The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-01-21
THE GRIM FEMALE.
An Austere Type or the Modern Botsy
Tr0twOod. @
[From the London Saturday Review

h.
The grim female must be carfully distin-
guished from the masculine women, for they
are by no means essentially the same, though
the types may run into each other, and some
grim but only Amazonian, has often much
That is fine and beautiful in her, as we see in
her great prototype Pallas Athene; but the
grim female pus' sang is never noble. never
tence--the only mission she seems sent into
the world to fulfn-is that of serving as q
warming to the young as to what to avoid
The grim female is not necessarily en- old maid,
as would appear likely. at first sight. we find
her of oil conditions indiHerent!y maid,
wife, widow, as mother and childless alike
and we do not find that her condition in any
way affects her character. II she is born grim,
she remains grim to the end; and neither mar
riage nor motherhood modifies her. The grim
female OF noveiists is generally an old mad;
but caricature printed in the broa lest lines
|. and from the outsides Of things She is em-
phatlcally an odd woman; odd in her. dress,
her mode, her state. She wears tapping
cap, skinny skirts, and rusty brown mittens
on her bony hands; she has q passionate aver
sion to men and matrlmony; and che lives
queorly behind barricaded house door. with
small slavey, or an elderly female afflicted
brunt OF her temper. But she is always odd
and unfashionable, and unlike everybody else,
and could never be mistaken for an ordinary
woman, from the first moment when she APP
pears on the page to the last paragraph Of her
existence. ~
One characteristic Of the grim female is her
want Of any OF the womanly passion for chill
stinct perverted as to be % on friendly to, terms
with q dog or two, or a cat, or maybe cookar
too; but she has no real affection for children,
no comprehension Of child nature, and the
sublime nonsense" of the nursery Is thing
children Of her own, she trents them in hard
wooden way that has nothing Of the ideal
mother about 1t. Hence she is one to whom
the present generation js undoniably worse
than the past, ono who groans over the follies
and shortcomings or the times, and who thinks
that good conduct died out with her own youth,
and that 1t is NOT likely, by the look Of things,
to be restored. In fact. youth itself is the root
.dren, che tyranniEes over girls and snobs
young men with q quite impartial hand.
4 The grim female Is not necessarily @ strong
minded woma0, or learned woman, like those
who wear spectacles, go to scientific meetings.
and are great In the classics and the 'ologies.
She may be Of the emancipated class; It all
depends on chance; and o grim female, when
of the emancipated, Ia a very formidable per-
son indeed; but she is not necessarily one Of
these. On the contrary, part Of her very GRIM
ness comes from her intense conservatism and
nIconpr omising Ationality. Nothing is
so abhorrent to her as innovation or novelty
out OF the Iarrowest groove Of respectable be-
liefS. In what dmectlon soevec tsse dlyerging
line may go. "a Romanist or Baptist, o Jew
or ON inddel, 1t is oil one to her; each is equal
She is the orth hyaox Church, wlthout fa.-
lalas as Aa. removed ...s,:ss .tHa!:sm as sle ~
from ranting, and demanding Tor, herself that
snfaisiniiity vi Judgment aud absolute posses-:
end al his cardinals. Beware how you broach
shew doctrines in her presence. She has been
known before now to nbjure her nearest reIaeS
,tlyss for no gres.er moral lapse thai, \ weak