The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-04 00:00:00

AMERICAN YOUNG LADYISIIL

(From Bentley's Miscellany for September.)
Clumsy, coarse features, striking deformities,
original and characteristic ugliness, are found
neither among American men nor women. No one
could dream there of asserting that "le laid c'est
le beau." The great majority of women are mode-
rately pretty, very passable, or pleasingly pretty.
Still their charms are concentrated more in their
features than in their demeanour, figures, or cor-
poreal shape. A classical bust, rounded arms, and
well developed limbs are the greatest rarity among
them. You may gaze on a hundred and not dis-
cover one shapely waist. The effeminate manner
of these anything but Spartan republican ladies,
their horror of bodily movement and physical
exertion, produce neglect and decay of the entire
muscular system. Walking in the open air is some-
thing quite unusual with them, for in their coun-
try, where there are no footpaths or promenades,
they move about in carriages, and rarely on horse-
back. The rest of the long day they spend, after
the fashion of ladies in Eastern harems, on softly
cushioned sofas, or in their favourite rocking-
chairs by the fireside. Full beauties ala Rubens
are never found among them, and equally rare are
those graceful, well-rounded, elastic, Junonic forms,
which may still be seen in Italy and other Euro-
pean countries. The ladies of Kentucky alone
offer an exception to this, but the rest all resemble
tulips, in whom only the head delights.
The intercourse of American gentlemen with
these pretty, pale, elegant ladies is—so long as
they are unmarried—of a nature that would not be
tolerated in England. They stand in far too bold
and confidential a footing for our notions. English
parents, it is known, grant their daughters far more
liberty than the French do, who keep theirs in a
convent till it is time to marry them. Among the
Americans, where the Republican feeling of inde-
pendence is added to that inheritance from English
habits, and is born with children of both sexes, this
liberty has necessarily degenerated, just as you find
much across the ocean which in England would press
out of the ground like a tender, sweet-tasted aspa-
ragus head, but in America has shot up wildly and
luxuriantly into a long hard stalk, with multitu-
dinous side-shoots and seeds. The emancipation of
younn, women in America is as perfect as it well
can be • they hardly allow their parents the right
of guardianship. They take care of themselves : they
are allowed to receive the visits of young gentlemen,

who again introduce other gentlemen without con-
sulting the parents. The young ladies make ap-
pointments with these gentlemen, and ask them to
call in the morning, or to take tea, even should papa
and mamma not be at home, or happen to be engaged
in another part of the house.
If there be any especial beauty among the
daughters of a family, she assumes the mastery so
utterly that, so to speak, everything is done in her
name. Even though the official invitations to balls
and parties are made in the parents' name, the
daughter has most certainly selected the candidates.
She will also invite any one she pleases, or may be
introduced to, without asking papa and mamma.
When young people arrange to visit any house in
the evening they do not say, as in Paris, " Shall
we pay a visit to Madame N. to-night ?" but, '' Shall
we go and call on Miss A. or Miss B. ?" The good
papa, some rum-bibbing member of Congress, or
senator bothered with political committees, is not at
all taken into consideration. On entering the
house, the daughter is naturally seen sitting in the
centreof the sofa, and the conversation is exclusively
addressed to her. In many cases the mother is
quite passed over. If she be all old and wearisome,
she generally sits with grandmamma, warming
herself at the fire. It often happens that awlttrhanger
terms
I may stand on very intimate e
rintosthe mother.
I daughters ere he has been introduced