Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1874-10-31
From the st. Louis Globe.
CHEEKY GIRLS.

should need an introduction to the
American reader, and the cheeky
girl is inclined to dispense with an
introduction, and as far as the limits
of an elastic decorum will permit.
She does not, indeed, .accost the
stranger without the previous form
ality of society having been gone
through; but, after having paid her
homage to society by this harmless
conventionality, she plunges into
depths of intimacy calculated to as
tound and to terrify the recipient of
so much affection. IF the newly
presented parsonage be of the male
pursuasion, and possess youth, mon
ey and good looks land the. cheeky
girl if understood to desire the asso-
citation of none other), he is at once
put into large store of facts con-
cering himself, his family, his tastes,
his scrapes, and all the kindly gos
sip with which the busy tattle of the
little world has linked his name, the
cheeky girl giving him to understand
that she knows all about those
things, and enjoys them in proper
ton to their enormity. This delicate
attention is intended to put the
young man on an easy footing at
once, to pave the way to an immedi-
ate intimacy, by giving him an as
surance that he has passed muster;
and while the young man is inter-
nally wondering "what the Mephisto-
pheles that girl is driving at" she is
merely expressing in her own chosen
way her unconditional approval.
The natural sequence of this effu-
sive appreciation at first sight is a
display ~ the fair enchantress of
those charms of mind and person to
which the young man is expected to
yield an abject submission. In out
ward adornment the cheeky girl
endeavors to keep, if possible, just a
little bit ahead of the style, and IS
the delight of milliners, shoemakers,
harberdashers, and the dealers in
those miscellaneous knick-knacks
which are the indispensable mark of
the cheeky girl. She outvies the
shepherdess in her hat, the stage
dancer in her boots, the concert So
prano in the button on her gloves,
and the Comanche in the trophies
which hangs suspended from her
belt. The dress reformer stands ap-
palled at the monstrosity of her out
fit, and the strong-mlnded woman
is lost in awe before the courage
which can face the world with an
ivory fan, a cross-handled sunshade,
an inlaid vinagrette, a Russie leath-
er pocket-book, bead-work aims
bag, and a lace handkerchief, all de-
pendent from an attenuated waist
and making the cadence of step
which is accented by a pinched toe
and a wabbly heel. In addition to
these adventitious adOrnments, the
cheeky girl will generally be endow-
ed with black eyebrows, yellow hair,
a pink nose, bad complexion where
the rogue is not, and worse one
where it is, and this precious casket
of the body enshrines the yet more
precious jewel of her mind.
Her conversation, which runs on
glibly through the first astounding
personalities and sly insinuations,
begin to waver when her small stock
of slang is exhausted, and does away |
utterly when she has used up such
of her acquaintance as recur to her
mind. In the far corner ofa Dall-
room she has been known to ellteI
tain very young man for as :1n lnaon
as an hour, and, under the eXllllra-
ting stimulus of ola = ntr'a'l hnt omt Of
sight of all the Torld' b1,. TuU +uuo.o,Io Uuo %
hearing, she could probably struggle
or: aga2nst conventional difficulties
indaSn;teIy. But the presence OF
ILL nsrty has the same effect as
thn tn nresence of young lady on
SS;isScussion SiS of the Beecher-Tilton
ouestion, and a visible unrest and
1neasiness prompt the cheeky girl
TO escape. What wisdom she ut
ters in those delightful solitudes of
the heart where only two can enter
has not been revealed to man, but
in the ordinary intercourse of socie-
ty her theme is always her oongen-
ers, her rhetorical embellishments
merely slang. Her slang can always |
be relied on to be the latest, as, in |
consequence of her head being una
BILE to make room for this years i'd
ioees of the street Arabs, without |
forgetting those who were wont to
charm her friends last year. The
same popularity extends to her mu.
sical repertoire, which consists OF
odd lines, perhaps verses, and per
haps only q fragment of an ar,
which will be waited on the WINDS
from the hand-organs of the coming
spring. And if the pauses OF your
conversation with the cheeky girl
are filed up by amusing interpola-
tions from the "Mulligan Guards,
this has only been accomplished by