Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-07-21
Character Of Amcrican hashssesses. %
The New York Express Of late date says


. The American female is not altogether Of
the sort that falls in love with Tommy, and
gets upon mnntel-pieces to look at strangers
at Presidential receptions. Although the
sex is, like the masculine in one respect, often
represented, or misrepresented rather, by the
most officious and most pretentlous of its
membership those whose talent and charac-
ter are in ON inverse proportion 10 their AS
surance aud ill-breeding, the latter being as
prominent as the former are ooscure-yet for
tunately at the same time when the whole
nation is disgraced in its own eyes and in the
eyes of the world by few silly and vulgar
women, who win doubtless form the subject
Ofill-natared Trades Ia the London Times,
and illonatured comments everywhere in ar
istocratic circles abroad, pointing the moral
of many an article upon democracy and re-
publieansm-at the same time an evidence
Is given that all our women are not silly, and
senseless and shallow. Recently three works
have beenwritter by young American women,
any one of which Is noteworthy, and each
one of which not only indicates future for
its author, but Il is now an absolute accom-
plishment, result ofwhich the author may
The novels Of Beuldh, Sir yRohaas Ghost
and Rutle5ge, all are marked BY real power;
all afford proof of peculiar and rare ability
They are not, indeed, books to be ranked as
classics, but they are such as are sure not
only to obtain u wide circle Of appreciating
readers, but TO extort admiration even from
fastidious critics. They have done 50 already;
foreign periodicals, as well as the highest lit
erary authorities at home, have pronounced
in favor Of these efforts of the American
female mind. They are declared to be dis
tinguished by such narrative talent; such
observation Of life and the world; such sus-
tanned ability to portray character; such high
imaginative powers; such command of lam
guage, and such control Of the feelings of
their readers, as constitute them decidedly of
n higher class than the mere ephemeral pro-
| ductions of the day. Beuldh Is the effort of
a Southern woman; Sir Roharss Ghost eman-
ates from the pen Of a native of Maine, and
| Rutledge, the last of the trio, is believed to
have been written by a New Yorker so that
| the North and the South and the Center Of
the country seem to be conspiring TO prove
| that American women are capable of doing
| some thing worth more than mere mention in
| the field Of American literature; something
TO redeem their sex from the slurs that Others
are bringing upon it. co. 80.
| 1t is agreeable to contemplate this fact at
| the present moment and to solace ourselves
with its recollection when other members of
| that sex, TO which our wives and mothers
and daughters belong, are doing less credit
able things 1t is refreshing to recognize in
| American women tastes higher than those
| for mere novelty, and faculties more exalted
than those required for the production of the
sort of novel with the highest sounding title
and written in the high-hown style, which
only they have been supposed able to pro.
| duce. 1t is to be hoped that the prompt &C.
! acknowledgement of the excellence of these
works with which they have been received
by the public may not only stimulate their
writers to further and still more careful de-
velopment Of their powers, but may have
L n = ~.
restraint, from the qualification of every vul-
| gar propensity, and encouraging those who
need encouragement in the rational exercise
| of the talents committed to them.