, 1876-07-09
AMERICAN WOMEN ABROAD.

Mrs. JANE GREY SWISsHELM Is dong her
travelling countrywomen great service by
drawing prominent attention in her letters
to The CHICAGO TRIBUNE to the insults to
which American women are subjected on the
Continent Of Europe. 1t is fact that re-
spectacle American women cannot walk alone
in the streets of any city in France, Germany,
or Italy, even in broad daylight, without at
the least being stared out Of countenance,
and very likely insultingly addressed by those
who profess to be gentlemen. The men are
brutes, according to our ideas Of propriety
and decency, but some allowance must be
made for the difference in the traditions and
customs Of the countries. In America every
woman is regarded as virtuous until she SO
conducts herself as to excite suspicion to the
contrary; in European cities the rule is
almost reversed. With us young women
may go where they like, and are protected
by the moral and social code that
exacts Difference and respect for the fair sex.
Tie very fact Of woman's being unprotect-
tector. But in Europe it is not regarded
proper for young women to go out alone
even in the daytime without q male COM.
panion or an elderly charerone;; even car
riage fails to afford the necessary protection.
When girls or young and attractive women
are seen in the street alone, men SO inclined
jump at the conclusion that they are bidding
for the attention Of strangers, and conduct
themselves accordingly. It is a brutal sort
of code, but on level with the same con-
dition of women in Germany that makes
them farm-hands and the companions of
dogs in drawing carts among the lower
classes, and among the higher classes gives
men the exclusive right of bowing first or
refusing recognition when they meet lady
acquaintances.
However distesteful Ill this may be to
Americans, and even though it be radically
wrong and disgraceful, American travellers in
Europe cannot hope to reform the social
habits Of old and populous countries, and
must therefore adapt themselves to the con-
dition Of things as they find them. ''n you
are in Rome do as the Romans d." is mot
to that is founded in good sense, wherein it
differs from good many of the staple aphor
is1ns. American women must not attempt to
exercise in European cities the same freedom
which they are freely accorded at home
They must not take passage across the At
lantic under the impression that they can
travel about alone on the European Cont
nent with rs much safety from insult as they
do in the United States. There is no other
country in the world where they can do it.
And when sojourning for a time in European
cities they must exact from their male CON-
panions mora constant attendance than
they receive at home, while the gen
tlemen may take the opportunity of
q European tour to be initiated into
the mysteries of millinery and shopping.
One thing is certain: American women
abroad cannot with impunity indulge in the
same personal freedom as at home without
being insulted, and if they desire to avoid
it they will seek to conform to the habits Of
the countries they visit.
We very much fear, too, that many of the
American women who go abroad are partly
responsible for the conduct Of the men who
address them. The social folly known here
as flirting" becomes vice in Paris, Ber-
lin, or Vienna. We do not doubt that many
i,n,n nat1ra and fhonphtless pirls in American