164 PLAIN FACTS FOit OLD AND YOUNG 



by one of those heartless fops who consider the break- 

 ing of hearts an enjoyable pastime, should not regret 

 her experience as a loss, but rather regard it as a 

 fortunate deliverance from a life of wretchedness cer- 

 tain to result to any woman who places her happiness 

 in the keeping of one of those shallow-brained and 

 heartless individuals. 



Youthful Flirtations. — Flirting is not confined 

 to young men and women. The contagion extends to 

 little boys and girls, whose heads ought to be as empty 

 of all thoughts of sexual relations as the vacuum of an 

 air-pump is of air. The intimate association of young 

 boys and girls in our common schools, and, indeed, in 

 the majority of educational institutions, gives abundant 

 opportunity for the fostering of this kind of a spirit, 

 so prejudicial to healthful mental and moral develop- 

 ment. Every educator who is alive to the objects and 

 interests of his profession, knows too well the baneful 

 influence of these premature and pernicious tendencies. 

 Many times has the teacher watched with a sad heart 

 the withering of all his hopes for the intellectual prog- 

 ress of a naturally gifted scholar, by this blighting in- 

 fluence. 



The most dangerous period for boys and girls ex- 

 posed to temptations of this sort is that just following 

 puberty, or between the ages of twelve and eighteen or 

 twenty. This period, a prominent educator in one of 

 our Western States once denominated, not inappropri- 

 ately, "the agonizing period of human puppyhood. " 

 If this critical period is once safely passed, the indi- 

 vidual is comparatively safe; but how many fail to 

 pass through the ordeal unseared! 



The most painful phase of this subject is the tacit— 

 even, in many cases, active— encouragement, which too 



