The Massachusetts spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1821-1823, 1823-01-08

young ladies are particularly agreeable,
refined, accomplished, intelligent, and
well-bred
The second class may include the
leading political characters of the pres
ent day, the more eminent lawyers, the
well-educated merchants and agricuItur-
ists,s and the most respectable of the
nOOi homiaes Of every profession. 1t
will thus comprise the mass of the
good society Of America; the first class,
which comprehended the best, being
very limited, stsi generis, and about to
expire with the present generation
The manners of this second class are
less polished than those of the cores
pondihg class in England, and their ed
ucation is neither so regular nor so clas-
sical-but their intellects are as active
ly exercised, and their information at
least as general, although less scientifck
and profound. The young ladies of
this class are lively, modest, and unre-
served; easy in their manners, and
rather gay and social in their DISPOSE
tons. AT the same time, they are very
Observant of the rules of female pro-
priety; and if they ever displease, il
is rather from indifference than from
either bashfulness or effrontery. Their
appearance is generally genteel and a.
greeable; their figures are almost uni
versaIly good and they dress remarka-
bly, well-in this city, indeed, more to
my taste than in almost any place rec
ollect--for which they are indebted
partly to the short passages from Eu-
rope which wait across the Atlantick
the latest fashions from London and
Paris; partly to their accommodating
tariff, which places within their reach
the beautiful Canton grapes, and all the
most elegant materials for dress which
American enterprise can collect in the
four quarters of the globe and part
ly to the simplicity of the Quaker cos
tune, which has had happy and SEN
sible influence on the taste and habits
of the community at large. Their tone
OF voice, which is generally little
shrill, and their mode of pIonouncing
few particular words, are the pecu-
liarities of manner which think would
be most remarked upon in the best So
ciety in England. Generally speaking,
also, the style of female education in
America is less favourable to solid ac-
quirements than with US. The young
ladies here go earlier into society than
in England, aud enter sooner into mar
ried life--they have not, therefore, the
same opportunities for maturing their
taste, expanding their intellect, and ac-
quiring rich store of well-arranged
and digested knowledge, as those have
who devote to improvement the longer
interval which climate or custom has
with US interposed between the nursery
and the drawiDg-room. In the highest
class, especially in Carolina, there are
many exceptions to this general re-
mark and among the young ladies of
Boston, there appears to me to be, if
less refinement than in the Carolinians,
yet a very agreeable union of domes-s
tick habits and literary taste, and great
kindness and simplicity of manners.
The third class may comprehend all
below the second; for, 10 a country
where some would perhaps resent even
the IDEA of second class, this division
is sufficiently minute. This class then
will include the largest proportion of
the American population; and it is dis
tinguished from the corresponding clas-
ses Of my countrymeu (the little far
mers, inn-keepers, shop-keepers, clerks,
mechanics, servants, add labourers) by
greater acuteness and intelligence, more
regular habits of reading, wider range
of ideas, and greater freedom from
Prejudices, provincialism, and yulgarity.
1t is distinguished, also, by greater cold
ness Of manner and this is the first of
the charges against the nation general
ly, on which shall remark.
As respects the highest classes, |
think this charge is in great measure
unfounded; their reception of a stran-
ger, at least, appearing to me as frank
and as warm as in England. To that
part Of the population which have in
cluded in the third class, the charge al
taches with strict propriety, and in many
cases their GOODNESS amounts to The En-
glish "cut direct" At first il incom-
NODDED me excessively, especially in the
women in the country, who showed it
the most; and | have sometimes been
disposed to ride on, not in the best tenn
ner iuhan arriuinn. ~ ~. i'm ac.a.