The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-07-12
Something About women-TAe Art of Ar
fecaatiOn.


From the New York Evening Mall JulyLl
There is certain kind of sffectation very COM
mon among pretty women and this is the affecta
ton OF rot knowing that they are pretty, and not
recognizing the effect of their beauty on meB.
Take woman with bewildering eyes, say Of
maddening size and shape, and fringed with long
lasbes that distract you 10 look at the creature
knows that her eyes are bewildering. as we'll as
az che knows that fire burns and that ice melts
she knows the effect of that trick she has with
them-the sudden uplifting Of the heavy lid, and
the swift, full gaze that she gives right into
mans eyes. She has practsed it often in the
glass, and knows TO a mathematical misty the ex.
act height to which the lid must be raised and the
exact fxity Of the gaze. She knows the whole
meaning Of the look and the stirring of mems
blood that it creates; but If you speak to her of
the effect OF her trick, she pots on an air Of ex
tTemest innocence, and protests her entire ignor.
ance as 10 anything her eyes may say or mean:
and If you press her hard she will look at you in
the same way for your own benefit, and deny Of
the very moment Of ofense. Various other tricks
has she with those bewitching eyes Of hers-each
more perilous than the other TO mems peace; and
all unsparingly employed, no matter what the re-
suit For this is the woman who firts to the eX-
teme limits, then suddenly draws up and saws
she meant nothing. Step by step she has led you
on, with looks and smiles, and pretty doubtful
phrases always susceptible of two meanings the
one for the ear by mere word the other for the
heart by the accompaniment of look and manner
which are intangible; step by step she has drawn
DOu NCtptE luJO Tue ulhL6 WHERE tQe mas gone
before as your decOy when she has you safe
she raises her eyes for the last time, complains
that you have mistaken her cruelty, aud that she
has meant nothing more tnan any one else might
mean and what can she do to repair her mistake?
Love you? marry you? No; she is engaged to
your rival, who counts his thousands 10 your hua-
dreds and what pity that you had not seen this
all along, and that you should have misunder-
stood her! Besides. what is there about her that
you or anybody else would love OF all the many
Alterations Of women, this afiectaton Of their
own hsrmlessDess when beautiful, and Of their in
nocence of design when they practice their arts
or the discontinue of men, is the most dangerous
and the most disastrous.
But what can one say to them? The very fact
thst they are dangerous disarms a mans anger
and blinds his perception until too late. That
men love though they suffer is the woman's
triumph, guilt and conformation and so long as
the trick succeeds it will be practiced. Another
sfiectatiOn of the same family is the extreme
triendliDess and familiarity which some women
adopt In their manners towards men. Young
girls affect an almost maternal tone to boys of
their own age, or year or so older; and they,
too, when their elders demonstrate, declare they
mean nothing, and how hard it is that they may
not be natural. This form of afectation. once
begun, continues throughout life, being too con.
venient TO be lightly discarded; and youthful
matrons not long out of their teens assume a
tone and way that would about beft middle age
counseing giddy youth, and that might by chance
be dangerous even then if the " Indian summer"
was specially bright and warm.
Then there is the sffeotation, pure and simple.
which is the mere affectatiOn of manner, such as
is shown in the drawing voice. the mincng gait,
the extreme Rracefulness of attitude that by con-
seriousness ceases to be grace, and the thousand
little nitHGuderieS and coquetries of the sex
known TO us all. And there is the afectatiOn
which people of a higher social sphere allow
when they condeseend to those of low estate,
and talk and look as if they were Christian OF
heather, savage or civilized. And there is the
affectatiOn Of the maternal passion with women
who are never by any chance seen with their
children, but who speak OF them as if they were
never out Of their sights the atfectaton of wifely
alteration with women who are to be met about
the world with every man of their acquaintance
rather than with their lawful husbands; the
afiectaiion of life in women who lead a thor
oughly self.eDjoying life from end TO end and !
the afiectation of political favor in those who |
would not give up ball q new dress 20 save |
Europe from universal revolution. Go where we |
will, affectation of being something she is not |
meets Us in a woman, like ghost we cannot lay |
OF a mist we cannot sweep away. In the hottest |
and the most trivial things alike we find il pene.
trating eyerywhere-even in church, and at her |
prayers, when the pretty penitent, rising from |
her lengthy orison. lifts her eyes and looks about
her furtively to see who has noticed her self |
abasement aid TO whom her picturesque piety I
has commended itself. All sorts and patterns of |
good girls and pleasant women are very dear and |
delightful; but the pearl of great price is the
thoroughly natural and unaffected wOmsn-that
is, the woman who is truthful to her core, and
who would as little condescend to act pretense
as she would dare TO tell lie.