IS SEVENTEEN SWEET?

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 54, 5 March 1898, Page 3 (Supplement)

IS SEVENTEEN SWEET?

Is seventeen sweet? Mothers as a rule ■will agree that the adjective is misapplied. The maiden Avhostands AVith reluctant feet

Adhere the brook and river meet is apt to be either a very unmanageable young; person, with the immature mind of a child and the will and obstinacy of a woman, or a tender, impossible sort of creature AA-ith -feelings,' who indulges in morbid introspection and the luxury of fancying herself misunderstood. The truth of the matter is that seventeen is the are of all others that is the most difficult for a girl. -Boys, as a rule, at that period of their lives, are frankly called 'nuisarces,' and ara generally kept so busy at school that they have no time to develop any idiosyncrasy; but with their sisters it is different. A French author alludes unkindly, but cleverly, to 'that curious personality, the modern young girl Avho does not know rightly how to speak, or to think, or act, and who only understands how to be unhappy.' Mothers often' grow discouraged over the difficulty of understanding and directing their daughters' moods; not reflecting, however, that they themselves were probably quite as 'difficile' in their youth; and that with patience all will come right in the end. It is curious to see how the feminine nature changes between the ages of seventeen and twenty—.'sweet twenty' it might truly be c«ned—the crankiness and self-absorption having by that time disappeared like the tartness of an unripe fruit, as the crudeness of early girlhood develops into the kindly and beneficent qualities of the woman. Yes, sweet twenty, if you will; but not sweet seventeen!