The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1868-09-19
5l1Iaagfeeabie YOUNG woman. !.

L-.r.f -
the age Of thirty without ever hal.,y- hl.,T
ing received an offer, liberak,nind-
ed person would think her iustified
IN being disagre sable. 1t is an unl
questionebiefa at nothing ismore.
likely to render acid and unpleasant
the female character, than the retro
spectiye glance which surveys a past
life unillumined by one CLEAN OF the
light OF either love or matrimouy.
We do, not suppose that there ever
was such thing in the whole world,
III any age or. In any country, as q
woman who never had q lover of
some kind or other. But q lover
and an offer are two very distinct
things, as every woman knows. In
nlnety-nlne cases out of one hundred.
an offer is thought much more of by
women than a lover. It is more
valuable in every sense. An offer
proves lover; but lover does not
prove On offer. A woman in after
life may boast perhaps of having had
twenty lovers in her day, but before
the assertion can be aecepted as n
fact worth admiring, it is necessary
Tor her to prove that she had also
had twenty offers. The eagerness of
women to receive offers suggests no
extraordinary psychological phe-
nomenon. You may reduce it to SIM
pie love of having something to boast
OF. The ugliest maa IL Tie world
could never offend a woman by pro-
posing to her. When afterwards she
talks OF having received an offer,
people are not supposed to know
what kind of looking man her suitor
was; nor will they inquire after his
means, his position, or his antece-
dents. But if any detrimental fact
happens to crop up later, the girl is
much to be pitied; for if there is one
thing more than another women de-
light In, 1t Is catching hold of fact
that is likely to degrade the man who
has insulted the whole remaining
portion OF the sex by proposing to
one of them. The most frequent
cause OF disagreeableuess in young
woman Is not the want Of lover,
but the want of an offer. At the age
OF thirty, when the matrimonial
chance is hundred to one, this dis:
agreeableness may be justifable.
But up to that period we really think
woman ought to contain her tenn
per little. Yet it is curious fact
that the worst type of the disagreea-
Die young woman is to be found
ranging between the age of nineteen
to twenty-five. It cannot, therefore.
always be O want of an offer that makes
a Young woman disagreeable, and in
deed 1t is not. There are heaps of
other causes, but they are so minute,
so various, so conflicting, 80 incon-
slstent, that to attempt to enume-
rate them would be to propose to
oneself the compilation of good
many Volumes. We must, there
tore, content ourselves with consi-
derlng dlsagreeable young women as
they are, not inquire the causes that
make them SO.
The most offensive type of the dis
agreeble young woman is the indivi-
dual who. though secretly painting
Tor a lover and proposal for
marriage, yet gives herself such airs,
assumes such innumerable imperti-
nences of manner and expression be-
fore men, rs would tempt them rather
to go to the devil than have anything
to do with her. Nor are this kind of
young women's offensive manners
confined TO men; she is like hedge
hog, that wounds any hand that
touches it. She has innumerable
enemies amongst her own sex, who
do not laugh ut and steer clear of her
like men, but who hate her, with the
cordiality of which only women who
hate are capable. She is certainly o
dreadful specimen of her sex. Her
opinion of herself is something
astounding. Apparently there is not
man in the world good enough for
her; though Heaven help the man
who should propose to her with the
hope of being refused! She is fond
of saying what she thinks "cutting
things" If you were to call her
cynical, she would not know exactly
what you meant; and yet her whole
object in life seems to be thought
cynical. How she will detest the
friend who comes to tell her that she
is engaged to be married. No one
can possibly guess the amount and
the intensity of the envy of which
the heart of this type of disagreeable
young women is CAPABLE.