Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-10-17

should papa or mamma not be at home, or
happen to be engaged in another part Of the
house.
THE BEAUTY OF THE FAMILY.
If there be any especial beauty among
! the daughters Of family, she assumes the
mastery so utterly that, so to speak, every
| thing 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 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 visit To
Madame n. tonight" Z" "Shall we call on
Miss A. or Miss B.. p The good papa, some
rum. bibbing member of Congress, or Sena-
tor bothered with political committees, is
not at all taken into consideration. On en-
tering the house the daughter is naturally
seen sitting in the center of the sofa, and
the conversation is exclusively addressed to
her. In many cases the mother is quite
passed over. If che be at all old and weari-
some she generally sits with grand-mamma,
warming herself at the fire. 1t often hap
pens that a stranger may stand on very in
been introduced to the mother.
OF BEAux.
The expression is extremely characteristic
of the superfcialities of the relations and
sympathies between the two sexes in Amer
ica. External beauty is certainly highly
valued in most countries; it is human
weakness which, however, is not displayed
CO In nj
on the contrary, ladies do not hesitate to
state that they only estimate men by their
beauty. "Who was your beau last night 2'
they ask one another-even the farmers
daughters. You shall be my beau to-
morrow they say to a young man. Oh,
indeed, Mr.. p, you were last night per-
feet beau for me you left nothing to de-
sire" they say to the old gray-haired Mr..
p, when they want to flatter and console
him. The English also employ the word,
but more in the contemptuous sense of q
| "fop" The American ladies select this
| fop pomaded and dressed up by the hair
| dresser, as their cavalier" They also use
very frequently the French words chape-
ron" and " chaperoning,' borrowed from the
days of chivalry. Strangely enough, men
are heard much less frequently alluding to
| their bellies than girls to their beaux. 1t
seems as if the American ladies had turned
the world topsy-turvy and converted men
into the fair sex. Frequently men are made
love to and caioled by the women; and
| American gentlemen hence have something
! passive about them, like ladies among our
selves, and they may often be seen retiring
exhausted and dropping, from ladies
society, to sink into silence and indifference
in the drinking saloons.
THE WORD "ELEGAST."
The American ladies have also received
into their everyday English Language
many other French expressions which tn
English employ rarely, or give very diff
ferent meaning to. Thus, they have re
narkable propensity for the term elegant
1t has grown one of their fayorite words
which they incessantly repeat and who's,
broad and various application is no littl,
characteristic of them. English ladies gen
orally apply this word, borrowed from th
French, to articles of luxury, to products o
the lower branches of art, where it is in it
place, and means so much as "pleasing il
exterior and FORM" English ladies woull
never think of expressing their pleasure
with things of greater internal value which
must he gauged by higher standard, by
employing the trivial expression very ele
CANT" Only American ladies do this they
describe as elegant the toilet and amiabl,
behavior of their beaux, equally with tn,
garish furniture of room all glistenin,
with ormolu and enamel. For the prett,
verses an adorer lays at their feet, thel
have, too, no higher praise than that they
are Every elegant, very elegant indeed.
They also call the speech of a hgh-standins
political orator every elegant" A flower
in Garden-bed, the fragrant lily, or thu
regal rose, is only called by them " an ele
CANT flower Even picture by Raphael
or Correggio receives in the outburst of thei
enthusiasm no other attributes if they re
turn from Switzerland, and are asked wha
they have seen amid the Alps, they praise th
"elegant scenery of the mountains. Thi
unlucky word, and the more unlucky pre-
dilection for the elegant, which is met wit
at every step among American ladies, is $
deeply rooted in them, that they have ex
tended the territory of the word to extraor
dinary lengths, both upward and down
ward. For instance, going downward
! they will talk Of an "elegant dish they
have eaten; and going upward, what We
call good or classical taste, is generally
characterized by them as an elegant taste.
LADIES IN PUBLIC.
The Americans, comparing them with
other nations, are very proud Of the fact
/" ladies" hold so high a position among
them. But to obtain this reputation and
praise Tor their country is often attended
with very unpleasant consequences. fhe
ladies tyrannize over the whole land, and
interfere in every thing. They can in no
way be escaped, and man can scarce ever
dispense with their protection. Every
where they take the first and best places
for themselves and their proteges. That they
should play the prominent part in social
circles, and parade like birds of paradise
by the side of their husbands, whom they
| cast into the shade, is only natural, and
they can not be blamed for it, but they ex-
tend their influence far beyond their nat.
ural and domestic circles.
unluckily, they are very curious, and
hence fond Of being present at the sittinga
OF the scientific, geological geographical
| and historical societies, where they dc
themselves no good, and merely tend to rem
! der the discussions of the society shallo "
and distract the earnestness of their labors
In the public popular lectures, which are s
much admired in all the cities of America
the ladies almost entirely set the fashion