The American Girls Handy Book
How to
Amuse
Yourself
and
Others
The American Girls
Handy Book.
BY
Lina Beard
and
Adelia B. Beard
New York
Charles
Scribner’s
Sons
1893
Preface
“I do wish some one would write a book like that for girls,” is the remark we have frequently heard when a new book of sports for boys has made its appearance; but it was not until the publication of the “American Boy’s Handy Book” that it occurred to us to write a book for the American boy’s neglected sisters, which should be equally original and practical.
In the “Girl’s Handy Book,” which it has been our endeavor to make peculiarly American, we have sought to introduce original and novel ideas, and by their aid to open new avenues of enterprise and enjoyment.
One of our objects is to impress upon the minds of the girls the fact that they all possess talent and ability to achieve more than they suppose possible, and we would encourage a belief in the truth of the remark said to have been made by a famous Frenchman: “When you Americans undertake anything you never stop to ascertain if it be possible, you simply do it.”
We desire also to help awaken the inventive faculty, usually uncultivated in girls, and, by giving detailed methods of new work and amusements, to put them on the road which they can travel and explore alone.
We know well the feeling of hopelessness which accompanies vague directions, and, to make our explanations plain and lucid, we have ourselves, with very few exceptions, made all of the articles, played the games, and solved the problems described.
The materials employed in the construction of the various articles are within easy reach of all, and the outlay, in most cases, little or nothing.
We scarcely deem it necessary to point out the fact that in supplying healthy, sensible work and amusement for leisure hours, employment is given whose whole tendency is to refine the tastes and ambitions of our American girls.
A few of our chapters are taken from articles which were written by us for, and published by, the Youth’s Companion, St. Nicholas, Harper’s Young People, Golden Days, and Wide Awake.