The Washington times., 1903-12-27
UP.TO-DATE GIRL.

TN no particular has our social and
domestic machinery shown more Sc
4 rious deterioration than In the proc
esses by which the girl has been
eliminated from the scheme. says a
writer in the 'Pittsburg Gazette One
rarely meets today the girl, who half
century ago was a factor in the home
both potent and beautiful As to
whether the change which has given US
the young woman with a wide knowl-
edge of affairs and liberal education
on subjects that were kept out of her
grandmOther's reach until after she was
Of age, Is a change for the better there
may be more than one opinion Once in
her teens. the modern girl LAYS aside
many of the time-honored attributes of
girlhood. In the category OF these re-
linquished characteristics there are un-
fortunately many sweet and compelling
charms which. while they may have
served no practical end. gave to girl
hood an aureoIe of sanctity. hedging
about that mystic age between the quiet
of seclusion and the sterner activities
that await the woman when she has
moved into the important sphere for
which nature intended her. At twelve
years of age the child passes presum-
ably into girlhood, and at eighteen she
energies. chrysalis-like. into the full
glory and beauty of young womanhood.
Under modern conditions this interme-
diary age has been ruthlessly invaded
by demands and customs that rob IL NOT
only of its serenity of mind and seclu-
sion from grosser contact, but dispeI in
large measure the holy idealism that
possessed the maindenhOod of which
Longfellow so beautifully sang:
Standing with reluctant feet
Where the brook and river meet
.Womanhood and childhood feet
In associations today the young girl
has a wider latitude and thereby comes
into contact with influences that tend
u brush the bloom from the cheek and
give the eye steadier CLEAN when II
looks out upon the world To cata-
logue the losses and gains as between
the "girf' of the past and the miss"
of the present day is difficult and deli
lacks in reserve and the modesty of
ignorance that are always such potent
and alluring charms at that uncertain
age between childhood and womanhood.
Access TO fiippant and falsely con-
ceived views Of life is so much easier
for the girl OF today. She reads tinsel
literature and becomes, through the
matinee habit, an almost daily student
OF the unreal and fiasby views Of life
that the stage too often gives Ii is an
astonishing fact. but nevertheless true.
that very many stage enterprises are
vitalized and male profitable by pam
dering TO the silly taste OF what is
known as the matinee girl" Her
alteration for the hero keeps that hero
in frock coats and diamond pins, for
without this alteration the hero would
be "A poor sort Of stage encumbrance.
This may be all very well for the hotei
BIZ. Of the hero. but the process robs us
OF our girls, makes them foolish and
forward misses at a time when they
should be cultiva ding the modest charms
and graces that honest and desirable
would-be husbands seek IN the woman
they hope TO marry.
1t is perhaps an advance over the past
that our young girls from twelve to
eighteen are better equi ped as mem
bers OF society. that they can make
themselves infinitely nose useful in
variety of ways than could their little
sisters of half a century ago. All this
may be granted, and proud word just
~ said FOR the bright. vivacious type
OF young girlhood that we find in this
modern day. but nevertheless, the real
girl, the natural child with her dolls
at twelve and fifteen and her inno-
cence and reserve at sweet sixteen. is
fast disappearing. Her passing means
the loss from the domestic ami social
scheme of the t,sderest and sweetest
human flower that the good God ever
permitted to blossom in the garden of
humanity.