Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1868-11-11
The Girl of the Period.
A SAVAGE ONSLAUGHT UPON THE "FAsr
YOUNG LADIES OF OUR DAY.
From the London Saturday Revi0w.]

something franker than French wo-
man, more to be trusted than an Italian,
as brave as an American, but more re-
fined, as domestic as German and
more graceful 1t meant girl who
could be trusted alone If need be, be-
cause OF the innate purity and dignity
of her nature, bat who was neither bold
in bearing nor masculine in mind; girl
who, when she married, would be her
husbands friend and companion, but
never his rival one who would consid-
er their interests as identical, and not
hold him as just SO much fair game for
spoil; who would make his house his
true home and place of rest, not a mere
passage place for vanity and ostenta-
tion to 60 through; tender mother, an
industrious housekeeper, a judicious mis-
tress. We prided ourselves as II nation
on our women. We thought we had
the pick of all creation in this fair
young English girl of oulo, and en-
We'd no other men their own. We ad-
nired the languid grace and subtle fire
OF the south the docility and childhke
affectionateness of the east seemed to us
sweet and simple and restfnl; the viva
cious sparkle Of the trim and sprightly
Parisienne was a pleasant little excite
ment when We met with it in its own
domain; but our allegiance never wan
dered from our brown-haired girls at
home, and our hearts We're less vagrant
than our fancies. This was in the old
time, and when English girls were con-
tent to be what God and nature had
made them. Of late years we have
changed the pattern, and have given to
the world a race of women as utterly
unlike the old insular ideal as if wehad
created another nation altogether. The
girl of the period and the fair young
girl Of the past have nothing in com
mon save ancestry and their mother
tongue; and even of this last the mod
crn version makes almost new Ian
guage, through the copious additions it
has received from the current slang OF
the day.
The girl Of the period is creature
who dyes her hair and paints her cheeks,
as the first articles of her personal re-
ligion; whose sole idea Of life is plenty
OF fun and luxury; and whose dress is
the object Of such thought and intel
lect as she possesses. Her main en-
deavor in this is to outvie her neigh
bors in the extravaganza Of fashion. No
matter whether, as in time of crinoline,
she sacrificed decency, or, as now, i'll
the time Of trans, she sacrifice clean
illness iio matter, either, whether she
makes herself nuisance and an incon-
vcnience to every one she meets. The
girl of the period has done away with
sach moral mufishness as consideration
for Others, or regard for counsel and re-
buke 1t was all very well in old
fashioned times, when fathers and moth
ers had son authority, and were treated
with respecr, to be tutored and made
to obey, but she is far too fast and flour
ishing TO be stopped in mid-career by
these slow old morals; and, as she
dresses to please herself, she does not
care if she displeases every one else.
Nothing is too exaggerated for her viii
ated taste and things which in them
selves would be useful reforms if let
alone, become monstrosities worse than
those which they have displaced so soon
as she begins to manipulate andimprovc.
Ii sensible fashion lifts the gown out
OF the mad, she raises hers midway to
the knee Ii the absurd structure of q
wire and buckram, once called bonnet,
is modified to something that shall pro-
tect the wcarers face without putting
out the eyes of hor companion, she cuts
hers down to four straws and rosebud,
or q tag of lace and u bunch of glass
beads If there is a reaction against
an excess of Rowland's Macassar, and
hair shiny and sticky with grease is
thought less nice than if left clean and
healthy and crisp, she dries and frizzes
and sticks hers out on end like certain
s,vages in Africa, or lets it wander
down her back like Madge Wildire's,
and thinks herself all the more beauti-
tul the nearer, she approaches III look
like to maniac of negroes With pu-
rity OF taste she has lost also that far
more precious purity and delicacy Of
perception which sometimes .nean more
than appears on the sutface. What the
dcMioeonele does in It's frantic efforts to
excite attention, she also does in imita-
ion. II some fashionable deccegoadec
ea cctel,nce is reported to have come out
with her dress below her shoulder blades,
and good strap for all the sleeve
thought necessary, the girl of the period
follows suit next day, and then wonders
that men sometimes mis take her for her
prototype, OF that mothers Of girls not
quite 50 far gone as herself refuse her as
Il colnpanion for their daughters. She
ha; bluntcl the fine edge Of feeling SO
much that she cannot understand why
she should be condemned for All imita-
tion of form which does not include, I'M
itation Of fact; she cannot be made to
see that modesty of appearance and vir-
tue ought to be inseparable, and chat no
good girl can afford to appear bad, un-
der penalty of1receiving the contempt
awarded to the bad.
This imitation of the denei;-monae in
dress leads to something in manner and
feeling, not quite so pronounced, per-
laps, but far too like to be honorable to
herself or satisfactory to her friends. 1t
leads to slang, bold, talk, and fastness !;
to the love OF pleasure and Indifference
to duty; to The desire of money before
either love or happiness; to use!essness
ut home. dissatisfaction with the monot-