The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1868-04-18

and friZZeS and sticks hers out on END ike
certain savages in Africa, or lets it wander
down her back like Madge Wildfre's, and
thinks herself all the more beautiful the
nearer she approaches in look like to a maniac
or uegress. With purity of taste she has lost
also that far more precious purity and delicacy
of perception which sometimes mean more
than appears on the surface. What the denla-
monde does in it's frantic efforts to excite at
tention, she also does in imitation. If some
fashionable deuergondee e1t evidence ls 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 mistake her for her prototype,
or that mothers Of girls not quite so far gone
as herself refuse her as companion for their
daughters. She has blunted the fine edge of
feeling 80 much that she cannot understand
why shU should be condemned for al imitation
Of form which does not include imitation OF
fact; she cannot be made to see that modesty
Of appearance and virtue ought to be insepa-
rable, and that no good girl can afford to ap-
pear bad, under penalty Of receiving the con-
tempt awarded to the bad.
This imitation of the demi-nlor,de in dress
leads to something in manner and feeling, not
quite so pronounced, perhaps, but far too like
to be honorable to herself or satisfactory to
her friends. It leads to slang, bold talk, and
fastness; to the love of pleasure and indiffer
ence to duty; to the desire Of money before
either love OF happiness; to uselessness at
home, dissatisfaction with the monotony of or
dinary life, and the honor of all useful work;
in word, to the worst form OF luxury and
selfshness, to the most fatal effects arising
from want of high principle and absence of
tender feeling. The girl of the period envies
the queens Of the demi-n,onde far more than
she abhors them. She sees them gorgeously
attired and sumptuously appointed, and she
knows them to be fattered, feted, and courted
with certain disdainful admiration Of which
she catches only the admiration while she ig-
nores the disdain. They have. all for which
to reflect at what price they have
bought their gains, and what fearful
moral penalties they pay for their sensuous
pleasures. She sees only the coarse gliding on
the base token, and shuts her eyes to the hide
GUS figure in the midst, and the foul legend
written round the edge. 1t is this envy Of the
pleasures, and Indifference to the sins Of these
infinite mischief to the modern girl. They
brush too closely by each other, if not in actual
deeds, yet in aims and feelings; for the luxury
which ls bought by vice with the one is the
thing Of all in life most passionately desired by
the other, though she is not yet prepared to
pay quite the same price. Unfortunately, she has
already paid too much-al that once gave her
QlStlnCtlVo nltlOQal CHARACTER. NO Ouo Cuu sdy
of the modern English girl that she is tender,
loving, retiring, or domestic. The old fault SO
often found by Keen sighted French women, that
she was 30 fatally ronldnesque, 80 prone to sacri-
fee appearances and social advantages for love,
will never be set down to the girl Of the period,
Love indeed is the last thing she thinks Of,
and the least Of the dangers besetting her.
Love in cottage, that seductive dream which
used to vex the heart and disturb the calcula-
ton Of prudent mothers, is now myth Of past
ages. The legal barter Of herself for 30 much
money, representing so much dash, 30 much
luxury nd pleasure-that is her idea Of mar
iage; tw only idea worth entertaining. For
all seriousness of thought respecting the du-
ties or the consequences Of marriage, she has
not trace. II children come, they find but Q
stepmothers cold welcome from her; and If
her husband thinks that he has married any
thing that is to belong to hlm-a tace,s et pld-
Gems u1or pledged to make him happy-the
sooner he wakes from his hallucination and
understands that he has simply married some
one who will condescend to spend his money
on herself, and who will shelter her indiscre-
ton behind the shield Of his name, the less
severe will be his disappointment She has
married his house, his carriage, his balance at
the bankers, his title; and he himself is just
the inevitable condition clogging the Wheel OF
her fortune, at best an adjunct to be tolerated
with