Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1863-10-10
9ai1g gatelIige1leet
HeroInea OF n ale Writers.

I'Il tell you. Sh5 was one OF those SOFT,
senseless, silky, creamy, yielding, "cling.
ing" creatures, that English noVelists con-
stantIy repeat as their ideal of a household
angel. A thing so profoundly impressed
with mans superiority, that she would no
more think OF yentpring upon sentiment
that Was not snecho of his opinions, than
she would thick Of altering the Litany.-
A being always trembling with suspense,
till her lord has pronounced his mutton
chop and coffee good. Who laughs, or is
serious, according 10 his dictatiOu. In hne,
who pleases him best, the nearer she APP
proaches idioey, always save in the matter
Of his dinner. .s.It..
You see, one gats yawning after while
over this model English doll, and craYes
little common sense. One wonders Wheth-
er there is no variety in the species or If
they are oil cut after this tame, monoto-
nous patters By the frequency OF lite re-
petetioD, even by the besr English writer's,
one is led to couclude that this is "the
ssJle" of female most in vogue there. The
only variety appears to be, and Rctnalfy
one turns to it with feeling of relief, its
autipodes-"the strong minded woman,
who is represented by them as rendered 6y
knorIedge unable to comb her hair; or cleanse
her skin; whose clothes are pitched on her
person as the gods please; who dfSdaius
clean finger nails, and shoes uPst the heel,
and drives four in hand over all the prop
critics; an awful warning to her sex, not
to NEEDLE with books, instead of gridirups
and shirt buttons.
Now, may be mistaken, but 1t strikes
me that true feminity is not always quench-
ed in a woman, when she takes an interest
in things other than these. could never
understand why a woman who reads and
thinks for herself, instead of having her
thinking done for her, aud who couTerses
on the same topics that Intelligent men
converse about, should thereby, as mat
ter of course, sacrifice all claim TO love and
respect or of necessity make worse
mother to her children, or more inditter-
ent mistress of a household. Nor do l
imagine, as these gentlemen seem to sup
pose, that tbs feminine fool is the easiest
style of woman to manage extreme cum
ming being always the characteristic Of
such. Also, trust, for the honor of the
"hAppy homes of England, that all its fe-
males, as come of its writers would have us
believe, are not either idiots or shrews;
trust they may venture an honest opinion
at their own freside, or elsewhere, without
English ground for divorce, and without
being brow beaten into their slippers by
their other halves. thrust reading good
book does not of necessity peril the prec-
ious family pudding. ! indulge a hope
that she might own an inkstaud, and yet
have smooth hair and a nicely flung dress,
and a neat foot of her own. Also, l trust
the stalwart Johnnies over the water haze
no domeStie are to grind, when they thus
limit their women to mental pap and pa
NADIA. The amount of it Ia, shall have to,
step over there and judge for myself. If
should, you would not catch me buying d
Etnn 10 oil hos
or how / must admire and condemn
"Lords and ladies" are getting too thread
bare for me. If there is spot in England
that nobody else would ever think worth
writing about, l presume that would be
Just the place where should pitch my
inkstand and bandbox.
But that is neither here nor there
have my little wolfshness at present about
a few things Johnny has been doing lately,
and so don't think of visiting him till he
has asked my pardon as loyal Union wo
man. But waving that point, 1 have a
remark to make, which it strikes me is as
true as profound, viz: That the most I'M
natural and improbable thing on earth is a
male writer's heroine. You see, he just
takes little bits of all the women he ever
knew, and builds up q creature who has no
more symmetry, or human semblance, than.
a child's crude drawing has to the tree or
animal he tries to portray. His millinery,
too, is as astounding as the feminine con-
vcrsations to which he treats us, particu-
larry those of the "boudoir." Mark those
very intimate and close soul-commuuings
which these gentlemen revelin deIineating,
and which are as much like the real thing
as a stuffed baby is like leaping live one.
However, to borrow the patronising style
of criticism used in speaking of female
books, they are rery rreu for mems books,
and may pay for the perusal if one has
nothing better to do.