BLUSHING FIFTEEN. (AUSTRALASIAN.)

Waikato Times, Volume III, Issue 170, 10 June 1873, Page 2

BLUSHING FIFTEEN. (AUSTRALASIAN.)

How any man of common sense — any man who has the use of his eyes and ears, and is not hopelessly deroid of reason — can, after sponding au evening in company with a girl of 15, sit down and make her or one of her age, a heroine of a novel surpasses our comprehension. And yet the thing is done every day. Girls whose bone and muscle are still unformed, who hare absolutely not done growing, who are as awkward in their bodies as they are silly in their minds, are described as having the persons of angels and the thoughts of mature women. And as a general rule the older a novelist is the younger he makes his heroines. Probably he goes on the principle that as life is now so short for himself he will give his creations a good lease of it, and so, making his hero and heroine fall iv love at the respective ages of 20 and 15, ho marries jthoin at the end of three volumes, when they are just a year older, and leaves them | for ever after to make the best of it. The principal objection to a girl of 15 falling in love is that she is incapablo of it. She may have profound attachments for other girls, she may be passionately fond of tarts, to the extent of spending all her pocket money oa them, there may be even some dark young man of whom she drops mysterious hints to her bosom friend, but she has no more real idea of what love is than a boy has of the meaning of man's work. J Go and ,talk to one of those fair young creatures, and if you get her to answer you — which is a chance — you will soon see the stuff slid is made of. If sSa is not suffused in blushes to au extent painful to a beholder — if the does not wriggle in her chair with confusion, and wring her hands because she doesn't know what better to do with them — if, in fact, she doesn't mako you as awkward aud foolish as herself from merely looking at her, she will put you out twice as muoh I by being pert and self-possessed. A self-possessed maiden of 15 is indeed an infliction of the most awful kind. Tiiera is as little fear of her falling in love as there is of any man falling in love with her. She is a prodhict of the highest civilisation. Manners have been tuught her from her youth upwards, and likewise all the accomplishments. She talks according to Morell, knows all about Mrs Soinorville, prefers German to Italian music, and has her own ideas about last Sunday's 'sermon. To attempt a conversation with her would bo as difficult as with a child. If your answers fit in, so much the better for your answers ; if they don't, so much (he worse ; but whether or not, she'll prattle on and exhibit her stock of knowledge. It is generally the fault of education with tho poor little thing, and finding is dresn't answer, she usually resumes the feminine nature she was born with as she advances in years. We have known the most abominable little prig of 15, who frightened every man, old or young, that approacned her, turn out as pleasant and lovable a woman of 30 as any one could wish to talk to. It is only when tho juvenile prig gets married before boing reclaimed, and so avoids tho necessity of making herself agreeablo to .mankind, that she may be considered incurable. She then becomes the- crying nuisance we are all acquainted with, and transmits her worst qualities, perhaps, to a numerous progeny of little prigs. She holds herself up as a shining example to her girls, tells thorn how good and well-conducted she was at their age, and implores them, for I heir own sake, and for her credit, to follow her example. Every one with tho heart of a man will pity the children of this woman ; but what must our feelings be for the husband ? The blame he deserve! for t-tking such a callow little article out of the parent nest in swallowed up in compassion for tho miseries he has endured ever since, and not oven tho most hard- hearted and cynical of his old trie nds can bo got to say it served him right. But it is tho " blushing maiden of 15 " we mean to write about just now, and •<' tho other one," as Mr Jonas Chuzziowit would hav> called her, needn't or doesn't apply at present. Wo ha- 9no dislike to girls of 15. If necessary erils,

they are among tlio least ; if conflned to the schoolroom, f and playground, nnd led on bread and butter, they may be positively nice ; but let loose on society, brought into the drawing-room to s t .>eak, to the ball-room to dance, and to the noT^l to ajt 03^ heron c, we object to and p.vtat against them, as much in their interests aa our own. What dinner would compensate a man of sense, we would like to ask, for I having to take down and talk to a child of tender yean, whose whole soul ia engrossed with the necessity of playing propriety at table, and who thinks more of the way she will unfold her napkin and dispose of her skirts than of the best dishes and the prettiest speeches P In the ball-room the may bo more enduruble. Any fool can dance, perhaps none but fools can dance properly, jind her presence is consequently not so obtrusively disagreeable ; but even a set of quadrille* with a girl of 15 is a tax to society that no mun should be called upon to pay. For one thin?, girls of 15 write and receive valentines. They absolutely take a pleasure in the grossest abuse of the great gift ot writing that an educated being can be capable of. How can novelists overlook thi» fact P How can they pretend to reprasent a soul torn with tender emotions when they know — when we all know — that these young ones find a safety-valve to their feelings in the things sold at the stationers' at prices ranging from 3d to a guinea ? Why, girls of 15 gloat over valentines. They send them to one another, put them under their pillows to induce dreams, and treasure them up in their desks with the intention of keeping them for ever. Fancy a man conceiving a passion for & girl who would respond to hia protestations by sending him a valentine ! And yet sucli an abyss of absurdity must any one be prepared to plunge into *who falls in love with o> maiden of 15. Such a reflection as that is in itself sufficient to show how untrue to nature are our novelists. We have seen Juliets on the stage that have ranged from 20 to 41), and the best were those that approached the latter age. What sort of Juilet could wo look for in a 15-year-old girl ? If the mirror were held up to nature, we'd have a girl with her pocket full of lollies, her brain full of nonsense, and no more real love for poor Romeo then a new dress and a few jam tarts would suffice, to cure her of. But -we see a grown woman, whom it is possible for a man to love, who knows what passion is, and Jias probably felt it, enact £iW part of the child ; and her experience, and the' Wonderful words of the poet, make us, against our senses, believe that Juliet was a heroine, and capable of the divine feeling. It is all nonsense, tjo, to say that one race develops sooner than another. ' Children will bo children) And the Hindoo or Italian child of 15 is no more fit for the position we tabooto her than if she wee born in Lapland. Let us romp with girls of 15, play croquet with them, or kiss in the ring, according to our station in life, and bring them bags of sweetmeats when we visit their mothers, but let na spare them our love until they turn 20, and above all, let us not put ideas into their little stupid head*. .They may not like to be treated as children — we seldom do like what i> wholesome— but " blushing fifteen " will, if left to blush to five-and-twenty, be thankful ior our intercession.