Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-03-10
MEN AND WoMEN.


A Lady's Hits and Comparisons.
A lady writer in New York fashio
paper thus discourseth: - 80 = -
Ii is q noticeable fact that men VIII
meet as strangers in a place of business
or in the casual juxtaposTtion of travel
will pass the time of day, strike up al
improlnptu conversation on the merits anC
dement's Of the weather, discuss politics
compare opinions and. part in courteous
| way, perhaps never to meet again, bu
stronger by the friction of antithetic ma,
ture, and better in mind and heart for the
barter of sentiments and ideas.
Now, women, moving in the same So
cial circle, win not do this when they
meet. They must be regularly introduced
and endorsed by responsible parties, and
the exact position they hold in society de-
fined to hairs breadth, and when it is
accurately determined, who and what they
are, how many their. servants, what the
extent of their wardrobes, who their
dress-maker, they arc admitted to the
privileges of acquaintance, and may, IN
the course of time, arrive at kissing
friendship. Then the danger of becom-
ing too intimate begins. They get so
familiar that they begin &c, discuss small
faults and eccentricities of dress and man
ner. They inform their next best friend,
in strictest confidence, Of course, that the
servants are allowed too many privileges;
and the cook wastes things; that the hus-
band is jealous, and the lady cross; and
that certain person dyes her hair, and
has freckles. And the story being told
again in confidence, there is q general
quarrel and permanent GOODNESS.
Sitting at the counter of fashionable
dry goods store lately l saw one lady ex-
anime the panier of another standing near,
to see if it was lined with silk or glazed
lining cambria. The wearer of The
.panier in question happened to turn and
discover the insolent woman, and wish
could describe the unutterable scorn and
contempt with which she transfxed her
enemy by glance, or the hauteur with
which she walked away, carrying in her
features a look of injured innocence, as if
she had been an angel and somebody had
cut eff her wings.
Now a man who discovered another
men OAtA1iAA1lnS bAlC Cub Va ITO COelb NOAA1
have smiled at the conceit of the thing,
stepped out to show it off to advantage
giving his tailor's card, and very likely
asking his criticising inspector for light
or offered him an Havana from his own
case.
Why women persist in hedging them
selves in with SO many cOnventionalities
of fashion, custom and society, l cannot
unless it is that they would show
their strength by clearing them at one
bound, as they often do. There is not
one fashionable, aristocratic woman in
five hundred who would dare to stop on
promenade and speak to poor girl in q
wooden shawl and delaine dress; if she
did she wOuld-assume such an air of state
and grandeur that all who saw might
read, Stand aside, l. am holier than
thou" And there is not woman in
five thousand who would take the hand
of an erring sister and talk to her twenty
minutes in public square, in sight of her
own refined and virtuous associates.
What would people say2 Even the re-
spectacle Mrs. Grundy would be shocked,
and Young Reprobate in Mrs. LCtty's car
rage would lisp, Highly improper you
know"