New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-08-10
UNCLE SANS DAUGHTERS.

II Nav he the month sacred to virgins,
August should have been dedicated to matri-
monv The Summers idleness and the
approaches of idle people more or less near 10
Nature. usually cause young men ana womens
fancies to turn, not lightly to love, but seu-
ously TO mating. During this vacation
month. too. Uncle Sans sons, with all their
turbulence about politics, sink into the back
ground and his daughters take the foremost
nIocos ON the stage for after all, the bigger
half of our lives and interests is given 10 our
social and domestic relations, ana not u Ihe
baIlot-box. 1t is curious point 10 nouce
how few types there are among these oaush-
ters of his whether they gather IN newport
ballroom or O country farmhouse. Not' as
Pope suggests because "most women nave 10
e" characters at aln but because all women
have SO few leading pursuits IN life. rake
ony proup of young men busted III yachting,
fishing, hunting, or even flirting, during
this month of August. Back of the moments
triAing they are men engrOssed more or less
in business, science, politics, religion. Their
natures have dozen outlets with which these
pretty girls with whom they are now appa-
renty entirely absorbed have nothing to do.
But how is it with tho pretty girls In all
Uncle Sans houseful of daughters the noise,
great as it is, about suffrage, is made by but
small minority the rest of the women IN
mates are busied as they have been since
time began, with the work of the kitchen or
nursery, or the idleness of the drawing
room.
Here is Kate, who will be seen during
this month at every watering-place or Summer
resort from the coast of Maine to the Gulf.
Her nose is slightly aIuiline; her hair (un-
bought) heaped in a magnificent crown on the
top of her head; her step is slightly agrees
siVe; her well-Opened eyes understand all the
moods of lenses of attraction and Tepuisl0n;
having a sound capital of good looks and
money to serve as a backbone, she Is not at
all limp, flexible or fieshy in her dispositions
toward matrimony, but lOye-making, fiirta-
ton, Platonic friendships occupy her full
powers of brain OF body, precisely as a pro-
fessiOn or trade would a man of similar age
and ability. She has, however, clean and
decent scOrn for her ,thick-skinned, almond
eyed, equally fashionable sister, who languishes
through waltz with all of the Trojan Cres-
sida's heat of blood and none of her sparkle
of vivacity. Then there is Dickens's Dora,
with her numberess successors, alive and I'M
mortal forever sweet and clear and pure as
bubbling springs in the forest, and with little
more intention than they of being useful or
turning mills. or of anything beyond delight
ing the eye and heart Of man.
There is the sound, sensible Susan, who with
her clear-cu face, watchful moderate eye and
well-chosen dress fills up the corners at hop
or ball where conversation does most prevail.
Susan is too sound and practical not to know
that marriage is her just and fitting career;
and to know, too, within a fraction, how much
love and income will be requisite to make the
aforesaid marriage move upon well oned
wheels. She proceeds to the business OF her
life, nationally, yet with feeling. linen, fur-
Their in the background is Jane who represents
n very large class of American girls. Her
forehead projects, her skin is swarthy, her eye
is more brilliant than tender; her chest Is mar
row, she is most likely to have counted twenty
five Summers, and to have an abiding con-
seriousness of her stomach and back. Ugliness
or brusqueness of manner, or superiority OF
mind to the young men about her, has placed
her irrevOcably in the list of unmarrlageable
women. She jokes and laughs at this accepts
the fact frankly; but she never forgets it. 1t
distOrts all her views of life. She avoids
Young men and girls with morbid fear of
suspected intrusion; she is apt to begin to
scribble for The atlantic or Harper; she is
fond of children, and in all probability finds
a female friend with whom she goes about
this August, to mountain or seashOre. like the
two Ladies of Llangellen, or she carries on
instead perfectly guiltless but sentimental
friendship with some old bachelor or married
man.
Now in every one of these cases, marriage
or the lack Of it fills up the woman's whole
mind and aims, to the dwarfng of all. Shall
we then, as some of our reformers claim, teach
them that marriage is but trivial accident,
and the bearing Of children not so important
to them or the world as the work they ought
to learn and to do, as artist, surgeon, or
paper hanger7 Or is there no middle course
If these young girls crowding our places Of
amusement to-day had each some pursuit,
trade, even dominant taste given to her, 1t
would not serve as a substitute for the wife
and mother love which is her birthright; but
| would it not assuredly make her stronger and
more likely to win that love, and II she
missed it, furnish her with the next strongest
| consolation for its loss after religioni