh,
that all other affections were but the
opening vistas leading to this new worlu-
Now we enter this new worlc, Deiong 10
it. are part of it, can feel its significance
and comprehend its mysteries and re-
cogniZe the graciousneSS and the great
ness with which God meant every true
womaniy life should be crowned; NOW
the value of that early habit of looking
to the strong and sturdy manhood 10 90
and dare brave things shows itself Ihat
which we expected our own Drother 70
be. we expect, in still greater degree; OF
him who is to be closer than the brother
Now the value of that protective and
motherly love for the little brotner re-
yeals itself for in a certain sense ever
woman is mother and tender caretaSer
for the one beloved Now, too: the Naiue
Of the friendship of woman for woman
reveals itself, and the old friends VINO
kent by our side as we came nearer 10
the great love of a lifetime, are even
dearer than when we had no other IIleHu u
The love that leans. the love that Is
leaned upon, the love that shares ana
helms then all unite in happy complna-
tion in the love that simply loves