Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-03-17
NEW YORK ADyENTUaEsSEs.
The Female Parasite of MetrOpOl.
itan society.

From the March number of the Atlantic
| Monthlyl
If you have shame or woe to hide, or
memories to Danish, leap into the cur.
rents Of Broadway, and its waves will
conceal you, and its tumult will drown
the voice of self-accusation. An adven-
turess is not difficult of detection to a
clear vision; but eyes are used in this
world for almost everything but seeing.
She varies her form; but in the place
where her heart was before man broke il
(as she would say) she is always the
same. She is ssually handsome or bears
traces of handsomeness departed or de-
parting. At least, she looks interesting,
and interestingness is the sum of all we
seek in humanity, literature and art.
She may be thirty, she may be less she
| may be forty. She is calm and cold
apparently; but if you study her you
viii see her calmness and GOODNESS are
the result of severe self-discipline, and
in her eyes CLEANS of intensity and
| anxiety that dart out while her manners
are relieving guard
There are, certain hard lines in her
face; the soft mouth has lost some of its
symmetry; the nose is questioning and
suspicious the nostril expanded as
though it knew each individual had an
odor, and were determining to what spe-
cies he should be assigned Across the
brow fit subtle shadows, and between
and over the eyes they gather ever and
anon as if the electricity of her system
we're centering there to burst; and then
the lightning leaps sharp and quickly
out below and momentary darkness
falls from the hair to the defiant chin
Her ears are trihe prominent and
when you look at them you see they are
MISUNDERSTANDING, perhaps, for what
she will never hear again. Her form is
full, trifie too full to indicate hneness
and spirituality; and her manner is too
decided and positive to be attractive at
first Her toilet is somewhat outre, and
there is more and less of it than there
should be, while some of her jewels
might be spared for the sake of taste.
But above all there is an expression in
her face and her hair that declares some
thing has gone out of her llfe-some-
thing that rounded and completed her
Notwithstanding that will never
return. She has been a wife and mother;
she is not likely to be again. for the
memory of that wifehood and maternity
makes her shudder, and sends the
strange, almost lurid look out of her eye.
She may have a child or children with
her, and if you could look into her
chamber after midnight, you would see
her bending over the bed where the little
creatures lie, with tears baptizing the
whispered prayers for them, which she
never uttered for herself.
Unlike the adventurer, the adventures
has a conscience, feels remorse, suffers
for the past, and dares not reflect upon
the future. When the mental torture
comes she plmges into excitement and
laughs widest when her heart sinks like
burning lead in her bosom.
Adventuresses are most at home in the
great hotels. Hardly one of the Broad
way houses has not several of the singu
lar sisterhood. They always avoid each
other-are enemies on instinct. Men
alone they affect Without doing any
thing you can describe, they always at
tract attention. When they enter the
ordinary, or sit in the drawing-room, or
walk in the corridor, every masculine
eye beholds them, and many masculine
yes follow them They know, with al
most mathematical certainty, the i'm
preston they are making, when is their /
time to glance, to speak, TO drop hand |
kerchief, to write a note. Nothing es-
eapes their acute sense. The man whom |
they have selected as a dupe is such /
before he has spoken. What is the boasted |
reason of our sex to the subtle instincts /
# theirs? They have made men study |
As Balzac and Goethe made women a /
study, and they have found a profit in it,
be sure. They grow upon their acquaint-
inces imperceptibly but rapidly, and,
after a few hours of untrammeled talk,
seem like friends you are bound to assist
when trouble comes. 1t will come very
soon. The adventures is always in
trouble, and she tells SO sad a story that
,ou feel, during its narration, as If you
should dry every tear with hundred
dollar note. You are too liberal alto
gether. She accepts half the sum; is
eternally grateful, and the situation
changes with the pressure of hand.
The adventures lives in Manhattan;
but she goes to Washington frequently
when Congress is in session, for there
she reaps harvest She brings all her
arts 10 bear on members of the House
and Senate, who yield to feminine inlu-
ence when they can withstand bribes and
clamors Of constituents. The adven-
turess often arranges her campaign on
the Hudson. aud fights it out on the Po-
tomac. She completes there what she
begins here.
Women want their rights Let them
have their rights, by all means; but their I
rights are little, compared to their priv
leges. Men have neither when an &C +
adventures has fairly taken
them in her tolls.
Keep pretty women out Of my sight
said St Eyremond. and the thunder
stroke shall not make ne swerve. But / I
with their eyes looking into mine, l am {
ike wax over the fame Of q taper"
Adventuresses 90 not decline so rap /
idly 81 the adventurers Women Of ed ,
ucation and some breeding as they /