Smyrna times., 1874-07-01

daughters to associate with their American
The frank, free ways of
American girl, who, thinking
no evil, is on the lookout for none, and who
associates with her friends Of the opposite sex |
as openly and innocently as she does with those |
OF her own, are mystery and horror to the |
French matrons, whose boast it often is that |
their girls have never been left alone from the |
moment of their BIRTH To our transatlantic |
feelings the French system is as revolving as
ours is shocking to their ideas. Still, on some |
accounts, the repulsiOR and horror which the |
French ladies feel for American girls is not |
wholly to be wondered at nor condemned. Our
fast set, race which haunts and infects the |
society of our larger cities, sends out too many
here-girls that delight in |
touching the brink of all that modesty most |
abhOrs, who are loud in dress and manners,
and 10 tone, who drive out with unprincipled |
foreigners late in the evening, who receive the |
visits OF gentlemen 10 their bedrooms, an per-
form other acts peculiarly shocking to CONT |
mental ideas OF morality and decency. These
fast young ladies do not understand that no
European can be brought to imagine that
women who do such things may be, and, in.
deed, almost invariably are, of unblemished
virtue, and that he cannot comprehend how
the unrestricted liberty of our native land may
permit young girls manners to degenerate
without there being any actual moral cause for
such degeneracy
There is also another class of Americans res.
ident in Europe of whom must speak, though
regretfully, as my subject would else be in
complete. | mean the American adventur-
esses-wOmen usually possessing the tradi-
tiOnal beauty of their native land and the
acuteness of their race, who have crossed the
Atlantic to find wider field for their schemes
and Vaccinations. These women represent
the denlt-nlOAde in the sense which the young
er Dumas really meant when, in his famous
comedy, he penned the celebrated description
of the peaches for two cents" the fruit that
looked as fair and fine as the peaches priced at
five cents, but which, on closer inspection,
showed a small black spot on EACH The bril-
liant :dramatlst never meant that his well
coined epithet should be applied to the recog-
nized members of that snowy and evil society
which Is in reality not denai-monde, nor in
truth any monde at all in the French sense OF
the word. But there was felt to be real ne
cesslty tor some epithet to be applied to a set
and class that either had no name at all, or
else one that was an offence to ears polite, so
the title was eagerly seized and applied, or
| rather mlsapplled, to class far lower than
that tor which it was intended. But these
transatlantic curieuSes Il Grenture really come
within the original scope and meaning of the
position, whom unfortunate circumstances or
lack of principle have lured from the straight
path OF womanly duty, singularly adaptable to
the style aud manners of their surroundings,
as Is the nature OF Americans in general, they
become IN style and toilet veritable Parisien-
neS aud are among the most admired of the
evil set to which they have sunk Truth
stranger than fiction, tales wilder than ro-
nance, could be to told about some of these
women. Among them may be found sclons of
our proudest and purest families, cideuant
queens OF fashion, who ruled it over the veri-
table monde before they descended to the
Cten,i monde tendery- -nurtured and delicately
reared females, over whom a mothers love
aud father 3 care once watched with inces
SAINT vigilance. The adventures of one among
them, the daughter of we'll known Presby.
terian divine, might have inspired the pen O
Xavier de Montepin or Ponson due Terrai
while the store of still another, once the love
lieSt, the most gifted, and the most courted o
her sex. reads like page from the th,
" Memoirs of st. Simon" or a paragraph
OF scandal snatched from the letters of Mad
anne de Sevigne. But on this sad sub
| ject there is, fortunately, no need to dwell, no
should 1t have found mentioned here at all ha
it not been necessary to the full completion @
my subject.
The American colony is not regarded b
born Parisians with altogether favorable eyes
Apart from the demorazing i0fuences intro
! duced among their young people by the free
ways and gayer dress of the American gir
; they complain that our presence here has ha
) great influence in raising the prices of every
:, thing eatabe or wearable, and there is muc
! truth in the accusation, particularly as regard
l the price of dress.
1t is q wellknown fact that all articles
Q consumption in the grocery and proviso
L stores OF the American quarter cost from te
;. to twenty cents pound more than they can
+ purchased for in other parts of the city.
r. to servants, it is, [ believe, a well-recOgnize
a fact that those who have been in the habit
!. living with American families become total
y ruined. The consideration and thoughtfulne
"a with which our help" is usually treated, Or
a. duce demOrazing effect on the Partisan d
,s mestic, and, as he is unsuspected of the vic
i. of cheating and stealing, he forthwith procee
n to make hay while the sun shines, and
make all he can out of his too. confding Ell
ployer. The Parisians pay great though u
re conscious compliment to the power of o
+. deeds and example when they accuse the col
i. paratively small group of American reside1
rs bere with doing such mighty damage in eve
av direction. According to them, we have spoil
r. the taste of their milliners and dressmake
let we have put up the prices Of everything,
ce have demorallzed their domestlcs, and Sc
ev bad example for their daughters We ha,
ne in fact, demoralized Paris-a task as dific
Wn and as supsrHuous as that of gliding rein
so gold or of painting the lily.
,el ----
Ia ABSENT MINDED.-Beedle absent-mind
ness is source of constant perplexity. A
ier mornings since, his wife presented him wit
to pair of new stockings. Beedes was deligh
of and declared his intention to put them on
an once. After covering one foot the stocki
to for the other foot could not be found.
om wife was certain he had taken both of the
to- though thorough search failed to disco
the missing one. Beedles finally encased
nat other foot in the sleeve of an undersbirt, D.
ing ed on his boots and went down stairs complt
a. | - h;t4arlu of tinht hnnt- Al naon he 1