Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 April 1895 — THE GIRL OF THIRTEEN. [ARTICLE]

THE GIRL OF THIRTEEN.

Unless She Has Care at That Age She Will Make a Forlorn Women. The girl of 13 is the future woman and a very Important parcel of humanity, says the New York Sunday Advertiser. She is a child and just growing into womanhood, and this transition which to grown-ups means only a sudden shooting up beyond all bounds and a tendency to stooped shoulders, is much more to the girl who leaves childhood behind and is not yet a young lady. Fast growing is a very great drain on any child’s strength, and as at 13 she usually has considerable work at school, both mind and body are called upon to do double work. That Is why she needs care. Good food, rost and congenial company are some of the tilings which are necessay for the girl of 13. She should not have too much excitement, or books to read which tax her thoughts too much, as her mind develops only too quickly at this age, and every-day life and lessons are enough to occupy her. She should go to bed early and sleep ten hours. For breakfast she should eat strengthening, bone-making food, oat meal, oranges, brown bread, eggs and milk. For her midday meal she should have something more sustaining than a bread and butter lunch, if she is to grow up into a strong woman. Hot soup and a chop and a baked potato every day. for three months will make her stand up straighter than braces will. She should have a walk in the open air every day; if she does not get this she will grow nervous and sleepless, have fantastic notions about an early grave and running away from home, or, worse still, grow sentimental and write morbid little verses and weep over the poor. These are all true symptoms of the girl of 13. She begins to think she is very old as soon as she gets into her teens, and the responsibilities affect her sensitive new mind to an appalling degree—if she is given time to think of them.