The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-01-11
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Z BEING A GIRL, And WHAT :
Is THE USE or IT? !
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BY MARY LOWE DICKINSON.

BY MARY LOWE DICKINSON.
They were a dozen girls or more. the
first persons, so far as the writer
knows, to express an interest in our
topic.
They were the lingerers in a large
college for women whose homes were
too distant for the usual holiday fit
ting. AS they gathered about the
study fire on Christmas Eve. a white
haired teacher CHANGED TO call atten-
ton to the question thai heads this
column.
Some of the loungers were what
would be termed very earnest girls.
who had thought out some things and
lived out others, but tbs majority were
everyday average girls. with all their
emotional tragedies and most of their
real experiences yet to come. They
were botn innocent and ignorant
enough to wish that the sensational
phases of life would hurry along faster,
feeling, as one of them expressed it,
as if she were the third part. a mere
fraction, of a verb. Its function is
TO do, to be, or to suffer-" she said
and l am not content with one. I
have enough TO do; parents and teach
ers have taken care of that. But I
think il is time I began to be and 10
suffer-" She had never dreamed, this
eager girl, that the suffering which
comes last in the grammar be-
fore the being in actual life; but it
mattered little, since she was equally
strange to both.
They looked serious enough for a mo-
ment when the topic was read to them,
and then, as might have been expected.
bounced upon it like so many kittens
playing with a ball, giving it now gen
tie taps, now harder hits, and again a
sturdy knock that sent it for a momen
out of sight.
4 thought it such a strange aues-
ton, Being a girl and what is the
use of it, said one. when | first
looked at the outline for these talks.
But later l realized how many times
l had practically asked the same qUes-
ton of myself. OF what use are we
girls, anyway? I could see the good
Of mother and of my grown-up sisters,
both the married and unmarried. They
are everything to their own and to
each other and to all of US OUNCE
children Of the family. But we young
girls seem to live simply to grow and
be taken care of by our elders, longing
all the time for the years to fly faster,
that we may taste grown-up existence
for ourselves"
But while we want to get on faster,
we want to get all the fun we can out
of it as w go along,' broke in a
merry voice. And getting a good time
is as good a use as anybody can be
put to-" h added.
Il think my elder sisters found out
the use Of me-" chimed in a third.
The child that comes last in our
family inherits all the 'cut-downs' and
'make-overs' of her elders. I know
my sisters had many a new gown
which they owe to me. They never
would have had them but for the fact
that the old one would make over well
for Jane"
And I wonder now said a fourth,
why we objected to our big sisters
clothes after they were cut down to our
size, when we thought ourselves per-
fectly lovely if they let us adorn our
little bodies with any of their
attire. [ remember strutting about
like a little peacock in thy sisters lace
collar and cameo brooch, carrying
proudly her p~arasol and fan, while l re-
belled openly at her skirts after it had
been cut down"
Perhaps you tried to live up to the
parasol and fan and felt as if the
frock had been made to come down TO
you
That may be. I only know that I
felt highly exalted in one and brought
low in The other. 1 would give a good
OGd u ltEl OIC6 IlOI6 d. / IEI IN maj
cameo brooch"
Il think our brothers manage to find
plenty of uses for u.s." said a quiet girl,
who had not spoken before.
"Oh, yes; of course" answered an
aggressive voice; there are always
ways enough in which we can con-
tribute TO the upbuilding of the char
acter of the masculine members of the
family as we were told in Miss LIS
IA = CT aCCaN ~. fanof1r ,1+,r-
but whether such ~upbuildings is of real
use, either TO the brothers or the girls,
is a question. It's of no use if we
make the boys exacting."
Yet my mother brought us up to
feel as If she depended upon us to help
bring UP n boys, though the girls
were the younger, and the boys were
not taught to take any special trouble
Tor US But we girls never planned a
good time that we were not advised
to arrange that the brothers should go,
and even TO give them UP altogether
when h boys preferred to stay at
home. Even then we must not speak
minds lest we oppose or
our brother. We lived in terror lest
we drive him ava from home be-
cause we failed to make home attrac-
tive and agreeable for a boz. OF
course it's worth While being a girl
TO be a guardian angel for q bow.
or three or four boys, but I always
wondered why the boys were not
taught to consider the dispositions of
and urged TO make home happy
for the girls"
"Ah, you lear little REBEL" said one
of the eldest students. patronizingly
patting the rebels curly head, you
reading too many books, hearing
too much talk and getting out of har-
with the existing social order.
Professor r. would say"
I'm not quoting books at all. I
you my actual experience. The
and the boy in our home were
all important. My mother made them
and kept them so. If they were
unsOcial, gruff or impatient, they did
feel WELL II they disdained the
something else was provided,
when we girls would have been told
promptly that, sick or well, we should
be gentle and courteous, and CRATE
fully accept whatever fare was pro-
vided. 1t made me question seriously
a good many times as TO whether it
vas worth while TO be a girl, when in
every way the boy is of SO much more
account"
You are wrong girls" said the
teacher. gently. The experience Just
given is exceptional. Time was when
the good of being a girl seemed doubt
ful. There are pagan lands in which
IL