Summary

José Martí The Golden Age — To the children who read "The Golden Age"

Girls must know as much as boys, so that they can speak with them as friends as they grow up. It is a shame when a man has to leave the house to look for someone to talk with, because the women of his house do not know enough to tell him about anything other than entertainment and fashion. But there are very delicate and tender things that girls understand better, and for them we write in a manner that pleases them, because The Golden Age has its own in-house wizard, who says that something happens in the souls of girls that is similar to what hummingbirds see when they browse among flowers.
Source: Wikisource

José Martí The Golden Age — To the children who read "The Golden Age"

That is why The Golden Age is published: so that American boys know how life was lived before, and is lived today, in America and in other lands, and so they know how things are made, like crystal and iron things, steam engines, hanging bridges, and electric light. And in order that when a boy sees a colored rock, he knows why it has those colors, and what each color means, and so that boys are familiar with famous books where stories of battles and religions of ancient peoples are told.
Source: Wikisource

José Martí The Golden Age — To the children who read "The Golden Age"

This magazine is for boys, and for girls, of course. Without girls we could not live, just like the earth cannot live without light. Boys must work, walk, study, be strong, and be handsome. Boys can be handsome even if they are ugly – a good, intelligent, and neat boy is always handsome. But a boy is never as handsome as when he brings a flower to a girl in his strong, manly little hands, or when he takes his sister's arm, so that no one offends her. Then boys grow, and appear to be giants: boys are born to be gentlemen, and girls to be mothers.
Source: Wikisource

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