38 THE HOME, FARM AND BUSINESS CYCLOPAEDIA. 



character of boyhood that poverty is no disgrace. But a velvet jacket, a 

 peculiar collar, hair cut in a singular fashion, long hair especially these 

 are cruel guide-posts to the young bully. He makes the picturesque wearer 

 whose prettiness delights his mother to suffer for this peculiar grace most 

 fearfully. 



Little girls, more precocious than boys, suffer, however, less from the 

 pangs of ridicule ; yet they have their sorrows. An intelligent and poetical 

 girl is laughed at for her rhapsodies, her fine language, or her totally inno- 

 cent exaggerations. She gets the name of fib-teller, when she is perhaps 

 but painting a bluer sky or describing a brighter sun than her fellow- 

 beings can see. But a little girl has generally a great deal of vanity to 

 help her along, and much tact to tell her where to go, so that her suffer- 

 ings are less severe than those of a boy. She gravitates naturally towards 

 the amenities, and, if she is not a well-bred person, it is largely the fault 

 of her surroundings. 



m. 



EDUCATION AND MANNEES OF GIELS. 



WE come now to the subject which perhaps has only remotely to do with 

 the amenities of home, but much to do with the welfare of the state. We 

 must consider the two extremes which are now being brought about by 

 the emancipation of young women. One is, their higher education, the 

 other is, the growing " fastness " of manner. 



One can scarcely imagine amenity of manner without education, and yet 

 we are forced to observe that it can exis-t, as we see the manners of highly 

 educated, and what are called strong-minded women. Soft, gentle, and 

 feminine manners do not always accompany culture and education. In- 

 deed, pre-occupation in literary matters used to be supposed to unfit a 

 woman for being a graceful member of society, but we have changed all 

 that ; and we are now in the very midst of a well-dressed and well-man- 

 nered set of women, who work at their pen as Penelope at her web. 



The home influence is, however, still needed for those young daughters 

 who begin early to live in books ; and neatness in dress and order should 

 be insisted upon by the mother of a bookish, studious girl. All students 

 are disposed to be slovenly, excepting an unusual class, who, like the Count 

 de Buffin, write in lace ruffles and diamond rings. Books are apt to soil 

 the hands, and libraries, although they look clean, are prone to accumulate 

 dust. Ink is a very permeating material, and creeps up under the middle 

 finger-nail. To appear with such evidences of guilt upon one would make 

 the prettiest woman unlovely. 



