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

1ODNO lAO1
Mr.. J. G. Kohl, q German traveller, who has !
described more than half the civilized world, |
has recently written what purports to be an
account of the young ladies Of America.
Our lady readers will not probably agree
with all he says of them; but nevertheless,
we suspect they will read every word with
attention and interest. As for readers of
the other sex, we recommend them to believe
nothing Mr.. Kohl says, unless it is substan-
tiated by their wives, sisters or sweethearts.
ALL AMERICAN WOMEN BEAUTIFUL.
Our traveller begins by remarking that
our domestic institutions produce singular
sameness;
That beauty, however, should become
democratic is q remarkable fact for the OBJ
server. The fair sex in America has not
only the same universal feelings, impulses
and passions, the same education and re-
quirements, which they have obtained from
institutions all of like pattern, but also
the same charms. There is a greater na-
tional family resemblance among American
women than among those of any European
country. The general affinity in manners,
comfort and social value, has had such an
effect on the type of beauty, that they all
appear to have issued from the same mold
and school. An American salon filed with
ladies resembles hyacinth-feld in the sand
gardens Of Berlin.
Clumsy, coarse features, striking deform-
ites, original and characteristic ugliness,
are found neither among American men nor
women. No one could dream, there, of as
serting that le laid c'eSt Ie beau. The great
majority of women are moderately pretty,
very passable, or pleasingly pretty. Still
their charms are concentrated more in their
features than in their demeanor, figures, or
corporeal shape. A classical bust rounded
arms, and well-developed limbs are the
greatest rarity among them. You may gaze
on hundred and not discover one shapely
waist. The effeninate manners of these
any thing but Spartan republican ladies,
their horror of bodily movement and physi-
cal exertion, produce a neglect and decay
of the entire muscular system. Walking in
the open air is something quite unusual
with them, for in their country, where there
are no footpaths or promenades, they move
about in carriages, and rarely on horseback.
The rest of the long day they spend after
the fashion of ladies in Eastern harems, on
softly cushioned sofas, or in their favorite
Tocking-chairs by the ire-side. Full beau
ties la Rubens are never found among
them, and equally rare are those graceful,
well-rounded, elastic, Junonic forms, which
still may 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. Their faces too, are pleasanter
through the deicacy Of the outline than in
the color or expression. Their complexion
is hardly ever rosy, and rarely lively and
fresh. They are all somewhat pallid like
jealous romance-readers among ourselves
They seem to be hot-house plants, and their
entire education and formation in the
fashionable ladies' academies is on the fore
ing system. These pretty delicate, pale faces
are met with not only in the capitals, bat
far away up the Mississippi in the new
settlements, and in the prairies among
the Indians.
FARMERS DAUGHTERS.
Even the farmers daughter looks exactly
like denizen of the towns, reads romances.
insists on dressing in silk, and dresses her
hair with artificial French flowers in con-
tempt Of the natural children Of Flora.
Ladies' in the larger towns are so proud of
their pale, interesting complexion, that they
disguise and try to drive away the natural
roses on their cheeks as something coarse
and vulgar. They veil themselves carefully
fiOm The beams of the burning sun, drink
vinegar, and employ other artificial meas
ures TO develop still further the moonlight on
their faces. An English woman, or any
fresh beauty arrived from Europe, resembles
among American ladies the accompaniment
Of flutes by key-bugle.
DEMAND AND SUPPLY OF WOMEN.
The necessity for female society runs
through the whole history of American COL
onization side by side with the Indian wars.
Al q later date the Pioneers of the West
who crossed the Alleghanies and settled on
the Ohio and the Mississippi, wanted wives,
who at all times have been, and still are, a
rare and valued article in the United
States. Just as the first emigrants attracted
them from Europe by all sorts of promises,
the later emigrants returned to the eastern
cities, chivalrousy paid court there to young
girls, and worked hard to fulfill theirprom-
ises. This, in my opinion, is the main
basis of womans position in America, and
she had been pampered, caressed, dressed
in silks and satins, till she gradually be-
came the tender, delicate, capricious pup
pet she now is.
INDEPENDENCE OF AMERICAN WOMEN.
The intercourse of American gentlemen
with these pretty, pale elegant ladies is
so long as they are unmarried-of nature
that would not be tolerated in England
They stand in far too bold and confidential
O footing for our notions. English parents,
il is known, grant their daughters far more
liberty than the French do, who keep theirs
in the convent until it is time to marry
them. Among the Americans, where the
republican feeling of independence 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 aspara-
gus-head, but in America has shot up wildly
and luxuriously into long, hard stalk,
with multitudinOus side-shoots and seeds.
The emancipation Of young women in
America is as perfect as it well can be.
They hardly allow their parents the right
Of guardianship. They take care Of them
selves; they are allowed TO receive the Vis-
its Of young gentlemen, who again intro
duce other gentlemen without consulting the
parents. The young ladies make appoint
ments with these gentlemen, and ask them |
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