The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-09-12
A SHORT SERMON FOR YOUNG
WOMEN.
A Severe but Merited Criticism on
the Modern, Progressive
Young Lady.

The following extract from an article in Il
J London Saturday Revieao is, we regret to sa
, as true of our American girls as Of the
! English cousins. 1t should be carefully req
and pondered by both mothers and daugl
tiers, especially by those jaunty and stylis
girls who affect to desplse the restraints in
posed by good breeding; who laugh at tx
idea of modesty, calling it "old-time pr
dishness," and who, regarding it as "playe
out" do not hesitate to return "stare fe
stare" upon the streets, and to be easy an
familiar with strange men. In both dres
and manners, many of the fashionable an
Independent" girls of the present day are s
many perambulating and glaring advertise
ments:
We do not expect our pretty women t
| deny their ordinary womanhood by mortlfy
ing garments, nor are they to be condemne'
as forward if they speak beyond monosylla
bles, or enter into rational conversation witt
even a stranger. But they might make NOR
distinction than they too often do between
the dress of the house and that of the street
reserving for the safety of known entourag
that excess of attractiveness which now the.
display for the bewilderment and misleading
of strange men. And they should also b.
more reticent than many of them are with
people who they do not know. They must bt
strangely ignorant if they do not understand
the meaning of a mans looks and tentative
approaches; if they do not know where they
are drifting.
But, indeed, any one beyond first childhood
or imbecile innocence knows quite we'll aftel
time, and quite sufficiently in time, where
imprudent confidence or unrefecting love Of
adventure will land her if she does not take
care. The peril lies in the belief that it is
possible to pull up in such course at any
moment In all probability a girl never
means things to 60 too far; but if she will
play with fire, is it rational to be surprised if
she is burned and can any one, not lunatic,
expect to treat men like marionettes, dancing
only as they are jerked, and to be made mute
and motionless at the wire puller's pleasure !?
Human nature is pretty much the same now
as it ever was; and the sons of Adam are as
ready as their great progenitors to accept the
apple which the daughters of Eve hold out to
them.
The spirit of adventure in these bold, row.
ing, unblushing days has certainly been car
ried to a dangerous point. Women appear to
be no longer persuaded that modesty is at
once their distinctive charm and their best
and the safety of comparative Sc
clusion is an infction which they resent as
an insult; as, for instance, in travelling, when
ladies' carriages are specially provided for
them, they will rather 60 in the smoking
saloon than in their own. On the one hand,
hey talk of doubtful subjects; on the other
hey paint and dye and dress like the fiaunt-
ng creatures with whom they profess to be
mortified at being COMPOUNDED.
There is no intention among any of them of
being the desert rose wasting its sweetness, or
If hiding the light Of personal charms under
bushels of concealing drapery The craze for
excitement, attention, has touched
hem almost ALL and the bloom is rubbed off
ong before the fruit is ripe. Startling por-
rats in the academy are matched by their
originals in even yet more startling attire,
,osed before their lIkenesses for the benefit of
gaping crowd; and the man who nowadays
1arries pretty girl in her teens marries the
flame" of half hundred previous aspi- |
or unconfessed.
Women say their lives are dull; hence that |
hey are driven into these questionable paths
,r excitement and diversion; but those OF
lem who have kept to their duties, and made
leir happiness at home, do not find their
yes uninteresting or their homes heavy. On
,e contrary, they find their portion by no
leans a meagre one, and they are glad to con-
ss that if they do all they have to do they
ave no time left for repining and none for
le prosecution of adventures" We say it
1visedly, as rule-no rule, of course, being
ithout occasional exceptions good
rl, who is careful in her manners and mod
1t in her dress, need not get into trouble any.
here.
That indefnable something which men are
rely backward in recognizing makes her as
lfe with stranger as with the mythic lion
/ the redundancy of women, men do not
ire to lose their time in philandering about
/ unresponsive stranger, and a woman who
really on guard at every point is very unfor-
nate if she can not travel from the Lands
nd to John OGroat's without annoyance
besides being beautiful, she is free in her
amer and audacious in her attire, can she
onder if she runs the risk of being mis-
ken, and assigned to the class with which
lie has identified herself by outside appear
lce2
1t is bad sign when men cease to respect 1
omen of their own or indeed of any class,
1t the women themselves are to blame for ,
10 intolerably tlippant and impertinent tone {
,rvading young society. We do not want
go back to the formalities of Sir Charles {
and there is winning charm in ,
not to be had from the most per-
cted artificiality. Nevertheless, slight re- {
IN to old world forms Of courtesy, little s
ssh of that stately reverence of speech +
id demeanor which our forefath. (
s exaggerated into pedantry, would
gain in times when the '
Jung men give, as their greatest praise OF
RI, "there is no nonsense about her |
Gaming no bashfulness, no reserve, no girl t
4 shrinking modesty; while the girls justify {
Q compliment by calling the young men
dear boys" and sometimes when they have q
80 nonsense even than usual, and desire {
oser assimilation of style, "old mer." This a
the "form" which is taught and held up for a
miration in the ladies's novels of the day,
d it is impossible to exaggerate the degree f
which these writings have tended to cor I
pit and degrade the sex who chiefly write c
d read them. v
All these things are patent Patent, too, f
the inference that when a woman, from no s
lit of her own, falls into trouble she suffers b
the mistakes and follies of her class and f
3 time Personally she may be wholly O
smeless: but with all these lines of demarca- @
n blurred, these distinctive characteristics u