GIRLS AS THEY ARE AND AS THEY WERE.

Southland Times, Issue 1134, 2 April 1869, Page 3

GIRLS AS THEY ARE AND AS THEY WERE.

(feom the qubbn.) " There are no girls now-a-days," said a despairing friend of ours a short time ago, after enumerating many things which had offonded her in the behaviour of certain young people with whom she had come into contact. Of course, by this she did not mean to assert that there are no female creatures of the age that used to be called girlhood ; she merely meant to put forward emphatically the result of her observation on the want, in the present day, of what used to be considered the characteristics of girls. Certainly, the girls of the present time afford matter for observation and reflection, not always of the most pleasant kind. It is said that there is a tendency in a large section of every community to look upon what is past and half forgotten as better than anything we have now-a-days ; and to lament inconsiderately over the passing away of " the good old times." It may be that the complaints of the degeneracy of girla are in part founded on no better real on than that the older people have a little forgotten what they were Eke, themselves, when they were young. Perhaps the grandmother of the girls of the" present 1 day lamented thattheir daughters were not as they used to be when the greatgrandmothers bore rule. However, we are of opinion, and so are a good many others who study the development of girl-nature, that certain characteristics are more prevalent now than at any former time, and that these are most decidedly neither what were in fashion when we were young, nor what ought to prevail at any time, unless we are altogetjpL^change^ becoming that girla should think, feel, People differ in their idea o£Lgirl»; ,Qf coune we exclude from our category

> such anomolies as the "Old Girls" of I the ' Saturday Review,' or, indeed, any of ; the various classes of so-called " girls " f who receive the name from a mistaken ; courtesy or a habit of talk, rather than • out of any correspondence between the ! age of the persons and the name applied ; to them. Our girls are from twelve to • eighteen — <vi age at which few of such ; young people have left the schoolroom or the immediate wing of their mammas ; ' and we are bound to say, that the girls \ between those ages are not all they [ ought to be, or perhaps all that they used . to be. Girls, even at the lower limit of i this selected age, have an unpleasant . habit of enunciating and supporting opinions of their own, which astonishes people who know how little ground for i forming any views such young ladies can have. In the days of their mothers, the province of girls was supposed to be to listen and learn ; now, apparently, it is to ! talk and teach. Young girls of our time I seem to have no fear of forming judgments | for themselves, and acting upon their own decisions. Formerly, when a girl had any step to take which involved consequences of any moment, however small, she took her mother, or some older and more experienced friend, into counsel ; and was guided by her. Now, young girls chose their own friends, consult other young people of their own age and experience (or want of it), in their difficulty, and the effects in some cases are curious, if not lamentable. An amount of want of respect for elders, of disregard of little courtesies, of self-assertion, has sprung up among our girls, which is often sad to see. One wonders, in contemplating the state of things now, what will be the result on the bringing up of a future generation, Probably much of what we lament at present is the result of reaction from what are considered to have been the undue severities of former days. We wonder whether the relaxation discipline will go on till something like the state of things prevails in America is introduced here, or whether, the evil effects of too great laxity having been seen and felt, a return will be made | to the days when mothers really guided their daughters, and daughters trusted and followed their mothers. Sad as the conclusion is, we confess that, as the things seem to be be going now, we rather dread the former than hope for the latter issue. j