Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1917-11-02
Girls of Yesterday

Girls of today are a good deal alike,
They learn the same lessons. play the
same way, and dress in MILDLY blouses,
serge skirts and bright sweaters The
little girls of long ago were as differ
ent as were the parts of Europe from
which their oolonist parents had COM,
Katinka, in old Albany, was real
Dutch girl. Her flaxen hair stood out
in two straight braids on either side
of her white cap Her skirts were full
and short, and her wooden shoes made
LOUD tapping as she walked to school
over the rough stones of the street.
katinka was always up long before
scnooitime, Weakened by the jingle OF
many cow-be]ls. There were great
herds Of cows in old Albany and it was
part Of Katinka's work to drive the
| cows to pasture at daybreak
Then came breakfast of buttermilk.
crullers, cheese and sausages. After
school Katinka hurried home to work
| on the stockings she was knitting. We
! can almost see her. intent on her
needles, seated in the stiff little gar
den that was bright with the tulips
| they had brought from their home
land-HollanG.
In the south, quaint little Chloe the
slender English cousin of Katinka,
learned to play on her spinet and
tended the roses in her garden. She
wore her hair in curls and was dressed
in old-fashioned lowered materials
and tiny, laced slippers. She was
good little housekeeper, though, ard
learned from her mother how to brew
home remedies from herbs, how to
measure the food supplies from the
big storeroom, and how to make. tho
sweets and preserves for which the
south was SO famous.
Chloe was happiest, though. in the
beautiful garden of the plantation
where she lived. She had flowers
there brought from England-holly.
hooks, yellow cowslips, sweet peas.
honeysuckles and jonquils AS the
little southern girl in her ruffled sun
bonnet, carrying basket and garden
shears, went from flower to flower,
she looked like blossom herself, q
real part of the garden.
AS Katinka knitted and Chloe picked
roses, Emily, the little Quaker girl OF
old Philadelphia, went, IN her gray
cloak, on errands of mercy up and
down the quaint, narrow streets of tire
town. Her mother liked nothing SC
much as packing basket of delicacies
for an ailing neighbor, and Emily al
ways carried it carefully to its destina.
ton, walking soberly, for she had been
taught that 1t was unseemly to run.
She wore big poke bonnet that al
most hid her demure little face and
she said "thee' and chou with great
rare. She could sweep and cook ard
Cpin as we'll as her mother. and when
Ehe had not yet reached her teens,
Emily had to give up school altogeth-
er to help with the work of her Quak
or home. a
! Last of all, there was Industrious
little Patience, the girl of New Eng.
land She wore a long, gray frock OF
homespun with white handkerchief
folded over her shoulders, and little
gray cap bordered with white. Pa
tience's little brother went to school
in the morning, but she was Obliged
/, to remain at home and study with her
mother as she helped spin, weave and
cook. What = wonderful little cook
Patience was. though! She could stuff
q turkey and make mincemeat and
tloughnuts. She was able to patch
and quilt the warmest of comfortables
end she knitted all her brothers win
Ter mufflers and mittens.
Four girls of long ago! Which will
you be, or will you try to initiate tho
Industry of all and so be the best
Kind of American girl?--Carolyn z.
D., ;Iaxy IN (,uoon,c EardenS