The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-10-03

I ity of mothers possess with their half grown daughters? This ques-
 ton was brought home to me a
 few days ago by a conversation l had with friend who is the mother of a pleasing child of about 15. The talk was started by a reference on my part to the astonishing ways of dressing the hair practiced by some quite young girls. My remark had been entirely impersonal, but it acted as the letting out of waters upon my friend.
 Isn't 1t perfectly dreadful?" she said These children really don't know any thing about how they look, and they do all sorts of uncanny things to their hair just because the other girls do, and their mothers have nothing to say about it.
 If l were the mother of one of them l fancy I would have something to say about it. " I returned
 You may think so now, but you'd learn better in a hurry if you were the mother of a girl of today. My daughter cut her front hair into an awful looking bang and frizzed 1t up until her head looked like what my father used to call hurrah's nest whatever that may be. l pleaded with her and scoded her, but the only way got her to change 1t at all was by promising her that if she would simplify her hair little in front would let her turn it up at the back, as she has been crazy to do. So we made that bargain, and now she looks little more nearly respectable than she did before."
 But wouldn't she change 1t when you told her you didn't think it was a suitable way to wear it." I queried, a little be- wildered between this state of affairs and that I recollected in my own girl hood and that of my daughters.
 l should say not " was the emphatic reply " She told me when l tried that line of argument that all the other girls at her school were doing it, and that they thought her queer if she were dif- ferent.''
 Only a few hours later I met another mother who uttered plaint of much the same kind. Her lament had to do with hat her daughter of IA had just bought.
 let Margaret go downtown to get her own hat for the first time, and be- fore she went l urged her not to get one with a stuffed bird on it-I am member of the Audubon society, you know-and warned her against choosing green, be- cause it is so trying to her complexion, and besides that it has been so much worn that it's getting common. My dear. she came home wearing a hat with bright green parrot on it.
 ''What did you do?" I inquired, in- terested in this further development of the self-willed daughter.
 What could I do? I told her she ought to be ashamed of herself. but, of course, that didn't make any difference to her now that she has had her own way and got the hat she wanted"
 All these things gave me occasion for a good deal of serious thought Are girls 90 different now from what they were when I was a girl and when my own daughters were young? Has there been such change in their nature that you can no longer direct them that it is m- possible to hold their faith in your wis dom and good judgment? This is mat ter on which I would like to have the opinion and the experience of the moth- CTS in the Corner for the sake of my own information and also for the bene- it think would be won from a com parison of notes.
 I do not for a moment believe that a girl any more than boy, should be eter- nally tied to her mothers apron string. You can have mollycoddle in petticoats aswel as in trousers, and l cant find one more attractive than the other. often think of the Frenchman who told the young mother that he wished for her that all her daughters might be brave and her sons virtuous.
 She looked puzzled.
 You meant to put that the other way and wish my sons should be brave and my daughters virtuous, didn't your" she asked
 No, madame. I meant what said. Nature will take care of bravery in the sons and virtue in the daughters. but my hope for you is that each may acquire the quality supposed to be the peculiar prop erty of the other!"
 So I maintain that the girls should be