THE GIRL’S OWN PAPER
AN ANTIQUE FÊTE.
From the Painting in the Salon by P. L. Vagnier.
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Vol. XX.—No. 993.]
[Price One Penny.
JANUARY 7, 1899.
[Transcriber’s Note: This Table of Contents was not present in the original.]
SELF-CULTURE FOR GIRLS.
CHRONICLES OF AN ANGLO-CALIFORNIAN RANCH.
ART IN THE HOUSE.
VARIETIES.
“OUR HERO.”
SONG.
THE RULING PASSION.
ABOUT PEGGY SAVILLE.
ALL ABOUT OATMEAL.
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.
SELF-CULTURE FOR GIRLS.
ASPIRATION.
All rights reserved.]
PART I.
There is, perhaps, no word in the presentday which has been more frequently used andabused than “culture.” It has come soreadily to the lips of modern prophets, that ithas acquired a secondary and ironical significance.Some of our readers may have seen aclever University parody (on the HeathenChinee) describing the encounter of twoundergraduates in the streets of Oxford.One, in faultless attire, replies proudly tothe other’s inquiry where he is going—
“I am bound for some tea and tallculture.”
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He is, in fact, on the way to a meetingof the Browning Society, and when a Donhurries up to tell him the society has suddenlycollapsed, great is the lamentation!
Probably the society in question deservedno satire at all; but there is a sort of “culturefor culture’s sake” which does deserve to beheld up to ridicule.
We find nothing to laugh at, however, buta very real pathos, in the letters that arereaching us literally from all quarters of theglobe; and we long to help the writers, aswell as those who have similar needs andlongings unexpressed. “How can I attainself-culture?” is the question asked in varying