The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1868-09-19
has been wondering for some. time
how 1t is that no one has as vet paid

-
her attention and yet when the
crafty ing. moment comes, she does
nof know how 30 meet it. She has
key ke4en!yy t%santed tue man--any other
man, mind, would have done as
well--wiio is 1T her side, and vet she
repulses him. Her attention to the
trivialities he may talk to her, is OF
that laborions kind which is sug-
gestive always of q perpetual insult.
Yet there is o good deal of triumph
in her manner, too. Other girls who
are present may have handsome, gen
tlemanly, or fourishing men paying
them attention--some. perhaps,
marked attention; yet the disngree-
able young woman glances around
the room with an expression that
seems to express her sincere convic.
tion that the man by her side is the
only man worth talking with.
When it happens, after many des-
perate and many Intellectual efforts,
that this type Of woman gets engaged,
her arrogance, her Importance
observation-disclosures no bounds.
She will have you believe that her
betrothed is the only man in the
world worth having-indeed, the only
man who she would have deigned to
accept; and her whole conduct seems
to suggest a really curious and start
ling fac'-if true, i. e., that there was
no woman ever engaged to he mar
rled before, and no woman ever
likely to be engaged to be married
It t1oS hn - a.
congratulation to know that this type
of disagreeable young woman is, on
the whole, scarce. But there are in
sects whose infrequency amongst
cleanly people might yet with COM
fort to nil be carried to an infinitely
greater extreme; and rare as is this
type of disagreeable young women,
society has yet enough of her to make
one wish that some means could be
devised for its extinction as efficient
IN its operations as well-known bug
destroying powder.
There is another kind of disagree
able young woman, who is as often
sive, in o negative sense, as the type
we have just indicated is offensive in
n positive or rather active sense.
This is the young woman who is
intensely stupid. Unhappily, she
belongs to n numerous tribe. You
cannot enter society, without meet
ing her, as it were, on the very thres-
hold. She is very intolerable, too,
in her way. You may be man of
wit--may say really smart things to
her-but you will provoke from her
only the same feeble, inane smile
with which she would respond to
some perspiring FOOLS request to
dance with her. Talk to her of art,
of painting. of music, of poetry, of
the people about you, of the weather,
of the last opera, of what you will,
you will get answers that will posi-
lively startle you by their unequivo-
cal stupidity. Everything about this
kind of woman is conventional,
even to her idiotic smile-nay, even
to her stupidity. For half dollar,
you could go and buy a more intelli-
gent doll ut any toy store. She has
her uses, no doubt. in the economy
of nature, but so has-well, never
mind.
OF the typical disagreeable young
women, there is no end. But we
believe we have instanced the worst
kinds. There are girls who are disa-
greeable at intervals, and who, there
fore deserve the name, if they do not
deserve all the censure. There is
the disagreeable young woman who
insists upon playing the piano, for
instance, whether you wish her or
not, or who will howl idiotic ballads,
as If vocal perfection consisted in the
utmost possible noise. There is the
disagreeable young woman who
talks very loud in the street, who
stares about her, and walks with the
swinging motion that is Immediately
suggestive of cork legs; who has O
peculiar way" of accosting shop
people, and who invites, purposely
or not, as the case may be, the wink,
the leer or the smile of every servant
hunting snob that she encounters.
There is the disagreeable young wo-
man who is perpetually telling you
all about her family-who will COM
municate to you, in less than ten
minutes, the whole of her pedigree;
who aunt this married; what gentle
man proposed to that cousin; the
wealth of one branch, the dignity of
another, until you get so angry with
the very names of people whom you