The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1878-02-01
Social Adventuresses.

to demur TO Slr Arthur > s6HtlnIchto Oh
this head. They will contend that the
of those men to whom difficulty was fasci-
world has been greatly benefited By some
nation, and so far as many men of genius
are concerned this is undoubtedly true;
but whether the prevalence of ambition
is desirable for the average man Is an
other matter, and we are inclined TO
doubt if it be factor in promoting his
happiness. Still less is it likely to promote
that of women. In ninety-nine cases
out of one hundred ambition to awoman
is a positive curse, because circumstances
tend to deny her healthy outlet for it,
and she is consequently impelled, in her
eagerness to crafty an uncomfortable
craving, into psthos which are fraught
with jeopardy to peace of mind and pur-
ity of reputation.
In this country, more especially Of
recent years, we have many illustrations
of this weakness when it takes the form
of a craving to be fashionable, which is
its most ordinary phase. Rebecca
Sharpe is on both sides of the Atlantic.
There are to-day thousands of quiet
homes in this country in which at least
one inmate can be found scanning the
society papers, reading with profound
interest of those whom she has never seen
and is never likely to see, and gloating
enviously over the chronicles of costumes
no EnnuyG have
mingled and are now mingling in the
brilliant crowds of which she reads, who
seemed a few short years before to
have not the faintest probability OF
50 doing, and WHY not she? The idea
gets firm hold of her mind, the simple
pleasures and companions of her home
are viewed with WEAKNESS and disgust,
and she turns from honest men of suit
able age and condition, to look with
favoring eyes on any elderly sutton who
will give her first lift up the ladder of
fashion. But many such women soon
discover that unless endowed with a will
fully as strong as the wish, the upward
path becomes too thorny for them and
they simply subside into life of dreary
affluence. But there is another kind,
endowed with a strong physique as well
as a mind dominated by desire for
social position, and these are they who
more or less succeed. Their capacities for
suffering snubs, Sights and sneers are
boundless They will endure for fashion
as much dTudgery and cOntumely as q
Scotchman will for money, and in the end
they will, If they have the needful funds,
conquer. Such aspirants are, however,
apt to painfully feel that prophets are not
in much honor in their own country, IN
less, indeed, they bear the stamp of an
other. The Spaniards find nowadays
that they cannot sell their claret advan-
tageOusly unless it bears the brand Of the
Bordeaux custOmhouse, So they send it
to that port, and the English or American
connoisseur who wouldn't look at claret
purporting to come from Alicante or
Seville, then smacks his lips approvingly,
1t is the same in society" Go abroad
glitter in diamonds, give out that your
possessions are Golconda, and this, added
to a good figure and plenty of push, will
be certain to secure you certain stand.
ing; and il this, even, should fail to
enable you to take quite the lofty seat
desired, strengthen your position by iden-
tifying yourself with a particular cause,
interest, or faith, likely to bring you into
connection with those who can aid you
in your aims. When this has been &C
complished, and the reports of your sue
cesses have reached home return; and
unless your case be q very bad one, you
viii in a comfortable degree achieve your
wishes. 1t is true that they are people
who, under these circumstances, won't
have you at any price, but they are no.
bodies few and far between, and, more
over, for the most part in moderate cir
cumstances and of small account in that
world you desire to dazzle.
That a woman who has been born and
bred in a very humble sphere of life
should feel elated when she finds herself
3 guest among milIionaires and marquises
is natural enough, and all the more so
when she reflects that her own tact, push
and energy have done the business. Then,
too, she enjoys the conviction, very dear
to the feminine heart, that the women
who loathe her would give their little
fingers to be there. 1t would indeed be
hard if, after going through so much,
she was not rewarded by some gratifica-
ton, and this is hers. In society she
may at length find her career answer
out of it we greatly doubt whether,
let her be wife or widow, she does.
What is generally observed about women
of that sort is that they somehow do not
succeed in making true friends. The
people to whom they really belong they
must avoid, as unsuited to the world
they have entered, while the others,
even if they simulate cordiality, do 80
for a motive Friendship demands equal
ity or an admission of inequality, and
here there is neither one nor the other.
Thus the fashionable aspirant of humble
origin finds herself utterly lonely in a
crowd, and we suspect is besides haunted
by the conviction that every new conner
asks who she is, and grins and sneers
over her ambitious flights. What, in
fact, she suffers from is the conviction
that she is more or less of a sham, and
no one who feels that can be thoroughly
comfortable and at ease and, fur
ther, she knows that she has not the
slightest hold on that world which she
affects save by cash; let that go to-
morrow, and she may return as quick as
possible to the obscure cottage, or dingy
little house whence she came. George
Selwyn told his Bath friend who accos-
ed him in st. James street, that he
should be very happy to know him again
when be was at Bath, a gentle hint that
he acquaintance was one too many for
linn in London, and SO, people are happy
o know the social adventures when she |
las money, but drop her like hot
'otato" when she is out of it. Recog-
izing this, such women will not scruple
4 an hour of need to follow the lead of
'ecky Sharpe with Joe Sedley.