"Old and New Times"

from Atkinson's Casket, 1839:

OLD AND NEW TIMES.

When my good mother was a girl--

Say thirty years ago--

Young ladies then knew how to knit,

As well well as how to sew.

Young ladies then could spin and weave.

Could bake, and brew, and sweep;

Could sing and play, could dance and paint,

And could a secret keep.

Young ladies then were beautiful

As any beauties now—

Yet they could rake the new-mown hay,

Or milk the " brindle cow."

Young ladies then, wore bonnets, too.

And with them their own hair;

They made them from their own good straw.

And pretty, too, they were.

Young ladies then wore gowns with sleeves

Which would just hold their arms;

And did not have as many yards
As acres in their farms.

Young ladies then oft fell in love.

And married too, the men;

While men, with willing hearts and true,

Loved them all back again.

Young ladies now can knit and sew,

Or read a pretty book--

Can sing and paint, and joke and quiz.

But cannot bear to cook.

Young ladies now can blythely spin

Of "street yarn" many a spool;

And weave a web of scandal too,

And dye it in the wool.

Young ladies now can bake their hair

Can brew their own cologne:

In borrowed plumage often shine,

While they neglect their own.

And as to secrets who would think

Fidelity a pearl?

None but a modest little miss.

Perchance a country girl.

Young ladies now wear lovely curls,

What pity they should buy them;

And then their bonnets--heavens! they fright

The beau that ventures nigh them.

E'en love is changed from what it was.

Although true love is known;

'Tis wealth adds lustre to the cheek.

And melts the heart of stone.

Thus time works wonders—young and old

Confess his magic power;

Beauty will fade; but Virtue proves

Pure gold in man's last hour.

(From Blackwood's Magazine for December.)