The Girl Wanted – A book of friendly thoughts

The pleasure of giving to the public this volume has been brought about by the publication of the author's work entitled, “Boy Wanted,” which he presented as “a book of cheerful counsel to his young friends and such of the seniors as are not too old to accept a bit of friendly admonition.” The warm welcome accorded that book, and the many requests it has called forth for a similar companion volume for girls, has prompted the author to prepare the series of papers offered herewith, with the hope that they, too, may find as many youthful friends (between the ages of seven and seventy) awaiting them. In the present volume, as in “Boy Wanted,” the fine prose thoughts are selected from the writings of a very large number of the world's foremost teachers and philosophers of all times, while the author, with a due sense of modesty, lays claim to all such examples of versification as are to be found within this book. In these days when the women of the world, with such splendid success, are writing books for the moral guidance and spiritual uplift of the men and youth of every land, an author need not feel called upon to apologize when he presumes to address his remarks to readers of the opposite sex, as did John Ruskin, to such fine purpose, in the “Pearls for Young Ladies.” Since his own mother, wife, sisters, daughters and many of his best friends belong to the feminine half of humanity, any man who is a careful observer, a logical reasoner, and an adequate writer ought to be able to say something of worth and interest to the women and girls to whom he is permitted to address himself. If in this volume the author is able to impart to others, in a small degree, the beneficent influence he has received through the splendid precepts and noble examples of the women to whom he owes so much, he will deem himself grandly rewarded for the labor of love herein set forth. Nor is the author unconscious of the great purpose that should underlie the writing of a series of papers designed to direct the daughters of our land toward the greatest factor in the making and the perpetuity of a nation, a noble and beautiful womanhood. For observation has taught the world that, we’re almost sure to find good men, When, all in all, we choose to take them, Are, nearly nine times out of ten, What mothers, wives and sisters make them.