The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-06-29
"THE GIRL OF THE PERIOD. 80

mon, cannot at present be accurately oeJer-
mined. We are living in day OF provok-
ingly loose dialects there are even those who
appear to think that bad logic is irrefragible,
if only il comes from woman's mouth and
that She is safer in trusting herself to the
Guidance of notions which she has received
from others than to those pure intuitions
which have heretofore been her safeguard
and ornament That woman's place, even in
the highest forms of civilization-a place
which has been occupied for centuries with
out a protests the result of mere acci-
dent, or of the superior physical strength
of man, we shall believe, when we
can believe also that human affairs are gov
erned by no immutable law, and that material
force is the motive power of human progress.
NJ -tro we yet able quite to discard certain
opinions concerning the predestinate duties of
maternity-the bearing the nurture, and the
education of children-which thousands of
noble, womanly natures have heretofore found
sufficient to save them from ennui and from
frivolity. We may surely be pardoned if we
perceive something more than chance, some
thing more effective than masculine despo-
tism, something fixed from the beginning in
the relative constitution of the sexes, and
with which legislation cannot meddle without
producing mournful and disastrous confusion.
In the beginning we may venture to point
out how extremely difficult, how almost i'm
possible, it seems to be to discuss these ques-
tions with continuous gravity; and without
occasional touches of satire and ridicule. Mr.
Stuart Mill, if we are not mistaken is the only
frst-rate thinker who brings to the champion
ship of ''Womans Rights a serious and
coherent mind; yet even he commits in the
beginning the capital error of regarding the
duties of wife and mother as simply San
occupation" Against a definition SO tho
roughly mechanical as this, every human heart
in a normal condition will Indignantly revolt.
But though the opinions of Mr.. Mill are en-
titled whether he may be right or wrong, to
the most respectful consideration, it may be
safely said that ma iority of those who are
loudest in their demands for what they call
the emancipation of woman are also shallow
in their reasoning, trihing in their illustra-
tions, and crooked in their philosophy. We
take the liberty of declaring that with few
notable and praiseworthy exceptions, the fe-
male orators who are engaged in promoting
one of the greatest of all possible social revo-
lutions do not seem to us to be in earnest.
There is too much jesting. There is too much
scolding, pure and simple. There is too much
loose generalization. There is altogether too
free an assumption of premises, and even from
these the conclusions are drawn with an un-
steady hand. There are too many freaks of
costume, and there are too many frisks of
speech; and too often upon the platforms the
least acute observer detects rather love of
notoriety than passion for genuine and per-
manent reform of social errors To strengthen
their position, and to make up for deficient
reasoning, by presenting in their own persons
concrete argument in support of substantial
sexual identity, women, thus far, have too
often shown a disposition to initiate the worst
masculine peculiarities, and to astonish So
ciety into acquiescence, even If they cannot
convince. The inevitable result of this is to
give ridiculous air to the whole proceeding,
and to encourage the gibes of the mocking
and the irreverent. Men truly are not to
blame if the boisterous disagreements of
female conventions lead them to refuse to
attach to the proceedings of such assemblages
more than moderate degree of Importance.
As evidence of the truth of what we have
Just asserted, we might point to new maga-
zine which has recently been set on foot in
England, and which is entitled The GH Of Ht
Period. This is a slang title-a translation,
we believe from the French-which has been
of late good deal in the mouths of English
men and women, and the exact purport OF
which we have never been able to determine.
Even the journal before us is not particularly
felieitous in its definition. ''The Girl of the
Period, it says, sis natural outgrowth Of
circumstances She is am involuntary Pro
test. She is the masculine Giggle of the Hour
She is the Irony of the Situation" Wha
this means, we cannot undertake to deter
1nlue; out Une Well-eAecuueu enSrdVlnBS OI Juls
magazine explain sufficiently its appearance
In the literary market Anything more
thoroughly vapid and worthless than its letter
press anything more himsy than its contribu
tions, anything sillier than its prose and itS
verse, we do not, after rather long expert
ence of such matters remember to have en-
countered. The prints, however, are II,
doubt expected to atone for the pages; an(
for those who think that leg-pieces are tn
noblest productions of art these illustration
must have an unspeakable charm. There i
picture of "The Croquet Girl in a shor
petticoat; of 'The Nautical Girl" in shorte
petticoat; of "The Hunting Girl in petit
coat briefer still; and of '"The Bale
Cir" in no petticoat at all. Their
is picture of ''The Ladies' Dressing Room
of "a Private Theatre" with one '1ady
(smoking cigar) in tights and trunk hose
and another ''lady" gesticulating in trouser
before an enormous mirror. There is pic
ture of THE Abyssinian Girl of the Period.
in sufficiently scanty raiment There is a pic
ture of young lady in ducks and a Jerse
jacket, pushing a skiff from the shore. Ther
is picture of "a Muscular Maiden" who ha
knocked down an impudent ganajp. There
picture of two girls making most liberf
display of their limbs upon velocipedes. Bu
our catalogue is sufficient. The world III
doubtedly advances Cor recedes) Ten year
ago such pictures would not have bee
tolerated in any magazine published outsid
the walls of Paris; and it is froi
Partisan levity and looseness that these artis
have drawn their inspiration, They are {
the French, Frenchy No delicacy of execl
and sensuality. They seek, not to promot
fht4 In Of Int 10